Team S.Tek, formerly Team S-tec, is a team from Mablethorpe, captained by Shane Swan. The team debuted in the New Blood championship of Extreme 2 and then entered from Series 7-10 of Robot Wars. Their most notable success was reaching the heat final with Dantomkia in Series 8.
The Team
Team S-tec in Extreme 2
The team is captained by Shane Swan, who was originally joined by Andrew Shepard and Paul Morton. The team entered the New Blood Championship with Hell's Teeth in Extreme Series 2 under the name of Team S-tec, having previously failed to qualify for Series 5 and Series 6 with the same machine, before entering Series 7 with Trax. Both robots lost in the second round of their respective competitions.
In 2015, Shane Swan bought Dantomkia from Michael Lambert, upgraded it, and entered it into Series 8 of Robot Wars. He did so alongside Stuart Barnwell of Team Kat, Kevin Tonry, and Aimee Burch reaching the heat final.
Shane Swan was specifically chosen to be a mentor in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars. He appeared in Episode 1, mentoring Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, scientist and TV presenter. Shane helped the celebrity compete with a robot of her own design, Interstellar: MML, which finished third in the Head-to-Heads. Shane Swan's expertise was necessary to make repairs to Interstellar: MML, which left its first battle against Arena Cleaner heavily damaged.
For Series 9-10, Shane Swan built Push to Exit, with Stuart Barnwell taking over as the driver. In Series 9, Shane was joined once again by Paul Morton, and his young daughter Amelie. Shane Swan also invited YouTube content creators Anthony Murney and Stephen McCulla to join the team as "media relations" in order to allow Stephen access to review Push to Exit on his YouTube channel.[1] In Series 10, both Anthony and Stephen joined the televised team replacing Stuart and the Morton family, while Shane Swan returned to being the team driver.
Robots
| Name | Weight Class | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Hell's Teeth | Heavyweight | Extreme 2 |
| Trax | Heavyweight | Series 7 |
| Dantomkia | Heavyweight | Series 8 |
| Push to Exit | Heavyweight | Series 9-10 |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 5
- Losses: 7
NOTE: Battle of the Stars wins/losses are not included
Series Record
| Main Series | Team S.Tek Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fifth Wars | Failed to qualify with Hell's Teeth |
| The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with Hell's Teeth |
| The Seventh Wars | Heat, Round 2 with Trax |
| Series 8 | Heat Final with Dantomkia |
| Series 9 | Heat, Round 1 with Push to Exit Battle of the Stars, Third Place with Interstellar: MML |
| Series 10 | Heat, Round 1 with Push to Exit |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Did not enter |
| Series 2 | Entered with Hell's Teeth |
- NOTE 1: Dantomkia had previously competed in Series 5-6 and Extreme 2 under the captaincy of Team Dantomkia.
- NOTE 2: Shane Swan also competed in Battle of the Stars as mentor for Episode 1 third-place finisher Interstellar: MML.
Gallery
Outside Robot Wars
HT4WD in 2003
Team S-tec were active on the live circuit during the classic run of Robot Wars, fighting with televised competitors Hell's Teeth and Trax, and HT4WD, a white four-wheeled robot, at various events.
The first custom-built Envy
Following the end of Robot Wars, Shane Swan teamed up with Jason Marston, the captain of Thor, to form Team Bud, which competed in various robot combat events across the country. The team rebuilt Thor, which has since been modified many times each year. Shane Swan also built a new robot called Air which he had the intentions of entering in to the FRA World Championships 2004. However, the World Championships were cancelled, although Shane still competed with Air at live events with little success until its retirement. In 2007, Shane rebuilt Trax into an early version of Envy, which was then rebuilt again into another incarnation, and enjoyed considerable success at live events.
