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"Unlike many walking robots, there are no exposed legs here. I wonder if that's why Clawed Hopper have made history here."
— Jonathan Pearce

Clawed Hopper was a walkerbot that competed in Series 4 and 5 of Robot Wars. It was notably the first walkerbot to win a battle in the UK Championship, against Twister in The Fifth Wars.

Design[]

"Two mechanically powered claws give it half the name. Hopper, well this is a walker machine with its steel and aluminum and other parts from a local scrap heap. Will it hop to the very top, or will the mighty 138kg weigh it down?"
Jonathan Pearce introducing Clawed Hopper in Series 4
Clawed hopper s4 arena

Series 4 appearance

Clawed Hopper was a heavyweight walkerbot designed to resemble an insect, painted yellow in Series 4 and green in Series 5, and armed with a pair of steel claws which moved up and down with the robot as it walked. Its walking mechanism consisted of a rectangular frame that moved in an elliptical pattern, featuring spikes on the underside which provided traction for the robot to move forwards and backwards. The robot's body was made from steel and aluminium along with other scrap materials and mounted on a spinning turntable, which allowed Clawed Hopper to turn swiftly with a zero-degree turning circle. It was originally nearly 3kg over the weight limit for walkerbots at the time.

Clawed Hopper

Clawed Hopper in Series 5

In Series 5, a chain-operated 13kg spinning drum was added to each side of Clawed Hopper capable of spinning at 5000rpm. A pair of rollbars was added on top to allow it to roll back onto its feet in case it was flipped. Its top speed was 2mph. With these changes, it had its weight increased to 200kg - a massive 62kg increase from Series 4.

Clawed Hopper enjoyed all the advantages of being a walker - it was a powerful pusher (capable of pushing Hammer & Tong with ease) and its walking frame's gyroscopic movements helped it recover from being flipped. However, it was slow (even in victory) and vulnerable from the side.

Etymology[]

Clawed Hopper's was most likely a pun on the word 'clodhopper', referring to both a type of heavy shoe, and a type of Canadian candy. Indeed, the robot would later enter Techno Games simply under the name Clod Hopper.

Robot History[]

Series 4[]

Clawed Hopper participated in Heat J of the Fourth Wars for its first televised appearance. In the first round melee, Clawed Hopper was placed up against fellow newcomer Hammer & Tong and the number fourteen seed Bigger Brother.

BiggerBrotherClawedHopper

Clawed Hopper resists the flipper of Bigger Brother

In the battle, Bigger Brother flipped Clawed Hopper onto its side, but not quite enough to flip it over. Clawed Hopper's walking movements were enough to cause the walker to land the right way up. Bigger Brother withdrew and Hammer & Tong pushed into Clawed Hopper, whose walking movement and weight allowed it to easily overpower Hammer & Tong, pushing it very slowly back, whilst Hammer & Tong's weapon cut through thin air.

Clawed hopper vs hammer a tong

Clawed Hopper pushes Hammer and Tong

Bigger brother clawed hopper hammer & tong

Bigger Brother topples Clawed Hopper

Clawed Hopper slowly advanced on Hammer & Tong, who managed to press down on it with its weapon but not inflict any damage. Bigger Brother rejoined the fight, flipping Hammer & Tong up several times, as Clawed Hopper walked off the floor flipper. Bigger Brother's flipper had insufficient strength and degree of opening to get the wide bodied Hammer & Tong over on its back, so it moved back and attempted to flip Clawed Hopper again, with Clawed Hopper's weight and movement thwarting the attempt once more. Clawed Hopper continued its ponderous advance on Hammer & Tong, but Bigger Brother moved in, getting significantly more flipper beneath the walker, and managed to flip it on its back.

"And again and over it goes! Clawed... (laughs) Oh. It's just like a beetle, you want to put it out of its misery though, when the beetle turns over on its back. Who's gonna turn Clawed Hopper over?"
Jonathan Pearce
Dead metal clawed hopper

Dead Metal roasts Clawed Hopper on the flame pit

Clawed hopper floor flipper

Clawed Hopper is thrown by the floor flipper

Bigger Brother then attacked Hammer and Tong and dragged it around the arena while Dead Metal and Sgt Bash closed in on Clawed Hopper. Despite attempts to use its legs to bash Dead Metal's saw away, Clawed Hopper was attacked and put on the flame pit. Dead Metal then put it on the arena floor flipper where due to its weight it didn't go very far, but it still did not land the right way up. Dead Metal then attacked it one last time before cease was called.

"Clawed Hopper goes belly-up and out of the competition."
Craig Charles

Series 5[]

"A sturdy walking robot with two front claws, two rotating flails on the sides and two srimech bars over the top. Slow, sluggish, but a walker can carry twice the weight at 200kg"
— Jonathan Pearce introducing Clawed Hopper in Series 5

Clawed Hopper returned for the final Heat of Series 5, and was placed up against the experienced Team Berserk with their new machine Twister.

