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"Part bird, part dragon, part frog, but most of all robot!"
— Jonathan Pearce

Tartarus was a robot that competed in the second Dutch series and the seventh UK series, having lost in round one both times.

Martin Scholten, the builder of Tartarus, was unable to attend filming of Series 7 so Bryan Cutler, the captain of Not Perfect and Reaper NP2, and Michael Hanser, the captain of Sniper who lost in the qualifiers, entered the robot in his place. The team jokingly claimed that Scholten was a top secret agent who was currently on a secret mission.

Versions of Tartarus[]

Tartarus (Dutch Series 2)[]

TartarusNL

Tartarus from the Dutch series

Resembling a dragon, the original version of Tartarus featured a crushing head, a lifting arm at the rear, and an arm with a small set of pincers at the front. It featured some holes in its armour to reduce weight. A Mythras speed controller was used in the robot, and Tartarus as also an early pioneer of HARDOX armour, using it alongside stainless steel[1].

Tartarus (Series 7)[]

Tartarus

Tartarus in the arena during Series 7

For Series 7, the crusher was replaced with a hydraulic claw while the flipper and pincer arms were removed altogether. The head could be "bowed" down to increase the attack range of the weapon, but this feature was never seen in battle. The robot itself had a very low and unimpressive speed and also lacked a self-righting mechanism to which veterans Behemoth exploited.

"Hydraulic weaponry, a claw - no self-righting mechanism, and the speed isn't enormous either!"
— Jonathan Pearce

Etymology[]

The name Tartarus is derived from Greek mythology, where Tartarus describes a deep abyss that is used to imprison Titans, and is occasionally used to describe a primordial deity. Unusually, despite the name being the same in both appearances it was pronounced differently in the Dutch series and the UK series; in the former it was said 'tar-TA-rus', and in the latter it was said 'TAR-tar-us'.

Robot History[]

Dutch Series 2[]

TrazmaniacvsTartarus

Tartarus is pushed onto the flame pit as Refbot counts it out

TrazmaniacvsTartarus2

Tartarus is pitted by Shunt

Tartarus first participated in Heat B of Dutch Series 2, and faced Trazmaniac in the first round. In the battle, Tartarus kept its sides pointed at Trazmaniac in order to deflect its opponent's spinning drum. However, Trazmaniac soon got around to its front and charged at it, immobilising Tartarus upon impact. Tartarus was subsequently counted out by the Refbot, and then dumped into the pit by Shunt, eliminating it from the second Dutch series.

UK Series 7[]

Jayne Middlemiss: "This robot is Tartarus, what does it do?"
Bryan Cutler: "Actually we don't know yet! The person who built it is actually a top secret agent, and he is gone right now on a secret mission, so when he comes back, we hope we did good with this!"
— The absence of the team captain is explained
Behemoth Tartarus

Tartarus is toppled straight away by Behemoth

Tartarus Refbot

Tartarus lays immobile in the CPZ

UFO Behemoth

UFO drives underneath Behemoth and Dead Metal who is about to attack Tartarus

Tartarus participated in Heat L of the Seventh Wars. In its first round battle, it was drawn up against a redesigned version of UFO, Crushtacean and the tenth seed Behemoth. Four seconds into the battle, Tatarus was attacked and flipped over into Shunt's CPZ by Behemoth, where it was left unable to self-right and pinned against the wall by Shunt. Eventually, Refbot came in and counted Tartarus out. After he finished the count, Crushtacean was flipped out of the arena by Behemoth. After being counted out, Dead Metal came in and attacked Tartarus, causing more damage to its shell. 'Cease' was called after Behemoth flipped over UFO, and Tartarus was eliminated from the Seventh Wars along with Crushtacean.

"Tartarus here, surely just for show! The secret agent story, tut tut!"
— Jonathan Pearce

Results[]

TARTARUS - RESULTS
Dutch Series
Series 2
Dutch Championship
Heat, Round 1
Heat B, Round 1 vs. Trazmaniac Lost
UK Series
Series 7
The Seventh Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 1
Heat L, Round 1 vs. Behemoth (10), Crushtacean, UFO Eliminated

Wins/Losses[]

  • UK Wins: 0
  • UK Losses: 1
  • Dutch Wins: 0
  • Dutch Losses: 1

Series Record[]

UK Series[]

Series Tartarus Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Did not enter
The Fourth Wars Did not enter
The Fifth Wars Did not enter
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Heat, Round 1
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Dutch Series[]

Dutch Series Tartarus Series Record
Series 1 Did not enter
Series 2 Heat, Round 1
  • NOTE 1: Series 7 team member Bryan Cutler entered German Robot Wars with Not Perfect.
  • NOTE 2: Series 7 team member Michael Hanser competed in Dutch Series 1 with Sniper, which also failed to qualify for Series 7.
  • NOTE 3: Both Bryan Cutler and Michael Hanser entered the Third World Championship qualifiers in Series 7 with Reaper NP2.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Tartarus S7

Official Series 7 photo

  • Tartarus was the only competitor to compete in the main competition in two different countries, and fall in Round 1 in both.
  • Although team captain Martin Scholten was not present at the filming of Series 7, he was still listed as a member of the team on the statistics board, while Michael Hanser was uncredited.
  • Tartarus was an early pioneer of HARDOX armour, using this in Dutch Series 2 at the same time as Tough as Nails[2].
  • After Bryan Cutler and Michael Hansen competed in Heat L of Series 7 with Tartarus, the battle was directly followed by the German qualifier for the Third World Championship, where both roboteers also competed with Reaper NP2.
  • Two of Tartarus' opponents in Series 7, Behemoth and Crushtacean, fought each other in Heat H of Series 5.
  • All robots that beat Tartarus lost their next battle to a robot with a flipping weapon.
  • Both of Tartarus' battles featured Shunt as one of the House Robots.
  • In its Series 7 introduction, Jonathan Pearce jokingly described Tartarus as 'saucy', likely referring to the condiment tartar sauce.

References[]

External Links[]

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