Team Tilly (known on the show as Team Mouse) are a Derby-based roboteering team who competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars with Meggamouse, having built up over a decade of prior experience on the live circuit, which they compete in to this day.
The Team[]
Team Tilly with Meggamouse in Series 9
Team Tilly was a family team with over ten years of experience leading into their Robot Wars appearance. Although they only competed in Series 9, Team Tilly had intentions of competing in Series 7 with a near-fully built featherweight machine, and were only unable to apply for the series due to timing clashes with a family holiday.
On Robot Wars, Team Tilly went under the name of Team Mouse, as they were loaning the heavyweight robot Meggamouse from its owner Trevor Wright, who also competed under the name of Team Mouse while competing on television with Mighty Mouse, and the live events circuit with Meggamouse. Team Tilly had previously applied for Series 8 with Meggamouse, and later applied for Series 10 with the full-body spinner Dizzy Tilly, but did not appear in either series.
The name 'Team Tilly' was created by Shane Lale in his childhood, as he was required to enter a team name while competing in a local robotics event using a remote controlled Matilda toy, with Tilly being a nickname for Matilda. All robots fully owned by Shane or Peter Lale in some way incorporate 'Tilly' into the robot's name, and have done since 2004.
Shane Lale[]
Shane Lale pushes Meggamouse to the arena
Shane Lale at the time of Series 9 was a 21-year old Product Design student, and has been the long-running captain of Team Tilly. When competing with Meggamouse, he was the robot's driver, and was responsible for the machine's maintenance and repairs. Shane Lale has been involved with combat robotics from early childhood, and would have been aged only between 7-8 had he been able to enter Series 7 as planned.
Although Team Tilly have owned various heavyweight and featherweight robots in their own right, Shane Lale's most notable heavyweight achievements were made possible by borrowing or buying spare robots of other teams, starting with his heavily modified Ewe 2 before moving onto machines such as Meggamouse at the time of Robot Wars, and Iron-Awe 6, which he drove to victory in the 2019 UK Championship.
Peter Lale[]
Peter Lale, more commonly Pete Lale, is a retired electrical engineer, aged 53 at the time of Series 9. Father to Shane and husband to Jackie, Peter was the team member with the most engineering and electronics experience when the team first involved themselves with robotics, and was the lead builder and repairman of their machines until Shane took over the role with age. For Robot Wars, Pete Lale was listed as the team's electrical expert, suggesting that the wiring and circuitry of Meggamouse would have been his main responsibility if required.
Due to his physical disabilities, Pete Lale's responsibilities in the robotics community gradually shifted away from competing, and he instead became known as one of the most established judges of the live circuit, also completing tech checks alongside his son for safety management.
Jackie Lale[]
The team with Dara Ó Briain in Series 9
Jackie Lale at the time of Series 9 was a 55-year old full-time carer, and is wife to Peter Lale and mother of Shane. Her role on the Robot Wars website states that she 'looks after Charles and the rest of the team', with Charles referring to the minibot of Meggamouse. Indeed, Jackie Lale's role on the team is largely in support, with her commonly assisting at live events in areas such as catering, allowing her to remain heavily invested in the sport along with the rest of her family.
Sophie Clarkson[]
At the time of Series 9, Sophie Clarkson was a 20-year old Creative Writing student, and Shane Lale's girlfriend. She was the driver of Meggamouse's minibot Charles in its TV appearance. Beyond Robot Wars, Sophie Clarkson remains involved with the team's combat robotics, being a competitor in her own right at various featherweight competitions, and the online web-series Bugglebots.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Meggamouse | Heavyweight | Series 9 |
- NOTE: Team Outlaw, builders of Meggamouse, also competed on Robot Wars with Velocirippa, Mighty Mouse and Ironside3
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 1
Series Record[]
| Series | Team Tilly Series Record |
|---|---|
| Series 1-7 | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Not selected with Meggamouse |
| Series 9 | Heat, Round 1 with Meggamouse |
| Series 10 | Not selected with Dizzy Tilly |
Outside Robot Wars[]
2002-2015[]
Team Tilly's live events career started with a very young Shane Lale bringing his remote controlled Matilda toy to live events starting with Roaming Robots at Newark in 2002 to fight genuine featherweight competitors such as Kitty with it. Notably, after Kitty destroyed Shane's Matilda toy, Stuart Barnwell bought him a new toy from the merchandise stall, which competed in another fight later that day.
