Robot Wars

[dan-likes-trees]

Camaaaannnn this deserves a thread fo sho

 

 

As part of 90s nostalgia month after Pokemon Go, BBC have rebooted my favorite program as a kid.

 

I loved it. Felt Dara o'Briain was a bit lacking in jokes an charisma for a comedian but the action was good as back in the day Also love how incredibly nerdy all of the contestants are, combined with the bbc epic slow-mo shots, ha.

 

Shame Razor was such a massive letdown!

[Cube]

I really enjoyed it. Nuts was a lot of fun to watch.

 

The head to head rounds are a great idea.

[Rummy]

My mate was round and didn't know it was on, but I was about 20 minutes late in putting on. We both bloody loved it - Nuts was a very interesting bot and it's intriguing seeing some of the newer aspects of robots compared to back in the day - don't think you'd have had something quite as powerful as Carbide back in the day, even Terrorhurtz's hammer looked crazy powerful(if it actuall worked, that is :P). Agree with you about the contestants all being suitably nerdy, but Dara O'Brien was certainly a bit flat. The contrast of the loud/brashness of people like Jeremy Clarkson and Craig Charles compared to the nerdyness and quietness of the pits used to really work for me.

[S.C.G]

I watched this last night from start to finish on the iPlayer and I enjoyed it all from Razer going from overconfident to not so much which was simultaneously enjoyable and disappointing to the absolute terror of Carbide, that is one scary robot!

 

Anyway I don't want to say too much in case anyone else hasn't seen it yet but the format works well, it's pretty much all killer with no filler, the show is edited really well so you're only ever moments from a battle; Dara O Briain still works well as a presenter I thought adding some fun humour in parts "Do you like jigsaw puzzles?" so while he might not have the same kind of appeal as Craig Charles who was excellent in his day, I don't think we have a "Top Gear" situation here plus Angela Scanlon works well as do the rest of the original cast, I loved the fact that they had returning judges including Professor Noel Sharky and voiceovers from Jonathan Pearce for it too.

 

House Robots were excellent, it was entertaining and it still had that same great feeling that the series had in the late-Nineties/early Noughties so it gets a thumbs-up from me and I will definitely carry on watching, I dodn't even watch that many TV programmes these days either so it's nice to have something of pure geek-like entertainment value with the bonus of seeing plenty of destruction for good measure. : peace:

[EEVILMURRAY]

Caught up with this last night.

 

Dara O Brien: Not a bad host. Lacks the energy of Craig Charles so it didn't feel as dramatic.

Angela Scanlon: Fit. Very much approves of her position on this show. Could do with losing the mechanic's jumpsuit though.

Arena: If I was in the audience I would be annoyed at how far back the people are sitting now (not mentioning the obvious time delays between rounds - even if they shoot several episodes in one day) Although the metal hitting the Roboteers' booth was interesting. Wished they filmed that.

House Robots: All have had some tweaks. Matilda's anus saw seems more powerful. Dead Metal (always been my favourite) looks like it's had his pincers flattened and his saw piece changed. MUST LOOK MORE MEAN.

 

They really need to cut back on the slow-mo and constant recaps though. This doesn't need to last an hour.

 

Where da fuck is Sgt. Bash?! If you're gonna get rid of anyone it should be Shunt.

 

don't think you'd have had something quite as powerful as Carbide back in the day,

Of the top of my head, the closest I can think of Hypnodisc:

[bob]

My favourite robot back in the day was Cassius. Man that was a beautiful robot, and would have done so well had it not accidentally driven into a pit. One of the first proper SRM as well I believe.

 

Hypnodisc was insane. Loved how destructive it was, but that's all it had really; it wasn't very maneuverable and only had plan A.

 

I haven't managed to watch this yet, but imma try and watch it on Monday I think.

[Rummy]

Yeah Carbide's a bit of a souped up hypnodisc of sorts!

 

Totes agree with you about the Cassius team @Dr\. bob - they were great engineers and one of my favourites, apparently really helpful to others in the pits too. They had recyclopse in the original series iirc, and then as you say Cassius was one of the first to implement a SRM. Unfortunately I was reading recently that the head of the team expressed some serious concerns around safety and failsafe devices, came up against Health and Safety jobsworths who missed the point and after some safety incidents refused to come back to the show unless standards were brought up to scratch, which I'm presuming never occured

 

Bit more here: http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/Team_Cassius (not sure if that's the one I originally read)

[EEVILMURRAY]

Cassius as well as Cassius 2. There's always one moment of "Shreemech"* I'll remember was that they got turned over, there was a pause from the crowd as they thought it was over. Flipper deployed and it flipped over. Crowd went wild. Was like magic. Not like how a free kick scoring a goal is magic, this stuff actually matters.

 

*Hate that word.

[Rummy]

Yeah I tried to avoid dropping the 'shreemech' there - I don't know if I remember it 100% but it wasn't exactly delicate either, the power of the flipper gave them quite a bit of air first time I recall seeing it(could, as I said, be mistaken/lightbulb astounded and exaggerated my memory). I used to love Robot Wars for that so much - each series you'd see some revolutionary innovation but then you'd see further evolutions against it - flippers(again, recyclopse in my mind was one of the few to have an actual flipper in S1), SRMs, dual-sided robots/unflippables, crushers/hammers, enhanced armours etc. The evolution and response of it just so appealed to the nerd in me! I kinda still get a similar satisfaction in competitive game evolution too.

[dan-likes-trees]

Just caught up with this on iplayer - loving it! As Evilmurray said, the hour runtime defnitely clogs it up, but still, I love the fights. Great stuff this week from Apollo going in for the house robots, glad they beat damp squib saw 2 or whatever they were called in the final.

