Team MouseTrap (styled as TeamMouseTrap) was a father and son team from Bristol that fought in Series 3, 4, 5 and 7 of Robot Wars. The team also entered the first series of Robot Wars Extreme, and failed to qualify for Series 6.
The Team[]
Throughout their time in Robot Wars, the team consisted of Stan Launchbury, self-employed electrician and his son Jason, an electronic engineer for a software company[1]. From Series 4 onward, the team always dressed as Vermin Killers, in traditional red jackets with the team members' names on the left side of the outfit, to match the theme of their robot MouseTrap.
Team MouseTrap's first entry was Triterobot, a triangular shaped robot with spikes that competed in Series 3. In Series 4, 5 and Extreme Series 1, the team entered their most famous and successful robot: MouseTrap, the robot the team takes their name from, a wedge shaped robot designed to resemble a conventional mousetrap and armed with a trapping device. In Series 5 and Extreme 1, the trapping weapon was upgraded with a blade on its guillotine. For Series 6, MouseTrap was modified to become Mutant MouseTrap, which was armed with a spinning drum weapon as opposed to MouseTrap's signature guillotine. However, it failed to qualify. The team also entered the clusterbot Black and Blue in Series 7, which consisted of two twins, both armed with spinning drums.
Team MouseTrap's most successful attempt at the Robot Wars title was in Series 4, where they reached the Semi-Finals, defeating the seeded Evil Weevil along the way, falling to the seeded Stinger in the first round of the Semi-finals. MouseTrap was also nominated for the Best Newcomer Award, despite the fact the team competed in Series 3 with Triterobot, but the award went to Tornado. The team's other attempts at the Robot Wars title ended quickly; Triterobot and Black & Blue fell in the first round of their respective series, while MouseTrap fell to eventual series Semi-Finalist S3 in the second round.
Team Members[]
Stan Launchbury[]
Stan Launchbury was consistently the Team Captain of the two, apart from Series 7, where Jason Launchbury captained Black and Blue. A self-employed electrician, the team's website lists mechanical design, welding, machining, mechanical construction and "Coming up with very novel and ingenious solutions to problems" as his fields of expertise.
Stan Launchbury was also on the team of Fire Service representative, Oblark, a competitor in the Forces Special Stan was to enter his own MouseTrap machine into the special due to his connections to the fire service, but it was too badly damaged by S3 during the filming of Series 5 to compete. This fact leads to the assumption that Oblark was built primarily, if not entirely, by Team MouseTrap.
He was helped to build Oblark by Rob Haesman, formerly of Jurassic Park. The two teams had first met during Series 3.
- "We first met the Steg team whilst waiting as reserves during the filming of the Robotwars series 3."
- — Team MouseTrap website on Team Jurassic Park [2]
Despite being team captain in all the team's appearances apart from Series 7, Stan never drove the robots, apart from controlling one half of Black and Blue.
Jason Launchbury[]
Throughout the team's appearances, Jason Launchbury was the driver of the robots. Although Stan was the team captain prior to Series 7, Jason also did most of the speaking in the team's introductions and interviews.
The team's website lists electrical & electronic design, software engineering, general construction and technical research, in addition to web design. He was in charge of the team's website.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Triterobot | Heavyweight | Series 3 |
| MouseTrap | Heavyweight | Series 4-5, Extreme 1 |
| Black and Blue | Heavyweight | Series 7 |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 4
- Losses: 5
Series Record[]
| Main Series | Team Mousetrap Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Heat, Round 1 with Triterobot |
| The Fourth Wars | Semi Final, Round 1 with MouseTrap |
| The Fifth Wars | Heat, Round 2 with MouseTrap |
| The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with Mutant MouseTrap |
| The Seventh Wars | Heat, Round 1 with Black and Blue |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
| Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
| Series 1 | Entered with MouseTrap |
| Series 2 | Did not enter |
Outside Robot Wars[]
Stan Launchbury also competed with cadets from Oxfordshire Fire Service on spin-off show Techno Games, competing in the Shot Putt competition in the 2001 series with Alpha One Zero Tango, and entering Hose-A, a rope climbing robot in the Natural Rope Climb. For more information, see Oblark.
Trivia[]
- Team MouseTrap was one of only two former Semi-Finalist teams that fought in the Seventh Wars but were not seeded, the other being the King B Powerworks team.
References[]
External Links[]
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