Robot Wars Live Event.
Tom Braider
Two hours of tedium, no mayhem, no carnage, no action. I can't do justice to
just how naff it was but it was THE pits.
Some awful third-rate compere started it off by introducing three equally
awful robo-babes on roller skates and it went downhill from there. Each of
the house robots did a silly turn on their own and there were three totally
inconsequential 'battles' between home-made bots most of which were too
'home-made' to ever even make it onto Robot Wars.
The only notable participant was SMIDSY whose constructors should be
thoroughly ashamed of themselves for taking part in such a mediocre and
cynical money-making ecircus as this appalling show. George Francis showed
up to give a brief display with Chaos 2 and he should be mightily ashamed as
well. So too Craig Charles who made an appearance as deputy compere.
Most of the action came from the audience as the compere and the robo-babes
(more awful even than they sound) tried desperately to gets the kids
shouting and chanting and waving arms to distract them from the fact that
nothing was happening on stage.
The second half was even worse than the first with such gems as two dads
from the audience having a race on hobby-horses (I kid you not) and two kids
from the audience attempting for the first time to drive a bot round an
obstacle course - riviting stuff.
What with all the verbal promises of 'mayhem' and 'carnage' and constant
reminders of the need for the 'mylar'(?) screens because it was so dangerous
it just had to be seen to be believed really.
Quite a few people left at half time and I suppose there must must be a
bigger waste of fifteen quid somewhere but it's hard to imagine. It's the
kids I fell sorry for, they go along expecting something along the lines of
what they see on TV and they get this appalling pap. Mentorn will be
laughing all the way to the bank.
nozza
wrote:
<snip>
>Quite a few people left at half time and I suppose there must must be a
>bigger waste of fifteen quid somewhere but it's hard to imagine. It's the
>kids I fell sorry for, they go along expecting something along the lines of
>what they see on TV and they get this appalling pap. Mentorn will be
>laughing all the way to the bank.
Actually, sounds almost exactly like the way it is at filming too.
Takes em suusally a good week to film a series (that's 96 bots) I know
BattleBots did 127 bots in 2 1/2 days.
>
>
STE
news:DFza7.3539$tQ5.1...@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com...
> Joke event more like.
I found it reasonably entertaining for alot of the same reasons you
mention...
> Some awful third-rate compere started it off by introducing three equally
> awful robo-babes on roller skates and it went downhill from there. Each of
> the house robots did a silly turn on their own and there were three
totally
> inconsequential 'battles' between home-made bots most of which were too
> 'home-made' to ever even make it onto Robot Wars.
Compare was fairly pants, but watching the crowd get hypnotised was
interesting.
Robo babes were a blatent time filler - even did a little dance routine
after half time. Oh man.
House robots were dull, shame they didn't line up a real locally built robot
to smash it up.
The home made bots were laughable - the teams reckoned they had spent
thousands of pounds and from 6 months to a year making them, yeah it takes 6
months to produce completely limp axe weapons, that travel at 2 mph. How we
laughed.
2 pieces of trash vaugely bumping into each other - green, green, green!!
(Audience was split into 2 halfs, red & green teams)
> well. So too Craig Charles who made an appearance as deputy compere.
I thought Craig Charles was better live than on the tv show - where he seems
out of place.
He took the mickey well out of the laughable useless robots that crawled
around.
> Most of the action came from the audience as the compere and the
robo-babes
> (more awful even than they sound) tried desperately to gets the kids
> shouting and chanting and waving arms to distract them from the fact that
> nothing was happening on stage.
Heh.
> The second half was even worse than the first with such gems as two dads
> from the audience having a race on hobby-horses (I kid you not) and two
kids
> from the audience attempting for the first time to drive a bot round an
> obstacle course - riviting stuff.
Yeah, 2nd half was less funny.
They were supposed to knock barrels over, but driving into them slightly
appeared to be sufficient - still, can't hurt the kiddies feelings can we?
(yes).
> What with all the verbal promises of 'mayhem' and 'carnage' and constant
> reminders of the need for the 'mylar'(?) screens because it was so
dangerous
> it just had to be seen to be believed really.
I don't know if the screens were 'mylar' or not, should remember really, I'm
sure they said the name about 5 times. Sponsorship?
The head of BBC special effects also made an appearance (Chris something),
how that man can show his face in public is a mystery.
