As I am currently in the process of watching Series 5 for Crowned Classics I think it's best to go through and rank Series 5! Unlike the Series 4 ranking this WILL include the Semi Finals and Grand Final as well, I'll go through them from least favourite to most liked. Series 5 is probably gonna be the hardest of the Series rankings as...well, Series 5 is boring. Already having watched the first five Heats, 3/5 of them are tedious and hard to sit through with the other two being somewhat entertaining (at least Series 7, which is sort of on the same level for me, has genuinely good episodes for the first few Heats). So yeah, don't expect much positivity for a large part of this... That said hope you enjoy!
15th Semi Finals 2[]
Just imagine seeing the full 5 minutes of this
You'd think a fight with these three would be good wouldn't you?
You can tell how dull an episode is by the lack of images of the main article...
It's not all doom and gloom I guess
Starting off this list is one of the single WORST EPISODES OF ALL TIME, this being the abysmal Semi Final 2. Even as a kid watching this Series, I hated this Semi Final. The fact that the first Semi Final was so good in every aspect, you'd think with the second one it's be at the very least decent or on par with the first, especially with a impressive line up like that! Unfortunately, what we get is a snore fest with some of the worst battles in the series.
The line up of Pussycat, Hypno-Disc, Firestorm, Dominator, Panic Attack and Wheely Big Cheese is one seriously great one, so how does this fail massively? Well look at the first round battles for starters. Dominator 2 vs Wheely Big Cheese starts off alright with WBC throwing Dominator 2 about and Dominator getting an axe hit in once or twice. It's built up to be an impressive fight but then WBC has drive problems and then dies all of a sudden, no real action packed or impressive hit from Dominator just WBC dying by own intention, it isn't helped that most of the time both machines seemed to be awkwardly moving in to attack each other beforehand. Now, if that first battle was mediocre at best wait until you see the big machines in Firestorm and Hypno-Disc go at it...oh wait it's over by the time you've finished this sentence. Now a quick KO can be good sometimes, take Gravity's OOtA of Dantomkia or Kadeena Machina vs Dee for examples. But what makes them good and vast majority bad is sometimes down to visuals and destruction, they were visually destructive and in the Dee case destructive as well. This fight has no of that, Hypno-Disc comes in and hits Firestorm once and it dies immediately, no real fight, no stunning visuals, no destruction just a simple knock and it's dead.
Now with one very mediocre to bad battle and one bad fight the third fight was destined to be a train wreck. But funnily enough, this episode does have some positive moments, this being the Pussycat fights. Both Pussycat's fights in this episode are the best parts of the episode, with the first fight against Panic Attack being quite a good one reminding me of the Stinger fight in Series 4 (though I'd argue Stinger's fight was better) Both robots get attacks in with Panic Attack taking it slowly and getting lifts in while Pussycat uses its disc to get some decent attacks in. Pussycat's other fight with Firestorm later on the line in Round 2 was also pretty good with Firestorm getting great flips and ramming attacks in while Pussycat gets some slices in and there is some elements of intensity with Firestorm 3's piss poor reliability getting the better of it only to spring back. So yeah Pussycat's fights are great the remaining battles on the other hand are a disaster!
I can remember when I was a kid and seeing the Loser's Melee for this episode. I loved the all yellow theme and the three robots involved made this fight seem like it would be good. I remember how as a kid I felt disappointed and hated this fight, and that has continued even now. This fight is basically two crippled robots and one working machine. Wheely Big Cheese and Panic Attack hardly move a millimetre and Firestorm, the robot who works ramming its opponents as opposed to flipping. The fight seemed like it would be great but alas it is almost as disappointing as The Rise of Skywalker, offering action from only one robot and even then it's not the most impressive and the ONLY thing that made this fight seem okayish was the end with Panic Attack springing back to life and attacking Firestorm by the CPZ. It sucks but at least it isn't the SINGLE WORST FIGHT OF ALL TIME, that's right Dominator 2 vs Hypno-Disc. It starts off as a usual fight would with both machines meeting and attacks taking place by soon Hypno-Disc give a hard knock and Dominator is immobile. So how can a basic fight like that become so hated an considered one of the worst fights of alltime? Well you see, even though Dominator can't move the fight continues. Hypno-Disc almost intelligently stays back because they know Dominator can't do anything and surely a count down should start...right? No, instead we the audience have to sit and watch as an immobile robot does nothing and the active robot is sat there wondering why they haven't been counted out. I'd like to imagine what people who saw this live must have felt, just sat their for five minutes watching nothing happen...no wonder they bood. For me this is the worst fight ever, nothing compares to how dreadful this is and how stupidly inconsistent the "one wheel working" rule was, surely if it can't move, it has to be counted out, like what were they thinking?! Well...okay, I have a theory. You see Hypno-Disc was one of the "big guns",the main ones, and as such I wouldn't be surprised if the producers thought that having Hypno-Disc cause heavy "disc-truction" should occour and due to how quick Firestorm's battle was, they wanted this one to be prolonged so that Hypno-Disc would do something impressive...
So yeah, an awful start as usual to this ranking as I do hate this episode, only two fights are good, the rest suck in their own special ways. I'm afraid things for the time being won't be that positive, especially as Dominator happens to be in two of Series 5's worst episodes...spoiler alert Heat F is coming soon!
