Vertical flywheels

S3 shreds Plunderbird 5

Vertical flywheels were a type of rotating weapon. They were typically quite large and thin and were capable of damage on a large scale. Whilst typically unsuccessful in the UK, robots with this weapon became the German and Dutch Champions, and Cyclone won an annihilator in Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors.

This weapon was typically more successful in BattleBots, with the widely famous Nightmare, who inspired a number of UK Robots. House robot Matilda initially had a chainsaw but changed to a 27kg flywheel after Series 4, although the flywheel was said to be interchangable with the chainsaw in Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors.

Definition

• A flywheel was a comparatively heavy disc weapon that spun at high speeds. To cause damage, welded "teeth" were attached at places on the weapon to gouge enemy robots.
• They were mounted vertically, with the purpose of striking from the bottom up.

Advantages and Disadvantages

X-Terminator throws Killer Carrot 2 from the arena

Advantages

• Vertical weapons were capable of doubling as flipping weapons, even capable of throwing an opponent out of the arena, as X-Terminator, Cyclone and Matilda showed.
• They often targeted the underside of a robot, the weakest point on the design. This allowed for maximum damage.
• They proved effective against flippers; buckling the wedge of flipper meant that it was neutralised - unable to negotiate ground clearance. X-Terminator showed this in its Semi Final fights against St. Agro and Bulldog Breed.

Disadvantages

259 down for the count, unable to self-right after a trouncing by Fluffy

• The design was often hard to combine with the invertible design, especially large flywheels such as the likes of 259. This meant that often, a robot with this weapon needed an additional srimech.
• Also, the effectiveness of the weapon when inverted was often decreased due to many flywheels spinning in only one direction. This was shown when Black Hole was overturned by Philipper 2 and its discs span towards the ground, causing Black Hole to jump upwards upon striking its opponent.
• In a clash between horizontal and vertical heavy rotating weapons, a vertical will typically come off second best, as shown in the clash between Fluffy and 259.
• They have a narrower range of attack than Horizontal flywheels.

List of Robots with Vertical Flywheels

Black Hole, the German Champion

Daisy Chopper, the UK pioneer

PulverizeR, the Dutch Champion

Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots that are not heavyweight are listed with a green background. House robots are listed with a red background.

Robot	Series Appearances with Vertical Flywheels	Notes
259	Series 6	Won the Best Design Award of the Sixth Wars.
259 (Middleweight)	Extreme 2	Middleweight version of 259, and reached the middleweight final.
Argh!	Extreme 2	Became the featherweight champion of Extreme 2.
Black Hole	German Series 1, UK Extreme 2	German Series champion.
Bot Out Of Hell	Series 5
Cedric Slammer	Series 6, Extreme 2	New Blood Grand Finalist.
Cyclone	US Season 1-2	US Annihilator champion, becoming the first robot with a vertical flywheel to throw an opponent from the arena.
Daisy Chopper	Series 3	First robot armed with a vertical flywheel.
Derek 2	Series 6	Inspired by that of 259.
Doctor Fist	Series 6, Extreme 2	Spun downwards rather than upwards.
Hyperactive	US Season 2
Inshredable	Series 6
Major Tom	Series 5-6, Extreme 1-2
Matilda	Series 5-7, Extreme 1-2
Meshuggah	Dutch Series 1-2
Mesmer 2	Extreme 2
Neoteric	Extreme 2	Walkerbot from Team Roaming Robots
Pika 2	Dutch Series 1
PulverizeR	Dutch Series 1-2, UK Series 7, Extreme 2	Dutch Series 2 champion.
S3	Series 5-6, Extreme 2	Reached the second round of the semi-finals on both UK Series appearances.
The Bat	US Season 2
Vader	Series 6-7, Extreme 2
Vortex Inducer	Dutch Series 2	Could twist vertically or horizontally.
X-Terminator	Series 7	Series 7 Grand Finalist, throwing two machines out of the arena along the way.