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"This means war"
— Message on the back of VIPER 01

VIPER 01 (standing for Virtually Indestructible Performance Engineered Robot and also spelt as VIPER01) was a competitor robot which fought in Series 5 of Robot Wars. It lost its only battle against Splinter in the first round of its heat.

Liverdyne Robotics also competed in middleweight Robot Wars events with Hard Cheese, which won the Series 2 Middleweight Championship.

Design[]

"This Virtually Indestructible Performance Engineered Robot comes with a stainless steel cutting disc, and we reckon looks like a distant relative of a certain militaristic house robot."
Issue 18 of the Robot Wars Magazine

VIPER 01 was an invertible box wedge-shaped robot armed with a 3kg stainless steel cutting disc spinning at 4000rpm. The robot was painted dark green, and boasted decent pushing power, also decorated with the same vermin mascot seen on predecessor Hard Cheese. VIPER 01 was intended to feature a top speed of 15mph, although the team had to turn the current limiter down in its batteries before fighting as it ran out of power during the Series 5 qualifiers. While this modification improved VIPER 01's battery life considerably, it drastically reduced the robot's top speed, which was instrumental in VIPER 01's downfall during its only battle, where its aggression would prove to be much more limited. Its wedge was low-profile, but not completely uniform with the floor of the arena.

Qualification[]

VIPERaxe

The Big Cheese before being renamed VIPER 01 and painted green

VIPER 01 was originally built to enter The Third Wars under the name, The Big Cheese (not to be confused with Roger Plant's machine from the same series) but did not qualify. It was originally planned to be armed with a pickaxe, similar to the spiked hammer used by the Series 3 version of Hard Cheese, with the team mascot 'Verminator' impaled on the axe head.

Viper

VIPER 01 (previously The Big Cheese) before the disc was fitted

For an attempted qualification into The Fourth Wars, VIPER 01 attended the July 24th shows of the Robot Mayhem live event, but had to withdraw after burning out all of its FETs during testing. In its place, Liverdyne Robotics fought with Hard Cheese, beating Spike the Impaler and an unidentified opponent, while losing to Ming 2 after getting flipped over by the latter's flipper. Ultimately, neither VIPER 01 or Hard Cheese qualified for the series.[1][2]

Although VIPER 01 successfully qualified for The Fifth Wars, it ran out of battery power over the course of its battles while running the robot at top speed, which ultimately led the team to lower its top speed for its televised battle.

Robot History[]

Series 5[]

"Splinter vs Viper, ooh, sounds painful!"
Philippa Forrester

VIPER 01 participated in Heat I of Series 5, facing the seventeenth seed and previous heat winner Splinter in the first round.

"They say they can get up to 15mph, VIPER 01, I'm not too sure whether they can get up to one mile an hour..."
Jonathan Pearce observes VIPER 01's sluggishness as Splinter attacks it
Splinter vs VIPER 01

VIPER 01 is caught by Splinter

It started sluggishly as a result of its battery modifications, trying to back away from Splinter but getting caught by the latter's claws and sustaining blows from its axe. Splinter pushed VIPER 01 into Shunt, who axed it and pushed both machines out of his CPZ, before axing it a few more times and reversing away. It rammed VIPER 01 and pushed it into Shunt again, with VIPER 01 showing very little mobility.

"Well, they're from Aintree, and, they're falling at the first fence here, VIPER 01, I'm afraid to say."
— Jonathan Pearce
Vipersplinter

VIPER 01 is attacked from all sides while time runs out

Shunt pushed VIPER 01 away from Splinter, again axing its top armour, as Splinter pressed the pit release button before pushing VIPER 01 into the CPZ a third time. There, it sustained more damage from Shunt as he and Dead Metal positioned it over the Flame Pit, with Splinter coming in to attack VIPER 01 again as the battle drew to a close. Despite lasting to the end, the judges' decision inevitably went against VIPER 01, eliminating it from the Fifth Wars.

Results[]

VIPER 01 - RESULTS
Series 5
The Fifth Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 1
Heat I, Eliminator vs. Splinter (17) Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 0
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Main Series VIPER 01 Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Middleweight Championship with Hard Cheese
The Third Wars Middleweight Melee with Hard Cheese
The Fourth Wars Withdrew from qualifiers
Failed to qualify with Hard Cheese
The Fifth Wars Heat, Round 1
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter
Robot Wars Extreme Appearances
Series 1 Did not enter
Series 2 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • VIPER 01's official photo does not feature its rear cutting disc or the signatures on top of the robot.
  • While Jonathan Pearce pronounced VIPER 01's name 'Viper Oh-One', Stuart McDonald called it 'Viper Zero One' in its introduction.
  • It was originally called The Big Cheese to to partner with their Middleweight Hard Cheese, but when it failed to qualify for S3, production staff told Roger Plant he should use the name for his Heavyweight, as he needed a gimmick for TV.

References[]

Navigation[]

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