The team's first competitive featherweight was completed in 2004, being a full body spinner named Dizzy Tilly. This found a great degree of success for a new machine, achieving two podium finishes at its first two events, including a surprise victory over Little Spinner. A newer version of Dizzy Tilly was also competed in the Featherweight Championships between 2009 and 2013 without great success before later being conceptualised as a heavyweight for Robot Wars. Another featherweight that Shane Lale would later own is the original version of Ironside, which he restored to working condition in May 2020.
Tilly's Revenge as it looked for the 2006 UK Championships
Team Tilly's first heavyweight was Tilly's Revenge, which was a large pink coloured (later black and orange) wedge-shaped robot armed with an electric lifter, built in 2005. The team fought with it until 2008 when it was sold to Team Kinforesters who renamed it Hortron.
Tilly 101
For the UK Championships in 2006, the team fought with Tilly 101, a circular invertible robot armed with a full body rim spinner. Its first battle was a head-to-head against Mighty Mouse, but it quickly broke down and lost. Tilly 101 then fought in a three-way battle against Mighty Mouse and Tanto, this time surviving the whole match, but again lost to Mighty Mouse, knocking it out of the competition. Tilly 101 later made it to the final of the International Championship where it lost to Kronic.
From September 2006, the team purchased an upgraded version of Ewe 2 with a full-pressure flipper, renaming it to TillyEwe 2. Under Team Tilly's ownership it performed very well in live events, winning the 2007 Annihilator and also finishing 3rd in the Roaming Robots Winter Tour 2007. In 2008, the team built an upgraded version of TillyEwe 2 named Tilly 2 Evo which performed even better, reaching the finals of the UK Championships in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Tilly XP, the team's other entry for the 2011 UK Championships
TillyEwe 3, the team's entry for 2013
Also for the 2011 UK Championships, the team built Tilly XP, a wedge-shaped robot with a front-hinged flipper which was granted a Wild Card seed placing at the event but was beaten in the heats by the team's own Tilly 2 Evo. The team also built TillyEwe 3 in 2013 which debuted at the 2013 European Championships, although much of its armour had to be removed before entering the arena to conserve weight, and as a result TillyEwe 3 could not live up to its predecessor's success.
Khaos after its conversion from Beast
UFO under ownership of Team Tilly
In 2014, Shane Lale drove Beast to second place at the FRA heavyweight championship and later bought this version of the machine from John Lear and painted it gold, renaming it Khaos. It competed at a number of UK live events under this guise before retiring. The team briefly owned Bulldog Breed, but soon passed it onto another owner. In 2019, the team also bought UFO from Alan Young and later repainted the machine in 2020, although it is unclear if UFO will return to combat under Team Tilly.
2016-present[]
Shane Lale with the 2019 UK champion Iron-Awe 6
From 2016 onwards, the team opted more commonly to borrow and operate heavyweight flippers from other teams, including Meggamouse and Iron-Awe 6. Team Tilly have been most successful with the latter, using Team Iron-Awe's machine to earn achievements such as a victory at Robots Live! in Grantham and Mechatrons in Ireland in 2018, before winning the 2019 UK Championship in Stevenage[1]. Iron-Awe 6 continues to compete regularly under Shane Lale's captaincy as of January 2025, under which it maintains frequent appearances at Robots Live! and Extreme Robots events.
Tilly before being painted. Note the body of Corkscrew Two under the shell
Tilly, the Clash Bots entry from Team Tilly
Team Tilly competed in the Chinese show Clash Bots with their own machine Tilly, a 104kg full body spinner with a 6mm HARDOX 450 shell, which had been converted from Hammertime, a live events competitor which started life as Corkscrew Two. It fought Catfish, a Chinese vertical spinner, and opened the battle with a devastating hit which appeared to immobilise Catfish. However, the Chinese robot regained mobility, and delivered several huge blows, throwing Tilly through the air. Both robots remained mobile for over ninety seconds, with Catfish starting to release smoke, but Tilly eventually became immobile near the arena wall and lost the battle, eliminating it from the competition.[2] Like all international Clash Bots competitors, Tilly did not return from China after its appearance on the show.
