Pullbacks

Pullback, Friction & Ripcord Toys
A range of the pullback, friction & ripcord toys
Information/Statistics
Power	Pullback motor Friction motor Ripcord and cog motor
Year of Release	2000-2003

The Pullbacks also known as Pullback, Friction & Ripcord toys were small plastic replicas of competitor robots and the House Robots which ran from Series 3 to 6 and Extreme 2. These toy models are smaller than the Pitstop Kits and Remote Controlled Toys and larger than the minibots.

Overview

These toys had moving weapons and, in most cases, a pullback motor, meaning they would move forward on their own once pulled back along the ground. When first released, the pullback, friction and ripcord toys were usually priced at £10 apiece and always came with small accessories, usually tied into the Gauntlet and Trial rounds seen in Series 1, 2, 3 and 4. For example, obstacles from the Pinball arena and Football tournament (but not the Sumo ring) were included.

Some of the toys are quite fragile, and common damage includes Sergeant Bash's flamethrower breaking apart for moving up and down, Sir Killalot's hydraulic cutters and Razer's beak both refusing to stay open, Razer's self-righting wings, Chaos 2's side rivets, Firestorm's aerials and Refbot's fire extinguisher all being lost, Pussycat's blade being overwound when the warning tells against forcing to do so, Chaos 2's flipper button, Panic Attack's red light lever, Firestorm's pattern and flipper button and Wheely Big Cheese's flipper button all having paint worn away, X-Terminator 2's axe being bent and having paint worn away too, Wheely Big Cheese's flipper losing its hinges and Chaos 2's flipper refusing to retract. The weapons were activated in many different ways, such as pressing a button to activate a flipper, or by simply running a robot's front wheels along the ground to utilise a spinning disc. The Firestorm and Wheely Big Cheese pullbacks were notorious for having two small front wheels which were not present in real life, thus decreasing the effectiveness the weapons had.

The toys as presented from the official advert

Two robots did not have pullback motors: Stinger, activated using a ripcord, and Sir Killalot, which used a friction motor.

The first wave of House Robot pullbacks (and the single competitor released in this wave, Hypno-Disc) came with interchangeable parts, such as Hypno-Disc's spiked and flat rear armour and Matilda's chainsaw and flywheel. Parts which were not on the actual robots were sometimes also included, such as an optional hammer with Sir Killalot to replace the lance, and a rear drill for Sergeant Bash. Later waves of the pullback toys included interchangeable parts less often, though some exceptions include the self-righting hoop which came with X-Terminator 2 as part of the Gauntlet set, as well as Tornado's curved scoop as an interchangeable weapon.

Competitor Robots

How the pullbacks were created

Pullback	Image	Accessories
Chaos 2		Road cones and balls
Dantomkia		Spiked blocks and spiked mine block
Firestorm		Dual flamethrowers
Hypno-Disc		Grey breeze block wall
Panic Attack		Football and Goal
Pussycat		Swinging power hammer
Razer		Ramp and Yellow Barrels
Stinger		Tricks ramp and launcher
Tornado		Floor spinner and Feeding scoop
Wheely Big Cheese		Small tower of girders
X-Terminator 2		None - packaged with the Gauntlet

House Robots

The pullback house robots with their accessories

Pullback	Image	Accessories
Dead Metal		Silver barrels
Growler		Girders and 5 point balls
Matilda		Car door swing gate
Mr. Psycho		Black breeze block wall and orange barrels
Refbot		Battleboard
Sergeant Bash		Tyre targets and points stickers
Shunt		Multiball release
Sir Killalot		Seesaw and sphere

Two-Packs

Pullbacks	Image	Accessories
Razer and Stinger		Ramp, road cones, balls and battleboard
Sir Killalot and Hypno-Disc		Barrels, multiball release, seesaw and sphere
Shunt and Panic Attack		Seesaw and sphere, barrels and breeze block wall
Sir Killalot and Chaos 2		Ramp, road cones, balls and yellow barrels
Dead Metal and Shunt		Seesaw and sphere, breeze block wall, car door swing gate and multiball release
Refbot and Stinger		Battleboard, tricks ramp, road cones, balls and yellow barrels
Pussycat and Refbot		Swinging power hammer, yellow barrels, football and goal
Razer and Sir Killalot		Multiball release, ramp, road cones, balls and yellow barrels
Chaos 2 and Razer		The First World Championship VHS tape and two replica trophies - Toys "R" Us exclusive

Trivia

• A toy arena for the Pullbacks was considered, but ultimately the idea was rejected because it would have been too big to make
  • Issue 15 of the original Robot Wars Magazine gave instructions on how to build an arena for the Pullbacks using cardboard boxes.
• According to Anthony Pritchard, a Behemoth pullback toy was planned for release during the original series' run. Although Team Make Robotics were informed about the planned toy, no prototypes of it were made before Robot Wars entered its hiatus.
• According to Gary Cairns, Typhoon 2 was measured in the pits in preparation for a pullback toy release. However, Robot Wars entered its hiatus before the toy could even be produced.