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"Revenge is a rolling pin!"
— Team motto

Widow's Revenge was a heavyweight robot which fought in Series 5 of Robot Wars, entered by a female team partially made up of relatives and girlfriends of Team Razer. Widow's Revenge reached the second round of its Heat by defeating Sumpthing before being destroyed by Razer and Matilda.

Design[]

"Wives and girlfriends of the Razer team, The Robot Widows came together and built a robot as a revenge for endless lonely nights, endless tea runs, bacon sandwiches, and having to put up with hours of technobabble!"
— Jonathan Pearce
Widow's Revenge

Widow's Revenge in the arena

Widow's Revenge was a box-wedge shaped robot with a white and pink colour-scheme in homage to Breast Cancer Campaign, a charity supported by the team. It was also decorated with glossy lips, and the robot's name. Widow's Revenge was armed with two weapons: a vertical spinning disc at the front, and a rear-mounted spinning drum, in reference to a rolling pin. Its sides were sloped outwards, and the robot was four-wheel driven. The robot's appearance and weaponry resulted in the team describing it team as "a fridge on wheels with a rolling pin weapon". The drum was the more effective weapon, but the robot's armour and chassis were fragile, and it had no self-righting mechanism.

The Team[]

RobotWidowsWigs

The Robot Widows with their wigs

Widow's Revenge was built by The Robot Widows, a team of female roboteers who claimed to be 'tired of having their partners spend so much time working on their robots'. The team represented the Breast Cancer Campaign charity throughout their campaign.

Widowsrevenge team in pits

The Robot Widows in the pits

On the show, the Widow's Revenge team were introduced as the wives and girlfriends of Team Razer, but this is not entirely true. Of the original team members, team captain Gillie Blood was the fianceé of Ian Lewis, and the sister of Vinnie Blood. Fiona Mason was not linked to Team Razer, nor was Jenny Smith, an original member of the team who fell ill around the time of filming. Emily Cathcart, the girlfriend of Vinnie Blood, joined the team when Jenny Smith fell ill.

Gillie Blood, nowadays Gillian Lewis, was part of Team Razer in Series 8 of Robot Wars.

Robot History[]

Series 5[]

"Widow's Revenge have also advertised their machine as extremely attractive, slim and looking for a similar robot for cosy nights in! Well, Sumpthing has no plans for a cosy night in, I can tell you!"
— Jonathan Pearce at the start of Widow's Revenge's first battle
WidowSumpthing

Widow's Revenge gets underneath Sumpthing

In its first battle, Widow's Revenge fought veteran robot Sumpthing. It was slow in leaving its starting position, only turning on the spot, sustaining several attacks from Sumpthing's discs, although Widow's Revenge was able to deflect the discs using its own drum. After an extended period of both robots lightly attacking each other in the centre of the arena, the spinning discs of both robots collided, throwing sparks. Widow's Revenge held Sumpthing near the pit release button, where one of Sumpthing's gears fell loose, limiting its mobility. As time started to expire, Sir Killalot grabbed Widow's Revenge with his claw and dropped it onto Sumpthing, where 'cease' was called, and the battle was sent to a Judges' decision.

Widow's Revenge vs Sumpthing

Widow's Revenge is dropped onto Sumpthing

"Will the mascara run in the Widows team if they get the decision against them?"
— Jonathan Pearce

Based on the damage sustained by Sumpthing, the Judges unanimously ruled that Widow's Revenge had won the battle, to the celebration of the Robot Widows, as they jumped around the control booth.

Craig Charles: "Why is your robot called Widow's Revenge?"
Gillie Blood: "...Well basically we are robot widows. Our other halves built Razer, and they've spent about the last three years in the shed. So we decided that one of our mottoes was gonna be; if you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them!"
— Misplaced optimism ahead of the second round
Bulb Boy

The Robot Widows hold their insulting signs

Directly after the Robot Widows had pledged to defeat their other halves in Team Razer, Widow's Revenge was drawn against Razer in the second round of the heat. Prior to the battle, the team jokingly left Team Razer with an ultimatum, to persuade them to lose the battle. They also stood behind the team, parading signs reading "Bulb Boy" (referencing Vinnie Blood's bald head), "Weasel" (referencing Simon Scott's slim figure) and "Potato Features" (referencing Ian Lewis' face).

Philippa Forrester: "Now's your chance, get it all out of your systems, what do you want to say to them?"
Gillie Blood: "If we win, we're brilliant and they leave the studios in shame. If they beat us, no more washing-up, no more hot dinners on the table, and I'm putting his bed in the shed!"
— The Robot Widows leave Team Razer an ultimatum
RazerWidow

Razer crushes Widow's Revenge

The clash between boyfriends and girlfriends started in the arena, and Widow's Revenge now sported small pieces of Diotoir fur on its back end. However, Widow's Revenge was unable to position its weapon in a way that it could hit Razer, and the hydraulic crusher forced its way down, causing a strip of metal to fly off, while the top armour of Widow's Revenge was crumpled. Widow's Revenge was forced from the floor as it was pierced, and another attack from Razer caused more strips of metal to fly away, and Widow's Revenge's other top panel was crushed. Widow's Revenge had already been immobilised, so Razer pressed the pit release button and then inflicted more damage, placing Widow's Revenge over the flame pit.

