50 Fun Facts About Robot Wars

Which Top Gear presenter hosted the first series of Robot Wars before being replaced for the second?

Jeremy Clarkson fronted only the opening run, and during filming a robot's weapon flew off and lodged in a wall inches from him.

Which Red Dwarf actor took over as host of Robot Wars from its second series until 2004?

Craig Charles, who started out as a performance poet, signed off every episode with a short poem about the fighting machines. He played the slobbish Dave Lister in the sci-fi sitcom.

Which Robot Wars House Robot carried a flamethrower, a weapon banned for the contestants' own machines?

Sergeant Bash was exempt from the weapon rules that bound contestants, and in the first series it set the fur-covered robot Nemesis on fire.

What name did Robot Wars give the square hole in the arena floor that eliminated any robot that fell in?

The Pit of Oblivion arrived in the second series, a four-foot square hole painted black inside and part-filled with old tyres. A ball of white smoke marked each victim's fall.

Which flipper-armed machine is the only robot to win the UK Robot Wars championship twice?

Chaos 2 won the third and fourth series back to back, and was the first robot to throw an opponent clean out of the arena.

Which football commentator voiced the loud, excitable commentary on every episode of Robot Wars?

Jonathan Pearce was one of only two people to appear in every episode, the other being the head judge. He brought the same booming delivery he used at football matches.

Why did the Razer team drill about 450 holes in their Robot Wars machine after fitting self-righting wings?

The holes were drilled to shed excess weight: the wings that let Razer roll back onto its wheels had pushed it past the 79.4 kg maximum for heavyweights.

In which Californian city did designer Marc Thorpe stage the very first Robot Wars competition?

San Francisco's Fort Mason Center hosted the first event in 1994, two years after Thorpe had the idea while failing to build a radio-controlled vacuum cleaner.

Which robot's destructive run in series three led Robot Wars to enclose its arena in a perspex box?

Hypno-Disc, built by twin brothers and their father, shredded rivals so thoroughly that the arena was boxed in from the fourth series to shield the audience from debris.

Which Irish comedian, known for hosting Mock the Week, presented the Robot Wars revival from 2016?

Dara Ó Briain fronted all three revival series, the first episode of which drew about two million viewers.

What name does Robot Wars give the amateur and professional builders who operate the fighting machines?

Roboteers from the programme went on to form the Fighting Robot Association in 2003, so that live events could carry on away from the cameras.

On which American robot combat show did Robot Wars champion Razer win the 1999 Gigabot Rumble on a crowd vote?

BattleBots welcomed Razer to Los Angeles after its team won an international scholarship, and five machines were still moving when the 13-robot rumble ran out of time.

Which broadcaster picked up Robot Wars for its seventh series after the BBC cancelled the show?

Channel 5 launched its run on Sunday nights with one million viewers, but ratings soon fell and the show was axed after a single series there.

The 2016 Robot Wars revival built its bulletproof arena in a warehouse on the outskirts of which Scottish city?

Glasgow's neighbour Renfrew housed the new arena, a 15-metre square with a steel floor and higher walls that made it harder to throw robots out.

Which claw-and-lance House Robot from Robot Wars was credited on a novelty single that charted in December 2000?

Sir Killalot shared the billing with a character called Robo Babe on the record, which stalled at number 51 in the UK chart.

Which machine, built by A-level students as a school project, was the first Robot Wars champion?

Roadblock won the six-way final of the first series by slipping its wedge under rivals and tipping them over. Its builders called it Road Rage until the producers asked for a change.

Which Tomorrow's World presenter was the original Robot Wars reporter who interviewed teams before and after battles?

Philippa Forrester missed the fourth series because she was pregnant, so Julia Reed stood in until Forrester came back for the fifth.

Which House Robot made its debut in the fourth series of Robot Wars?

Refbot carried a fire extinguisher for burning machines and gave stuck robots the odd nudge to keep a battle moving.

Which WWE wrestler, famous as Mankind, hosted the American spin-off Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors?

Mick Foley fronted the US version in late 2001, five years after debuting his masked Mankind persona and long before his 2013 Hall of Fame induction.

In the very first heat of Robot Wars, the Trial pitted contestants against a House Robot in which sport?

Sumo against Shunt on a raised podium was the first Trial, and the robot that lasted the least time up there was eliminated.

Which robot, named because a team member chased storms, beat Razer in the disputed sixth Robot Wars final?

Tornado won after the judges deliberated for 45 minutes, having bolted on a bulky frame that kept Razer's claw from reaching its body.

Which Welsh robot won the second series of Robot Wars wearing a spider logo drawn by a 12-year-old girl?

Panic Attack got its spider from a school competition to draw something that makes people panic, and its electric lifting forks carried it to the title.

Which House Robot did Razer wreck and then set on fire after winning Robot Wars' Southern Annihilator?

Matilda had just flipped Razer's last opponent onto its side, yet Razer tore into her bodywork and rear shell before pushing her over the flames.

Which of the four original Robot Wars judging criteria was dropped when the show returned in 2016?

Style rewarded a robot for showing off abilities such as self-righting, and it had counted for the least of the four in the judges' scoring.

In the first two series of Robot Wars, what was the obstacle course that robots tackled before any fighting?

