- "It's got extremely strong armour on the top, and its got this huge great disc. 16 kilos, 2000 rpm, it's going to do some damage!"
- — Richard Wenman describes Mayhem
Mayhem was a robot that exclusively competed in Series 7 of Robot Wars, where it was defeated rather quickly and easily by Supernova before losing alongside it to Storm 2 and Rhino.
Design[]
Mayhem in the arena from above
Mayhem was a black, two-wheel, invertible box-shaped robot with a front-mounted, 16kg, 2000rpm spinning disc, with four broad faces. The team had particular pride in Mayhem's top armour, which featured its logo. It was deliberately designed with a high ground clearance and exposed rear wheels so the robot would be made difficult to get hold of but this proved to be its undoing, combined with its inexperience.
- "They say the rear-mounted wheels and high ground clearance make this robot hard to get hold of, and the awesome weapon will cause severe damage. I say the wheels are exposed and the team lacks experience!"
- — Jonathan Pearce describes Mayhem
The Team[]
The Mayhem team in the pits
The Mayhem team consisted of engineer Richard Wenman, who was the team captain, and his father, Alan Wenman. Richard drove Mayhem and Alan operated the weapons.
Both spoke in their pre-battle interview and offered firm confidence despite their lack of experience on Robot Wars.
Robot History[]
Series 7[]
- Jayne Middlemiss: "What are you looking forward to in your first wars?"
- Alan Wenman: "Getting through the first battle."
- Jayne Middlemiss: "Do you think you're going to?"
- Alan Wenman: "We didn't come here to lose!"
- — Pre-battle interview
Mayhem participated in Heat I. In the first round, it was placed up against the number 16 seed and New Blood champion Storm 2, Team Reactor's new robot, Rhino and veteran Supernova, a robot of a very similar design to Mayhem.
Mayhem has one of its wheels ripped off by Supernova
Mayhem loses both of its wheels (top right)
In the battle, Mayhem spun around in circles at the beginning of the melee, as it tried to attack Rhino, but Supernova then hit one of its exposed tyres, knocking it clean off. Supernova attacked again with its disc and ripped the other tyre from Mayhem. Mayhem was left with no traction on the arena floor and was counted out by Refbot.
- "That's the end of Mayhem - tyre off... about to be re-tyred, I think... re-tyred into oblivion."
- — Jonathan Pearce as Refbot comes in to count out Mayhem
The destroyed Mayhem is counted out
Mayhem is thrown by Matilda's flywheel
Sir Killalot came in and placed Mayhem onto the Floor Flipper. After being flipped, Matilda whacked Mayhem with her flywheel into the arena side wall, buckling one of the wheels and damaging its armour.
'Cease' was called and Mayhem was eliminated from the competition along with Supernova, which had also been immobilised.
Results[]
| MAYHEM - RESULTS | ||
| Series 7 | ||
| The Seventh Wars - UK Championship Heat, Round 1 | ||
| Heat I, Round 1 | vs. Storm 2 (16), Rhino, Supernova | Eliminated |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 1
Series Record[]
| Series | Mayhem Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fifth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Sixth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Seventh Wars | Heat, Round 1 |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
Gallery[]
Outside Robot Wars[]
Before its appearance on Robot Wars, Mayhem competed at the Daventry Roaming Robots event in May 2003. It fought two battles against Scrap Dragon and Blitz, but lost both of them.[1]
- "Having built a spinner. And been trashed by a couple of spinners (supernova & Matilda) I have to say that Im not in favour of spinners at live events. Its just to expensive. My new robot is still going to have a spinner in the vane hope that series 8 will go ahead. But Im also looking at other weapons to fit the same body so that I can take part in friendly competition at live events."
- — Richard Wenman on the Fighting Robots Association forum[2]
Mayhem was upgraded in the case that a Series 8 of Robot Wars was announced in Series 4, still sporting a spinning disc, but also utilising various other weapons for use in live events.[3] The upgraded Mayhem fought at the Roaming Robots Warwickshire event in July 2004, battling EWE2 and Toxic where it was immobilised early on in the fight, losing as a result.[4]
Richard Wenman also built a wedge-shaped featherweight named Mayhem Mk2 to compete in various events, but it has made no known appearances.[5]
Trivia[]
- Mayhem was the only robot in Heat I of The Seventh Wars entered by a team that had not had any previous Robot Wars experience.
- It was also the only Round 1 loser in the heat whose name did not start with the letter S.
- Before its battle in Series 7, Jonathan Pearce incorrectly stated the team members' surnames as Wenham.