Robot Wars (TV Series) - House Robots

House Robots

The Robot Wars arena was also patrolled by the house robots, created as part of the television format. The house robots were a huge success, and particularly popular with younger viewers. Scale models of the house robots were sold as toys, and in 2002 these became the number one boys' toy in the UK. The original house robots were designed and constructed by BBC Visual Effects and did not have to conform to the same rules as contestant robots; for example, they were allowed to be considerably heavier, and were allowed weaponry prohibited in the competitor robots (such as Sgt. Bash's flamethrower).

Series One
In series one there were four house robots:

• Matilda, designed to resemble a mutant robotic dinosaur, and armed with pneumatic lifting tusks and a chainsaw tail; Matilda was the only "female" house robot.
• Shunt, a bulldozer-like robot centered around pushing power, was equipped with a plough, lifting scoop and pickaxe;
• Sgt. Bash, a military themed robot with a ramming blade, circular saw and propane flamethrower.
• Dead Metal, a scorpion-like robot with pneumatic pincers and a circular saw mounted on an overhead arm.

Series Two
The original four house robots were improved as follows,

• Matilda had her chainsaw improved along with the flipping ability of her tusks.
• Shunt's axe was made much more powerful and pneumatic rams were added to his rear scoop to allow him to lift robots.
• Sgt. Bash had the fewest improvements but the rear saw and range of the flamethrower were improved.
• Dead Metal had an improved saw mechanism added and the claws were strengthened.

They were also joined by,

• Sir Killalot, a semi-humanoid robot with a blade mounted on a lance and pincers formed from a set of emergency services Hydraulic Rescue Tools nicknamed the Jaws of Life. Killalot was sometimes considered the " king " of the house robots.
• The Sentinel (first appeared in episode seven) was a modified immobile JCB digger which pushed competitors toward one of two pits on either side in 'The Gauntlet'. He also appeared towards the end of the series in the PPZ of the "Arena" section of the show. It was the only house robot to have an operator inside the arena.

Series Three
No new house robots were introduced for this series, but there were changes for all five of the existing house robots.

• Matilda's tusks and chainsaw were again improved.
• Shunt was given a larger and more powerful diamond tipped axe which caused much more damage and made a huge impact against competitor robots.
• Sgt. Bash's ramming blade was replaced by a pair of hydraulically powered pincers (similar to Sir Killalots cutting arm) and he was given lighter camouflage fibreglass armour to replace his original silver steel hide. The rear saw was removed and not used again. A blade was present but more for show than inflicting damage.
• Sir Killalot's weapons were enlarged and a drill was mounted on the lance, replacing the static blade from series 2.
• Dead Metal had the biggest makeover. He was given a larger saw and the arm was removed in favour of a new design where a large circular saw blade was mounted on a co2 cradle where a whole section of the him moved forward. This was much more effective at damaging competitor robots than the overhead arm.
• The Sentinel — Due to the new battle heavy format, he was removed from the show - never to appear again.

Series Four
One new robot joined the team.

• Refbot, this robot, like Sir Killalot, was designed as a semi-humanoid robot, but much taller and with ploughs at the front and rear, a pincer and a fire extinguisher. As his name suggests, his role was to be the referee of the matches, although his role never really advanced until Extreme 1. His main role during Series Four was to separate robots locked together if it felt the match had ground to a stalemate and control fires within the arena.

Most of the house robots were fine-tuned, most noticeably Sir Killalot and Sgt. Bash, who both had their pincers enlarged and made stronger than before.

In the special "Southern Annihilator" contest, Razer managed to destroy Matilda. She was jokingly given bandages when repaired. (At the end of the episode a message was displayed reading "R.I.P. (Rust in Piece) Matilda: Destroyed in Action" followed by "...or was she?". She was then seen coming into the arena in this bandaged form).

Series Five and Extreme Series One
No new house robots were introduced, but two robots were changed:

• Refbot had a new electronic counter installed into his chest, which counted from 0 to 10, to declare that another robot had been immobilized. If the robot was not moving by the time the counter hit ten, then it was technically out. The pincer also held a 'Light Indicator System' (as described by the Robot Wars Extreme official guide), which had a variety of purposes.
  • A green light signalled the beginning of a fight.
  • A yellow light acted as the equivalent of a yellow card. If a House Robot attacked a robot who wasn't in the CPZ (Corner Patrol Zone), or a Contestant robot got a bit overaggressive with the House Robots, Refbot would display the yellow card as a warning.
  • A red light acted as the equivalent of a red card. If a House Robot (or occasionally a contestant robot) continued to attack illegally, Refbot would issue the robot the red card. In the case of the House Robots, it would then have to return to the CPZ and would not be allowed out for the remainder of the fight. The red card was also displayed to a contestant robot who had just been counted out, to show it was out of the match.

• Matilda's chainsaw was replaced with a 27 kilogram vertical flywheel, which proved to be much more destructive than her chainsaw and one of the most destructive house robot weapons of all. Although designed to be interchangeable with the flywheel, the chainsaw was never used again in the British series — but it was seen in use in the American Robot Wars Extreme Warriors.

Series Six
Two new house robots were added:

• Mr. Psycho — An even larger Sir Killalot based robot that ran on tracks, with a gigantic claw for picking up competitors, and a 30 kilogram pneumatic hammer for causing percussive damage. Mr. Psycho was reported to weigh 650 kilograms, but some estimates place that higher.
• Growler — A dog-like robot described as Mr. Psycho's pet pooch. Growler has four tonne pressure hydraulic jaws, and a flame jet built into the back. This house robot's main weapon was its speed and power, which it used to ram and drag competitors around the arena. During Extreme 2, a rear mounted flame jet was added. However it proved inaffective due to the angle of the jet. It was only fired twice during one battle and was removed for series 7. Growler weighed in at 450 kg

Series Seven The last series to be filmed, a final House Robot was added.

• Cassius Chrome was a robot equipped with two punching arms with interchangeable weapons. Examples of weapons include metal fists and metal spikes. Although weaponry seemingly lacked power, it was still rather effective in the capacity of pushing other robots and could moved very swiftly across the arena.

Other

• Another house robot, Shove, was used by the crew to transport destroyed robots from the arena. It was never seen on television. It had a similar design and appearance to Shunt. It was presumably used between series 1 and 3, as its job was effectively made redundant by the introduction of Refbot.