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A full-body spinner, or just body spinner, is a spinning weapon which encompasses the robot's body in any shape or form. There have been several kinds of full-body spinner in Robot Wars, ranging in levels of destruction and success. The first robot to use this weapon was Caliban in Series 2, although it was interchangeable with a set of flails and was never seen in action, whereas the first robot to use the weapon in combat was Warhog in Series 4. By far the most successful full-body spinners are the robots of Team Typhoon - including multiple Middleweight champions Typhoon and Series 7 champion Typhoon 2 - and Extreme Warriors Season 1 runner-up The Revolutionist.

Definition

  • A Full-body spinner consists of a spinning weapon which surrounds part of or all of a robot's chassis and internals. These weapons often rotate on a central shaft, or on a mechanism between the weapon and chassis, and are lined with blades, flails, teeth or other sharp/weighted weapons in order to cause damage to other robots. A full-body spinner, as its name implies, covers the entire body of a robot using a spinning weapon.

There exist two primary variations of the full body spinner concept:

  • Rim spinner - alternatively known as a ring spinner, an individual, round blade surrounds the exterior of the robot, and spins independently of the robot's main body. Examples include M.R. Speed Squared and Gyrobot.
  • Shell spinner - whereby the spinner is the robot's own armour, and the whole exterior of the robot is used as a spinning weapon. Examples include Typhoon 2 and the original Corkscrew.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

Warhog sir killalot

Sir Killalot exercises caution against the spinning Warhog

Typhoon2deflection

Typhoon 2 launches upon deflecting Storm 2's charge, as a result of its gyroscopic speeds

  • This weapon protects the robot on all sides, making it virtually unapproachable when it is spun up to full speed.
  • The size and weight of the weapon gives it the potential to cause very high levels of damage. This is best demonstrated by the machines of Team Typhoon, especially Typhoon 2, which was able to cause substantial amounts of damage to other competitors and the arena wall during its Series 7 run.
  • The gyroscopic forces acting on the robot when the weapon spins up makes it very difficult for the robot to be flipped over by an opponent. This was crucial in allowing Typhoon 2 to remain upright in its Series 7 Grand Final as Storm 2 got underneath it with its front wedge.
  • Rim spinners can also be compatible with invertible designs, as proven by Gyrobot and M.R. Speed Squared.
  • By working independently of a robot's locomotion to offer free movement, the full body spinner succeeds the sit-and-spin design.
  • Shell spinners circumvent the issue of most spinners where their weapon's weight prevents them from having heavy armour, as the spinner itself doubles as the robot's body. The shell can therefore be made very thick and strong to offer optimal protection, in turn strengthening the weapon and increasing its potential damage output.

Disadvantages

Delldog dynamite

Delldog pushes Dynamite towards a CPZ

Raging reality flips typhoon 2

Typhoon 2 is flipped by Raging Reality after being unable to get its weapon up to speed

Corkscrew pitted

Corkscrew ricochets into the pit after an attack on Kronic 2

MRSS dance Concussion

M.R. Speed Squared takes flight

  • Being mostly circular-shaped, robots with full-body spinners usually suffer from poor pushing power as a result of their shape. Only The Revolutionist, Delldog, Corkscrew and Typhoon proved successful in ramming and pushing other opponents to victory. M.R. Speed Squared and Corkscrew Two both had to fight without the use of their weapons on occasions; the former only managed to win one battle with its rim spinner not functioning at all.
  • Depending on the weapon's destructive potential, they often raised safety concerns with the Robot Wars production crew. Warhog and Typhoon 2 both shattered the arena wall at various points during the original series, while Mauler was disqualified from the First World Championship altogether when the producers deemed that its weapon was too powerful for the arena to contain safely.
  • They take time to spin up as with all other spinning weapons, which leaves robots with them particularly vulnerable to flippers if they are unable to avoid them or get their weapons up to speed in time. This was crucial in Ripper's three-second defeat of Daisy-Cutter, which was able to get underneath Daisy-Cutter and defeat it before it was able to spin its weapon up.
  • It is often difficult to incorporate an effective and reliable self-righting mechanism into a full-body spinner; there were no instances in Robot Wars of a shell spinner featuring one. Of the rim spinners, which are generally invertible anyway, only Revenge of Trouble & Strife was able to feature a self-righting mechanism through its pneumatic flipping arm, although this often failed to work throughout its appearances.
  • As with horizontal flywheels and heavy rotating blades, the build-up of kinetic energy in a full-body spinner could cause it to recoil. Besides causing internal damage, the recoil from a full-body spinner could also cause the robot to rebound in a different direction, potentially into arena hazards. Most notably, Corkscrew was eliminated from its Series 6 melee after rebounding into the the pit following an attack on Kronic 2, while Typhoon Lightning (as one part of Typhoon Twins), also recoiled into the pit against 259 in the Extreme 2 Middleweight Championship.
  • Throughout the show's run, full-body spinners have proved unreliable- Warhog, Delldog, M.R. Speed Squared and Corkscrew have all suffered as a result of their weapons not working.
  • If rim spinners are designed to run on wheels, impacts could bend the circular shapes into ovals which increased friction and slowed the discs. This was a problem which affected both models of Revenge of Trouble & Strife.
    • Likewise, rim spinners powered by bearings or tyres were susceptible to having the bearings/tyres break mid-battle, leading to reliability issues and malfunctions. The weapon mechanisms for both versions of M.R. Speed Squared demonstrated these issues on numerous occasions, with the robot's spinner often failing to work after a certain amount of impacts.
  • Depending on their power and design, the gyroscopic motion of rim-style full-body spinners can undermine the robot's ground clearance, or otherwise lead to stability issues when the robot moves while the weapon is rotating. The Series 9 version of M.R. Speed Squared often struggled to remain on the floor once the recoil of its hits knocked the robot off-balance; during its Head-to-Head against Concussion, it even threw itself off the arena floor while trying to spin itself and its weapon up at the same time.
  • Shell spinners are generally symmetrical with little indication of where the front of the robot is found once the shell has started spinning, making it difficult to control these robots.