The Gauntlet lined its route with hazards and House Robots, and the machine that covered the least ground went home. It was dropped from the third series in favour of pure combat.

Which University of Sheffield robotics professor was head judge on every series of Robot Wars?

Noel Sharkey, a Belfast-born computer scientist, later became a prominent voice on the ethics of using robots in war and policing.

Which BBC Two spin-off of Robot Wars had robots chase medals and world records in events such as swimming?

Techno Games demanded lifelike movement, so its swimming robots had to use legs, paddles or fins because propellers were banned.

When the Robot Wars set outgrew London's film studios, filming moved into which kind of building in Nottinghamshire?

An aircraft hangar at the former RAF Newton base took over once the stage and backstage area had grown too large for any conventional studio.

Which children's TV network made its own Robot Wars in 2002, with child drivers and the flame hazards switched off?

Nickelodeon handed the controls to children linked to established American teams, banned rough language, and ended its version after a single season.

Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem, the first console title based on the show, was released in 2000 for which handheld?

Game Boy Color owners got the game that December, and together with the two titles that followed it passed 250,000 copies.

On Robot Wars, House Robots could pounce on any machine that strayed into a CPZ; what do those letters stand for?

Corner Patrol Zone was the term from the third series, when the House Robots were confined to the arena's four corners after a spell roaming its whole perimeter.

Which arcade machine gave its name to a Robot Wars Trial that later returned as a side tournament?

Pinball Warrior turned the whole arena into a giant table, and it outlived the Trials as a side tournament that Razer won in the third series.

Which robot won the 2016 series of Robot Wars, flipping House Robots over and throwing Storm 2 out of the arena?

Apollo beat Storm 2 twice in its heat, first on a judges' decision and then by hurling it over the wall, on the way to the title.

Which robot beat a malfunctioning Razer in series four of Robot Wars, sparking a grudge over a gentlemen's agreement?

Pussycat kept attacking because Razer's wheels were still spinning, and the pair later met in an official grudge match that Pussycat also won.

Which Robot Wars award did Razer win three times, including in series two and three when it went out early?

Best Design went to Razer in the second, third and fifth series, the last of them alongside the UK championship itself.

In Robot Wars, which class of miniature fighter weighs under 150 grams and must fit inside a four-inch cube?

Antweight machines fought a seven-way melee on the show, where one of Razer's builders entered Razzler, a converted toy of his own robot.

What did Storm 2 lack until its team was told to add one to enter the seventh series of Robot Wars?

An active weapon was the entry requirement, so the team built in a lifting arm, yet Storm 2's speed and pushing power still did most of the damage.

On which digital BBC station did every episode of the spin-off Robot Wars Extreme have its premiere?

BBC Choice showed both runs of the spin-off first, in 2001 and 2003, before they were repeated on BBC Two.

Although made for US television, in which country was Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors actually filmed?

England hosted the shoot at Shepperton Studios, with American teams and their robots flown across the Atlantic to fight there.

Typhoon 2, the last champion of the original Robot Wars run, was built by cadets from which youth organisation?

Air Training Corps cadets from a Dreghorn squadron named it after the Eurofighter jet and painted it to resemble the RAF crest. In two battles it knocked out the arena wall.

The first Robot Wars champions returned for series three with a machine named after which phantom wild cat?

Beast of Bodmin reused its predecessor's chassis and circular saw, adding a lifting tusk and two large eyes that could wink at the audience.

Which US cable broadcaster, later renamed Paramount Network, aired the American version of Robot Wars?

TNN, then styling itself The National Network, commissioned two seasons of the American version, the first shown in 2001.

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction, the final title based on the show, came out for PC and which home console?

Microsoft Xbox and PC players could pick from seventeen real robots from the programme, while a separate handheld version by another studio shared little but the name.

How could fans watch the First World Championship of Robot Wars, won by Razer, when it was first released?

Only on VHS video could fans see Razer edge Behemoth in the final on a split judges' decision, because the tournament went straight to tape.

DrillZilla, beaten by Razer in a Robot Wars world final, was allowed far thicker armour because it was what?

A walker was allowed to be heavier than wheeled rivals, so DrillZilla carried 10 mm plating, and Razer won on points by attacking its rubber feet instead.

Razer's crushing arm on Robot Wars was inspired by which piece of workshop machinery used to bend and pierce metal?

A fly press applies progressive force, and Razer copied the idea with a hydraulic ram that delivered about three tonnes per square inch at the tip of its arm.

The Sentinel, a swinging-arm obstacle in the second series of Robot Wars, was built from which modified machine?

A backhoe digger supplied the swinging arm, which could pin a robot against the arena wall as it tried to squeeze past.

Marc Thorpe was a designer for the toy division of which film company when he dreamed up Robot Wars?

Lucasfilm employed Thorpe at LucasToys, and he had earlier spent more than a decade on special effects at its Industrial Light and Magic studio.

In the tenth series of Robot Wars, what name was given to the CO2 burst that hid the robots from view?

The Fog of War filled the arena for ten seconds and was one possible result of pressing the arena tyre, which could instead set a House Robot loose on the contestants.

Which Top of the Pops presenter joined Robot Wars as its reporter for the seventh series of the original run?

Jayne Middlemiss took over when the long-serving reporter did not return for the move to a new broadcaster, and she later won Celebrity MasterChef.