Flails

Flails
Mace's flail damages Leighviathan
Weapon Category	Rotating weapons
Robots
Pioneer(s)	South Bay Mauler (1994 US competition) Caliban (televised series)
Notable Robots	Punjar (1996 US competition) Mace, Nuts 2 (televised series)

Flails are a loose-hanging and versatile type of rotating weapon found in Robot Wars. They first appeared as early as the original 1994 US competition, wielded by middleweight runner-up and multi-class Melee winner South Bay Mauler. Successive versions of Mauler continued to use flails in heavyweight class events, the design evolving into one of the very first full-body spinners. Further successes for the Tilford family machine included a Semi-Final finish in the 1997 Heavyweight Face-Off (as The Mauler) and overall victory in the unaired American Robot Wars 2000 pilot recorded for MTV.

A total of six robots introduced flails to the televised UK Series in The Second Wars, the first to appear being Caliban. The most successful and notable UK robots with this weapon type include Mace, which reached the Semi-Finals of Series 2 and 3 with this weapon, and Nuts 2, which used flails in tandem with its Meltybrain technology to finish joint-third overall in Series 10.

Definition

• A flail is a rotating weapon with spikes, blades or other objects that dangle loosely from the weapon mechanism, usually by a chain. The mechanism can take any form, from simple axles to flywheels/discs and even revolving rings attached to the robot's chassis. When the weapon rotates at full speed, the objects at the end "flail" around, hence the name, with the intention of hitting opponents and causing cuts, scratches or dents to their armour or locomotion.

Flails were sometimes used in conjunction with other spinning weapons, such as full-body spinners, their flexible designs helping to prevent recoils to the robot's main body and armour.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Mace uses its flails to cause further damage to the eliminated Chaos

Using Meltybrain technology, Nuts 2 damaged Androne 4000's hydraulic lines with its flails

Advantages

• The non-rigid nature of flails allows them to often keep spinning even upon contact with other robots, unlike weapons such as bar spinners and cutting discs. Mace, for example, was able to continue damaging Leighviathan and Chaos even after repeatedly hitting them with its rear flail.
• Flails can be attached to large discs, full-body spinners or - less commonly - sit-and-spin robots, increasing their damage output even further. This was best demonstrated by Nuts 2 in Series 10, whose flails were able to cause significant damage to Concussion, Androne 4000 and Carbide during its run.
• Flails can be made interchangeable with other rotating weapons of comparable size, such as cutting discs and lawnmower blades. This provides teams with the extra flexibility of being able to strategise with both rigid and non-rigid weapon types.
• They can be incorporated into invertible designs, as demonstrated by Nuts.
• The length of flails give the weapon a wide damage radius, which can help prevent opponents from attacking close to it. This was the logic behind Nuts' tactic against Carbide ahead of their Series 8 Head-to-Head battle, and which later contributed to Nuts 2's successes in Series 10.
• Flails can be designed to double up as entanglement devices, which can be absorbed by spinners.

Nuts' flail ring detaches following sustained attacks from Carbide

The Mauler is disqualified from the First World Championship

Disadvantages

• Flails are less durable than solid spinners, consisting of much thinner and less rigid metal, which can occasionally be ripped from a robot entirely.
• The usage of flails powered individually by a motor became outdated as Robot Wars progressed due to a history of lower damage output, and generally have to work in unison with another spinning weapon or body in order to be effective.
• Flails attached to powerful spinning mechanisms originally posed safety concerns with Robot Wars producers. The Mauler was infamously disqualified from The First World Championship after the producers deemed that its weapon was too unsafe to contain in the Series 3 arena, while modern flail spinners often had to be tested in the full-size Robot Wars Arena instead of the test arena.

List of Robots with Flails

Robots are listed in alphabetical order.

DESKTOP MODE ONLY: Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. Robots which fought in the original 1994-1997 US competitions are listed with a purple background.

