Team Danby (also known as Team Mowbot) is one of the most experienced teams in Robot Wars, first competing in Series 2, despite not qualifying with a heavyweight until Series 8. The team primarily consists of the two brothers, Craig and Chris Danby, and they are also joined in the reboot by featherweight roboteer Sam Price, and later Jack Tweedy.
Team Danby refers to the team under the captaincy of Craig Danby, while the alternative name Team Terrafonics is used to refer to the team under captaincy of Chris Danby, with both teams also entering Series 9 separately.
Robot Wars[]
Although they did not compete in the televised heavyweight competitions of Robot Wars until the reboot era, Team Danby have origins rooted all the way back in the very beginnings of the show. According to Craig Danby, his school was initially invited to compete in Series 1 and he had built a robot for this purpose[1], although the school withdrew their application for this series.
Team Danby first competed in the Featherweight Championship of the Second Wars with Deadline, despite not being included in the televised broadcast. They arrived at the filming of Series 3 with their Super Heavyweight robot Toxin, although the cancellation of the Super Heavyweight Championship meant that the team ultimately did not compete in the series.
Series 4 saw them attempt to qualify with a lifter armed robot named Vindicare. In the first series of Extreme, they won an unaired Wild Card Warriors match against Hypno-Disc after the famous machine broke down early in the battle. They also attempted to enter TX-108 into the main competition of Series 5-7 but did not qualify for any of these series, also being an unused reserve in Series 7 with the heavyweight Tanto.
Craig Danby competed in the Antweight Championship of Extreme 1 with Anto, the team's first televised appearance despite this being their third time at Robot Wars. The team then competed in the Featherweight Championships of Extreme 2 and Series 7 with Gi-Ant-O, albeit without success. They used a Sumobot in Extreme 2 as their proper machine wasn't ready. In Series 7, they used their proper machine, but it lost drive almost immediately and was counted out.
The team finally competed on Robot Wars with Foxic, which competed in the Series 8. The latest version of Tanto (built by Team Danby) also changed hands to Team Immersion who competed in the pilot episode with it. Tanto was sold to future Team Danby teammate Jack Tweedy after this, having been Tanto's driver during the pilot - he and Craig Croucher rebranded the robot to Neutron for their Series 9 qualification attempt.
In Series 9, Craig Danby qualified with Foxic, entering as a one-man team, but suffered from bad-luck in his Group Battle after driving over the floor flipper while missing a retaining bolt. Chris Danby entered as the captain of Team Terrafonics with his robot, Apex, joined by Sam Price. Craig Danby wore a fox hoodie throughout the filming of his episode in Series 9.
Craig Danby took part as a mentor in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars. He appeared in Episode 1, mentoring Suzi Perry and Dallas Campbell, presenters of TV shows such as The Gadget Show. Craig helped the celebrities repair and compete with a robot of Perry's own design, The Cat. Danby did not receive a speaking role on the show, but gave advice to the celebrities off-screen to keep them calm and competitive.
In Series 10, Craig Danby was not selected to compete with Foxic, so the team reunited under Team Terrafonics, and entered with Apex again, driven and captained by Chris Danby. Jack Tweedy also joined the team. However, Apex lost both of its battles after spectacularly splitting apart from its weapon and body.
To date, Team Danby have built well over 100 robots from various weight classes since they started competing in 1997.
- "6 versions of Tanto, 3 of TX-108, 2 of Toxin, 1 of Vindicare well over 100 ants and at least 20 feathers, that's 16 years of robot building."
- — Craig Danby on the Official Robot Wars Facebook page in 2014
Robots[]
Name | Image | Weight Class | Series |
---|---|---|---|
Deadline | Featherweight | Series 2 | |
Toxin | Super Heavyweight | Series 3 (event cancelled) | |
Anto | Antweight | Extreme 1 | |
TX-108 | Heavyweight | Extreme 1 (unaired) | |
Gi-Ant-O | Featherweight | Extreme 2, Series 7 | |
Foxic | Heavyweight | Series 8-9 | |
The Cat | Heavyweight | Series 9 (Battle of the Stars only) | |
Apex | Heavyweight | Series 9-10 |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 2 (1 unaired)
- Losses: 10
NOTE: Wins and losses belonging to The Cat are not included.