 

I love the spinning disk robots like the 3d printed one, shame they struggle for consitency. Hope Hypnodisk make it back for this series. Also love how the best drivers are always the 15 year old computer game nerds, ha.

 

Yeah I tried to avoid dropping the 'shreemech' there - I don't know if I remember it 100% but it wasn't exactly delicate either, the power of the flipper gave them quite a bit of air first time I recall seeing it(could, as I said, be mistaken/lightbulb astounded and exaggerated my memory). I used to love Robot Wars for that so much - each series you'd see some revolutionary innovation but then you'd see further evolutions against it - flippers(again, recyclopse in my mind was one of the few to have an actual flipper in S1), SRMs, dual-sided robots/unflippables, crushers/hammers, enhanced armours etc. The evolution and response of it just so appealed to the nerd in me! I kinda still get a similar satisfaction in competitive game evolution too.

 

Agreed - and I'm glad the age of the flippers winning everything is gone with most robots working on both sides now! Currently a fairly, pleasingly balanced playing field.

[EEVILMURRAY]

The current trend is choosing between flippers, spinners, or going for something different and seeing how it goes.

 

Pulsar's weapon - vertical spinner, with a beautiful death hum - was an interesting weapon, one I haven't properly seen (sure, Matilda's tail, but that's a tiny one) and that's what I think got it pushed through by the judges when wassitsname had to drop out. Thermidore 2 had more control/damage/aggression, but was another flipperbot and wasn't allowed through even though all Pulsar did was go in circles because it seemed one of their wheels wasn't working, something which happened several times.

 

Dat Gabriel though, weapons like that are pure shit, but the material it was made from... what was it? flopping around like a dildo taking just as much damage.

[Agent Gibbs]

I'm two weeks behind you lot, but its not so bad so far, but as much as i like Dara O'Brien I just can't help but feel they should have got Craig Charles back, he had this enthusiasm as well as a cheeky jokey attitude with the contestants that Dara just isn't matching

[bob]

Craig Charles is too busy with his jazz music and shit poetry.

[Agent Gibbs]

Craig Charles is too busy with his jazz music and shit poetry.

 

He does Poetry too? man he chose Poetry over crashing metal

[EEVILMURRAY]

That final eh?

[Rummy]

I'm still behind! Caught up on Episode 5 on Sunday(tho I think I've still missed one along the way) - really liked that kid who was basically entirely self-taught. Some interesting ideas and design, shows what can happen when you aren't conventional/traditional I guess. Glad he got his wins - gonna try and catch up on the final sometime this week(missed it because I was catching up on work, and I'm posting at 3.14am because...I'm currently catching up on the work I didn't catch up enough on :p)

[dan-likes-trees]

I'm still behind! Caught up on Episode 5 on Sunday(tho I think I've still missed one along the way) - really liked that kid who was basically entirely self-taught. Some interesting ideas and design, shows what can happen when you aren't conventional/traditional I guess. Glad he got his wins - gonna try and catch up on the final sometime this week(missed it because I was catching up on work, and I'm posting at 3.14am because...I'm currently catching up on the work I didn't catch up enough on :p)

 

Yeah, I thought he was great. I'm generally big on any of the robots that just go in there with the intention of ripping things to shreds.

 

That final eh?

 

It was siick!!

 

Loved Apollo ramming Carbide against shunt at the end. Great attitude in general, quite an amusing contrast to the other contestants, ha. And I'm not usually the biggest fan of flippers but the power in that thing is insane! Worthy winners.

 

Much props to that 15 year old kid too - great driver

 

 

Thought the series in general was a total triumph! Hope it comes back next year.

[dan-likes-trees]

Resurrecting this thread ahead of tonights ep!

 

Quite enjoying this season but kind of got mixed feelings on the big spinning wheels of death that are becoming more and more popular post-Carbide. On the one one hand, they're awesome. On the other hand, half the fights only last about 8 seconds this series!

 

Are you guys still watching? I also feel like 2 series per year might be overkill.. though I still love it.

[DriftKaiser]

I hate the facts there are too many cheap build robots are in this new series like Wyrm and Overdozer aka the wooden robot (built by the same people LMAO). It might funny to build one but it's more funnier to create a weapon of destruction!

 

We need more well designed bots like Pulsar and Carbide to be honest!

[Rummy]

I heard there was a trolley robot from Kent? So southeastern lol. Watched/catched up on this with my mate the other night - I fell asleep during the last episode tho and gotta catch up on that(believe it was Pulsar's too) but I've been quite happy from what I've seen of the series so far! Some very enjoyable battles in places, if a little controversial(here's looking at you, Cherub!).

 

Resurrecting this thread ahead of tonights ep!

 

Quite enjoying this season but kind of got mixed feelings on the big spinning wheels of death that are becoming more and more popular post-Carbide. On the one one hand, they're awesome. On the other hand, half the fights only last about 8 seconds this series!

 

Are you guys still watching? I also feel like 2 series per year might be overkill.. though I still love it.

 

For me being a bit of a nerd(as I'm sure I've said before) - it's really quite interesting to see the robots of today compared to the ones of old. Even Thor coming in on this series with a complete re-design leading to a smaller body with the same size weapon - would you have seen that before? Thor's a one man army, similar in some ways to Pulsar's lead designer - what accessibility would they have had to these sorts of advances and technology 20 years ago? I find that side of things really interesting and enthralling to see. The meta evolution into more of the super spinner drums is also interesting - it's like the S2 SHREEMECH innovations etc all over again. Despite all this love for innovation I do have to say it was also fun to see proper old school roboteers Behemoth back in the competition too.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Rummy