Red Hot Tilly Pecker at the King of Bots UK Championship
In 2018, Shane Lale bought the second version of the axe-wielding featherweight Hatchet from Sam Price and renamed it Red Hot Tilly Pecker. In August 2018, it competed in the Fighting My Bots World Cup in Shanghai, China, achieving a 3-2 win-loss record in its group[3]. Later the same month, it competed in the inaugural King of Bots UK featherweight event at Insomnia 63, Birmingham. Red Hot Tilly Pecker initially fought Binky and Blunt Force Trauma Remix in the first qualifying round, finishing the battle second after getting itself stuck on an already-immobilised Blunt Force Trauma Remix. In a three-way melee against The Claw and Neon, Red Hot Tilly Pecker finished second, after being immobilised by Neon. Ultimately, Red Hot Tilly Pecker was eliminated in its final melee, finishing second for a third time after its wheel was ripped away by Sabre20. At the Robodojo Autumn Featherweight Championship in 2018, Red Hot Tilly Pecker suffered two surprise losses in the Sportsman division, before redeeming itself by causing significant damage to The Tragic Roundabout[4]. Shane Lale also drove Mattock at the January 2019 Robodojo event in the Sportsman class, finishing in fourth place. Red Hot Tilly Pecker also competed in the FRA UK Featherweight Championship 2019, under the controls of Sophie Clarkson. It enjoyed a reasonable amount of success in its Heat, finishing in third place out of six by defeating Frycook, and Venator 3 on a split decision, despite losing to Telekinesis, Galaga and Captain Jack Spinnah. This put Red Hot Tilly Pecker through to a three-way melee for a place in the Top 16, but it was immobilised by Drumroll and was eliminated at this stage. Red Hot Tilly Pecker had a successful run at Robodojo in November 2019, finishing in the top three. In July 2020, it finished third and sixth at the two Robodojo events that month.
In July 2020, the team created Red Hot Tilly Pecker 2 from scratch, designed in CAD by Pete Lale while being built and driven by Shane Lale. The all-HDPE design was inspired by the Series 6 version of Terrorhurtz, with the body shape and bladed axe to match. It debuted at the second Robodojo event in July 2020 and won six back-to-back matches (including four knockouts) to reach the Grand Final of the event before finally losing mobility in battle with Euphoria. It has not competed since this competition in 2020.
Push-Abili-Tilly
In August 2019, Shane Lale competed in the UK Featherweight Championship with the six-wheel drive rammer Push-Abili-Tilly, a repainted version of Disturbance (previously 540). Shane Lale had previously driven this robot to two wins at the July 2019 Robodojo under its original name of Disturbance, replacing a dropout part-way through the competition and ramming one opponent out of the arena. Push-Abili-Tilly finished second in its heat, losing to X-303 and Barghest but winning against Sinister, Impact and Graffiti. This put it through to the Top 16, where it defeated Plastic Fantastic, but lost to Satanix. However, Satanix was forced to withdraw, and Push-Abili-Tilly rejoined the competition at the semi-final stage, where it completed a shock turnaround against Barróg Doom to reach the Grand Final. There, it was thrown out of the arena by X-303, resigning Push-Abili-Tilly to second place in the FRA championship. Push-Abili-Tilly also competed at two full combat Robodojo events in 2020 with mixed success.
Drive By in 2021
Shane Lale won the 2021 Robodojo Sportsman competition with a new robot, Drive By, which also competed at events hosted by Bristol Bot Builders. The robot is inspired by BattleBots competitor Whiplash and features lifting forks and large rubber molded wheels. It secured first place for the year's circuit in February 2022 with an unbeaten streak resulting in a victory over Euphoria in the final. After taking severe damage from a full combat bout, Drive By was rebuilt for FightFest in 2022, where it was eliminated in the second round by Amnesia, but went on to win the Tag Team competition when partnered with Drivetrain.
Alongside Drive By, Shane Lale completed a beetleweight vertical spinner, End Boss, for UK events, with more recent incarnations first appearing at the November 2021 BBB Beetle Champs.[5] Paying homage to 2020 BattleBots champions End Game, it would claim outright victory in the February 2022 BBB Beetle Brawl[6] and November 2022 BBB Beetle Champs,[7] as well as finish runner-up at Robot Rebellion 2022 to Stratus.[8] Further successes awaited End Boss throughout 2023, including first place at Scouse Showdown,[9] and a Top 8 finish at Robot Rebellion.[10]
F7 when it was first built
F7 (centre) in November 2019, with Red Hot Tilly Pecker (left) and Push-Abili-Tilly (right)
Team Tilly also built a middleweight robot, F7 known in full as Force 7, armed with a lifter, originally designed by Adam Hamilton. F7 was initially intended to enter RoboGames 2018, but pulled out[11], and ultimately first appeared at the Extreme Robots Manchester event in April 2018. There, it participated in numerous battles against heavyweight competitors, including a head-to-head against TR3 and a melee against Eric and Crackers 'n' Smash. In November 2019, F7 became the UK middleweight champion, defeating Raphael in the final. In July 2022, F7 attended the Robots Live! Stoke-on-Trent event, forming a heavyweight clusterbot entry Team Kaizen's axe-wielding machine Jibril.[12] Most recently, it fought Zadkiel at Extreme Robots Guildford in June 2023, but lost the 'Spinner Challenge' in brutal fashion after having its sides and wheels torn apart by Team Saint's heavyweight.[13][14]
Dr Thwackenstein
F.7
Team Tilly have also designed a number of beetleweights. Sophie Clarkson (now Sophie Lale) competed in the web-series Bugglebots with Dr Thwackenstein, a beetleweight thwackbot inspired by Gabriel, which had also competed at a previous beetleweight event. It was unsuccessful at the event, suffering from damaged speed controllers against Weewoo, before losing one of its wheels in the redemption round which was ultimately won by Rev 2. Shane Lale was also present at both seasons of Bugglebots as a referee, also driving Saw Loser in the 'Ref Rumble' against The Berg. From June 2020, Shane Lale primarily competes in beetleweight events with F.7, a scaled down version of the middleweight F7, debuting at a Robodojo event that month. The team also own a drum spinner named Trash, considerably lighter than the featherweight limit but occasionally competes in this class regardless.