The Beeb has had piss poor sfx since time began.
BBC producer: Ok Chris, we need a new monster for Doctor Who. Here's £4.
Chris: wow!! that's the biggest budget we've ever had!!. We can film a
magnified maggot and spend the change down the pub.
They also showed stupidly large amounts of clips from the show, er, didn't
really go to a live show to watch tv guys...
STE ;¬!
Darren Forster
Tom Braider <he...@there.com> wrote in message
news:DFza7.3539$tQ5.1...@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com...
> Joke event more like.
>
I went to see the event at Cardiff International Arena, the Cardiff show had
quite a bit of carnage and action in it. I'd seen the filming at Tommorows
World Live at Earls Court and think that there wasn't much difference, it
just seems more carnage on the TV (I think they add bits in on the TV). The
only thing that was bad were the prices, £6.00 for a programme and 50p for a
poster that I was given the next day when walking round Cardiff!
According to the programme at the Cardiff show the third rate compere was
the person who does the voice over in Robot Wars. Andy Collins and the robo
babes. In the Cardiff show we had the fun of watching Matilda smash up some
guys car door that had parked in a contestants parking space (this was
obviously set up before the show!). Then Shunt came on for the first battle
which was Panic Attack and some other robot (I remember Panic Attack cos
it's Welsh!) At the end of the war it was up to the audience to decide who
won (strange thing, I thought with it being in Wales and Panic Attack being
Welsh it would be Panic Attack but it was the other team that won). After
that they brought on Dead Metal to show this person what happens to your car
engine when you park your car in the wrong place. Then Dead Metal went off
and we had another battle. Then we had Chaos 2 flipping barrels out the
arena, was the Chaos 2 flipping barrels trick done the same at all of them,
it started with him flipping a barrel and Craig telling him to be careful
and not hit the lights, then on the last barrel he flipped out it hit the
side of the arena and there was a big explosion and Craig said "I told you
not to hit the lights", I'm not too sure whether this was part of the show
'cos it seemed to be rigged but the last barrel did hit something. Did this
happen at your show as well? After that we had a nice long break of 30
minutes (shortens the total show length down to 1hr 30). In part 2 we had
RefBot come on to take control of Sgt Bash, Sgt Bash was about the best
robot that came on, he was superb as he flame throwed the arena and set fire
to the football. Then he had a game of flaming football with Matilda and
then it was the final battle, I was a bit disappointed that there was only 3
battles, at Earls Court I think there were about 5 or 6. The last battle
did see some proper carnage, they managed to get Matilda on it's side, did
this happen at the other shows?, and then the other robot nearly flipped
Matilda out the arena, this was the best bit, the whole crowd were going
wild. The only bad thing was the seats had nothing underneath them like
wooden boxes, just floorboards so you couldn't make as much noise as when I
saw it at Earls Court with your feet. After the final battle there was the
audience participation which happened also at the Earls Court showing this
was about the worst bit of the show. I think if they'd have thought it
through here they could have had another battle on. Also I couldn't believe
that http://www.scienceyear.com had sponsored Robot Wars Live, at £15 a
ticket what did they need sponsorship for? When doing the science year
jumping thing we were told that Manchester got 7.5 on the richter scale and
we managed to do 7.9 on the richter scale, as this was more than Manchester
I wouldn't be suprised if everyone get's told that, anyone who went to see
the other shows what score did you get on the jumping around section? Then
we had the dads driving the horses (seen before at Earls Court) and the kid
driving the learner bot (one of them set a new world record of 25 seconds to
knock down all the barrels). Then finally it was Sir Kill A Lot, I thought
they might have had Sir Kill A Lot battling another contender robot but no
Sir Kill A Lot came on went round the arena showing off, ripped a piece of
macralon out the arena wall (it had been pre-cut for Sir Kill A Lot to
remove. Then they brought on Teddybot which was a stupidly made robot which
wouldn't usually have got anywhere near the robot wars competition to try
and battle Sir Kill A Lot (we all know what's going to happen to TeddyBot -
PIT! PIT! PIT! PIT!) and then to end it all Sir Kill A Lot pulled a wire
that was deliberitly hanging from the ceiling to finish the night off.
> Two hours of tedium, no mayhem, no carnage, no action. I can't do justice
to
> just how naff it was but it was THE pits.