14th Heat F[]
Dominator really didn't have the best of appearances in Series 5 and Extreme did it?
This looks better than it actually is
Before spinners killed each other in one explosive hit spinner on spinner battles resulted in one getting stuck and/or not working
Again, looks better than it actually is
Unlike Semi Final 2 where when I was young I hated it then and hate it now, this episode was one I like when I was young but really don't like now. It's strange, Heat Fs in Robot Wars were always top quality but Series 5 is the ONLY exception to this having one of the most boring episodes ever.
So in terms of competitors, it's decent, sure we don't know the true powers of Corkscrew and 13 Black as of yet but they're great newcomers in a Heat with three former Semi Finalists a supposedly technologically advanced newcomer and a jokebot in Immortalis. Surely, things can't go wrong?
They can, they can, they can! The first battle with Dominator vs Derek! is a bore with nothing much happening and Derek! doing not a lot for this supposedly greatly engineered machine. The second fight with Kronic and King B is much better but once again the action is bit lacking, there's a flip here from Kronic and King B rams every so often but both machine's controls are something to be desired and the fight felt ponderous despite the odd admittingly good attacks. 13 Black vs Corkscrew was built to be a good fight, two spinners clashing but what we get is Corkscrew getting stuck on 13 Black for five minutes...a very boring match despite both newcomers seeming to be very powerful and impressive looking...but this fight really doesn't do either of them justice. Immortalis vs X-Terminator was a sacrificial battle nothing more, and they don't have to be bad but this one was. Again, nothing much happens and until Immortalis is decimated by Shunt and even then it's not amazing destruction.
Round 2 doesn't really improve. When choosing Crowned Classics I decided to choose Dominator vs King B as the Heat F option as it is a Heat full of dullness. King B vs Dominator is decent at best for at least having some great axe hits from Dominator 2 and King B driving up the slopes and being aggressive makes way for a fun fight. Then we're back to boring battles, X-Terminator vs Corkscrew. X-Terminator adds a wooden block to protect itself and this should be decimated nicely...except it doesn't. Corkscrew barely spins and once again gets stuck, X-Terminator gets a few hits in but is knocked badly by Corkscrew and in a rather disappointing end to X-Terminator's run.
The final is over very quickly with Corkscrew not working again and Dominatpr dominates by ramming and eventually...yawn, I'm really getting bored just typing this. Again nothing much happens with very few attacks in and yeah I' really can't say much without repeating myself.
Pretty much what can be summarised about Heat F is that it's incredibly boring and forgettable. Almost all the fights are tedious to sit through and watch with hardly much occurring and the competitors being a major disappointment with none of them actually putting much effort or style in. I will say the next few episodes will be quite hard as they are in that "mundane" category and all feel the same.
13th Heat A[]
The most threat that Chaos 2 faces in this episode
As per usual the image makes it look a whole lot better than it actually is
A battle like this should have been at least funny...
This was a tough choice as there are many episodes that sort of feel the same, in a way this was the episode that pulled the shortest straw. The key difference for me about what makes Heat A from Series 4 and 6 better than Series 5's Heat A is simple, entertainment. The big flaw that Series 5 has is, despite having The Steel Avenger and S.M.I.D.S.Y. in the episode with the reigning champions, at no point are the battles really entertaining.
So yeah, it's a champion's Heat but unlike what comes before and after it, here there's just no "umph!" to it, nothing so amazingly explosive just a little pip and that's it. Now that's not to say there aren't good moments. I will say all three of Chaos 2's battles are fun in their own right, the first battle was an obvious one sided bout but the flips were a great spectacle, the Steel Avenger fight was great soley for the brilliant OOtA and the Heat Final because it was the only time a rematch was called.
When you look at the roster and the battles presented, for me it always makes me wonder why they went with the boring and rather tedious head to head instead of the melees? For me if they had the four way melee in the fifth wars, I'd bet ya it would have made episodes like this a Hell of a lot better. There'd be more mayhem and even dull robots like T-Bone or Obsidian have more exciting moments, in fact The Tartan Terror could have had a more entertaining send off than the disappointing end we got in the real one. The battles are rather tedious with almost every single one being a slow battle with little action, maybe a hit or two here but no much else. Like I said, I'd bet a 4 way Melee could have redeemed this.
I think what makes this episode worst the more I see it is the fact that this is the first episode, the one that's meant to debut all the new stuff and get you ready for the new series but instead it's just a feeling of "oh it's another Robot Wars, here ya go" no real excitement and thrills to be had.
12th Heat B[]
I swear the name Black Widow is one of the most popular robot names
If the flips were more explosive and the destruction was prolonged it could have been decent
Poor Atomic, your time will come...(also another in need of a DVD remake)
I'm surprised I got away with hardly any Hypno-Disc images here
After Heat A comes Heat B, surely the destructive power of Hypno-Disc should make this better...wee sort of. Two of Hypno-Disc's matches outweigh Heat A in its entirety but the key word there was two because those two fights are the only two fights that are actually good...
I will say this, the robots in this Heat (except Juggernot 2) are all really cool and for me exciting. We have the big guns in Hypno-Disc, Atomic and Bulldog Breed but we have a fun and brilliant walker in Black Widow, the unique Wowot, the soon to be allstar Kan-Opener as well as Lambsy which maybe slow but I and many others have a soft spot for it. It's a shame that it is just Head to Head because these battles don't really help justify for assist these fun robots, especially in matches like Lambsy vs Wowot where nothing much happens, had there been two others with at least one of them being a "big gun" then they would have had a more exciting payoff.
