- "My Dad was a wimp last year, and I'm gonna make sure I don't make the same mistake as he did."
- — Sarah in the team's VT
Cherub was a robot which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars, built by Team Saint, who used the name Team Cherub for television. Cherub reached the Heat Final of Series 9, famously defeating PP3D and Behemoth along the way, but was defeated twice by Eruption, being flipped out of the arena twice in the episode.
Design[]
- "Though it may have an angelic sounding name, Cherub is armoured and ready for battle with hardened steel reminiscent of a tank. The rotating arms are able to rotate 360 degrees, meaning it can get itself out of potential tricky situations."
- — The Robot Wars website on Cherub
Cherub as it appears in Series 9
Cherub was a hardened wedge robot with lifting forks capable of turning a full 360 degrees. It was normally invertible, although the wings handicapped Cherub’s ability to drive when inverted. The forks were designed to breach ground clearances, but could double as spikes and could be sharpened to pierce tyres. Electrically powered, the forks were 10mm thick, but only 280mm long.
- "According to the team, the robot is capable of lifting a House Robot!"
- — Jonathan Pearce
The robot was built from steel, being 5mm thick, apart from the front wedge which was 8mm. The hardened wedge gave the robot low ground clearance and formidable defence against spinners like PP3D. The robot was powered by a 22.2 Volt LiPo 6S battery, which drove two 750w Bosch motors, giving the robot a high top speed of 12mph. Cherub's weight was a full 9kg below the legal limit[1].
- "Cherub's main weakness is its exposed wheels, but it does have 360° rotating arms that assist it in escaping awkward situations in combat."
- — Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot
Cherub performing a handstand in its VT
Cherub in the arena for its battle with Behemoth
Craig Colliass revealed at a Robot Wars Live Event that Cherub was not designed for combat – rather, Colliass wanted to build a robot which was capable of performing ‘handstands’. Based on this principle, Cherub used its two small lifting forks to not only lift other robots, but also itself, as Cherub was well balanced enough to stand on its weapons, and its forks can rotate a full 360 degrees. These also allow Cherub to self-right. However, they also contributed to a minimal damage output, and it relied on its durability to outlast opponents in battles.
Etymology[]
Keeping in line with Team Saint's naming theme, which previously included The Saint and Gabriel, Cherub was named after the angelic beings that attend to God, according to Christian faith.
The Team[]
- Main article: Team Saint
Cherub with its team
Cherub was entered into Series 9 by a team of brothers and sisters from Grove in Oxfordshire. On the live circuit, the team were known as Team Saint, but simply used the name of Team Cherub on Robot Wars. Although Cherub was built by the team's usual captain of Craig Colliass, who was present at filming to help repair the robot, he was not a televised member of the team in Series 9, with his children taking the spotlight. 12-year old Sarah Colliass was the team captain, and she was joined by her twin sister Rosie who operated Cherub's lifting forks, 13-year old Toby who drove the robot in battle, and 26-year old Mark who was responsible for repairs.
Team Cherub had a signature pose which they performed in introductions and after victories, where the four team members would place their hands on their backs, and pretend to flap small angel-like wings.
Cherub and its team enter the arena
- "The Colliass family previously entered with Gabriel last series, but this time twins Sarah and Rosie want to show that they can also compete in Robot Wars, and have brought in other family members Toby and Mark, whom have been fighting robots for the last five to six years. Sarah is passionate about robot building but they think that their dad, Craig, was too generous in the last series and they want to prove that they will show no mercy"
- — The Robot Wars website on Team Cherub
Robot History[]
Series 9[]
- "If my robot got destroyed in battle, I'd be really upset, and I'd go up to them, and cry right in their faces so they feel guilty!"
- — Sarah Colliass in Cherub's VT
Cherub competed in Heat B of Series 9, where it fought three veteran robots from the previous series - Draven, PP3D and Team S.Tek's new robot Push to Exit - in its Group Battle.
- "We arrived with Cherub not knowing what we were going to be up against and not really caring, we had got on the second series, and were looking forward to just enjoying the event and saying hello to all our friends in the pits... When we saw the robots in our heat we were ok about it, we knew a lot of the robots and already knew who the winner was going to be. Our plan was to get to the heats and probably loose every other fight! When we saw our 4 way fight opponents Toby and I devised a plan and followed it out to the letter. And to our surprise we won the first fight."
