Reboot Rankdown

As promised, it is the Reboot Rankdown! Signups are now active! Signups will commence until we have 8 people including myself, or until the 25th of April. Please note, you need to include your vote-in for your singup to be counted.

Format

We’ll be using the “Pick-n-Mix” format. In this game, we'll be setting up a pool of robots, and take turns eliminating one robot from the pool, the adding a new one

On your turn, you will eliminate one robot in the pool and explain why (Note: You may not cut your own nominees, unless your nominees comprise more than half the pool) then nominate one other robot, whom you believe should get cut ASAP, to go into the pool. You can’t cut or nom a robot that’s already been cut or nommed. Here’s an example of the flow. The example has 5 players, our game may have more:

• Player 1: Cuts any one robot and explains why, nominates one other robot for the pool (no explanation needed for the nomination). Lists out all the nominated robots for the benefit of the next player
• Player 2: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet
• Player 3: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet
• Player 4: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet
• Player 5: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet.

This will continue until 17 or fewer robots remain. After that, players will rank the surviving robots, and the averages will determine final rankings.

I'll be pretty open about the criteria you use to make your cuts, just a few rule & guidelines:

• Try to insulate it to the series in question - we're strictly ranking the Series 7 incarnations of robots
• No discussing how it was received by the fandom - you can call a robot overrated or underrated, complain about fanboys, etc, as long as that is not your only reason for cutting
• No troll-moves. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but if I see a move that's clearly intended to get a rise out of people or an individual, you will be booted. Slots are very limited, do not take one unless you plan on taking this seriously.
  • You can make backroom deals with other players, but keep in mind, there is no recourse if someone breaks the deal.
• You must have watched & be familiar with all episodes of the series in question, even the obscure ones - it won't do to have a bad robot slip under the radar because people forget to nominate it. Since Extreme is part of this, you'll have to remember all the different appearances that each robot made. The series is on YouTube if you need to refresh your memory, and I will post a spreadsheet in Google Docs, listing all robots in the game, and their status in the rankdown.
• Please be punctual and check in often. The game only works if each person takes their turn in good order.
  • This will now be enforced, in order to keep the game moving. If a player does not take their turn within 36 hours of the last player, the player will receive a strike, and the turn may be taken by anyone not participating in the rankdown. If a player gets 3 strikes, a replacement will be sought. I'm sorry to have to do this, but it is not fair to the other players to keep them waiting an indeterminate amount of time. If you don't have time to write out a summary, I'll accept just the robots names, and you can post the writeups later. If comments are not working for whatever reason, you may use my Talk page.
• Most importantly, have fun, and don't take it personally if a robot you like gets cut sooner than you want it to.

The Doom Dial

To make things more interesting, I’m introducing the Doom Dial, your choice of a special power. Each player may press the Doom Dial once to access one of the following effects:

• Pit: Negate the most recent cut and remove the robot in question from the pool. The robot gets immunity for one full cycle (ie cannot be nominated until after the player you interrupted finishes his/her next turn). It’s on you to play this in time to catch the robot you want, if it’s not the most recent, it can’t be Pitted.

• Rogue House Robot: on your turn, you may cut a robot that’s not in the pool. You will not nominate on the round you use this. You may not cut any robot that has immunity. This cut cannot be negated by the Pit.
  • New Addition: You can also use Rogue House Robot to cut one of your own nominees. If you do it this way, you pick a replacement, so the pool keeps the same number of robots

• Fog Of War: On your turn, instead of cutting/nominating, replace the entire pool with a new set. You may not pick any robot that has immunity. In subsequent rounds, you can cut robots that you brought in with Fog of War.

The Doom Dial will be available in all rounds except the first and last. You are not obligated to use the Doom Dial. To reiterate, you each get one button press, NOT one of each power.

Usages

• RA2
• SFCJack
• CrashBash - Round 7 (Pit)
• Jimlaad43 - Round 5 (Rogue House Robot)
• O Raz3r O
• ThatRedOtter
• ToastUltimatum- Round 6 (Rogue House Robot)
• Toon Ganondorf - Round 2 (Rogue House Robot)
• NJGW- Round 7 (Rogue House Robot)

Versioning resolution

Hearing no objecxtion to my last post, here are the splits to note. Please make sure you specify a version when you nominate a splitted robot.

• Nuts & Nuts 2
• Chimera & Chimera 2
• Supernova
• Sabretooth 8 split from 9/10
• Expulsion
• Cathadh and Arena Cleaner will be split, however *Kadeena Machina/Diotior and Dee/Rabid M8 are combined

Spreadsheet

List of all robots in the rankdown. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WAnLxFJFoToQzZLiv_HcRAabWBxWHEUS7kgpCaWRvxk/edit#gid=0

Instructions

In order to even out the cutting power, I've decided to establish a pool before Round 1. This means in Round 1, there will immediately be a pool available. When you sign up, you'll be voting robots in by making a list of the 8 worst - 8 being the very worst, 1 being the least-worst. Please format your signup like I do, order matters because the robot at #8 will count as 8 votes, the robot at #8 will count as 8 votes... etc. The robots† who collect the most votes will comprise the initial pool. No need to explain your vote-ins though you are free to explain if you wish.

The robots that get "voted in" to the initial pool can be cut by anyone.

†Pool size will be equal to the number of players.

My signup

If you wish to play, just do as I've done here and declare your bottom 10. Keep in mind that your spot will NOT be locked in unless you write out your bottom-8 list.

8. THE BASH. I almost wish they hadn't done this promotion for how disappointed I was with the final product. Fair game on them making publicity, but we're ranking in terms of combat power, and this one, which broke down immediately, may not even be able to beat a wooden robot.

7. Sweeney Todd. Underweight, and I don't see the benefit of omniwheels when their weapon (what little they had) just sticks out the front. Interesting science project, but we never saw the omkniwheels even work.

6. Overdozer is my initial opinion on who should go first. They were aware it was a both with low potential, and I salute them for embracing it. But their chassis and weapon were both unfit for combat, so they inveitably have to get ranked low.

5. Chimera. Huge, exposed, hollow tyres and a thwacking weapon that didn't look much of a threat.

4. The General. Huge exposed wheels again, a marginally better weapon than Chimera, but still just as fragile.

3. Frostbite. Weapon looked better than any bots below it, but the armour had no chance against spinners, and were lucky to be targeted last in the group battle.

2. JAR. Had a reliable drive system, I give them that, but at least one Stars participant in hte initial pool

1. Or Te. As they were based on Bigger Brother and made by the same guy they'd at least have done decently in Series 7, unlike the other bots I've nominated. But they still did nothing and died from one hit, so they have to be eligible for immediate deletion.

Players

Please specify if you have a positional preference, if not I will assign you one randomly.

1. RA2
2. SFCJack
3. CrashBash
4. Jimlaad
5. O Raz3r O
6. ThatRedOtter
7. ToastUltimatum
8. Toon Ganondorf
9. NJGW

Rankdown

The pool

Since we have 9 people, the pool will be 9 robots. Based on the initial vote in, here is the pool.

Chimera, Expulsion (series 9), High-5, JAR, Ms Nightshade, Overdozer, Sweeney Todd, Terror Turtle, THE BASH

One of these is about to be cut by me

Round 1

90. Sweeney Todd (RA2)

Cutting: Sweeney Todd Never said I was guaranteed to cut my lowest-voted bot first, I've been swayed by the arguments on this one. I was pretty down on THE BASH, but those under-the-hood pictures show a crusher that looks the business, and it's about 30kg's heavier than Sweeney Todd. And even if I give ST a pass on its weight issues, it'd still be a low-ranker against middleweights from the most recent competition. It's just not viable as a combat robot, no mattter what context you put it in, and that is why I'm ranking it in last.

Pooling: The General. I am sticking with my votes for this part, the General is my lowest-ranked that is not here yet.

Pool: Chimera, Expulsion (series 9), High-5, JAR, Ms Nightshade, Overdozer, Sweeney Todd, Terror Turtle, THE BASH, The General

89. Ms Nightshade (SFCJack)

Cutting: Ms Nightshade - As already mentioned in my list, Ms Nightshade was poor in every aspect and doesn't even have the redeeming factor of being an obvious novelty entry like others in the pool.

Pooling: Frostbite - A robot I'm surprised wasn't in the pool to begin with. I'm also sticking with my votes for this one.

Pool: Chimera, Expulsion (Series 9), High-5, JAR, Overdozer, Terror Turtle, THE BASH, The General, Frostbite

88. High-5 (CrashBash)

Down Below....OOOH, too slow: HIGH-5. This was a robot that died from being bumped slightly. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if it died if you breathed on it wrong.

Why?: Or Te. I've already explained that it performed poorly and should have known better.

Pool: Chimera, Expulsion (Series 9), JAR, Or Te, Overdozer, Terror Turtle, THE BASH, The General, Frostbite

87. JAR (Jimlaad43)

When is a door not a door? When it's a JAR: Even though it worked once, JAR was awful, with a weapon that seemed to knock the robot out. This one seemed like the dead reliability was not just a fluke, compared to some of the others.

Not a Razer killer: Crank-E. Another robot here that died in very few hits.

Pool: Chimera, Crank-E, Expulsion (Series 9), Or Te, Overdozer, Terror Turtle, THE BASH, The General, Frostbite

86. Overdozer (O Raz3r O)

Overnapped, and overstayed its welcome already: We see robots like Or Te, The BASH and HIGH-5 slandered for being killed within seconds, but Overdozer’s death might well trump them all. Regardless of the team’s inexperience, it was a wooden robot with atrocious weaponry which was killed by one small ram from King B Remix. That’s far worse than a Supernova hit or an Eruption flip, and on par with HIGH-5’s death at the hands of Wyrm, and while HIGH-5 is already gone, I’d have backed it against Overdozer. Nothing would lose to Overdozer in the reboot if fully functioning in my opinion.

As one door closes...: Wyrm is clearly better than Overdozer, but is still an F-tier S9 robot

Pool: Chimera, Crank-E, Expulsion (9), Frostbite, Or Te, Terror Turtle, The BASH, The General, Wyrm

85. The BASH (ThatRedOtter)

Not a patch on Sgt Bash! - The BASH While I might have been harsh on the BASH being simply immobilized from a single flip, what I can't excuse for a moment is being beyond repair from a single flip. Add in utterly useless weaponary, almost 30 kg being completely ignored in building, and a very cynical part of me wonders if we were better off without it at all.

Schooled: Track-Tion Can't believe I forgot this for the bottom 8 ranking. This robot had 4 chances to show some sort of use, didn't move for two of them, only won a battle due to the help of another team, it's a robot that I'm not only annoyed at myself for forgetting. for my bottom 8, but I'm shocked that only one person mentioned.