As for the two good battle of the episode they are Hypno-Disc vs Black Widow and Hypno-Disc vs Atomic. The first one is an obvious "let's show off our allstar by giving it a sacrificial robot" sort of deal but it's at least very entertaining, seeing the spider legs fly off and the floor flipper skit providing some hilarity. The second battle was unfortunate in the long run but for what it's worth, it is probably the Hypno-Disc vs Splinter of the series with Atomic doing well at first (just like Splinter in a way) before the flipper is disabled and the poor robot is torn to pieces. It is a shame that because of this Atomic would not appear in annihilator 2 but it is the best fight here.
As for the rest of the episode...oh dear. The rest of the fights are either a "1 hit/flip and its over" or a slow pushing match that either goes to a judges or is interrupted by some bored House Robots. It's a real shame too, because robots like Wowot are eliminated because they are attacked by a House Robot or robots like Kan-Opener aren't given room to breath are quickly gone before they have the chance. The Heat Final was also extremely disappointing. Bulldog Breed is KO'd (although somewhat impressively) extremely easily and once again, no room for a truly great fight, at least Atomic kept fighting on and on. The final does start off well but yeah it ends quickly and makes me wonder how that one hit caused Bulldog Breed to drop out of the annihilator? I mean all we see is the link flop out, so was there something worse?
The episode had lots of potential but unfortunately that potential is almost thrown away by, in my opinion at least, the format. I feel the biggest killer in a lot of these Heats is the head-to-head format, sometimes they work (as you'll see later on) but for the most part it neutered great potential in many robots. I feel this Heat is one of the major victims in this whereby had it been a 4-way melee it would be entertaining and provide thrills even if the second round or heat final or both did not. For me it's depressing to have to sit and watch an episode where 5/7 battle are bad with only 2 being very good. That is a big problem and sadly, it's not over...
11th Heat K[]
Destruct-A-Bubble winning is great...how it won is a different matter
To think Big Nipper would eventually become of the best machines in Robot Wars...
I can see why this is considered one of the best Series 5 battles
An underrated battle perhaps
I'm glad we only saw a minute of this fight...imagine if they pulled a Hypno-Disc vs Dominator 2 situation
There's a bit of pattern here concerning Series 5 episodes. A lot of them have some great set ups and some great robots with lots of potential, see Heat B for example with the great robots involved. However, it all falls apart in the battles when there's usually only one or two that are really outstanding with the rest being piss poor. As a result, just because we have one outstanding battle, the rest of the episode suffers because there's not much to enjoy... Heat K is a painful example.
I'd argue this Razer Heat was easier than Series 3, 4 and 6's as NONE of the robots had a sniff of even having a chance in giving Razer trouble. But, that said, we do have an interesting and fun range of robots to enjoy. Big Nipper, as we know now, is one of Robot Combat's most impressive and one of Robot Wars' most powerful robots, certainly a top 10 in terms of overall power level if one were to rank EVERY competitor, but of course this is the first appearance and although it was paper thin and basically a box in the arena, the claw was unique and impressively built. Widow's Revenge was a jokebot but one with a lot of fun and humour put in with the Team being absolutely brilliant, Axe-C-Dent looked great but as we know died if you look at it funny and Rick an impressive upgrade to Maverick and dare I say rather underrated. Returnees in Sumpthing was great to see, Suicidal Tendencies had been upgraded to an awesome claw and looks brilliant with Extreme proving it had potential but of course the best one being Destruct-A-Bubble, a joke bot of pure beauty and stupidity and the fact that it wins makes me happy...except when you see the battle...
Battles here are pretty bad. We start off great with the surprisingly tense but brilliant battle between Razer and Big Nipper. I always remember when I was young being so shocked by Razer's self righting arm being torn off and Big Nipper having a lead at first but soon the part-bird, part-reptile machine crushes Big Nipper in a brilliant display of power. Unfortunately, that fantastic start is diminished by the other battles afterwards. Widow's Revenge vs Sumpthing is one of the most boring battles ever and probably one of the worst, the fact that we only see around a minute's worth of the battle shows that even the producers thought it sucked! Destruct-A-Bubble vs Axe-C-Dent, aside from DaB winning, the battle is whole lot of nothing with with DaB having weird and poor control and Axe-C-Dent dying from...something? I still can't believe Toast threw support for that thing in Ragnabots 3... Luckily, we do get Suicidal Tendencies vs Rick which is a fine battle. In my opinion it really demonstrated the power of Suicidal Tendencies which served to have caused major damaged and display aggressive control throughout, it's a great fight and rather underrated and forgotten.
