History Characters / RobotWarsSemiFinalists

* HonorBeforeReason: In Series 2 [[ExecutiveMeddling the producers infamously bent the rules in Mortis' favour]] when they were immobilised by the arena spikes before scoring any points at the start of their Pinball Trial run in the semis. While admittedly Team Random Violence had been told that the spikes had been disabled, they accepted that this meant that their robot had been eliminated and driver Rob Knight was ''furious'' when the producers insisted that the team repair the robot and run again. In protest, Knight refused to take the controls of Mortis and the less-experienced Ben Impey was forced to drive the robot. While they still managed to clear the Trial (with the House Robots even scoring points for them, in direct violation of the rules) they were defeated by Panic Attack in the next stage, with Knight stoically refusing to budge and take back the controls to try and match the superior driving skill of Kim Davies.

* {{Heel}}: The closest thing on the show thanks to Team Random Violence Technologies' competitiveness, tendency to come across as arrogant, the belief that they were trying to win by [[BribingYourWayToVictory throwing money at the competition]][[note]]Mortis was probably the most expensive robot ever entered on the show, at least until Rapid appeared in the reboot[[/note]], and perceived producer bias[[note]]The producers DID bend the rules in Mortis' favor during their Series 2 semi-final, but to their credit they never asked for it and driver Rob Knight actually refused to drive the robot any more for the rest of the episode in protest.[[/note]]. The audience would cheer when they lost and boo when they won. Their Series 3 battle against Gravedigger was unusually intercut with footage of the other roboteers watching the battle from the pits; everybody cheered when Mortis was pitted.

As their tag line suggests, Mortis was one of the iconic competitors of the show's early history. A sleek, gunmetal grey tank armed with an axe adapted from a Japanese ''tanto'' knife (and in later series, a lifting arm), Mortis probably most-closely resembled the average person's conception of what a combat robot should look like, and it was [[CreatorsPet a favourite of the producers]], although not always to its benefit. However, despite being one of the most expensive robots ever seen on the show, Mortis never quite managed to live up to the hype and retired after winning its only trophy at the end of Series 4.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The wheelie bars added for Extreme 1 onwards left the twins unable to self-right and pretty much every defeat they suffered after that was due to them [[HoistByHisOwnPetard flipping themselves over]]. (A new spring-loaded design for the wheelie bars was subsequently planned, which might have avoided this, but the rule changes for Series 6 ruled out any possibility of the robot being entered again.)

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The wheelie bars added for Extreme 1 onwards left the twins unable to self-right and pretty much every defeat they suffered after that was due to them [[HoistByHisOwnPetard flipping themselves over]].

** Managed to win its Series 6 heat in spite of the fact that the robot was barely working at all: it was largely ignored in the first round melee even though it was hardly moving, leaving the other three to mutually destroy each other, won its second round without a working weapon when its opponent drove into the pit, and then in the heat final they ''just'' managed to get it working long enough to take out its opponent (fortunately it only took one attack to do this; it managed to get one more attack in and a little pushing and shoving before it broke down again). It then developed some other unspecified serious problem in the semi-finals and simply sat there whilst Terrorhurtz pummelled it into the ground. It actually managed to play a big part in taking out Hypno-Disc in the losers' melee, but then lost forward drive just as it made a flip that nearly put Bigger Brother out of the arena and promptly got pushed into the pit, unable to put up any further fight.

* BornLucky: Survived their opening melee fight barely, with the other qualifier doing most of the work, beat Behemoth because it got stuck in forward gear,[[note]]Admittedly this was something Mute was responsible for, albeit accidentally[[/note]] and after being dominated for a whole battle by Judge Shred 3, it got one flip in, which caused it to also break down. Its luck ran out in the Semi-Finals, when it was thrown out of the arena by Firestorm.

* BornLucky: Survived their opening melee fight barely, with the other qualifier doing most of the work, beat Behemoth because it got stuck in forward gear, and after being dominated for a whole battle by Judge Shred 3, it got one flip in, which caused it to also break down. Its luck ran out in the Semi-Finals, when it was thrown out of the arena by Firestorm.

Team 13's first entrance into ''Robot Wars'' with the unimpressive Limpet didn't bear much fruit, and it wasn't until Series 5 that they returned with a new twist on the horizontal flywheel bot, 13 Black. The dual-disc spinner had a poor start, going out in the first round again, but on its second attempt in Series 6 it carved out a place for itself in the semis and staked a claim as the challenger to Hypno-Disc's rotating throne. The team returned with a new robot, Heavy Metal, in Series 9, but failed to recapture their former success.

* MadeOfIron: Was the first robot to be armoured in Hardox-brand steel, which has since become the de facto standard for robot armour due to its sheer toughness. To give you an idea, Tough as Nails debuted in 2002, and as of 2016 it's still using the ''same'' set of claws it was using in its debut!

* BornUnlucky: It lost in the heats for two years in a row to the ''same'' robot: Hypno-Disc. For most roboteers, meeting them just once is unlucky, so meeting them twice is outright horrible luck. They had to withdraw from the first Extreme after the battle with Hypno-Disc due to the severe damage Bulldog Breed received.

