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"The Udale family must have a weird home life, dreaming up two cold steel chisel spikes for the cow's horns, the shell's steel plate. They're going to milk this for all it's worth, let's be honest!"
Jonathan Pearce introduces Robocow

Robocow was a competitor robot that competed exclusively in Series 3 of Robot Wars. It lost its only battle against General Carnage in the first round, and did not appear in any other series.

Team Tarantula would later fail to qualify for Series 4 with Son of Robocow, and enter the first series of Robot Wars Extreme and fail to qualify for Series 5 with The Spider.

Design[]

Robocow arena

Robocow in the arena

Robocow was a low box-shaped robot themed around a robotic cow, with a 3mm solid steel shell and armed with a pair of steel chisel 'horns' at the front. It also featured a wooden tail with a mop at the end, and was originally fitted with a head made by Carol Udale, the wife of team captain John, the design of which appeared to be a reference to the titular protagonist of Robocop. However, the head had to be removed before Robocow's first fight due to weight constrictions, similar to the circumstances that affected Cerberus in the next series.

Qualification[]

"At the auditions I think I was more excited than when I went to the actual event. When we got to the auditions we had to wait for at least one hour outside and made some good friends with other roboteers especially SumpThing. Eventually we were asked to go in and a man took us round the back of the building and through a big door. We had to use a trolley to get robocow inside. First we signed in, then we gave the transmitters to a lady at a desk and then had a break. Later when we did the trial run the robot had problems but we got some advice from the RobotWars people and Robocow was photographed and filmed."
— Robert Udale describes the auditions on the Robocow website
SonOfRobocow

Concept art for Son of Robocow

Robocow attended the Series 3 auditions, and despite some difficulties whilst doing the obstacle course, it was selected to compete.

For Series 4, the team built an improved robot called Son of Robocow, but this version failed to qualify for currently unknown reasons.

The Team[]

"Her husband decided to build a robot after constant pressure from son Robert. "He kept pestering John, who finally relented," she said. "Our neighbor John, a retired electrical engineer, helped enormously. When they finished cutting all the parts out of steel and assembling all the cogs and pulleys, I decided to add a cow's head and that's how Robocow was born""
— Carol Udale, interviewed in the Flint and Holywell Chronicle[1]
Headrobocow

Robocow with its head and team

Robocow was built by a team which would later become known as Team Tarantula, based in Mold, Wales. The captain of the team was John Udale, who was joined by his young son and daughter Robert and Jenny Udale at filming. John Udale built the robot with help from his neighbour, John Davies. The team also received assistance in decorating the robot from Carol Udale, wife of John and mother of Robert and Jenny. After not qualifying for Series 4 with Son of Robocow, Team Tarantula would later return for Extreme with The Spider.

Robot History[]

Series 3[]

"...Robocow. Oh, dad. You've lost your head completely."
— Jonathan Pearce before Activate is called in Robocow's battle against General Carnage
General carnage vs robocow

General Carnage lifts Robocow

General Carnage vs Robocow

Robocow is lifted against the angle grinder by General Carnage

Robocow started rather slowly in its battle against General Carnage, the successor to Prometheus. On the initial move it bounced off the opponent's lifting claw, and then almost drove down the pit, but managed to steer away.

"Oh, dairy, dairy me..."
— Another of Jonathan Pearce's puns, this one on Robocow's poor performance
Matilda vs sgtbash vs robocow

Sgt. Bash grabs hold of Robocow while Matilda breaks the tail and gets stuck on Bash

Robocow House Robots

The House Robots swarm around the overturned Robocow

General Carnage then came in behind Robocow which appeared temporarily static, and got its lifting arm and claw under Robocow and managed to lift Robocow up and drag it across the arena floor. After getting stuck on an arena spike, Robocow was pushed towards Matilda, who used her chainsaw on the top armour, after which Robocow seemed to have stopped moving for some time. General Carnage then grappled one of Robocow's spikes, lifted the robot near to an arena wall angle grinder, creating a shower of sparks and finally released. Robocow did manage to move across the arena floor, but very sluggishly. It attempted to spear General Carnage, but it hit broadside on and deflected away. Eventually Robocow was pushed near a CPZ, where it got pinched by Sergeant Bash, lost its tail by a mighty surge from Matilda, and Sir Killalot flipped it over. Shunt then spent the remainder of the battle causing damage to Robocow's exposed machinery before cease was called.

"Robots do not have the milk of human kindness. Udder destruction."
— Craig Charles makes a pun after the battle, which was booed by the audience

Results[]

ROBOCOW - RESULTS
Series 3
The Third Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 1
Heat B, Round 1 vs. General Carnage Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 0
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Main Series Robocow Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Heat, Round 1
The Fourth Wars Failed to qualify with Son of Robocow
The Fifth Wars Failed to qualify with The Spider
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter
Robot Wars Extreme Appearances
Series 1 Entered with The Spider
Series 2 Did not enter

Trivia[]

Robocow s3 official

Official Series 3 photo

  • Robocow's statistics board in its heat featured two errors; it claimed Robocow was 6.6 meters wide and the Notes section read "Has a wagging wooden tale", when tail would be the correct spelling.

References[]

External Links[]

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