Robot Wars 2016 Discussion Thread

[DaSnowingSteak]

Looks like Pussycat is still the only thing stopping Razer :P

Lol.

Seriously I didn't know the first heat had already aired so I didn't watch it till yesterday still I enjoyed, it was a little then what I'm used to and I miss the music that played during battles but that said I'm really happy Robot Wars is back.
 

[cephalopod]

TONIGHT:

Some Dutch lads with GF93's favourite bot, Harry Potter (Sorry Will totally borrowing from Dave), A Whale Wrangler, a trio of foxy boiz, some spinny ones and more take to the arena.
8 and a half hours to go.

Who is everyone's prediction to take this heat?

[Jonzu95]

TONIGHT:

Some Dutch lads with GF93's favourite bot, Harry Potter (Sorry Will totally borrowing from Dave), A Whale Wrangler, a trio of foxy boiz, some spinny ones and more take to the arena.
8 and a half hours to go.

Who is everyone's prediction to take this heat?

Razer

[R01]

TONIGHT:

Some Dutch lads with GF93's favourite bot, Harry Potter (Sorry Will totally borrowing from Dave), A Whale Wrangler, a trio of foxy boiz, some spinny ones and more take to the arena.
8 and a half hours to go.

Who is everyone's prediction to take this heat?

Checked the bots for tonight, it's kinda hard to do a prediction if you don't know how well those bots work/if they get totally smashed up in one fight. I'm surprised to see more thwackers, do they all now have 4 motors to swing the weapon without using the drive? Apparently the active weapon rule is still in place. Loving to see more lifters, they seemed to be kinda gone after the starts of robot combat and my first bot would most likely be a lifter as well.

Thinking that Tough as Nails will take this, with Foxic as second place, the other bots all seem to have a certain weakness which can be really used against them. Could go into the details here but think that's enough.

[Joelu Of Eagleland]

Harry Potter's got this one IMO

kinda want foxic to do well too but I don't see it happening because he didn't use the cool one

[Jonzu95]

Any chance to watch the episode later from somewhere? I've been up since 3am (UK Time) and I'm feeling pretty drowsy.

[cephalopod]

iPlayer or all your usual sources.

[Philippa]

FOXICGONNAGOALLTHEWAYANDYOUKNOWIT

Knowing the fights that happened, I hope poor little Foxic's face doesn't get obliterated in Round Two.

[Joelu Of Eagleland]

S H O C K B O Y S

Also, Foxic's strategy was rather poor. They said "screw it, attack the house robots, we aren't gonna win" after one fight. And it wasn't exactly entertaining fights that came from it.

I have a lot of respect for Craig Danby (and anyone that can build a heavyweight robot), but I expected a little better.

[playzooki]

Fights were mostly uninteresting IMO and

foxic vs mr speed squared

was probably the most boring fight i have seen. The final was ok, hopefully there will be much more interesting fights to come but it seems as if episode 1 was the best. I may watch the first couple of fights in episode 3,  but I doubt it will get better. Still, nice to see the teams having fun making the show.

[R01]

Alright, Episode's over:
Editing was MUCH better this time around, it was similar to how it was for the later half of the battles in Episode 1 which was good.
Is Thor built from the same team?

Huge shock to see Tough as Nails out in Round 1, looks like they need a stronger drive and better grip now.
Thor did do a amazing job, credit to them for knocking them out that way.

Swap my Foxic thoughts with Shockwave.
Shockwave looked like it wouldn't be as well engineered and probably slower and less powerful and be knocked out for it's weaker top armor.
While the engineering part was true for the drive chain and for the bucket(the pipe bits were strong, the connectors however not) they were a really powerful robot and reminded me a lot of Robot the Bruce from Robot Wars. As a bonus they even lost chains like Rex' machines used to.
They did try to fix the bucket later on, while it wasn't much more stable it had a better shape for catching robots, being more ( instead of |.

Mr Speed Squared(odd name by the way) looked like a first time entry spinner would look like, a good thing about RW is that it still allows beginners to get easier into stuff.
Not having armor on that underside was critical and after the few starting battles their spinner was too damaged to really continue doing damage like it did in the first fight against Draven(who sadly got knocked out by that).

Gonna call it now, WHEELS! will be a new meme.

