Iron Heart 88 is a heavyweight robot which applied to compete in Series 9 of Robot Wars, but ultimately was not chosen to compete. It was built by Team Crazy 88, who had previously competed in the last two series.
Design[]
Iron Heart 88's LEDs
Iron Heart 88 used a rustic colour-scheme, painted ‘HARDOX brown’ mixed with red, though its rear-hinged flipper was painted red. The full-pressure flipper is capable of throwing robots over and provides the robot’s self-righting mechanism in combination with the weapon’s curved shape, but the wedge plate was made from thin sheet metal that can be bent, and its bungee cords can snap. Its side spikes also allow the robot to function as a sit-and-spin design, while giving the robot a low ground clearance at the rear.
Series Record[]
| Series | Iron Heart 88 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 ISM |
| The Fifth Wars | Failed to qualify with X box |
| The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with Bigfish |
| The Seventh Wars | Entered with Hodaf the Bad |
| Series 8 | Entered with Crazy Coupe 88 |
| Series 9 | Not selected |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
Outside Robot Wars[]
Iron Heart 88 in 2017
Iron Heart 88 in September 2018
Iron Heart 88 attended various Robots Live events, first competing at Cannock, where it lost to Apollo and The Saint in separate battles. However, the team now favour Extreme Robots, making their first appearance at those events in Manchester. This focus on Extreme Robots also led to the team not applying for Series 10 of Robot Wars. Iron Heart 88 fought in five battles, but was consistently plagued with technical issues, rendering two motors unusable, and the team's new spinner Wardog had to withdraw after spinners were deemed unsafe to compete. Despite this, Iron Heart 88 managed to flip Behemoth and TR3, and survive for longer than robots such as Suspension and Eric before losing its battles. Iron Heart 88 attended the Colchester and Chatham Extreme Robots events in September 2018, and in the latter, achieved a knockout victory over TR3, despite otherwise losing all of its matches. Tyrone Ellis announced his intention to sell Iron Heart 88 in December 2022[1].
Iron Heart 88 at its final event in July 2023
The retired Iron Heart 88 after taking damage from Zadkiel
Iron Heart 88 would nevertheless return for one more event in July 2023, competing at Extreme Robots in Newcastle. After an unsuccessful pre-show qualifier battle where it lost a four-way melee to Immersion, Iron Heart 88 entered the second show of the day in a battle against two spinners, intending to be retired in a damaging battle. Indeed, despite outlasting Donald Thump in its three-way battle, Iron Heart 88 was damaged significantly by Zadkiel and would go on to be scrapped.
In November 2023 a new robot would be revealed called Mongral, a vertical spinner which reuses a chassis Ripper would have used in BattleBots had Covid not prevented it from being there.
For more information on Tyrone Ellis' robots aside from Iron Heart 88, see the Crazy Coupe 88 article.
The Tragic Roundabout
Euphoria
Teammate Isaac Sharp would also become a competitor on the featherweight live circuit, competing with the 4kg invertible sit-and-spin robot, The Tragic Roundabout, initially built by Team Shock under commission. It made its combat debut in November 2018 at a Robodojo live event. For more information, see here. Isaac Sharp also owns the featherweight robot Euphoria, a four-wheel driven lifter built under commission by Team Immersion - see here for information.
Robot Wars Live Events[]
Iron Heart 88 competed at the Robot Wars event in Colchester, its combat debut, although it did not pick up any wins. In Maidstone, it fought Beast and Iron-Awe 5, surviving for longer than Beast, but eventually lost the ability to self-right when flipped by Iron-Awe 5.
Trivia[]
- Iron Heart 88's fourth team member Isaac Sharp joined the team for Series 9 applications after Crazy Coupe 88 team member Emma Hall did not wish to return. Isaac Sharp had not met the rest of the team before, but was recommended to Tyrone Ellis by John Findlay.