Team Cassius

Team Cassius
Rex Garrod with Cassius
Participation Information
UK Series	1-3
Team Information
Team Members	Rex Garrod Simon West Edward Bull (Series 2) Mick Cutter (Series 3)
Home Town	Stowmarket, Suffolk

"If at first you don't succeed, you are above average"

— Rex Garrod's motto

Team Cassius was a team from Stowmarket in Suffolk which entered the first three series of Robot Wars, reaching the Grand Final on two occasions with their flipper robots Recyclopse and Cassius.

Rex Garrod

"I was handed a pack of information by Tim Hunkin, who had received it from the Science Museum. I thought it would be a good education exercise for kids (including old kids like me)."

— Rex Garrod on entering Robot Wars

Rex Garrod with Philippa Forrester

Rex Garrod repairs Cassius

Team Cassius was captained by the enthusiastic Rex Garrod, a former children's television presenter and engineer. He was well known for his cheery and sporting demeanour and always helped other roboteers to modify and repair their robots when problems arose. He was also reluctant to attack other robots once they had been immobilised, preferring to attack the House Robots. A keen innovator, Rex Garrod is credited for the creation of the flipper weapon on Robot Wars, and for the invention of the self-righting mechanism. Garrod was often critical of his own driving skill, having driven Cassius into the pit on two different occasions, but was nevertheless successful in his first two Robot Wars campaigns, reaching the Grand Final twice.

Sadly, Rex Garrod passed away on the 8th April 2019, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s at the age of 75.

Garrod's Protest

Rex Garrod harboured an intense resentment for several of the rules in earlier series of Robot Wars, as he felt many were unnecessary whilst other aspects of the show's safety procedures were grossly unattended.

"...most of them stupid, and written by some twerp who sits behind a desk, has never got his / her hands dirty, and never made anything, let alone a sophisticated machine like a robot. And furthermore, so intoxicated with self importance and will not seek help from professionals or listen to experts, who could help them."

— Rex Garrod on the Robot Wars rules

During Series 2, Garrod was told off by one of the health and safety inspectors for a very minor incident. In his anger, Garrod told the inspector that much worse things could occur because of their negligence in the areas of fail-safe devices. His protests fell on deaf ears.

"...I got a rollicking from a so called health and safety man (for drilling a hole in a piece of plastic, half a mm thick with half mm drill bit ,without goggles and leather gloves), I told him that serious accidents would occur because of their lack of proper real safety precautions like checking the all important failsafe devices that MUST be fitted on ALL robotic machines AND PROPERLY TESTED BY AN EXPERT WHO UNDERSTANDS THE DEVICES AND THEIR FAILINGS. He merely walked away. That advice fell on deaf ears, only for a serious accident (hospital case) to occur almost immediately. The next year I arrived at the studio, only to find another robot had run amok, and injured another stagehand (machine fell off a trolley and the switch shorted out and an inefective failsafe didn't stop the machine)."

— Rex Garrod on behind-the-scenes incidents that caused him to retire from the show

Not long afterwards, a robot went "berserk" and a person was hospitalised as a result. Garrod expected Mentorn to have learned their lesson, and turned up for Series 3 expectantly. However, in The Pits, an unidentified spike-wielding robot was dropped and activated while being carried into the studio; the same robot later stabbed a crew member in the leg while being prepared for a battle. Immediately, Garrod retired from Robot Wars in protest.

"For one accident to occur is bad, but for two of the exact same fault to occur in my book is nothing short of criminal. I have no intention of returning to Robot Wars until I'm satisfied that safety is up to the standards I am used to in my profession (Special effects for T.V Films & Advertising). After these almighty cock-ups things have taken a giant step forward, but from information received by many of the last wars contestants, it still has a long way to go. And self important people still rule, both in safety and common courtesy"

— Rex Garrod

Other Team Members

The team originally entered Recyclopse in Series 1, reaching the Grand Final. Cassius was entered in Series 2, finishing as runner-up to Panic Attack, before being redesigned and entered in Series 3 as Cassius 2, which lost in the second round after driving into the pit.

An informal battle between two Robot Wars greats

The team was closely associated with Team Chaos, having worked together to create their initial robots (Robot the Bruce and Recyclopse). Rex Garrod also helped with Chaos 2, with Chaos 2's first ever battle being an informal roadside skirmish with Cassius, which Chaos 2 won 4-1.

The team captain was Rex Garrod, who was joined by Simon West for all three series. Edward Bull was also part of the team for Series 2, and Mick Cutter moved from Team Chaos to join the team in Series 3.

Notable Achievements

• Recyclopse also initially set the record for the shortest battle in the UK series of Robot Wars, flipping Scrapper over in 15 seconds in their Arena Semi-Final. However, this was beaten later on in Series 1 by featherweight and fellow Grand Finalist Cunning Plan, and the most recent record was set by Rapid in Series 10, at 5.6 seconds.
• Cassius was nominated for both Best Design and Best Engineered Awards in Series 2, but lost both.
• Cassius was also the first UK robot to successfully self-right, doing so in its Series 2 Pinball run and its Grand Final eliminator against Roadblock later that same series. This meant that Rex Garrod is often credited with having invented the self-righting mechanism, despite Chaos having first attempted to right itself earlier on in Series 2, and various US robots - including BioHazard and Vlad the Impaler - having successfully done so in the original US Robot Wars events.
• Team Cassius is one of only four teams to reach multiple Grand Finals with multiple robots, having reached the Series 1 Final with Recyclopse, and the Series 2 Final with Cassius. The other three teams to have done this are Team Chaos, Cold Fusion Team and Team Shock.

Robots

• Recyclopse
• Cassius
• Cassius 2

1/3

Name	Weight Class	Series
Recyclopse	Heavyweight	Series 1
Cassius	Heavyweight	Series 2-3

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 7
• Losses: 4

Series Record

• Cassius 3
• The three models of Cassius at an event
• Cassius 1, 2 and Junior on display
• Rex with his Cassius machines
• Rex with Cassius and Chaos
• Rex with Cassius 2
• Rex holding the fired flipping arm of Cassius
• Brum, which was designed by Rex Garrod

1/8

Series	Team Cassius Series Record
The First Wars	Grand Final with Recyclopse
The Second Wars	Runner-up with Cassius
The Third Wars	Heat, Round 2 with Cassius 2
The Fourth Wars	Did not enter
The Fifth Wars	Did not enter
The Sixth Wars	Did not enter
The Seventh Wars	Did not enter
Series 8	Did not enter
Series 9	Did not enter
Series 10	Did not enter

NOTE: Mick Cutter entered Series 1 and 2 with Robot The Bruce and Chaos, respectively.

Trivia

• Team Cassius' second robot, Cassius, was inducted into The Combat Robot Hall of Fame in 2007, in honour of it being the first UK robot to self-right.

External Links

• Team Cassius website (archived)