>
I thought it was a bit short it might have been two hours but was it really
two hours?
My ticket said the show started at 7.15 and went on to 9:30 (which is 2hrs
15mins), the actually show didn't start till 7.30 and half way through we
had a 30 minute break so that leaves only 1hr 30 mins for the show :(
> Some awful third-rate compere started it off by introducing three equally
> awful robo-babes on roller skates and it went downhill from there. Each of
> the house robots did a silly turn on their own
>and there were three totally inconsequential 'battles'
When I saw Robot Wars at Earls Court when they were filming it for TV the
battles were the same then. Totally inconsequential, I think it would have
been better if the winner of one battle had gone to battle the other Robot
(the only problem is what if the winners robot is destroyed)
>between home-made bots most of which were too
> 'home-made' to ever even make it onto Robot Wars.
You mean like TeddyBot?
> George Francis showed
> up to give a brief display with Chaos 2 and he should be mightily ashamed
as
> well.
The Chaos 2 display was superb (could have been better though if they'd had
it battling actual robots). The only thing that was bad about the Chaos 2
was the rigged end bit where an explosion goes off as he "hits a light"
>So too Craig Charles who made an appearance as deputy compere.
Craig Charles was cool but I think for £15 pounds he should have been in the
foyer afterwards signing autographs (I wanted him to sign my Red Dwarf
T-Shirt)
> Most of the action came from the audience as the compere and the
robo-babes
> (more awful even than they sound) tried desperately to gets the kids
> shouting and chanting and waving arms to distract them from the fact that
> nothing was happening on stage.
Yeah most of the time the action was on the TV showing you what the robots
could do on TV, forget TV I came to see the robots live, if I wanted to see
them on TV I'd turn on BBC1, that's what I pay my TV Licence for!
> The second half was even worse than the first with such gems as two dads
> from the audience having a race on hobby-horses (I kid you not) and two
kids
> from the audience attempting for the first time to drive a bot round an
> obstacle course - riviting stuff.
btw the riding hobby horse crap also happened at Robot Wars filming in Earls
Court as well as Cardiff robot wars live (and the robot wars live you went
to see - btw which one did you see?). I couldn't believe one of the dads
who was doing the hobby horse ride actually managed to get it to go
backwards!
> What with all the verbal promises of 'mayhem' and 'carnage' and constant
> reminders of the need for the 'mylar'(?) screens because it was so
dangerous
> it just had to be seen to be believed really.
I understand why they have the 18mm Macralon screens, it's incase anything
goes wrong, when I saw it at Earls Court Sir Kill A Lot caught fire, luckily
it didn't get to the petrol but if it had of done I would have been very
happy with the macralon in place (however at the end Sir Kill A Lot does rip
a piece out of the Macralon which totally voids all the safety aspect.
> Quite a few people left at half time and I suppose there must must be a
> bigger waste of fifteen quid somewhere but it's hard to imagine. It's the
> kids I fell sorry for, they go along expecting something along the lines
of
> what they see on TV and they get this appalling pap. Mentorn will be
> laughing all the way to the bank.
I was suprised that most of Cardiff International Arena was empty when I
went to see it (especially considering Cardiff is the only stop RWL made in
Wales).
STE
> ticket what did they need sponsorship for? When doing the science year
> jumping thing we were told that Manchester got 7.5 on the richter scale
and
> we managed to do 7.9 on the richter scale, as this was more than
Manchester
> I wouldn't be suprised if everyone get's told that, anyone who went to see
> the other shows what score did you get on the jumping around section?
Got told exactly the same in Brum, Manc had 7.5 (the most so far), Brum got
7.9!!
(or could have been 7.85)
They didn't say it was the Richter scale - it obviosly wsn't, otherwise I
think half the audience would be dead.
>>and the kid
> driving the learner bot (one of them set a new world record of 25 seconds
to
> knock down all the barrels).
New world record of 35 seconds in Brum. Hmmm.
> it started with him flipping a barrel and Craig telling him to be careful
> and not hit the lights, then on the last barrel he flipped out it hit the
> side of the arena and there was a big explosion and Craig said "I told you
> not to hit the lights", I'm not too sure whether this was part of the show
> 'cos it seemed to be rigged but the last barrel did hit something. Did
this
> happen at your show as well?
