if robot combat was to get back on tv...........

[RFS]

I disagree, why not just make the walls higher?  You don't want to discourage people from making WBC and Gravity-esque flippers.

Arena walls didn't stop Inertia Labs from their Toro series of BattleBots. :P

[MR. BONESTRIPPER]

Exactly. Flippers have done fine without a gap that allows OOTAs.

[rabidchinchilla1]

I have no idea why battlebots/robot wars has not come back on air.

It would be cool if combots was a tv show.

I would probably end up spending my life savings on parts for a thwackbot.

[Resetti's Replicas]

I have no idea why battlebots/robot wars has not come back on air.

It would be cool if combots was a tv show.

I would probably end up spending my life savings on parts for a thwackbot.

  Probably the startup costs.  The executive producer for Robot Wars had to take on about 100,000 pounds of debt just to get Series 1 started.

[Knight]

In terms of who I wouldn't want back, it's a bit difficult for me to decide. Apart from certain pit/post battle interviewers, I can't really point out any particular people I wouldn't want back.

In terms of what I wouldn't want back though:

*Producer interference. Too many issues came up in Robot Wars because of the producers wanting to stick their fat fingers into everything. The case surrounding Storm 2 stands out in particular because they were pulling out every underhanded trick they could to get that machine out of the studio. The fact that the producers rigged the series 7 grand final so much from allowing Typhoon 2 to be fixed half way into the match to hiding evidence from the judges irritates me to this day. Just let the matches play out normally rather than trying to stick to a set plan.

*"MAKE SOME NOISE!!" If you're going to have presenters, please have them come off as genuine rather than screaming children's entertainers. As Votesaxon07 pointed out in his "Bring Back Robot Wars" video, Craig Charles went from an enthusiastic yet dry comedian, to an overly hyper lunatic in RW Extreme and onwards. I understand audience interaction is important, but telling your presenter to ham it up to extreme levels is absurd for something that's not a live event. If Craig were to come back to present Robot Wars or any robot combat show, I would hope the producers would allow him to be as natural as he was in series 2, 3 and 4.

*Arena gimmicks for the sake of it. Nobody likes arena spinners. Nobody likes hell raisers. That is all

*"Get back in the CPZ!" If you're going to have house robots, don't have them running about willy nilly in the arena actively looking for trouble. Poor Killertron and Ming 3 suffered because some jerkoff controlling a house robot said "Hey! The wrong robot is winning! Time to fix that!". They should only come out of their patrol zones if there's a robot that has been counted out or otherwise declared immobilized, and they should only go after that robot.

[HereticBlue]

I think that the nerdy state of some of the roboteers would need ironing out. Make the most confident member of the team do the talking and not the quietest team member otherwise the show gains a poor reputation and won't attract more publicity. rehearsing lines would help.

As mentioned the presenter would need to have enthusiasm when needed but for god sake don't seem obsessed. A comedian who can joke about something that the kids would find funny on one level, but from a small innuendo the adults would find it more entertaining. I don't know if anyone noticed Craig's adult jokes in the early days as they were so sly but... That made it entertaining for the adults. Battlebots did it too obviously and frankly the jokes were a little bit... Too far and too obvious. Mind the two presenters thing is something I think works.

Jimmy Carr I think would tick half the boxes but he's probably not quite loud enough for it. Russell Howard would be brilliant but I think presenting such a show would be out of comfort zone... But then again imagine David Attenborough doing it!

As for commentary, John Pearce is brilliant at commentating football but I think he just has no idea how to react with robot wars battles. He's either too enthusiastic/amused or not enough.

Teams need to be prepared to have a joke made at their expense to entertain viewers, they were too sensitive in the early series and then the rare ones were too depressive in the later series.

As for the arena, with the standard of robots today, anything more than what the robot wars live arenas have today would be a damn joke. Externally positioned CPZs would be idea too I think, much like the one in today's Robots Live arena, or the RW games Oil Rig arena. Filming.... They'd need Go Pros, more pyros. An arena wall design that doesn't give flippers nor spinner an advantage... So maybe just two flip out zones.


Personally I don't think it will make it back on the Air. A proper internet show with more effort out into it I think will work. But obviously investments will have to be made. Combots was good but the presenting style wasn't brilliant, neither was lighting and the music could've have been edited more and as much as I love drum and bass, they needed more suitable music.

Mind saying this, if that new robot boxing show can reel in enough viewers then maybe a new robot combat show can do so too, but it will need a lot of investing.

[Natef]

Try to put a cap on the amount of veterans. I think we'd all want to see some fresh new faces.

[Philippa]

A comedian for a host would be quite a good idea. I'd like someone clever on the show like Dara O'Briain. If it was brought back they'd be very likely to choose Jason Bradbury because of The Gadget Show, but he'd get on my nerves.

Jimmy Carr wouldn't make that good a host, because he can't be himself.

I think the Mythbusters would be quite good at it. Not sure exactly who'd go where. Kari in the pits with Jamie. Adam or Tory would be a good host. Grant and whoever isn't the host out of Adam and Tory would be a good commentary duo.

[Naryar]

house robutts which didn't showed favoritism or/and were completely overpowered

[Philippa]

House Robots that were actually good. The only 2 decent House Robots were Matilda with the flywheel, and Growler.