Round 2 is where we get it. You know what I mean. One of Series 5's greatest fights and according to Chris Reynolds in the Ultimate Warrior as one of the best fights ever, this is Razer vs Widow's Revenge. So everything in a great battle is ticked off here, except intensity and grittiness that is. The context is that it's Razer against their partners and my God does it create some humourous banter and result in brilliance in the arena. Yes we know that Razer will win this outright but we have NEVER seen destruction from Razer like this before, unless you count Matilda. I always love seeing the pieces of wood and metal literally pop off and fly in the air as Razer crushes down. Then we have Matilda getting involved and just annihilating Widow's Revenge with the flywheel is just perfection. Then the end with Razer failing to pit Widow's revenge makes for a funny end to a brilliantly destructive fight. Rick vs Destruct-A-Bubble on the other hand...was not so great. For starters, it's a battle that the House Robots determine for the competitors and not a lot of action takes place. One flip occurs and DaB is beaten which id just depressing. I mean imagine if Razer fought DaB in the final? it would a tough and interesting battle but instead we get a forgone conclusion but at least we see Razer fighting Sir Killalot and it manages to get to Semis, so there's that.
Again we see an episode that does have some great moments and potential but it's instantly dashed by the large amounts of bad or boring fights. In fact, I almost feel this episode is more obvious that others as you don't have to be a genius to tell the obvious parallels of the battles, when it's good it's really good but when it's bad it's really, really bad. Also the reason I rated this over Heat A and B is primarily because of the Razer vs Widow's Revenge fight, a quality over quantity situation.
10th Heat L[]
Great fight this
If I were to tell you that this is the only real attack in the fight...
After rewatching this battle I've come to realise how tough 101 must have been
This ain't even funny just humiliating
This episode is quite interesting. You see the episode is good from Round 2 onwards, it's memorable and has some really good clashes. In fact the set of robots we have here are very good, we have newcomers with interesting and unique designs, returnees with a more modern upgrade and of course the veterans that give it some class But, and I'd argue, the Heat suffers greatly from its head to head format which really neuters what could have been a very good Heat.
So the major issue this Heat suffers from and really downgrades it to a tenth position. To start off with, we have Pussycat vs Executioner, where neither robot can effectively do ANYTHING to each other with very few moments of true attacks, it's forgettable and a really and start. Ming 3 vs Terrorhurtz starts off really strong and what really annoys me about this fight is that it COULD have been really good, but instead, for what ever reason, Matilda comes out and ends the battle in one fowl impact. It's the type of fight that ends abruptly and not in a good way, it's quite literally ruined for no reason other than I presume it was a boring battle for the producers so they "livened it up" The third fight was Clawed Hopper vs Twister...it's bad I mean Twister dies after a hit and is then sllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwllllllllllyyyyyyy pushed into the pit. Finally we have 101 vs Fluffy, what should have been a destructathon turns into Fluffy struggling to actually hit or damage 101, how embarrassing.
Luckily the rest of the episode is really good. Clawed Hopper vs Pussycat is destructive and fun with Clawed Hopper doing well to survive despite the damage, it even allowed Pussycat to show its true power, especially after it's height in Series 4. Terrorhurtz vs Fluffy is also destructive and for me demonstrated Fluffy's power much better and more impressively than the previous. It's also a great battle to look back on especially given how Team Hurtz improved Terrorhurtz to withstand horizontal spinners. The final is very famous for a lot for reasons. It's pretty good with the newcomers proving to be a force to reckon with as it decimates Pussycat's blade, sending it flying into air. Pussycat does also attack and continue with its aggression despite this. Of course it ends with Fluffy breaking down which is a bit of a cop out but at the same time it sort of helps the battle as it is the type of battle that keeps you on your toes and consistently twists and turns to provide a battle where you really don't know how it's gonna go.
Alas, because only three battles are good and the rest of awful or bad it really hinders this episode and once again provided the reason why head to heads don't work. At least this was the last time I guess.
9th Heat I[]
The only bit of an action from the fight
For some reason this was better when I was young
One of the best Heat Finals
I often forget Onslaught in this series...
This is an interesting case. When I was younger, I remembered really liking this episode and enjoying it thoroughly, however upon the rewatch and then doing Crowned Classics for Series 5, this episode fell quite dramatically in my opinion and really suffers greatly from the head to head format as well as the competitors involved.
The robots here are creative and all fun in their own way. In fact, I'd argue this is a case of "if you just judge a robot on its looks alone" because when you see pictures of the likes of VIPER01, Tip Top and Tetanus, you'd get the impression that they're really, really good and will prove to be a challenge. but that's not the case. In fact the ONLY robot I'd say worked completely well was Bigger Brother, so there's no question why that was the one that went on through.
The battles are certainly more mixed to negative for me. I find 3/4 first round battles to be beyond either awful with one I actually quite like, although its ending to be unfortunate. That one battle being Tetanus vs Onsluaght which is a fun battle and one that I find highly enjoyable. Just a shame that tetanus died so easily. The other battles are...oh dear. Bigger Brother vs Tip-Top was boring but the best of the three awful battles, yes impressive for Bigger Brother to get a OOtA quickly but it sort of struggled to even flip Tip Top and Tip Top barely did anything, if anything at all! Splinter vs Viper was a pushing match with an axe that did nothing and well nothing really happens. Then we get one of the worst fights ever, and a major disappointment. If I ever did a top ten WORST fights ever, this fight would be on that list. Eleven vs 3 Stegs should have been fun. Eleven was not going to win this what so ever, and pitting it with a spinner should have been hilarious with legs and exposed wires being cut to pieces but we didn't get that, instead we have 3 Stegs getting caught and the two robots locked to each other the whole fight. FUN!
