Neutron is a heavyweight robot owned by Team Nebula, which attempted to enter Series 9 of Robot Wars, but was not selected to compete. It was a rebranded version of Tanto, originally built by Team Danby and loaned to Team Immersion to compete in the pilot episode of Series 8.
Design
Neutron under its guise as Tanto
Neutron is a highly compact robot, driven by two large wheels, exposed at each side, which allow Neutron to run inverted. Neutron features two pronged wedges, to lead robots into its primary weapon, a 300mm diameter, 25mm thick HARDOX disc, spinning vertically with a single tooth. The robot's small size allowed it to use thick, dense HARDOX armour, and holes are cut out of its frame to conserve weight. Neutron is remarkably quick at 24mph, although its wheels were highly exposed.
Neutron was intended to sport a galaxy theme across its surface to visually differentiate it from Tanto, but ultimately the aesthetics were never completed.
Qualification
Tanto, Series 8 pilot competitor
Although the Neutron brand had not been developed at this stage, the core robot applied for Series 8 of Robot Wars under the name Tanto, and while it was not selected to compete in the main competition, it fought in the pilot episode, where it was eliminated in battle with Basher, Ka-Pow! and Turbulence. Although Neutron's team members Jack Tweedy and Craig Croucher were present on Team Tanto, the robot was captained by Adam Hamilton, also featuring fellow member of Team Immersion, Matthew Pearman.
As the Tanto name was first used by Team Danby, the original creators of the machine, the newly formed Team Nebula decided to rebrand the robot upon purchasing it from the Danby brothers. After reaching out to the Unofficial Robot Wars Facebook group, asking for suggestions of astronomical names, Neutron was selected as the robot's new identity. Using this new name, Team Nebula applied to compete in Series 9 of Robot Wars with Neutron, but were not selected to compete.
Team Nebula would not attempt to enter Series 10 with Neutron, with Jack Tweedy instead joining Team Danby to compete with Apex, while Craig Croucher allied with Dave Lawrie to apply with Jellyfish and Ice Cream, although this also was not selected to compete.
Series Record
| Series | Neutron Series Record |
|---|---|
| Series 1-7 | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Pilot only as Tanto |
| Series 9 | Not selected |
| Series 10 | Entered with Apex (Jack Tweedy) Not selected with Jellyfish and Ice Cream (Craig Croucher) |
- NOTE 1: In its prior guise as Tanto, Neutron was built by Team Danby. For their qualification record, see the Team Danby article.
- NOTE 2: In Tanto's appearance at the Series 8 Pilot, shortly before its rebrand into Neutron, its team was captained by Adam Hamilton, who competed in Series 10 with Vulture.
Outside Robot Wars
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Although Neutron never competed at a live event, it had a prior history under its previous identity, Tanto. For more information, see the Tanto article.
Jack Tweedy entered the robotics scene primarily as a beetleweight competitor, competing with a variety of robots:
- Hyperion - A two-wheel driven beetleweight with a broad wedge, and a vertical spinning disc. Inspired by the US competitor Riptoff, and debuted at the 2015 FRA Beetleweight Championships.
- Noxa - An invertible beetleweight constructed from HDPE, armed with a drum spinner.
- Ash 2 - A beetleweight armed with a 2mm Grade 5 titanium wedge, and a 20m HARDOX disc, spinning at 8000rpm.
- Phobos - An invertible beetleweight armed with a horizontal spinning disc, having originally been designed to feature a vertical disc.
- Tempus - A beetleweight armed with a large disc, spinning vertically. Achieved third place at UWE Bot Brawl 2018.
- Dr Bees - An invertible beetleweight armed with an asymmetrical bar spinner.
- Terminus - A beetleweight horizontal spinner built by another roboteer. See 'Tactical Nuclear Penguin' below.
- Bulwark - An invertible two-wheel driven featherweight wedge.
Jack Tweedy also designed Team Smushed Banana's featherweight Furious George, and competes as a member of the team.
