Episode 6 Robot Wars

The level of challenge involved with building a fighting robot means

that there is no perfect design.

40 robot fighting teams...

..competing for the ultimate prize.

'This year, there'll be a lot of things that people won't expect.'

Battling in the biggest...

..toughest robot fighting arena in the world.

And this is it. Fight after incredible fight has seen the best robots from

across the country smash their way through the competition.

Along the way, the mighty have fallen, flown and been smashed to pieces,

cooked on the flames or tossed out of the Arena.

Now, our Grand Finalists are within reach of becoming the Robot Wars Champion.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

This is Robot Wars

and this bulletproof terrordome is the Fighting Arena where,

over the past five weeks,

we've witnessed a succession of epic confrontations between the UK's most

destructive fighting robots.

As well as their rivals, the robots must also face the Arena hazards.

The Spikes, the Flipper, the Pit and Fire.

Tonight, it's the Grand Final.

In less than one hour, we'll crown the winner of Robot Wars.

Tonight's worthy finalists have smashed,

flipped and shoved their way here.

But it's not just about brute force.

Clever use of the Arena hazards and the house robots have sorted the weak

from the strong to give us these five amazing finalists.

TR2.

TR2, the youngest driver in the competition, is relentless in his attack,

flipping robots left, right and centre.

Carbide.

Carbide, with their merciless drive to destroy all who face them,

has made them the most feared robot in the pits.

Apollo.

And Apollo, described as a launcher,

they have taken three out of four house robots on as well as nearly

all the competition.

CHEERING

Shockwave.

Shockwave had never fought before,

but the incredible power generated in this robot has come as a shock

to us all.

Pulsar.

Vertical spinner Pulsar -

that revolutionary 9,000rpm weapon has decimated opponents.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

There is still one place in the Grand Final up for grabs,

which our judges have awarded to one of the five runners-up

from the qualifiers.

Behemoth, Thor, Dantomkia, Storm 2 and Gabriel - you are all runners-up,

but only one of you can join the five episode winners in the Grand Final.

Now, the judges have based their decision on performances across all

of the battles.

And the team that they have chosen...

..is Thor.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So, the axe-wielding Thor, driven by Jason from Northampton,

is back in the game.

Impressing the judges with not only his incredible driving skills and

aggression in the Arena, but also his never-ending drive to keep fighting,

despite taking some of the biggest hits in the series.

Thor now completes our line-up of

six battle-hardened robots for the

final show. Each of the robots must

now fight it out in a three-robot Group Battle,

where only two teams from each can go through to the next stage.

There is nowhere to hide as one slip-up here means they are out of

the competition. The four successful robots then battle it out in the

Head To Heads, a brutal league where they fight each other once,

scoring three points for a win and two for a judges' decision.

The top two robots at the end of this will be our well-deserved

finalists and square up against each other in this evening's Grand Final.

The first group stage is between

TR2, Pulsar and Thor.

Hello, TR2.

-Hello!

-This is your place at the final table.

Yeah, we're finally there!

And without any difficulty so far, really.

-Currently undefeated.

-And how do you handle a melee fight?

I'm just going to stay back a bit, see what happens and play it by ear.

Can one stay back in this kind of contest?

Hopefully, yeah. We'll find out.

-Best of luck, TR2.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

So, Jason, back from the dead and looking for revenge.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-Beautiful!

Ahead of Pulsar and TR2,

they've both said that you're the one to watch and that if you get going and that

starts moving, they're in trouble.

They are in trouble. I'm going to beat seven bells out of everything

-that gets in the way.

-Yes! What do you make of those two?

They're good, yeah. Pulsar's a lovely machine.

I think I'm going to go for that first.

And TR2,

as yet unbeaten.

Yeah, he is, isn't he? Yeah.

Hoping to finish that?

We'll see how it goes, yeah!

If I can get under the front of TR2, that's the trick with that one.

OK, best of luck, Thor and Jason.

Thank you very much!

-So, now, Pulsar, you're up against Thor and TR2.

-That's right, yeah.

Any of them specifically you're worried about with the

robot you have?

Well, TR2 has a powerful flipper and it's very low on the

front so if he gets underneath anywhere and tips me over,

then that's a problem so it's going to be a hard fight.

With the all-important Group Battle looming,

Team Pulsar are using every last second to try and resolve their

temperamental motor issues.

Sometimes we're losing the wheels control.

We're trying to fix that, but in order to do that,

we've just got troubleshooting and it's like chasing...

-It's needle in a haystack, isn't it?

-Yeah.

We're actually going to hit the robot with a hammer to see if

the shock has any effect on the drive system.

WHIRRING

CLATTER

INDISTINCT

I don't like... Hitting it with a hammer is the only way to move

forwards. That doesn't feel very healthy.

At this stage, just one mistake and the dream will end -

dumped in the pits or skewered on a spike.

Three teams enter the Arena, but only two can return.

-JONATHAN PEARCE:

-Thanks, Dara and Angela.

This Grand Final features six of the toughest machines I've ever seen.

As usual, our judges Professor Sethu Vijayakumar,

Dr Lucy Rogers and head judge Professor Noel Sharkey will be

overseeing each three-minute battle.

Let's meet the competitors.

'From Shropshire, Pulsar.'

Saved from going home by Chompalot's elimination in their heat, Pulsar,

designed by Ellis Ware,

is a cutting edge robot,

using the latest brushless motors

which means it's the fastest

spinning drum in the competition

at 9,000 rpm.

'From Northampton, Thor.'

Back with a vengeance, we hope!