Round 2 offers a step up in quality. Although Splinter vs Bigger Brother is quick it does feel much better than the Tip Top fight because Splinter actually does something. Tetanus vs 3 Stegs is a fun battle with the power of 3 Stegs' blade being shown as it tears off the spikes and crusher of Tetanus in an impressive move! However, like the last Tetanus fight its ending is disappointing.
The Heat Final is one of Robot Wars' best and you'd think, if you ever saw the DVD first or just saw the Heat Final only, you'd think it must have been a quality episode...Well, this Heat Final is a Hell of a lot of fun! Bigger Brother dominates and although it struggles to OOtA 3 Stegs it manages to provide great flips and action along the way. It even attacks Shunt and Sir Killalot with a pitting at the end resulting in a humorous end to a fun fight.
This episode for me is a prime example of "it was great when I young" sort of episode, when I was young I love is but now it's something I'm disappointed by.
8th Heat E[]
I keep forgetting how good this fight really is
I was always annoyed how Thermidor lost this but this is a great fight also
Some of you may be able to hear the loud groan from me by just looking at this
Y'know, The Alien never really had many good fights all things considered...
I won't lie when I first started doing this, I honestly thought this would be lower. I always had a bad spot with this episode, I never really liked it or remembered it. However, upon going through Series 5 for Crowned Classics, my perception of this episode has certainly increased and I kinda enjoy it now.
The episode is filled with nothing but famous faces, okay so two of them make their debut this episode, but I still argue that because of what we know now, it is a famous face. These robots are all unique and all diverse in their own ways, making for a more interesting competition. To make matters better, they are all (except Warhog) capable of doing something, so it is exciting to see this play out...
Battle wise, we have two fantastic round 1 fights, one mediocre fight and one absolutely awful battle, again probably one of the worst fights ever. Let's get the bad outta the way first, Napalm vs Warhog is plain embarrassing and just tedious to watch. As CrashBash once said, it's obvious the producers wanted to smash up Napalm, but using Warhog, a robot that died from a single blow lasts series and is as reliable as using a sledgehammer against a PC and expecting it to work. I hate this battle and the worst part about it, it DRAGS ON! It's one thing for a battle to last a few seconds it's another when it drags on, something Series 5 seems to love... Velocirippa vs The Alien is nothing too special, kinda forgettable and not really much to talk about. Now for the good, Wild Thing vs Trouble N Strife is a really good fight! Wild Thing doesn't have it easy as TnS manages to buckle the wedge, disable the weapon and almost tear off a wheel. However, this becomes a battle of control as Wild Thing manages to shove TnS around the arena and manages to feed it to the House Robots. A great fight and close one! The other fantastic battle is Thermirdor 2 vs Prizephita. It's a battle where, yes Thermidor loses in a rather embarrassing way, but it's one of those fights where both machines do a great job and Prizephita a two time round 1 loser beating a semi finalist is shocking and awe inspiring, a great fight between two great robots.
Round 2 is forgettable. Nothing major happens in either battle (I mean just look at how lacking the articles are about the second round...) but seeing Prizephita, a two time round 1 loser, manages to beat Alien and face Wild Thing in the Heat Final. This Heat Final is infamous for being controversial, and for me I still am conflicted about who should have won, then again it could be the editing. Both robots perform excellently and and there's a lot of great moments from Prizephita kicking arse. The fights is tense and honestly a great Heat Final for this episode, it also serves and fantastic vengeance between the machines, who have both evolved hugely!
This is a decent episode, but it definitely could have been better. Round 2 for example is forgettable and I for the life of me can't remember any real major moments from them and of course some of Round 1's battles weren't all to great. That said, when the episode spawns some great quality it's really, really good!
7th Heat D[]
Firestorm got stung
The battle may not be great but the destruction here is brilliant
It's not everyday that I say seeing a dog getting brutalised is funny
Love this OOtA
Major Tom vs Kat 3 is considered to be the funniest battle in Series 5 but funniest Series 5 Heat has to go to Heat D. This heat has probably one very good robot (Firestorm), a decent robot (Gemini), an average robot (Reactor) and a bunch of joke bots...you can easily imagine why it's a fun episode.
The robots are all in different shapes and sizes, and although a few are not capable of doing anything (although robots like BOOH may have had "hidden" potential) but even then these few robots are good at one thing. Getting eliminated in explosively silly ways.
So battle wise, it's pretty decent, sure it's not Chaos 2 vs Pussycat levels of good but they're not half bad...well most of them. We have Firestorm vs Bee-Capitator which for many is a brilliant battle and for me is the best Firestorm winning in a one-v-one battle there is with Bee-Capitator being entertaining while being killed in a flashy flip while Firestorm gets critically damaged. We then have Sir Chromalot putting on an amusing show against Rohog who does sort of die easily and the battle isn't too great but this IS the Sir Chromalot team we're talking about and plus the House Robots adding salt to the wounds of Rohog. Perhaps the worst battle in the episode, Reactor vs Bot outta Hell, it's not great but BooH's design is pretty creative and the flip was quite impressive, JP's commentary really helps it here. Then there's the Robot Wars classic itself, Ruf Ruf Dougal vs Gemini. What a brilliantly hilarious battle! Dougal survives flips from Gemini who almost get lost underneath and then Dougal gets blown a part by a vent of gas, with an ear flapping about it finally gets flipped and thrown out by Sir Killalot. After that classic battle, here's the second round where Sir Chromalot team act all hard before hand and then in a rather amusing spite or irony it is killed immediately. Then we have the second worst fight of the Heat, Reactor vs Gemini yet it still manages to contain some humour to it. Here, Gemini should have won but as with the "Gemini curse" it gets stuck on its back and is unable to get back up while the other half is flipped by Reactor. So now we have a Heat Final between a allstar and an average robot, it's obvious who win but at least Firestorm puts Reactor out of its misery in a brutal and brilliant way, before throwing Reactor out.
