- "This'll prune a few nails, nuts and bolts with its 12-volt, electric motor-driven, horizontal bashing blade! The bodyshell's reinforced 6mm aluminium sheet, it cost three-and-a-half thousand pounds to build."
- — Jonathan Pearce introduces Toecutter
Toecutter was a competitor robot that fought in Series 3 of Robot Wars. It reached the second round of its heat before being defeated by then-reigning champion Panic Attack there.
Team Nexus members Simon and Jon Reason were also part of the Wolverine team in Series 5, joining after they failed to qualify for that series with Toecutter 2.
Design[]
- "Our weapon was a 5 kilo blade attached to a Clay Pigeon trap. It was a terrifying weapon to work with (it could have cut off our arm if it went wrong), but against steel and metal, it didn't really perform."
- — Simon Reason
Toecutter in the arena
Toecutter was a large, silver box-shaped robot armoured in 6mm thick aluminium sheets and featuring a unique spring-powered rotating blade as its weapon. The blade itself weighed 5kg (quoted as 3kg on the show) and could fire at a speed of up to 120mph. Toecutter took three months and cost £3500 to build, and showed good speed and manoeuvrability throughout its appearances, although its blade proved ineffective against metal and was mounted too high for it to attack lower robots. Additionally, the robot itself lacked a self-righting mechanism and was susceptible to drive problems during its battles, with both issues resulting in its defeat against Panic Attack.
Etymology[]
- "The reason we changed the name is because Mentorn was worried that Blade Runner would represent a copyright infringement on the Blader Runner film. You might notice that our team name (Nexus) also refers to the replicants in Blade Runner (Roy Baty was Nexus-6) - Toecutter was Nexus-1..."
- — Simon Reason
Toecutter demonstrates its weapon during the auditions. Note the robot's original name, 'Blade Runner', on the top panel.
Toecutter was originally given the name Blade Runner, as a reference to the 1982 Ridley Scott film of the same name. However, this was changed at Mentorn's request before the start of Series 3, presumably to avoid copyright infringements, although the team's name, Nexus - another reference to Blade Runner - remained unchanged. Indeed, Toecutter still bore its original name during footage of it testing in the auditions, with Jonathan Pearce stating onscreen that Blade Runner was merely the robot's 'working title'. Toecutter's replacement name was, in turn, a reference to "Toecutter", a motorbike gang leader who serves as the antagonist of the 1979 dystopian action film Mad Max.
- "Peter Reason suggested the name Toecutter - that was taken from another film, Mad Max. I quite fancied the name Ankle Grinder, but Toecutter stuck."
- — Simon Reason
Qualification[]
- "And boy, what damage. Under its working title "Blade Runner", this was Toecutter in the audition. That's a melon though, boys! How about Matilda and Killalot? They're different."
- — Jonathan Pearce, recapping Toecutter's weapon demonstration
In Series 3, Toecutter qualified by running the same obstacle course performed by all applicants. It was also given the opportunity to demonstrate its weapon on a watermelon, slicing it in half with its blade. As a result, Toecutter qualified for Series 3 and its weapon demonstration was used during its introduction.
- "The original Toecutter was a Mad Max gang member. Well, he's back, he's nastier, and he's changed sides. In the films, the good guys always win, and you might notice a certain theme about our robot this year."
- — Toecutter website on Toecutter 2
Toecutter 2
Toecutter 2 fighting Cataclysmic Variabot in the Series 5 qualifiers
Following Series 3, the team modified Toecutter over six months and renamed it Toecutter 2.[1] To combat its previous loss, the robot now featured two rollover plates to enable it to roll back onto its wheels whenever it was flipped. Its wheelguards were also removed, and the robot was repainted white with yellow stripes to resemble a police car and included a flashing blue light and a stuffed toy pig on its top armour. With these modifications, Toecutter 2 attempted to enter Series 4, but failed to qualify under currently unknown circumstances. It then attempted to qualify for Series 5, largely unchanged from Series 4, but again failed to do so after losing its qualifier to Cataclysmic Variabot, which also failed to qualify. Despite the modified Toecutter 2 never making it onto Robot Wars, it would prove to be a regular attendee at live events in between the show's run and long after its cancellation.
Robot History[]
Series 3[]
Toecutter fought in Heat K of the Third Wars, and faced fellow newcomer Purple Predator in its first round battle.
- "In Series 3 in the fight with Purple Predator, we sustained damage from the spikes at the end of the arena. The arena was terrible for range for our FM transmitter (it was terrible for everyone, if you watch the series you will notice people sticking their aerials outside the control 'box' where we had to stand)."
