Battlebots had numerous deadly hazards strewn across the Battlebox where robots fight. In Robot Wars, they did something a little different: they made their own fighting robots and sent them in as rolling hazards. Typically there were two or three House Robots that would normally stay in what were called CP Zs, or Corner Patrol Zones during matches. If a robot was pushed or wandered into a CPZ, the House Robots could have their way with them until they got out. When one robot was counted out, however, the vanquished was fair game for the House Robots, mostly to keep things entertaining for the crowd.Occasionally competitors would get into exhibition battles against the House Robots themselves, and some even picked fights with them during normal matches, often ending in hilarious, embarrassing, or amazing results.
Sir Killalot
The largest and heaviest House Robot until Mr. Psycho came along, Sir Killalot was an unstoppable House Robot powered by a petrol-powered engine. Its armaments were a claw that was originally used for a fireman's Jaws Of Life tinkered with to grip and let go faster than a normal set, a hybrid lance-drill and its sheer weight, often coming in at five times as heavy or heavier than show contenders. While Killalot is one of the most recognizable House Robots, he was not one of the original four created for the very first series.
Big Bad: Competitors feared being in the arena with Killalot as a rolling hazard, and with good reason.
Black Knight: All that was missing was a coat of black paint.
Blood Knight: His operators honored the spirit of the trope by having some spectacularly impressive moments in the arena whenever someone decided to fight him. If you outweighed your opponents by a factor of five you would let them swing away for your amusement too.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Generally happened to the lighter bots that were unfortunate enough to be caught. Actual impalement was very rare, however, it was more like "hooked through a wheel well/weapons recess/existing battle wound with extreme prejudice".
Mighty Glacier: Was until The Sixth Wars the heaviest House Robot, clocking in at 520 Kilos.
One of the House Robots featured on the show since its very first episodes, Dead Metal is designed to use two weapons in conjunction with one another: a large horizontal claw that can grab a robot and keep it from driving off, and a compact circular saw that was on an extending arm that could be pushed in and grind down an opponent. Because of these unique characteristics, Dead Metal got far more hazardous whenever other House Robots or competitors got involved with whatever it was attacking.
Awesome, but Impractical: The saw was originally on a ferocious-looking swinging arm, but didn't actually work. In series 3 it was revamped so it did work, and the saw mechanism was now far more compact.
Frankenstein's Monster: Chris Reynolds, who built the original House Robots, suggested Dead Metal was created when a bunch of junk parts came to life and fused together.
Gradual Grinder: Dead Metal's claw and saw didn't do spectacular damage but the mere act of being held up by Dead Metal could make a match go from bad to worse if it happened at a bad moment, and especially because those cuts could add up over time or sway a judge's decision, since a clumsy driver wouldn't be able to avoid getting grabbed.
Another House Robot present since the first series, Shunt was something approaching the closest match to competing robots as the years went by since it was so similar in weight. This also meant Shunt was also a popular target for competitors to attack during matches, culminating in it getting most of the flak in Series 7.
Lightning Bruiser: At first. When the weight limit was increased to 100kgs, Shunt lost a lot of his pushing power. They fixed this by amping the power of his axe Up to Eleven. He still had a great deal of power for his size, despite being the smallest house robot.
Ramming Always Works: Shunt's defining characteristic was living up to his name; plowing things out of the way with his shovels. There was even a "Sumo" event in extreme, where contestants could face up to him in a shoving match.
Ship Tease: Jonathan Pearce implied that Shunt and Matilda might have been intimate.
Matilda
A two-wheeled sort of hybrid between a triceratops and an armadillo, Matilda was the third of the original four House Robots. Like many of the other House Robots, Matilda became notably tougher in later series to keep up with the higher-level competitors fighting for titles. Good thing too, because Matilda was also often attacked by contenders, more so than any other House Robot.
Chainsaw Good: In the first 2 wars, that is. Afterward, with more robots gaining thicker armour, Matilda's chainsaw became useless. It was replaced in series 5 with a 27kg Flywheel. It was much more destructive.
The Chew Toy: Matilda was the first house robot to be flipped (by Recyclops in Series 1), may have been flipped or otherwise attacked by competitors more than any other house robot, and on one spectacular occasionally literally ended up as a chew toy for Razer.
The fourth and final of the original House Robots, Sergeant Bash unsurprisingly resembles a military machine of some sort. It carried multiple weapons over its career, the most memorable combination being a crushing claw up front and its turret-mounted flamethrower. Any robots noted for their flammability would often find themselves in the ring with Bash as one of the house robots-Diotoir was a repeat victim of Bash, if not the arena hazards.
The Dragon: In a sense at least, as he sported a turret-mounted flamethrower and had a reputation as one of the harder-hitting House Robots as well as one of the oldest.