Of course, in overall quality, it doesn't shine, as I said the Sir Chromalot fights aren't that impressive even with Rohog's destruction and the Reactor vs BooH fight was awful as well as the Round 2 battles being weak. That said it does offer a humourous bit of quality and honestly I do really enjoy Heat D, even if it's pretty weak.
6th Heat J[]
Is it strange that it was this fight that made me fall in love with Tiberius?
Who'd a thunk that a double round 1 loser would get this far?
A bad fight made somewhat better by this
Heat J is actually a really good episode. For once, we're actually in a more positive area when discussing Series 5. Heat J is probably 70% great with the rest being a more weaker scale.
So what's actually quite weak about this episode? Well first starters, the first battle between Kat 3 and Mini Morg was very dull and easily the worst fight of the episode, in fact I dare say all of Kat 3's fights were incredibly weak in comparison to the rest. Not much action and for me is a terrible start to what is a really good episode. I won't lie the next two fights are "weak" but are saved by the sheer aggression/destruction of the fights. I really like Tiberius vs Monad because we see how improved Tiberius became and the awesome crushing that takes place, I really like this fight. Major Tom vs Kliptonite is very weak and could have been worse than the first fight except for the fact that the House Robots absolutely devastate Kliptonite in a visually brutal but awesome way.
Obviously, the big highlight of the episode is Panic Attack. Panic Attack tends to be the best part of many episodes, even weaker ones. This episode really shines for Panic Attack as we have two great fights and one alright/decent one. It's first fight with Barber-Ous is surprisingly close with Barber-Ous causing some hefty damage, it also shows how resilient Panic Attack was which was great. The fight with Tiberius for me is even better with both machines having a go with each other and Panic Attack getting a great hook on Tiberius before pitting it. The Heat Final, is decent but for me is the weakest Panic Attack fight here. The reason why I find it weak is simply because it overstays it's welcome with Panic Attack's forks getting quite literally stuck in Kat 3 and struggling to defeat it.
Now this episode is famous for one particular battle. Kat 3 vs Major Tm. This fight is considered the "funniest battle ever" however, I for one found it painfully average. Kat 3 gets some great axe hits but neither robot really does much until Major Tom presses the pit release and pits itself. I dunno, it's a popular battle but I'm not too keen on it, especially as there are more "funny" self pittings like Killerhurtz' or Crushtacean or even Razer.
Overall, a very good episode, but it JUST missed out on the top 5 simply because the next five are VERY VERY VERY good n their own ways.
5th Heat G[]
As of writing this, this fight is the most popular Series 5 battle
Still one of my favourite OOtAs
The story of Gravedigger is quite a sad one
A LOT of people hold Heat G to an extremely high regard and it is a seriously great episode...it's just the great moments are scattered to say the very least...
In terms of robots competing it is quite a stacked Heat. We have Spawn Again, Tornado, Gravedigger and Diotoir all in this episode as well as newcomers which all come in different shapes and sizes, with one, Sabretooth, becoming an allstar in the future. These robot are all unique and improved, however the way the battles are drawn, I do have sneaky suspicion that they really wanted certain robots through...
The battles are where it's at...but the way it starts is pretty poor. We have a fantastic but rather tragic fight with Tornado vs Gravedigger which is a great display from Tornado and plus it was nice to see Gravedigger not die awkwardly. The other round one battles are largely forgettable. Diotoir defeats Dome with one flip, I have to wonder how things would have been had Vader fought Diotoir, imagine that and somehow Diotoir winning, it'd be a Hell of better fight. Evolution vs Sabretooth was so slow and tedious that the House Robots came in to cause a fuss. Spawn Again vs Hydra was disappointing and nothing special but then again I kinda spoilt by how great hydra eventually becomes...
Round 2 on the other hand. Well, this. This right here is what the fans go on about when referring to this episode being "teh best" Tornado vs Diotoir is such a famous and beloved battle and it really kicks ass! Tornado performs really well and constantly smashes into Diotoir but Diotoir keeps coming back and even pushes back. Then all of a sudden Tornado stops and Diotoir pushes Tornado into the pit in what can be described as one of the greatest comebacks and shocks in Robot Wars. The next fight is very short but extremely sweet one where Spawn Again throws Evolution out of the arena, I dunno why but just the way that tank flies and rolls over out is so mesmerising to watch.
The Heat Final could have been another Diotoir vs Wheely Big Cheese where its an obvious outcome but one that is extremely entertaining. Unfortunately, we have Spawn Again, a robot that either sucks or disappoints and well...yeah. It's one flip and done and then a painstakingly awful struggle to actually pit the thing! It's a bad final to what was a decent Heat.
It's definitely an overrated episode, I think people remember the whole "Diotoir success story" for this, however I feel Series 3 Heat O did a far better job with Diotoir's success. That said, for what it's worth it's still highly entertaining and I can understand why people like it.