Shane Lale (left) at BattleBots in 2019 with Nelly the Ellybot
Shane Lale competed in the 2019 season of BattleBots as part of Team Pun-Chant, with their robot Nelly the Ellybot. For more information, see the Nelly the Ellybot article.
Lale also applied for the 2021 season of BattleBots with Templar, under Team Tilly. The team were unsuccessful in their application and are not known to have reapplied since.[15]
Other miscellaneous machines driven by Shane Lale in battle at any point in time include Mighty Mouse, Velocirippa, Kan-Opener H-spec, MONTE, Merlin, Turbulence, Weird mAlice, Pressure and White Knight. Other notable machines driven by Shane Lale, but not necessarily in combat, include Tornado, Firestorm, Bigger Brother and Terrorhurtz.
2023-present[]
In February 2023, it was revealed that Shane Lale had formed part of Team All Star, captained by Sam Price, as they applied for the proposed BattleBots World Championship VIII with clusterbot OgreKill.
In September 2023, a brand-new front-hinged flipper was brought to multiple live events by Shane Lale. The originally-unnamed machine first appeared at Robots Live! Crawley on 9-10 September as a static display, before making its combat debut at Extreme Robots Colchester the following weekend. For the latter, it gained Team Tilly's regular orange paint scheme and was officially named The Alpha (alternatively Alpha). The Alpha took part in at least one 'Fight Club' melee also involving ThunderChild, Audacious, Backflip and Poseidon,[16] along with two competition battles as part of Team Wolfpack.[17][18][19] Further appearances at Robots Live! Grantham[20] and Extreme Robots Maidstone followed; the latter saw The Alpha partnered with Meggamouse for a Tag Team battle at one point.[21] On 28 October, The Alpha fought in the main competition of Robots Live! Stoke-on-Trent, but was eliminated from the first round after becoming immobilised against Behemoth, a spinnerless Donald Thump and Tánshè.[22]
For the 2024 season, The Alpha again competed on the Extreme Robots tour as part of Team Wolfpack,[23] receiving a new orange and black paint scheme inspired by Firestorm. In this form, it fought two Tag Team battles at Doncaster on 20-21 April - alongside Iron-Awe 6 and Leviathan respectively - but lost both by knockout due to recurring technical issues.[24][25][26]
Drive By competed at FightFest 2024 (August 24-26) in the FRA Featherweight Championship. Despite facing various issues with motors burning out and wheels falling off, regularly leaving the robot operating with less than full drive, it still persisted to a fourth place finish overall. Drive By won its opening melee over Shogun and Splicer, advancing it to the second round where Drive By won a split decision over Amicide. Now in the Top 12, Drive By would take its first loss in a rematch against Shogun, but it comfortably won its redemption melee over MS2 and Splicer. Within the Quarter-Finals, Drive By was defeated by Amnesia, but nevertheless advanced to the semi-final in Amnesia's place due to a withdrawal, wherein Drive By lost its final two fights to Malachite and Barghest.