Chimera, Crank-E, Expulsion (8), Frostbite, Or Te, Overdozer, Terror Turtle,The General, Track-Tion, Wyrm

84. Expulsion (Series 9) (ToastUltimatum)

Sent to the Headmaster - EXPULSION (S9). It and Ms Nightshade are the only robots in the reboot to not exhibit any movement outside of their starting area at all. If the robot couldn’t even move, then it goes no further.

Cursed, or just Consistently Flawed - FOXIC. Between its utter lack of control in four Series 8 battles, a brief Series 9 campaign which gets excused despite Foxic later being proven incapable of self-righting anyway (watch the Megalodon fight), and a hideous history of breakdowns across Foxic, Predator and Foxtrot shows that Foxic was always doomed.

83. Wyrm (Toon Ganondorf)

Byrd got you: Wyrm. It broke down from bumping the arena wall and was one of the few robots we saw actually thrown in the bin. Such a shame for what looked like a fun machine.

Pool: Jellyfish.

82. Terror Turtle (NJGW)

Cut Terror Turtle - two very bad breakdowns

Pool Crazy Coupe 88

The Pool: Chimera, Crank-E, Crazy Coupe 88, Foxic, Frostbite, Jellyfish, Or Te, The General, Track-tion

Round 2

The Doom Dial is now active.

81. Chimera (RA2)

Part-lion, part-snake, no parts successful robot: Chimera. Admirable ambition, trying to make a Team Death machine win a battle. But the writing was on the wall for this bot, with its tyres being a liability against any type of weapon, heck they'd have to worry about Overdozer. And the weapon wasn't exactly slamming around like Stinger or Gabriel. Jonathan Pearce may not have verbalized it well, but the intended meaning "don't bring giant air-filled tyras into the arena" is spot-on.

Pooling: Rusty. I have no doubt that the pneumatic components had potential to take it far, but for it to fall apart completely from an Apollo flip means the vessel containing the pneumatics would never make it far.

80. Crazy Coupe 88 (SFCJack)

Cutting: Crazy Coupe 88 - Honestly, this robot feels out of place in the reboot to me. It seems to have adopted the dated "let's have two underpowered weapons rather than one effective weapon" strategy that plagued the early classic series. That, combined with poor armour and big exposed wheels are my reasons for cutting it so early.

Pooling: Expulsion (S10) - Hear me out. Yes, this iteration of Expulsion made the 10 Robot Rumble and has two wins to its name, but it was insanely fortunate in both victories. It relied on a Double KO JD over PtE and a fortunate Coyote breakdown to make it as far as it did, and was bullied in other fights. The shape and top-heavy nature of S10 Expulsion made it essentially a Hardox football in the arena. This was hindered further by subpar driving, which ultimately sealed their fate in the rumble. So while I admire the unique look of S10 Expulsion, I feel the bot itself has fundamental flaws and should be considered in the pool.

79. Foxic (CrashBash)

What did I tell you? What did I frickin' tell you!?: Foxic. I don't think I need to explain this, but the rules state I must, so...Foxic is hands down the most single frustrating robot I've ever seen and that's saying a lot. Right from the beginning, I wasn't impressed with it. You may remember I ranked it very low on my Series 8 heat ranks. It's just a small lifter. It hardly looks spectacular and hardly looks suited for a fight. All it is is basically a box with a small lifter painted like a fox. Of course, though, as soon as I said this, I was immediately hit by comments saying that Foxic was a good robot and I shouldn't be so judgemental. So, OK, I gave it a chance....and I hate to say I told you so, but you know how it goes. Foxic's Series 8 campaign was the single worst out of ANY robot, and that statement comes two-fold. First, because it was meant to be a serious robot, not an obvious jokebot (like, say, Overdozer or Terror Turtle). Second, we were forced to watch it fail FOUR TIMES! It barely functioned in Round 1 yet somehow made it through on the back of a technicality - we lost the far more competent Draven for Foxic (and when Draven of all machines is being described as "far more competent" than you, you have a problem). Then, we had to sit through three awful performances where it did virtually nothing except spasm into life at random intervals and barely even tried, including a fight that Jonathan Pearce and Noel Sharkey, two men who've been with Robot Wars from the very beginning, seemingly considered worse than fights such as Skarab vs The Blob. And the cherry on top of this cake? Series 9's Foxic - which looked so much better, actually moved properly and, y'know, actually looked like a fox - did worse! I don't think I would have even minded if it had made it through to Round 2 and then just broke down in every fight as it seems evident that every incarnation/rename of it is destined to do. But everything that Foxic did was a complete disaster and the fact we were stuck seeing this robot for so long only cements this. I thought the robot was bad first looking at it...I never expected it to be THAT bad.

Drunk and Disorderly: The Kegs. Easily the least competitive out of Series 10's roster, even when you consider that it was in a heat where any of the five other robots had potential. I like the idea, but it's still weak.

Crank-E, Expulsion (S10), Frostbite, Jellyfish, Or Te, Rusty, The General, The Kegs, Track-tion

78. Or Te (Jimlaad43)

Coffe Or Te?: As much as it should work in theory, we can't ignore the fact it died after one hit, even if it was a big one from a powerful spinner.

Pooled: Bonk

77. Track-tion (O Raz3r O)

Off the rails: Track-tion may have reached the 10 Robot Rumble, but the journey it had to get there was very kind to it. It proved itself to be incredibly sluggish in all four of its fights, its weapon, which looked very weak in any case, wasn’t used once, and its progress was due to the shortcomings of its opponents rather than its own ability. The Apex seen in Live Events post-S10 would probably survive long enough to decimate Track-tion, while its progress against Vulture was simply a case of Vulture not being ready in time, otherwise it too would have certainly beaten Track-tion. Poor manoeuvrability, poor weaponry, exposed tracks, Track-tion has to go.

Hardly the top of the food chain: Apex

76. Jellyfish (ThatRedOtter)

Bloop off: Jellyfish - We're now at the point where every robot at least worked as it was meant to, in at least one fight. So why is Jellyfish the worst out of these? Simple. It was a robot created to show off what can be done with the most out there tools and materials. It was there to show off ingenuity, not to win, and that's clear looking at it. I wouldn't go as far to call it a joke entry, but I would go as far to say that it was there to make a point that you could compete, even with substandard things.

This pooling is totally: Robosavage I feel like we're being a bit lenient on the BOTS robots, so why not go for the flipper that is... wow it's immensely weak isn't it...

75. Robo Savage (ToastUltimatum)

Red Carded: ROBO SAVAGE. Beav pooled it so I didn’t have to! Yes Robo Savage got second place in an episode and yes that means it won a fight, but it really required only the bare essentials to beat Soldier Ant. The flipper was very very weak for no good reason, and even the other low-ranking flippers of the reboot like Rusty and Weber would still win that fight in the same way. Poor armour, wheels and driving cement Robbie’s fate. I would rank it above Dee, but the merge with Rabid M8 saves the other celebrity entry.

Lost in Space: INTERSTELLAR: MML. Perhaps the only reboot flipper who would lose to Soldier Ant! Whilst it’s HARDOX shell and wedge shape make for a good combo, it only fired its weapon once in three fights and somehow lost to JAR, no thanks to its vulnerable wheels.

The Pool: Apex, Bonk, Crank-E, Expulsion (S10), Frostbite, Interstellar: MML, Rusty, The General, The Kegs

74. Trolley Rage (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (Toon Ganondorf)

ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT: goodbye Trolley Rage. It was built out of scrap and barely lasted in a single battle (Carbide notwithstanding). It was a choice between this and Apex for me.

73. The Kegs (NJGW)

Cut: The Kegs - lightweight, poor weaponry.

Pooled: Hobgoblin.

The Pool: Apex, Bonk, Crank-E, Expulsion (S10), Frostbite, Hobgoblin, Interstellar: MML, Rusty, The General.

Round 3

72. Frostbite (RA2)

Out cold: Frostbite Well now that we've eliminated the two robots it "beat," this one's not far ahead. Supernova's a beast yeah, but that entire frame still fell apart like glass, and the team couldn't repair it. The weapon didn't look like it had nuch power - lightweight impactors and all. Plus, there was a video of the blade in testing,where it very labor

Pooling: Draven. Cool design, but limited effectiveness, it had two chances and died without doing anything

The Pool: Apex, Bonk, Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Hobgoblin, Interstellar: MML, Rusty, The General.

71. Bonk (SFCJack)

Cutting: Bonk - I'll be the one to put it out of its misery. Yes they suffered from dodgy pneumatics, but the robot still proved unreliable and outdated by reboot standards. Bullied by Behemoth throughout the melee, Bonk really had nothing for its opponents. For all of their experience, I really hoped for more from the team that gave us Mute.

Pooling: Dee/Rabid M8 - If your tyres need inflating, you're not going to make it very far in this rankdown. As well armoured as both iterations of the robot were, this was largely irrelevant as Dee's tyres popped against Soldier Ant and Robo Savage, and a wheel was hurled across the arena by Kadeena Machina. Rabid M8 fared slightly better in the World Series, however the flaws of the bot are clear to see.

The Pool: Apex, Crank-E, Dee/Rabid M8, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Hobgoblin, Interstellar: MML, Rusty, The General.

70. Interstellar MML (CrashBash)

Hardly a Shooting Star: Interstellar MML. I don't really have a reason for why I'm cutting it, other than it's just...not very good. Ultimately it failed to fight properly in all three of its fights, only winning one on the back of an out-of-nowhere breakdown and only got one flip in on an already dead robot. Hardly (Inter)stellar at all, if you ask me.

No Army or Bulldog: Soldier Ant. I might as well pool the last "non-winner" BOTS machine, for being a largely ineffective crusher with vulnerabilities to just about everything except Dee.

Pool: Apex, Crank-E, Dee/Rabid M8, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Hobgoblin, Rusty, Soldier Ant, The General

69. Rusty (Jimlaad43)

Iron Oxide overload: Rusty was a very poor robot which, like Overdozer, was torn apart by a flipper. It seemed completely anonymous in Heat E and didn't seem anything like a descendent of Ceros.

Broiled: Thermidor 2. I mean, what did it do?

Pool: Apex, Crank-E, Dee/Rabid M8, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Hobgoblin, Soldier Ant, The General, Thermidor 2

68. Dee/Rabid M8 (O Raz3r O)

Pinky, but not Perky: Dee/Rabid M8 had one half-decent performance in five fights to me, and even that fight felt like a performance that would only be successful against a robot like Gabriel 2. In my opinion, Dee’s win over Robo Savage was undeserved, although the reaction to the judges decision was absolutely hilarious. In the other two fights, Dee was utterly dominated, losing a tyre/wheel in every BOTS fight along the way. Rabid M8 fared just as poorly in its first fight, being OHKOed, and while its sit-and-spin tactic worked quite well against a wobbly-wheeled robot like Gabriel, against most other opponents it would come up against a robot body which could simply bulldoze it out the way and stop its only effective offensive manoeuvre.