4th Grand Final[]
The best Razer vs Firestorm fight!
The best Hypno-Disc vs Firestorm fight!
It's great to see Razer win the main championship :)
With all this lockdown, you'd think I'd actually finish this in the span of a few days...Unfortunately, I have assignments and well I sleep a lot (as well as playing DOOM Eternal) so I haven't really had a chance to do much here, but obviously with the prospects of Series 5 Way Melee competition potentially coming up which I'll have to host (IF it gets chosen) and finishing the statboards, Disc of Doom article, I really need to get on!
Series 5's Grand Final isn't my favourite Grand Final in the world but it is certainly up there in my top 5 and it definitely has a lot of great moments even if, like with Heat G, it is slightly underrated somewhat.
The journey to this Grand Final has been a painful one with plenty of dull and disastrous battles, luckily there were still loads of great moments scattered (three of which still need talking about). With our top four, I'd argue Bigger Brother's had the more entertaining path, with it being a round 2 dropout and a weak semi final before that. Extreme 1 was slightly mixed and it really wasn't until this series that Bigger Brother became real allstar and got our attention with great flips and impressive displays up through to this Grand Final. Razer, is second with its shocking opening and then fabulous battle with Widow's Revenge, it had quite an easy time but still seeing that crusher decimate and crumple is brilliant, plus Razer is FINALLY in the Grand Final! Then we have the other two...aside from two fights each (Firestorm vs Bee-Capitator and Pussycat, Hypno-Disc vs Black Widow and Atomic) their journeys have been very boring and lifeless and we all know the pitiful Semi final they were in.
Battle wise, this Grand Final has a full set. Two round 1s, a third place and a GRAND FINAL, all of which are great in their own right. First up is Bigger Brother vs Hypno-Disc which is...okay. It's nothing write home about, yes it's great to see that amazing comeback but unlike Eruption vs Carbide or even Apollo vs Carbide, Bigger Brother does nothing but just tank the hits and get lucky with a push. Seriously hate the idea people rave home about how it's "the best fight ever" when it really isn't, it is beyond the most overrated fight ever! Razer vs Firestorm should have been a cakewalk but instead it's a really wild fight. Both machines perform excellently with it being quite close, the near pittings, Razer's close immobilisation and everything is intense! The third place playoff, which had been missed the previous two series, is a fast battle but certainly better than the crap in the second semi finals. Firestorm's aggressive ramming attack against Hypno-Disc and even Hypno-Disc's hit on firestorm makes for a brutal, quick and excellent fight. The Grand Final, Razer vs Bigger Brother is perhaps the weakest fight here but still good. The way Razer crushed down and pieces Bigger Brother and even the humour to be had when Bigger Brother and Razer get caught on each other and go round in a circle. It's a fine battle and it's great to see Razer win the championship.
Overall, it's a great final to what is a pretty average series all things considered, it's great with great robots and all the fights are great in their own ways. I will also say this is last real time we have a proper awards ceremony as opposed to a instant award system, I always preferred seeing the nominees.
3rd Heat C[]
It took three episodes to have a fantastic Heat
Stinger making kids cry since 2001
Not the best image to show how good of a fight this really was...
After two rather lackluster Heats, Heat C with it's robot roster should have been incredibly bad. However, this was not the case, just because an episode has set of robots that for a large portion of people would initially think as "bad or meh" doesn't mean the episode will be bad and Heat C of Series 5 proves this by being one of the best episodes of Series 5.
In terms of allstars, we only have Stinger and Plunderbird, Stinger is brilliant in almost every single way while Plunderbird is a jokebot. The rest of Heat C has veterans like MouseTrap, General Carnage and S3 with S3 being a successor to the very unimpressive and bland Sting, so in many ways you wouldn't think it would be very great...
Then we see the fights. The way this episode begins is brutal! We see the Sting successor S3, it has a radically different design and this dare I say, demonstration of the new Sting against Plunderbird 5 is absolutely stunning and cruel. Plunderbird is reduced to atoms as S3 kicks ass! It's great fight to start off with and one that gets people engaged in what's to come. MouseTrap vs Shredder is a funny battle although it is disappointing in what could have been. Stinger vs Hippobotamus is a fun fight and credit to the Hippo for surviving as long as it did, it's destructive, fun and really entertaining fight. GC2 vs Guzunderbot is an alright fight and it's always great to see a non allstar get an OOtA. Round 2 starts off with the worst fight of the episode. Stinger vs General Carnage 2, it's boring. Luckily, it's followed up with the BEST fight of the episode, S3 vs MouseTrap. MouseTrap is a great robot and honestly this maybe one it's finest moments, how close it came to clipping the aerial and the tightness of the fight as well as the destruction caused to BOTH machines. Truly amazing as is the Heat Final, Stinger being chucked around by the spinner and attempting to fight back, the closeness of Stinger's "is it alive or not" factor before the brief immobilisation. A great fight to end a great episode!
Heat C is what Series 5 really needed, had it been bad or as bland as the previous two Heats, I doubt many would have stuck on. It has great moments with robots that some would find unlikely and the newly improved S3 being shown off shows how much things have changed and how devastating robots are becoming while also highlighting the durability and brilliance of some we barely talk about. It only has a slight downside in that the two General Carnage fights are incredibly weak but it doesn't decimate a great episode.
