My various articles on robot combat. (UPDATED 8/24/2014)

[Natster-104]

Humour, wittyness and lots of facts.
I really like it, great stuff 

Please become a journalist

[Badnik96]

From that same page, here's Rim Tin Tin vs Whirligig

Whirligig(won) vs. Rim Tin Tin

Whirligig attacked early, with his very noisy flailing spin move. He banged on Rim Tin Tin a bunch, and made a satisfying racket, but didn't do damage that I could see. He then changed tactics, and pushed the wheel rim into the wall hard. He alternated back and forth between those two strategies all though the match. Poor Rim Tin Tin never got a chance to show what his new lifting arm could do, since Whriligig moves around so quickly and erratically. It couldn't have done much to a robot that does not know or care what side up it is, and will always have at least one wheel on the ground. Whirliging was probably the worst opponent he could have drawn! The poor bot never had a chance, the only bad thing that ever happened to Whirligig was when he accidentally slammed himself into the wall.

[RFS]

Please become a journalist

For a period of years, off and on, I was actually in the journalism field as a gaming correspondent. I had work picked up and published by BitMob and VentureBeat and there was also a period of time where I was being considered for a place at Something Awful though admittedly I lost that to someone else far more talented than me. I continue to make infrequent appearances here and there. I enjoyed doing it, but one thing that I really did not like was the editorial process.

For example, my article Shame is Plastic: 6 Gaming Peripherals of Dubious Quality that was picked up by VentureBeat wasn't actually titled that to begin with, as the "Editor's Note" mentions the original article contained ten items -- four of them were taken out and the entire article itself was copyedited to be more "politically correct". I disagreed with that because that's essentially taking my voice and bending it so that I appear as someone I am not and I hated it.

I don't know if I'll pursue professional writing much. The pay was not great and the experiences I had in regards to editors was relatively poor. I enjoy keeping it a hobby because it allots me much more freedom to pursue topics that I actually care about and give enough coverage that I am satisfied with. I don't want to say I've "given up" on it, but writing is not my dream job or anything, it's just something I'm good at doing. Hell, I have a nice IT job now and not even that is my dream job. I'd much rather dick around with reptiles all day than fix someone's website or write about awful BattleBots for a living. :P

[helloface]

I've watched the Abbatoir video so many times

[RFS]

I am my own worst critic, I did not know it was that good. XD

The original version was fantastic, I guess I was mostly discouraged from having to remove so much of it so it would actually render. It wasn't easy making a 2 minute video out of about 30 seconds of actual robot footage.

[RFS]

Just an update, I've finally retrieved my collection of "MiniBots" toys that I wanted to write about. I am also in the process of securing something pretty awesome that's BattleBots-related that I am remaining tight-lipped about for now mostly because I don't want to hype anything up if I can't deliver on it. I've learned my lesson there. I've spoken to some bot builders from the original BB era and they've checked out the Twilight Foundry site, which has made me incredibly nervous mostly because I KIND OF make fun of robots in some of those articles. D:

Anyways, once I get some free time I would like to put together my MiniBots article. I don't know when I'll have a finished version of that however. Next week I will be largely unavailable since my partner is visiting. I'll get it done eventually. :)

[Natster-104]

Sounds good, I'm a bit intrigued as to what this thing you've discovered is

[Lemonism]

Looking forward to a new article whenever it arrives :)

[freeziez]

these are really interesting to read, keep it up

[RFS]

Anyways, once I get some free time I would like to put together my MiniBots article. I don't know when I'll have a finished version of that however. Next week I will be largely unavailable since my partner is visiting. I'll get it done eventually. :)

This article is pretty much done, however I appear to be missing some of my MiniBots figurines so I've asked my brother to look for the missing ones and send them to me so I can take the necessary photographs. As soon as I get those I'll finalize the MiniBots piece. :)

[Badnik96]

Which ones do you need? I know the wiki has a lot of them.

[RFS]

Which ones do you need? I know the wiki has a lot of them.

Robots that I am aware of include Ginsu, Frenzy, Bad Attitude, and Ankle Biter. I know the BB Wiki has photos but I was intending to take some better ones since I mention in the article that these are "personal collection" ones.

