Robot Wars S10 - Week 3 Analysis

Last week saw the most competitive heat line-up in Robot Wars history, so how on earth do you top that? Well, this week's heat has a lot less pedigree, with long-running veterans and two-time FRA champions Terrorhurtz the standout name. John Reid's famed axe-bot has struggled in the last two series, but will go into this heat as one of the favourites.

Standing in Terrorhurtz' way are Apex and Rapid, two strong machines hoping to bounce back from underwhelming debuts; Bucky, basically an enormous biting mouth on wheels; Vulture, one of the most maddest, coolest designs I've ever seen; and Track-Tion, the first tracked robot to appear in the reboot. Last week may be a tough act to follow, but this is not a weak heat by any means.

APEX

No, I have no idea what that's supposed to be either. When Apex debuted last series it proudly boasted the largest spinner in Robot Wars history: four feet long and weighing 37kg. This time round, the bar is interchangeable with quite possibly the weirdest-looking spinning weapon I've ever laid eyes on. With Foxic having failed to qualify, Chris Danby's brother Craig has crossed over to the Apex team.

In Series 9, I stated that, on paper, Apex was better than Ironside 3. In practice, Apex's bar span up far too slowly - something even Team Terrafonics hadn't realized - and Pulsar took them out in five seconds flat while Ironside 3 finished third overall. They've improved the spin-up time, so can Apex redeem itself? There are some fragile-looking robots in this heat, but there are also the heavily-armoured Vulture and Terrorhurtz for it to watch out for.

My prediction: Will certainly do better than last year, and could be a dark horse for the heat if the weapon works well enough.

BUCKY THE ROBOT

In a similar vein to BattleBots' Lycan, Bucky is essentially a massive gnashing jaw on wheels. The jaw comes down at high speed, like a guillotine, and can be used to clamp opponents in place while Bucky pushes them around at up to 18mph. It's a unique design that's brimming with character, right down to the fake wind-up key on the side, reminiscent of those little chattering teeth toys. The team even have a guy in a mascot costume!

So, gimmicks aside, what are Bucky's chances? Well, the pneumatic jaw could be a useful weapon, but my main concern is Bucky's armour. Its chassis is tough steel but the armour is polycarbonate and plastic, and at the back there's basically no armour at all, leaving its mechanics critically exposed. They'll need to make sure nobody gets in behind them, or they'll wind up with a broken jaw.

My prediction: A surefire Best Design contender - if that award still existed - but sadly not a championship contender.

RAPID

Much was expected of Rapid when it debuted last year, but quite frankly, it failed to deliver. Its flipper didn't appear to have anywhere near the seven tonnes of flip that the team boasted, and its overly-engineered gearbox proved the team's undoing when Aftershock damaged it. It's returned this year with tougher armour, a new gold-chrome paintjob, a faster top speed of 23mph, but the same boast: seven tonnes of flip, more than any other machine in Robot Wars history.

Series 9 was filmed in the winter, and was known to have messed with several teams' pneumatics systems. Series 10 was filmed in May, and it wasn't quite as cold, so Rapid has no excuses this time. I want to see it deliver. I want to see it throwing robots halfway across the arena. If it falls short a second time, I'm afraid Team Rapid may find themselves stuck with the dubious honour of being "the next Mortis".

My prediction: If it's working at full potential, and its gearbox doesn't break - Rapid is a definite contender for the heat.

TERRORHURTZ

John Reid has been around just as long as the Behemoth boys, and - discounting Series 6 - has had just as little success. With Behemoth already through, does that mean the time is right for Robot Wars' other elder statesman? Little appears to have changed on Terrorhurtz this year, but as I said with Rapid, it won't have to worry about cold weather messing with the pneumatics system, so the axe should be more powerful - and reliable - than ever before.

Terrorhurtz' main strength is that 6mm Armox front plough, which stopped Carbide in its tracks in Series 8. Its main weakness is that the rest of its polycarbonate armour is, as Aftershock and Sabretooth demonstrated, quite fragile. It's also not the fastest at 11mph, but in a heat full of relative newcomers, it's the most experienced machine by a long way.

My prediction: It'll be between Terrorhurtz, Apex, and Rapid for the heat win - and the smart money appears to be on Terrorhurtz.

TRACK-TION

My first thought when I saw Track-Tion was "It's Suicidal Tendencies!" My second thought was "Finally, a tracked robot!" As it happens, Track-Tion's builders weren't even alive when Suicidal Tendencies was competing - they're a group of 13-year-olds from Surrey, mentored by no less than Will Thomas of Aftershock fame. I'm honestly blown away that these kids managed to build a robot that looks this good.

Track-Tion's tracks give it immense pushing power, so it'll shove opponents around the arena all day long. However... I'm not sure what else it has going for it. The armour looks a little fragile, as do the tracks and their mechanics. The crushing arm has 600kg of force, which is enough to clamp opponents, but nowhere near enough to actually crush into them. And at 10mph, Rapid anx Apex are going to run rings round it.

My prediction: An amazing effort by these youngsters, but sadly, Track-Tion is unlikely to go very far.

VULTURE

Okay, remember I said Apex had the weirdest-looking spinning weapon I'd ever seen? I lied.

I honestly spent several minutes looking at Vulture trying to work out what the hell it was actually supposed to do, before concluding that it didn't really matter, because it's one of the coolest-looking robots I've ever seen. As it turns out, Vulture has a spinner mounted on an overhead arm, so it can attack opponents in either direction, or slam the disc down onto opponents to strike their vulnerable tops. Combine all that with the fact it's named after a Pendulum song (I like Pendulum), and I think this is possibly the most insanely-awesome robot in the entire series.

Vulture isn't just for show, either: it's reasonably quick at 16mph, the axe comes down in half a second, and the plate steel armour is very thick. It's not the armour I'm worried about, though. The team have no idea how well the weapon will work or, indeed, whether it will work at all. I hope it does. I really, really hope it does.

My prediction: I love looking at Vulture, but I don't know how long I'm going to be able to look at it for, because reliability might pluck its feathers quite early.