Kill It with Fire: His trademark, the only working robot mounted flamethrower in Robot Wars.
Mecha-Mook: Interestingly this was the direction Chris Reynolds appeared to go in with Bash's design inspiration, as apparently he was designed to look like a futuristic combat robot tasked with keeping the locals of colony planets in line, suggesting he was one of many.
Military Mashup Machine: A flame tank-unmanned ground vehicle with what looks like the jaws of life up front.
Sergeant Rock: Well, if the name is any indicator, this was Bash's visual and combat shtick.
Mr. Psycho
One of the new House Robots introduced in Series Six, Mr. Psycho was the largest House Robot ever seen in the show's entire run. Very similar to Sir Killalot in that Mr. Psycho was a super-heavy House Robot with a vaguely-humanoid appearance, with a head, torso and two arms, one being a crushing claw. Unlike Killalot, Mr. Psycho was armed with a 30-kg hammer and powered by electric motors rather than a petrol engine.
Drop the Hammer: Had possibly the biggest one in robot combat.
Off with His Head!: In one series 7 battle, Psycho goes into combat with his fibreglass head obviously not attached properly (it is visibly wobbling). Eventually it falls off, and Hilarity Ensues.
Growler
Introduced in Series Six alongside Mr. Psycho, Growler was an extremely fast robot weighing in at over 300 kg armed with a hydraulic jaw made from industrial digger steel. Functionally Growler was similar to Shunt, albeit more than three times as heavy and without the pneumatic axe.
The very last House Robot made, Cassius Chrome was introduced in Series Seven, and actually lacked a lot of the fanfare that the other House Robots had, simply being introduced at the start of Series Seven when he first appeared. Sadly, he never had much time to gather any real distinction, as there was never a Series Eight, and his lack of destructive power left him less liked than all the other House Robots.
Drunken Boxing: His movements and rapid punches make it look like he is trying out this trope.
Lightning Bruiser: In fact, Cassius was the fastest House Robot ever made.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Cassius' shtick was two pneumatic "fists" on either side of his chassis that moved back and forth like jackhammers. They weren't the most effective weapon in Robot Wars, but on something that heavy and fast they added to Chrome's abilities as a full-body battering ram.
Refbot
Refbot's history started with a previous robot, Shove. Shove was a backstage House Robot used to push incapacitated or destroyed robots out of the arena and back to their owners. When Refbot was introduced in Series 4, he was also used in this role-although Refbot also acted as an in-arena referee and something of a rolling safety device: it was also equipped with a fire extinguisher to control blazes before they spread to the whole arena, and once used to try to fight Sergeant Bash's flamethrower.
Roadblock (Series 1 Champion, Series 2 3rd Place, Series 3 Semi-Finalist)
Determinator: Effortlessly cleared the gauntlet, defeated a house robot (albeit in a suicide attempt), and easily won both it's battles to reach the grand final. Upon getting there, it purged the arena, defeating all but 2 of the 5 opponents (who immobilised each other). All this while being a simple wedge with a top speed of 5 miles per hour.
Ramming Always Works: Won it's battles through pushing power and tipping over others with it's wedge, and was still a force to be reckoned with in the Third Wars, where it reached round of the semi finals (round 5 out of 7).
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The team actually entered series 3 with "The Beast of Bodmin", which was identical except for the paintjob, moving eyes and the addition of a flipping tusk.
Weak, but Skilled: Not exactly weak, per se, but had inferior weaponry to a lot of other robots in series 3 (as Beast Of Bodmin) and still mopped the floor with them.
Panic Attack (Series 2 Champion, Series 3, 4, 5 Semi-Finalist)
Boring, but Practical: In series 2, it was a box with ineffective lifting forks. It curbstomped most of it's foes through pushing power and Kim Davies's driving skill.
Dark Horse Victory: In series 2, it was expected for Cassius to fight Mortis in the grand final in a rematch from series 1 (which Recyclopse, Cassius's predecessor had won). Panic Attack beat both of them (Mortis in the semis's, Cassius in the grand final).
Chaos 2 (Series 3 & 4 Champion, Series 5 Semi-Finalist)
A robot that brought many innovative concepts to Robot Wars, most of all ushering in a generation of machines equipped with powerful flippers. It used CO 2 to power a front flipper that was powerful enough to flip opponents out of the arena, and from then on anyone else with a lifter or flipper was either trying the technique themselves or were watching their backs for it in the ring.
The Ace: Defeated nearly every opponent it faced in series 3 and 4 almost effortlessly, and again for much of Series 5, before falling to Bigger Brother.
Awesome But Practical: Could throw 250 kilos with it's flipper, was the only robot in the shows run to retain the title, and innovated the "Out Of The Arena" flip.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Chaos 2's last appearance in the main competition saw it flipped it out of the arena by newcomer Dantomkia.
