Team Saint

"What advice do I give to people who think they can beat us? Fear us."

— Craig Colliass

Team Saint is a roboteering team that collectively refers to the Colliass family, which entered Series 8 of Robot Wars as Team Gabriel and Series 9 as Team Cherub. Team Saint is the name used by the team on the live circuit, where they are captained by the father of the family, Craig Colliass.

The Team

"As in most cases with a family situation, you actually do things by consensus and do it by mutual respect. I don't want to be a totalitarian kind of a person, it's not my style. My sons are such nice characters that we get on so well - it works as a family."

— Craig Colliass in Series 8

Gabriel with team — Team Gabriel in Series 8

Cherub with team — Team Cherub in Series 9

The Colliass family, consisting of a father, his two daughters, and his three sons, are based in Essex. Collectively, they have consistently reached the Heat Final stage in both of their appearances on Robot Wars. They did so in Series 8 with Gabriel, while captained by Craig Colliass, and in Series 9 with Cherub, while captained by Sarah Colliass.

Team Cherub had a signature victory pose, where the team would put their hands on their backs, and flap them as though they were angel wings.

Craig Colliass

"My training is actually in engineering, so I've got a lot of experience in cutting and working with metals, and also other materials."

— Craig Colliass

Craig Colliass is the father of the family, and the captain of Team Gabriel in Series 8, also taking the captain role on the live circuit. Craig Colliass is the builder of all robots created by the team, and is the most involved with the repairs of the robot. Although he was not present on the televised Team Cherub, he was still in attendance at filming with Gabriel, an unused reserve for that series, and assisted with the repairs of Cherub.

Gabrielgateway — Craig Colliass (upper-right) in his Series 8 costume

Craig Colliass regularly arrived at Robot Wars in costume. In Series 8, he wore a large trenchcoat with a red scarf, red goggles on his forehead, and would carry two smaller replicas of Gabriel's sword. After donating this costume to Alex Brown's charity auction, he prepared a brand-new costume for Series 9 including a metal bowler hat, although he did not use this on television. Craig Colliass is also known for his broad vocabulary, which led to many memorable quotes during his time on television.

As a captain, Craig Colliass is known to be quite a passive fighter, and is even prepared to lose his place in the competition to avoid damaging robots that he deems are already damaged enough. This was particularly noticeable when Gabriel fought Beast in Series 8, as Gabriel required a knockout victory in order to qualify for the Heat Final, but having noticed that Beast was starting to overheat, he ordered his team not to attack Beast, despite it officially being still mobile.

"We felt that Beast had actually been immobilised, and it didn't seem proper for us to continue any gratuitous violence!"

— Craig Colliass after the battle with Beast

Sarah Colliass

"My Dad was a wimp last year, and I'm going to make sure I don't make the same mistakes he did"

— Sarah Colliass in Series 9

Sarah Colliass is the captain of Team Cherub, and was keen to prove that her battle style would be much more aggressive than that of her father, openly calling him a wimp. As captain at the tender age of 12, Sarah was the primary speaker in Cherub's VT in Series 9, and gave Toby commands while he drove Cherub.

"If my robot got destroyed in battle, I'd be really upset, and I'd go up to them, and cry right in their faces so they feel guilty!"

— Sarah Colliass in Series 9

Toby Colliass

"13-year old Toby has proved himself to be among the best drivers in the competition!"

— Angela Scanlon

Toby Colliass is the youngest son of the family, 13 years of age at the time of Series 9. In Series 8, he was introduced as the "apprentice", and did not play an active role on Team Gabriel until the whiteboard matches took place, where Toby was given the chance to drive Gabriel in a match against Behemoth, where Toby steered Gabriel to victory.

Since Toby's driving debut, he effectively rose beyond the rank of 'apprentice', and became the driver of Cherub in Series 9. Toby was successful in driving Cherub, using it to defeat PP3D and Behemoth, and Toby has since started driving Gabriel at live events.

Mark Colliass

Mark Colliass, alongside Toby, is one of only two team members to appear on both Team Gabriel and Team Cherub. In Series 8, his role was 'pit crew', and he would assist with the repairs of Gabriel. This role became more important in Series 9, where Mark Colliass was the key team member when Cherub was in need of repairs. Additionally, Mark operated Cherub's lifting forks. By trade, Mark Colliass is a graphic designer, and he is the eldest son of the family, at 25 years of age in Series 9.

Zack Colliass

Zack Colliass was a member of Team Gabriel, and was 18 in his televised appearance. Zack was the driver of Gabriel throughout its Series 8 campaign, driving the robot all the way to the Heat Final. At the time, he was a student in sixth form.

Rosie Colliass

Rosie Colliass is Sarah's twin sister, and was therefore also 12 years old in Series 9. On television, her team role was stated as the 'cupcake maker'. The Robot Wars website calls Rosie the weapons operator, although this role was fulfilled by Mark Colliass in the battles.

Robots

Gabriel (Series 8)
Cherub (Series 9)

Name	Weight Class	Series
Gabriel	Heavyweight	Series 8
Cherub	Heavyweight	Series 9

Wins/Losses

Wins: 6
Losses: 4

NOTE: Whiteboard matches are not included

Series Record

Team Cherub — Rosie, Sarah, Mark and Toby Colliass

Series	Team Saint Series Record
Series 1-7	Did not enter
Series 8	Heat Final with Gabriel
Series 9	Heat Final with Cherub Unused reserve with Gabriel
Series 10	Did not enter

Outside Robot Wars

The very first version of Saint at a Roaming Robots event at Doncaster 2007
Second version of Saint, also known as St Hammer
Saint in 2016
Gabriel, the team's featherweight
Seraphim
Mechatron

Team Saint use both Gabriel and Cherub at live events, most pertinently the Robot Wars live tour, Extreme Robots and Robots Live! events. At Extreme Robots in Manchester, Toby Colliass drove Gabriel in competition for the first time.

In addition to Gabriel and Cherub, the team have also fought on the live event circuit since 2007 with different versions of their first robot The Saint, the namesake of the team. The first version was a thwackbot with a horizontal pickaxe which would strike opponents while The Saint spun on the spot. The current version of The Saint is the second one, which still fights today - a barrel-shaped robot with a sword weapon, attacking in much the same way as Gabriel.

The team have also fought with a number of featherweights;

Gabriel (not to be confused with the heavyweight), an axlebot with a grinding blade on the end of the arm
Seraphim, which also resembles Gabriel in appearance.
Mechatron, a pushing robot driven by four wheels.

In May of 2017, they sold one of the prop swords they used in Series 8 on eBay, signed by Craig Coliass himself. It was sold for £102 to the same person who won Craig's Series 8 outfit in the charity auction.

Trivia

With six members, Team Saint is the largest team in Robot Wars to only contain family members.