Awesome / Robot Wars

Splinter suffering a mild technical fault. Hypno-Disc just happens to be nearby. One of those sentences is a case of Blatant Lies, can you guess which one?

Series 1

• Recyclopse flipping Matilda over, the first 'House Robot Kill' of the series. Made even more awesome by the fact that at the time, Recyclopse couldn't even move due to a snapped drive chain.

Series 2

• George Francis' Chaos — the forerunner to the legendary Chaos 2 — managed to defeat Dead Metal in the Tug-O-War Trial. While the other four competitors battled to last as long as they could, with two of them managing to last the full time without being pulled into the pit, Chaos actually dragged Dead Metal into it! Even more awesome was that it was foreshadowed before the run when Philippa actually asked Team Chaos whether they could get Dead Metal into the pit and George Francis answered "We'll give it a good go".
  Jonathan Pearce: This is a battle of pride here — because Chaos, doing enough surely to go through anyway, but it wants Dead Metal in that Pit! It wants Dead Metal submerged in the smoke! Can he pull Dead Metal in?! (Dead Metal is yanked backward one last time by Chaos, dropping it into the Pit) HUMILIATION FOR THE HOUSE ROBOT!
• Cassius demonstrating its self-righting mechanism for the first time in the semi-finals, receiving a loud cheer from the audience and several replays.
  • Made all the more awesome by its sheer unexpectedness - hard as it may be to imagine with so many subsequent robots using a self-righting mechanism, at the time nobody except the designers knew that the flipper could or would be used in that way. The designers claimed that they hadn't actually intended the flipper to be used that way and improvised when Cassius found itself immobilised, but only they know how true this is.
    • Especially since the flipper was not particularly effective as an offensive weapon.
    • And the fact that, up to that point, Sir Killalot's ability to turn its victims over had been the reason it was the most dangerous house robot.
• Panic Attack received several during its run to the title:
  • 1 - During its Gauntlet run it was going over the see-saw ramp, but Dead Metal was underneath it and Sir Killalot was coming up from behind, both preventing the ramp from going down. What does Panic Attack do? Try to jump off the ramp and over Dead Metal. It didn't work, but still.
  • 2 - Knocking Shunt off the Sumo ring in the Trials — this was vengeance for Panic Attack, as its ramp-jumping antics in the Gauntlet had ended with Shunt punching numerous holes in it with its axe.
  • 3 - Knocking out Sgt Bash's entire saw mechanism while fighting Whirling Dervish.
  • 4 - Defeating Mortis during the series semi-finals by pushing it into the pit.
  • 5 - Defeating series favourite Cassius in the Grand Final by pushing in into the pit as well — and earlier in the fight driving right over the top of Cassius — and becoming the grand champion of the Second Wars.
• The Plunderbird team introduced themselves and their robot, Plunderbird 2, with their own theme song! Even better, they were able to take out both Dead Metal and Sergeant Bash in under a minute in the King of the Castle Trial for their heat, and got to the Semi-Finals despite normally being considered less-than-serious competitors.
  Philippa Forrester: Just before the Plunderbird team go on, they've only got the whole audience clapping them... to their own song!
• Groundhog, the predecessor robot built by Graham Bone and Alex Mordue (who would find success in later series with Firestorm), attempts to go over the ramp during the Gauntlet, only to find itself caught on it, unable to move. Sir Killalot came in and grabbed them, picking them up in the air. However, it actually led to Groundhog toppling Killalot, much to the delight of the audience. And after "cease" was called, it was discovered that as a result, Killalot was leaking hydraulic fluid. When the Groundhog team comes back into the pits, they are welcomed with cheers and clapping from their fellow roboteers in the pits (who had been watching the action, and cheered at Killalot's toppling).
  Jonathan Pearce: And they're going nowhere, as Killalot comes in! Oh, he plucks Ground Hog up so effortlessly! Turns and twists, ready for the kill...(Sir Killalot topples over) NO! They've killed Killalot! He's been dragged to the ground, it's never happened before! This is the king of the House Robots, this is unbelievable!"