Series Record[]
Main Series | Team Danby Series Record |
---|---|
The First Wars | Did not enter |
The Second Wars | Featherweight Championship with Deadline |
The Third Wars | Super Heavyweight Championship with Toxin (event cancelled) |
The Fourth Wars | Failed to qualify with Vindicare |
The Fifth Wars | Failed to qualify with TX-108 |
The Sixth Wars | Failed to qualify with TX-108 |
The Seventh Wars | Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Gi-Ant-O Unused reserve, Tanto Failed to qualify with TX-108 |
Series 8 | Heat, Round 2 with Foxic Not selected with Apex |
Series 9 | Heat, Round 1 with Foxic Heat, Round 1 with Apex Battle of the Stars, Runner-up with The Cat |
Series 10 | Heat, Round 1 with Apex Not selected with Foxic |
Robot Wars Extreme | Appearances |
Series 1 | Wild Card Warriors with TX-108 (unaired) Antweight Championship with Anto |
Series 2 | Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Gi-Ant-O |
- NOTE 1: Tanto also entered the untelevised Series 8 Pilot under Team Immersion.
- NOTE 2: Craig Danby also competed in Battle of the Stars as mentor for Episode 1 runner-up The Cat.
List of robots[]
After Series 7 of Robot Wars, Team Danby entered Tanto and TX-108 in the live circuit and had a lot more success than they ever did in Robot Wars. The team has currently built:
Super Heavyweight
- Toxin (Series 3)
Heavyweight
- Vindicare (Failed to qualify for Series 4)
- TX-108 (Robot Wars Extreme Series 1, failed to qualify for Series 5-7)
- Tanto (Unused reserve for Series 7)
- Tanto 2-5 (retired)
- Tanto 6 (2016 Pilot)
- Scrap Dog (Sold and renamed Noisy Cricket)
- Mad Dog (entered construction, progress unknown)
- Apex (Series 9-10)
- Foxic (Series 8-9)
- Big Panda Hatchet (live circuit)
- Unnamed crusher (built as part of a time-restricted challenge)
- Hyena (Clash Bots)
- Predator (BattleBots 2018)
- Foxtrot (BattleBots 2019)
- SlamMow! (BattleBots 2020, Craig Danby)
- Slammo! (BattleBots 2021, BattleBots 2022, Craig Danby)
- WhamMow! (BattleBots 2020 applicant, Chris Danby)
- Apex (BattleBots 2022 applicant, Craig Danby)
Middleweight
- Tanto Jr (retired, sold to Jamie McHarg)
Featherweight
- Deadline (Series 2)
- Gi-Ant-O (Extreme 2, Series 7)
- Tanto XP (retired)
- Hatchet (live circuit)
- Fennic (featherweight Foxic)
- Apex FW (King of Bots featherweight championship)
Beetleweight
- Son of Foxic
- Apex BW
Antweight
- Anto (Robot Wars Extreme Series 1)
- Anto X
- Ixion
- Boxing Unit 1
- Scrap Mamba
- Scalpel Evo 3
- Badgerbot
- Anto 3
- Nanto
- Stormin Norman
- Envy Ant
- 8.645T
- Torniquet
- Ifyouthinkthisnameisstupidyoushouldhearmyother (Iyttnisyshmo)
- Son of PhotoPhattiePhobia
- Die Hard 5
- Dave
- Hand That Feeds
- A3R
- Foxic Jr.
Outside Robot Wars[]
Chris and Craig Danby[]
They competed in Techno Games with TX-108, as RaMyA, (Razer My Arse), minus its weapon and clad in pink fur working with Pink Pants (a weaponless pink fur clad Pussycat) in the football competition as Team Pink. It also competed in the Sumo competition.
The team also competed in the Sprint Battery event in Techno Games 2001 with a robot called Photophattiephobia, which reached the semi-finals, despite never reaching the finish line. Originally planned to have four legs, Photophattiephobia was built over a couple of days after Mentorn called the team, and was not finished until the evening before the event.
Team Danby competed in the Chinese TV show Clash Bots with a new heavyweight, Hyena. Under instruction from the Clash Bots producers, the robot was required to resemble Foxic, using a similar lifting arm, alongside three minibots, Oscar, Fiona and Lucy[2]. In its competition battle, it fought the Chinese flipper Bull Devil, but was repeatedly thrown through the air, and was eventually flipped out of the arena, resulting in a loss by knockout, eliminating Hyena from the competition after only one battle. Hyena also fought an untelevised battle against Princess Of Wales.
