This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - RFS
Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ... 29
81
« on: June 29, 2015, 09:22:49 PM »
I'm a little unclear on the wildcards. I was under the impression that out of the stack of losers four would be chosen at random, which in my mind explains why Nightmare was SOL and Warhead made it through. It also explains why Chomp made it through, because in the clips that they showed of it fighting Overdrive it looked to be pretty flimsy. Did the judges actually review the losers one by one and choose four of them?
(Also thank you to the folks who pointed out that registration was busted on BattleBots Update. It has been fixed.)
edit: I find it hilarious that the Killsaws haven't been deployed a single time in any fight so far. They, along with the Pulverizers, were one of the most iconic parts of the arena back in the day and I believe have been a staple in the arena since the very first event in 1999. Guess the counter for "Killsaw Rides" is gonna hang at 0 for a while longer. :P
82
« on: June 25, 2015, 11:51:08 PM »
How much do you think these people invest into their robots in order to make it into a large scale competition like this?
I know for a fact Nightmare and Tombstone (hasn't appeared yet) both utilize a Briggs & Stratton "E-Tek" motor. Just the motor costs $525. (It used to be upwards of $900 back in the day.) NPC/wheelchair motors are also pretty popular and they can run anywhere from $100-$400 per motor; they have gearboxes, but no wheels on them or anything. Lisa Winter's robot Plan X was built using a BattleKit as a base, the heavyweight version of that is almost $1000. A lot of these folks have sponsors though, or they are pretty affluent. In Lisa Winter's case I know that Will Wright (the creator of The Sims and SimCity) was a team member who built his own robots. I'm not sure what connection he had to Lisa's dad Mike but whatever it was it must be a sweet gig since Plan X has no sponsors. Jim Smentowski who built and drove Nightmare owns The Robot Marketplace, the website I just linked you to for the motor prices. :P Terry Ewert who operates Warrior Clan sells Whyachi gearboxes on The Robot Marketplace. It's all inter-connected in a sense. It can be an expensive sport, but it's also entirely possible to build on the cheap by getting salvage parts. A decade ago I had gotten a steel frame from a field mower, a set of tires, and two gasoline motors from Weed Eaters for about $70. That doesn't include the radio or batteries or any of that, but it was a pretty substantial part of the robot taken care of for a great price. :)
83
« on: June 25, 2015, 08:47:47 PM »
The first episode of BattleBots Update has been posted
http://www.battlebotsupdate.com/s6-episode-1/
Thank you for the plug! <333 I've made some slight post-publication changes to it, mostly fixing a couple of grammatical errors that I missed. I also added a picture at the end. It goes without saying, there are spoilers.
84
« on: June 21, 2015, 09:19:17 PM »
Desperately hoping there is a torrent available tomorrow or a download or something, because my television antenna took a dump in the middle of the episode and I missed the last two fights. I still know who won though.
Can't you just watch in on ABC.com or Hulu?
It is not currently available on either service. I also do not have a cable subscription, and the ABC website seemed to imply that I'd need one from my cable provider. I'll be checking it out tomorrow again though. edit: In regards to Plan X, I think you're forgetting that the Robot Action League mastered the art of gimmick and "high concept" robots, starting with R.A.C.C. in Long Beach 1999 and continuing indefinitely.
85
« on: June 21, 2015, 09:07:01 PM »
Desperately hoping there is a torrent available tomorrow or a download or something, because my television antenna took a dump in the middle of the episode and I missed the last two fights. I still know who won though.