Twisterfront

Clawed Hopper receives a victory against the immobile Twister

Clawd Hopper Twister

Clawed Hopper seals Twister's fate...slowly

HopperTwisterPit

Clawed Hopper pits Twister to earn a place in the next round

In the battle, despite its slow, sluggish movement, Clawed Hopper eventually met Twister near the centre of the arena, where one nudge from the hefty Clawed Hopper saw Twister break down immediately. Twister was subsequently counted out by Refbot and then Clawed Hopper very slowly pushed Twister towards the open pit of oblivion, and eventually got the former Heat Finalists down it. For the first time in Robot Wars, a walker was through to the second round of the main competition.

"Clawed Hopper...took him seven and a half months to get across the arena there, to press the [pit release] button. We just edited it for you"
— Jonathan Pearce, mocking Clawed Hopper's speed

However, in the second round of the Heat, Clawed Hopper stood very little chance, fighting the number two seed Pussycat.

Philippa Forrester: "This is the first time a walker has got through to round two, and that's your robot. How do you feel?"
Andrew Hughes: "Very pleased, we thought we'd be trashed in the first round to be honest"
Philippa Forrester: "And here you are, then tragically, you're pitted against seed number two, grand finalist from last year, the Pussycat. What does that do?"
Andrew Hughes: "I think our run might come to an abrupt end...however, we will give it our best shot"
— Pre-match interview with Philippa Forrester
PussycatClawed

Pussycat cuts into Clawed Hopper

PussycatClawed2

Clawed Hopper loses its spinning flail

Pussycat vs clawed hopper

Clawed Hopper tries to attack Pussycat

Pussycat buried its blade into Clawed Hopper's spinning flail several times, severing the chain and causing it to break. Eventually one of the flails stopped spinning and then fell off entirely. Clawed Hopper survived to a judges' decision, but Pussycat was declared the winner of the battle, eliminating Clawed Hopper from the competition.

Craig Charles: "You suffered an awful lot of damage."
Andrew Hughes: "Yeah, but we kept on going!"
— Post-battle debrief, met with applause from the audience

Results[]

CLAWED HOPPER - RESULTS
Series 4
The Fourth Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 1
Heat J, Eliminator vs. Bigger Brother (14), Hammer & Tong Eliminated
The Fifth Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 2
Heat L, Eliminator vs. Twister Won
Heat L, Semi-Final vs. Pussycat (2) Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 1
  • Losses: 2

Series Record[]

Series Clawed Hopper Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Did not enter
The Fourth Wars Heat, Round 1
The Fifth Wars Heat, Round 2
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Outside Robot Wars[]

Clod Hopper

Clod Hopper, the Clawed Hopper team's Techno Games 2002 entry

The team also entered Techno Games with a Sprint robot called Clod Hopper. This featured a similar walking mechanism to Clawed Hopper, complete with turntable, along with a larger shell themed to a giant shoe with a toy rabbit 'driver'. Both the robot's name and design were a direct play on the 'clodhopper' shoe. In the 2002 iteration, Clod Hopper reached the Semi Finals of the Heavyweight Sprint event. Despite being eliminated by Ulysses at that stage, its best time of 1:36.04 enabled it to secure bronze medal honours in this category.

Trivia[]

  • Clawed Hopper was the first walking robot to both compete in the main competition, and later became the first to win a battle.
  • Clawed Hopper is one of only two walkerbots to have progressed beyond the first round in the main UK series. The other is Series 6 Heat Finalist Anarchy.
  • Clawed Hopper was the only walkerbot to compete in the main UK tournament twice.
  • In the Series 4 recap and Battle Card, the 'e' was omitted from the first half of Clawed Hopper's name, meaning that it was spelt Clawd Hopper.
  • Of the fifty robots to return from Series 4 to compete in Series 5, Clawed Hopper was one of only ten to perform better in its Series 5 appearance. The others were Razer, Bigger Brother, Firestorm 3, Diotoir, Prizephita Mach 2, Kat 3, Reactor, Rick and Destruct-A-Bubble.
  • According to Andrew Hughes in the team's Series 5 introduction, Clawed Hopper weighed more than all three team members put together.
  • Both of Clawed Hopper's losses involved a robot that reached the semi-finals of the previous series and both of those robots were or went on to become runners-up in the UK Championship (Pussycat finished as runner-up in Series 4 and Bigger Brother would finish as runner-up in Series 5). They both also won a side competition at some point.
  • All teams Clawed Hopper fought would lose in the second round of a UK Championship at some point.
    • Pussycat was only one who didn't fall in the second round in Series 4.
  • Both of Clawed Hopper's appearances were in a heat that was broadcast after a heat that Destruct-A-Bubble appeared in.

Honours[]

Honour
First walkerbot to win a battle in the main competition


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