Craig and Chris Danby also entered the 2018 season of BattleBots with a new machine, Predator, and were joined by Rory Mangles. The robot is similar in structure to Foxic, but is based upon a wolf, and is armed with a clamping jaw, with a separate self-righting mechanism. Predator's first battle was against ROTATOR, although Predator was immobilised very quickly, and subsequently the battle was not aired on television. Predator next competed in a three-way melee against Bale Spear and Valkyrie, two other robots which had suffered losses not aired on television. After its first collision with Valkyrie's undercutting spinner, Predator was immobilised, and lost its second and final competition fight. Outside of the main competition, Predator teamed up with Petunia to enter an untelevised Tag Team battle against Double Dutch and Bale Spear as part of the USA vs. The World special. Predator and Petunia won the battle on a Judges' decision, despite Predator being stuck on a loose tyre of Bale Spear for the closing stages of the bout.
Team Danby also returned for the 2019 season, having painted and renamed the newest version of Foxic to enter BattleBots as Foxtrot. However, it lost its first battle to the Australian robot Death Roll within seconds, after sustaining a blow from the vertical spinner, and later lost an untelevised head-to-head against Mammoth, and lost an untelevised rumble to Double Jeopardy.
After this, the team would be sponsored by gardening robotics company Mowbot, and adopt the name Team Mowbot henceforth. Under this sponsorship, Chris Danby built a successor to Apex known as WhamMow! with a more angled design and more reinforced spinner. It has yet to compete at any events, although it did make an appearance at RoboNerd in the second half of 2019.
Meanwhile, Craig Danby would build a grappling heavyweight SlamMow!, using combined lifter and grabber weaponry to 'suplex' other robots. It competed at the 2020 season of BattleBots and fought Pain Train in its first fight, opening its career with a victory after 'suplexing' its opponent and achieving a late knockout. SlamMow! would then score a win in an untelevised fight against WAR? EZ!, before losing its next fight to former runner-up Witch Doctor, finishing its Fight Night run with a record of 2-1. This was enough to put SlamMow! through to the main competition, where it was seeded 28th, but it subsequently lost its first round fight to Black Dragon after being immobilised by the Brazilian machine's spinner. SlamMow! also competed in the BattleBots: Bounty Hunters spin-off, fighting for the right to face Beta in the final. It was drawn up against HiJinx in its first fight and after an even opening minute, both robots began to struggle for mobility. HiJinx was declared to be more mobile and SlamMow! was counted out, eliminating it.
The team dropped their Mowbot sponsorship for the 2021 season of BattleBots, entering an updated version with a pop comic theme called Slammo!, which in itself was a new build. The green and white colour scheme had been ditched for a dazzle camo look, inspired by the military camouflage paint scheme used primarily in World War I to disrupt an enemy's perception of distance and speed. Danby recruited former BattleBots runner-up Mike Jeffries ahead of the season to advise and assist with general repairs and maintenance. Slammo! was also the only UK representative to compete in the 2021 season of BattleBots, by virtue of Craig Danby residing in North Carolina. All other UK teams who applied for the 2021 season had their VISAs rejected by the American State Department, and were forced to withdraw as a result. The first fight for Slammo! came against HyperShock, who had competed in every season of BattleBots up to this point. Slammo! struggled to get to grips with its opponent, being upended by HyperShock several times early on. It was later bullied into the corner of the arena next to the Upper Deck, a new arena hazard for the 2021 season consisting of a raised platform protruding from the side of the BattleBox. Slammo! had lost one side of its drive and was immobilised soon after, following one final hit from HyperShock. In its second and final fight of the Fight Night campaign, Slammo! lost an untelevised battle against Switchback, bringing its 2021 campaign to an early conclusion. Slammo! made a brief return in BattleBots: Champions, but lost in the opening round of its bracket to Malice.
Slammo! returned for BattleBots World Championship VII in 2022, aired in 2023, although on this occasion, Slammo! was only selected to be a reserve competitor. Though Slammo! was next-in-line to compete, with Team Danby almost joining the full lineup when newcomer Banshee was close to withdrawal[3], it was ultimately left out of the main competition. Its first fight came against fellow alternate in Terrortops. However, Slammo! lost by knockout after losing the battle for low ground early against its rookie opponent and ultimately getting stuck on its rear end. After this, it then fought against Double Tap. After a quick start, Slammo! experienced issues with its drive chain, leading to a slow pushing match after Double Tap's spinner failed. Despite surviving to a Judges' decision, it was declared the loser.
