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[]
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
- 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.
- 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.
DESKTOP MODE ONLY: Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. House Robots are listed with a gold background.
Robot | Series Appearances with Hammers | Notes | Image |
---|---|---|---|
A-Kill | Series 6 | Extremely limited damage potential; 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 rotating 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 American Robot Wars 2000 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 | Weapon weighed 20kg in total; robot fought primarily using its wedge shape and drive power. | |
Mr. Psycho | Series 6-7, Extreme 2 | Only House Robot to use a hammer weapon. Entire hammer assembly - based on an articulated arm - 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 | Annihilator only; middleweight robot competing alongside heavyweight opponents. | |
The Ripper | Series 2 | Predecessor to Ripper's Revenge which used a pickaxe. | |
Thunderpants | Series 7 | Was reportedly capable of striking an opponent while inverted. Neither this feature or the robot itself were seen in action, as it lost mobility while entering the arena and could not be repaired in time. |
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