86
« on: June 21, 2015, 05:59:30 PM »
I apologize for the lack of interaction here. Been sick this past week and have been trying to finish up the BattleBots Update website. The coming soon page has been taken down, and the main site is now online: www.battlebotsupdate.comI anticipate having articles up on Mondays or Tuesdays for season six. Since legacy episodes of the show are now readily available on YouTube in decent quality, I do intend to go back and properly write an article for the previous seasons. The "Forum" link directs traffic to GTM, specifically the Real Robotics Discussion forum. I hope that's okay. (I do not have the capacity to manage a forum anymore these days, but wanted to use any incoming traffic I get to at least do SOME good for someone.) The site is about 90% with most of the missing stuff being back-end things like SEO and whatnot. Otherwise the website is navigable, though currently there is understandably no content... :P
87
« on: June 03, 2015, 11:13:21 PM »
Hey everyone, just popping back in for a bit. GTM is blocked at work (because "game") so I haven't been able to be as active as I'd like to be.  In anticipation of the 6th season of BattleBots, I am reviving my old RFSHQ column "BattleBots Update" where I just sit around and make fun of all the robots and. I'm currently scouring Instagram and such for bot pictures because I'm going to need a lot of them, as many as I can get. I went and bought an antenna just so I could tune in to ABC to watch the show, however I have no means of capturing the video. Is there anyone here who will be digitizing the episodes as they air, and if so could I be a sonofabitch and ask you to toss 'em up on MEGA for me if I cannot find torrents of them from [eztv]? It would be greatly appreciated, and I will find some way to return the favor and make it worth your while. I'm also going to procure my original tapes of the first five seasons and retroactively complete the project, or at least I intend to. I will find some manner to distribute the episodes of the Comedy Central seasons. Anyways, this is all still a very rough cut and work in progress, but I've decided to migrate the column to its own website, www.battlebotsupdate.com. Currently I am building the back-end of it in Divi for WordPress with any downtime/free time I can scrounge up. You have no idea how HYPE I am.
88
« on: September 13, 2014, 07:09:48 PM »
Oh man, been waiting months for an excuse to use this image:
(Image removed from quote.)
When I was a kid, Minion meant this: 
89
« on: August 25, 2014, 08:15:01 PM »
And here I was expecting this to be a Team Wetware thread.
90
« on: August 24, 2014, 11:50:21 PM »
Very nice article RFS as usual. I really wanted to know what made them tick, and I have never seen those instruction scans before. According to this link here, the toys were originally going to have names with Diesector and OverKill facing bowdlerized variants, but it looks like they backed out at the last moment, especially with the BioHazard I mean Heavyweight Champion controversy.
I never actually thought of that, wow. And that sucks because I caught the omission of "when sparks fly robots DIE", this one was staring me right in the face and I still missed it. XD
91
« on: August 24, 2014, 12:03:36 PM »
http://twilightfoundry.com/2014/08/mcdonalds-battlebots-toys/The article about the McDonald's toys is finally done. Coming in at a staggering 5,200 words with a 21-minute bonus video (and a special 14 minute recut of it) this is the longest feature I've written about BattleBots to date. This took me about a month and $40 to put together. The project kind of started ballooning out as I wrote it but I figured because I was invested in it and already writing it that I should at least see it through. People have written about these toys before but nobody has actually written about them and taken them apart to show how they work and what's inside. I figured in that regard my article is somewhat unique and warranted being written. It's a long one, and I don't blame you for skipping through it if you want. The video is at the very bottom of the article, or you could just watch it here in the thread: edit: I don't know how to embed videos.
92
« on: August 23, 2014, 03:41:05 PM »
You know you can play with them and not break them, right?
Yup, that's how I play with them :)
Also, does anyone here know how to achieve this? Without support from my hand? :S
http://1drv.ms/1p2ydh8
You could always go the collectible anime figure route and use a clear acrylic stand to hold it there. Awesome collection btw!!
93
« on: August 21, 2014, 10:16:22 PM »
There was a giant lot of mixed RC BattleBots toys and stuff on eBay last night. It was like $43 or something total when I calculated shipping to my zip code. I waited on it last night to see if I really needed it, and I thought it over and since I still use the motors and gearboxes from the BB toys I checked back to splurge on them and they're gone. If someone from GTM bought those, you got a great haul. There was also a Diesector and Biohazard RC in the lot, but they looked like they were missing pieces (all of them did). Bleh. :P
94
« on: August 21, 2014, 10:13:47 PM »
So you're telling me some guy is trying to sell off a cheap mass produced trinket that came with a toy as an actual award given out during a tournament, despite having "ROAD CHAMPS" stamped into it in hugeass letters?
It does say quite clearly in the description "This is not a legitimate award from what I know as I could find no information on it."