The World Championship VII build later reappeared in the spin-off series BattleBots: Champions II, competing in the third Sin City Slugfest bracket. However, Slammo! suffered drive issues from the start of its first-round battle against DeathRoll, and was ultimately eliminated by knockout by the Australian entry. Slammo! also fought an exhibition battle against Gruff, but lost on a Judges' decision after again suffering from mobility issues, while also taking multiple blows from the US machine's electric axe. The latter match was released by the official BattleBots YouTube channel as part of the Vengeance in Vegas 2 compilation.[4]
Slammo! would undergo another rebuilt following World Championship VII, appearing in the weekly live show Battlebots: Destruct-a-Thon in its Proving Grounds. Slammo! would first compete on 13 May 2023 against DOOM. Slammo! would dominate the battle, pushing DOOM across the arena before overturning its opponent, with the offensive rendering DOOM incapable of self-righting. In spite of this victory, however, Slammo! would withdraw from its scheduled rematch the following day due to damage done to its gearbox. They would next compete on 8 July 2023, against the Overkill ShowBot after its original opponent, Gigabyte, withdrew. Despite facing difficulties with its drive from the outset, it would win again via crowd vote.
Slammo! again competed on the weekend of 30 September-1 October 2023, fighting Skorpios, but lost both battles by an audience vote. On 16-17 December, it fought against Team Danby's latest version of Apex. Operated by Craig Danby, Slammo! won both of the latter battles by knockout, despite having one of its side panels ripped off by Apex in the first encounter.[5] Slammo! also won against Maximum Paralysis on the weekend of 16-17 March 2024, and currently remains active at BattleBots Proving Ground matches.[6]
A further update of Slammo! has been announced to compete at the forthcoming BattleBots Faceoffs, where it is set to fight against Cobalt, Warthog and Vertigo on the weekend of 20-22 December.[7]
On 11 June 2024, a new Team Danby heavyweight - Horus - was announced as the first competitor for the inaugural MechMania tour, run in conjunction with Robots Live! Captained by Chris Danby, Horus features an electrically-driven hammer weapon with interchangeable heads (one 12kg aluminium head and one 4kg HDPE head[8]), along with four-wheel drive and a listed top speed of 19mph.[9] The low box chassis is repurposed from a "shuffling" incarnation of Apex, which had briefly been tested with a wheeled system prior to conversion.[10][11] However, after burning out a speed controller on-site at Robots Live! in Crawley prior to its planned fight, Horus did not make it to the arena at its debut event.
Sam Price[]
Team member Sam Price also competes at live events with numerous featherweights, initially with Hatchet, a two-wheeled robot armed with an chain-driven axe. Two versions of the robot were built; the original was sold in 2014, while the second version debuted in 2015 and competed regularly at featherweight events under Price's ownership. Price has since sold the second Hatchet to Team Tilly, who renamed it Red Hot Tilly Pecker. Sam Price's team is nowadays known as Team OgreKill.
Presently, Sam Price competes with the featherweight vertical spinner, Get Shrekt. After debuting in Extreme Robots live events, where Get Shrekt would take part in melees full of other featherweight robots, its first competitive appearance was at the 2018 King of Bots UK championship. There, Get Shrekt won all three of its qualification battles by knockout, and advanced to the Top 12 by quickly defeating Straddle 2. At this stage, Get Shrekt was defeated in a battle of vertical spinners, against Binky, but it won its losers' melee against Orpheus and Little Devil to reach the Top 8. Get Shrekt was eliminated at this stage, after getting thrown out of the arena by Rocket.
More recently, Get Shrekt competed at the Robodojo January 2019 featherweight event. Although it collected a knockout victory in its first battle, Get Shrekt took significant damage from the horizontal spinner of Telekinesis, and was unable to compete in its two remaining competitive fights. Nevertheless, Get Shrekt was repaired in time for a whiteboard battle at the end of the event, destroying a robot built from a classic Henry hoover, whose builder had requested the whiteboard fight in order to retire his robot by force. Get Shrekt then became the joint winner of the Robodojo live event in May 2019, defeating Captain Jack Spinner and Forge Master, despite losing to Plastic Fantastic. It returned to Robodojo in July 2019 sporting a new wedge, and won all four of its fights against Graffiti, Elevate 2, Telekinesis and Cpt Jack Spinner, albeit because Telekinesis survived to a Judges' decision, Get Shrekt finished in second place to the undefeated Drumroll.