Hardly a jawdropper: Bucky the Robot

Pool: Apex, Bucky the Robot, Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (10), Hobgoblin, Soldier Ant, The General, Thermidor 2

67. Thermidor 2 (ThatRedOtter)

Fried up with some lovely chips (I swear I've done this one before) Thermidor 2 - Is there much to say? Not changed at all during the hiatus, this was never gonna do well, just a robot that we were happy to see again.. although maybe a bit more upgraded? To think this was the robot I was most excited to see in Heat E...

Killed and Cranked (e) - Kill-E-Crank-E - Might have been the robot that took out Razer in the shock of the century but let's be real for a second, that was very lucky, and besides that, KECE just doesn't have anything to its name, a hideously slow disc for the time and just... a whole bunch of nothing, this is one I won't miss

Pool: Apex, Bucky the Robot, Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (10), Hobgoblin, Kill-E-Crank-E, Soldier Ant, The General

66. Bucky the Robot (ToastUltimatum)

Bitten off: Bucky the Robot. We all loved this machine and Robot Wars was a better place with Team Tomco involved, but man the machine was impractical. It desperately needed a wedge, among many other things. Credit to it for driving handily and technically surviving against RAPID, but that only takes you so far.

WHR R MY VWLS: TMHWK. Take Bonk, which was cut several turns ago for reliability issues, then make the axe weaker, give it inexperienced drivers and two additional losses, then you get TMHWK. It has, I feel, avoided nomination for being "not quite as bad as we thought" in the World Series, but the problem arises when you think about what's being said there.

The Pool: Apex, Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Hobgoblin, Kill-E-Crank-E, Soldier Ant, The General, TMHWK

65. Apex (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Apex. Not a single win, tore itself to pieces just by spinning at full speed. Apex to me is Foxic to Crash, it’s the robot I always doubted and kept being proven right.

Pool: Infernal Contraption. Definitely due to join here

Pool: Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Hobgoblin, Infernal Contraption, Kill-E-Crank-E, Soldier Ant, The General, TMWK

64. Kill-E-Crank-E (NJGW)

Cut: Kill-E-Crank-E - rare opportunist moment aside, it's an unpractical design with a very blunt weapon.

Pooled: Heavy Metal - punishment for TG never writing out The Pool...

...and my genuine vote.

The Pool: Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Heavy Metal, Hobgoblin, Infernal Contraption, Soldier Ant, The General, TMHWK

Round 4

63. Infernal Contraption (RA2)

Cut: Infernal Contraption. Sure it lived longer than some of the bots who died in 1 second against a spinner, but it didn’t use that time to show off any potential, and drove itself into the pit due to poor control. And of course it also would’ve been immobile after one hit from a spinner.

Pool: Glitterbomb. Speaking of lasting long because they didn’t face a spinner.

The Pool: Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Heavy Metal, Hobgoblin, Glitterbomb, Soldier Ant, The General, TMHWK

62. Soldier Ant (SFCJack)

Cutting: Soldier Ant - With exposed wheels, poor ground clearance besides the front and no srimech, I would seriously doubt their chances against a bunch of mid-tier classic series machines.

Pooling: Chimera2 - a visual improvement on the first iteration, but still a pitiful weapon relative to the reboot. The wide wheelbase fit Thor and Concussion like a glove, and the fact that it seemed to be immobilised from Concussion's drum at far from full power... yeah, it's getting pooled.

The Pool: Chimera2, Crank-E, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Heavy Metal, Hobgoblin, Glitterbomb, The General, TMHWK

61. Hobgoblin (CrashBash)

Hobgoblin? More like Hobnob: Draven and TMHWK all had multiple losses, but they at least tried to do something in their losses. Hobgoblin, for all the hype of its weapon, did virtually nothing in all three of its fights. All we got from it was breaking Shunt's axe, after it was already dead.

OH, INTO THE POOL GOES: DISCONSTRUCTOR!! There's no two ways about it, it performed poorly in Series 8.

The Pool: Chimera2, Crank-E, DisConstructor, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Glitterbomb, Heavy Metal, The General, TMHWK

60. The General (Jimlaad43)

BROUGHT WHEELS INTO THE ARENA: The General. Cool rear weapon aside, The General really wasn't effective, and of course those wheels were juicy targets for anything with a snifter of a damaging weapon.

Annihilated: Kan-Opener. We're starting to get to the end of the one battle wonders, of which Kan-Opener was another disappointing one.

The Pool: Chimera2, Crank-E, DisConstructor, Draven, Expulsion (S10), Glitterbomb, Heavy Metal, Kan-Opener, TMHWK

59. Chimera2 (O Raz3r O)

Team Death’s Final Breath: Chimera 2 was a clear improvement on the first iteration, but it was still a very weak robot, with a poor weapon, poor wedge and questionable reliability.

Rockpooled: Regardless of the disappointing draw against three spinners, Crushtacean is a robot I still think was outdated and would have fared little better against most other opposition in terms of success.

Pool: Crank-E, Crushtacean, DisConstructor, Draven, Expulsion (10), Glitterbomb, Heavy Metal, Kan-Opener, TMHWK

58. Expulsion (S10) (ThatRedOtter)

Expelled: Expulsion (S10) - Really it's gotten further than it had any right to. Certainly an improvement from the series 9 version, but there really was nowhere but up for Expulsion, I just don't think it would have too much of a chance against any other robots currently in the pool, and considering that that is how I tend to make alot of my picks, it means that Expulsion is well.. Out of the running.

Push to Enter my mind because I spent like a minute trying to decide before I remembered this exists: Push to Exit - Yeah this just wasn't very good. Never showed much potential, got a nice flip which the show loved to shove in our faces, but that's all it got.

57. Glitterbomb (ToastUltimatum)

Dad's Fault: Glitterbomb. Its single axe swing did less damage to Dantomkia than King B Remix's spikes, and then it was easily beaten. Warmer temperatures wouldn't push this machine much further.

The end is nigh: Apocalypse. May have performed well against Sabretooth for a minute or so, but it had an internal fire not just once, but twice, due in part to its very crammed internals. Sabretooth and Apollo hardly did a thing to kill it off.

The Pool: Apocalypse, Crank-E, Crushtacean, DisConstructor, Draven, Heavy Metal, Kan-Opener, Push to Exit, TMHWK

56. Crushtacean (Toon Ganondorf)

Better coming from a loved one: Crushtacean has reached the end of its tether, on potential I would give it a chance against some bots here but at the end of the day it barely got a moment in the sun and Thermidor has gone a while back

Pool: Nuts 1. Amazed this hasn’t been in contention yet, but being present in the Razer KECE rumble is the only reason it really got any attention in S8 and sets it apart from one time losers.

Pool: Apocalypse, Crank-E, DisConstructor, Draven, Heavy Metal, Kan-Opener, Nuts, Push to Exit, TMHWK

55. Apocalypse (NJGW)

Cut: Apocalypse - the consistent burn downs see it just go before PtE (which at least has a KO-potential attack in it) and TMHWK (which just drove a bit bad)

Pool: Coyote :-(

The Pool: Crank-E, Coyote, DisConstructor, Draven, Heavy Metal, Kan-Opener, Nuts, Push to Exit, TMHWK.

Round 5

54. Heavy Metal (RA2)

The day the music died: Heavy Metal: In series 8 and 9, a lot of fates were decided by who got drawn against a powerful spinner, and whom said spinner chose to target first. Those wheels really don't hold up much better than The General's, and the fact that they "shedded" against Thor makes them even less reliable. Loved the idea of a multi-purpose weapon, but at the end of the day, it didn't work well as any of them. John Jr is a hell of a driver, but not even he could make this robot beat something with lower clearance than a sleeping policeman. It was a wedge that could do wedge things, and that's generally a battle advantage, but does that alone constitute a higher rankin on a list of robots that had to be TV-genic? I say no.

Pooling: Meggamouse. Design wasn't well suited to keeping bots on the flipper for more thna a second, and the way it popped itself into the air on a misfire looked dodgy.

Crank-E, Coyote, DisConstructor, Draven, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Nuts, Push to Exit, TMHWK.

53. TMWWK (SFCJack)

Cutting: TMHWK - While I do separate TMHWK from the lowest tier of reboot robots, its W/L ratio speaks for itself unfortunately. It's hard to excuse the poor driving which led to TMHWK being left vulnerable to its opponents on more than one occasion. Poor driving also contributed to RotW's first round loss in the World Series. Plus, it's never a good sign when Matilda's flipper is enough to snap your axe in two.

Pooling: Sabretooth (Series 8) - For as cool as it looked, Series 8 Sabretooth had issues from the very start as the srimech had been somehow broken during repairs. I struggle to see how effective the weaponry could have really been had the bot been funtioning properly.

The Pool: Crank-E, Coyote, DisConstructor, Draven, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Nuts, Push to Exit, Sabretooth (Series 8)

52. Push To Exit (CrashBash)

Push to Do Anything: Push to Exit. It was between it and Draven and, objectively, Push is by far the better robot. But its performance overall was somehow far worse, especially when in at least two of its three battles, it should have won comfortably. OK, PP3D and Magnetar are excusable, but by that logic Draven's losses to M.R. Speed Squared and PP3D are equally excusable. Push's loss to Expulsion, after failing to function throughout, is NOT excusable at all.

In the wall - I mean pool:. Donald Thump. I love the idea and the team were great fun. But Donald Thump died poorly in both its fights. Heck, it died without any fanfare in its first.

Pool: Crank-E, Coyote, DisConstructor, Donald Thump, Draven, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Nuts, Sabretooth (Series 8)

51. Cherub (Jimlaad43)

Rogue House Robot: Cherub. A robot that wins battle through Plot Armour and technicalities does not equate to a good ranking. Everything left in the pool I can vote for has something going for it, Cherub just doesn't. There's no weapons, no pushing power, a slow srimech and no real logic to any of its victories, except the melee where it gets the only bit of credit it'll ever get for surviving PP3D hits that killed its opponents. To everyone who claims that Behemoth shoving Cherub under the flipper doesn't prove that Behemoth had won the fight, rotate that attack 90 degrees and it was a long drive into the pit...

50. Draven (O Raz3r O)

Cut: Draven is a robot I think arguably should have gone before both Push to Exit and Cherub, so I feel compelled to get rid of it straight after the other two have fallen. It didn’t outlive either of them in their melee, nor did it showcase any decent offensive output in either of its losses.

Pool: King B Remix - was great to see them back in S8, but like Crushtacean in S9 and Thermidor 2 in S8, it showed that it can’t really compete with the majority of today’s machines. At least the updated version has been solid on the live scene!

49. Donald Thump (ThatRedOtter)

Impeached: Donald Thump This robot and builder were a treasure I'm so happy I was introduced to, only to get to know them better as I joined the live circuit... Thump just wasn't very good. While it did mess up Sabretooth's side panel a bit (although if you rotate that attack by 90 degrees Thump doesn't hit anything anyway) which did play a big part in Behemoth's victory of the melee, the subsequent elimination and especially the redemption battle just kinda cancels that out. So glad we got it at all though, James is great.

