Robot Wars

When I was about 5 or 6 my dad told me about a TV show he'd seen that he thought I might enjoy. So we sat down to watch Robot Wars; it was love at first sight and it's remained my favorite TV show ever since.

The show presents some amazingly designed machines and we get to see them all destroy each other in some truly spectacular battles. In addition to the contestant robots, there are also the legendary house robots. All Hail Sir Killalot!

I was absolutely gutted when Robot Wars was taken off the air but those 12 years were worth the wait to see the brand new series.

It was quite different to the original series but I don't think that was necessarily a bad thing. It would definitely have not been the same without the watchful eye of judge Noel Sharkey or the enthusiastic commentary of Jonathan Pearce. If you have an interest in engineering, then Robot Wars is definitely a show you would enjoy.

Sadly this programme has once again been pulled from our screens but we can only hope that it'll return again one day......

This show angered me from the start, and the only reason I'm coming out of retirement to review this thing was because it took an all inclusive event started by an ILM employee, and turned it into this faux kid friendly event, complete with three or four supermassive "arena bots" that you could never beat because of the restrictions on design parameters.

I was at the 1995 Robot Wars, I was also at the 1997 Robot Wars where Bio Hazard took out everyone, even the much feared La Machine. I remember Joel Hodgson from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 as the Master of Ceremonies, being freaked out by the 300 pound Snake-bot build by the guy who had built "the Master" the previous two years. I remember Joel Hodgson taking a dollar from the guy sitting next to me and trying to auction it off to the audience during down time between matches. I remember San Francisco's fire inspector looking none-too happy as he quite literally was inspecting the place (at some point it was SRO). None of the energy, none of the excitement, none of the engineering creativity that was at Fort Mason San Francisco from 1995 to 1997 was in this TV show. It simply wasn't.

What this TV show had was "Dave Lister" popping off smiles and kid friendly witticisms in a venue that was so restrictive as to be obnoxious. You had no chance of taking on the in show arena bots, even though that was part of the challenge. And you couldn't use any of the more effective techniques that were developed by the Fort Mason participants.

I'm sorry the creator of the event lost creative control. I'm sorry his idea got sold to some outfit in the UK that did a half baked high-restrictive version of the San Francisco competition. I'm sorry all that creative Bay Area and American energy got truncated in what seems like a revenge plot for the Revolutionary War. And, worse yet, I'm sorry the show got revitalized last year much to the chagrin of all.

If you see blurays or DVDs of this thing for sale, pass them up, and check out the American Robot Wars videos on YouTube.

Avoid this trash.

I managed to catch an episode of this wonderful show purely by accident. We decided to stay home one Saturday afternoon, and as we were flipping around the channels, we happened across it. The first thing I heard was the voice of the host, Craig Charles, that I immediately recognized from another wonderful show, Red Dwarf. My girlfriend was ready to keep on going around the dial, but I wanted to watch, mainly because I like Craig so much. He's just plain cool! So we watched the show, and it was amazing! It's like...as we Americans talk about how it'd be cool to do this or that, and it's usually just talk, the Brits are getting out into the garage, and actually building this stuff, and finding their way onto international television, as well!

Hey, I'm gonna have to subscribe to TV Guide so I can find out when and where this shows going to be on again.

Peace!

A truly excellent and enjoyable piece of entertainment!

A battle of skill, design, tactic, intelligence and raw robot power. Very fast-paced and dynamic, with no useless and vulgar theatrics typical of american "wrestling" shows.

At the moment in Australia we are in the non-ratings period so all kinds of unfamiliar shows are showing up at odd times. Most are dreck, 'Robot Wars' isn't. It's actually one of the most entertaining TV shows I've seen in quite a while. The basic idea is that contestants build their own "robots" (remote controlled fighting machine on wheels) which then battle each other in a ring. The ring contains obstacles, "house robots" which can attack at certain times, and a pit in which you must attempt to push your opponent's robot. Simple concept, but highly addictive viewing! Maybe I'll get sick of it after a few more weeks, but right now I'm hooked. Great fun!