Happened in Brum too, except a barrel didn't hit a light, making it even
more amusing :-)
STE ;ｬ!
Darren Forster
STE <steven...@NOSPAMBABYblueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:vv0b7.55578$_b4.5...@news1.cableinet.net...
> "Darren Forster" <darrenf...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> Got told exactly the same in Brum, Manc had 7.5 (the most so far), Brum
got
> 7.9!!
> (or could have been 7.85)
> They didn't say it was the Richter scale - it obviosly wsn't, otherwise I
> think half the audience would be dead.
Could be, at Tommorows World Live they had the same experiment and I watched
a group of school kids get close to 5!
> New world record of 35 seconds in Brum. Hmmm.
> Happened in Brum too, except a barrel didn't hit a light, making it even
> more amusing :-)
>
> STE ;ｬ!
I'm a bit disappointed now that I've found out that most things that
happened seemed to be rigged :(
There is one good thing I got out of RWL though, I've started to think
about building my own robot (maybe just a basic one at first for Technogames
'cos I don't know a thing about electronics (even though I passed the Radio
Amatuers Exam!))
Scott Vivian
"Tom Braider" <he...@there.com> wrote in message
news:DFza7.3539$tQ5.1...@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com...
>
> Two hours of tedium, no mayhem, no carnage, no action. I can't do justice
to
> just how naff it was but it was THE pits.
>
> Some awful third-rate compere started it off by introducing three equally
> awful robo-babes on roller skates and it went downhill from there. Each of
> the house robots did a silly turn on their own and there were three
totally
> inconsequential 'battles' between home-made bots most of which were too
> 'home-made' to ever even make it onto Robot Wars.
Was Matilda there? apparently, she is not coming back next year, cos razer
finished her off in the Annhilator South. Don't know if it's true, in the
Annhilator South they said she will be back.
Apeshit
i was a contestant at the live event in sheffield and your all right to
criticise it cus it was total crap. But the reason that there wasn't that
much carnage is cus the stage is temporary and not very strong and so can't
take much battering.
I was quite surprised when only 9 or 10 robots turned up though and it was
obvious it wasn't a very good show, if i was you i would go the the real one
which is filmed in Augest.
Steve
P.S. was there anybody hear who went to the moring show in sheffield on the
29th July
"nozza" <no...@usa.net> wrote in message
news:3b6ae8bc....@news.blueyonder.co.uk...
andy the pugh
> > we managed to do 7.9 on the richter scale, as this was more than
> Manchester
> > I wouldn't be suprised if everyone get's told that, anyone who went to see
> > the other shows what score did you get on the jumping around section?
>
> Got told exactly the same in Brum, Manc had 7.5 (the most so far), Brum got
> 7.9!!
Sheffield got 7.9, beating Manchester, three shows in a row...
--
ap
andy the pugh
> The only notable participant was SMIDSY whose constructors should be
> thoroughly ashamed of themselves for taking part in such a mediocre and
> cynical money-making ecircus as this appalling show.
It is, allegedly, not aimed at making money, but is intended as a
self-funding way of weeding out the new entrants prior to filming the
real thing. However, the number of new robots involved does seem very
low if that is the case.
We took part partly because I live in Sheffield and SMIDSY has been
largely built here, partly to give some other members of the team the
chance to play with the robot, and mainly to get some shake-down time on
the new design.
> Quite a few people left at half time and I suppose there must must be a
> bigger waste of fifteen quid somewhere but it's hard to imagine. It's the
> kids I fell sorry for, they go along expecting something along the lines of
> what they see on TV and they get this appalling pap.
As I wasn't on the team for the Live Event I spent my time in the
audience, and to be honest the kids seemed to be rather enjoying it.
Perhaps you are over-estimating the sophistication of the target
audience?
I found it rather dull and contrived, and every show was identical in
every detail, but that's showbusiness I guess.
--
ap
andy the pugh
> Was Matilda there?
Which Matilda?
> apparently, she is not coming back next year, cos razer
> finished her off in the Annhilator South.
There is a new Matilda with a big spinny disc instead of the chainsaw.
At the live event they had the old version, presumably to keep the
illusion of chronology. (ie the live event was seen by the audience
before extreme, but actually happened after it)
--
ap
ColinR
"Scott Vivian" <scott.th...@themail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:tmql21d...@corp.supernews.co.uk...