The builder from Northampton, Jason Marston,

caused huge damage in his heat with

his one-tonne axe blows.

He drove circles around the

competition with the 8hp motors

making Thor the fastest robot in the

competition at 30mph.

'From Gateshead, TR2.'

The youngest team captain in the competition, 15-year-old Alex Brown,

has won every battle they've fought

so far.

This family team say their pneumatic

flipper can flip a one-tonne car.

The house robots for this first match - Shunt,

with its titanium-tipped axe,

and Dead Metal, with the saw and pincers.

It likes to grip and rip.

If competitors venture into those house robots' corner patrol zones,

they'll fall victim to their ultraviolent tendencies or,

as I like to describe it, they'll be

smashed to smithereens.

'Roboteers, stand by.'

CHEERING

'Three, two, one...'

-Let's get ready to wreck!

-'..Activate.'

Out comes Thor, the wild card, against Pulsar,

allowed back into the competition because Chompalot were wrecked

and out earlier on in the series, you'll remember.

And there's Thor straight away into the house robot,

not where he wants to be,

and Pulsar using speed and good control techniques to get in at TR2,

the team from Gateshead on Tyneside, the big Newcastle United fans.

Thor, Jason the builder by trade, has he had time to rebuild?

What's happened out there to Pulsar?

Just moving. If they're immobile longer than ten seconds,

the judges can count them out.

Away they go. This is a good contest between the two of them.

Steering away from danger.

Intriguing, this - an axe,

a grinder and a flipper and they can use that flipper to self-right, TR2,

and as the flipper rises, so the axe flies down as well.

It's a novel machine.

We've seen so many cutting edge robots.

We see Thor using its axe to

self-right as well and then smashing down,

in towards the house robots.

We see more attempts to maul and wreck and create carnage.

They all need to get away from that pit because Shunt is waiting to

nudge them.

The axe has come in here.

Shunt just watching... Oh, good blow!

TR2 came in with a little flip and Thor is in trouble.

He needs to get away from the house robot's mean-looking axe,

which has pinned him in and dragged him into his lair.

You do not want to go into Shunt's lair, believe you me.

I have been in there.

It is not a pretty sight.

There is Pulsar.

Just nudging away, being quietly effective.

Steering away from any damage and

when they can get that drum up to speed,

you will hear the hum.

It's not a humdrum sound for any victim.

The siren lures its victims down to doom.

There's not a lot of movement in

Pulsar and I think the spinner may have

stopped. The house robot might have had something to do with that and it

certainly has now.

Sparks fly!

I can't see Pulsar...

Pulsar doomed for me, unless a miracle happens.

Oh, flipped over!

Well, their goose is cooked and meanwhile Thor and TR2 will both go

through. They need to stay out of trouble.

They have done.

Well done.

INDISTINCT

Thor just about managed to

avoid the axe of the house robot then took

a flip from TR2, bouncing around.

Oh, smash! That's where major carnage was caused.

Pulsar soon to head for a black hole and these two fight on.

Trying to cause each other damage.

Very nearly caught by the house robot

as we see poor little Pulsar tossed and tormented and I think

the two winning robots look strong,

they look durable and they're capable of causing damage.

TR2 and Thor, you are through.

Pulsar, not so lucky this time.

-Oh, no.

-You started really strong.

-Yeah, the drive, I just don't know what's wrong with it.

We've been fixing it the entire time.

-We don't know what's wrong with it.

-Go fix that gremlin.

You have been wonderful. Can we have a round of applause, please, for Pulsar?

APPLAUSE

Thank you, guys. So, Thor and TR2, I mean you can hardly contain yourself.

-It went to plan.

-Yeah, no-one moved at the start.

I think everyone had the same idea.

-See what happens!

-See who's going where first.

-Yeah!

-Nobody went!

And also then we had Shunt getting involved.

I thought he had done some real internal damage when his axe went

-right down.

-We were hoping!

LAUGHTER

Not this time, not this time. TR2 and Thor!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It was really gutting that the drive just wasn't consistent again.

We tried everything we knew.

We've come a long way, much further than we expected to so it's all good in the end.

We've got a few repairs to make. The lid's come flying off.

My floorhugger's all bent back and I need to change some settings on the

speed controller inside.

Timewise, we haven't got a lot of time so we just have to crack on

with it.

We've taken a little bit of damage. We're not too sure how much yet.

Around the back here, you can see where the spinner's caught us and

just taken a little chew out of the back panel and it's taken a chew

on us there.

Nothing much, that's about it, so half an hour,

we should be ready to fight again.

So, TR2 and Thor go through and into

the next stages.

Hoping to meet them are our

finalists in Group Battle 2,

Shockwave, Apollo and Carbide.

It feels like there's a little bit of tension in the camp.

-Sheryl, how are you feeling?

-OK.

That face is nervous,

although you have done this trick before where you've gone, "50/50,

"not quite sure if we're there," and then you demolish everything you

-come in contact with.

-Yeah, I think this time we're just going to leave

the decision up to them. We're just going to spin up and see who comes to us

-first, I think.

-Out of the two you're up against, which, if any,

-pose you the most problems?

-Er, probably Apollo.

The front end's really thickly armoured and is a bit of a threat

-for us, really.

-OK.

-At the start of the competition,

-we would have said we had money on them to win it.

-Really?

-Yeah, if we can take them out...

Shockwave, how are you going to tackle them?

The front end looks quite weak on there, quite flimsy.

It's a lot weaker than Behemoth.