- — Craig Colliass on Facebook[2]
Cherub avoids the flipper of Push to Exit
Cherub withstands a blow from PP3D
Cherub started the battle evasively, avoiding the other robots until it drove over Push to Exit's wedge, narrowly avoiding a flip. After being charged by Draven, Cherub drove directly into PP3D's disc, throwing it into the air, and also bending Cherub's lifters. Team Cherub showed no fear of PP3D's blade, and drove into it again, avoiding the powerful weapon, and escaping to battle Push to Exit individually. At this stage, two successive attacks from PP3D immobilised both Draven and Push to Exit, so Cherub qualified for the head-to-heads. Cherub attempted to celebrate with a handstand, but its buckled lifters prevented it from doing so.
- "Well done Cherub, brave enough to take on PP3D, a frontal onslaught. They took punishment, they didn't mind, they came back again and again and again!"
- — Jonathan Pearce
In the first battle of the Head-to-Head stage, Cherub was once again drawn against PP3D.
- "The damage wasn’t too bad the arm needed some work and the front armour needed welding up, this was done and we were looking forward to the next 3 fights. The draw was done and when we found we were fighting PP3d that was it, we thought we were going out and our path to Robot Wars Glory was going to be short!"
- — Craig Colliass on Facebook[3]
The team were aware of an exploitable weakness in PP3D's exposed tyres, so they sharpened the lifters of Cherub, intending to pierce the wheels of the opposition.
- "We're hoping to pop their tyres, it's a lot pointier than usual..."
- — Toby Colliass on Cherub's sharpened forks
Cherub deflects PP3D into the air
Cherub is sent careening away by a full-power hit
Cherub chased PP3D after when the battle opened, although PP3D evaded the attack, and hit Cherub side-on. Cherub was not greatly damaged, and drove head-first into PP3D's disc, catapulting it into the air, and pushing it onto the fire. Cherub edged PP3D backwards, but sustained another hit, and was thrown into the Arena Tyre, unleashing Rogue House Robot. Cherub reversed into Dead Metal's claws where it was held, and was sliced by the circular saw. During this time, PP3D's disc had reached maximum speed, and when Cherub escaped from Dead Metal's claws a titanic hit from PP3D sent Cherub careening into the arena wall, and over. The impact of Cherub slamming into the wall tore a panel away from the arena, and the battle had to be temporarily halted in order to make repairs.
- "Away it came, oh we're safe now... Oh no we're not!!!"
- — Jonathan Pearce personifies Cherub's escape
The impact that broke the arena wall
Cherub, next to the broken arena wall, unable to self-right
The arena was repaired, although neither competing team could operate or repair their robot during this time, so they did not know whether the robots would function in the restarted battle. PP3D's wheels were turning, but it could not gain traction on the arena floor, while Cherub's wheels were also turning, but it could not self-right, having been flipped over, and its bent chassis stopped the lifters from rotating fully. Cherub was pushed over the flame pit by Dead Metal, and 'cease' was called once again.
- "They're just going to toast us like a marshmallow!"
- — Sarah Colliass as Cherub is burned
Cherub and PP3D were both deemed to have been immobilised at the same time, and the battle was sent to a Judges' decision, based upon the entire fight, before and after the breakage of the arena wall. The unanimous Judges' decision was ruled in favour of Cherub, which was awarded 2 points for its victory.
However, the robot's chassis and lifters required extensive repairs.
- "The damage to Cherub was vast and we weren’t sure if it could be fixed in time... In short the front left of the robot was either missing or badly twisted; also the Lift motor had detached itself from its gearbox. The good bits were the electronics all worked and the motor and gearboxes seemed to be OK on first inspection anyway. To be honest any other robot receiving that blow, would have probably just been loaded back into the car and that would have been that. The steel was just too hard to try and straighten so we just cut it all out, the front armour was twisted its 8mm thick! We cut it in half and most of the tension was released and one half straightened the rest was placed as straight as it was going to get and the whole lot was welded back together the lift motor was stuck literally back on with a couple of bolts as well and it worked as well as ever. The robot was put back together and we found one of the drive motors had seized the magnets had come detached, we only had a few minutes left and I was about to sit on the floor and cry!! Then Shane Swan from Team S-Tek came and rescued us, he helped us sort out the motor and on the bench at least everything worked."
- — Craig Colliass on Facebook[4]
Cherub would next be drawn against full-pressure flipper Eruption.
- "In our next battle, we're against a flipper, so if we can't self-right, it's going to be a very short battle..."
- — Mark Colliass highlights the importance of repairing Cherub's lifters
When Cherub was loaded into the arena, it became apparent that Cherub could not gain sufficient traction on the arena floor to drive freely, and it would effectively be immobile from the very beginning.
- "We loaded the robot into the arena and was driving it to the start and to our horror the motor packed up again, something had moved. We had no time to fix it the pressure on Toby to make something of the fight must have been extreme. All I could advise was make it as hard as possible for him to win. And don’t use the drive we needed the motor parts and hadn’t got a replacement speed controller for it!!