> Was Matilda there? apparently, she is not coming back next year, cos razer
> finished her off in the Annhilator South. Don't know if it's true, in the
> Annhilator South they said she will be back.
She'll get a Dead Metal style makeover - long overdue. I'm surprised she
wasn't destroyed earlier by one of the more destructive bots (Razer, Mortis,
Chaos 2 or Hypnodisc).
The kiddies love her too much for them to just throw her away.
Paul Hyett
considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
>> Was Matilda there? apparently, she is not coming back next year, cos razer
>> finished her off in the Annhilator South. Don't know if it's true, in the
>> Annhilator South they said she will be back.
>
>She'll get a Dead Metal style makeover - long overdue. I'm surprised she
>wasn't destroyed earlier by one of the more destructive bots (Razer, Mortis,
>Chaos 2 or Hypnodisc).
>
>The kiddies love her too much for them to just throw her away.
Craig Charles seems to have an unhealthy fascination with her too. :)
--
Paul 'US Sitcom Fan' Hyett - The Wild Frame Grabber of the Net!
Website at http://www.activist.demon.co.uk/USsitcoms/
Darren Forster
> finished her off in the Annhilator South. Don't know if it's true, in the
> Annhilator South they said she will be back.
Yes Matilda was there but she's not got the same tail.
Here's what it says in the programme about Matilda
Matilda
She now has two weapons, the CHAINSAW and the FLYWHEEL OF FEAR. Her petrol
driven saw can pierce sheet metal - and has seen the destruction of nearly
100 contestants.
Joanne Carter
Tom Braider <he...@there.com> wrote in message
news:DFza7.3539$tQ5.1...@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com...
Tom Bryant
Paul Hyett wrote:
>
> <SNIP>
> >The kiddies love her too much for them to just throw her away.
>
> Craig Charles seems to have an unhealthy fascination with her too. :)
> --
> Paul 'US Sitcom Fan' Hyett - The Wild Frame Grabber of the Net!
No Paul, let's not go there. CHildren do read this newsgroup you know.
:')
Tom Bryant
Paul Hyett
considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
>
>>
>> <SNIP>
>> >The kiddies love her too much for them to just throw her away.
>>
>> Craig Charles seems to have an unhealthy fascination with her too. :)
>
>:')
Nobody *was* going there until you brought it back up! :)
--
Paul 'US Sitcom Fan' Hyett - The Wild Frame Grabber of the Net!
Website at http://www.activist.demon.co.uk/USsitcoms/
Tom Bryant
D'oh! now I've done it.
Tom Bryant
Chris Gattman
andy the pugh wrote:
>
> There is a new Matilda with a big spinny disc instead of the chainsaw.
Spinny disk includes a flywheel and it's sufficiently badass. We fought
Matilda three or four times at Earl's Court. Still easy to flip; my
teammates flipped her twice in two battles.
Still a Sir K fan (even though we beat it too!)...
-gattman
Rosie the Riveter
Team Juggerbot
http://www.juggerbot.com
Edward Haas
the WWF! Shame on you! Hope they pay better than Robotica for that! ;-)
--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Some days I feel like
Watch link rot in action! : Quazi at the Quackadero...
http://www.nmpproducts.com
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---
Gattman
Edward Haas wrote:
>
> --Hey what's with the costumes? Looked like something organized by
> the WWF! Shame on you! Hope they pay better than Robotica for that! ;-)
Robotica doesn't pay unless you win an episode, and/or the
championship. Our team got $2,000 for winning our first Robotica
episode and then nothing for coming in 3rd.
US competitors WERE paid pretty well for Robot Wars; the team got an
appearance fee ('cause you had to take six days off of work to be
there), plus Robot Wars picked up the airfare, hotel, meals and
transportation for the team. Also...it was an excuse to go to London,
for FREE! Neither Robotica nor Battlebots come anywhere CLOSE to doing
that for competitors. At Bbots this year, there was no running water on
the island, the portable toilets were filled to overflowing and had been
sitting in the sun all weekend so they smelled like hell, and the "food"
was a dry lettuce and meat sandwich and sometimes a cookie or a
strawberry. They paid nothing as far as transporation or lodging and
you had to pay a fee just to compete.
To compete in Robot Wars and get the appearance fee, you had to show up
with a working robot, but the condition was that we have decorated
robots and costumes.