Big Red Button time!: Razer Yes I'm well aware that it's.. well Razer, but its in the reboot just wasn't that impressive, it's a very well shared thought that Razer would struggle alot if it didn't lose in the melee, and I think it's about time we stop carrying this robot on merits from 12 years ago.

Pool: Coyote, Crank-E, DisConstructor, Kan-Opener, King B Remix, Meggamouse, Nuts, Razer, Sabretooth (S8)

48. Crank-E (ToastUltimatum)

Jeanette: CRANK-E. While it appeared competent in theory and might have done well if we saw what it could do, I’m stunned to see Crank-E in the Top 50 ahead of genuine good machines when it didn’t do... anything! Aftershock may have gunned for it instantly but they could have spun the weapon up at least, give us some glimmer of hope.

Introducing the Fairy type: CHOMPALOT. While it did marvellously to not break down against Ironside3, it took a heck of a battering, and was forever turned into an example of how a LiPo fire works at the hands of Gabriel. Chompalot performed very well but was clearly out of its depth.

Pool: Chompalot, Coyote, DisConstructor, Kan-Opener, King B Remix, Meggamouse, Nuts, Razer, Sabretooth (S8)

47. Coyote (Toon Ganondorf)

Tail Whipped: Coyote. Oh how I remember being mocked for not considering this machine an all star. I would agree that DisConstructor is due to leave soon but this machine has losses to Crackers n Smash and Expulsion and somehow made an OOTA unentertaining.

Pool: Supernova s8.

Pool: Chompalot, DisConstructor, Kan-Opener, King B Remix, Meggamouse, Nuts, Razer, Sabretooth (S8), Supernova (S8)

46. King B Remix (NJGW)

Cut: King B Remix - outdated and even the fundamentals didn't work properly.

Pool: Crackers and Smash

Pool: Chompalot, Crackers 'n' Smash, DisConstructor, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Nuts, Razer, Sabretooth (S8), Supernova (S8).

Round 6

45. Disconstructor (RA2)

DisCommissioning: Disconstructor. It was a close one between this and Kan Opener, but the latter at least had a good start. Disconstructor appeared to lose drive before it went on the floor flipper, and it didn’t do any notable damage.

Swooping in: Vulture. Disc wasn’t strong enough to damage things even on direct hits, and their best moment was lending a wedge to Tracktion that beat Apex.

Pool: Chompalot, Crackers 'n' Smash, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Nuts, Razer, Sabretooth (S8), Supernova (S8), Vulture.

44. Nuts (SFCJack)

Cutting: Nuts - I love the bot and their Series 10 campaign would not have been so memorable without it, but the OG Nuts really didn't have much for their Series 8 opponents. This was two whole series before they could implement their meltybrain system, so Nuts had to sacrifice mobility for offensive attacks.

Pooling: Tough as Nails - Another returning competitor I wouldn't swap out if given the opportunity, but I feel if we're pooling Kan-Opener then it is appropriate to throw TAN into the mix too.

Pool: Chompalot, Crackers 'n' Smash, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Razer, Sabretooth (S8), Supernova (S8), Tough as Nails, Vulture

43. Sabretooth (Series 8) (CrashBash)

Just another statistic: Sabretooth (8) The fact that it went into the competition broken is not a great start, but even assuming it was working properly, its disc really didn't look like it would be that effective. Luckily, Sabretooth's later incarnations helped it out, so we shouldn't feel too bad about losing the inferior version.

The pool is hardly a monsoon: Tauron. Nominated because we're running low on the no-wins-multi-losses crowd and Tauron is one of only a few left to run. One really good fight against Androne just can't save the fact that it broke down immediately in Series 9 and its first round fight in Series 10, and the resulting drama about it being "robbed", is complete hyperbole. Not only did it barely do that much to Iron Awe (forget The Kegs, anyone could have done what it did to The Kegs), but it lost not because it got stranded on debris, but because of a laughably amateur mistake. Everyone knows you should always play to the whistle, after all.

Pool: Chompalot, Crackers 'n' Smash, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Razer, Supernova (S8), Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

42. Crackers n' Smash (Jimlaad43)

Twin disaster: Crackers 'n' Smash. Let's be honest, neither robot's weapon ever worked and did anything in their fights. OK, they were against Grand Finalist, or Grand Finalist quality robots all the time which didn't help it out, but we always have to go on theory in the Arena for Smash's drum.

Not a patch on the Mills/Stark machine: Cathadh. Arena Cleaner but worse and stuck against better robots, it really didn't help.

Pool: Cathadh, Chompalot, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Razer, Supernova (S8), Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

41. Chompalot (O Raz3r O)

Out in a blaze of glory: Chompalot did well to stand up to as many Ironside 3 hits as it did, but suffered the consequences against Gabriel in its second fight, and wouldn’t have stood much of a chance in the other H2H fights

Under pressure at this stage: Androne 4000

Pool: Androne 4000, Cathadh, Kan-Opener, Meggamouse, Razer, Supernova (S8), Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

40. Meggamouse (ThatRedOtter)

Mousetrapped: Meggamouse We're at the point now where basically every pool and taking out of a robot is a personal blow to my very being, so I have to be as objective and harsh as possible now and it hurts man. Anyway, I certainly had a few in mind here, and went to go and watch their fights to see what they contributed to each one, and Meggamouse, despite being the last robot to be attacked by Carbide i their melee, was not shown making any noticeable attacks at all, meaning that by my count, it didn't get off any noticeable attacks in an arena full of ruined robots, and that bodes very poorly for its chances

Remember what I said about personal attacks on my being?: The Swarm I love The Swarm, probably more than I love Bigger Brother, clusterbots are just some of the entertaining things in the sport and I'm getting off track. As much as I love this entertaining team of 4, I cannot deny that only one member of them was any use in 3 battles, and while it was a surprising amount of use, to the point that it became the cornerstone of every other clusterwatts entry, that 75% else of the robot cannnot be ignored.

Pool: Androne 4000, Cathadh, Kan-Opener, Razer, Supernova (S8), Tauron, The Swarm, Tough as Nails, Vulture

39. Weber (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (ToastUltimatum)

ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT: Weber.

I think we all loved Weber and it was one of the machines that truly justified the World Series taking place to begin with. A plucky little flipper representing Russia in a team full of loanerbots? Sure, I’m down for that. However I must now be realistic. Weber had a multitude of flaws - skeletal armour, a total weight of just 70kg, weapon completely lacked OotA strength, exposed wheels which led to a combat defeat, and of course the key one; it’s a flipper that seemingly can’t self-right. That’s many more weaknesses than, say, the recently cut Meggamouse. It’s honestly far more weaknesses than Rusty had. I love Weber but the flicks on Eruption and Concussion have carried it far enough.

The pool: Androne 4000, Cathadh, Kan-Opener, Razer, Supernova (S8), Tauron, The Swarm, Tough as Nails, Vulture

38. The Swarm (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: the Swarm. As good as it is to see a clusterwatt, the effectiveness of most of them were very limited.

Pool: The Cat, at the end of the day it still lost to Interstellar.

37. Supernova (Series 8) (NJGW)

Cut: Supernova (S8) - even if the TR2 drive was rotated 90 degrees, there just wasn't enough about Supernova to convince me this version of the machine could deal out enough damage or last long enough either. I basically see it losing to the entire rest of the current pool.

Pooled: Beast.

The pool: Androne 4000, Beast, Cathadh, Kan-Opener, Razer, Tauron, The Cat, Tough as Nails, Vulture.

Round 7

36. Kan-Opener (RA2)

Kanned: Kan-Opener. Of the robots that I'm allowed to cut, this one did the least. I was impressed by their handling of PP3D, but the link came dislodged by the floor flipper, and that's on them, plus a good deal of their dominance was thanks to PP3D being upside down. The original series left me wondering if Kan Opener could survive a battle where more than one robot goes out, and on the back of this, I'm still not convinced.

Rhyme time: Kadeena Machina/Diotior. Its brief stint as Diotior is proof-positive that it can't beat anything more deadly than its fellow stock bots. Arena Cleaner at least had to beat one worthy opponent in The Cat.

The pool: Androne 4000, Beast, Cathadh, Kadeena Machina/Diotior, Razer, Tauron, The Cat, Tough as Nails, Vulture.

35. The Cat (SFCJack)

Cutting: The Cat - I can't say I'm a fan of The Cat's trade-off between weapon speed and manoeuvrability as it suffered from poor driving and an inability to make measured attacks throughout BotS, even in victory. Plus if the rumours of it being significantly overweight are true, then it really should have made more use of it. The Cat's lost its final life in the Reboot Rankdown.

Pooling: Iron-Awe 6 - It's hard to really say how well IA6 would have done had the flipper been working. But it wasn't and despite the team's best efforts, they were fortunate to get as far as they did with what was essentially a giant door stop.

Pool: Androne 4000, Beast, Cathadh, Iron-Awe 6, Kadeena Machina/Diotior, Razer, Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

34. Cathadh (CrashBash)

Thawed: Cathadh. Y'know, in retrospect, I really don't think there was any point in separating it and Arena Cleaner. Just because Cathadh had a veteran roboteer make some modifications to it doesn't mean that Arena Cleaner would have performed any better against Thor, Concussion and certainly Eruption. Anyway, Cathadh just kept losing its weapon and really wasn't suited for dealing with legitimate competitors. The final nail in the coffin is another dose of hyperbole with Fuzzy complaining that Thor and Concussion should have been disqualified, made even worse by the fact that not only did the hosts insist he was right, but various members of the wiki thought he was right too....even though this has literally not been a thing in any Tag Team event in Robot Wars' history...including all three of the previous Tag Team battles in the World Series. Do you see anyone arguing that Cobra and TMHWK should have beaten Apollo and Gabriel? Do you see anyone insisting Eruption and Big Nipper should have been disqualified? Exactly. Why does Cathadh get special treatment?

On that note: Arena Cleaner. See above, really.

Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Iron-Awe 6, Kadeena Machina/Diotoir, Razer, Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

33. Razer (Jimlaad43)

Spun into the pit: Razer. History can only carry it so far and it seems like time for someone to bit the bullet and pull Razer away. Razer's death was hilarious but sad yes, but it did mean it got to leave Robot Wars in perfect condition, not in a sorry mess after meeting Carbide in the head-to-heads.

Up tae speed: PP3D. A robot that was repeatedly too powerful for itself? A lot of promise went to waste here.

Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Iron-Awe 6, Kadeena Machina/Diotoir, PP3D, Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

32. Iron Awe 6 (O Raz3r O)

Awe-fully disappointing: Iron-Awe 6 most of us follow the live circuit events too, and know what this machine is capable of at its best. Sadly, Iron-Awe 6 was no where near that level in Series 10, with no functioning flipper across any of its four fights. Even in the two fights it won, it struggled to ascert itself and had some trouble to deal with, and its entanglement devices were useless too.