List of Full Body Spinners

Bansheebandit

Banshee

Caliban offical image

Caliban, the pioneer, in its full-body spinner configuration

Corkscrew S6

Corkscrew

Gyrobot

Gyrobot

Mauler2K

Mauler

MRSS Series 9

M.R. Speed Squared

ROTAS

Revenge of Trouble & Strife

SpinDoctorEX2

Spin Doctor in Extreme 2

The Revolutionist

The Revolutionist in US Season 1

Typhoon-removebg

Typhoon, three-time middleweight champion

Typhoon 2

Typhoon 2, Series 7 heavyweight champion

Warhog 4

Warhog in Series 4

Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. Shell spinners are listed in bold.

Robot Series Appearances with Full Body Spinners Notes
Banshee Series 4 Top speed of 200rpm.
Beaverbot Dutch Series 2 Dome-shaped shell with several spikes.
Bloody Murder Weapon Dutch Series 2 Weapon consisted of an overhead spinning frame with four spiked blades attached to the ends. Failed to work in either of the robot's battles.
Caliban Series 2 First robot with a Full-body spinner, which was not seen in combat after it was eliminated at the Gauntlet stage. Interchangeable with spinning flails.
Corkscrew Series 5-7, Extreme 2 The original Corkscrew was a shell spinner with a weapon and body made out of a lorry wheel, lined with large cutting blades. Its successor, Corkscrew Two, was an invertible rim spinner with a weapon speed of 1,000rpm, which ultimately failed to spin up its weapon in battle.
Cyclone (Dutch) Dutch Series 2 Weapon failed to work in both its battles.
Daisy-Cutter Series 7 Made out of half a tractor wheel.
Delldog Series 6, German Series Rim weighed 25kg and spun at 1000rpm.
Gyrobot Series 7 Weapon weighed 35kg and spun at 750rpm, increasing to 1,500rpm when the robot spun on the spot.
Humdrum Nickelodeon Loanerbot. Equipped with two swinging maces, each attached to the shell with chains. Also entered Extreme Warriors Season 1 as Joker.
Joker US Season 1 Loanerbot. Equipped with two swinging maces, each attached to the shell with chains. Was leant to the Sylvan Lake Robot Warriors for Extreme Warriors Season 1 after their original version of Joker got lost in transit. Later entered Nickelodeon Robot Wars as Humdrum.
Mauler Series 3 Top-mounted disc with two flails and two chisels which swung out at full speed. Disqualified from the First World Championship as the producers deemed it unsafe for the arena. Won the unaired MTV Pilot.
M.R. Speed Squared Series 8-9 Featured a variety of interchangeable spinning rims. Weapon weighed 22kg and spun at a force of 80 kilojoules in Series 8, with a rotational speed of 1,000rpm. The rim weighed 35kg and spun at 900rpm in Series 9. Weapon propelled by bearings in Series 8 and rubber tyres in Series 9.
Night Stalker US Season 2 Weapon rotated with a top speed of 1,000rpm, but failed to spin in battle.
The Revolutionist US Season 1-2, Nickelodeon Low cylindrical body lined with several steel cutting teeth. Runner-up in Extreme Warriors Season 1.
Revenge of Trouble & Strife Series 6-7, Extreme 2 Weapon weighed 25kg and spun up to 500rpm. Only Robot Wars competitor to combine a full-body spinner with a srimech, through its pneumatic flipping arm.
Scarey-Go-Round Series 7 Assortment of cutting blades and soft toy 'riders' suspended from the spinning lower rim, themed around a "merry-go-round".
Spin Doctor Series 6-7, Extreme 2 Made out of a lorry wheel.
Triforce Series 10 Featured an experimental omnidirectional drive which ultimately led to Triforce's withdrawal from Series 10.
Typhoon Series 7, Extreme 1-2 Conical body with four cutting blades. Extreme 1-2 and Series 7 Middleweight Champion.
Typhoon Cadet Series 7 Conical body with two cutting blades.
Typhoon Thunder Extreme 2 Conical body with a fabric skirt concealing the cutting blades. Extreme 2 Lightweight Champion.
Typhoon Twins Extreme 2 Two lightweight robots - Typhoon Thunder and Typhoon Lightning - joined together to form a clusterbot. Extreme 2 Middleweight Championship finalist.
Typhoon 2 Series 7, Extreme 2 Conical body with four cutting blades and petrol power. Series 7 Champion.
U.R.O. Series 7 Rim spinner weighed only 2.5kg, designed more to cut than deal heavy blows.
Warhog Series 4-6 Low-mounted 30kg disc spinning at up to 500rpm.
Whirlpool 70 Second World Championship Built out of a swimming pool cleaning device. Interchangeable maces, spikes and hooks.
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