R.I.P Razer, robbed of a championship victory despite dropping its opponent in the pit (and iirc suffering 0 damage itself) because the judges decided to ignore a clear violation of the rules regarding overall size.
this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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The greatest of all time was Blendo:
Designed by Jamie Hyneman (of Mythbusters fame). It consists of a 5hp lawnmower engine powering a circular saw blade, encased in a dome made from a wok. The thing was so dangerous Jamie almost lost a foot starting it up (using the ripcord to start the lawnmower engine).
It was undefeated. It tore the ever-loving hell out of anything it faced, frequently launching dismembered parts of its opponents into the crowd at terrifying velocity. It was simply too dangerous to be allowed to continue competing, so it was retired!
In modern Battlebots, it would be practically useless. Full-body spinners have so many drawbacks, and even when they do manage to land good hits they’re just as likely to hurt themselves.
Blendo was amazing at the time, but the meta has evolved so much since then.
How would a modern bot beat the blendo?
How would a modern bot beat the blendo?
Full-body spinners do exist in Battlebots. But the competition in Battlebots far exceeds what existed in Robot Wars. The sport has evolved a lot. Also the power and weight limits are higher. Teams can afford to run heavier armor, and full-body spinners need to push lots of power to deal with that armor, but all of that power makes them just as likely to damage themselves by running into a wall.
A few examples of full-body spinners being their own worst enemies:
Captain Shrederator vs Riptide
Captain Shrederator vs Rotator
Captain Shrederator vs Huge (This one shows well how an unbalanced spinner is really hard to control. It manages to get air all by itself at one point.)
If a full-body spinner becomes unbalanced (like when part of its weapon breaks off) it becomes very difficult to control. And even when they’re controllable, they’re carrying an enormous amount of kinetic energy that isn’t contained very well, so often the best strategy against a full-body spinner is just to point your armor at them and let them destroy themselves.
It’s kind of sad, because they have a neat history in the sport, but these days everyone has a solid strategy to handle them, and you can’t change much on them to deal with different styles of bots.
I don’t think we’ll see many full-body spinners going forward.
3 out of 4 examples are of the same bot... Maybe Captain Shrederator just sucks. 🤷🏻♂️
I believe the only two full-body spinners still in Battlebots are Captain Shrederator and Gigabyte. Neither are particularly successful.
But you’re not wrong, I’m constantly shocked that Captain Shrederator keeps coming back for more punishment. There was talk of it retiring after the last season, but reportedly it’s being redesigned instead. Gigabyte theoretically has a leg up on Captain Shrederator because of the self-righter, but it also doesn’t seem to do very well.
The basic design problems are pretty tough to overcome. Similar issues are faced by other horizontal spinners like Tombstone, where if you can get them hitting a wall or the floor, they’ll bounce around potentially destroying themselves. Tombstone has seen more success though, because it’s hardier and can drive upside-down (and because that giant spinning bar is painful).
Blendo is the Kareem.
I think Blendo is the greatest, but my dad says it doesn't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, it doesn't even run down the arena.
Tell your old man to drag the shrieking Maimer and the nudge up and down the court for 48 minutes.
I'm out there busting my blades every night...
I saw Blendo live in SF. It was insane. Just blasted opponents and flung the bits at high speed into the plexiglass.
Some fun info from Adam Savage about the development and lifecycle of Blendo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i4dkb5w2Lg
NANI??!
The rules of battlebots lend themselves to wedge bots, unfortunately. Can't shoot, tangle, or electrocute, for example.
There was one, Depth Charge, that moved by spinning really fucking fast, and would destroy the arena, which was fucking rad.
If you like that, look up "Blendo" from the Robot Wars era (before BattleBots). Created by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, it was also a spinner. And insanely effective. And outrageously dangerous
Powered by a 5hp lawnmower engine
Yeah I remember the early seasons where the spinning robot which was basically a garbage compactor motor on wheels or smth absolutely shredding the competition
Thanks for filling up my afternoon
Robots are defined by their moving parts but the best robots have as few moving parts as possible. Make of that what you will.
Wheels and something to spin the chassis = get wrecked nerd (and also arena, nerd)
It's so satisfying watching the spinner bots fucking launch a wedge bot across the arena.
Also when they fuck up and launch themselves across the arena accidentally.
Love it. This deserves a name.
"Ryedaft's Robot Paradox"
the British robot wars was better because Craig Charles is a fucking legend
And Philippa Forrester fondling axes while wearing tight leather trousers. Dear god.
NHRL is where robot fighting currently lives, they were doing live matches earlier today even.
Cancelled Upright Citizens Brigade for Battle Bots, I won't ever forgive them
UCB seems to have worked out all right in the long run.
Yeah I know they have a theatre in Chicago I think, which is awesome. But I don't live there. That show was so funny
They have one in LA and one in NYC as well. Take a second to look up who went through UCB as they are many of the bigger names in improv/comedic acting right now. UCB became another pipeline to Hollywood comedy like The Groundlings and Improv Olympic had been.
UCB isn't just doing well it is thriving. I don't think I go a week without seeing a UCB grad on a tv show or podcast and haven't since the mid 2000s.
That's great for them, but what about my chuckles, what about my guffaws, what about my happiness??
Ever since it was taken off the air, I have been putting $30 in pennies up my ass every day, and then spending them. There are so many of my ass pennies in circulation, that surely the executives at comedy central and the creators of battlebots as well as anyone associated with this atrocity and their children, and their children's children have, by now, handled my ass pennies
Pro Thunderball forever!
The wedge