The reason for that, as we were told by the producer, is that the
original series of Robot Wars US that was filmed for MTV was cancelled
by the network because it wasn't visually stimulating or entertaining.
That was MTV's decision, but Robot Wars took the hit after filming an
entire event for MTV and then having the show immediately cancelled.
So, when TNN, who is also owned by Viacom, said they wanted
visually-interesting robots and colorful robot builders, Mentorn told
builders up front that that's what they expected. If you applied, you
agreed to those terms.
T-bot's costumes took about 10 minutes to buy from a fabric store and
cut a head-hole in it. They have no dignity or self-esteem issues about
wearing costumes 'cause if your robot gets killed by guys in caveman
costumes, that's your problem, not theirs. And either way, they're
probably going to kill your robot.
My "costume" is an original WWII enlisted man's outfit that I acquired
doing volunteer work in a B-17G bomber a few years ago. The shoulder
patch was my grandfather's (he adopted me, was a B-17 veteran an ex
Prisoner of War) and the silver wings on the uniform were those worn by
my grandmother's first husband, who was killed over Italy in 1945 when
his B-24 exploded in flight.
My grandmother built aircraft carriers and Liberty ships during WWII,
and adopted me at birth, and I have absolutely no reservations at all
about bringing these things to the TV show.
Hope that explains things. Lots of epic fights and a LOT of fire coming
up in the next few weeks. Costume or not, if it comes down to choosing
to compete in Robot Wars or Battlebots, we'll see ya in London!
Chris Gattman
Rosie the Riveter
Team Juggerbot
Robotica, Battlebots 2K1, Robot Wars
Http://www.juggerbot.com
Gattman
Darren Forster wrote:
> Yes Matilda was there but she's not got the same tail.
The flywheel is very badass, by the way. Rosie the Riveter has some
scars from a melee where we got bumped from behind into Matilda's tail.
It's the first thing folks point at when the see the robot: a
uniformly-spaced series of wicked gouges torn out of our side armor
(aluminum...sorry, sorry!) in about three seconds.
I got to go back into the housebot pits to get some cutting grease at
Earl's Court. That was the first time I EVER saw the house robots. It
was all darkened and quiet and there were just the robots and a bunch of
tools. The house robots have so much character that you feel like
they're all staring at you when you walk by.
It's pretty cool, in the sense that a gladiator might find a trip
through the lion cages interesting. :>
-gattman
Rosie the Riveter
gareth young
"Gattman" <ga...@hevanet.com> wrote in message
news:3B8A913E...@hevanet.com...
> US competitors WERE paid pretty well for Robot Wars; the team got an
> appearance fee ('cause you had to take six days off of work to be
> there), plus Robot Wars picked up the airfare, hotel, meals and
> transportation for the team. Also...it was an excuse to go to London,
> for FREE! Neither Robotica nor Battlebots come anywhere CLOSE to doing
> that for competitors.
robotwars doesn't either for uk competitors!
this year is the first year they get anything other than the honour of being
on tv and even then i'm sure it's nowhere near as much as the US people were
getting.
--
Gareth.
quote of the day.....
'woman,i have fought 177 men and only one survives,
and he has got no legs.'
Gattman
gareth young wrote:
> > US competitors WERE paid pretty well for Robot Wars; the team got an
> > appearance fee ('cause you had to take six days off of work to be
> > there), plus Robot Wars picked up the airfare, hotel, meals and
> > transportation for the team. Also...it was an excuse to go to London,
> > for FREE! Neither Robotica nor Battlebots come anywhere CLOSE to doing
> > that for competitors.
>
> robotwars doesn't either for uk competitors!
> this year is the first year they get anything other than the honour of being
> on tv and even then i'm sure it's nowhere near as much as the US people were
> getting.
I heard that UK competitors received £500 whereas US teams received
£2000.
TNN--the network carrying Robot Wars--may have paid quite a bit more
than the BBC for the series, however, which might explain the
difference. I'm not sure why there was such a difference except that US
builders had to take much more time off from work to be in London. When
UK teams were eliminated, they usually just packed up and went home.
*shrug*
Either way, robotic combat is definately not a money-making venture.
-gattman
Edward Haas
stand on their own merits, so to speak. That doofus of a WWF host with all
of the missing teeth pretty much summed up the target audience I.Q., IMO.