Series 3

• Velocirippa may often be considered one of the greatest butt monkeys of Robot Wars, never winning a battle^note of course their other robots, Mighty Mouse and Ironside 3, were a different matter, but it did at least make an awesome first impression: the robot has a single win registered on its wiki page, not for a battle, but for the Robotic Soccer qualifier round it won against Demolition Demon 2. Robotic Soccer was often an awkward, clumsy affair where the ball would get stuck and would sometimes only end up in the net by sheer accident, but after a cagey start Velocirippa waited for their chance, then when Matilda knocked the ball back into the centre of the arena they RUSHED in, scooped it up with pinpoint precision and drove it straight into the net! Soccer is often called The Beautiful Game, and this was a truly beautiful goal, a stunning display of razor-sharp driving and timing.
• The first Crowning Moment for Chaos 2 (it had quite a few) was in the Grand Final Eliminator when it became the first robot to launch another out of the arena.
  • Chaos 2's victory over Hypno-Disc in the Grand Final itself wasn't the greatest of fights, as Hypno-Disc was limping the whole time and was defeated by a One-Hit Kill, but what happened afterwards cemented Chaos 2's reputation. As Dead Metal came in to finish off Hypno-Disc, Chaos 2 went after Matilda and flipped her over with ease. Then Chaos 2 went after Shunt... who proceeded to run away. Not that that was enough to save it. You know a machine has become The Dreaded when even the House Robots fear it.
    Jonathan Pearce: Shunt... trying to get away from Chaos 2, and why not?! The champions want to beat everyone! Taking on Shunt, and flipping Shunt over! So that's two of the House Robots done!
• The Big Cheese may have been Overshadowed by Awesome due to only reaching a heat final, but the only reason it never got as far as its successor Wheely Big Cheese was because its heat final opponent was Chaos 2. The clash of these two titans was unquestionably the best battle in all of Series 3 (and was officially voted as such), and was the only real challenge Chaos 2 would face from another competitor until the semifinals of Series 4 — meaning this could almost be considered to have been the real Grand Final right then and there! It wasn't just a great battle between two awesome robots either; after Chaos 2 flipped The Big Cheese and it was unable (just barely) to self-right, the House Robots came in for the kill. Sir Killalot drove his lance into The Big Cheese, lifting it into the air in retribution for boasts from Roger Plant that The Big Cheese could defeat him and carried it over to the arena floor flipper. What happened next was LEGENDARY — Killalot naively put The Big Cheese down on the flipper upright and it blithely drove right off it, attacked Sgt. Bash, hauled him into the air, and broke him apart! This is the only instance of a competitor actually lifting a House Robot completely off the arena floor and cemented The Big Cheese as the most powerful electric lifter ever seen on the show.
  Jonathan Pearce: Brilliant final, two tremendous robots... and Sgt. Bash is in bits and pieces!
• Hypno-Disc, similarly, had the first of its Crowning Moments in Series 3 when it tore Robogeddon to shreds with unprecedented brutality. It was one of the most impressive debuts in the show's history, proving both the power of heavy spinning weapons and the necessity of strong armour. Incidentally, Robogeddon arguably gets a CMoA itself because despite the horrific damage it took, having its armour ripped away piece by piece, it was still working by the time "Cease" was called; its wheels were still spinning, even though they'd been mangled so badly they no longer had any purchase on the arena floor.
  • When Team Hypno-Disc was introduced at the beginning of the episode, they held up a sheet of metal with several huge gashes torn into it by the disc. And yet, what it did to Robogeddon and Stealth in the arena was several orders of magnitude worse.
• 101's display of skill against Panic Attack in the First World Championship. It was stopped against the wall, and as Jonathan Pearce began to give his usual eulogy for a seemingly-immobilised bot as Panic Attack picked it up to drop it down the pit, 101 started moving again and swung itself around the side of the reigning champion. The end result? 101 tricks Panic Attack, of all bots,^note Who was practically synonymous with skilfully dropping opponents into the pit with its lifting spikes. into reversing into the pit.
  Jonathan Pearce: To me, 101 is already out, immobilised; they're trying to get the tracks to spin. (Panic Attack lifts 101 up and drags it over to the pit) Mike, at the controls, has built a model jet engine in the past, he's gonna need something to fly now... (101 springs to life as it's about to fall in, swinging around behind Panic Attack and causing it to drive in itself trying to catch it) for 101- OH! PANIC ATTACK'S DRIVEN ITSELF INTO THE PIT! AND 101 SURVIVES!