I have an Ankle Biter, however it's still sealed in its package. I kept some of my dupes sealed just because, so I am missing the opened Ankle Biter for sure. I have Ginsu's and Frenzy's stickers so I know that means at some point I had to have gotten the robots as well and I know for a fact I had Ginsu because it was my favorite one.

My collection is pretty much identical to the ones on the Wiki. I do not own any of the bots missing from the list unfortunately, including the chromebots. I always keep an eye out for the toys on eBay but they are exceedingly rare and hard to find. I'm pissy because I'm missing my Ginsu since that was one of the rarest ones (by my math at least, considering I owned only one Ginsu and I personally bought several dozen packs of the MiniBots while they were around).


edit: My brother can't find my Ginsu so I guess I will just finish the article as-is. I'm really pissed off that it's gone missing.

double edit: The description of this auction listing is ****ing hilarious: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-MC-DONALDS-BATTLE-BOTS-ACTION-TOYS-SET-OF-8-TOYS-MIP-/141352611147?pt=Fast_Food_Cereal_Premiums&hash=item20e945ad4b

THIS SET IS FROM THE TV SEIRES IN 2001/2002 THAT WAS CALLED BATTLE BOTS WHERE MEN AND BOYS AND WOMEN MADE ROBOTS LIKE THINGS THEN THEY BATTLE IN A RING IT WAS FUN TO WATCH

WHAT U WILL GET IS A SET OF 8 TOYS ALL MINT IN PACKAGE THERE IS 7 PULLBACK ACTION TOY AND 1 WINDUP ACTION TOY

GOOD LUCK AND PLEASE CHECK MY OTHER AUCTION

[RFS]

Finished up my article about the MiniBots toys. Overall I'm happy with it considering I lost a small number of my figurines somewhere along the line.

Here's the article: http://twilightfoundry.com/2014/07/battlebots-minibots-toy-review/

As a bonus, and in case the BattleBots Wiki needs them, here is a .RAR of the high-resolution(-ish) pictures used in the article including a couple dozen extra shots I did not use: http://1cf430cdcfb604c7e722-2ccb14d5afddb3d527fa7490e95bf9df.r23.cf2.rackcdn.com/battlebotsminibots.rar

edit: This site also has a nice promotional picture from Interactive Toy about the figurines:
http://leaf.maple.tripod.com/battlebots/bbextras/bbtoys.html

[Lemonism]

Just read the minibots article, and very much enjoyed reading it :)

Some of those battlebots minibots look better quality than the robot wars minibots I own, although there are still some really good robot wars minibots too. I might dig my minibots out and have another look now, to see if they still look up to standard. I remember the pussycat minibot being pretty horrible, but not much else.

[Scrap Daddy]

Nice article, makes me wanna go find my mini bots. I actually remember buying these in a bag of two from kb toys for a dollar. I never bought or havd even seen the three pack.

[RFS]

Just read the minibots article, and very much enjoyed reading it :)

Some of those battlebots minibots look better quality than the robot wars minibots I own, although there are still some really good robot wars minibots too. I might dig my minibots out and have another look now, to see if they still look up to standard. I remember the pussycat minibot being pretty horrible, but not much else.

Thanks! :3

By all means please do, I've never seen any Robot Wars merchandise. Then again, I've never specifically sought it out but I'm intrigued as to what it's like. :)

Nice article, makes me wanna go find my mini bots. I actually remember buying these in a bag of two from kb toys for a dollar. I never bought or havd even seen the three pack.

See, that's the crazy thing -- the Wiki mentions they were told in packs of 2, 3, and 5. You may have been one of the folks who found the 2 pack but much like what you said about the pack of 3, I've never seen them sold in sets of 2 before. Must have been a regional or overstock-type of situation. It's also very strange that across everyone who's pooled their resources for the Wiki NOBODY has any of the finalists or chromebots which leads me to believe that maybe they had not yet been produced; Interactive Toy may have wanted to get people hooked on the set first and then start including the champions and such.

