Robot Wars Magazine/Issue 8

"There are some real tough nuts in this month's RWM who even I have to respect."

— "Editor" Dead Metal, Page 3

Issue 8 of Robot Wars Magazine, cover dated December 2000, was released on 22 November 2000.

Features[]

Heat Report: Storm Pooper Another Heat Report from Series 4, covering Heat C.
Ultimate Robots: Invincible! - A drawing of "The Red Baron", a fictional robot made with all the best parts from the other House Robots; Sgt. Bash's body and flamethrower, Sir Killalot's claw and tracks, Dead Metal's saw and head, Matilda's chainsaw and Shunt's plough on the rear.
Ultimate Robots: Unstoppable! - The ultimate competitor robot, "Chrazedortic", a fictional robot made with all the best parts from competitor Robots; Chaos 2's flipper, Weld-Dor's axe, Razer's crusher, Panic Attack's armour, Mortis' lifting arm and 101's tracks. Also features "probably the worst robot ever" - "Disastertron", a robot made from the body of Destruct-A-Bubble, the mandibles of Scorpion, the armour of The Creature, the head of Banshee and the wheels of Wheelosaurus.
How to kill Sgt Bash - An article listing potential ways to defeat Sergeant Bash.
Robot Wars Club News - News for club members, giving a glimpse of the production of the pullbacks. This issue did not include the usual information on how to join with form, because the section took up only half a page, an advert for FBX magazine taking up the top half of the page.
Classic Clash: Flipped Out - A summary of the final battle of The Second Wars, where Panic Attack pulled off a famous shock victory against Cassius, with photo highlights.
Team Sheet: Dino-Damage - The second of a feature listing the statistics of competitors from Series 4. In this issue, the robots were Steg 2, The Creature and Mortis.
Heat Report: Ready, Steggy, Go! - Another Heat Report from Series 4, covering Heat D.
How To Draw: Razer - The second of a series showing an easy way to draw Robot Wars competitors, this time Razer.
A to Z of Contestant Robots - No longer included with the Robot Wars Club News, the robots were "V is for Vercingetorix", "W is for Wheelosaurus" and "X is for X-Terminator".
Subscribe Today! - The usual deal was offered to readers who subscribed - 12 issues for the price of 11.
Letters - Letters from fans, also featuring Dr Zulu's Robot Hospital, System Check and a preview of the next issue.

Comic[]

Grudge Match: Plunderbird vs Sir Chromalot - A fight between "two teams with attitude". Sir Chromalot started well, drilling into Plunderbird's side. However, Plunderbird fought back, crushing into Sir Chromalot with their claw, succeeding in knocking it over. Plunderbird pushed the overturned Sir Chromalot towards the pit, and looked certain to win the battle. However, with Sir Chromalot right by the pit, the Plunderbird team made the mistake of reversing to take a "run-up". This gave Sir Chromalot an opportunity to use its srimech to dodge Plunderbird, and Plunderbird drove straight into the pit.

Competition[]

Let Battle Commence IF YOU DARE! - A competition for the latest Robot Wars toys, with 8 Remote Control Matildas or Remote Control Shunts being available to win. 40 runners-up would receive pullbacks. The question was "Which famous Red Dwarf star presents Robot Wars?", to which the answer was Craig Charles.

Posters[]

Chaos 2 (2 pages)
Craig & The Robots (1 page)
Cease! (1 page)

Free Gifts[]

Magazinecards — The cards included with the magazine

40 Robot Wars fact cards were included in the style of Top Trumps packs. A selection of robots from Series 2, 3 and 4 were included, alongside the House Robots. Each card contained the robots name, a photo of it, a one line description of the robot and 6 valued attributes.

Attributes include:

Height - listing the height of the robot in centimetres (cm)
Weight - listing the weight of the robot in kilograms (kg)
Speed - listing the top speed of the robot in Kilometres per hour (kph)
Reliability - Scoring the robot's reliability record as a number out of 100
Armour - Scoring the robot's armour strength as a number out of 100. This was followed by a small description of the type of armour used.
Weapons - Scoring the robot's weapons as a number out of 100. This was followed by a description of the weapons each robot used.

Robots Included[]