Series 4

• Chaos 2 retaining its title, becoming the only robot ever to do so, or even win it more than once on TV.^note After the show went off-air, Terrorhurtz, Iron-Awe 5, Big Nipper and Eruption all won two FRA championships, with Eruption winning its two consecutively, and Eruption has now also won Robot Wars Series 10.
• Plunderbird one-upping their Series 2 entrance by arriving with Plunderbird 4 in a Chinook — complete with a Lock-and-Load Montage of the team landing and driving off the aircraft to the Thunderbirds theme, and a Badass Arm-Fold right at the end.
  Jonathan Pearce: The Plunderbird 4 machine... has arrived. Slowly, but surely into the watching eyes of the Robot Wars world. And I'll tell you something; Mike, Bryan, Plunderbird 4 — they are not here to conduct, in any sense of the word... International Rescue!
• Arguably Hypno-Disc's most iconic fight: its destruction of Splinter in the semi-finals. One of the most brutal Curb Stomp Battles in the show's history, with Hypno-Disc recovering from an early scare and turning Splinter into... well, splinters.
  • Its following fight against Wild Thing was a CMoA for Wild Thing: not only was it the first robot that season to actually survive a battle against Hypno-Disc that series without being totally dismembered, but it nearly won the judges' decision through the courage and tenacity of their fightback.
  Jonathan Pearce: And in the end it was so brave, and the applause is for that team! So brave as they fought back!
• Shunt got one of his finest-ever moments in the Grand Final when he drove his axe clean through Hypno-Disc's iconic flywheel, stopping it completely and sealing the team's fate. After the fight, it was revealed that the sudden stop completely stripped the gearbox on Hypno-Disc's weapon, damaging it too much to compete in the Third Place playoff with Stinger.
• Warhog's design attempted to one-up Hypno-Disc — its entire body was a kinetic energy weapon, covered in blades and spinning at high speed. Theoretically, such a design should provide amazing attack and defense. Unfortunately, they neglected to reinforce it — each time it hit Dreadnaut XP-1 it was sent flying into the air while Dreadnaut sustained only cosmetic damage. After a few rams, Warhog had ceased functioning in a most awesome fashion.
• Razer utterly destroying Matilda at the end of the Southern Annihilator. Followed by Jonathan's tribute and the reveal that she's down, but not out.
  Jonathan Pearce: (mournfully, while "The Last Post" plays) Matilda — created at the dawn of Robot Wars — R.I.P: Rust In Peace. D.I.A: Destroyed... In Action. (as "Or Was She...?" appears on the screen below her epitaph) D.Y.W.B., DO YOU WANNA BET?! (cue Record Needle Scratch and Matilda re-entering the arena, heavily bandaged, but functioning as Jonathan bellows) OHHHH, YES! THE MATRIARCH OF MAYHEM, THE SISTER OF SLICE AND DICE, THE GRANDMOTHER OF GRINDING METAL, WILL BE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
• After several years of being highly thought-of but not achieving nearly as much as expected, the entire run of Mortis in the War Of Independence was this for it from start-to-finish. Against all expectations from most viewers; it didn't break down, got to show off everything it was designed to do, defeated Panic Attack in a very close bout to get revenge for its defeat to the Welsh robot in Series 2, dominated a long-time Battlebots veteran (Frenzy) with considerably more experience than them — on top of a nearly-15kg weight advantage and seemingly a more powerful hammer — in the final, and finally won a tournament right when it retired.
  • To its credit, Frenzy's run was nothing to sneeze at, either; it killed Ming 2 with a single precise blow from its hammer in the semi-final,^note This was admittedly at least partly down to luck — the hammer hit the on/off switch for Ming's servo and switched it off and its brutal destruction of Series 1 veteran Detonator in Round 1 — to the point where its formerly-domed top was literally pounded flat and it was completely torched from the inside by Frenzy setting its petrol engine on fire — was definitely a sight to behold.

Extreme 1

• Yet another awesome performance from Hypno-Disc: its Mayhem battle against Wheely Big Cheese and Ming 3. Hypno-Disc usually struggled against multiple opponents, as it did in the following Annihilator, but on this occasion it was utterly dominant and ran rings around its two opponents. Wheely Big Cheese ended up with several massive gashes in its armour and one of its wheels hanging off, while Ming 3 ended up with no wheels whatsoever.
• Behemoth, in turn, delivered one of its finest performances in the All-Stars Tournament by utterly curb-stomping Hypno-Disc, deflecting its weapon with ease and flipping and shoving it all over the arena before leaving it on the flame pit to burn to death. It was an excellent display of just what Behemoth's capable of when it's not being plagued by its trademark bad luck, and cemented its reputation as the series' foremost spinner-killer.
• The Flipper Frenzy proved to be this for both the competitors involved... and Matilda. Before the fight, the four teams of Robot Wars' strongest rear-hinged flippers at the time — Chaos 2, Bigger Brother, Thermidor 2 and Wheely Big Cheese — made a pact to go after the House Robots (Sergeant Bash and Matilda) instead of each other. As soon as the fight begins, the flippers quickly take down Sergeant Bash, with Bigger Brother and Chaos 2 in particular teaming up to throw the House Robot high enough to not only shatter his armour and flamethrower, but also nearly get him out of the arena!
  • With that, Matilda earns hers with her Roaring Rampage of Revenge against all four bots — immobilising Wheely Big Cheese and Bigger Brother on damage, flipping Chaos 2 on its side against the wall, and leaving Thermidor 2 (who was ruled the winner based on it being the last competitor still moving) scurrying around looking for somewhere to hide! It definitely shows how much more dangerous Matilda became later on, especially since she was usually the one to get picked on by flippers.

