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For small robots that fight alongside Heavyweight machines, see Clusterbots.

"Pocket sized miniature mayhem! ... These miniature mayhem makers are fitted with a tiny pullback drive and are unbelievably speedy."
— Official description from the Robot Wars Online Shop[1]

The Minibots were small, metallic pullback toys released during the original run of Robot Wars. All were based on competitor and House Robots appearing from Series 3 to Series 5 and the first series of Robot Wars Extreme.

Unlike the larger Pullbacks, Pitstop Toys and the largest Remote Controlled Toys, around half of the minibots did not have working weaponry, although many still did. The minibots had two playsets, including a miniature replica of the Robot Wars Arena, to 'fight' in.

Releases[]

First minibots

The first wave of minibots released

The Minibots were manufactured by Feva and sold exclusively at Argos in packs of two, three or five. Two generations of Minibots were released. The first was released in 2001 and featured Razer, Hypno-Disc, Panic Attack, Pussycat, X-Terminator 2, Chaos 2, as well as all of the House Robots that appeared in Series 3, 4 and 5/Extreme 1. These Minibots were particularly based on the Series 4 versions of the robots they were based on, with series-specific details such as X-Terminator 2's flipping arm and Matilda's chainsaw tail being incorporated into their designs. Only five of these first series of Minibots had moving parts - Pussycat's blade, Sir Killalot's arms, Refbot's arms, Matilda's tusks and Sgt. Bash's flamethrower.

Minibot

The Hypno-Disc minibot held between two fingers, showing the very small size of these toys

The second generation was released in 2002, which consisted of Wild Thing, Firestorm 3, Tornado, Mega Morg, Suicidal Tendencies, Gemini, Plunderbird 5, Dominator 2 and Wheely Big Cheese. These minibots were based on each robot's Series 5/Extreme 1 incarnations, with series-specific details including Wild Thing's disc and Dominator 2's wheelguards. Six of the second generation Minibots had moving parts, such as Suicidal Tendencies' claw and the flipping arms of Gemini, but, interestingly, these six were not made into corresponding Pullbacks.

According to a behind-the-scenes article from the second issue of Robot Wars: The Official Magazine, a third generation of Minibots was also planned for release, which would have consisted of nine more competitors plus Minibot versions of Mr. Psycho and Growler. However, these never entered production, and no further information on this proposed third series currently exists.

For a limited time between April and June 2003, four Minibots were offered individually with kids meals at Little Chef restaurants (see Little Chef Promotion).

Features[]

HDminibotbottom

The bottom of the Hypno-Disc minibot. Note the static wheels on the outside.

The Minibots all had the same small pullback mechanism with three wheels, except for Sir Killalot, which had four wheels. This lead to some robots, such as Pussycat having rather distorted proportions to accommodate the shape of the pullback mechanism, while outside wheels or tracks were made static for Minibots based on robots which had them, such as those for Hypno-Disc and Sir Killalot. Minibots based on invertible robots, such as Pussycat, Tornado and Wheely Big Cheese, could not run inverted either, as the motor's wheels were only located on one side of the toy.

List of Minibots[]

Competitor Robots[]

AllMinibots

All minibots, arranged on the Minibot Arena.

Minibot Image
Chaos 2 Chaos2Minibot
Dominator 2 Dominator2Minibot
Firestorm 3 FirestormDiagonalLow
Gemini GeminiDiagonalRight
Hypno-Disc HypnoDiscDiagonal
Mega Morg MegaMorgMini
Panic Attack PAdiagonalfront
Plunderbird 5 Plunderbird5Diagonal
Pussycat PussycatDiagonal1
Razer RazerLeft
Suicidal Tendencies SuicidalTendenciesFrontDiagonal
Tornado TornadoDiagonalRight
Wheely Big Cheese WBCdiagonal
Wild Thing WildThingMin
X-Terminator 2 X-Terminator 2 minibot left corner

House Robots[]

Minibot Image
Dead Metal DeadMetalDiagonal
Matilda MatildaSide
Refbot RefbotDiagonal
Sgt. Bash BashFront
Shunt ShuntLeft
Sir Killalot SirKillalotLeft

Packaging[]

The Minibots were sold in sets of three, two and occasionally five. Some Minibots were also included with the Minibot Arena, Smash 'N' Crash and Drop Zone sets.

Three-Packs[]

The original releases of the Minibots came in packs of three. The first wave, released in 2001, featured four sets and the second wave, released in 2002, featured three sets. The first wave were also re-released in updated packaging to coincide with the second wave sets. The design of the packaging was hexagonal shaped with a large cylindrical window displaying the minibots and a card at the top showcasing information including which minibots were in the set and the other releases on the back.

Two-Packs[]

In 2002, six two-packs were released, featuring minibots originally released in the first wave. These sets included one House Robot and one competitor robot. The packaging was relatively simple compared to the three-packs, it featured a blister glued onto a card back, similar to the packaging of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. The House Robot was always packaged facing side-on while the competitor robot was always packaged with its top facing upwards.

Five-Packs[]

Three sets of five were also released. These sets included a combination of both first and second wave releases and featured both House Robots and competitor robots. Unlike the previous packages which were small enough to hang on peg hooks, the five packs were much larger boxes.

Little Chef Promotion[]

The Chaos 2, Hypno-Disc, Razer and Sir Killalot Minibots were also offered individually by UK restaurant chain Little Chef as part of a promotion running between April 1st and the end of June 2003.[2] These were given away for free as part of a Robot Wars-themed kids meal, being supplied in a yellow and black plastic bag with a flyer and accessory.

The accessories included a ramp, a cone, a tyre, a barrel and a plate that resembled those used for the target tyres released with the Sgt. Bash pullback. All of these accessories were exclusive to the Little Chef promotion. Despite the blind bag appearance, the robot's name was always displayed beside the legal information.

Minibot Arena[]

Main article: Minibot Arena

Smash 'N' Crash Playset[]

Main article: Smash 'N' Crash Playset

References[]

Navigation[]

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