Throughout all series of Robot Wars, along with the prior 1994-1997 US competitions, teams decided to experiment with armour materials for various reasons. As such, there were a few occasions when a robot appeared with a material used as armour which was rarely, if ever, seen on other robots. These materials varied from aesthetic additions which still served a function (such as various fabric skirts and kilts seen on some robots), to other more elaborate materials and solutions to specific problems, and finally some experimental materials which weren't used by other teams as a result.
Definition[]
Any material used as a primary armour which does not class as wood, metal, plastic, a composite fibre or rubber falls into this category, as they were used on less than ten robots.
Robots which included a layer of an uncommon substance, or were covered in a decoration which could be used as an entanglement device will still class as eligible for this list. Fabrics which do not meet the criteria to be classed as Fur fall into this category.
Sometimes robots included sacrificial aesthetic decorations or mascots on their robots. This ranged from the flammable Cardboard on Tricerabot to the toy monkey on Cedric Slammer. As these did not have any protective properties (except in very specific and favourable circumstances), and could be removed without any problems, they will not be counted for this list.
Advantages and Disadvantages[]
These advantages can also be applied to any robot debuting a new material at various times through Robot Wars' run detailed on other pages, rather than the properties of the armours specifically detailed on this page
Advantages
- Teams with damaging weapons may not know what to expect when fighting an uncommon armour. This can cause opponents to mispredict its properties and use the wrong tactics to attack it.
- More common armour materials may not have the properties required for certain aesthetic choices, especially some heavily sculpted body shells, such as the polystyrene and clay design of The Creature.
Disadvantages
- Armour which has not been used before may not work as predicted, and carries the risk of being particularly vulnerable without any predecessors to compare with.
- It may also have been misused in its first use, and it can take a few attempts for a team, or a copycat team, to utilise the armour effectively.
- Commonly used materials such as Steel and Polycarbonate are strong, easy to work with, plentiful and cheap. Trying to bring a new armour into use can often carry the risk of sacrificing one or more of those properties.
List of robots with Uncommon Armour materials[]
Robots are listed alphabetically.
DESKTOP MODE ONLY: Robots which are not heavyweight competitors are listed with a green background.
| Robot | Series Appearances with Uncommon armour | Material | Notes | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Widow (UK) | Series 5 | Cotton wool. | Designed to look like a spider's web, acted as an entanglement device. |  |
| Blue | Dutch Series 1 | Chicken wire and cavity foam. | Deliberately fragile decorative armour. Also included smoke bombs. |  |
| Chroma | Extreme 2 | Duct tape. | Light, strong and thin material used by the antweight competitor. |  |
| Corkscrew | Series 5 | Fabric. | Wore a kilt as an allusion to the team's Scottish roots. |   |
| Corkscrew Two | Series 7 | Nylon bristles. | Encircled the base of the circular robot instead of using a solid skirt. |   |
| Fighting Torque | Extreme 1 | Fabric. | Only used a kilt to cover gaps in the chassis. |   |
| Legion | Extreme 1 | Electric tape. | Utilised by the antweight clusterbot, which had to have most of its armour removed to comply with the 150g weight limit. |   |
| Ruf Ruf Dougal | Series 5-6 | Fire blanket. | Placed under the loft insulation exterior to stop flames spreading to the internals. |   |
| The Creature | Series 4 | Polystyrene and clay. | Elaborate bodywork design made as an art project. |   |
| The Lethal Swan | Dutch Series 1-2 | Cloth. | Flammable cloth. |   |
| Typhoon Thunder | Extreme 2 | Fabric. | Kilt, also formed one half of part of middleweight clusterbot Typhoon Twins. |  |
| Psycho Chicken | US Series 2 | Papier-mâché. | Material used for the sacrificial Minibot Scramble. |   |
| Snookums | US Series 2 | Fabric tail. | Successfully entangled multiple spinning weapons. |   |
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