Series 5

• Every one of Razer's appearances in Series 5. In each of the preceding three seasons, debilitating mechanical faults meant Razer was knocked out by the third round, and everyone, even its fans, were expecting a repeat. Cue unmitigated destruction of every single one of its opponents bar Firestorm III, who fought it to the closest decision in the series history, culminating in a dominating fight against Bigger Brother in the finale and Razer being awarded the well-deserved title of Robot Wars Champion.
• Wheely Big Cheese's flipper was often touted as the most powerful in the original series, but only once did it truly live up to its potential: in its Series 5 battle against Axe Awe. In a single flip, Axe Awe was, to quote Jonathan Pearce, "flipped right out of the Robot Wars galaxy"! It was undoubtedly the biggest flip in the history of the show, and probably one of the biggest flips ever.
• Chaos 2 vs. Wild Thing. One of the finest battles in Robot Wars history. George Francis said this about the fight: "It was terrific. It was the best fight I've ever had." There was a simultaneous CMOA for both machines when Wild Thing nearly pitted Chaos 2 twice — coming so close on the second occasion that the pit pyrotechnics went off! — and on both occasions Chaos 2 somehow recovered.
  Jonathan Pearce: [incredulously, after Chaos 2 survives a second time] HOW DID THEY STAY OUT?! How on earth did they survive another onslaught? Surely they must go into the Pit of Oblivion!
• Diotoir, the robot that Jonathan Pearce et al were always keen to deride as a joke entry ^note even inaccurately - he once stated "they've never done well in the Wars", patently untrue when you consider their track record, defeating Tornado.
  Craig Charles: Can you believe it? Can you believe it?! Tornado, the twelfth seeds, reduced to a gentle summer's breeze! DIOTOIR GO THROUGH!
  • It wasn't a fluke, either: Diotoir spent most of the match shoving Tornado around. Tornado is a machine known for its speed and pushing power, and yet Diotoir (a 2WD machine!) was not only equal, but actually superior to it in that regard, managing to out-ram the rammer and then finally push it into the pit. Heck, on at least one occasion, Tornado tried to ram Diotoir head on, failed to budge it, and then turned around and fled the other way.
• Bigger Brother vs. Hypno-Disc. Bigger Brother was completely torn apart, with its flipper hanging off and venting gas, and it still won. Even Jonathan Pearce was going through its death speech before they managed it. The show's wiki later voted it the greatest battle in Robot Wars history.

Series 6

• Newcomer Dantomkia achieved a Crowning Moment of Awesome by flipping Chaos 2 out of the arena!
• This first-round melee between S.M.I.D.S.Y., Warhog, Comengetorix and St. Agro. Between Warhog demolishing the arena wall and piggybacking on S.M.I.D.S.Y. twice, and Comengetorix impaling itself on the arena wall by its axe then almost driving down the pit... fantastic.

Extreme 2

• Firestorm, in the Commonwealth Carnage, somehow managed to flip Mr. Psycho! Keep in mind that Firestorm weighs 99kg, while Mr. Psycho weighs 750kg.
• During its New Blood Heat Final, Roobarb avoided being thrown out of the arena by Mute by flipping itself off the arena wall before it went over. Granted, Roobarb still lost, but it's still one of the best recoveries in the series.

Series 7

• Gravity deciding to defy its own name by throwing Dantomkia out of the arena in roughly six seconds, setting a new record for the shortest battle ever. And the kicker? The previous holder of the "quickest battle" record was also Dantomkia, in its previous fight no less, who took out IG-88 in 8 seconds. Glorious.
  • The entire commentary of that fight, from "Activate" to "Cease":

    Jonathan Pearce: On cue, the second battle in this, the first Semi-Finals. Dantomkia- [cut off by Gravity immediately punting Dantomkia over the wall] HA HA HA! OVER AND OUT! SIMPLE AS THAT! (The announcer calls Cease) HOW QUICK WAS THAT THOUGH!?

• The Series 7 incarnation of X-Terminator and the American Cyclone Raptor, whose flywheels were so powerful that they could spin opponents right out of the arena. Both managed to do so twice.
• Any instance of the competitors abandoning the battle to go after the House Robots will often make for a CMOA; probably the best example would be the first melee of the Seventh Wars All-Stars Tournament, where Kat 3, Panic Attack, Bigger Brother and Firestorm all made a pre-match pact to go after the house robots - Shunt, the Refbot and Cassius Chrome - instead of each other. It's hilarious to watch, especially as the arena tries to fight back and fails, setting off the floor flipper and drop zone in a desperate attempt to catch out the competitors as they give the House Robots a thorough pasting. Can be seen here.
• Another CMOA relating to knocking a robot out of the arena, Storm 2 did this to the Steel Avenger. Only Storm 2 didn't do it with a flipper; it did it by pushing Steel Avenger into a wall at high speed, where it just bounced over the fence. Now that was cool.
• Panic Attack and Mega Morg earned a mutual one in their Round 1 battle, with their brilliantly-executed kill on Edge Hog. First, they lift Edge Hog up on Mega Morg's flipper scoop, Panic Attack then comes in round the other side, and the two Welsh machines swiftly force the helpless axebot down the Pit with a well co-ordinated shove together. The absolute exuberance from the two teams afterward — complete with Mark Hooper yelling "COME ON!" and repeatedly punching the plexiglass window in the driver's booth — is definitely the cherry atop that particular display of teamwork.
  Jonathan Pearce: Panic Attack comes in... and the Welsh ganging up on Edge Hog! Mega Morg from Swansea, Panic Attack from Cardiff, they're scrumming down together! (Mega Morg releases its flipper as Panic Attack forces Edge Hog backward down the Pit) And Edge Hog are out as a result, celebrations in the Welsh camps! (as the Welsh teams loudly celebrate) Not too sure if you're supposed to hit the plexiglass, but anyway!