101 - Striped, tracked terror that cost pennies
Atomic - Built like a massive Meccano model
Behemoth - Big, bad and pushy contender
Bigger Brother - Improved version of Big Brother
Cassius 2 - The legendary first srimech robot
Centurion - This Roman soldier always attacks
Cerberus - Big, heavy, beast of a bot
Chaos 2 - Series 3 champ and flipping king
Dead Metal - Brilliant weapons and deadly reputation
Diotoir - Furry, funny Irish favourite
Firestorm 2 - Flame-coloured flipping bot
Gemini - Two robots for the price of one
Griffon - Flat robot with cunning weapon
Hypno-Disc - One of the most powerful weapons ever
Killerhurtz - Transparent bot with a serious weapon
Killertron - Brightly coloured with a mad axe
King B3 - Low, nippy and never gives up
Matilda - The much-loved female house robot
Milly-Ann Bug - Cute and harmless, easily trashed
Mortis - The expensive bot you love to hate
Panic Attack - Well-made Welsh winner of series 2
Pitbull - Its bit is even worse than its bark
Plunderbird 4 - Fave from the International Wreck Crew
Pussycat - Banned in Series 3, this bot's got claws!
Razer - Superb design and crushing weapon
Refbot - Rules, regulations and safety robot
Reptirron - Handsome, golden 'biscuit tin'
Roadblock - The Cornish champion of series 1
Robochicken - Crazy-looking novelty bot
Sergeant Bash - Military trained, flame-shooting terror
Shadow of Napalm - Colourful school-based entry
Shunt - No-nonsense heavy duty arena cleaner
Sir Chromalot - New improved wheel-hub with drill
Sir Killalot - The most fearsome of house robots
Spawn of Scutter - Evil-looking, and works both ways up
Steg 2 - Powerful, attacking flipper
Suicidal Tendencies 2 - Popular pioneer of tracks
Thermidor 2 - Looks like a lobster, but fast as lightning
The Witch - Magical, hat-shaped heroine
Wheelosaurus - Mad junkyard creation

Adverts[]

Lego Mindstorms (Page 11)
Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles (Page 15)
Pullbacks - "Twas the fight before Christmas) (Page 19)
FBX Magazine (Page 20)
Robot Wars (Android Love) (Page 27)
Meccano City (Page 27)

Gallery[]

Credits[]

Editor: Dead Metal
Art Editor: Simon Oliver
Gonzo Writer: David Hayles
Designers: Ben Ireland, Sam Bennett
Picture Researcher: Emma Peel
Editorial Assistant: Kelly Austin
Advertising: Theresa Davies
Marketing Executive: Siobhan Galvin
Marketing Manager: Helen Northard
Marketing Assistant: Ruth Rowntree
Production Controller: Sarah Hovell
Senior Production Controller: Jo Beattie
Circulation Manager: Simon Young
Publisher: Toni Round
Editor, Boys' Magazines: Jason Loborik
Editorial Director, Family Group: Nicky Smith
Director, Family Group [UK Region]: Gillian Lasker
Managing Director, BBC Worldwide [UK Region]: Peter Teague
Contributors: John Ross, Alan Craddock, David Benham, Dr Zulu, Sir Barnalot
Photography: Chris Capstick, John Green, Mike Collier
Thanks: Odd job, Dr Serge Simon

Errors and Omissions[]

For the second time in the magazine's run (See Issue 6, Destruct-A-Bubble is incorrectly spelt "Distruct-A-Bubble", in the "worst robot ever" section, then in the Heat Report of Heat C, then in the letters section.
- One of the fan's letters makes the same mistakes.
In the Grudge Match comic, Plunderbird 4 is simply known as Plunderbird, and the 4 on the front of the robot is absent.
- In the same comic, the back of Plunderbird is drawn as being black, when it was actually yellow with a red trim at the bottom, like the rest of the robot.
- Throughout the comic, the teams are inconsistently drawn regarding the sunglasses they are wearing (In addition, The Hub Nuts never wore sunglasses on the show).
In the Classic Clash section, photos of Panic Attack and Cassius' Series 3 forms are used instead of how they appeared in Series 2.
In the same section, Cassius is erroneously said to have flipped Dead Metal over; in actual fact, when flipped, Dead Metal landed back on its wheels.
In Craig's sign-off from Heat C, the word cause is omitted.
In the Heat Report for Heat D, a picture of a flame jet is used where a picture of the Cronos team should be. Also, the picture of Cronos is of it in the arena.
On the Team Sheet page, Twn Trwn is misspelt as Twn Twrn.
The Fun Facts cards also included a few errors. These were:
- Thermidor 2 was erroneously was listed as weighing only 55kg, despite weighing 80kg.
- Spawn of Scutter was listed only as Spawn, and only listed as weighing 65kg, despite weighing 79kg.
- Gemini's listed weight of 35kg only refers to one of the clusterbots, rather than the whole robot.
- Wheelosaurus was misspelled as Wheelasaurus.
- Multiple robots were only listed by their names, without the number. Robots to fall foul of this were: Plunderbird 4, Thermidor 2, Suicidal Tendencies 2 and Firestorm 2.
- The photo of Mortis didn't include any of its armour, showing the insides of the robot.
- Pussycat was said to have been "Banned in Series 3", despite only being disqualified.
- A few robots had weapons not listed. They include: Cassius 2's rear spike, Mortis's flipping arm, Robochicken's flipper and King B3's circular saw.

Trivia[]

As with the previous issue, this issue was "edited" by one of the House Robots. The real person who actually edited the magazine was not credited.
The Red Baron would appear again in a comic in the final issue of the original run of the magazine.
The Fantasy Fight between Sir Chromalot and Plunderbird foretold the encounter between the two in Robot Wars Extreme, where an aggressive Plunderbird lost the battle by pitting itself.
- It was also notable for being the only Fantasy Fight in which the roboteers behind the competing robots were depicted.