Entering the equation: M.R. Speed Squared had such similar S8 and S9 campaigns to PP3D that if one gets pooled, the other should quickly follow, as has happened.

Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Kadeena Machina/Diotoir, M.R. Speed Squared, PP3D, Tauron, Tough as Nails, Vulture

31. Vulture (ThatRedOtter)

Bones picked clean: Vulture Time to cut another robot I unconditionally love! Vulture was the top of my list of robots that really deserved another chance because... Man what we saw was just.. not very good. An uninspiring role in a melee which it came last in, struggling against Bucky The Robot until the spikes came into play, and being target practice for Terrorhurtz. The stage was all set for a redemption match against Track-Tion to show us what it can really do... and in one of the biggest heartbreaks of the reboot, that was not to happen. Vulture was an impressive and original design, but the performance really didn't give off that impression.

Rounding off the trifecta: Supernova (S9) Easily the highest highs of the trio of spinners that started well and then went to sleep, but we can't deny that the damage piled up all too fast and left a bad taste in everyone's mouth

Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Kadeena Machina/Diotoir, M.R. Speed Squared, PP3D, Supernova (S9), Tauron, Tough as Nails,

30. MR Speed Squared (ToastUltimatum)

Inconsistency king: M.R. SPEED SQUARED. I’m gonna be the one to tackle this beast. We all know the gig, it works very well for one fight, usually against fairly weak opposition, and then it bricks the bed. What we never really talk about is why the plan goes to pot. It wasn’t really a fluke - if you build your rim out of mild steel in the modern era then it bending out of shape (and subsequently unbalancing the machine) is an inevitability. This is hardly my own realisation, it was kindly pointed out to me by Adam Hamilton on a rewatch, but heck it wasn’t even the arena spikes that did the main damage in Series 9, the ring was already bent simply from hitting Foxic. The other unreliable spinners at least put up a fight after their first loss.

Sold: DANTOMKIA. Getting down to the last few classic series reps, and Dantomkia did surprisingly well in the reboot, particularly in beating Big Nipper which I wouldn’t have expected. However it did have quite weak armour, unreliability displayed against TR2 and the surrounding live circuit, and is generally an outdated design that puts it at a huge disadvantage against fellow flippers.

The Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Dantomkia, Kadeena Machina & Diotoir, PP3D, Supernova (S9), Tauron, Tough as Nails.

29. Kadeena Machina/Diotoir (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Diotoira Machina: it’s a loanerbot and went out from one good whack from Terrorhurtz.

Pool: Sabretooth (9-10). I would consider Pulsar but it’s sturdy armour keeps it in. Sabretooth was a fun little machine With some good wins over Terrorhurtz but got smacked around by most of the all stars, gave away points against Cobra, and managed to lose to Jellyfish.

28. Tauron (NJGW)

Cut: Tauron - it was improved for Series 10, but the raw power wasn't exceptional, it took a while to get up to speed, and the driving wasn't the best. A serious spinner should not be losing one on one to Androne 4000.

Pool: Cobra

The Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Cobra, Dantomkia, PP3D, Sabretooth (9-10), Supernova (S9), Tough as Nails.

Round 7

NOTE: This is the last round to use the Doom Dial if you have not already done so

27. Tough as Nails (RA2)

A hard(ox) decision: Tough as Nails. A great & innovative design that was highly impressive in the original Robot Wars. But with 0 wins here, it's time for them to pay the piper. Time had not been kind to them, they lacked the pushing advantage they once had, and that's crucial to their ability to win.

Pooling: Gabriel/Gabriel 2. Least convincing wins out of everyone left.

The Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Beast, Cobra, Dantomkia, Gabrile/Gabriel 2, PP3D, Sabretooth (9-10), Supernova (S9)

26. Beast (SFCJack)

Cutting: Beast - Melee aside, Beast's weaknesses were plain to see as soon as it became the first round fodder had fallen. Its skeletal design and lack of reliability left Beast vulnerable to fatal attacks from Ironside3, Pulsar and Gabriel respectively.

Pooling: Storm2 - We never did quite see the same raw speed and power from Storm2 in the reboot as we saw in the classic series. It barely used its weaponry in an offensive manner and despite racking up some wins, I feel it warrants pooling as a result.

Pool: Androne 4000, Arena Cleaner, Cobra, Dantomkia, Gabriel/Gabriel 2, PP3D, Sabretooth (9-10), Storm2, Supernova (S9)

25. Androne 4000 (CrashBash)

Better than the 3999 other versions, I guess?: Androne 4000. It was a nice effort to make a viable crusher, something that's more or less been removed from robot combat with only a few exceptions (Spectre/Quantum come to mind) and I actually liked the very haphazard looking design. But it still had three losses to its name, and you can't say it exactly dominated its only win, so I kinda have to vote it out by default.

Pooled: Big Nipper. Only because it's the only robot left that didn't make a heat final, really.

Pool: Arena Cleaner, Big Nipper, Cobra, Dantomkia, Gabriel/Gabriel 2, PP3D, Sabretooth (9-10), Storm2, Supernova (S9)

24. Arena Cleaner (Jimlaad43)

Probably gone a bit too far: Arena Cleaner. Yes, it's better than Cathadh, but not this much better. It was basically Cathadh but with the reliability to not break down before an opponent has done something to kill it.

Too situational: Nuts 2. Nuts 2's story was spectacular, but it was such a situational robot that TBH got lucky with its opponents. Flipperless Iron-Awe 6 would have beaten it, as would pretty much most of the flippers in the tournament. Once Carbide protected its chain, it was a simple victory.

Pool: Big Nipper, Cobra, Dantomkia, Gabriel/Gabriel 2, Nuts 2, PP3D, Sabretooth (9-10), Storm2, Supernova (S9)

23. Gabriel/Gabriel 2 (O Raz3r O)

Flying up to Heaven: It pains me, as I love this machine, but I think it’s time for Gabriel/Gabriel 2 to go. Like Mousetrap, I think Gabriel is a robot who performed best in defeat, against Carbide. I am going to be a little bit critical of the quality of its victories first though. It performed solidly in its S8 melee, but the two wins it got at the Head-to-Head stage were against two very unhealthy opponents. Chompalot took massive damage in round 1 which fed into its fight with Gabriel, while Beast had already been punished after two fights with spinners. Its best performing win, in my mind, was in the Tag Team whilst clashing with TMHWK.

Another issue with Gabriel is the weapon control. It missed a lot, both in S8 and S10. A robot like Terrorhurtz or Thor would have taken advantage of Pulsar’s intermittent issues far better than Gabriel did I think. The entanglement weapon didn’t work against Carbide either, and while it did work against Aftershock, by the time it did, Gabriel 2 had already been knocked out. I’m also under the impression a robot of a calibre of Gabriel should easily be able to deal with a robot like Rabid M8, but its poor control let it down there too. The defensive showing it out up against Carbide was truly magnificent, and the KO of Big Nipper earns it some bragging points too, but at this stage, I don’t think bragging points should be enough, and Gabriel must fall.

Intermittent star: Pulsar and its reliability woes will have to catch up to it eventually.m in this rankdown.

Pool: Big Nipper, Cobra, Dantomkia, Nuts 2, PP3D, Pulsar, Sabretooth (9-10), Storm 2, Supernova (S9)

22. Dantomkia (ThatRedOtter)

But what if he only had one kid...: Dantomkia Of the series 8 returnees, Dantomkia was certainly hailed as one of the best, reaching a heat final fairly dominantly and it's placement here speaks volumes of that. That sadly doesn't change the fact that it is an outdated design that, while nice to see, really puts it at a disadvantage against most traditional flippers, and with weak armour which we saw against Big Nipper, if it returned for series 9 instead of PTE... I don't think we would see much different let's just say.

Giving me a headache because I bloody LOVE this robot: Concussion I don't say I love something lightly, this thing's series 9 run is what convinced me to start taking up roboteering as a hobby, it's amazing seeing someone's first heavyweight build go to the finals... Buuuut the run in a vaccum was marred by many technical issues, smoke up the wazoo, and the robot so exhausted by the time of the grand final that it could barely run at 50% power. Series 10 boasted some much needed improvements, but some bad circumstance and Nuts 2 promised we wouldn't see any big heights that weren't The Kegs. Please forgive me Sam, but Concussion jumps into the pool here.

Pool: Big Nipper, Cobra, Concussion, Nuts 2, PP3D, Pulsar, Sabretooth (9-10), Storm 2, Supernova (S9)

21. PP3D (ToastUltimatum)

Don’t call me a defending champion: PP3D. It was in my last turn that I cut M.R. Speed Squared, and now the other unreliable horizontal spinner has to go. Fact of the matter is that it became immobile in five of its eight fights, and refused to make modifications that might have prevented this.

Avenged: THOR. While I do think the Series 10 version of Thor was perhaps the best axebot we saw on Robot Wars, it’s held back by gremlins seen in Series 9 and to a lesser extent 8.

The Pool: Big Nipper, Cobra, Concussion, Nuts 2, Pulsar, Sabretooth, Storm2, Supernova (S9), Thor

20. Cobra (ROBGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (NJGW)

ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT: Cobra - a strong, fun machine that I like a lot. But it seems very easy for good rammers to get just a bit too much praise, and tenacity alone didn't make it competitive enough against the flippers. The win was a good one, but everybody else in the pool had a big win too. I'll give Supernova the benefit too because it has a generally higher ceiling, especially against flippers.

Pooled: Ironside3.

The Pool: Big Nipper, Concussion, Ironside3, Nuts 2, Pulsar, Sabretooth, Shockwave, Storm2, Supernova (S9), Thor.

Round 8

19. Shockwave (RA2)

Cutting: Shockwave: Not a bad bot by any means, but lacked killing power that the others possessed. It has a good pushing defeat on Thor, but that’s it.

Pooling: Terrorhurtz. Very few bots remain without a heat win to their name. It it with no joy that I recommend someone eliminate this bot, but the truth is that their lack of success had a cause - insurmountable weakness to flippers and vertical spinners, which made up 99% of top Robot Wars competitors

18. Sabretooth (Series 9/10) (SFCJack)

Cutting: Sabretooth - One of the weaker bots left in the mix for me. Easy to forget with its dominating display over Terrorhurtz that across Series 9, 10 and the World Series, Sabretooth amassed a negative win-to-loss ratio (5-7). From poor driving in the rumble to getting OOTA'd by Apollo and having its top armour torn away by Aftershock, I feel Sabretooth's time is done.

Pooling: RAPID - When it worked, it could compete with your Apollos and Eruptions, however the design flaws leading to their exits from Series 9 and 10 are hard to ignore.