Series 8

• The simple news that Robot Wars was returning, with Jonathan Pearce doing the commentary and upgraded versions of the old House Robots, was awesome enough in and of itself.
• Matilda demonstrating just how much the House Robots have been upgraded by casually flicking King B Remix out of the arena with her tusks. Keep in mind, the old Matilda's tusks could barely get an opponent into the air, much less throw them out; the new Matilda effectively had a high-pressure flipper to compliment the flywheel, making her equally dangerous at both ends.
• The debut of Carbide, particularly its round-robin battle against Nuts. It destroyed the protective ring surrounding Nuts (which also held its flails, rendering its offence null and void) and threw a shard of said ring up against the Control Booth, which was thankfully made out of bulletproof glass. It then proceeded to wreck Nuts' wheels, tearing one off and buckling the other.
  • Bonus points for being one of the few spinner robots that didn't shake itself apart every time it hit anything.^note Hypno-Disc generally lost more fights due to internal injury than actual other robots, and even the previous champion Typhoon 2 gave itself critical damage twice in its last fight.
  • Nuts managing to take both veterans Behemoth and Terrorhurtz to Judges' Decisons in the round-robin stage, despite having virtually no weaponry and armor. Bonus points for their battle against Terrorhurtz because it took place after the aforementioned "fight" against Carbide, with left them with a whole bunch of pieces and shrapnel; and they still managed to rebuild Nuts in time, and they were able to survive, despite their robot falling apart. They were even given the better Control mark, simply for the sheer audacity of going into battle with a broken robot and surviving.
• Thor breakdancing by using its own hammer to flip itself and then self right. Later on it also showed excellent handling when it effectively did a handbrake turn into the pit release button, slamming it and lining up the next attack without needing to reverse. Jason, the driver, deserves a mention for the sheer skill he had at driving the machine in all their battles.
• M.R. Speed Squared was sadly a One-Hit Wonder, but its debut fight basically consisted of it effortlessly demolishing the competition without taking a good hit from anyone.
• Foxic, despite seeming to be almost laughably all talk, managed to get a moment when their drive system worked properly and they casually shoved Dead Metal backwards across the entirely length of the arena.
• Shockwave, after their larger defensive scoop proved useless against Thor earlier, came to the final battle with their aggressive smaller scoop and shoved Thor so hard against the wall that something broke, followed swiftly by pitting them, reversing their earlier defeat.
• The penultimate group of the reboot series, Heat D, was a pretty hotly contested affair, with all 4 robots (Storm 2, Eruption, Apollo and PP3D) giving a good account of themselves, getting at least one win each.
  • Eruption landing the first Ring Out of the reboot series against Terror Turtle was an impressive display. And while they were beaten by Storm 2, they started to turn that fight around at the end as well, tossing Storm 2 a few times and seemingly imobilising them.
    • Also, according to the Eruption team's write-up of the events, they had actually managed to immobilise Storm 2 well before it was shown to be- enough that they probably should have been counted out but weren't, for unknown reasons.
• Apollo. Basically, any time it managed to work, awesome things happened. After losing a wheel to PP3D in the first round, they returned the favor in their Head to Head match, and won, while their launcher was only going at a quarter of its full power. And over the course of the tournament they took out no fewer than three House Robots, as well as beating previous runner up Storm 2 twice, the first on a narrow, but probably fair, judge's decision, the second time via a Ring Out.
  • On that note, the battles between Storm 2 and Apollo were some of the most spectacular of the series. Storm 2 made an impressive showing, taking out Apollo's drive chain and nearly pitting them, while Apollo themselves stood out for evading the pit at the last second by driving right over Storm 2. Not to mention, flipping three of the four house robots: first Dead Metal (which is impressive enough by itself!), then Matilda when she came to help, and then finally Shunt in the heat final.
• Some moments for Storm 2 as well: while far from the terror it used to be (see The Worf Effect on its character sheet entry), they got some measure of payback for the Executive Meddling from Series 7 when they bashed up and pitted spinnerbot PP3D, captained by the driver of Typhoon 2.
• Before Heat E commenced, Gabriel looked like something of a joke: a gangly thwackbot with plastic armour and two huge vulnerable wheels just begging to be torn off by rival spinners. When it actually fought, however, it dominated all but one of its opponents during the melee and round-robin stages, none of whom could even attack it effectively due to its odd shape, clever tactics and excellent driving. Its rubbery plastic wheels proved nearly impossible to damage, no-selling even the powerful spinning weapons of Pulsar and Ironside 3. It got all the way to the heat final, and never lost by knockout.
• The Grand Final was a worthy successor to those of the original series, with nearly every battle having some kind of spectacle. To wit:
  • Carbide continuing its trail of destruction, shredding wildcard-winner Thor and disabling Apollo with a single blow during the round robin. It even accidentally ripped a steel panel off the arena wall, forcing the show to pause the match.
  • Apollo dominating TR2, consistently out-driving them and flipping them over and over until TR2 ran out of CO2 and could not self-right - karmic, considering that strategy is what TR2 employed against Dantomkia in the heats.
  • TR2 disabling Carbide's lethal spinning bar by deliberately ramming into it, then repeatedly manhandling it into Shunt. The match lasted the whole three minutes, with the judges ruling unanimously in TR2's favour.
  • While it struggled enormously, Thor deserves credit for its sheer tenacity. Despite repeatedly enduring brutal beatdowns from the other competitors and being reduced to effectively a zombie made of other machines' parts, the venerable hammerbot did not withdraw and kept fighting even when it became clear how outclassed it was.
  • The grand final between Carbide and Apollo was the most intense match of the series. Carbide's blade dealt terrible damage to Apollo's bodywork, only for the latter to copy TR2's earlier success and break said blade with their heavily armoured prow. By the time the three minutes were up both bots were limping, their primary weapons broken, but Apollo's mighty flipper carried them to victory.

