Robot Wars Club

Robot Wars Club

"In order to submit an entry to Robot Wars, you must first become a member of the Club. If your robot is selected, your club membership fee will be refunded. Members of the Robot Wars Club will receive a badge, membership card, club magazine, preview video, exclusive merchandise offers and advance details of filming Robot Wars."

— Official Robot Wars website on the Robot Wars Club

The Robot Wars Club was a membership club which ran throughout the original series of Robot Wars. Membership was open to both fans and roboteers competing on the show, and was a requirement to participate in official Robot Wars events until Series 8.

Throughout its years of activity, the Club proved highly successful; by March 1999, it already had over 7,500 UK members. By 2000, there were 40,000 members.

Precursor

1995 International Robot Warriors Association tag; the IRWA featured a similar membership model and perks to the UK Robot Wars Club

The membership model adopted by the Robot Wars Club was similar to that of the American International Robot Warriors Association (IRWA), active between the 1994 and 1997 US events. As with its UK equivalent, membership was required in order to take part in these live competitions, with additional perks including preferential ticketing and a '10% discount on all merchandise'. Membership cost $20, or $30 with a promotional highlights video of the 1995 event, also available to purchase separately from the US Robot Wars website.

The Club

"Building robots is dangerous and shouldn't be attempted without great care. To receive our safety guidelines, you must first join the Robot Wars Club. Send a £10 cheque or postal order to: Robot Wars, London, W1A 3AR. Members will also receive a badge, video and Club magazine. If you build a qualifying robot, your money will be refunded. For more information, call our hotline."

— Typical Robot Wars Club announcement, spoken by Jonathan Pearce at the end of Series 1-2 episodes

Joining the club

Joining the Robot Wars Club was a straightforward process, which could be done by sending a cheque/postal order to the mail address provided on the official website or advertisements shown at the end of every original UK Series episode. The latter were also present in the spin-off series Robot Wars Revealed, as well as the end of home media releases such as The First Great War and the Ultimate Warrior/Archive Collection. Depending on the media, the Club promo announcements would be typically voiced over by Jonathan Pearce (main UK episodes, Ultimate Warrior/Archive Collection), Philippa Forrester (Robot Wars Revealed) or Craig Charles (The First Great War and The Constructor's Guide).

Membership was required to be renewed on an annual basis; during later years, this could be done via phone, the Robot Wars website, or by completing the 'Special Club Order Form' found at the back of certain volumes of the supplied newsletter. A separate 'Information Hotline' phone number was also available for queries concerning participation in televised events as competitors and/or audience members.

At first, the cost of membership was £10, but this increased slightly over time; to £12 by the time of Series 3, £12.95 by Series 4, and £14.95 by Series 7.

Club membership pack

Upon joining, new members would receive a membership pack containing various items such as a video, club card, badge and a quarterly newsletter, which occasionally took the form of a small magazine akin to the Robot Wars Magazine. A small catalogue was also included detailing official merchandise available at the time.

Wild Ideas Lab section on "Legion", a three-part clusterbot concept by Rob Englebright

The newsletter often contained information concerning emerging developments from within the show and the wider robotics scene (including charity/live events), along with interviews, featurettes, competitions and an order form for membership renewals and official merchandise. One competition, running between Volumes 3 (2002) and 4 (2003), involved the creation of a two-page comic strip (Refbot v Destructabots) as the conclusion to a short story involving the House Robots. A recurring feature in later issues was the Wild Ideas Lab, showcasing concept artwork and specifications for imaginary competitor robots created by Rob Englebright.

The exact contents of the membership pack varied over the course of the Club's run. For example, the exclusive video initially was American Robot Wars Final 1996, an 8-minute preview of the full-length American Robot Wars 1996 VHS release that could be purchased by club members. By 2000 this had been replaced with Robot Wars: A History of the Third Wars, an 18-minute video featuring highlights of Series 3.

Some versions of the pack included an application form for Series 5 and a listing of the original Series 4 seeds. The build rules, application form and original seedings for Series 7 were also included in Volume 4 of the 2003 newsletter, in Issues 2 and 3 respectively.

Membership benefits

Joining the Robot Wars Club gave members various benefits which changed over time. Generally though these were:

• Exclusive forums and website content not available to the public.
• Discounts on official Robot Wars merchandise.
• Quarterly club newsletter (see above).
• Free subscriptions to both editions of the Robot Wars Magazine were also available to members at various times.