Pool: Big Nipper, Concussion, Ironside3, Nuts 2, RAPID, Storm2, Supernova (S9), Terrorhurtz, Thor

17. Supernova (Series 9) (CrashBash)

Imploding yet again: Supernova (Series 9). Whilst it's better than its Series 8 incarnation, at this stage it really doesn't have anything to make it really stand out. All it did was eviscerate a really badly constructed robot twice (the other two robots killed themselves), before being bossed by Ironside and Pulsar. Storm 2, as critical as I've been about it, did still defeat Eruption.

Not a shock: Aftershock. Had an impressive Series 9 performance and certainly deserves to reach the top 10, but I can't overlook a poor Series 10 performance. Eruption and Carbide, OK, I'll give it, but it shouldn't really have fallen to Big Nipper the way it did.

16. Big Nipper (Jimlaad43)

Didnt hit the heights of the others: Big Nipper. The OotA was incredible and beating Aftershock was great, but it was thoroughly outclassed in Series 8, which cannot be ignored.

Struggled against power: TR2. Though well driven, TR2 has very little power in the flipper, and by Series 9 and 10 it would probably have struggled against the bigger and more powerful robots.

Pool: Aftershock, Concussion, Ironside3, Nuts 2, RAPID, Storm2, Terrorhurtz, Thor, TR2

15. Concussion (O Raz3r O)

Heading out: It was a pleasant surprise to see a newcomer like Concussion do so well in its first foray into robot combat with what at the time seemed like an inexperienced team, but the buck must stop here. Concussion was fraught with reliability issues throughout Series 9, breaking down in its melee, struggling for movement in its head-to-heads and being unable to finish off M.R. Speed Squared, or Thor in the heat final. While picked on in the Grand Final, it was still the clear weak link. Concussion came back improved internally in S10, but it was still beaten easily by a combo of Nuts 2 and Androne 4000. The opponents it beat from there were a simple task for a robot of its calibre: The Kegs was the weakest armoured robot of S10, while Iron-Awe 6 had no offensive output to challenge Concussion. It did pretty solidly in the World Series, and the drum was shown to cause good damage at times, but it’s not quite consistent enough to get any further I’m afraid.

Pooled: Behemoth. Would have pooled Carbide for the banter, since there’s only it, Eruption, Apollo and Magnetar left along with the unpoolable Pulsar, but then I remembered Behemoth was still here too.

Pool: Aftershock, Behemoth, Ironside 3, Nuts 2, RAPID, Storm 2, Terrorhurtz, Thor, TR2

14. Storm2 (ThatRedOtter)

Blown out: Storm 2 It's a shame that this wasn't the series 7 version really, but the plucky little pusher that everyone loved until Ed Hoppit found out what the internet was did certainly perform well in series 8. But, of all the robots in the pool, I reckon it would rack up the most losses in a round robin and sadly, that means that I gotta take it out.

Pooled: Carbide It's just banter innit

Aftershock, Behemoth, Carbide Ironside 3, Nuts 2, RAPID, Terrorhurtz, Thor, TR2

13. Nuts 2 (ToastUltimatum)

My last cut: Nuts 2. We're finally at a stage where everything Nuts 2 defeated in its heat (all two of them) have now been eliminated, and while the victory over Carbide is extremely valid and showed the true wildcard factor of this machine, it couldn't handle the rematch and I have to think that Nuts 2 would have lost most if not all of the other Series 10 heats.

My last pool: Magnetar. Representing Pulsar in spirit.

The pool: Aftershock, Behemoth, Carbide, Ironside3, Magnetar, RAPID, Terrorhurtz, Thor, TR2

12. TR2 (Toon Ganondorf)

Get OOTA here if you can: TR2. Flipper power is minimal and the fight with Apollo showed what happened against an all star who wasn’t struggling (Pulsar and Carbide and Thor).

Pool: Eruption. Lost to PP3D who has long been cut hehe

11. Thor (NJGW)

The final cut: Thor - despite the run in Series 8, it's most prestigious victory is against Shockwave in the H2H (it barely interacted with an immediately dead Pulsar in the Grand Final group battle and still got damaged by it). It beat Tough as Nails twice, MR Speed Squared twice, Coyote twice, Heavy Metal, and Foxic. There's just not enough exceptional stuff in there. So sorry, Thor, but your time is up.

Pool: Apollo because I want one of their jackets still.

The pool: Aftershock, Apollo, Behemoth, Carbide, Eruption, Ironside3, Magnetar, RAPID, Terrorhurtz.

Final Rankdown

10. Pulsar

• I really do like this robot, honestly, I like all but one of the 10 robots left. Pulsar is simply only here due to a baffling use of the pit giving it immunity until the last possible go, It certainly had moments of greatness, but with the constant gremlins, and with the higher standards of this final rankdown, Pulsar ends up in dead last. -Otter, 10

• Pulsar had a powerful weapon for sure, but the reliability issues are just too common in this robot. It very well could have fallen in Round 1 and not be seen again until series 9, relying on Chompalot's destruction to squeeze back in. While it did then show some signs of its ability, it broke down after beating Ironside 3, and was intermittent throughout the Gabriel fight, before breaking down again in the Grand Final. These issues continued into Series 9, although the Supernova hit was very impressive. -Raz3r, 10

• I have a feeling this will be unanimous. Pulsar was cut perhaps a little prematurely in the rankdown, but a surprise reinstatement via the Pit has propelled Pulsar to very lofty heights, arguably too high. You can't say it's not true to form, we just didn't need a Chompalot LiPo fire to get there! -Toast, 10

• Pulsar on the Wiki: either failing randomly to Bulldog Breed, or reaching the Top 10 of the Reboot Rankdown! Tony Somerfield must be happy with his 9th place finish here... On a serious note, I'm glad Pulsar didn't get shafted in this Rankdown. This is obviously too high a finish, but I rate trying to give it some credit. Its reliability issues are obvious, but it did pack a massive punch still. -NJGW, 10

• Perhaps it deserved higher than 20th place, but 10th is without a doubt its limit. Its legacy is defined by a semifinal, but death or near death in the vast majority of fights - Ellis' young age is probably the only reason he didn't have a heart attack whenever Pulsar started to go intermittent. The story with Pulsar was always "something's wrong, can they fix it?" and that puts them at 10. Still, well done to Ellis Ware for having two of his machines reach the Final Rankdown. -RA2, 10

• As much as I love Ellis' bots, aforementioned reliability issues hold Pulsar back from climbing any further unfortunately. -Jack, 10

• Lucky to be here over robots like Thor and Concussion, I maintain it had reliability issues and belongs last on this 10. -TG, 10

• Was waaaaaay too intermittent in Series 8, winning a heat Ironside3 should have and didn't exactly get much better in Series 9. Was able to deal out bit hits and survive them, but there was always niggles in the background that makes a Pulsar battle nervy to watch. -Jimlaad, 9

9. Ironside3

• Ironside3 may only falter in my personal Rankdown due to its good-rather-than-great weapon power, and general 'goodness'. It did well for itself, but truly reached its ceiling in Series 9. And even at that ceiling it was on the backfoot against Pulsar in the H2H fight, and was chucked up by a zombie Aftershock. Ironside3 was one of the more reliable machines in Series 9 which helped secure a good finishing place, but other machines in here at their best were still more capable. -NJGW, 9

• I remember that when series 8 was coming up, Ironside 3 was a robot I constantly overlooked, and honestly the campaign of that series just kinda reflected that. Series 9 though, certainly brought the bar spinner into my eyes and now it stands as a... weird grand finalist for me. Not there because it did anything especially well, but because it did alot of things well, and covered all the bases. It's a classic Jack of All-trades, Master of None situation, (ignoring the scrimech of course), it would certainly give the bigger names a good fight, but nothing legendary, a good robot to have for a heat finalist certainly, but a weird grand finalist -Otter, 9

• Ironside 3 did seem less powerful in compared to something like Carbide, Aftershock or PP3D, but it still caused a decent amount of damage compared to what a number of spinners had to offer. I also feel that it was driven very well for the most part, but unfortunately, Ironside 3's srimech holds it back, not to mention its spin-up time being rather slow. -Raz3r, 9

• This really is the kind of machine that could perform well in Robot Wars but would perhaps be out of its depth in other competitions - although that's exactly why I'm excited to see Spitfire in BattleBots, I'd like to be proven wrong! The bar spinner completely took apart classic series machines like Thermidor II, Crushtacean and Chompalot, and the more vulnerable modern machines like Beast and Wyrm, but HARDOX seemed to be its mortal enemy. Supernova to me stands as Ironside's most impressive win, with the wins over Pulsar and Aftershock being attributed more to the internal failures of those machines. When Ironside3 tried to damage machines like Pulsar, Eruption and even Gabriel, we saw that it was simply quite underpowered in comparison to the other big spinners in the competition. This meant it was entirely beatable if you could take the hit and flip it over. -Toast, 8

• Series 9 put to bed the question of Ironside v Pulsar, and kind of evaporated my interest in the machine. Third place and victories over Supernova and Aftershock count for a fair bit (not to mention that single hit on Carbide's weapon which was the closest we got to tension in Series 9) but its awful srimech has to hold it back. -TG, 9

• Though we perhaps didn't appreciate it at the time, Terrorhurtz's statement win over Carbide became one of the few times we saw the future 3 time Grand Finalist fall to defeat. Its presence in the reboot does its time in classic RW and on the live circuit no harm, however verts and flippers capped its potential in Series 9 and 10. -Jack, 8

• I don't think anyone deserved a heat win more than Trevor, for his persistence with Velocirippa and Mighty Mouse. They beat Pulsar fair and square, and would probably beat them again. The weaknesses of its self-righting ability and that some well-positioned hits just glanced, places them just outside of the top circle -RA2, 7

• Not even making it to a Heat Final of a Series 8 heat it was comfortably the best robot in really hurts Ironside's ranking as it could have really featured strongly in the Grand Final. Still proved itself to be supremely powerful and epic in battles. -Jimlaad, 7

8. Terrorhurtz

• Lets be honest, it never hit the heights we ever expected it to, with axe issues hampering it too often. It was brilliant against Horizontal Spinners - completely outclassing Carbide, but was useless against Vertical Spinners and flippers. -Jimlaad, 10

• While John Reid's machine is always well-driven and an effective fighter, an axe simply wasn't a weapon that you could use to immobilise machines greater than a 6/10 in the reboot, and while the wide plough was exceptional at fending off horizontal spinners, it left a lot to be desired against flippers and vertical spinners. The limited gas supply was also surprisingly apparent. - Toast, 9

• I nominated them, you better believe I'm sticking to this. Terrorhurtz was simply not equipped to deal with wedge-flippers or vertical spinners, which comprised almost all of the top-tier robots. Fair game on their axeless defeat of Carbide, I think 9 is a good spot for their bringing an anti-spinner wedge to the table. I wouldn't be so hard on them, except I think Thor showed that an axebot can still be viable, meaning Terrorhurtz itself own part of its losses. -RA2, 9