Series 9

• In case you were under the impression that the House Robots were "theatrical robots" intended to look intimidating but not really do any actual damage, in the lead-up to Series 9 the BBC released a promotional trailer where Sir Killalot, Shunt and Matilda take out their anger on a parked car, set to the dulcet tones of "Stuck On You". While just seeing the House Robots approach the car is intimidating enough (a lot of people don't realise how big the House Robots are compared to the competitors at first glance), the destructive highlights include Matilda smashing her flywheel into the side of the car so violently that the entire vehicle lurches sideways, and Killalot driving his claw in through the sundered bonnet, then ripping out and casually discarding practically the entire engine block!
• Sabertooth, after sixteen years without ever scoring a victory, took on Terrorhurtz and won in a very evenly-matched fight. What's more, despite having a huge chunk of its drum get knocked out by Terrorhurtz, and having the absolute crap kicked out of it by Aftershock, Sabertooth kept going all the way to the heat final.
• Matilda eliminating fan-favourite Nuts 2 by punting it clean over the arena wall with her flywheel, causing Jonathan Pearce to break into one of his trademark laughing fits.
• PP3D managing to send Cherub through the arena sidewall with its powerful flywheel. And a moment of awesome for Cherub for somehow surviving this with minimal damage!
  • On a related note, Cherub's handling and control was invariably spectacular, particularly considering the age of the driver. They basically managed to fight on even terms with everyone else simply by outmaneuvering them at every turn.
  • In the same episode, Shunt gets one for pinning PP3D against the wall until it set itself on fire from the shock reflecting back into it in its fight against Behemoth. And Shunt didn't even budge. And then to top it off, he did it again against Supernova two heats later!
• Concussion utterly curbstomping Heavy Metal by outflanking them and ripping off one of their wheels, only seconds after the latter assumed they'd be able to run rings around the newcomer.
• Pulsar, Ironside 3 and Supernova taking mere seconds to demolish the two elimination rounds in their heat between them (with Pulsar and Ironside teaming up in one, and Supernova crippling all of its opponents single-handedly in the other), cementing all three machines as serious competitors in an instant.
• Pulsar vs. Supernova was literally a Single-Stroke Battle, with Pulsar ramming Supernova head on with enough force to hurl them the length of the arena, and leave them damaged enough that they barely managed to get repaired in time for the next fight. Especially impressive considering vertical spinners usually lose to horizontal ones!
• Carbide shredding its way through its entire Series 9 heat (and beating Apollo twice) was impressive enough, but its battle against Crackers 'n' Smash was the highlight. It hit one half of the clusterbot so hard it span across the entire length of the arena, smashed a wall panel off, and then ricocheted a good five feet into the air! Even more incredible: said clusterbot was completely unscathed!
  • Crackers 'n' Smash themselves cannot go unmentioned here. For the fight against Carbide, they deliberately went into the arena with their weapons removed to play defensively, and it worked as they were too low for Carbide to land a clean hit for most of the fight. Not to mention how incredibly tanky they were: they were the only robots in the whole of Series 9 to survive going into the arena with Carbide — twice — despite being half the size of the other competitors!
• In the Grand Final, Carbide reached levels of destruction unprecedented even for them against Aftershock, when a hit from their blade tore off a side panel and hurled it away with such force, it became embedded in the protective glass around the arena! This was pretty much a death blow for Aftershock, although they did an impressive job of keeping themselves in the battle for several more rounds.
  • Also worth noting is that, by tearing Eruption to pieces, Carbide became the first champion to win the title by knockout since Series 3. It's also the only champion to have KO'ed its Grand Final opponent through battle damage: Chaos 2 flipped Hypno-Disc over, Panic Attack shoved Cassius down the pit, and the other seven Grand Finals went to judges' decisions.

