Hammers

Hammers
JAR's hammer slams Interstellar: MML
Weapon Category	Overhead weapons
Robots
Pioneer(s)	Skarab
Notable Robots	Bamm Bamm, frenZy, Thor (Series 6-7, Extreme 2)
House Robots	Mr. Psycho

Hammers are a form of overhead weapon found in Robot Wars. The first robot to use this weapon was Skarab from Series 1. Hammers did not generally have a great degree of success in Robot Wars; however, notable hammer-wielding competitors include Dutch Grand Finalist Bamm Bamm, War of Independence runner-up frenZy, and Extreme 2 New Blood Grand Finalist Thor. The House Robot Mr. Psycho also wielded a hammer.

Definition

• Hammers come in a range of forms, and are distinguished from axes in that they are usually blunt with the intention of causing internal damage, instead of puncturing through armour and damaging exposed wheels or tracks. Some teams add a blunt spike on the end of their hammers, like Thor and Hydra, in order to focus more of the energy into one point on the opposing robot. These types of hammers are usually referred to as spiked hammers.

Advantages and Disadvantages

frenZy buckles the armour of Detonator in one of many attacks

Thor's hammer was able to hit vital components, leading to Chip's immobilisation.

Advantages

• Hammers are one of the simplest and most widely-available weapons, with a robot only needing to have a common sledgehammer incorporated into the design at minimum.
• Like other overhead weapons, they can be mounted alongside rear-hinged flipping arms and lifters. Hydra used this weapon combination to good effect in Series 6 and Extreme 2.
• Due to the wide surface area of a hammer, a hammer is able to bend armour. This was demonstrated by JAR in its fight against Interstellar: MML, where JAR was able to buckle Interstellar's flipper; and frenZy in the War of Independence special of Series 4, where its hammer greatly buckled the armour of Detonator.
• The weight a hammer takes up causes massive internal damage to opponents, causing opponents to become immobilised. This was best shown in Thor's battle against Chip, where only one hit from the hammer immobilised Chip.
• Hammers often have a long reach compared to other overhead weapons, which allows hammer users to strike opponents with less fear of being attacked themselves. This was best demonstrated during Thor's New Blood Championship campaign in Extreme 2, where the hammer was able to attack robots like Cedric Slammer from a safe distance that its opponents could not retaliate from.
• As with bladed and spiked axes, hammers can double as an effective self-righting mechanism, depending on the power, design and leverage of the weapon and its mechanism. So far, frenZy is the only hammer-wielding robot to have demonstrated this capability in any Robot Wars competition.

Disadvantages

JAR misses its hammer blow on The Cat, which led to JAR's immobilisation

Compensating for the weight of its hammer, Thor's armour easily falls off against Tornado

Storm 2 nearly pits Thor after the latter missed an attack

• It takes a large amount of force in order for hammers to cause damage to opponents. Only Mr. Psycho truly utilised his hammer as a destructive weapon, using it to bend competitors' chassis out of shape and knock pieces of armour and internal components loose. However, as a House Robot, Mr. Psycho was seven times over the Heavyweight weight limit.

• Sometimes, the force from a hammer can damage the robot internally. This happened most notably during JAR's battle with The Cat, as when JAR fired its hammer, it came down with such force that it became immobilised

• Hammers do not cause a great deal of visible damage, making it difficult for hammer-wielding competitor robots to win Judges' decisions. Notable exceptions include the spiked hammer of Thor and the 'meat tenderiser' of frenZy, both of which proved to be capable of causing substantial visual damage to Judge Shred 2½ and Detonator respectively.
• The large weight a hammer takes up often results in competitors having thin armour. This was best shown by Thor and JAR, where Thor had thin armour to compensate for the large weapon, and JAR had no top armour at all as a result of its heavy hammer.
• Like other overhead weapons, hammers have a very narrow attack range and are usually only able to attack robots directly in front of the wielder. While the Series 7 version of Thor circumvented this issue by being able to strike from both sides, the Series 6/Extreme 2 version suffered this problem greatly; often missing many hits throughout its New Blood Championship run and therefore becoming easily overpowered by Storm 2 in the latter.

List of Robots with Hammers

Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. House Robots are listed with a yellow background.

Robot	Series Appearances with Hammers	Notes	Image
A-Kill	Series 6	Extremely weak; described by the team as being able to "crush a strawberry". Combined with a lifter.
Anorakaphobia	Series 3	Capable of firing at four hits per second.
Bamm Bamm	Dutch Series 1	Part of a set of interchangeable weapons along with a spiked axe, a 'club' and a flipping arm, all mounted on a 360 degree turret, used along the way to a Dutch Series 1 Grand Final appearance. Replaced with the axe for Dutch Series 2 and UK Series 7.
Bang	US Season 2	Loanerbot which competed in Season 1 as Rot Box.
Basher	Series 8	Electrically-driven hammer weighing 11kg. Competed exclusively in the untelevised Series 8 pilot.
Bodyhammer	Series 1	Removed before the Arena stage due to reliability problems, and converted into a ramming spike.
Bondi Titch	Extreme 2	Stock Robot built by the Robot Wars crew specifically to represent Australia in the Commonwealth Carnage.
Bumblebot	Series 2	Reserve robot. Hammer was replaced with an axe in Series 3.
Bunny Attack	US Season 2, Nickelodeon	Good battle record despite the weapon being ineffective.
Enderbot	Dutch Series 1	Design resembled a thwackbot, but the hammer was fully actuated.
Evil Weevil	Series 4	Spiked sledgehammer which was never seen in action.
frenZy	Series 4, MTV Pilot	Titanium spiked hammer, referred to as an 'axe' on TV or as a 'meat tenderiser'; electrically-operated and capable of self-righting. Finished runner-up in the Series 4 War of Independence and MTV Pilot.
Hammerhead	Series 3	Interchangeable with a spiked axe.
Hydra	Series 6, Extreme 2	Combined with a flipping arm. The sledgehammer featured 700lbs of thrust and a head weighed 2kg, and was often referred to as an 'axe' on TV - replaced for Series 7 with a hardened steel spiked axe.
JAR	Series 9	Stock Robot entered by the Brownlee Brothers in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars.
Maximum Torque	Dutch Series 1	Robot fought primarily as a wedge.
Mr. Psycho	Series 6-7, Extreme 2	Only House Robot to use a hammer weapon. Entire hammer assembly weighed 30kg.
Rameses II	Series 2	An early pioneer of HDPE armour.
Rot Box	US Season 1	Loanerbot which also competed as Bang in Season 2.
RT 81	Extreme 2	Walkerbot; hammer mounted on a 360 degree rotating turret.
Skarab	Series 1	First robot to wield a hammer, which was used in its unaltered form in the Gauntlet and Arena Semi-Final stages. Modified in its Heat Final to feature a swinging mace, borrowed from Killertron.
Thor	Series 6-7, Extreme 2	Finished third in the Extreme 2 New Blood Championship. Spiked hammer replaced with a bladed axe and interchangeable heads for Series 8-10.
Thor's Hammer	US Season 2	Middleweight robot competing in an Annihilator amongst heavyweight competitors.
The Ripper	Series 2	Predecessor to Ripper's Revenge which used a pickaxe.
Thunderpants	Series 7	Was reportedly capable of striking an opponent when inverted. Neither this feature or the robot itself were seen in action, as it broke down while entering the arena.