Lightning Bruiser: Zipped around at 20mph and threw robots straight over the wall.
Razer (Series 5 Champion, Series 6 Runner-Up, 2 time World Champion)
An engineering masterpiece with a crushing claw that nobody else was ever quite able to imitate. Everything about Razer was unique: the crushing claw, the "wing" self-righting mechanism, and a shape that looked fast standing still all gave Razer unmistakable looks and its exploits in the arena gave it a devoted fanbase.
Awesome But Practical: Razer was incredibly easy on the eyes, and crushed a lot of it's foes with 9 tonnes of squeezability, winning pretty much every title it was eligible for.
Dark Horse Victory: Sort of. In Series 2 through 4, it was a popular competitor and had won many side competitions, but was prey to mechanical issues and had never got beyond the heat final. It was expected to repeat this pattern in Series 5, but it went on to destroy all foes easily and become the champion.
Follow the Leader: While there weren't as many imitations of Razer and its crusher as there were imitations of Chaos 2 and its impressive flipper, Razer had its imitators. The most blatant was Ming 3, a robot that was singled out as a Razer knockoff for its long, narrow wedge profile and a claw shaped very much like Razer's. Team Ming denies any conscious imitation, but it's hard to imagine Razer wasn't on their minds when they decided to go with a crushing claw.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Razer's self-righter was designed to protect the delicate underbelly from smacking the floor when Razer rolled right-ways up, by suspending the wheels off the ground. Against Aggrobot in Series 3, it got stuck open and did just that, costing Razer the match.
Meaningful Name: Jonathan Pearce joked that Razer was named after then West Ham footballer Neil "Razor" Ruddock but Razer's name is really an extension of the word Raze...
Ramming Always Works: Although many people consider Tornado boring for this reason, it was an undeniably effective attack strategy. It took Chaos 2 to stop Tornado in Series 4 (although Tornado would later defeat Chaos 2), and Razer in the 2nd World Championship. It lost out in Series 7 to a superior rammer, Storm 2.
Executive Meddling: How it won the title, as the executives hated runner up Storm 2 (A hard hitting, high impact rambot). Why? They thought Storm 2 was boring. Nearly everyone except the Typhoon team themselves (and the rest of their Air Cadets detachment) consider Storm 2 to be the true champion of series 7, and the crowd (except the Air Cadets) was so unhappy that Storm 2 lost that they unanimously booed the house down, causing the executives to edit in cheers.
Other Notable Robots
Firestorm (3 Time Grand Finalist, 2 Time Semi-Finalist)
Curb-Stomp Battle: Dished them out on several occasions, but wasn't immune to them either. Due to a mechanical fault that stopped him from moving properly, he fell victim to Chaos 2 in series 3, and was the first robot subject to the "Out Of The Arena" flip. Was also beaten with ease by Razer on 2 occasions, though it took it to a real nail biter in their final fight.
Determinator: Third-place play-off against Hypnodisc, oh so much.
Lightning Bruiser: Incredibly fast, but was able to survive being perforated by Razer and defeated Hypno-Disc while its flipper wasn't working.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: An obvious joke entry, covered in highly flammable fur with a rather ineffective weapon. But its predecessor Nemesis (which had an even less effective weapon) defeated a house robot and went toe to toe with a future champion. Diotoir itself reached 2 heat finals, reached the semis of the First World Championship, made the final of the International championship, the finals of the Celebrity Special, won the Tag Team Terror and defeated the mighty Tornado in Series 5. Team Tornado called it the most powerful 2WD pusher they'd ever seen.
Incendiary Exponent: Diotoir caught fire in every single fight it had. And it was glorious.
Intentionally taken to its extreme in one of the exhibition matches at the end of series 2. The lineup was Sgt. Bash, Diotoir and a similarily flammable sacrifical robot built for the occasion. The latter two were sprayed with paraffin before the fight. At the beginning, Bash fired the flamethrower once. Hilarity Ensued.
Legacy Character: Its full name in its first appearance was Diotoir, Son of Nemesis.
Storm 2 (Series 7 Second Place, 3rd World Champion, New Blood Champion)
Executive Meddling: Why it didn't win the title. See the Storm 2/Controversy article to see why. The higher ups hated Storm 2.
Lightning Bruiser: As mentioned, threw Steel Avenger out of the arena without using its weapon, curbstomped the previous champion, and fought Typhoon 2 (which had demolished most of its previous opponents) while taking only superficial damage).
Hypno-Disc (3 Time Grand Finalist, 1 Time Semi-Finalist)
One of the deadliest spinners in all of Robot Wars, Hypno-Disc owes its success to the unique physics behind its disc: technically it only has one contact tooth-the other is welded to point upwards and away to act as a counterbalance to the actual cutting tooth. The result is consistently-higher impact speeds, and brutal damage, as most of Hypno-Disc's opponents found out.
