- "This Centurion will go Rome-ing the arena floor to Caeser them all!"
- — One of many Jonathan Pearce Centurion puns
Centurion was a competitor robot in Series 3 and 4 of Robot Wars. It was a blocky blue robot with yellow edges armed with front lifting forks and a rear axe, both pneumatically powered by nitrogen, although the axe was worked by a hydraulic ram. In the Fourth Wars, these lifting forks were replaced with a proper flipper, lifting up to two feet off the floor. The axe brought down 15 tonnes of downward pressure, and the lifter could lift up to 120kg/18 stone and powered by an 80mm cylinder to produce half a ton of force. Centurion was armoured in bullet-proof police riot shield polycarbonate and aluminium, which proved effective armour in its battles along with its mild steel chassis. It also had a pair of high-beam headlights.
- "They lovingly hand-crafted that axe, which I find a bit scary."
- — Philippa Forrester
Centurion never achieved much, only defeating Excalibur in Series 3, but was a uniquely shaped robot.
After Trident dropped out of Series 4 at the last minute, Centurion was given the number 32 seed, but then it was given the number 31 seed when Blade's Big Bruva dropped out soon afterwards as well. However, it was teamed up on by its opponents and defeated in the first round.
After Series 4 of Robot Wars, Centurion was retired. Ray Tait, the captain of the team, joined the Sir Chromalot team and donated many of the electronics from Centurion to the Sir Chromalot machine entered in Series 5 and 6.
Robot History
Series 3
- "We have lights at the front as well, so that we can see where we're going"
- — Ray Tait
Series 3 appearance
In its first Robot Wars appearance, Centurion was drawn up against previous heat finalists Excalibur in the first round of the Heat. Excalibur used its axe twice at the start of this battle, and Centurion used its axe too, to less effect. Centurion then got stuck on the arena spike. Centurion then drove in underneath Excalibur and dragged it using its forks towards house robot Sir Killalot, twice in succession. Excalibur then accidentally drove into Sergeant Bash's CPZ, before being pulled into the house robots by Centurion. The axes of both Centurion and Excalibur got locked together after both firing at the same time, then, suddenly, Excalibur lost power in the drives and in the weaponry, it was deemed immobilised and was then attacked by the house robots for a short while before cease was called.
This put Centurion through to the second round of the Heat, where it was drawn up against another returning Robot Wars team, as it was placed up against 101. In this battle, the two robots moved around each other at speed - 101 was lifted up twice by Centurion, but was not flipped over or affected in any way. Both robots tried then to continue using their weapons, but 101 then pushed Centurion into the arena spikes. One of Centurion's drive chains was broken by one of the arena spikes. Centurion was deemed immobilised by the judges, and subsequently attacked by an incoming Sir Killalot. Sir Killalot badly damaged Centurion's lifting forks with its claw, almost ripping them right off the robot. Cease was soon called and Centurion was eliminated from the competition.
- "The Roman wars are about to come to an end here. Et tu, Killalote?. Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it "in for me"!"
- — Jonathan Pearce, referring to Caesar's assassination with two famous quotes, the first from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the second being from the film Carry On Cleo
Series 4
Sir Killalot pits Centurion
- "Capable of Rome-ing the arena floor"
- — More Rome puns from Jonathan Pearce
Due to its reasonable success in the Third Wars and its popularity with the crowd, Centurion was one of two substitute seeds that was brought in after both Trident and Blade's Big Bruva dropped out of the competition at the last minute. By the time of filming, Centurion was seeded 31st. In Heat I of the Fourth Wars, the seeded Centurion was drawn up against two other veteran teams in Small Torque and Splinter, in the first round melee. Before this battle, the other two teams had agreed to team up on the seeded Centurion, little did the Centurion team know this. In the battle, Splinter and Centurion clashed, and Centurion attempted to flip it, only managing to lift it up off the ground for a brief moment. Small Torque then came in and rammed Centurion into the arena side wall, this was then when Centurion's drives suddenly stopped working. Centurion's flipper and axe were still firing, partially to cause damage to a camping Small Torque but also in an attempt to jerk the drives' electronics, but this didn't work and Centurion was deemed immobilised by the judges. The house robots came in to cause damage to the seeded machine before Sir Killalot came in to break Centurion's flipper, pick it up and carry over to the pit of oblivion and down, eliminating Centurion from the competition, this was Centurion's final appearance in Robot Wars.
- Julia Reed: "But the House Robots can't attack you unless you were immobilised. Were you?"
- Ray Tait: "Yes, we was, it was quite sad. We was going quite well, the problem was that we lost drive. Jeff here's done a diagnosis check and he's found - "
- Julia Reed: "An autopsy?"
- Jeff Bradford: "We've got a safety device built into the unit, it has to be built into the unit, and the pins actually sheared. That's caused us to lose power, and of course, we were dead in the water."
- — After the early loss for the 31st seed
Results
| CENTURION - RESULTS | ||
| Series 3 | ||
| The Third Wars - UK Championship Heat, Round 2 | ||
| Heat J, Round 1 | vs. Excalibur | Won |
| Heat J, Round 2 | vs. 101 | Lost |
| Series 4 | ||
| The Fourth Wars - UK Championship 31st Seed, Heat, Round 1 | ||
| Heat I, Eliminator | vs. Splinter, Small Torque | Eliminated |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 1
- Losses: 2
Series Record
- Series 1-2: Did not enter
- Series 3: Heat, Round 2
- Series 4: Heat, Round 1
- Series 5-7: Did not enter
Outside Robot Wars
Like many Robot Wars competitors, the Centurion team entered Robot Wars' sister show Techno Games. They entered the Rope Climbing event with Skeletron, an innovative robot that moved like a human and was based on a human skeleton.
To this day Tait still owns the shell, axe, flipper panel and wheels of Centurion, but the frame was disposed of after being damaged.
- "Sadly there's not much left of Centurion apart from some poly body panels, front armour plate, lifting forks, Axe and the wheels. Centurions framework got cut up as it sustained some damage, the motors, batteries and airvalves went into Sir chromalot."
- — Ray Tait
Trivia
- In the Robot Wars Official Sticker Collection, Centurion was listed as Centurion II. This name has not been used outside of the book.
- Team member Matt Tait went on to work for the Robot Wars production company Mentorn, was a member of the first steering group and managed the Robot Wars website and forum from Series 4-7.
Similarities with Weld-Dor
Weld-Dor, the doppelganger of Centurion.
Several connections have been made between Centurion and Weld-Dor, particularly the original versions of each robot.
- In their original appearances, both robots featured forklifts on one side of the robot and an overhead bladed axe that came down with large force.
- Both robots debuted in Heat J of the Third Wars
- Both robots won their first round battle in Series 3 by KO before breaking down against the arena's left wall in the second round. Both machines then had one of their weapons destroyed by Sir Killalot (Centurion's forklift and Weld-Dor's axe)
- Both robots lost to 101 at some point in Series 3.
- Both machines replaced their forklifts with true flippers for Series 4.
- Both machines were seeded in The Fourth Wars.
- Both machines lost in the first Round of Series 4 after breaking down and being pitted by Sir Killalot.
References
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