About Missing Link, the robot with nothin’ but a long stick to attack with: I think the idea was to use that long deal to defend the main body of the bot by keeping the opponent at a distance and to shove the other bot into the hazards. Still seems like a wussy design, especially what with that giant knife that Overkill had.
I’m looking forward to more fights among the lightweights…that match on the preview show between Backlash and Disposable Hero was way cool. And Backlash’s little victory dance was mighty funny.
That would be Craig Charles - Dave Lister on the show. Anyone surprised I knew that?
I was about to start a “Battlebots vs. Robot Wars” thread, but I’ll just post here instead.
Battlebots has much better robots, though I suspect that there are different rules for the two shows that would account for some of that. They had to keep the RW bots weaker than the house robots. That is the only way in which Battlebots is superior, though I’ll watch it just for that.
Battlebots needs less talk, more carnage. The announcers are just plain irritating. The bits where they show the builders at home make me change the channel. The longwinded, completely unnecessary ring announcer should be forced to stay in the ring during the fight. I liked the Robot Wars approach much much better - very businesslike - just introduce the robots, say what they do, and GET ON WITH IT, ALREADY!!! Sigh. Oh, well. What more can you expect from American programming?
I agree with smeghead. I would also like to see some kind of purpose. Like a round robin tournament. Or even a sungle elimination tournament. Somehow where they get to the end of the season and have one champion in each weight class. I have a feeling they are going to fake this somehow (ala the WWF) and just pick the fan favorite as the champion.
Finally, a sport that appeals to my mechanical geekitude and love for destruction. Yeah, I’m hooked.
I also agree that there should be more fighting and less announcing. I like getting the specs on the machines, although Bill Nye speaks too fast, too low, and could stand to enunciate better. There needs to be minimal commentating, just enough to introduce the robots, perhaps. I don’t mind the spotlights on the robot builders too much – I got a kick out of the Mauler family – although I’d rather see fighting and destruction. I think 5 fights in a half hour would be nice. I’m already up past my bedtime when I watch that show, so I really wouldn’t want them to extend it to an hour. But, I do have a programmable VCR – duuuhh.
So, this is the first Battle Bots type thing I have seen and I was surprised that none of the bots used tracks. Have you guys seen bots using tracks, and have they been successeful?
There have been a few in Robot Wars. Some of them sucked, some were great. One major weakness is that tracks tend to be a good target, and if one weak link breaks, you’re screwed. Wheels are simpler.
Thank you Smeghead, his name has been driving me crazy all day–it’s been too long since episodes were shown around here. I actually did start a RobotWars v. Battlebot thread the first night Comedy Central aired the show, but I guess not enough people had seen it yet.
Anyway, it is all the talk that annoys me the most, but I’d really like to see more variety as well–I love the obstacle course ofn RobotWars, and Robot Skittles (where the objext is to knock over as many barrels as possible in a set time) is also great fun. I guess I just like brains with my brawn.