On Comedy Central they have a little fun, but the bots are still the
"stars". What got me about the RWX show was the lack of information about
the bots, particularly in the pits where all would have been easy to
reveal: they basically skipped the innards and concentrated on ...well,
trivial stuff..
Gattman
Edward Haas wrote:
>
> --Understood. Still and all it's sad to think that the bots can't
> stand on their own merits, so to speak. That doofus of a WWF host with all
> of the missing teeth pretty much summed up the target audience I.Q., IMO.
That's what most of the competitors said. Foley doesn't represent the
average nerd or robot fan. Their target includes at kids, though, but I
dunno...I always thought Dennis Miller might make a good host. Or
Dennis Leary, or Tim Allen or somebody.
One thing about Foley, however, is that he's no meat head. He's got
THREE books on the bestseller list and he's a huge history geek.
Actually very intelligent and pretty quick witted in person.
> On Comedy Central they have a little fun, but the bots are still the
> "stars". What got me about the RWX show was the lack of information about
> the bots, particularly in the pits where all would have been easy to
> reveal: they basically skipped the innards and concentrated on ...well,
> trivial stuff..
Yeah. They need to pay less attention to the housebots between fights.
Last night I see they ditched the bit about Sir K's "cold fusion
reactor."
-gattman
Rosie the Riveter
Mike Morrow
Gattman <ga...@hevanet.com> wrote in message news:<3B8A913E...@hevanet.com>...
> T-bot's costumes took about 10 minutes to buy from a fabric store and
> cut a head-hole in it. They have no dignity or self-esteem issues about
Hey now, it took more than 10 minutes to develop the rope belt
technology alone! Actually, Nicole's outfit was more involved than
our rudimentary cave togas. It has hidden snaps and form-fitting
tailoring. :)
> wearing costumes 'cause if your robot gets killed by guys in caveman
> costumes, that's your problem, not theirs. And either way, they're
> probably going to kill your robot.
I think the important thing to remember is we went to have fun. They
wanted costumes, so we went with it. They wanted flammable
sacrificial decorations, so we went with it (and how!). They wanted
two robots so we reincarnated JuggerBot 1.0 as Rosie. To me, it's
all about having a blast smashing really big toys into each other. I
don't care if folks think we looked silly or not. We had fun and got
PAID to spend 10 days in London on somebody else's dime.
And Gatt's right, we're still going to kill without mercy- whether
we're dolled up for fun or in our standard nerd attire. Inside the
arena, it's business, plain and simple.
You can bet that the "paper bag" comments about TriceraBot ended after
the first time we spent an entire event on fire, pummeling our
opponents.
> Hope that explains things. Lots of epic fights and a LOT of fire coming
September 10th, Tag Team Terror on Robot Wars:Extreme Warriors.
You'll see what a truly fire-proof 'bot is.
> up in the next few weeks. Costume or not, if it comes down to choosing
> to compete in Robot Wars or Battlebots, we'll see ya in London!
Amen brutha Gattman! It costs more to compete in a single season of
Battlebots than it does to build most combat robots! Even worse, you
may only fight 2 or 3 times in 5 days of competing.
Mike Morrow
TriceraBot
TEAM:JuggerBot
www.juggerbot.com
Dan
The Mat" puts it quite nicely in the first scene.
It's great RWUK is finally offering some money, it's taken years just to get
that off them. With-in 10 years maybe we'll be able to make a decent living
out of it.
Dan
-------
"Gattman" <ga...@hevanet.com> wrote in message
news:3B8A9365...@hevanet.com...
nozza
>
>Edward Haas wrote:
>>
>> --Hey what's with the costumes? Looked like something organized by
>> the WWF! Shame on you! Hope they pay better than Robotica for that! ;-)
>
>Robotica doesn't pay unless you win an episode, and/or the
>championship. Our team got $2,000 for winning our first Robotica
>episode and then nothing for coming in 3rd.
>
>US competitors WERE paid pretty well for Robot Wars; the team got an
>appearance fee ('cause you had to take six days off of work to be
>there), plus Robot Wars picked up the airfare, hotel, meals and
>transportation for the team. Also...it was an excuse to go to London,
>for FREE! Neither Robotica nor Battlebots come anywhere CLOSE to doing
>that for competitors. At Bbots this year, there was no running water on
>the island, the portable toilets were filled to overflowing and had been
>sitting in the sun all weekend so they smelled like hell, and the "food"
>was a dry lettuce and meat sandwich and sometimes a cookie or a
>strawberry. They paid nothing as far as transporation or lodging and
>you had to pay a fee just to compete.