If we can damage it in the same sort of way, we'd be happy with that,

-I think.

-Best of luck, lads, see you later.

-Thanks.

-Bye.

We're here with Apollo, the great entertainers of this series.

In this battle now, you've got Carbide and Shockwave.

Any particular things you fear about those two?

It's the same as normal.

We've just got to keep our front end on the attack and hopefully no-one will

get behind us. That's the tactic.

Hopefully with there being another robot in there,

Carbide will see another target as well.

Hopefully those two will attack each other and leave us to go to

Killalot in the corner or something like that!

So watch out Carbide, watch out Shockwave,

but mainly watch out Sir Killalot. Fabulous.

I know they're a little anxious about Carbide.

So, apparently you have a weak front end.

Yes, it's been said many times.

-No, it's medications...

-Let's talk about the machine. How's it looking?

Well, it's as best as it can do.

It's in the same condition as when we arrived.

It's a tough fight, though, but we've got a game plan.

We're going to hit Carbide head-on with the scoop.

-Right.

-And if we can get them before they spin up to full speed,

-we might be able to get them.

-So, literally charge?

Failing that, we're going to feed Apollo into them and sort of

-sacrifice Apollo.

-So much fighting talk!

I love it. This is going to be a real scrap.

Definitely. We could be going home in a bin bag.

Home in a bin bag!

Shockwave's second Group Battle of the night.

-Best of luck.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-JONATHAN PEARCE:

-Thanks, Dara and Angela.

So, to the second Group Battle of the Grand Final.

To continue in the competition, robots have to try and stay alive.

'From Reading, Shockwave.'

This father and son team,

Will and Ian Thomas,

had a lucky win their heat final,

defeating Thor,

and they'll have been pleased at the

pushing power supplied by their 4kw

motors from a carousel ride.

Will it be enough to push them to ultimate victory?

'From Derby, Carbide.'

In its heat, Carbide asserted itself

as the robot to beat.

Their 20hp spinning bar was able to

slice through Behemoth's 8mm

titanium bucket with absolute ease.

'From Birmingham, Apollo.'

The boyband of Robot Wars, Dave, Ben and Marc,

piloted Apollo to heat victory,

flipping competitors and

house robots alike.

Their 1,000psi flipper produces

five tonnes of force,

but in the heat,

Apollo's backside has proven

heavily susceptible to damage.

The house robots, Shunt once again and, for the first time tonight,

the master of mean,

the knight of evil delight,

Sir Killalot.

'Roboteers, stand by.'

CHEERING

'Three, two, one, activate.'

Strong-looking robots, but they've all had reliability issues thus far

in Robot Wars. Here we are in the Grand Final

and Carbide being shoved across

the floor by Shockwave.

Oh, goodness me, look at this!

Carbide has taken out the side wall of the Arena.

I have never seen that before.

They say that that blade has ten times the power of anything

we've seen on Robot Wars, and causing more danger to Shockwave,

but can this carry on?

We have safety issues out there now because the Arena wall...

I cannot believe they are allowing this to continue.

They won't. Cease has been called.

Look at the power here of Carbide.

That blade, up to 2,500rpm, sliced through steel.

I don't know what happens next.

I'll leave it to the health and safety guys.

They'll be able to tell you what's happened exactly.

So, Carbide went in the corner and has hit the barrier and has managed

to rip the steel barrier. It's a 6 mil steel plate and it's ripped it

from the wall so we've had to stop the fight while we sort it out.

We're going to refix the barrier and then we'll get back on with the fight.

While the Arena is being rebuilt after that huge hit from Carbide,

there's bad news from Shockwave.

This side's OK.

But it was that one hit along the right-hand side of the machine,

it just tore it apart.

You can see the damage caused here

from the huge hit from spinner Carbide.

And this dislodged our drive wheel

on this side and as soon as that

came off, we lost all the chains and we lost the entire side of the

drive. So, yeah, that was one massive impact that did that.

Just looking at the damage,

Shockwave is beyond repair at the moment.

We can't compete any more in this.

The teams meet in the Arena to discuss the implications of Shockwave's damage

and the realistic chance of repair within the allotted time limit.

Oh, it's always disappointing to lose, but

we always knew that Carbide was going to be a fantastic robot to fight and

I reckon they'll go far.

CHEERING

So, Shockwave admit defeat,

but do so with their heads held high after an incredible tournament from

the father and son team.

That is not the way you wanted to get through to the Head To Heads.

No, it would have been nice to have won the fight by flipping somebody

out or flipping a house robot in the meantime, but, no, it's a win.

-We'll always take a win.

-You guys, Carbide...

-Hello!

-I mean, Shockwave were a little nervous about facing you and

it turns out those nerves were justified.

Yeah, we peeled it a bit.

What did you do? Not only did you destroy Carbide

you destroyed the set as well.

-Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.

-It's a first.

They're out there hammering away, trying to get it sorted again.

-Yeah.

-That was kind of dream case scenario for you guys,

I mean without the destructive.

Yeah, it would have been nice if the fight went the full distance and we

felt like we earned it, same as these guys, but it was still good fun.

-You'll take the win?

-A win's a win, yeah.

A win's a win. Congrats, guys!

That's the kind of battle we like to see in the finals of Robot Wars.

All of the robots out there full of energy,

smashing into each other like crazy.

Unfortunately, for Shockwave, it just got ripped to pieces.

It was just too much for it.

The great thing is Carbide and Apollo are in really good shape for

the next battle.

So, now we have our four robots

through to the Head To Heads - TR2,

Apollo, Carbide and Thor.

