Reinstated Robots

Occasionally throughout Robot Wars, the winners of a battle were unable or unwilling to proceed. In these cases, the robot they defeated would be Reinstated. The reasons for robots being reinstated varied. The first instance was after the Heat Final of Heat D in Series 3, where Ultor handed their victory over to Big Brother.

Another way to be reinstated was to win a Losers Melee. These battles were introduced in the Semi-Finals of Series 5. The reduction of Heats from 16 to 12 meant there were now six robots in each Semi-Final. After the three one-on-one battles in Round 1 of the Semi-Finals, the losers of the battles would go into a melee, with the winner being reinstated and going through to the second round of the Semi-Finals, giving them the chance to reach the Grand Final. This format was kept in Series 6, but was stopped in Series 7 when the number of Heats went back to 16.

Losers Melees were also used in the first series of the Dutch Robot Wars, because there were six robots in each Heat. Round 1 consisted of three one-on-one battles, with the losers of the three battles going into the Losers Melee, and the winner of that battle being reinstated and going through to Round 2. In the second series, the number of robots in each Heat was increased to eight, so Losers Melees were no longer used.

Also, in each Series of the Dutch Robot Wars, the Jury would pick robots that had been eliminated in the Heats to be reinstated and go through to the Grand Final. These were referred to as Wild Cards. Originally, only one lucky robot was given a Wild Card, but this was increased to three in the Second Series

Note: Reinstated Robots should not be confused with Substitute Robots. Substitute Robots are robots that were not originally intended to be in a tournament, and were only brought in when a competitor in that event had to pull out. Reinstated Robots were already part of a tournament, fought at least one battle before being knocked out, but were given a second chance.

List of Reinstated Robots

UK Series

Name of Reinstated Robot	Robot it replaced	Notes
Big Brother	Ultor	Ultor originally won the Series 3 Heat D Final on a judge’s decision, but the team believed the judge’s decision was wrong, so handed victory over to Big Brother, allowing them to reach the Semi-Finals.
Scutter's Revenge	Pussycat	Pussycat immobilised Scutter’s Revenge to win the Series 3 Heat M Final, but Pussycat was disqualified for using a hardened steel blade that shattered, putting Scutter’s Revenge through in their place
The Morgue	Scar	The Morgue was knocked out in Round 1 of Heat C in Series 4, but Scar was forced to retire due to unfixable technical difficulties, so The Morgue was reinstated.
Spirit of Knightmare	Bulldog Breed	Bulldog Breed won its Mayhem qualifier against Spirit of Knightmare and Judge Shred 2 ½ to qualify for the second Annihilator in Extreme 1, but damage from Hypno-Disc during the concurrently-filmed Series 5 forced Bulldog Breed to drop out. Despite being eliminated before Judge Shred 2 ½, Spirit of Knightmare was reinstated for the second Annihilator.
Fighting Torque	Atomic	As with Bulldog Breed, Atomic won its Mayhem qualifier against Mousetrap and Fighting Torque to qualify for the second Annihilator in Extreme 1, but damage from Hypno-Disc during the concurrently-filmed Series 5 forced Atomic to drop out. Mousetrap was also unable to compete due to damage from S3, so Fighting Torque was reinstated.
Rick	Suicidal Tendencies	Suicidal Tendencies defeated Rick in Round 1 of Heat K in Series 5, but broke down before the second round and could not be fixed, so Rick was reinstated.
Tornado	Razer	Razer reached the final of the European Championship in Extreme 2 after defeating Tornado on a judges decision, but Simon Scott and Vinnie Blood felt that they had been immobilised for over thirty seconds, and so handed victory over to Tornado.

Dutch Series

Wild Card	Series	Notes
Lizzard	Series 1	Lizzard originally lost the Heat A Final to Bamm Bamm, but was given the sole Wild Card to reach the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, Lizzard took its revenge on Bamm Bamm, before finishing as runner-up.
Meshuggah	Series 2	Lost to Lizzard in Round 2 of Heat A, but was reinstated to reach the Grand Final.
Twister	Series 2	Knocked out by Philliper 2 in Heat B Final, before being given a Wild Card.
Bamm Bamm	Series 2	Lost in Heat C Round 1 to Flepser, but due to its status as a previous Grand Finalist, was given the third Wild Card.

Losers Melees

UK Series

Episode	Robots in Melee	Winner	Notes
Series 5, Semi-Final 1	Wild Thing, Spawn Again, S3	S3
Series 5, Semi-Final 2	Panic Attack, Firestorm 3, Wheely Big Cheese	Firestorm 3	Firestorm 3 was the only robot to reach the Grand Final after winning the Losers Melee in the UK series.
Series 6, Semi-Final 1	Wild Thing, Dantomkia, 13 Black	Dantomkia
Series 6, Semi-Final 2	Bigger Brother, Hypno-Disc, Spawn Again	Bigger Brother

Dutch Series

Episode	Robots in Melee	Winner	Notes
Heat A	Lethal Swan, Lizzard, Rat	Lizzard
Heat B	Pyramid of Chaos, Scraptosaur, RCC	Scraptosaur	RCC was forced to withdraw before the battle due to electrical problems.
Heat C	Maximum Torque, Pika 2, Meshuggah	Pika 2	Meshuggah was forced to withdraw before the battle due to technical issues. Pika 2 went on to reach the Heat Final, making it the "Belgian Champion", as the best performing Belgian robot in Dutch Series 1
Heat D	Enderbot, Flextreme, Project One	Enderbot	Enderbot lost in Round 1 to Slicer, and after winning the Losers Melee, it went on to reach the Heat Final, where it lost to Slicer.
Heat E	Shapeshifter, Maximill, NEAT Machine	NEAT Machine