Foxic was sadly a bit dissappointing.
It was surprisingly small and probably built for the 100kg limit. I didn't know that their team was one of those teams(I didn't know them before at all), having built so many robots before I thought they would actually know what to build, and because of that said no weakness instead to show. Drive and traction problems were very annoying and they were barely able to move in their first battle.
Dara did do a comment on them having a fox robot and I think they will be remembered a bit like Season 1 Complete Control. Sad that he called it a flipper and not a lifter what it actually is. Wonder why they couldn't fit on the other lifter and what all that axe talk was about. Sure the axe head wouldn't hit and the metal bar would instead, but not like that would be cut off by Foxic's wedge.

It was getting under Shockwave quite well, you can see them pushing their normal scoop downwards in the hope to get under them. They sure had powerful drive pushing Dead Metal around, but it was also easier since Dead Metal's wheels were off ground. Technically they are the first robot to attack house robots. Once they were upside down it was clear it was over for them, wedge designs like that sadly don't work on the other side.

"That's it, I'm going after the House Robots" didn't like that at all, they could still fix their bot, defeat the other and then go after the house robots.
With that said F*** the judges decision on that battle against mr speed squared. Foxic went after the house robots after a bit(guess that gives no points) got some damage from Dead Metal(counts against it) then pushed and lifted up Mr Speed Squared(who the entire time did nothing). "This might be the worst fight I've seen in the whole of Robot Wars", seriously? Unless that was banter I heavily disagree, let me name one, Napalm vs Warhog(think it was Series 4 or 5) with neither bot moving. Want another? Delldog vs Dynamite from the UK vs Germany special.
Sure it didn't change anything but just as I was about to say that this is a new fresh uncorrupted or rigged start we get that. Another thing I don't like is how if it goes to a judge's decision the other team doesn't get 1 point, so it's only a total disadvantage for the winning bot.

At least Foxit was able to do a little more against Thor, but it sadly wasn't too much until they got drive problems again. Matilda got a late revenge for Death Metal which was nice.

I wonder what drive Thor had, not only could they easily outpush TAN but also Shockwave. Also really strong hammer. The wedgelets didn't look as strong but they did their job, so did the rather small spinner plate. After seeing how they could control Shockwave I expected them to win this, Shockwave however made them lose and won. I'm a big fan of Shockwave as well, but sadly  I can't see both of them having a chance against Carbide unless Thor would instafinish it and Shockwave not using that Bucket.

Sadly they didn't do interviews with the losing teams of the first round.
Was I the only one that noticed the intro(which house robot gets into the arena) was missing for the first of the second rounds?

Looks like we are getting technical talk of where robots are used outside of Robot Combat every time now.
Also could they stop firing the fires every time? just keep them at full power.

[R01]

Fights were mostly uninteresting IMO and

foxic vs mr speed squared

was probably the most boring fight i have seen. The final was ok, hopefully there will be much more interesting fights to come but it seems as if episode 1 was the best. I may watch the first couple of fights in episode 3,  but I doubt it will get better. Still, nice to see the teams having fun making the show.

Oh come on, don't tell me you're one of those destruction guys too. The machines this time were working much better, you wouldn't have

Terrorhurtz without a working Axe or Carbide without a working spinner

While that was a boring fight it wasn't the most boring fight by miles, watch this instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rKsTBX7zVk&feature=youtu.be&t=3m10s

Also apparently the extra fights we noticed in the intro are on the DVD that they're making.

[Conraaa]

Two episodes in and I am concerned about a few parts of the show:

• They seem to think we care about the judges for some reason. Rather than the stoic faces they were that acted as judge, jury and executioner in the corner, they are trying to make them the friendly  "Robotics is fun!" type who actually appeared on camera. Their segments on robots in the pub and the like wind up being toilet break moments that disrupt the flow too much. If you wanted educational and informative you watched Techno Games or Scrapheap Challenge.
• The round robin format they use is an affront to God and man and the fights are suffering because of it. It makes each robot fight too much and if a robot gets damaged in an early fight you wind up with wet noodle fights such as
  
  Foxic vs MR Speed Squared was one of the top 3 most boring fights seen on Robot Wars. I should know because I was #2.
  And the final is always a watered down rehash of a round robin match which isn't satisfying at all.
• In the intervening 12 years between series, I refuse to believe that there are no better robots than Chimera and Disconstructor that could have been on the show. I know there is a need for a varied selection, but it makes it look like we've been sitting on our laurels for a decade. If you look at the list of competitors coming up, I know for a fact there are some better robots that didn't make the cut while  the likes of Chompalot and Sweeney Todd did. There's nothing wrong with a stacked roster!
• Johnathan Pearce is past his expiry date. To me he was cringeworthy this episode. Battlebots has the right setup with a play by play and a colour commentator who can bounce off one another, where JP has to carry it all himself and it comes off as slightly stilted. The lack of music during fights which was present in the original series didn't help the matches, either.

