The rules of battlebots lend themselves to wedge bots, unfortunately. Can’t shoot, tangle, or electrocute, for example.
There was one, Depth Charge, that moved by spinning really fucking fast, and would destroy the arena, which was fucking rad.
If you like that, look up “Blendo” from the Robot Wars era (before BattleBots). Created by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, it was also a spinner. And insanely effective. And outrageously dangerous
Powered by a 5hp lawnmower engine
Yeah I remember the early seasons where the spinning robot which was basically a garbage compactor motor on wheels or smth absolutely shredding the competition
Thanks for filling up my afternoon
This was true during the Comedy Central era, however the reboot has an active weapon rule.
The greatest of all time was Blendo:
Designed by Jamie Hyneman (of Mythbusters fame). It consists of a 5hp lawnmower engine powering a circular saw blade, encased in a dome made from a wok. The thing was so dangerous Jamie almost lost a foot starting it up (using the ripcord to start the lawnmower engine).
It was undefeated. It tore the ever-loving hell out of anything it faced, frequently launching dismembered parts of its opponents into the crowd at terrifying velocity. It was simply too dangerous to be allowed to continue competing, so it was retired!
I saw Blendo live in SF. It was insane. Just blasted opponents and flung the bits at high speed into the plexiglass.
Robots are defined by their moving parts but the best robots have as few moving parts as possible. Make of that what you will.
Wheels and something to spin the chassis = get wrecked nerd (and also arena, nerd)
It’s so satisfying watching the spinner bots fucking launch a wedge bot across the arena.
Also when they fuck up and launch themselves across the arena accidentally.
Love it. This deserves a name.
“Ryedaft’s Robot Paradox”
the British robot wars was better because Craig Charles is a fucking legend
R.I.P Razer, robbed of a championship victory despite dropping its opponent in the pit (and iirc suffering 0 damage itself) because the judges decided to ignore a clear violation of the rules regarding overall size.
The wedge