Toby used the lifter to do hand stands and any manoeuvre to try to stop Eruption from getting a purchase or angle to flip it out straight away."
- — Craig Colliass on Facebook[5]
Cherub feigns mobility by attempting to handstand
Cherub is flipped out of the arena by Eruption
Regardless, the match started, and Cherub merely lifted itself from the arena floor, and Eruption launched it towards the arena wall. Cherub's wheels were not turning, and Eruption threw Cherub high into the air, and over. Cherub used its lifting forks to attempt to self-right, but took so long in doing so that Eruption could spin it towards the arena wall, slip under its raised body, and throw it out of the arena.
- "We lost in 30 seconds!"
- — Sarah Colliass after Cherub was thrown out of the arena
Cherub's last fight in the Head-to-Head stage was against Behemoth, but the magnets in Cherub's drive motor had moved, and its lifters needed to be straightened, having been damaged upon landing. Team Toon lent the team one of their spare Bosch motors, which the team had to strip as the motor shaft on their Bosch was adapted to fit the gearbox[6].
- "I do feel the pressure, a little bit, yeah! Seeing as Toby's done such a good job of driving it, I want to make sure he's got a robot to actually drive!"
- — Mark Colliass while repairing Cherub
Toby and Sarah Colliass admitted they were fearful of their experienced opponent, but required a victory to reach the Heat Final.
- "...now we had a fully working robot ready for our final (as we thought at the time) fight. The MIGHTY BEHEMOTH in all our encounters with this legendary beast we have lost every one, this information I decided not to convey to Toby as I wanted to let him down gently. He asked me how best to fight this robot I said just try to get under the beast and push it into arena hazards or CPZs try not to get flipped as the self-right takes time and most of all remember no one expects us to beat it."
- — Craig Colliass on Facebook[7]
Cherub pushes Behemoth into Dead Metal
Cherub gets trapped underneath the floor flipper
Based on Cherub's small size, Team Make Robotics elected to trial-run a new grabber-type weapon to grab Cherub with. However, this weapon's attached wedge was not low enough to the ground, and Cherub's forks immediately bent Behemoth's front clearance. This caused Behemoth to ride over the side of Cherub, which pushed Behemoth around. Behemoth retaliated, but drove onto Cherub's lifter which raised the larger machine up, and then it used the wedge to push Behemoth into Dead Metal. When Behemoth escaped, it caught Cherub side-on, pushed it over the fire, and towards the floor flipper, which activated prematurely. As a result, Cherub fell below the surface of the flipper, and trapping Cherub in place. Cease was called, and after consulting the rules, this was pinning not considered to be a legal KO on Cherub, and the battle was restarted.
- "There are supposed to be sides to the flipper but it broke. Cherub caught in flipper was an equipment failure and judges were instructed not to count it."
- — Noel Sharkey explains why Cherub was not considered immobile[8]
Cherub is pushed back by Behemoth when the battle restarts
Cherub's wheel briefly lifts Behemoth
The position of the two robots was reset, and the battle restarted with two minutes left on the timer. Behemoth caught Cherub side-on again, and pushed it into the Arena Tyre, once again unleashing Dead Metal onto Cherub via Rogue House Robot. After breaking free, Cherub waited in the centre of the arena, and the attacking Behemoth rode straight onto Cherub's wedge, and was manoeuvred into the arena wall. Even Cherub's tyre was able to lift Behemoth from the arena floor, and although Behemoth pushed back, Cherub was maintaining a slight lead.
- Sarah Colliass: "You've only got 30 seconds left, so try and make it look..."
- Jonathan Pearce: "Make it look impressive, aggressive!"
- — Toby Colliass is encouraged to make a last effort
Cherub wedges under Behemoth again
Cherub's forks take damage from Dead Metal
Cherub's wedge again breached Behemoth, losing a hold of its opponent, and drove away. Then, Behemoth drove Cherub and itself into the way of Dead Metal. Cherub lowered its forks to pressure Behemoth, but Cherub's lifter was sliced by the House Robot's saw blade, which had also caused damage to Behemoth. Time expired on the battle, and 'cease' was called, sending Cherub to another Judges' decision. Neither team could tell if they had won, but Cherub performed its signature handstand regardless.
- Angela Scanlon: "Were you worried while little Cherub was lying underneath the flipper, did you think you'd be able to come back?"
- Sarah Colliass: "Yes, because she's strong!"
- — The discussion before the Judges' decision
The Judges' decision was made, and for the second time, Cherub was awarded the unanimous victory, allowing it to progress to the Heat Final with a total of four points.