Craig Croucher is the captain of Snappy Robotics. His robots include:
- Mr Snappy - A two-wheel driven invertible beetleweight built in 2014, armed with a lifter while being designed for pushing. Winner of the UK Beetleweight Championship Annihilator in 2015.
- Mr Snappy 2 - An updated version of the same design, retired in 2016. Won the Annihilator at the 2015 UM Beetleweight Championships
- Snappy - Croucher's currently active rendition of Snappy, which briefly operated with a gripping weapon before returning to a design similar to Mr Snappy, now four-wheel drive. Reached the Grand Final in Bugglebots by qualifying through the five-way rumble and finished in fourth place.
- Mr Cat's Mouse House - A two-wheel driven beetleweight, equipped with a plastic bowl, designed to trap robots in a fashion similar to Tentoumushi. Achieved fourth place at the UWE Bot Brawl 2018.
- Snappucino - An antweight made from a kit sold by Alex Shakespeare, armed with a lifting panel.
- Mr Cat's Mouse Flat - An antweight version of Mr Cat's Mouse House, with the same type of weapon.
- Mr Cat's Mouse Mansion - A featherweight based upon its beetleweight counterpart, using a laundry basket as the trap.
- Tactical Nuclear Penguin - A beetleweight armed with a horizontal bar spinner. Originally built by another roboteer, before being donated to Craig Croucher by Jack Tweedy for the intention of destroying it in battle, which occurred in 2016 at Robots Live! in Reading.
- Mini Snappo - A retired antweight with a wedge flipper.
Alongside Dave Lawrie and Sam Elliott, Craig Croucher competes on the heavyweight live circuit with Two-Headed Death Flamingo, which also attempted to enter BattleBots in 2018. For more information, see Team Nuts.
In 2018, Team Nebula qualified for the first season of BattleBots to be aired on the Science Channel and Discovery Channel. Jack Tweedy, alongside teammate Roderick Lamb, competed with Vanquish, a four-wheel driven heavyweight armed with a rear-hinged lifting wedge, and front-hinged lifting arms atop the machine, which first debuted at the Maidstone Extreme Robots event in November 2017. Craig Croucher was not present on Team Neutron in BattleBots due to his earlier application with Two-Headed Death Flamingo. In its first battle, Vanquish suffered a destructive loss to ICEwave, where Vanquish was split apart into near-equally sized halves by the horizontal spinner. Vanquish concluded its run in the main competition immediately, and was absent for almost the remainder of the season, but with assistance from Tim Rackley, Vanquish returned to the arena in the USA vs The World special, where Vanquish represented the United Kingdom. Against the American representative Captain Shrederator, Vanquish was able to charge its opponent around the arena until a strong hit from the American spinner ripped a wheel away from Vanquish, and disabled the machine.
The joint team of Jack Tweedy and Tim Rackley entered BattleBots in 2019 with a new robot, Ragnarök, armed with an electric axe weapon and defensive plough. In its first battle, it faced Tim Rackley's entry to the previous season, Monsoon, from the Tauron team. However, the receiver for its weapon broke on one of the opening impacts, and Ragnarök was left unable to self-right after being thrown over by Monsoon, losing by knockout. It returned for a battle against Valkyrie, but an airborne hit from the horizontal spinner of Valkyrie immobilised Ragnarök in a single hit. With two back-to-back losses, Ragnarök entered the Desperado bracket in an effort to salvage its campaign, but despite holding off WAR Hawk for a while, Ragnarök was immobilised and knocked out of the Desperado tournament. The final fight of the season from Ragnarök was a battle with Mad-Catter, although the winner has not been publicly revealed.
Trivia
- Jack Tweedy is one of the few roboteers based on the Isle of Sheppey, joined only by Team Demon (Kliptonite and Diabolus) and the team behind Major Tom.
External Links
- Team Nebula Facebook page
- Snappy Robots website
- Snappy Robots - UK Combat Robot Team Facebook page
- Jack Tweedy's beetleweight build diary