They'll now fight each other once

with one aim in mind -

score as many points as possible

to secure their place

in tonight's Grand Final.

First to fight are Carbide and Thor.

Yeah, we've just found out that we've got Thor in the next round.

So that'll be quite interesting.

I know he's got an anti-Carbide front end or something he's been

whispering about, so we'll see how that goes.

This is the anti-Carbide plate.

It's made out of a very hard material, wear plate material.

It's 10 mil thick so it should withstand all the impacts from it.

So we're changing the hammerhead on Thor to this pointy one,

which is hardened steel, and that is because the top of Carbide is made

out of quite a soft plastic.

I'm hoping we can punch through it and get to the juicy innards.

My name's Jason Marston.

My day job, I'm a builder.

What inspired me to build Thor?

Watching it on TV and I thought,

"I could do better than that," and I couldn't.

Not for a few years, anyway.

To win Robot Wars, it would be a bit of a dream come true.

After all these years of building, it would be, yeah.

It would be special, actually, yeah.

Our aim was to design a robot that was so powerful,

it's feared by everybody. Carbide is an aggressive robot with military

grade armour and a 200mph spinning blade.

Me and Sam build the best spinning robots in the UK and we've joined

forces to build something completely incredible.

I grew up watching Robot Wars and it inspired me to be an engineer.

To win it would be really special.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-JONATHAN PEARCE:

-Carbide against Thor.

-The first Head To Head of the Grand Final.

-'Three, two, one, activate.'

And Thor thus far has not come up against a spinner.

Has taken precautions.

Flips off the floor flipper, self-rights,

has got that front buffer plate...

Oh, goodness me!

Look at the power of Carbide's assault!

Oh, again!

Well, they've put the buffer on, they have the pointed steel top.

They are being absolutely savaged and the buffer didn't last long.

Off it flies, a wheel has gone, the side panel ripped away.

This is the most potent robot we have seen thus far in

the Grand Final,

in this series of Robot Wars, perhaps ever - Carbide.

Can they survive?

They just need to dodge and get away and maybe lure Carbide -

the stronger, the faster, the more potent robot - towards the pit.

Trying to survive.

INDISTINCT

The punch to self-right.

The wheel's hanging off, look!

Have the motors gone?

I don't think it can manoeuvre.

A wheel is dangling off.

The armament always its biggest weakness

and Carbide taunting and teasing

and winning.

Some power in Carbide, I can tell you.

Carbide, as a chemical compound, one of the strongest in the world.

Carbide the robot, one of the strongest we've ever seen.

Carbide got the spinner up to speed and sliced its way through,

the wheel torn away.

Yes, it could self-right, but this

was a battle it was never going to win.

Thor came into that battle with a new strategy,

with a new armour just to sort of negate Carbide's power.

I think it worked initially for a bit and then the whole armour plate

flew off. We were scared for our lives.

The bulletproof glass did its job.

So Thor suffered a lot of damage and it seems to be in really bad shape.

It will be interesting to see if it will be battle-worthy for the next one.

The rear end has been taken completely out.

The side pod here, which holds the wheel and the drive system for the

right-hand side, has been completely destroyed.

The plate that I've put on the front to stop him has been destroyed.

The bump stop has been destroyed.

That wheel in there has been destroyed.

The new speed control I fitted, that's been destroyed as well.

Pretty much no chance of getting it ready for the next two fights.

The spoils of this war go to Carbide

with three points

and Thor with none.

Our next Head To Head is between TR2 and Apollo.

In the next fight, we're against Apollo so at the minute,

we're welding a new front end on TR2 cos it's about an inch off the ground

at the minute after Pulsar hit it front on.

It's really going to come down to driver versus driver, I think, on this one.

We have every faith in you, mate.

Good! I'm glad you do!

LAUGHTER

Me, Mark and Ben used to work together at holiday parks

as Bluecoat entertainers.

The flipper can flip around about a tonne,

whereas the robots weigh just over 100kg.

We should be launching them about six foot in the air.

It'd be a massive achievement for the team, of hard work and dedication,

to get it rewarded if we could win the championship.

I am the captain of Team TR2 and also the driver.

My dad is the engineer and builder and my mum supplies the tea.

Winning it would be brilliant,

but the possibility of going home in a bin bag is quite exciting, really.

You know you've got a challenge on your hands to keep the robot

in one piece and get it through the competition.

If you don't want your robot hurt, don't put it in the Arena.

-JONATHAN PEARCE:

-Apollo against TR2.

This is about flip, flop and make them fly.

But don't forget, teams, your time is nigh.

You only have limited CO2 supplies so make sure your flips count in the

opening battles. But not spat out, thrown out there by Apollo.

And again the huge launcher,

it can launch a 100kg competitor at least six feet into the air.

Oh-ho!

And very nearly flipping TR2 out of orbit.

Look at that! So close to going out of the Arena!

Teetering and tottering

and falling back down to earth with some bump.

And into Dead Metal and the pincers and the circular saw and they're

trying to get it going and just tossed around like a leaf in a wind.

Great driving there by the Apollo team, Dave Young at the controls.

But this time, it's TR2 that can get in underneath and Apollo goes into

Dead Metal's grip and pushes Dead Metal very nearly up and over.

Wow!

They do have a concern that the tip of the flipper might get bent in

battle. It might affect its manoeuvrability, but not here,

they're having great fun.

TR2, black and white stripes from Newcastle...

..being pushed, manoeuvring back.

Oh, this is a great full-on flipper!