Series 10

• Just before Series 10 began, a trailer for Carbide — "The Champion Returns" — was released by the BBC to hype up its eventual return to the series. It's an impressive montage of Carbide being built, before carving a bloody swathe of destruction through its opponents in the previous series, set to "When The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash. The trailer ends with close-ups of all the damage inflicted to various opponents, and Carbide being wheeled out to the static and ominous-yet-fitting monologue from the original song, overlaid with its trademark death hum.
  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
  And I looked, and behold a pale horse
  And his name that sat on him... was death.
• In the first episode, the new-and-improved Apollo became the first robot to flip an opponent over the two-metre-tall high walls and out of the arena, literally catapulting one of The Swarm's minibots over at a frankly terrifying height and speed.
  • On that note as well, The Swarm — captained by Ian Watts of Bigger Brother fame and assisted by his youngest son Sam — proving that multibots are still a valid option in Robot Wars. It knocked out Donald Thump and gave both Behemoth and Apollo tough fights through a combination of good driving and co-ordination; particularly impressive since each unit of it was about 75kg lighter then any of their opponents!
• Behemoth vs. Apollo in the Heat Final has to go down as one of the best fights in the reboot. A fast-paced battle of flipping and driving skill between two teams of very experienced roboteers, with both machines having the advantage and nearly scoring kills at various points. Ultimately, it culminated with Behemoth getting behind Apollo and simultaneously flipping it up and shoving it — sending the Series 8 champion careening down the Pit, and finally getting Behemoth into the Grand Final after nearly twenty years of competing!
  Jonathan Pearce: They need to dodge the flip up there — AND APOLLO ARE DOWN! Apollo are down! Smashed down, Apollo! Behemoth, the greatest moment in twenty years! Twenty years of hurt and grief end with new celebration!
• Gabriel's astonishing performance in its group battle. Despite getting utterly thrashed and broken by Carbide, it not only survived, it never stopped coming at them for the full three minutes. At one point it even stripped Carbide's tyre off, coming the closest to immobilising the Series 9 champion since Terrorhurtz back in Series 8! This was basically a true Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object battle — despite Gabriel's efforts, Carbide won the judge's decision, but Gabriel got a roar of applause and a standing ovation from the crowd coming out of the arena.
  • Although it went out surprisingly early on in its heat, Aftershock earns one for doing what other powerful spinners like Pulsar, Ironside3 and even Carbide could not by immobilising Gabriel; especially after more-or-less shrugging off the entangling cables they'd brought specifically for destroying their vertical spinner.
  • Big Nipper got its own moment of awesome in the Redemption Round, when it one-upped Carbide's spectacular hit on Smash in Series 9 by throwing Smash so high into the air that it hit the lighting rig, bounced off, and landed out of the arena! Big Nipper's spinner may not be as big or heavy as Carbide's or Aftershock's, but by God, is there some force behind it!
  • Big Nipper then continued to deliver in the third-place Playoff by knocking out Aftershock. First came a massive clash of weapons that sent both robots flying across the arena in opposite directions — which they both survived, incredibly enough — and after that, Big Nipper pretty much dominated Aftershock; breaking its spinner, uppercutting it onto its back, and leaving it for dead.
• Apex vs. Track-tion was definitely this. Track-tion was a class project by a bunch of 13-year-old schoolkids and their teacher, and everyone expected it to be torn apart by Apex's mighty 39kg bar spinner. In preparation for this fight, one of their fellow competitors, Vulture, loaned them their thick front scoop. Once the fight began, Apex got in a single hit which glanced off the scoop, unbalanced the bar, and caused it to strike the back of Apex's chassis. The result? Apex exploded, with its chassis flying in one direction and its 39kg bar flying in the other direction and straight through the bulletproof inner wall.^note The outer wall, which protects the audience, was twice as thick, and held firm Track-tion — which had barely even moved — quite literally won by doing absolutely nothing.
• Rapid scoring the new record for the fastest knockout in Robot Wars history, throwing Track-tion out of the arena in the space of four seconds and comfortably breaking Gravity's previous long-standing record (from Series 7) of six seconds. Even better, they pulled it off with a bad gas leak on the flipper!
• The heat final between Rapid and Terrorhurtz was the culmination of both machines taking a considerable level in badass since Series 9 — with the veteran Terrorhurtz delivering a real Curb-Stomp Battle to Vulture to make its first Robot Wars heat final in nearly fourteen years, and the newcomer Rapid throwing Track-tion out of the arena twice in succession and scoring one of the fastest knockouts in the show's history. Much like the battle between Apollo and Behemoth, it all came down to driving skill and strategy — with both teams getting good attacks in and having the upper hand at various points. This time however, it was the newcomers who came out on top, with Rapid using the hazards to bully Terrorhurtz around and eventually throw the veteran over the wall, making up for their forfeit the previous year.
