Robot Wars: A History of the Third Wars (also simply titled History of the Third Wars) was a VHS video release which was obtained exclusively as part of the Robot Wars Club membership pack from 2000 until at least 2003. Featuring a runtime of approximately 18 minutes, it showed very brief highlights of Robot Wars: The Third Wars, presented as an expanded version of the series recap featured at the start of the Grand Final episode.
Voiceovers for the main video were provided by Jonathan Pearce; the introduction, Roll of Honour and monologue for the Heat and Semi-Final highlights all being mostly identical to those from his aforementioned recap.
A digitally-restored HD version of History of the Third Wars was livestreamed on 20 May 2022 by Mech+, marking the first time that the previously Club-exclusive compilation was officially available for public viewing.[1]
Highlights[]
Each set of highlights focused on up to three competitors from their respective episodes. As with the Third Wars Grand Final, Heats were labelled under a numerical-based naming system as opposed to the letter-based system used elsewhere throughout the series.
A major difference over the Grand Final series recap was the inclusion of additional interviews and presenter segments featuring Craig Charles and Philippa Forrester, all taken from the main Third Wars competition. Among those was Ultor's concedement of victory in the Heat D final, the only interview to also be shown in the Grand Final.
Robots prominently featured throughout the course of the video included:
- Heat 1: Mace 2
- Heat 2: Behemoth and Pitbull
- Heat 3: Razer and Blade
- Heat 4: Sir Chromalot and Big Brother
- Heat 5: Chaos 2
- Heat 6: Mortis and Gravedigger
- Heat 7: Napalm and Steg-O-Saw-Us
- Heat 8: Hypno-Disc
- Heat 9: Beast of Bodmin
- Heat 10: 101
- Heat 11: Panic Attack and Toecutter
- Heat 12: Panzer and Evil Weevil
- Heat 13: Cassius 2 and Scutter's Revenge
- Heat 14: Killerhurtz, Cerberus and Thing 2
- Heat 15: Diotoir, Facet and Fire Storm
- Heat 16: Dreadnaut and Trident
- Semi-Final 1: Chaos 2 and Fire Storm
- Semi-Final 2: Hypno-Disc and Steg-O-Saw-Us
In addition to the above episodes, brief highlights were also provided for the Grand Final episode itself, complete with extracts of in-battle commentary from Jonathan Pearce. For the Eliminators, these focused on the pioneering out-of-the-arena flip by Chaos 2 on Fire Storm, and the damaging blows dealt by Hypno-Disc to Steg-O-Saw-Us. Highlights for the Grand Final fight lasted from the moment Chaos 2 stopped Hypno-Disc's flywheel, to its championship-winning flip on the latter.
Trivia[]
Club VHS cassette of History of the Third Wars
Cassette with a different label
- Two versions of History of the Third Wars are known to have been produced and initially distributed to Club members only:
- The original version featured a 'short break' between the highlights of Heats 8 (H) and 9 (I), promoting a variety of official Robot Wars merchandise available to order at discounted prices. Items offered included branded clothing, the Robot Wars Technical Manual, House Robot posters, keyrings, badges, the First Great War and First World Championship video releases, as well as an exclusive reduced annual subscription to the original Robot Wars Magazine. This, plus the end-of-programme disclaimer advising members on ordering details, were both voiced by an uncredited female voice artist.[2][3]
- The second version, as publicly released by Mech+, only featured a single promotion for the First World Championship VHS release at the start (announced by Jonathan Pearce), though the end disclaimer and transition animations for the 'break' are left intact from the first version. An additional outro montage also featured between the Grand Final sign-offs and end disclaimer, featuring clips from the Third and Fourth Wars, as well as music and a transition animation used from Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1 to The Seventh Wars.
- The introduction to the video was also largely recycled from the Grand Final episode, showing the footage seen just before the Series 3 Awards were shown. The Roll of Honour was carried over as well with spelling errors largely intact.
- As a result of the editing process for the Grand Final highlights, an additional error is present during highlights of Chaos 2 vs Fire Storm. Compared to the televised episode, Jonathan Pearce's reaction to Chaos 2's out-of-the-arena flip can be heard as it flips Fire Storm onto its back, several seconds before the historic attack is shown.
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