I think actually the power of the flipper there

sent TR2 up into the air.

That's a problem for them.

It can leave them vulnerable to attack underneath.

Apollo's ground clearance, by the way,

the width of a pound coin only so they know they can get in underneath

opponents like they've done there.

This is a really good contest.

If it goes to the judges, who will they go for?

Maybe that will be decisive.

TR2 over, seems to be immobilised anyway.

Can they self-right?

Have they got enough power?

Apollo circling.

The house robots...

HE LAUGHS

..thought about coming out, get back they went.

No way back for TR2 in this one.

Really good contest.

Fascinating, actually.

The power of the Apollo launcher there, you could see.

Three, two, one, we have lift-off.

Oh, so nearly out, but I'll tell you what, that is a plucky machine, TR2,

but, in the end, that was that.

Well, we sold this as the battle of the flippers and the whole thing was

about getting underneath and then lifting them up and they got some

altitude on you at one stage, didn't they?

Yeah, we just couldn't get underneath them very often,

so we just didn't have a chance really, going into it.

You've got two more fights to go. Will you be able to, for the next

-fight turn this around?

-Yeah. When we come up against Carbide, that's a must win. Must win against Carbide.

Now, the next people against Carbide will be yourselves.

Oh! That will be now.

Actually, I think we might give that one to them now.

If it keeps Carbide away from you.

-Happy with that, I presume?

-Yeah, worked very well there.

At one point, I thought you were trying to nudge them,

-trying to flip them out of the Arena.

-We were underneath them,

we could have flipped them at one point,

but we were trying to see if we could push them towards

the lower parts of the wall and see if we could get them over

but just missed it and hit the high part of the wall instead.

Well, you continue serenely on, Apollo.

The next one will be the real challenge, though, I think.

It's one loss. It's our first loss so far, so...

To be honest with you, the best bit of it all was all of it

cos Dave is a bad man.

He is the best driver I've ever seen.

That victory by Apollo puts them level with Carbide on three points

and leaves TR2 in joint last place alongside Thor.

Next up, it's a crucial match between the two teams

joint top of the table - Carbide and Apollo.

So, this is the new motor that we've put in

and it seems to run really nicely.

We haven't had any problems that we had before with the jamming up.

We're going to have to keep

the front of the robot at him, go head on.

The front of the robot is twice the thickness of the rest of the robot

and it's whether the rest of the internals of the robot

can take that impact.

Three, two, one...

activate!

Oh, Apollo going straight onto the attack

with the wear-resistant steel front,

but I think they've taken too much damage there.

I think they're immobilised.

Carbide knew Apollo were the big ones they had to beat.

They take punishment a little bit from the house robots.

Apollo immobilised.

What's Carbide doing here now? Oh!

A little bit of skulduggery here.

Cease.

They want Apollo gone completely and they attack the vulnerable rear end.

Underhand tactics there!

Look at this. Right from the start, that's Apollo on the offensive,

but therein, they did themselves too much damage.

But it's the back end that's vulnerable

and that's what Carbide attacked late on.

-Carbide! You've done it again!

-I know, I know!

And it looked like they came in, four seconds on the clock,

a major blow, upended you guys and...

Yeah, we were nervous about that one.

I think we were quite lucky there.

-It could have gone either way.

-Is there anyone you're afraid of now

-at this point?

-No, not really.

LAUGHTER

Cocky!

-It's getting there.

-What about you guys?

I mean, I'm guessing that was exactly to plan -

right in under them, upended and it was the impact, was it?

Yeah, one impact dislodged something.

It might even just be the link.

We're not too sure, we'll have a look when we're down there.

Apollo, please, and Carbide!

APPLAUSE

The link fell out, which is the safety device for the robot,

so the robot was completely dead.

It's a shame that we took those shots right at the end

once we were dead when we couldn't really defend ourselves.

-They were making sure though, weren't they?

-Cheap shot!

We said we'd step it up a notch for the finals and we did.

We hit them a couple of times, we've caused quite a lot of damage.

I don't think they're too happy about that, but it's a competition,

at the end of the day, so we had to do what we had to do.

Hey! Hey!

Back off, back off!

It's the Robot Wars boyband.

So that victory for Carbide puts them at the top of the table

with six points.

Apollo stay second with three

with Thor and TR2 in last place.

Next into the Arena, it's TR2 vs Thor.

Both teams desperately needing a knockout win

to stay in this competition.

It is the biggest rebuild Thor's ever had

during a competition. Carbide was absolutely brilliant.

We've managed to get it fixed up,

a bit of welding and rebuild the rear end of it

and we're almost all but done.

To have a chance of going through,

we've got to get three points so, yeah, that's the target.

The work that we've put into the robot, he's done us proud.

He didn't want to go back to school and feel he'd let his mates down

-either.

-He can go back to school with your head held high.

-He can.

Three, two, one...

Activate.

Remarkable that Thor has been repaired to be here at all,

but getting flipped immediately by TR2.

They know Thor's armour is its biggest weakness.

Most of the robot weight is in the weapon.

They are running away to fight another day

and here they come again.

TR2 very confident, I felt,

and using the flipper and they've used that flipper well so far

and powerful with the drive into the CPZ.

If Thor can gets its axe working,

TR2 know they have a problem with their welding,

but it's a good aggressive TR2.

Alex, the driver,

is a prop forward in rugby and he's keeping a tight grip there

on Thor.

Patched up, so damaged earlier,

but we know they were up to pace right at the start of this battle.

At the moment, they're in trouble, you can see there.

Tossed into Dead Metal's grip and onto the fire pit.