I hope we see a second series, but it has a lot to work on.

[Badger]

I disagree about JP, I distinctly remember thinking during the show how well he's doing. The BB commentators make me cringe. Agree on all other points though.

[Philippa]

Mr Speed Squared(odd name by the way) looked like a first time entry spinner would look like

Competing in four series with three versions of Trouble And Strife don't count?

Okay.

[R01]

Mr Speed Squared(odd name by the way) looked like a first time entry spinner would look like

Competing in four series with three versions of Trouble And Strife don't count?

Okay.

Oh I didn't know they were a returning team(this show should really say that, much like the 3rd wars did). I never understood why they didn't use the first version of Trouble And Strife more.

[RTC]

Love Craig Danby, definitely would have been a good fit for the Plunderbird boys.

[J]

So.... Biohazard has a long lost cousin who lives in the UK and attends furry conventions, huh?

That's rather interesting.

[MassimoV]

Alright so I got my wisdom teeth out and finally had enough free time to sit down and find the full episode 1. I thought it was rather enjoyable. This Dara guy isn't as crazy as Craig was but then again, Craig was also smoking crack so I don't even know if bring him back would have the same effect without the hard stuff. He gets down in the pits and gives half decent interviews, not really doing anything wrong. Angela seems like an alright fit for Philippa's role. And I gotta say though, no one can replace Philippa, she was excellent. However, the new girl seems to connect well with the builders which was one of the reasons I quite liked Philippa in the old run. It seems like people are saying old JP is a little warn out. Well, I've been trying to listen to that bastard commentate Champions league for the past year and the sound mixing on American coverage is so bad that this sounds just fine. I guess I just don't have any gripes with that. I miss the old count down and cease voice, but it's not really a huge deal.

The fights had like a weird filter on them that made it look like an action movie or something. It felt kind of off. Also the camera shots behind the pit release and in the pit were kinda screwy. I didn't really think they were needed. I don't mind the instant replays either, those were always in the original run and just feels natural at this point. Fights seemed entertaining, at least to me. The format I must agree though, is a bit odd. It really did seem that it wore the competitors down much quicker and by the heat final, they were just kind of limping through the fight. Maybe if there's a season 2 eventually with more entries we can get a more classic format back; that would be quite nice.

The one point that I think new RW has over new BB is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Sometimes the way BB is presented makes it looks like the builders are like sports celebs. RW at least shows what most of these guys are, couple dudes who throw together a 100kg robot, drive it around for an hour, and have a good time. I'll give them credit for that.

However, I really miss the industrial feel for the old show. The new arena and sounds kind of remind me of like an Apple Store. The pit is just a linoleum floor like, what the hell. The old one had all these danger stripes and smoke and stuff. And the pit release button is just like some Jeep tire, seems kind of strange. New house bots looks good though. Nice not having them be the main decider in a fight. I felt in the old series that it seemed like half the battle was just avoiding the house bots.

I quite enjoyed the new show. Haven't seen episode two yet. I assume there will be a lot of gripes with this first series as nostalgia will alter some views for sure. Still, I'd give it a chance. Let a second series be made so they can maybe adjust some of the things that fans dislike about it. Quite excited for the next episodes.

[Thyrus]

So I was finally able to watch the show yesterday and man is this boring at some points!

There's a major lack of enthusiasm. Everyone there looks like they want this to be over asap. and yes having more than just 4 battles per episode is awesome (looking at you battlebots) I don't want to see the same 4 bots fighting over and over. and if you do so get the mood right god damit! The intros suck, the annoucning voice sucks and you never understand where the teams are from. you can only hear the names of the bots but that's becaus you've read them before.

the robots... we had Tough A$$ Nails who was there. and then it was gone. We had Breaker Box and Ringmaster wich was cool! ... What? those were two s*tty versions of those bots? oh. well at least we had thor. That bot did great until it failed in the heat final (wich I told my friend who was watching with me would happen cause that sort of stuff always happens). And there is another flaw: why the hell would you fight a bot you have already beaten again and again? this setup sucks so much.

I was really happy when it was over. I will watch the other shows but I doubt there will be a second season.
If so there has to be a huge change in pretty much everything.