Weird Alice

Weird Alice
The original Weird Alice
Participation Information
UK Series	4 (failed to qualify)
Robot Wars Live Circuit	2013-16
Team Information
Team	Team Weird Alice
Team Members	Mark Carnduff Ian Humphrey Steve Catchpole
From	Kent
Robot Statistics
Power	800 watt Iskra motors
Weapons	CO2 powered spike
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

Weird Alice was a competitor robot from Kent which attempted to enter Robot Wars: The Fourth Wars. However, it failed to qualify for that series after suffering radio reception issues at the Robot Mayhem live event.

Design

Weird Alice was an invertible, triangular wedge-shaped robot with two-wheel drive and a CO₂-powered spike as its weapon. The robot was armoured in galvanised sheet steel, and painted black and red with yellow side bumpers and a green skull on its top panel.

Series Record

Series	Weird Alice Series Record
The First Wars	Did not enter
The Second Wars	Did not enter
The Third Wars	Did not enter
The Fourth Wars	Failed to qualify
The Fifth Wars	Did not enter
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

Outside Robot Wars

"The first outing for this robot was to the Robot Wars Series 4 auditions. Everything seemed to work well beforehand but on the day we couldn't get radio reception. The second outing was to Robot Mania 2001 at Brighton, this is were we found out that the robot was extremely flawed. We found out that the gear ratio was far too low, the wheels were too far apart and the weapon was next to useless. It was at this point that we decided to retire Alice after a very short career."

— The Weird Alice website on the original Weird Alice

After discovering further issues with the original Weird Alice at the 2001 Robot Mania event in Brighton, Team Weird Alice scrapped it and built a second version. This version was painted black and green and featured a taller wedged box-shaped chassis with sloped sides as well as a pneumatic flipper. At the 2006 UK Championship, it defeated Hades, but lost to Big Nipper and Edge Hog.

Weird Alice fights Comengetorix at a charity event

The second version of Weird Alice

The internals of the second Weird Alice

This version of Weird Alice was later rebuilt with steeper sides and a revised flipping arm, and renamed Weird mAlice. Weird mAlice still competes at live events today, while the team also built a featherweight called Dinah.

Weird mAlice

Weird mAlice in 2016

Weird mAlice in 2024

Dinah, the team's featherweight

Weird mAlice started the 2017 live circuit promisingly at Robots Live! Burgess Hill, by throwing Suspension out of the arena, then stranding Or Te! and Nuts 2 with its flipper in its first battle. It would appear at the subsequent Extreme Robots events at Guildford and Colchester, before reappearing with Robots Live! for their Stevenage event in October. During the latter, Weird mAlice was paired with Ka-Pow! for the Tag Team competition.

Weird mAlice in September 2018

Throughout 2018 and 2019, Weird mAlice continued to compete in various live events held by both organisers, culminating in the FRA UK Championship in Stevenage in September 2019. Sporting brand-new forked wedges, it fell in the first round after breaking down in a melee against Immersion and Behemoth. A newly-repainted Weird mAlice returned to combat in September 2022 for the Robots Live! event in Crawley, and continues to maintain an active presence on the UK live circuit.

At Extreme Robots Guildford on 17-18 June 2023, Weird mAlice claimed a melee victory against Ignition, Manta and The Saint, contributing to Team Wolfpack winning the Sunday show outright. It also attended the Maidstone leg on 21-22 August, but lost two main show fights against Iron-Awe 6 and Poseidon respectively.

Weird mAlice again attended Extreme Robots Guildford on 15-16 June 2024, appearing in melee and Tag Team matches as part of Team Wolfpack. Appearances in the main shows at Colchester (14-15 September) were limited to a single Tag Team match for Team Wolfpack, with the robot also documented to have needed a replacement weapon controller. The aforementioned battle resulted in Weird mAlice and its partner Meggamouse losing to TR4 and Manta, with Manta throwing both out of the arena. At Maidstone (19-20 October), Weird mAlice again suffered issues with its CO₂ system, during its stint as part of Team Divinity. This resulted in it being left unable to self-right in both of its competition fights. The second - a Tag Team against Brutus and Meggamouse - would result in victory anyway, as its partner Axel outlasted both opponents when they each became immobilised.

Robot Wars Live Events

Following the retirement of Weird Alice, the team continued to fight in Robot Wars-branded live events between 2013 and 2016 with Weird mAlice. Weird mAlice debuted at the 2013 Portsmouth event, where it faced Bullfrog, The Steel Avenger and TR2 in the first round. However, it was eliminated at that stage after it was flipped on its back and was unable to self-right due to a gas leak. It did however perform better at the Guildford event, reaching the final round before losing to Thor.

Weird mAlice later took part in the 2015 Robot Wars World Championships at Colchester, where it fought Iron-Awe 7, Nuts and Meggamouse in the first round. However, it was eliminated early on after getting thrown out the arena by Iron-Awe 7.

Weird mAlice returned to the live events in 2016, fighting at Portsmouth. It performed very well at the event, finishing second to Ripper over the weekend.