* LightningBruiser: Fast & powerful, and only ever lost 5 times.

* VictoryByEndurance: Grim Reaper was unique among the many flippers that reached the semis of Series 7 by being a ''low''-pressure flipper, rather than having one of the high-pressure flippers that had been popular ever since Chaos 2 had arrived in Series 3. This meant that, while its flipper was ''far'' less powerful than other flippers in the series and was incapable of scoring a RingOut, its supply of [=CO2=] would last twice as long, allowing it to keep overturning its opponents for the entire duration of a five-minute battle. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDArhd2hmGk this live battle from 2003]], Grim Reaper fires its flipper ''over thirty times'' in 3 minutes without losing power (far more than its more conservative opponent M2).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In its series 7 semi-final it attacked and flipped Shunt... ''[[EpicFail when Shunt was attacking its opponent at the time]]''.

* TookALevelInBadass: Lost in round one of Series 6, came back in Series 7 and made it to the Semi-Finals, flipping an opponent out of the arena along the way.

Entering the wars through the New Blood tournament, Mute fought its way up to second place by (to be brutally honest) being one of the small handful of New Blood machines that could actually fight its way out of a paper bag, before finally falling victim to Storm II. Of course, Mute was a competent machine in irs own right, boasting one of the series' rare front-hinged flippers with gas to spare, even if it did come at the expense of self-righting reliability. Fighting its way into the Series 7 semifinals, its advance was finally halted by Firestorm 5. After the hiatus, Team Mute returned with a new machine, an axe-bot named Bonk; unfortunately, it was a victim of Series 8's infamous pneumatics malfunctions, fell at the first hurdle and failed to reappear in subsequent series.

* BoringButPractical: Had a simple strategy, hit pit release button, grab nearest opponent, dump in pit. This didn’t earn them much favor backstage.

* TookALevelInBadass: Lost in Round 1 in Dutch Series 2, and lost its Series 7 qualifier after it broke down, but gained a discretionary place, where it reached the semi-finals of both the main series and the 3rd World Championship.

* BornUnlucky: Was crippled by technical problems in Series 6 and 8, and then [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown crippled by Aftershock]] in Series 9. In Series 10, it was demoted to robot redemption after damage from Donald Thump that immobilised the US president parody meant Sabretooth couldnt run upside down after being overturned in a collision with Behemoth, who, despite breaking down, won the judges' decision and later heat.

* ButtMonkey: Lost in the first round of Series 5 to a robot made of MDF, lost in the first round of Series 6 after they had to replace its weapon with a giant tyre, had to withdraw from Series 7 [[TooPowerfulToLive because the weapon was too strong]], lost in the first round of Series 8 after their srimech broke and they were flipped by Eruption... they ''finally'' made it through the first round in Series 9 only to receive the mother of all beatings from Aftershock, leaving them crippled for the rest of the heat. The next series it had a side destroyed by a ROBOT DONALD TRUMP, costing it!

* EpicFail: Somehow after a repair job they managed to wire the spinner ''backwards'' so it kept kicking them up onto their opponents rather than throwing opponents up into the air. Although to be fair, given how badly they were torn up beforehand, the fact that it could spin at all is quite the achievement.
* FragileSpeedster: The Series 6 version took this UpToEleven: after its powerful vertical disc broke, the team adapted the robot and replaced the disc with a large tyre, allowing it to move at an alleged top speed of ''70mph'', the fastest robot in the show's history. However, its weak aluminium armour meant it was easily beaten by Terrorhurtz.

* AchillesHeel: Big Nipper may have four-wheel drive, but those wheels are ''very'' small, giving it a tiny contact patch with the arena floor. Factor in the steel floor used in the new arena and Big Nipper struggled to gain traction, nearly sliding into the pit on two occasions. It managed to escape the first time but was pitted by [=TR2=] the second time. For Series 10 it was upgraded with much grippier wheels, fixing the problem.
** In their Series 10 opening melee against Carbide and Gabriel 2, [[spoiler: Gabriel 2's entanglement devices got into one of their wheels, which ended up immobilising them.]]

* TheAllegedCar: Credit where it's due, Track-tion wasn't terrible for an after-school project and survived a hit from Apex. But with ineffectual weaponry and the speed of a snail in molasses, it's nowhere near ready for the big leagues as shown when it got curbstomped twice by Rapid and torn up by Concussion.

* EpicFail: Iron-Awe 6 once flipped ''itself'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_zLeFDML4k out of the arena]] at a live event.
** [[spoiler:Despite being hailed as one of the pioneers of the current style of "UK flipper" in Robot Wars, throughout the whole of Series 10 they couldn't get their flipper to work even ''once!'' They managed to qualify for the Wildcard Melee solely by outlasting Tauron and The Kegs in the melee, then shoving an already-damaged Androne 4000 down the pit.]]