• Nuts 2 going from the resident Joke Character to Grand Finalist, winning the heat without too much difficulty. Not so much for the performance in the ring, more for the idea that when the Crazy Is Cool Nuts finally gets serious, they can take on a previous Grand Finalist in Concussion, beat them twice — the first time by caving in one of the wheels with their Meltybrain flails, and in the second, taking advantage of the panels their opponents had installed to stop the wheels being damaged by flipping them over instead — and still make a spectacle out if it.
  • Even before winning the heat, Nuts 2 proved just how dangerous a flail (a weapon long-thought to be obsolete) could be by smashing Androne 4000 hard enough to completely rupture the hydraulic system for its crushing ram weapon — causing it to spew hydraulic fluid everywhere like blood from a severed artery.
  • Before that, Concussion vs The Kegs. In one hit, Concussion's drums spinner completely tears the frame off one of The Kegs and pretty much destroys it in the process. A second hit on the same robot also knocks off the wheel and more of the internal framework. After the fight, Dara quipped that the torn-out wheel was arguably the least-damaged part of the whole robot.
• The 10-Robot Rumble was a battle of unprecedented proportions, with a host of strong contenders slugging it out at once, the Doom Dial getting triggered half a dozen times over — resulting in a lot of Rogue House Robots, since the pit can only open once — and the pit eventually being completely clogged with fallen robots.
• Nuts 2 in the grand final proved themselves to be the undisputed master of Crazy Is Cool when they went up against Carbide and Behemoth. Behemoth was the show's most experienced veteran by a long way, and Carbide was the then-undefeated grand champion. Nuts 2 not only won, but they dominated the fight throughout; using a minibot to drop the pit under Behemoth without warning, smashing Carbide's weapon chain with their flails to stop their bar from working, and then almost succeeding in immobilizing them by wedging under their wheels with the other minibot. Carbide came within one second of a complete defeat, followed by the once-mighty machine fleeing from Nuts's minibot, and a unanimous judges' decision gave the win to Nuts 2.
• Carbide vs. Rapid in the redemption round — the most feared robot in the revived series vs. the most expensive, and what turned out to be a true Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the Series 9 champion. Rapid got in a few good flips on Carbide — coming close to throwing them out of the arena — but Carbide then tore a panel off Rapid with its first solid hit. Carbide followed this up with another big hit to the internals, damaging Rapid's Lithium-Polymer batteries. Rapid is left scurrying around the arena, filling it with billowing smoke, before Carbide freezes it with another hit. After the match ends, Rapid literally explodes into flames.
  • And although it may not look like it, it's also an awesome moment for Rapid. Not only did they nearly flip Carbide out of the arena, they still kept going even after their LiPos get smashed — normally something that leads to immediate stoppage, followed by smoke, and then spectacular fiery death. And then, after the resulting battery fire that appeared to gut their robot, the team revealed on social media afterward that 90% of Rapid was still useable after being seemingly destroyed, and it even returned to the live circuit not too long after. If that doesn't speak for how well-engineered it is, nothing does.
  RAPID Robotwars 2017: 90% is salvageable. All that is needed is a new speed controller, new bulkhead, new elastic, and of course a new lipo. It looked a lot worse than it was. Don't forget the can of air freshener as this Rapid now smells!
• The final showdown between Carbide and Eruption. Despite their excellent performance earlier in the season, Eruption had lost in its first bout against Carbide. However, after strategically outplaying their opponents in the 10-Robot Rumble, they were set for their final battle for the title of champion. Their opponent? Carbide! Three times before they had lost to the deadliest spinner in Robot Wars history, but this time, Eruption truly played as aggressive and skillful as they could, ramming Carbide at every opportunity despite the collisions with the spinner, and flipping them over a few times as well, coming very close to ring outing Carbide. The battle would end up lasting full three minutes, leaving the decision up to the judges. Ultimately, for the skill and aggression shown by Eruption, as well as having really only suffered only cosmetic damage when compared to Carbide, who suffered a few bits of weapon damage, the title of Grand Champion of season 10 was granted to Eruption, also fulfilling Michael Oates's childhood dream of winning Robot Wars.-

Other

• From Robot Wars Extreme Warriors — the main US version — we've got Tricerabot, the House Robot killer. It flipped a flywheel-bearing Matilda, and shoved Sir Killalot into the pit. It sadly wasn't shown on TV. Keep in mind, this was the season BEFORE it even had the rear flipper — and then when it did have it, it flipped Matilda again!
• The fact that, between the first Seven Wars and the reboot the roboteers formed organisations like the Fighting Robots Association and kept the sport not only alive, but evolving.
• An off-the-show example that's also heartwarming: Si and Debs Cook of Team Cookie Monsters/Chompalot met as a result of an interest in Robot Wars, which led to a relationship that continues to this day!
• Sir Killalot literally cutting Vortex Inducer in half with his pincers in its battle against Scarab in Season 2 of the Dutch Robot Wars.
• While Cyclone from the American series never had much luck in the main competition, going out twice in the first round, it really got its chance to shine in the second Annihilator by completely massacring everything else. The entire Annihilator was basically nothing but Cyclone's massive vertical flywheel ripping its five opponents to shreds one by one and throwing two of them over the wall.

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