• Without a doubt, we all wanted it to do well, but year on year I had less and less faith in it. It's Series 9 campaign was a huge blow to its ranking due to its lack of impressiveness (defeating Jellyfish twice). Somewhat redeemed in Series 10 because it didn't have to keep drawing wedge flippers or vertical spinners, but still showed how much it failed to be effective. That Series 8 campaign is quite sour still. -TG, 8

• Though we perhaps didn't appreciate it at the time, Terrorhurtz's statement win over Carbide became one of the few times we saw the future 3 time Grand Finalist fall to defeat. Its presence in the reboot does its time in classic RW and on the live circuit no harm, however verts and flippers capped its potential in Series 9 and 10. -Jack, 8

• It's easy to point to the axe issues and say that Terrorhurtz really wasn't that good in the reboot, but what you can't ignore that, despite being weak to the all-stars that most of the elite was made up of, Terrorhurtz (with the exception of Aftershock) really made them sweat for their victories! A stupidly powerful front wedge, a powerful axe when it did work and being able to take the fight to the elite and hold its own, Terrorhurtz does deserve to be here. -Otter, 8

• Terrorhurtz's failing axe cost it a Grand Final in Series 8, but the truth of the matter is that the axe itself wasn't as much of a force as it was back in Series 6 and Extreme 2. With armour improved, Terrorhurtz's weapon has become almost obsolete, but it still put up some terrific shows, not to mention that monstrous front wedge, and the driving was very solid (except for one costly error against Sabretooth). -Raz3r, 7

• my boy didn't get cut early! I was worried, but I'm glad. I'm putting it in 7th here. I think that's fair. It has areas which some of the best can exploit, but it also had super competitive Heats in Series 8 and 9, so some slack has to be given. It also beat Carbide, of course. -NJGW, 7

7. Behemoth

• They beat Apollo, that's worthy of a top 8 finish. The self righting was majorly improved, and that victory over Magnetar was epic. That being said, their two highlights came from Series 10, whilst their Series 8 & 9 performances have to be taken into account. I am not convinced they could beat Carbide with their anti-spinner attachment, it didn't seem like enough marginal improvement to go up from their flipper assembly getting ripped clean off. And of course, Cherub-gate. I'm not taking points off for Ant's upsetness, but for the concept of the weapon - they KNOW how to get under things, their default scoop proves that. Had they designed that as a feeder wedge instead of those weird spikes, they might be a 3-time heat winner. -RA2, 8

• Fair play to Behemoth, it did step up in the reboot. Yes, it was upgraded consistently over the years, so a level of competitiveness was to be expected, but its base design is not exactly an efficient one. Unfortunately for it, that base design does still cost it here in my personal opinion. I initially had it 5th, but taking the Apollo win and a situational Magnetar one away, I cannot say I trust Behemoth to beat the machines I've ranked above it. It beat Terrorhurtz, indeed. However, give both Terrorhurtz and Behemoth ten more fights against Carbide and Apollo respectively and ask them to replicate their wins, and there's a clear winner of who can compete against a podium finishing bot. That, for me, seals it. -NJGW, 8

• It finally got the glory run in Series 10 it had been knocking on the door of for ages, but always seemed to meet a much better robot in the latter stages of heats - coincidentally the three champions. It finally defeated Apollo in Series 10 and did well. However, the embarrassing losses to Carbide, Cherub and Nuts 2's minibot do force it to take a hit here. -Jimlaad, 8

• I believe that if Terrorhurtz's weapon was working in Series 8, Behemoth would be clearly looking at two Head-to-Head finishes before its Grand Final run in Series 10. Behemoth also lacked the driving skill that some of the other teams on this list possessed, and its trigger happy ways and odd weaponry decisions cost it a fight or two. However, Behemoth also showed it had a better weapon than before, better reliability for the most part (the only things which immobilised it were very powerful spinners) and some big wins against the likes of Apollo and Magnetar when the odds seemed against it. -Raz3r, 8

• I tried to put this higher, I really did. But the gap between this 4 and the last 6 is very large, but Behemoth certainly comes close to closing it! Behemoth and Terrorhurtz are where they are for very much the same reason, only Behemoth went one step further and beat one of the elite! Consider that it took one of the podium finishers (or a really stupid team call) to knock Behemoth out of the tournament, and you have a machine that absolute stands with the elite, but just didn't reach too lofty heights. -Otter, 7

• It feels right to finally have Behemoth in a Rankdown Top 10. Despite its Top 8 finish in the Second Wars it surprisingly finished 13th in its Rankdown debut, and a crushing 11th place was its Third Wars finish. And don't even get me started on the shambles that was its Sixth Wars rankdown placement, which goes down in history as the worst Rankdown play ever made. Here in the Reboot Rankdown however, Behemoth earns a respectable seventh place in my ranking. With a Heat Final in the all-star Series 8 opener and third place in Series 10, the results are definitely there to back Behemoth up. The machine was gradually being improved to deal with every weapon type, and perhaps deserves to finish even higher. Sadly though, the main weakness of Behemoth was often its driving. Fair enough if you enter a flipper that can't really OotA robots, that wasn't Behemoth's goal, but it needed to compensate with controlled performances and Anthony Pritchard was just that bit too trigger-happy in a lot of fights. It's a harsh reason to knock Behemoth, but Ant wasn't even the best driver on his own team, with Kevin Cleasby putting on much more controlled performances at live events. -Toast, 7

• Another machine we all loved to see return, Behemoth's heat win over Apollo is among the peaks of the reboot for those who have followed the team's struggles throughout Series 2-7. Reliability issues vanished for the most part, meaning we truly got to see the best of Behemoth. -Jack, 7

• . A real delight to have here, Behemoth was able to pull off some great things in the reboot, more than it did since really, Extreme 1. Behemoth's best victories are Apollo and PP3D, with some slightly sadder ones against Terrorhurtz and Magnetar, but its main credit is its persistence. -TG, 6

6. Rapid

• Superb ground clearance and a flipper like a horse's kick, I have no doubt Rapid would be more effective than Behemoth, but Rapid's scalp collection includes too many appearances by Jellyfish and Track-tion for me to call it a true all-star. It's loss to Aftershock is a lot less considered these days, but I can't help but remember that they were beaten so convincingly that they had to pull out. -TG, 7

• The reboot had two one-time-finalist flippers and I do appreciate how they're total opposites. TR2 was a flipper too weak to score OotA's, so it needed to control fights at its own pace and flip as much as possible. RAPID, meanwhile, was a flipper so strong that almost every flip it made resulted in an OotA, which came at a cost of an extremely slow weapon retract time, and overenthusiastic self-righting reminiscent of Mute. It is these flipper downsides (and the passive battle style it forces upon Andy Hibberd) that keeps RAPID outside of my Top 5, but this machine was untouchable for mere mortals and took the best of Robot Wars to stop it. -Toast, 6

• Not strong enough to stand up to spinners, but absolutely dominant when faced with non-destructive opponents, and totally able to play with the teams who'd been doing it for years more. -RA2, 6

• They spent a load of money on this robot, and it was money well spent as Rapid was a brilliant robot, it just didn't like big spinners. A masterful tactician with the driving though, and holder of the fastest OotA of all time, Rapid was strong and deserving of this placing. -Jimlaad, 6

• RAPID beat Track-tion twice, Jellyfish, a broken Nuts 2 and Terrorhurtz. Really, that reading isn't all that fantastic. But RAPID had limited time in the warzone, and displayed huge flips in tandem with its impressive ground clearance. This helped it comfortably smother Terrorhurtz, and it is a machine that can conceivably beat any machine on its day. It isn't quite consistent enough or truly durable enough to do it on a regular basis, but this is one capable machine. -NJGW, 6

• good pace, good driving, powerful flipper, rapid seems to tick all the boxes for a flipping robot, but there are a couple of issues. It didn't seem to be able to take big hits as well as something like Apollo or Eruption, and the flipper took an age to close once activated. It took powerful robots to beat it though, and Rapid eased past Terrorhurtz better than any other robot did in the reboot I think, so that gives it some bragging points. -Raz3r, 6

• Another of my all-time favorites goes out now! RAPID turned heads with it's super sleek design and fast pace of battle.. and with being over complicated, but coming back in series 10, it was all worth it as it took its heat by storm, scoring the fastest KO, at least in the reboot, RAPID may have stumbled in the grand final, but even after taking onslaughts from Magnetar and Carbide, and then a LiPo fire, 90% of the robot was still usable! So why is it in 5th? Well this top 5 is basically a big top trumps game, I didn't actually give a score to every robot, but I might as well have. As it stands, RAPID and my number 4 are very, very close... -Otter, 5

5. Aftershock

• This was certainly one machine you never, ever wanted to come up against. There's a reason that wedged vertical spinners are at the top of the world right now, they're so hard to counter, and are so effective at throwing robots and tearing chunks out of them. Aftershock was the first to truly make it work in the UK scene, and almost no Robot Wars competitor could cope. It ranks fifth in my order and no higher as it does undeniably have six losses to its seven wins, and to me it was only the second-best vertical spinner in the show. -Toast, 5

• Aftershock had one weakness - Carbide. That didn't stop it being absolutely the measure of anything that wasn't considered an All-Star. The Series 10 run was a case of "someone was going to get screwed over in the Heat of Death", and it was Aftershock who suffered that fate. -Jimlaad, 5

• what a monster. I don't think we'd seen such an emphatic and impressive heat victory since Gravity in Series 7, or make as good of a first impression since Hypno-Disc in Series 3. Its spinner devastated several high calibre robots across its Robot Wars run, but Aftershock did still have vulnerabilities. It had relatively weak armour in Series 9, and robots like Apollo, Eruption and Big Nipper were all able to outwedge it to cause it some trouble. Its performance against the elite of the elite aren't quite enough to convince me of putting it ahead of the next two robots in this rankdown, but Top 5 is still a very good placing. -Raz3r, 5

• Aftershock's debut campaign was scary good. It swept aside RAPID, Sabretooth, Terrorhurtz and Apollo, and was causing crippling damage to Eruption - even at half (if that) health! Its follow up series was not as good, but compare the winning CVs of Aftershock to the machines below it and it did plenty enough to take this spot. A repeat of Series 9 in Series 10 would've helped give at least an argument of it finishing even higher, but 4th place is not too shabby at all. -NJGW, 4

• The quintessential vertical spinner with a well-rounded design. Decisively cannot beat Eruption or Carbide though. -RA2, 3

• It's Series 10 campaign was short, and tainted by an unfortunate event in the melee and an unfortunate draw. Had it been in Magnetar's spot, Series 10 would have been very different. It's Series 9 campaign was amazing, blasting through four grand finalists in six battles, and even though it couldn't overcome Carbide, it's domination remains incredible. -TG, 3

• Another favourite incoming, this time my favorite spinner! Having one of the most explosive debuts of any robot in the show, this thing rolled up and tossed aside RAPID, Sabretooth, Terrorhurtz and Apollo, and gave Ironside 3 and Eruption major scares.. despite being half dead at the time! While I don't think Aftershock could consistantly beat my top 2, I reckon it would have a damn good go at number 1, and be about half and half with my number 2. But results do count in this and well... -Otter, 3

4. Magnetar

• Note: Aftershock & Magnetar tied in points. Magnetar wins the tie, because it was ranked higher than Aftershock on 5/9 people's lists.