* SpellMyNameWithAThe: It was officially ''"The'' Grim Reaper", not just "Grim Reaper".

* BornLucky: All four of its wins had some element of good fortune to them. In Series 4 it made it through the first-round melee because Evil Weevil forgot to charge their batteries, won the heat semi-final when Sumpthing's forks got stuck in the arena floor and lifted its wheels off the ground, and won the heat final despite sustaining significant damage from Little Fly's spinning bar weapon. In Series 5 it got through the first round after Shredder drove itself into the pit.

If any robot is famous for losing, Splinter is it. Probably the second-weakest robot in the Series 4 semis after Mousetrap, Splinter unquestionably got the worst draw as they became the all-time most famous victims of Hypno-Disc at the top of their devastating form, reducing their robot to a literal pile of spare parts. Team Ivanhoe had actually competed before in Series 2, reaching a heat final, and the rebuilt Splinter fought well in Extreme and was defeated by the red-hot Bigger Brother in Series 5, but the team will [[NeverLiveItDown always be remembered most]] for the time their machine was scattered across the arena floor in one of robot combat's most violent displays.

The OneHitWonder of Series 2, Haardvark was a simple but functional machine equipped with a pair of lifting forks (a popular weapon in that series, as champion Panic Attack proved) but its determination and driving skill was enough for it to win through its heat. Falling to Cassius in the semifinal, it only made one more brief appearance in Series 3 before disappearing.

* DiabolusExMachina: Came close to an improbable victory over Cassius in its semi-final (bear in mind that Haardvark was ''stuck in reverse for the whole fight''), only to be overturned by Sir Killalot and roasted on the flame pit.

* TookALevelInBadass: Beaten in round 1 of Series 5, then made the semi-finals in Series 6 and more than held its own in the All-Stars tournament.

After making their ''Robot Wars'' debut in Series 3 as the first competitor in the Pinball Warrior tournament, the Dominator team gave the ailing axe bot concept a shot in the arm with their powerful, long-hafted piercing weapon and the sleek, angular, heavily-armoured machine that carried it. Consistant competitors during the show's middle years, they were another team who never failed to win their heat across multiple entries, going out in the second round of the semifinals in Series 4, 5 and 6. Unfortunately a mechanical fault caused them to miss Series 7 and they failed to return for the reboot, leaving them the most successful robot to never actually win any kind of award or trophy.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Was supposed to have entered Series 7 but dropped out due to mechanical problems.

* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Its predecessor, Sting, had a unique articulated whipping tail, designed to resemble that of a scorpion. It never really got a chance to use it, as Sting fell in the Trial in Series 2 and was pitted by Diotoir in Series 3.

If you want to talk memorable teams (if not memorable robots), the International Wreck-Crew were your boys. While the original machine failed to work, Plunderbird II proved to be the highlight of their competitive career, bulldozing its way to the semis with its shoving power. However what the team was ''really'' known for was their spectacular value as entertainers- singing, rapping, [[BoisterousWeakling loudly boasting about how they were going to crush all their opponents before being humiliatingly beaten]] and making grandiose entrances, they were a constant highlight of the show, irrespective of the fact that the machine only seemed to get worse with every series.

* BornLucky: Even Jonathan Pearce highlighted what a surprise winner Blade was in its heat. They won their first two battles on a judges' decision (only ''barely'' escaping falling prey to the [[ScrappyMechanic arena spikes]] that had taken out Behemoth in the previous heat, being flipped on their side but then righted again by their opponent) and defeated Aggrobot in the heat final when it broke down due to previously sustained damage. What was lucky about beating Aggrobot? The fact that ''Razer'' had been in the same heat, but had broken down while fighting Aggrobot, meaning Blade didn't have to take them on instead[[note]]Razer had struggled to get to grips with Aggrobot because of their sloped sides, which is what prolonged the battle long enough for their breakdown to happen, while the flat-topped Blade would have been ''fodder'' for Razer's claw if they'd met[[/note]]!

The last of the OneHitWonder semifinalists in Series 3, Blade was a functional but fundamentally average low-tier competitor that had a stroke of good luck to win their heat (dodging the unfortunate Razer, who were still trying to get all the bugs out) before being beaten by former champions Beast of Bodmin in the semis.

* BornLucky: To be brutally honest, Blade wasn't a very good robot and even Jonathan Pearce highlighted what a surprise winner they were in their heat. They won their first two battles on a judges' decision (only ''barely'' escaping falling prey to the [[ScrappyMechanic arena spikes]] that had taken out Behemoth in the previous heat, being flipped on their side but then righted again by their opponent) and defeated Aggrobot in the heat final. What was lucky about beating Aggrobot? The fact that ''Razer'' had been in the same heat, but had broken down while fighting Aggrobot, meaning Blade didn't have to take them on instead[[note]]Razer had struggled to get to grips with Aggrobot because of their sloped sides, which is what prolonged the battle long enough for their breakdown to happen, while the flat-topped Blade would have been ''fodder'' for Razer's claw if they'd met[[/note]]!