That wasn't a part of the original description though. I sent the guy a question asking about it before I noticed the Road Champs stamp.
95
« on: August 21, 2014, 12:05:31 AM »
I think Killerhurtz had one of those trigger-based toys or something, didn't it? I remember re-issues of the toys having things like battle damage and such, I would venture a guess that the robots that won awards would also have had toy versions of them included to add to their collectability.
96
« on: August 20, 2014, 11:04:06 PM »
didnt you fight some of russ barrow's bots? i love his bots.
I did, I fought him in every weight class I competed in. Same design, too. I beat him sometimes? I can't knock him for that too much since my UK Ant and US Ant robots were literally the same design too.  But as a joke.
97
« on: August 20, 2014, 10:44:24 PM »
https://www.facebook.com/groups/303491806487599/307049249465188/I am not the administrator of this page, it was created by Corey Morris of Team Mech Monsters in Dallas, TX. He is trying to drum up interest in the sport in the area. Shoutouts to my main man Badnik96 for bringing this to my attention! If you're in the area, please join the group. Maybe we can figure out some kind of regular (and potentially RFL-sanctioned) event in the North Texas area. I'm committed to showing up with as many old (and new) robots as I can bring with me. Corey and I ended up having a "rivalry" at the SWARC events because the beetleweight division would inevitably become full of our creations and we'd end up fighting only each other most of the time. Here's some of our more memorable clashes: Kill Switch v. Mutator (SWARC 6.0) (PS: Watch those hazards.) Kill Switch III vs. Son of Mutator (SWARC 8.0) THE GLORIOUS RE-MATCH Detonator vs. Buzz (SWARC 8.0)  SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE BY QWERTYTHE300TH But yeah, do check out the group and offer support if you can. I've gotten in touch with the old crew and most of us are back on board for another shot. I'll be bringing back as many bots as I can, plus new ones if time permits me to build them. I posted it in one of the comments somewhere, but the bots I intend to bring include a selection from this list: 150g - Five-O (returning robot, or comparable rebuild of it) 150g - Treadator (new robot) 1lb - Keep Back 500 Feet (new rebuild, probably under a new name though) 1lb - Super Turbo Baby Puncher (returning robot, assuming I am able to obtain new gearboxes) 1lb - Razor Face (new robot) 3lb - Kill Switch V (returning robot) 3lb - Earthquake (returning robot) 3lb - Super Hammerhead (returning robot, originally competed in Battle Clash 2001) 3lb - Detonator (new rebuild, also probably under a different name) 12lb - Super Terminal Impact (returning robot, rebuild of 2001's Terminal Impact) Open - Terminal Impact (returning robot, for show and demonstration only)
98
« on: August 20, 2014, 10:25:02 PM »
According to Team Nightmare, Killerhurtz won the Best Driver award at Long Beach 1999. This item's location is Henderson, Nevada. Not quite the UK. edit: Took a closer look at the fourth picture. (It's blurry as sh**.) Apparently this is some kind of piece of an action playset, the back of the award says "Road Champs" and I think "Made in China". Nevermind, false alarm. 
99
« on: August 20, 2014, 10:17:28 PM »
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUGUST-1999-LONG-BEACH-CALIFORNIA-BATTLEBOTS-BEST-DRIVER-AWARD-/361022839975?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item540ea35ca7Trying to figure out what this is. The description is awfully short for something that would be of significance to the motorsport. The seller appears to be a "junk dealer" and has everything from B-movie DVD's to Legos and Godzilla figurines. Just a bunch of random personal affects. It looks like the scale of the "giant nut" in the pictures, going by the texture of the countertop, is actually very small (or at the very least, far smaller than the awards on TV). Any guesses as to whether this is legitimate or not? Or should I not have said anything so I could get it for $15? :P
100
« on: August 11, 2014, 10:50:04 PM »
I had to buy a whole new set for the purposes of this article. You'll see why, though.
Also strangely I had to buy the set all NIB because it was cheaper that way. I shed a single tear as I tore all of these decade+ old mint condition toys open.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ... 29
|
Show Posts