[090901]

I got the chrome Ziggo minibot when I was like 6 years old....and then I managed to break the flag off of it and lose it within 5 hours....woops 
Also seeing the picture I took of that Ginsu minibot makes me wanna go find where I put all of them.......

[Lemonism]

Just read the minibots article, and very much enjoyed reading it :)

Some of those battlebots minibots look better quality than the robot wars minibots I own, although there are still some really good robot wars minibots too. I might dig my minibots out and have another look now, to see if they still look up to standard. I remember the pussycat minibot being pretty horrible, but not much else.

Thanks! :3

By all means please do, I've never seen any Robot Wars merchandise. Then again, I've never specifically sought it out but I'm intrigued as to what it's like. :)

Right, a little digging later and I've found them. I don't think I have them all, but I have most of them. I'll edit a picture into this post once I've found a camera.

[RFS]

I got the chrome Ziggo minibot when I was like 6 years old....and then I managed to break the flag off of it and lose it within 5 hours....woops 
Also seeing the picture I took of that Ginsu minibot makes me wanna go find where I put all of them.......

Congratulations, you destroyed the only known chromebot Ziggo in existence. 

Also, thanks for owning a Ginsu and being able to post a picture of it. I cannot tell you how pissed off I am that I somehow managed to LOSE mine. It was my favorite one. (Knowing me, because of this I probably put it somewhere separate to keep it "safe".)

In other news I am also still diligently working on the "something pretty awesome" thing I mentioned earlier in this thread. It's actually more than one thing -- one of which I am making promising progress on -- and I'm eager to put the articles together when I can. I'm hoping to at least have the biggie completed this year.

[Lemonism]

Ugh, camera problems meant I only just got the pictures I said I would take. Still, here they finally are. There were more minibots, but these are the only ones I own.
I've also given my personal opinion on every minibot since I don't have a fancy website of my own to put them on :P

Chaos 2: Not a fan of this one really. Seems too thin and long, and the back isn't very detailed at all.

Hypnodisk: Also not a fan of this one. The chassis is weirdly shaped, not rectangular like the actual robot. Just makes it look far too cute for one of the most destructive robots in Robot Wars.

Pussycat: I dislike this one the most of them all. For a robot that's supposed to work all sides up the minibot is completely ruined by the stupid pullback function all of these minibots have. At least the disk turns around, unlike on Hypnodisk.

Panic Attack: The paint and details are fairly nice, but suffers from the cuteness syndrome Hypnodisk has.

Suicidal Tendencies: I like this one a lot. Painted nicely, and the claw actually moves.

Wheely Big Cheese: The wheels look pretty bad on this one, and again the pullback thing ruins a robot that was supposed to look the same either way up.

RefBot: Quite nicely detailed and painted, although the face looks kinda dumb. Scores bonus points for having one of the arms move, and then immediately loses those points because the other arm does not move.

Plunderbird 5: Claw is quite nice, and it's paint is fairly good, but the claw was unfortunately a bit flimsy, so is currently held on by superglue.

Razer: The Razer logo is nicely painted, but no effort at all seems to have been put into painting the crushing beak. None of the holes in the crusher are there, and the eye is just a tiny dab of red paint. Also suffers from warped proportions due to cute-itus.

Shunt: Not sure what I think about this one. The plows are done nicely enough, but the axe doesn't move, which is very disappointing. Also had some sort of antenna at some point, now lost forever.

Dead Metal: Very nice paint job, and a really nice mold, although seems a bit smaller than it should be. Scores points for using the pullback
motor's wheel as the disk; if you're going to have a terrible action feature on your toy, then at least use it creatively.

Wild Thing: Nice paint, and the disk even spins. I like this one a lot, but I'm not fond of the wheels that are part of the mold and painted on.

Matilda: Painted very well, with pretty damn good detailing. The lifting forks actually lift as well, making this one of my favourites.

Dominator 2: Simple but effective. Painted nicely, and the axe swings, although the spikes on the front of the chassis should go further back in the middle to be accurate.

Mega Morg: My favourite out of all the minibots I own. The lifter actually lifts, and it has a very nice, bright paintjob, with the metal at the front done particularly well, in my opinion