2nd Heat H[]
I don't think the cheese grater helped
I will always remember this fight
Just brilliant!
I can actually remember the first time seeing Heat H. I had been over at a family get together over at my aunt's and I remember coming back home and this episode being on the TV, with it being just the very start of the Axe-Awe vs Granny's Revenge fight. Heat H, for me tends to go under the radar a lot of the time, and yet it's an absolutely amazing episode.
We have a great set of robots, all pretty powerful, except obviously Granny's Revenge which is a joke robot. With great robots comes great battles, for 99% of it. Ironically, the weakest fight (which is still far better than 75% of Series 5's fights) is the first battle, which is Wolverine vs Wheely Big Cheese. Not very entertaining and kinda forgettable. Luckily, every other fight is the opposite. From the infamous Granny's Revenge fight which is so ingrained in my head I can almost quote, word for word the JP commentary during the statsboards, a hilarious walkover with a brilliant end. Robochicken vs Crustacean is the closet of the round 1 fights and what a great first display from Crustacean as it and Robochicken really go at it, extremely entertaining. Behemoth vs Supernova is brilliant. At first we see Supernova doing all the work with behemoth severely battered. However, Behemoth fights back strong and defeats Supernova (with help from Matilda!) in a brutal finish.
Round 2 certainly kicks it up a notch with Robot Wars' biggest flips ever by Wheely big Cheese on Axe-Awe, it's short but brilliant and that flip is awesome, although I kinda wished we had a different angle to see the height. For me though, the best fight goes to Crustacean and Behemoth. I am a sucker for battles which feature great control, that's why I enjoy robots like Tornado, Pussycat and Storm 2 in battle. here, is a brilliant display of control and weapon use. Crushtacean slams Behemoth from behind and grabs hold of the selfrighters before turning and pitting in what can be one of the greatest pittings ever. The Heat Final is the second weakest fight, but what I find is that it is more memorable and had a lot more than the Wolverine fight, even if it is a bit slow.
Heat H was very, very, very close to being number 1, however, this as well as all my lists are done via personal opinion and not based on other people's thoughts, because that stupid and most likely communist, which is basically the same as being stupid.
1st Semi Final 1[]
One of the greatest fights if all time!
An earlier version of Razer wouldn't stand a chance
The end of an era
It's fitting that the best and worst Series 5 episode is the Semi Final. Okay, so Semi Final 1 doesn't have as many great fights as Heat H, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality! And LOTS of it!
You have to understand the context of why this is Series 5's best episode. For two years, Chaos 2 had been champion, it was unbeatable and Razer was a fantastic robot that won so many side events but NEVER got far in the main championship, losing in the Heats. This ONE semi final, changed the course of Robot Wars history and did so in an amazingly thrilling way!
Before getting to the good, let's get the negatives out of the way. Razer vs Spawn Again was a very boring and forgettable fight with it being an easy walk over for Razer as Spawn Again is big and bulky and easy to damage. Then we have S3 vs Bigger Brother is a fine battle but it suffers from being a little disappointing all things considered. I kinda wanted more from the fight and we didn't really get all of that, which kinda sucked.
So this episode has Series 5's greatest battle ever, that being Chaos 2 vs Wild Thing, one of the greatest battles ever as well as Series 5 #1 battle! What makes this Series 5's greatest fight is simple, the flips and thrills. Chaos 2 is aggressive and flips Wild Thing all over the place but Wild Thing survives constantly. It even pushed Chaos 2 into the pit, almost, multiple times. The closeness and intensity is immense and it is so thrilling! Then we have the mad but equally awesome Loser's Melee. Spawn Again doesn't do anything, but are we surprised that Spawn Again sucks? Luckily, Wild Thing and S3 save the day with S3's destructive blade slicing and dicing, battering Wild Thing who keeps coming back for more and even giving S3 some threat!
The second round is where history is made. Remember what I said earlier? Well, this is it! The absolute shock and awe of Chaos 2 losing to Bigger Brother, who at this point had lost in the second round the year before and scraped through to the first round of the semi finals, NOT ONLY THAT but Chaos 2 beat it in the Flipper Frenzy. It may not be too explosive of a fight but the shock value and the idea/feeling of the winds of change are felt heavily, this was the moment when everything changed and the feeling of unpredictability for who'll win makes this fight, this moment even more powerful. The Razer vs S3 fight is extremely entertaining but it also has a major impact. Razer had struggled with spinners in Pussycat and even a sit and spin axlebot in Attila the Drum had caused heavy damage to Razer. It hadn't really fought a major spinner and S3 was dangerous, so really, all cards were stacked against Razer given its record. But Razer subverts expectations and Razer brutalises S3 is a fabulous and visually entertaining way and what makes this so much more special is that Razer finally gets to the Grand Final after years of disappointment a truly wonderful moment!
Series 5 is a weak series, it's one that unlike Series 3 and 4, which both took steps forward in progressing and making the series better, Series 5 took a major step back, and I feel like this was both a bad but also a good thing. What I mean is, if this miscalculation that is Series 5 didn't do what it did, the Series 6 wouldn't have come along to improve things greatly changed things, but rather it would have felt less special and impactful that it actually became. Series 5 had a lot wrong with it but as we can see, it was a history maker, it was a series that created allstars and was filled with surprises and shocks to make it an engaging watch.