And don't forget that Jason earlier on said they'd been destroyed,

destroyed, destroyed, destroyed and, er, destroyed,

but they've come back to fight, but they're fighting Matilda there!

They hit Matilda, but got an absolute...

tusk trip and over they went.

Do not take on Matilda!

She's an angry beast.

But what a fight this is.

A shard of Thor litters the Arena floor.

TR2 with all the aggression should it go the judges,

but let us remember that Jason's machine Thor had so much damage.

And has fought back so brilliantly to be here at all.

They're holding them into the Arena and therefore negating the power

of that axe. It came down a couple of times, but missed the target.

Hits there, that could count.

Thor...

Ooh! Onto Matilda's tail.

Ooh, that's a grizzly moment!

Ooh..

And I think that could have done for Thor.

-He's dead, he's dead.

-Just about nudging...

No, no, no, no.

Oh, still alive! Well done.

Into the CPZ it goes, onto the tusks of Matilda.

Poor old Thor!

Thor's hammer to no avail and heading for Thor's Valhalla,

the hall of the fallen heroes.

TR2 will see out time and pick up the points.

Thor venting pressure.

CHEERING

Under pressure throughout.

A good win here for TR2.

Splendid machine.

Fighting back from defeat in the last bout

and still piling on the attacks, one after another.

Oh, and out goes Thor!

Out of the Arena, all over.

-Cease.

-Well done, Matilda.

Well, throughout the bout, Thor looked a lightweight out there.

Tossed and flipped,

had the affront to take on Matilda

and Matilda's thirst for revenge knows no limits.

Her anger was rising, her flip was final.

That was a long repair job for Thor after the last battle.

It healed its scars,

came back kind of new, but against the skill of TR2,

it had no reply.

TR2, in my opinion, so far the best driver of the series.

Another bruising battle for Thor and nothing to show for it.

Horrible!

More damage to deal with.

We spent a lot of time upside down,

which the pneumatic system doesn't like.

When it's upside down a lot, it starts to freeze up.

The valve stops working and then you can see the gas being vented out

so I think that's why the hammer stopped working.

The wheel support here's come out and this panel here's bent

so we can't get the gas bottle out.

Dominated that fight.

-Yep.

-I mean, Thor had its issues.

They've done tremendously well to get it rebuilt in the time

so we didn't fight a fully up-to-strength Thor,

but we're not at full strength, we're bent and buckled as well.

We're still in there, we can still do it, we can still qualify.

All we've got to do is beat Carbide.

After our fourth Head To Head,

the table looks like this.

Carbide are in pole position with six points.

Apollo and TR2 are on three

and Thor is stuck to the bottom on zero.

Next up is the big flipper TR2 vs league leaders Carbide.

So, we've got TR2 next, a very similar machine to Apollo.

Hopefully we can apply the same sort of tactics.

They've got similar armour as well, but probably not quite as thick.

So, if we can do the same thing again, hopefully it'll go our way.

-Storm it.

-We can attack it immediately...

-Storm it.

-And head-on charge it straight away.

-We can open the pit.

-We can open the pit.

And play around that.

Or you can try and outside them cos, with the bar spinning,

with the bar spinning, he might not be able to turn off.

I've not watched him, how fast he can turn.

If he's slow turning, you might be able to drive round the back of him.

Get behind him, ram him into the CPZ,

-let the house robot do the work for you.

-Yeah.

Three. Two. One.

Carbide's awesome power against TR2's flipper.

Carbide one of the best designed robots we've seen

with that spinning bar.

25 kilos in weight and awesome power.

TR2 needs to avoid any sort of frontal battle.

Don't forget, they've worked on the angles of the flipper edge.

Oh! But they still couldn't get in the lead.

Carbide to get a flip in.

And I wonder how much damage that has caused to the front flipper.

A slice is being taken out of it onto the flame pit.

Into Kill-a-lot in the CPZ.

He chases them around the arena floor.

My weapon's stopped.

One of the tactics was to activate the Pit.

TR2 getting a famous flip there out of Carbide.

The spinning blade is slowing, they need to get it up to speed, Carbide.

Can they do so? Is it fully functioning?

A slam against the arena wall from TR2.

Good contest, this.

Two very good robots.

Carbide under pressure.

Carbide under pressure!

TR2 doing all the work.

Carbide are retreating fast.

They're trying to stay away.

They've forgotten the floor flipper.

This is all TR2.

This could be a major upset.

Another flip for Carbide.

Over it goes.

TR2 chasing another flip for Carbide.

They don't know what they're doing.

They're under pressure for the first time in Robot Wars.

Carbide is a toy for TR2.

Can they survive?

Shunt waits.

He wants a toy to play with.

Carbide...

Damaged. Limited control, but they're doing their best.

There's no power in the blade, that's for certain.

The weapon isn't working.

Can TR2 get them near the arena gate and get them out?

They're perilously close.

Down comes Shunt's blade.

Misses my a mile.

I think Shunt is drunk.

TR2 turns away.

Is it coming in for a momentous last charge?

Get him. A minute left. A minute left.

This is the charge of the bull

and the matador, Carbide, dances aside.

But TR2 has been hugely impressive here

against one of the best machines we've seen

in this Robot Wars competition.

Carbide again slammed. They're trying to nudge it away.

They're trying to get it out of the arena.

They're trying to cause it as much damage as they can.

Should they make it all the way through to the final of this,

the Grand Final of Robot Wars.

Well, I didn't think we'd see this.

This has really surprised me.

