Ka-Pow! is a heavyweight robot which competed in the pilot episode filmed prior to Series 8 of Robot Wars. In the pilot, it reached the Heat Final stage, where it lost to Turbulence. The robot is a joint effort between John Wilkinson of Team Toaster and Alan Wood of Team Onslaught.
Design[]
Ka-Pow! prior to the pilot
Ka-Pow! is a classic wedge-shaped heavyweight robot, armed with a flipper. It was constructed using some components from Team Toaster's Techno Games entry, The Savage Toaster. In practice the only significant parts that were reused were the Toaster's Bosch GPA750 drive motors. Ka-Pow! was designed to be cheap and easy to repair after battles, so the armour and chassis were originally built mostly out of mild steel, with a plywood baseplate. It was built at a cost of around £1,500.
The version of Ka-Pow! that attempted to enter Robot Wars was an upgraded version of the original robot, leading it to be colloquially known as Ka-Pow! 1.5 on the team's website. Improvements included redesigned RAEX 400 armour. Ka-Pow! is armed with a medium-pressure, high flow-rate flipper, which is usually operated at 20bar, although it can be run at up to 30bar. It also features a sprung drive module, which helps to protect the drive system from shock damage from heavy impacts.
Robot History[]
Series 8[]
The Ka-Pow! team are interviewed in the pits
Although Ka-Pow! was not selected for the main series of Robot Wars in Series 8, the team was invited to attend filming of the pilot episode on March 1st, giving it the opportunity to compete in front of a live audience as part of a camera test.
Ka-Pow! in the arena for its first battle
In its first battle, Ka-Pow! qualified through a four-way match against Tanto, Basher, and Turbulence. Ka-Pow! was responsible for the defeat of Tanto, after Tanto drove over the top of Ka-Pow!, performed a backflip, and the landing removed the safety link of Tanto. When pitting this immobile machine, Basher overbalanced and also pitted itself, allowing Turbulence and Ka-Pow! to go through.
In its first head-to-head battle, Ka-Pow! fought Merlin, but Ka-Pow! drove into the pit in the opening moments of the match, declaring Merlin the winner, which proceeded to attack Dead Metal.
Ka-Pow! on top of the pit, against Turbulence
Due to time constraints, Ka-Pow! was put through to the "Heat Final", where it fought Turbulence again. Ka-Pow! fought valiantly, but was eventually pitted, making Turbulence the winner of the episode. Throughout the pilot episode, unusually cold conditions meant that robots using CO2 gas in pneumatic systems found that weapons were freezing up. This was certainly an issue for Ka-Pow! John Reid mentions this in a post-fight interview, as a problem for TerrorHurtz, during his televised heat.
Results[]
| KA-POW! - RESULTS | ||
| Series 8 | ||
| Series 8 - Pilot Episode Heat Final | ||
| Pilot Episode, Group Battle | vs. Basher, Tanto, Turbulence | Qualified |
| Pilot Episode, Head-to-Head | vs. Merlin | Lost |
| Pilot Episode, Heat Final | vs. Turbulence | Lost |
Series Record[]
The team are interviewed by Dara Ó Briain
| Series | Ka-Pow! Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Entered with Onslaught |
| The Third Wars | Entered with Onslaught |
| The Fourth Wars | Withdrew from qualifiers with Savage Toaster Side events with Onslaught |
| The Fifth Wars | Withdrew from qualifiers with Savage Toaster Entered with Onslaught |
| The Sixth Wars | Withdrew from qualifiers with Savage Toaster |
| The Seventh Wars | Unknown |
| Series 8 | Pilot, Heat Final |
| Series 9 | Not selected |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
NOTE: Savage Toaster competed under Ka-Pow! team captain John Wilkinson. Onslaught competed under team members Alan and David Wood.
Outside Robot Wars[]
Team Onslaught competed in numerous Techno Games with Wipeout, a modified version of Onslaught.
Ka-Pow! has also competed in the unofficial Heavyweight UK Championships that followed the cancellation of Robot Wars, hosted by event organisers such as Roaming Robots. At the 2006 UK Championship, Ka-Pow! was defeated by US competitor Sewer Snake, and although it flipped Beast out of the arena and pitted Kan-Opener, it was still eliminated in the group stage.
Ka-Pow! 1.5 being built
At the 2007 UK Championships, Ka-Pow! reached the quarter-finals, losing to Dantomkia. The robot has since made recurring appearances in the FRA Championships, especially following their inclusion as part of the Robots Live! Stevenage event. In 2016, Ka-Pow! was beaten in the first round of the main championship by Meggamouse, but won a losers' melee against Behemoth (with some attendant controversy over whether Behemoth had been immobilised for over 10 seconds during the fight), Apocalypse and Weird mAlice to go through to Round 2. In the second round, Ka-Pow! was beaten by Toxic 2 and Mantis, putting it out of the main competition. It later fought Bigger Brother, Photon Storm and Apocalypse in a whiteboard battle at the event, which it won.
Ka-Pow! being worked on during a live event.
Ka-Pow! improved on its performance in 2017, finishing sixth overall in the FRA UK Championship while also competing in whiteboard battles and a Tag Team competition.[1] Partnered with Weird mAlice, the pair lost their first round to Apollo and Turbulence after getting flipped numerous times and being left unable to self right - Ka-Pow! was eventually pitted by both of its opponents. Ka-Pow! continued to appear at live events even after the Robot Wars reboot went off air, most recently fighting in the 2019 FRA UK Championship, in which its predecessor Onslaught also attended as a static display, and at Robots Live! Crawley upon the resumption of heavyweight events in October 2021.
Throk
The team also competed in live events with two featherweights, primarily Ka-Putt!, a flipper. The team also built Throk, a two-wheel driven wedge robot weighing 6.9kg which competed in a single event at Roaming Robots in Aylesbury, losing to its own teammate Ka-Putt! and also Pillow Torque.
Robot Wars Live Events[]
An unpainted Ka-Pow! 1.5
As Ka-Pow! was upgraded in 2013, it was able to compete in the new live Robot Wars events, which it did with limited success. Its debut event was during the Robot Wars Winter Tour 2013 where it fought in the Secondary Heat A fight at Doncaster where it lost after being flipped out by Manta.
Ka-Pow! took part in the Robot Wars World Championship in 2015, held in Colchester. In the first round, it met Beast and Brutus. Ka-Pow! flipped each robot, and was flipped in return by Beast, and pushed by Brutus. All three robots were left standing at the end of the battle, where Ka-Pow! lost the resulting Judges' decision. Ka-Pow! entered the Annihilator at the same event, where it found much more success, making it to the fourth round, where it fought Beast 2 and Toon Raider. However, Ka-Pow! broke down after a single flip from Beast 2, meaning Ka-Pow! finished third overall.
Ka-Pow! competed at the final Robot Wars live event in Maidstone, in 2016. It fought well, but was defeated by Dystopia. As of late 2019, after a couple of years of relative inactivity, Ka-Pow! has returned to competing at live events.
Trivia[]
- The robot was originally conceived when John Wilkinson asked Alan Wood of Team Onslaught about the idea of upgrading The Savage Toaster! to make it competitive. Wilkinson also came up with the name and is largely responsible for the '1.5' armour re-design and upgrade.
References[]
External Links[]
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