"Divorce lawyers are on the phone! Widow's Revenge are on the flames! The housekeeping money will be used now to repair Widow's Revenge for months ahead, or will it?"
— Jonathan Pearce
Matilda vs Widow's Revenge

Widow's Revenge is shattered by Matilda

As Widow's Revenge was pushed towards the floor flipper, the Robot Widows held their disparaging banners up in their control booth. Refbot counted out Widow's Revenge there, before Razer drove in to cause even more damage after the team's partners had already lost. Razer crumpled Widow's Revenge off the floor again, and then the House Robots closed in, with Matilda using her flywheel to throw the beaten robot up, removing its top armour completely.

"Matilda, what are you doing? Sisters of mercy? The widows are infuriated! Girl Power - that certainly was from our Matilda!"
— Jonathan Pearce expresses his surprise at Matilda's 'betrayal'
RazerWidowMatilda

Razer and Matilda attack Widow's Revenge again

Sgt. Bash placed Widow's Revenge back onto the floor flipper, where it was tossed directly upwards, and dropped a piece of metal under the flipper, wedging it open. Both Razer and Sgt. Bash used their crushers to attack what remained of Widow's Revenge and hold it in place for Matilda to tear up its front wedge. The combined attack of Matilda and Razer continued, causing further damage, and Razer drove Widow's Revenge towards the pit.

"And this ungallant attack on Widow's Revenge gets the thumbs down and quite rightly so! Well, I wonder if Razer gave them any advice there on how to build a robot? If they did, it was sneaky. Very good against Sumpthing early on, but now your robot is trashed and is about to be binned, because I think your partners may have given you some duff advice!"
— Jonathan Pearce
RazerWidow2

Razer pits itself and Widow's Revenge

In an act of late glory for the Robot Widows, when Razer attempted to push Widow's Revenge into the pit, Razer fell down itself, hanging from the chassis of Widow's Revenge by its claw. Regardless, Widow's Revenge had already lost the battle, and fell at this stage to the team's own partners. Gillie Blood said after the battle that she would have lots of time to repair Widow's Revenge, claiming never to make hot dinners for Team Razer again, and that she would put Ian Lewis' bed in the shed, while Emily Cathcart told Craig Charles that 'the war will continue on a domestic level'.

"The ribbing they gave us in the pits was terrible, and their machine wasn't too hot either, so we decided that we would really make them suffer for those comments!"
— Vincent Blood in Razer's DVD

Results[]

WIDOW'S REVENGE - RESULTS
Series 5
The Fifth Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 2
Heat K, Eliminator vs. Sumpthing Won
Heat K, Semi-Final vs. Razer (4) Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 1
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Series Widow's Revenge Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Did not enter
The Fourth Wars Did not enter
The Fifth Wars Heat, Round 2
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Entered with Razer (Gillie Blood)
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Outside Robot Wars[]

Widow's Revenge RAW

Widow's Revenge at Robots@War3

Widow's Revenge attended the Robots@War 3 event in 2001, although it is unconfirmed whether it took part in any battles.

PillowTorque

Pillow Torque, a featherweight robot by Jenny Smith

Painintheasp

Pain in the Asp, Team Torque's tribute to Sewer Snake

After Robot Wars entered its hiatus from television, untelevised team member Jenny Smith built a featherweight called Pillow Torque, a four-wheel driven pushing robot with a front wedge. She is part of the all-female Team Torque (no relation to the team behind All Torque), who built Dantomkia mk5. Her team also built the featherweight lifter Pain in the Asp, which resembles the American robot 'Sewer Snake' and competed in live events until its retirement in October 2017.

Aside from entering Series 8 of Robot Wars with as part of Team Razer, Gillian Blood Lewis also competed with the same team in the 2015 series of BattleBots, entering with Warhead.

Trivia[]

  • The Robot Widows were the first all-female team to compete on Robot Wars, not counting the one-woman team of WYSIWYG.
  • Widow's Revenge was the only robot in Heat K of the Fifth Wars that never appeared in any other series.
  • Widow's Revenge was unusual among UK Robot Wars competitors prior to Series 7 in that it openly displayed the robot's sponsorship. This was common among competitors in the international series and other robot combat programmes like BattleBots, but was generally forbidden in the UK series due to rules against advertising on the BBC; however, Widow's Revenge's sponsor was a charity, so displaying its logo was permitted.

Navigation[]

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