Later, Team Bud were joined by Scottish roboteer Liam Bryant, with his heavyweight Storm Force and other robots Pug and Puglet. The team were also given Minotaur and both of Random Violence Technologies' robots, Mortis and its unfinished successor, later known as Rigormortis. Following an attempt to restore them to running condition, Team Bud subsequently gave Mortis and Rigormortis to John Findlay, with both robots later going into the hands of Team Make Robotics, who remain their current owners.[2]
Full Tilt (designed by Shane Swan) which was under construction
Shane Swan also started building an invertible four-wheeled robot, Full Tilt, believed to be one of the first robots with a 360 degree electrically powered flipper. Full Tilt was not completed, as it was overweight at 120kg, and would have required a full rebuild, so Shane Swan has kept its remaining parts.
Envy in 2012
Chuck, Team Bud's featherweight
Near late 2012, Shane Swan also rebuilt Air to replace Envy (actually using Envy as a base for the new Air), which was retired. They also had a featherweight robot called Chuck, a featherweight version of Envy. They later gained a new team member, Tom Kane from Team Kan-Opener, who added Kan-Opener G and Kan-Opener H to the armada of robots possessed by Team Bud.
The original Air
Air, previously Envy
Team Bud had a specific colour scheme for its robots, barring the Kan-Opener incarnations they owned, of silver and black. However, the team colours later changed to black and red, and the team name was set to change. However, in 2013, Team Bud disbanded, with Jason Marston and Shane Swan going their separate ways to focus on their own individual robots. When the team disbanded, Shane retained Air, but later sold it through the Fighting Robots Association. Chuck was also sold to Team Trance, competing in events up until October 2017, and Kan-Opener H was sold to Mario of Team KODOX.
The new version of Air in 2014
In 2014, Shane built a new version of Air, which was put up for sale in July 2014. In January 2015, it was revealed that Team ThunderCheese bought the robot and renamed it ThunderChild, which applied for the new series of Robot Wars under the ownership of its new team.
Push to Exit after Series 10
In November 2015, Shane Swan acquired the fifth version of Dantomkia, entering it into Series 8, and in October 2016, he sold it to Team Slam. After selling Dantomkia to build Push to Exit for Series 9 and 10, Shane Swan retired as a roboteer shortly after the filming of Series 10, due to Robot Wars being cancelled again and also him becoming too busy for live events. He would donate the shell of Push to Exit to his Series 10 teammates for display over the following years and sold the last of its components in March 2018.
Weld-Dor after being restored by team member Anthony Murney
Weld-Dor and Eric under the ownership of Anthony Murney
In 2018, team member Anthony Murney acquired former competitor Weld-Dor after a conversation with Phelim Lundy. He would then restore the robot, documenting it in a series of videos on his YouTube channel, eventually bringing it up to working condition. He would also become the owner of the unfinished Weld-Dor 4, with the intention of completing it. The following year in 2019, Anthony also acquired Eric from Riptide Robotics and in August 2021, Anthony began restoration on Eric to bring it back to its original state. Anthony would make new panels for Eric and also begin on its new paintjob.
Trivia
- YouTube content creators Anthony Murney and Stephen McCulla were part of Team S.Tek backstage in Series 9, but did not appear on television until Series 10. Stephen McCulla was known for his review channel Votesaxon07, which also featured Anthony Murney, and frequently made Robot Wars content, which included a video review of Push to Exit in Series 9. Anthony Murney is known on YouTube as twopennymilk 8908, producing the series Antweight Anarchy with Stephen.
- Series 9 team member Amelie was the youngest member of any team in that series.
- During Robot Wars' hiatus, Shane Swan's heavyweight, Envy, was inducted into The Combat Robot Hall of Fame in 2009, as a result of its performances at Roaming Robots events. However, owing to a balloting error, it was later discovered to have received insufficient votes to be inducted, and as such was reclassified as an Honorable Mention in 2022.[3]
References
- ↑ Robot Wars: Reactivated - Stephen McCulla's 20th Anniversary Documentary
- ↑ Private correspondence between User:VulcansHowl and Arthur Chilcott on Facebook, 30th August 2017
- ↑ The Combat Robot Hall of Fame ®, Team Run Amok website
External Links
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