- "The impossible had happened and I couldn’t believe how well Toby had driven once again he seemed oblivious of the fact he was hopelessly out gunned the whole of our robot, cost less than just one of the drive motors on Behemoth. It was a true David Goliath thing going on there. I’m not going to comment on what happened next, safe to say we support Team Behemoth and stand against the unnecessary, inaccurate and hurtful things said about our friend, and I know we’re not alone."
- — Craig Colliass on Facebook[9]
This time, a fully mobile Cherub earned a fair fight with Eruption.
Cherub is driven to the arena wall by Eruption
Cherub takes wing and flies out of the arena
The team wrote 'Don't flip me!' onto masking tape attached to their robot, in advance of the battle. However, despite Cherub being fully mobile as it drove up Eruption's wedge in the centre of the arena, this proved to be the fastest battle in the entire series, as Eruption turned Cherub around and threw it out of the arena in just 6.5 seconds, blasting it towards the outer wall and causing Cherub to dislodge a piece of lighting equipment.
- "Every time I click my finger, an angel gets its wings, and that's what happened to Cherub!"
- — Dara Ó Briain
As a Heat Finalist, Cherub remained in contention for the wildcard position in the Grand Final, but this was awarded to Apollo, officially eliminating Cherub right before the Grand Final.
- "13-year old Toby has proved himself to be among the best drivers in the competition!"
- — Angela Scanlon
Results[]
| CHERUB - RESULTS | ||
| Series 9 | ||
| Series 9 - UK Championship Heat Final | ||
| Heat B, Group Battle | vs. Draven, PP3D, Push to Exit | Qualified |
| Heat B, Head-to-Head | vs. PP3D | Won via Judges' decision (2 points) |
| Heat B, Head-to-Head | vs. Eruption | Lost (0 points) |
| Heat B, Head-to-Head | vs. Behemoth | Won via Judges' decision (2 points) |
| Heat B, Heat Final | vs. Eruption | Lost |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 3
- Losses: 2
Series Record[]
| Series | Cherub Series Record |
|---|---|
| Series 1-7 | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Entered with Gabriel |
| Series 9 | Heat Final Unused reserve with Gabriel |
| Series 10 | Entered with Gabriel 2 |
Gallery[]
Outside Robot Wars[]
Cherub's appearance outside of Robot Wars
Away from Robot Wars, Cherub also competes at Robots Live! events, and other touring shows, where Cherub often picks up wins as an unsuspecting competitor, although it has not won any major titles or positions. In 2013, Cherub competed in the European Championship, where it survived until a Judges’ decision against Tornado and Alien Destructor.
Robot Wars Live Events[]
Cherub’s appearance at the Robot Wars live events
Cherub has been competing at Robot Wars Live Events over the three years they were active. In Newport, it fought robots including Manta, Terminal Ferocity, and Behemoth.
Cherub had a successful run at the Robot Wars World Championship 2015, held in Colchester. It narrowly escaped the first round despite being thrown out of the arena by Eruption, as Behemoth had luckily been thrown out beforehand, and TMHWK lost drive on one side, despite it staying in the arena for longer than Cherub. Cherub was thrown out of the arena again in the second round, this time by Toxic 2, but once again, Brutus had already been thrown out first. In its third battle, Cherub earned its own win by flipping over the immobile Apex. Cherub fell in the quarter-finals, where it was once again thrown out of the arena by eventual champion Toxic 2.
Cherub’s 2016 debut was in Manchester, where it fought a Tag Team battle, partnered with Ceros. Iron-Awe 7 broke down after throwing Ceros out of the arena, so Cherub fought a head-to-head battle with Crushtacean. Although Cherub was held in Crushtacean’s claws for most of the match, it won the battle via adjudication when Crushtacean broke down. At the Portsmouth event in 2016, Cherub fought against Thorak, Luzifer and Bullfrog, and later fought Bullfrog again in a melee with Behemoth and Rattler, but Cherub was thrown out of the arena. In another fight, it was immobilised by Stinger.
Trivia[]
Cherub's "Don't flip me" message
- Cherub is the only robot to reach the Heat Final of the rebooted series without earning any head-to-head victories by knockout, qualifying with two victories via Judges' decision.
- Due to the nature of the Head-to-Heads, Cherub is the only robot to lose a battle by being thrown out of the Arena, but still progress to the next round.
- Cherub is one of two robots to be thrown out of the Arena multiple times in the same episode, the other being Track-tion.
References[]
- ↑ Cherub on the Robot Wars website
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
- ↑ https://twitter.com/NoelSharkey/status/841016721515384832
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars, March 21st 2017
External Links[]
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