Robot	Sub-Type	Series Appearances with Flails	Notes	Image
Bad Monkey	Horizontal/Vertical	1997 US Championship	Featherweight. One of the robot's three interchangeable rotating weapons was a 'chain flail', though this went unused.
Bot Will Eat Itself	Vertical	1997 US Championship	Featherweight; rebuilt from Jason Bardis' 1996 entry Rampage. Two chainsaw chains attached to one of the cutting discs inherited from its predecessor.
Caliban	Horizontal/ Overhead	Series 2	Pioneer of flails. Interchangeable with a full-body spinner.
Gigan	Vertical	1995-1996 US Championships	Featherweight/super lightweight entry from Peter Abrahamson. Set of twin five-pointed flails with short chainsaw chains, interchangeable with a pair of cut-off sawblades in both years.	Gigan (1996)
Hercules	Vertical	1997 US Championship	Set of flails was used as an interchangeable rear rotating weapon, attached to and used in tandem with the robot's primary lifting arm.	Hercules battles Thumper in its lifter/flail configuration
Hoot	Horizontal/ Overhead	Dutch Series 2, Nickelodeon	Loanerbot armed with brittle tri-bar spinner.
Humdrum	Horizontal	Nickelodeon	Loanerbot with flails attached to spinning shell. Previously competed as Joker in US Season 1.
Inquisitor	Vertical	Series 2	Was dismantled by Razer before it had the chance to be used in combat.
Jackson Wallop	Horizontal/ Overhead	Series 7	Attached to a top-mounted spinning disc. Disc was 1.2m in diameter, the largest body-to-weapon ratio allowed.
Joker	Horizontal	US Season 1-2, Nickelodeon	Season 1 saw the loanerbot Joker compete with the future design of Humdrum. The team's own build of Joker in later seasons attached flails to an angled spinning disc.
Mace	Vertical	Series 2-3	Series 2 and 3 Semi-Finalist, the latter as Mace 2.
Marauder	Horizontal/ Overhead	US Season 2	Middleweight entry, although competed in the heavyweight US Championship. Two truck hitch balls at the end of a curved spinning bar, rotating at 3,000rpm.
Marvin	Vertical (unpowered)	1996 US Championship	One end of the robot's lifting beam was fitted with a long unpowered chain, primarily for sit-and-spin or possible entanglement strategies.
Mauler	Horizontal/ Overhead	1994-1997 US Championships, Series 3, MTV Pilot	Pioneer of this weapon type as the 1994 middleweight South Bay Mauler, featuring two chains with maces on each end. Inaugural Middleweight Face-Off runner-up and champion of the multi-class Melee. Subsequent heavyweight versions (alternately competing as Mauler 95, South Bay Mauler and The Mauler) incorporated mace flails and chisels into larger and more potent full-body spinners, swinging outwards from a top rotating disc. 1996 Heavyweight Melee Finalist (as South Bay Mauler), 1997 Heavyweight Face-Off Semi-Finalist (as The Mauler) and champion of the unaired American Robot Wars 2000 pilot. Disqualified from The First World Championship due to safety concerns.	South Bay Mauler (1994) Mauler 95 (1995) Mauler (American Robot Wars 2000)
Nuts	Horizontal	Series 8-10	Flails attached to chains on the ends of a rotating ring surrounding the robot. Primarily relies on sit-and-spin tactics, but the flails could move independently as part of the ring in the original Series 8 version. In Series 10, the flails and interchangeable rings of Nuts 2 can operate as a conventional spinning weapon through the robot's Meltybrain technology. Finished joint-third in Series 10 in the latter form.
Punjar	Horizontal	1996 US Championship	For this event only, a set of horizontally-spinning chains was placed on top of a rear diamond-plated 'box', allowing it to strike any opponents caught on the robot's front wedge or top panel. 1996 Heavyweight Face-Off Quarter-Finalist and Heavyweight Melee Finalist, though relied mostly on its shape and pushing power to win matches.
Rippa Raptor	Horizontal	US Season 1	Two titanium spinning discs, capable of spinning at 2,500 RPM, with padlocks attached to them.
SWAK	Horizontal	1996 US Championship	First combat robot from Inertia Labs co-captains Alex Rose and Reason Bradley. Horizontally-swinging steel cable with a weight on each end, powered by a lawnmower motor.
Tantrum	Vertical	Series 2	Combined row of flails spun at 1,000rpm.
The Master	Vertical	1996 US Championship	The 1996 iteration featured a 'mace' as one of its interchangeable weapons, designed to be swappable with its regular circular saw. Never used in combat.
The Parthian Shot	Horizontal/ Overhead	Series 2	Never made it into the arena.
Tornado	Vertical	Series 7	One of its interchangeable weapons for Series 7 only. A modified version of the 'Spiked Scoop', with the flail mounted in the centre of the scoop.
Vicious-1	Near-horizontal	1997 US Championship	Alongside a double-ended "Spiked Hammer Arm", the 1997 Middleweight Face-Off champion also used a less damaging flail-like weapon in its Loser's Bracket fight against Peaches. Mike Regan of Team Vicious described the weapon as a 'stiff cable' with steel blades attached to each end; the Team Spike website suggests that it incorporated a 'spring-dampened' assembly.	Vicious-1 battles Peaches with its bladed cable weapon
Victor	Horizontal	Series 2-3	Interchangeable with a lawnmower blade in Series 2. Modified into a 2ft long 'morning star' flail for Series 3.
Whirling Dervish	Horizontal/ Overhead	Series 2	One of the first weapons in Robot Wars to be powered by a brushless motor. Top spinning speed of 450rpm.
Whirlpool 70	Horizontal/ Overhead	Extreme 1	Built out of a swimming pool cleaner.