- — Simon Reason on preparing for the battle with Purple Predator
Toecutter slashes Purple Predator's fur
Toecutter is almost overturned by the Arena spike during the closing moments of the battle
Despite starting slowly, it managed to rip part of Purple Predator's fur off after the latter tried to push it from the side, and tore another few sections of it off as both robots rubbed alongside each other. Toecutter then pushed Purple Predator into Dead Metal, and lingered on the Flame Pit before driving away and chasing Purple Predator around the arena. It got underneath Purple Predator as the latter was thrust into the air by an arena spike, only to be nearly turned over twice by the spike and launched away. However, Toecutter recovered to tear more of Purple Predator's fur off before 'cease' was called, and won the subsequent judges' decision.
- "We lost power on the spikes and we were thrown into the air. At the time, I thought we were going out there and then. However, I got control back and managed to survive to the end of the match. Unfortunately, we had bent the rear axle of one of our wheels. This caused the wheel to rub against the wheelguard."
- — Simon Reason on the damage sustained in the battle with Purple Predator
In the second round, Toecutter faced the then-reigning champion Panic Attack.
Panic Attack lifts but fails to turn Toecutter over
Toecutter rams Panic Attack
Panic Attack gets underneath Toecutter
Toecutter is overturned by the reigning champion
Both robots started tentatively as they circled round each other, before Panic Attack got under Toecutter with its forks and rammed it a few times. Toecutter struggled to use its blade effectively and appeared to have lost drive to its right-hand wheels as Panic Attack again circled round and shoved it into Dead Metal, though Toecutter escaped. Panic Attack continued to push Toecutter before lifting it and turning it onto its back, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from the House Robots. Dead Metal cut through Toecutter's baseplate while Sir Killalot snapped one of its drive chains before turning it back onto its wheels and using his lance to drill through the gap between its blade and body. Sgt. Bash then attempted to snap part of Toecutter's blade off with his pincers before 'cease' was called, and Toecutter was unceremoniously eliminated from the Third Wars.
- "In the fight with Panic Attack, you will notice there's a few times where we don't seem to have much life, or where we go round in circles. This is from the damage we sustained in the first heat. It was disappointing to be knocked out in just our second battle, but Panic Attack was a worthy opponent to lose to!"
- — Simon Reason on the loss to Panic Attack
Results[]
| TOECUTTER - RESULTS | ||
| Series 3 | ||
| The Third Wars - UK Championship Heat Semi Final | ||
| Heat K, Round 1 | vs. Purple Predator | Won |
| Heat K, Round 2 | vs. Panic Attack | Lost |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 1
- Losses: 1
Series Record[]
Team Nexus with Toecutter
| Series | Toecutter Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Did not enter |
| The Second Wars | Did not enter |
| The Third Wars | Heat, Round 2 |
| The Fourth Wars | Failed to qualify with Toecutter 2 |
| The Fifth Wars | Failed to qualify with Toecutter 2 |
| 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 |
Gallery[]
Outside Robot Wars[]
Toecutter 2 in the pits at the Debenham Robot Rumble 2000 event
Toecutter 2 at the Dutch Robot Games in 2003
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Toecutter 2 at Brighton ModelWorld 2004
Despite its unsuccessful qualification attempts, Toecutter 2 attended multiple live events such as the 2000 Robots@War show.[2] It also fought at the 2000 Debenham Robot Rumble event, but lost both of its battles against Dominator 2 and Bigger Brother.[3]
Sometime afterwards, Toecutter 2 reverted to its original design with the grey colour scheme and wheelguards. It would compete in three rumbles at the Dutch Robot Games in 2003, losing to Edge Hog by knockout in the main competition, and to The Grim Reaper and Spike in its non-competition bouts.[4] After The Seventh Wars, Toecutter 2 competed at Brighton Modelworld in 2004, appearing in a rumble among Behemoth, Iron-Awe 2.1, Hydra, Steel Sandwich and others.
Trivia[]
- Apart from the Series 1 auditions included as part of The Making of Robot Wars and certain reboot competitors, Toecutter is the only robot to have footage from its audition or qualifier shown on the televised show.
- Toecutter is one of three robots known to have been asked to modify its name or design by the producers to avoid copyright disputes, the other two being Scutter's Revenge and Ruf Ruf Dougal.
- The only opponents Toecutter fought have names starting with the letter "P".