• This is the last of the "weirdly underperforming" robots in the rankdown for me, everything else was fine-tuned to perfection, had very high heights, and the lows were barely noticeable, and that is why Magnetar is in 6th place for me, It had stupidly high heights and looked invincible upon entry into the grand final... Then the Srimech and gremlins made themselves known again. It's still one of my favourite robots of the reboot, but like I said, from here on out there are very little flaws in the designs, and I couldn't justify putting Magnetar any higher. -Otter, 6

• Tremendous improvement over Pulsar, I have no doubt in my mind that Pulsar would be toast after that beating from Thor. -RA2, 5

• Magnetar beat Push to Exit, Expulsion, and Thor. Really, that reading isn't all that fantastic. But Magnetar had limited time in the warzone, and displayed huge power in tandem with its impressive ground clearance. This helped it comfortably beat Thor, and it is a machine that can conceivably beat any machine on its day. It isn't quite consistent enough or truly durable enough to do it on a regular basis, but this is one capable machine (i'm putting it above RAPID also for the Group Battle involving the two ofc). -NJGW, 5

• Exactly how reliable Magentar is we will never know, as it was reliable in three heat battles before gremlins set in in the last two. I'm willing to give it a lot more benefit of the doubt because of how strong it was in the battles it lost. Having Magnetar as a foil to Eruption (and possibly Carbide) is a real gift, and its elimination at the hands of Behemoth was bittersweet as it doomed us to an Eruption v Carbide rematch. -TG, 4

• Fourth place is of course an extremely high ranking for a robot that never got that far in the actual competition, but its losses against Behemoth and Eruption both displayed that it could quite easily win those matches on a better day. Magnetar had it all - speed, weapon power, a good wedge, and very resilient armour. It's only that dodgy srimech that stops me from ranking it amongst champions here. -Toast, 4

• If that srimech didn't die after one use, Magnetar could and should have won Series 10, I'm pretty damn sure. This was Pulsar but with the other reliability issues fixed, and the spinner turned up to 11. It won its heat without breaking a sweat by destroying so many opponents with absolutely brutal hits. -Jimlaad, 3

• post series 8, Magnetar was the only robot which I believe truly threatened Eruption. Aftershock had its moments, but it was magnetar who caused damage to the flipper of eruption, not to mention its decimation of Thor and Rapid too. It would have beaten Behemoth too, if not for a poor decision from Ellis Ware, and that brings me to the only weakness we saw out of Magnetar other than small decision making errors: its srimech. It failed to act as more than a one use mechanism, and as a result, flips from Matilda and Behemoth, both of which could have easily been avoided, cost Magnetar from going deeper into the competition. Overall though, its spinner was fantastic, the reliability of the mobility was greatly improved from Pulsar, and it had brilliant moments in all of its battles, wins or losses. -Raz3r, 3

3. Apollo

• Suffers greatly from its Series 9-10 performances, but a beast in Series 8. -RA2, 4

• I considered ranking Apollo lower, as despite being the Series 8 champion, I've never really truly thought of Apollo as championship material. A strong flipper it may have had, but reliability issues dogged it all through its championship run, and it got lucky in the final really to survive Carbide for 3 minutes when its spinner died. Apollo just never had the staying power of the other champions. -Jimlaad, 4

• we have a champion! Apollo is a fan favourite team for a good reason, hitting that perfect Goldilocks zone of entertainment and quality, and tossing house robots and competitors around like confetti. Apollo was one of the first reboot robots to really grab watchers by the throat and go "watch us take it all" and they sure did! Sadly, they were unable to get that far again, but they never stopped being a viable contender, and are well worthy to take the number 4 spot on my final rankdown. -Otter, 4

• Champions of series 8, this machine proved to be a highly entertaining addition to the reboot, showing you could still have fun whilst performing to a very high standard. Its flipper was arguably second to none in terms of power, and it was driven very well across pretty much every fight it fought in. Its Series 10 upgrades improved its armour so that it had become about as strong as it possibly could, and only an unfortunate loss against Behemoth prevented it from cruising to the Grand Final, a fight which, if repeated several times, I think Apollo would win more often than not. I don't think there could have been a better champion for Series 8 than Apollo the entertainers. -Raz3r, 4

• This one hurts me to place so low, as its my favourite machine of the entire reboot, but it lost to the three above at least once each. -TG, 4

• I think things sort out naturally here. Apollo won Series 8, but had holes in two other series, which the two machines above Apollo only showed once at most. -NJGW, 3

• Truly a display of what the top British flippers could do. A highly powerful weapon, driven extremely well by Dave Young, and I do trust that the rebuild for Series 10 made it a top tier for defence and resilience too. It's no surprise that its counterpart Vulcan did so well in China with the same design, and I'm sure Orion will have a point to prove too. It's the lowest of my three champions simply for losing to both on various occasions, but I'm glad that the three champs occupy the final slots. -Toast, 3

2. Eruption

Note: Eruption was unanimously chosen as #2

• Our Robot Wars champion, perhaps forever. With a true elite like Michael Oates behind the sticks, there was pretty much no robot you couldn't ask Eruption to defeat. Once they upgraded the defence to better resist spinners, Eruption was a complete machine, and I believe the second-best to ever grace Robot Wars. Unfortunately they just had one teeny-tiny flaw, attaching their wheels to the outer armour instead of the internal structure, meaning a strong spinner could take them out in as little as one blow. This led to Eruption's three defeats in Series 9-10, and they were only against one machine. Thus, there can only be one winner in this rankdown. -Toast

• Eruption, more than Carbide, feels like the true definition of a perfect Robot Wars competitor. It's well driven, heavily armoured, has a powerful weapon, plenty of gas, and was incredibly reliable. Of its five defeats, four of them were the result of a wheel locking up, and post Series 8, nothing outside of Robot Wars' most powerful spinners came close to beating Eruption. I honestly don't think any non-spinner we've seen in Robot Wars could beat Series 10 Eruption in the Robot Wars arena at a dozen times of asking if it worked 100%... -Raz3r

• I'm just gonna get this out there, if we factor in the live events, I would have no issues in saying that Eruption is probably the most dominant and powerful robot in the 2010s that graced the UK. Godlike driving, a power that makes most flippers blush, great armour (after series 8 anyway) and a tenacity that the show loved to play up. Hell, after series 8, this thing only lost to one robot, and that alone speaks volumes of how strong this is. Oh and speaking of that one robot... -Otter

• The best flipper and driven flipper of the whole reboot. Its disastrous Series 8 campaign hid what a truly incredible robot this was. Like Apollo, it had spinner weaknesses which it took until its second Grand Final to survive. An OotA machine. -JImlaad

• If Series 8 went ever-so-slightly differently, this could've been a very tight fight for first. It's obviously still close. Eruption's consistently was incredible. But if you make 3/3 Grand Finals, and 3/3 Title Fights, there's only going to be one number 1... -NJGW

• Massively impressive run in Series 10, and their win was something out of a storybook. They've got tactics in spades, that's how they won the 10-way melee, and how they ultimately beat Carbide. While they may have hit their stride in Series 10, I'm not convinced their win over Carbide is repeatable - took everything in the tank, and was a judges' decision of just a hair's breadth of in the end. Plus since we're ranking the bots as a whole from Series 8-10, I can't ignore their loss to PP3D. -RA2

• Nothing to say that hasn't already been said. The Series 10 title was the icing on the cake for Michael Oates' time in Robot Wars. -Jack

• Pretty much what everyone said. -TG

1. Carbide

Note: Carbide was unanimously chosen as #1

• Carbide is the daddy of the reboot spinners, and was simply an unstoppable force at times. Like Eruption, it had one or two little issues in series 8 which were ironed out in Series 9 to create the ultimate robot Wars spinner. Many tried, and many failed, to implement new tactics to defeat this godlike, black and green freak of engineering. Sure, it had losses against respectable opponents like Terrorhurtz, TR2, Apollo and Nuts 2, but Carbide learned from pretty much every defeat it had, only to come back even stronger than before. With 3 out of 4 wins in fights against Eruption, and the loss being a close, incredible fight, there's no doubt in my mind that Carbide is number 1, and by some distance too. -Raz3r

• The most powerful machine in Robot Wars could only be Carbide. Being the strongest spinner in the UK simply wasn't enough for Sam Smith and Dave Moulds, as they also decided to give it godlike reliability unseen in spinners of this nature, and even backed it up with an unbreakable shell and huge weapon range. The driving is perhaps the single most underrated aspect of Carbide, with every single attack being extremely deliberate in targeting the weakest part of opponents, swinging the blade against its own forces for maximum impact. To even stand a chance against Carbide, you had to hope it was ailing, and it's easily my winner. -Toast

• When you start to dislike a robot because it's too good, there's no question that said robot has to be number one. No one could reliably stand up to its power, and the roboteers who got up close and personal all sang their praises. Its worst performance was second place, what more can you say? -RA2

• It was but an inevitability. That doesn't make it anything less than incredible though. Carbide was the king. It felt near-on invincible very early on, and only got stronger. Even when deliberately countered with certain opponents or tactics in Series 10, Carbide was still only beaten at the final hurdle. Not that it will be here though. Carbide: the rightful Reboot Rankdown winner. -NJGW

• The only reason this isn't the best robot of the decade and Eruption is, is because Carbide only appeared on TV, if this was a live show bot as well, the scene would be an absolute mess let me tell you. This right here, is the peak of UK robotics until we see otherwise, the opening narration might have told you that there is no perfect design, but Carbide is the robot that has come as close as possible, range and power that meant that nowhere was safe, there are no chinks in this monster's armour that can be taken advantage of, and the only way to beat it is to throw yourself at it until you've won by a complete miracle. There is no other robot that can be at number 1 on any sensible list, and when it's completely unanimous like this, there's only one way this can end. -Otter

• Carbide. A robot that reaches all three finals without really breaking a sweat is truly deserving of the number 1 spot. TBH, Carbide only isn't a 3-time champion because it kept bottling finals. Carbide has fought both Apollo and Eruption 4 times, winning three with ease and losing one on a close judges' decision. Which one did it lose both times? The grand final. None of that takes away from the fact that Carbide was so incredibly powerful that nothing could really get close to it. -Jimlaad

• Again, nothing to add. King of the spinners. -Jack

• Pretty much what everyone said. -TG