“People saw that design and took a page out of the Blendo book. “Blendo was so dangerous that (Robot Wars creator) Marc Thorpe had to ban it from the competition because he didn’t have an arena strong enough to protect the audience,” says Munson. Powered by a lawnmower engine, blades attached to the shell tended to remove the bodywork of opponent robots and in some instances threw them over safety shields into the crowd. Called Blendo, it was a full-body kinetic energy spinner weapon with a shell made from a wok. One of the most successful bots from the 1990s was designed by Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame. They’ve also gotten more dangerous, thanks partly to the availability of battle spaces that are better funded. As the sport has evolved, designs have gotten more complex.” “It was a lot of fun but only the master designers were bringing competitive robots that could do real damage. “Back in the day, BattleBots was more of a science fair/art show/sculpture/nerd-fest event,” says BattleBots co-founder and producer Greg Munson. This new generation of hardware is a far cry from earlier backyard-mechanic-style bots. After a hiatus from TV of several years, BattleBots can now be seen on the Discovery and Science channels.

This ringmaster’s spiel typifies a lot of the antics that go on during BattleBots, which seem to be backstories TV wrestling but without the soap-opera back stories.īattleBots is a competition where teams compete for the distinction of fielding the top battling robot. Here he comes to slay the day! It’s Captain Shrederator! In the red square, this bot is like Superman. The announcer began to warm up the restless crowd with a little trash talk. The main match of the night was about to begin.

Battlebots prize money