MechMania[]
 |
Six, a rebranded Iron-Awe 6, at Robots Live!/MechMania Grantham, July 2024
In June 2024, it was confirmed that Team Tilly would take part in the inaugural MechMania championship with two heavyweights, both captained by Shane Lale. These were a heavyweight version of Drive By,[27] and Six, a renamed version of Iron Awe 6 with a new red and gold paint scheme.[28] On 9 July, it was announced that, following a rebuild, the featherweight Drive By would also represent the team in its class.[29]
The team initially brought Six and the featherweight Drive By to the opening Grantham stage on 13-14 July, forming part of that weekend's Robots Live! event. Six enjoyed a dominant competition bout against ThunderChild, tossing the Team Ironclads entry around and ultimately out of the arena. Six earned a second win in the Crawley event, this time by flipping Immersion out of the arena. It also participated in multiple whiteboard battles held separately to the televised competitions, including the eleven-robot rumble concluding the 14 July show. Meanwhile, Drive By appeared in two of the five featherweight rumbles to be televised in the opening episode; the first resulted in it falling into the pit, while the second saw it last the full three minutes despite being flipped late on by match winner Explosion. The heavyweight Drive By debuted in Crawley, losing by unanimous judges' decision after surviving the duration of its match against King Buxton. Despite the loss, Shane Lale was pleased with how Drive By performed.
Trivia[]
- Team Tilly were the first team to become a new FRA UK Heavyweight Champion following the cancellation of the Robot Wars reboot, as the 2018 champion Eruption had already won the title twice prior.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/fightingrobotsassociation/photos/a.1151486451674237/1419312884891591/?type=3&theatre
- ↑ https://youtu.be/PTFItk55g10
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TeamTillyRobotics/photos/a.845752518905086/1089071487906520/?type=3&theater
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amF3Mn84JHs
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TeamTilly/posts/pfbid02XCmyH8ikuPa1pLnDpivhBm4BqvoBVqEKGuW5vasLYTavqqwB6t8oQjmAnsTukgNHl
- ↑ 'BBB Beetle Brawl 2022 - Full Competition - Bristol Bot Builders Beetleweight Combat Robots', Joe Brown (YouTube), uploaded 22 February 2022
- ↑ 'BBB Beetle Champs 2022 - Full Competition - Bristol Bot Builders Beetleweight Combat Robots', Joe Brown (YouTube), uploaded 31 October 2022
- ↑ 'Rapture Gaming Festival 2022 Robot Rebellion - All Fights - Beetleweight Robot Combat', Joe Brown (YouTube), uploaded 20 August 2023
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TeamTilly/posts/pfbid02qFSp5W6nQ1mxotiKH5fJxfNn3N4yAtRkUto7udAtS18FYhpBN1mNeBQdKgFMcvpUl
- ↑ 'Robot Rebellion 2023 - The Grand Final', Robot Rebellion (YouTube), streamed 4 March 2024
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TeamTillyRobotics/posts/964413507038986
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0cPwqPXR7M
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/extremerobotshow/posts/pfbid0aDrkDDyFXkRVejmkk3ENWP1kkbbssydS1bjwy3y9sgs8y1oiu9sKBGyRiUVyf5MPl
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHCJCDTbjY
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TeamTilly/photos/pb.100057442449380.-2207520000./1863121867168141/?type=3
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots Colchester 2023: ThunderChild Vs Alpha Vs Poseidon Vs Backflip & Audacious'. TEAM IRONCLADS (YouTube), uploaded 16 September 2023
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots Colchester Show 1 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 16 September 2023
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots 2023 Colchester Show 2 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 16 September 2023
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots 2023 Colchester Show 3 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 17 September 2023
- ↑ Facebook Live video from Robots Live! Grantham, 14 October 2023, Apollo Robot (defunct)
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots 2023 Maidstone Show 3 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 22 October 2023
- ↑ 'Robots Live Stoke 2023: Behemoth Vs Donald Thump Vs The Alpha Vs Tanshe', TEAM IRONCLADS (YouTube), uploaded 29 October 2023
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/extremerobotshow/posts/pfbid0jWYguwdSRjCWxoNBeu4dED3qd5ovfE9yHC7B39SBPWQN9Dpbebt2CrHtTEWvemCZl
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots 2024 Doncaster Show 1 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 20 April 2024
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots 2024 Doncaster Show 2 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 20 April 2024
- ↑ 'Extreme Robots 2024 Doncaster Show 3 LIVESTREAM', Extreme Robots (YouTube), streamed 21 April 2024
- ↑ https://x.com/Mech_Plus/status/1802672539854102593
- ↑ https://x.com/Mech_Plus/status/1803397326083403978
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/officialmechplus/posts/pfbid0LWhPQqd7SLgdmwq8BKWLGg4rV3YgLspSAF3G3dK3y12scBGhs6p96kcSTNVdGUsxl
External Links[]
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