I didn't think we'd see Carbide beaten by anything,

but TR2 went on to the axe of Shunt and that caused damage.

Can Alex Brown finish off Carbide?

Another push from TR2 into the CPZ.

The red lights are on. Ten seconds remain.

Don't forget, TR2 need the win here.

It will go to the judges

and they will decide

on control, damage and aggression

but, for me, it was all TR2.

Needing the big win and the crowd want them to get it.

That's when the spinning bar was up to speed.

That's when the only damage was sustained by TR2

but, from then on, they did all the work.

They changed the angle of that front flipper to get in underneath Carbide

and, boy, that worked throughout.

Carbide's weapon not working there.

It was just a question,

could they finish them off with or without the house robots?

Carbide - such a mean machine but, in the end,

looking so limp and defeated

and just hanging on to take it to the judges.

But, goodness me, only just.

Unbelievable. I am slightly out of breath.

Let's start with you, TR2.

You were under pressure going into that battle.

You knew you had to go for the win.

We had to go for the win straight away or we were definitely out.

You did attempt to get them out of the arena on a number of occasions.

Was the CO2 gone at that point?

I don't know. The flips were definitely getting down on power

so there might be damage there.

Carbide, how was that battle for you?

It was pretty fun. I enjoyed it.

I mean, crucially, the blade stopped working.

After that, was it pretty much survival?

Yeah, pretty much for us. Yeah.

It was a judges' decision.

I can tell you it was a unanimous decision...

..in favour of...TR2.

Congratulations. They liked that.

An exciting match. Wondered what was going to happen.

Carbide took some big lumps off TR2 to start with

but when their blades stopped working, TR2 just got under,

kept flipping until their gas looked like it ran out.

They didn't have the power

so they just used their logic

and kept pushing it into Shunt

and I really liked how Carbide were using their initiative,

trying to get back up the right way using the flipper.

Back on the flipper, to try and get back up the right way.

But it didn't seem to do any difference.

I think there's an electrical fault in there somewhere

that's caused the bar just to stop working.

Oh, the clutch plate's fallen apart.

These are the clutch plates that run the weapon,

either side of the sprocket, just to protect the motor.

You can see all this dust around here,

that's where the clutch plate used to be.

It used to sit on there, like that.

It's just disappeared.

Awesome. Awesome fight with Carbide.

Tremendous machine. You can see the damage they've given us.

If I turn that around, you can just see

it's ripped it apart, but the fight with Carbide was such a buzz.

Best fight ever. Best fight for me ever.

Yeah, just the adrenaline rush.

Sitting up, standing up there in the drivers' pod,

waiting for the fight to start, it was just electric.

Despite losing their first fight this evening,

Carbide remain in first place with six points.

The judges' decision and the two points for TR2

move it up to second place

with five points.

With a fight still to go, Apollo can still make the final

if they can beat last-placed Thor

and secure the full three points.

All right, it's time for the final head-to-head to decide

who will fight Carbide in tonight's grand final.

It's Apollo versus Thor.

CHEERING

Thor, as we knew him, died many fights ago.

This is now Zombie Thor.

A zombie Thor with bits other robots stuck on to him.

What is left of this thing at this stage?

Not an awful lot. Just anything that's in the middle that no-one could get to

-is about the only stuff...

-Cos I've seen bits of this,

these wings at the sides, the protective bits,

they've been flying all over the place as shrapnel.

It's only the weld and the paint holding it together now.

Jason, you've been fantastic

how you kept this thing going so far as you have.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Thor.

What is left of Thor.

Now, Apollo, Thor is clearly not going to roll over and die.

-Ever.

-No.

-By the looks of it.

He never gives up. I mean, his robot has gone through so much

and it's still going. He's a great driver as well

and he's been fantastic throughout the whole competition.

Beautiful. Apollo.

With so much resting on the result of this battle,

Dara and I will be watching with TR2 in the other control room.

Two fantastic competitors.

Thor versus Apollo.

Three, two, one. Activate.

Apollo need a victory to get through to the ultimate final.

Thor out there again.

Somehow, Jason has put it together but already under pressure.

All of the TR2 team looking on.

They need Apollo to go out here.

They know that.

But Thor...

Another bit has come off.

The floor flipper catches it as well.

Well, the builder lost his drive system,

his hammer, his wheel system, his panels

and now some gizmo off the back.

The panels are bent, everything has fallen off it

and yet he's rebuilt and rebuilt,

and gone out there, and gone out there.

But that's the end of his road.

Apollo into the ultimate grand final final.

TR2 have come so far.

Driven by the youngest driver in the competition,

it's been an incredible achievement.

Sad. Yeah. We're going home,

we're not out of the competition but we only lost one fight

so we have done our best.

Our best wasn't good enough this year.

Next year, it will be.

For Thor, it has been one brutal battle after the other.

A crowd favourite, but for this series, Jason's dream is over.

Yeah, that fight didn't go too well.

The back end of the robot completely disintegrated and shot off.

All the electronics are there. It died.

But to come fourth in the competition of Robot Wars, spot on.

Apollo and Carbide have both come on an amazing journey.

One of these teams is now a battle away from being crowned

champion of Robot Wars 2016.

So, we're here. It's the grand final

and we're getting ready to fight Carbide.

This hasn't really sunk in yet that we're in the final.

Carbide, they're a very strong, physical robot.

If they get you in the wrong place, they can really do some damage.

We smashed the outer arena, we smashed the inner arena.

Some really formidable opponents.

It's more than just a grand final, this is our revenge match now.

