Halo is a heavyweight robot built by John Findlay of Team Roaming Robots, which attempted to enter the Series 8 of Robot Wars. It was lent to Krissy Knee for entry to Series 8 after Knee was unable to complete his own robot, Rybot in time. However, it was not selected to compete in the series.
Findlay never intended to enter Halo into Series 8 himself, as he already applied for the series with Ripper and expected Halo to be in Moscow, Russia, for educational purposes at the time of filming. Upon finding out that the Russian trip would end just before filming of the series began, Findlay entrusted Halo under Krissy Knee's ownership, as a replacement for Rybot.
On 16th May 2016, it was revealed by his son George on Facebook that Halo's driver and temporary owner, Krissy Knee, had died after having cancer for the past seven years, in his lung, his kidney, his heart and his brain.
Design[]
Halo is a roughly wedge-shaped robot armoured in HARDOX and armed with a pneumatic axe as its weapon. The axe is capable of inflicting high amounts of damage, can act as the robot's srimech, and features interchangeable tips including a sharp spike, a square-shaped blade and a longer parelleogram-shaped blade that travels a third of the main axe arm. The weapon arm and mechanism were repurposed from the Series 6 version of X-Terminator, which John Findlay acquired for the 2015 Robot Wars live tour. Halo cost under £1,000 to build.
Outside Robot Wars[]
Halo was finished on New Year's Eve 2015, and made its combat debut at The World of The Robots 2016 in Dublin, Ireland. It was defeated in battle by fellow Team Roaming Robots machine, Ripper, and bent its axe shaft significantly, leading to it being reinforced for future events.
Halo (background, right), as part of Roaming Robots' heavyweight line-up for Extreme Robots Brentwood (2023)
Following Krissy Knee's passing, Halo's captaincy was transferred back to Team Roaming Robots. The complete robot, later sporting a silver and red colour scheme, remains in working order as of 2024, and is commonly used as a drivable Platinum VIP robot on the Extreme Robots tour. Halo has also made recurring appearances at RoboRiots in Dublin, Ireland, competing at the 2019,[1] 2022[2] and 2023 editions.[3]
Robot Wars Live Events[]
Halo made its Robot Wars live events debut at the Manchester event in 2016. It did not take part in the main show fights, but fought in a series of special battles at the end of each show where VIP audience members could drive it and other 'retro' competitors including Bulldog Breed, DTK, The Steel Avenger and Stinger. It later made an appearance at the next event in Portsmouth, fighting in a four-way melee against Thorak, Luzifer and Gabriel as part of the main show. Halo performed well in this fight, landing a few axe blows on Thorak until it became immobilised near the side of the arena.
Series Record[]
Krissy Knee[]
An unpainted Halo with its square axe blade.
| Series | Halo Series Record |
|---|---|
| Series 1-7 | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Not selected Not selected with Rybot |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
John Findlay[]
| Main Series | John Findlay Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Failed to qualify with Banana-R Armour |
| The Fifth Wars | Entered with T-Bone Failed to qualify with R.I.P.P.E.R. |
| The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with Ripper 2 |
| The Seventh Wars | Entered with Ripper Featherweight Championship with Rip |
| Series 8 | Ineligible |
| Series 9 | Ineligible |
| Series 10 | Not selected with Cyclone |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Entered with Neoteric |
| Series 2 | Did not enter |
Trivia[]
- During the build process of Halo, John Findlay asked users of the Official Robot Wars Facebook group to suggest names for the at-the-time unnamed Halo. A popular suggestion was "Chipper", to tie in with Findlay's other robots Ripper and Gripper, though ultimately Halo was chosen by Findlay himself.