Members could also easily obtain copies of the official Rules and Regulations, technical sheets and other important documents. These were either available as seperate documents or, in the case of the Series 7 rules and application form, written articles within the newsletter.

Roboteers who successfully qualified for televised competitions would have their membership fees automatically refunded.

In one of the first issues following the conclusion of The Third Wars, a members-only offer was listed, which was a survey to fill out to win a chance to have lunch with Craig Charles on the set of Robot Wars.

Robot-Tool

The exclusive Robot-Tool

The Robot-Tool's collector tin

During the early days of the Club, an exclusive item was offered to members called the 'Robot-Tool'. Designed by William Profit, the tool was crafted from silver steel with a blue plastic centrepiece with the Robot Wars logo and featured multiple ends similar to those of an allen key and screwdriver bits. These included allen keys ranging from 3mm to 6mm, two posidrive heads, a socket and a flat head screwdriver extension. A chain was attached to the tool, allowing it to be worn around people's necks and it came in its own collector tin. Members could obtain the Robot-Tool by filling out the order form included with their quarterly newsletters at a price of £12.95. However, members could also receive the Robot-Tool for free upon renewing their membership when it was due to expire. The Robot-Tool was originally exclusive to Club members only until 2001 when it was added for purchase on the Robot Wars Online Shop at a slightly increased cost of £19.95 plus postage.

Demise

With Robot Wars moving from BBC Two to Five for The Seventh Wars, the Robot Wars Club was disbanded in early 2004, which also coincided with the closure of the Robot Wars Store and the show's entry into hiatus during the same year. Though no new memberships would be accepted from that point on, the newsletter would still be issued to existing members until their membership expired.

Club Newsletters

Original Club Magazine (1998)

Front Cover

Pages 1-2

Pages 3-4

Pages 5-6

Back Cover

Volume 1, Issue 1 (February 2000)

Front Cover

Pages 1-2

Back Cover

Volume 1, Issue 2 (June 2000)

Front Cover

Pages 1-2

Back Cover

Volume 1, Issue 3 (September 2000)

Front Cover

Pages 1-2

Pages 3-4

Back Cover

Gallery

An example of a Robot Wars Club membership pack

A welcome letter received upon joining the Club

The first Robot Wars Club newsletter

Various newsletters from the Club, the top row is of the earlier issues while the bottom is of later issues

More Club newsletters

Club technical sheets

A listing of the original Series 4 seeds

Series 5 newsletters

An application form for Series 5

A Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem promotional leaflet included with some newsletters

Club membership card

The club membership card, pin badge and Robot-Tool

A merchandise sale from February 2000.

The initial letter members received when first joining the club.

A merchandise order form from the club.

A club letter from January 2000.

A club letter from September 2000, shortly after the filming of the Fourth Wars.

A booking form for audience tickets for the Robot Mayhem live event.

An order form envelope from the club.

A selection of leaflets promoting merchandise available from the club store.

Trivia

The Extreme 1 Challenge Belt, featuring two of the collectible 'Robot-Tools'

• John Reid's Club membership number was 1341.
• In the sheet listing for The Fourth Wars Seeds included with some of the Club membership packs, Marlon Pritchard of X-Terminator was erroneously referred to as 'David James'.
• Though present during the original UK broadcasts, Robot Wars Club promos were typically omitted from repeats aired by Dave, Challenge and H2 throughout the 2010s, with the Club and associated contact addresses no longer being active.

• On Mech+, the latter practice was initially reversed for most episodes, which had Club advertisements and corresponding safety disclaimers (both spoken by Jonathan Pearce) restored. Others featured alternative information cards with disclaimers and/or the official Robot Wars web address, similar to those adopted by international versions such as the US and Nickelodeon series. A notable example of this applies to announcements for remastered Series 2 episodes, which feature the later Series 3-4 logo animation and an alternative voiceover promoting the official website. Some episode masters available on Mech+ feature no voiceovers from Pearce at all, unlike the original televised broadcasts.

• Some international broadcasts, including those by TV6 in Sweden, included the Robot Wars Club promos at the end,[1] though it is unclear exactly where outside of the United Kingdom the club could be joined from.
• Tom Gutteridge was a member of the Club and his membership number was 000001.
• Two 'Robot-Tools' were later incorporated into the design of the first iteration of the Challenge Belt, as won by Behemoth and later Tornado in Extreme Series 1.
• Anthony Pritchard of Team Make Robotics was the lead editor for the monthly Club newsletters, starting with the Volume 1 Issue 3 newsletter.