-Yes.

-Apollo's a really good machine.

I think we got lucky in the first round with it.

We need to get that link. We've fixed it with a bit of gaffer tape.

Hopefully it won't fall out.

We'll have to find another weakness and try and exploit that.

It's got to be an engineering challenge, I think.

It is good to come up with your own ways of putting a machine together.

It's totally like rock, paper, scissors.

We're weak against some opposition and strong against others,

and the same with them.

It's been epic - the flips, the fights...

-There's nothing else like it.

-Yeah.

What else do you go and watch where you get

robots just fighting in an arena?

The word "obsession" comes into mind.

It does get more intense now, doesn't it?

We were kids growing up watching Robot Wars

and to win it would be brilliant.

We have had fun but we really want to win it now.

This is it. This is the final, lads.

So, after 53 battle across six shows, it's all come down to this.

Apollo versus Carbide for the title of Robot Wars Champion.

This is the final I would have asked for.

It's the spinner that destroyed the arena

versus the flipper that humiliated the house robots.

The teams are ready. Which means, for the last time this series,

it's over to you, Jonathan.

CHEERING

Thanks very much, Dara and Angela.

What a fight.

-Roboteers, stand by.

-This is it.

The audience can't wait.

-Three...two...one....

-Put on your seatbelts.

-Activate!

-Here we go.

Mission revenge.

Apollo remember that Carbide did the dirty on them earlier on,

attacking their rear end.

And in they go to Sir Kill-a-lot.

We have seen Carbide can get into trouble.

And Apollo doing all the aggressive work early on.

But up to speed comes the Carbide blade.

Underneath goes the Apollo wedge

with that very low ground clearance.

They can get in underneath that blade, they can flip,

they can cause trouble and they've done it.

They've done it. Sparks flew

as the blade crashed against the arena floor

and Carbide in real trouble.

Then, again, Apollo has flipped Dead Metal out.

Apollo has flipped Matilda out.

Carbide is the least compared to that.

But Shunt and the house robots remembered.

Carbide against the arena sidewall.

Can Apollo keep up the sustained attack?

The pit released. Activated.

Carbide, it was, with the nudge.

They know they're in trouble.

They know, at this stage, Apollo are on top

and have got themselves very, very dangerously

on the front end of the flipper.

When Carbide win,

they normally get things over and done with very quickly.

But not here.

It's all Apollo,

and there is no shuttle to safety for Carbide.

Now gripped by the front flipper.

Oh. How much damage there to Apollo?

And the front flipper has been bent.

Shunt came out of the CPZ, or to the very edge of it,

and caught Apollo's flipper but it's still working.

Really good final.

Because Carbide have come back into it.

I thought they were beaten.

But look at this now.

Apollo had a bit of a gas leak

but has that affected the front flipper?

It seemed to be staying open.

Oh, Carbide just beyond the pit.

They've had problems with the clutch as well, but they are on the attack.

Carbide...

They're trying to push Apollo -

a mighty weight to push at 107 kilos.

It's now who can get who to the pit

or into the CPZ onto the floor flipper

because the weapons are largely caput.

What on earth happened there?

Carbide nudges the floor flipper.

Absolute mayhem out there at the moment.

Back they come in again.

Carbide caught in the jaws

and in towards Shunt.

And can get damaged in there.

Untested as a machine before Robot Wars, Carbide.

They've done brilliantly.

Cease called.

What an ultimate final.

I'm exhausted, they're exhausted.

The robots are exhausted.

The judges have to make a decision on control, damage, aggression.

Let's give you some pointers.

Apollo on the attack, flipping Carbide.

Tried it two or three times.

Carbide's weaponry working.

Oh, I would not want to be one of those judges having to pick this.

Apollo attacking again.

Carbide bouncing but they couldn't finish it off.

Tossed, turned, tormented,

teased.

Then taking punishment from the house robots.

Still, Apollo applied the pressure.

That is the final we were hoping for.

-Yeah, we made it last the three minutes.

-That's what we wanted.

It was a good fight.

Absolutely. Motor has been kind of an issue

on-and-off throughout the series.

Just when you really didn't want it to play up, it seemed to act.

We're working on it already.

-Hopefully the audience enjoyed it and we...

-I think they enjoyed it.

-CHEERING

-Carbide, everybody. Thank you.

Yes. Two boxers slugging it out

because, by the end of it, this legendary flipper,

which has taking down so many of the house robots, it got tired.

Yeah, we've got a limited supply of gas.

The reason the flipper's so powerful is it uses so much gas.

So, after so many flips, it does start to die down.

So, for the latter part of that, they couldn't really spin the blade,

you couldn't really get underneath and get a proper flip out of it

and became attritional, it became a dirty street fight.

It did. I think this from them guys earlier in the other fight.

The flipper arm started to get a bit bent,

so it wasn't coming down fully.

So, we had to go to Shunt a few times.

You went to lure the house robots over to close over...?

Yes, Shunt gave us a hit and brought the arm back down.

-Thank you very much. We'll have that.

-That's clever.

Some reverse robot psychology there.

All of you, it was a wonderful fight.

It was a fantastic fight but there was no clear winner.

So it has gone to a judges' decision.

That result has come through.

The decision was unanimous.

The winner of that fight,

and therefore the Robot Wars Champions for 2016...

-..are Apollo.

-Yes!

Apollo!

Worthy winners. They say a tournament gets the final it deserves,

it was an incredible finale to a brilliant competition.

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we have.

That's all from us on this series of Robot Wars. Goodnight.

CHEERING