Get Shrekt competed in the FRA UK Featherweight Championship 2019, and enjoyed a successful run within its Heat, earning victories over Drumroll, Fruitcake 2B, TRAC, Enigma and Aegis Mk 2, although it was defeated in the first round of the Top 16 by Satanix. Get Shrekt still took the time to win an explosive victory during the Tag Team competition, filling in for a withdrawal. At its next FRA Featherweight Championship in 2024, Get Shrekt would appear only as an unused reserve at FightFest 2024, although it won the Tag Team competition alongside Kitchen Grill, which it also defeated in a head-to-head whiteboard at the end of the show.
Sam Price also competed in the web-series Bugglebots with a new beetleweight, Maximum Ogredrive, armed with a circular saw on an overhead arm, inspired by SawBlaze. It won its first battle against Rev 2 when both wheels fell off its opponent, and then defeated clusterbot Weewoo on a close Judges' decision. In the Heat Final, Maximum Ogredrive once again faced Rev 2, but on this occasion, Maximum Ogredrive lost a wheel after a strong impact, and was rendered immobile, relegating it to the five-way rumble. There, it immobilised Saw Loser by cutting through its speed controllers, but after being pitted by Claws 2, Maximum Ogredrive was eliminated from the competition outright.
He would later build a featherweight version of Maximum Ogredrive, known as Ogrelord and another beetleweight called Bby Shrekt., the latter of which placed first in the inaugural Scouse Showdown competition in March 2022. Sam Price was originally set to be captain of BattleBots applicant Soothslayer, but the team were not selected for the 2021 season. They have, however, reapplied for the 2022 season.
Sam Price also builds beetleweight and featherweight robots under commission, with more information available on the Team OgreKill Facebook page. The third of his commission builds was Dino, a two-wheel driven wedge built for Kev Baxter, which debuted at the Robodojo event in March 2019. Sam Price also has plans to create beetleweight kits, first creating a blue two-wheel driven wedge under commission.
Sam Price would form a new team to apply for the 2021 season of BattleBots with heavyweight hammer saw concept Soothslayer, although the robot was not selected to compete. An application would later be submitted for Price to captain his own entry for BattleBots World Championship VIII, which is planned to be filmed in early 2024. Named OgreKill, it is a clusterbot entry which scaled up the design of his beetleweight Bby Shrekt.
In July 2024, Ogrekill would be built as a singular 110kg heavyweight, making its debut at Extreme Robots in Newcastle, where it fought Donald Thump and won despite getting stuck in the floor at the start. It later fought in a rumble with St Ripper and The Last Slice but lost to the latter.[12][13]
Jack Tweedy[]
For more information on Jack Tweedy's excursions outside of Team Danby, including competitive appearances on BattleBots and the beetleweight live circuit, see Neutron.
Trivia[]
- In early 2017, Team Danby temporarily welcomed Will Sedgwick onto their team, co-host of robotics podcast Inside the Bot alongside Gabriel Stroud. However, he was not a part of the televised team in Series 10, instead accompanying Team Legion off-screen.
References[]
- ↑ Public message from Craig Danby on the Out of the Arena Discord
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/teamdanby/posts/10155496855968284
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsODYBD8FR0
- ↑ 'Vengeance in Vegas 2 | Full Event | BattleBots', BattleBots (YouTube), streamed 25 November 2023
- ↑ Comment by Craig Danby in the Out of the Arena Discord server, 16 December 2023
- ↑ 'Slammo vs Max P', BattleBots Proving Ground match clip of Slammo! vs Maximum Paralysis uploaded by Craig Danby (YouTube), April 24 2024
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/teamdanby/posts/pfbid02EMq7SQWDk55o6dHBncDWwxzpnFQszuqZ399GXXFuhrH9DbHmaDj32AcQFZCEUjhil
- ↑ Message by Craig Danby in the Out of the Arena Discord server, regarding Horus' interchangeable hammer heads, 7 September 2024
- ↑ https://x.com/Mech_Plus/status/1800498220046639350
- ↑ Message by Craig Danby in the Out of the Arena Discord server, confirming the reuse of Apex's "shuffler" chassis for Horus, 7 September 2024
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10156282492858284&id=342127268283
- ↑ 'Newcastle Live Show 1 – 2024 Tour', Extreme Robots TV
- ↑ 'Newcastle Live Show 3 – 2024 Tour', Extreme Robots TV
External Links[]
- Team Danby website
- Team Danby website (archived)
- Team Danby Facebook page
- Apex - Team Terrafonics Facebook page
- Craig Danby's YouTube channel
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