The Worf Effect: An example of being Over-Worfed. Everyone said they were terrified to go up against Hypno-Disc, but in a 3-or-more-way melee, it was very easy to beat Hypno-Disc by ganging up on it. Hypno-Disc's final three battles were all melees (all of which it lost), and the other robots barely touched each other until Hypno-Disc had been taken care of.
What an Idiot: One season saw Hypno-Disc, for no discernible reason, make its cutting teeth into a more traditional two-tooth arrangement. It's impact power was consequently halved, not a good thing when it's competition was getting better every season.
What Could Have Been: Fans voted to see Hypno-Disc fight Razer in Robot Wars Extreme, but the battle never took place, as both teams felt it would be too damaging to each others machines.
Spawn Again (4 Time Semi-Finalist)
Actor Allusion: The teams first robot, Scutters Revenge, was named after the robots from Red Dwarf, in which the shows host Craig Charles had starred.
Critical Failure: Failed to reach its series 7 semi-final because the ram operating its flipper exploded.
Bigger Brother (Series 5 Runner-Up, Series 6 Semi-Finalist)
Made of Iron: Best demonstrated by its battle with Hypno-Disc. Hypno-Disc ripped off its flipper and destroyed its armour, and Bigger Brother still beat it.
Took a Level in Badass: Wasn't really much of a contender in Series 4, going out in the heat semi finals. In Series 5 however, it got all the way to the Grand Final, ultimately coming in second place. Oh, and guess what. This route involved it flipping its first two opponents out of the arena, taking on Chaos 2, the current champions, and WINNING, and enduring no holds barred beatdowns from both Hypno Disc and Razer, without being immobilised.
Pussycat (Series 3 Heat Finalist, Series 4 Runner Up, Series 5 Semi-Finalist, All Stars Champion)
Defeating the Undefeatable: Tore Razer apart on two separate occasions. One of, if not the only robot to defeat it cleanly.
The Berserker: If there was ever a robot that fit this description that wasn't armed with a gigantic spinning weapon of some kind, Terrorhurtz was it. Its drivers were aggressive and its axe was powerful, but only if it was aimed properly, and swinging it too many times too quickly made it start bouncing off the ground-a dangerous thing to happen around wedges or flippers. The consequences of too many misses were apparent when Terrorhurtz lost to Razer in the Series 6 grand finals-most of the reason Razer was able to survive was because Terrorhurtz kept swinging at empty arena when Razer moved even a bit off center.
Lightning Bruiser: When its pneumatic axe hit it was devastating and it was suitably maneuverable, but its real asset was the speed at which it could swing its axe both ways, meaning it could string together devastating blows in very rapid order.
What Might Have Been: Terrorhurtz came to Series 7 redesigned and optimized, but broken before the show and was withdrawn as a result. It's highly likely that Terrorhurtz would have been a strong contender otherwise.
Wheely Big Cheese (Series 4 Semi-Finalist, Series 5 Semi-Finalist)
Best Served Cold: After Sir Killalot destroyed Wheely Big Cheese's predecessor, The Big Cheese, its builder designed this robot specifically to flip over Killalot, armed with a reported 800 kg of throwing power. Sadly, it never got the chance to avenge The Big Cheese.
Fluffy the Terrible: With a name like "Wheely Big Cheese" you'd expect it to be something of a joke, right? Wrong.
Spiked Wheels: The "treads" of the wheels were spikes, but they didn't really do any damage, nor were they really meant to. Surprisingly, Wheely Big Cheese was able to get around in the arena fairly well anyway.
Up to Eleven: Do you like flippers? Do you like wedges? How about a robot that's all wedge, a wedge that that splits open like a mouth revealing it's all one huge invertible flipper? One that can fling other robots clear across or out of the arena? Or even both?
Jerk Ass: "How long did that take to build? I reckon it took 2 months to go 2 yards." And his infamous: "That is the worst robot I've ever seen in my life. And it crossed the finish line twice."
Unperson: He isn't mentioned in any tie-in media, and all footage of him was removed from "The First Great War", a VHS release of highlights from the first series. Just as well, really. He didn't exactly hold the show in high regard.
Craig Charles (Series 2 onwards Presenter)
Actor Allusion: The robot Scutter's Revenge was a reference to his role on Red Dwarf. Also, this:
Craig: So, why did you call your robot Inquisitor?
Phillipa Forrester (Series 1-3, 5-6 & Extreme II Pit Reporter)
Julia Reed (Series 4 & Extreme Pit Reporter)
Jayne Middlemiss (Series 7 Pit Reporter)
Jonathan Pearce (Commentator)
The Hyena: He was well-known for his occasional laughing fits during matches. Especially obvious when Diotoir caught fire or when Firestorm became the first robot thrown out of the arena.