Or, you could put it this way, you were US teams at a UK event. the
First BattleBots, the UK teams got the same. Free food, acomodation,
etc.
Lets see, the first BBOts I did, I got free food, that was it. no free
accomodation, no money, no free flights. I didn't expect any, and I
was in the crew. (well ok, I was offered a free room for 4 of the
nights I was there, but I turned it down, as I liked my motel room,
and the nice walk to it). You'll find that most competitions don'tt
pay for everything for all of their competitors. Most motor sport
teams take their own accomodation and food with them, and drive so no
free flights, and they pay an entry fee. Anything that the teams don't
pay for, is paid by the sponsors. on the other hand, most TV shows are
just as you described.
There were 600 UK teams who went for Robot wars last year, just as 600
went for BBOts last time. Many got to fight only once, had to take a
day or two off work, got nothing, had the chance to win nothing,
sometimes had to wait in line for 4-5 HOURS, no free food, no abilty
to watch matches that weren't your own, toilets were the far end of
the studio complex, the matches were at the whim of the crew,
sometimes you'd go into the arena set to fight one person, and when
you started the fight, you were against someone else. That was an
equivilent sized event, and an equivilent numbered event (4th RW
event). There were no cameras allowed (not even in the pits to take
pics of your own bots - we took one of us with viper (our
heavyweight), and were warned we'd be thrown out if we did it again)
>
>To compete in Robot Wars and get the appearance fee, you had to show up
>with a working robot, but the condition was that we have decorated
>robots and costumes.
and be one of the ones selected - it's NOT open to all, you know.
RW recently did live events. charged $15/ticket for a 2 hour session,
with 4-6 matches in it. (IIRC, the vegas tickets were about that much,
for 3 hour sessions, with about 25-30 matches.
>
>The reason for that, as we were told by the producer, is that the
>original series of Robot Wars US that was filmed for MTV was cancelled
>by the network because it wasn't visually stimulating or entertaining.
That's more a function of decent camerawork than anything. a good
filming crew can make things interesting, whilst a bad one will make
anything boring.
>
>That was MTV's decision, but Robot Wars took the hit after filming an
>entire event for MTV and then having the show immediately cancelled.
An entire event? I thought it was a pilot, with 3 matchs
>
>So, when TNN, who is also owned by Viacom, said they wanted
>visually-interesting robots and colorful robot builders, Mentorn told
>builders up front that that's what they expected. If you applied, you
>agreed to those terms.
applied, not registered? applied implies selection.
>
>T-bot's costumes took about 10 minutes to buy from a fabric store and
>cut a head-hole in it. They have no dignity or self-esteem issues about
>wearing costumes 'cause if your robot gets killed by guys in caveman
>costumes, that's your problem, not theirs. And either way, they're
>probably going to kill your robot.
>
>My "costume" is an original WWII enlisted man's outfit that I acquired
>doing volunteer work in a B-17G bomber a few years ago. The shoulder
>patch was my grandfather's (he adopted me, was a B-17 veteran an ex
>Prisoner of War) and the silver wings on the uniform were those worn by
>my grandmother's first husband, who was killed over Italy in 1945 when
>his B-24 exploded in flight.
>My grandmother built aircraft carriers and Liberty ships during WWII,
>and adopted me at birth, and I have absolutely no reservations at all
>about bringing these things to the TV show.
>
>Hope that explains things. Lots of epic fights and a LOT of fire coming
>up in the next few weeks. Costume or not, if it comes down to choosing
>to compete in Robot Wars or Battlebots, we'll see ya in London!
Personally, I'll stick with the safe one, the one with the fixed rules
(where they're not suddenly applying cluster bot rules to regular
ones, for instance)
Edward Haas
invited 24 teams to participate and gave each team one room in a hotel
that Consumers Reports rates dead last in a survey of all motels in the
USA. Perks? One pair of size 12 Nike knock-offs to split between the team.
Here's a link to the shoes: www.killerbotz.org/quolity.htm
Gattman
nozza wrote:
> Personally, I'll stick with the safe one, the one with the fixed rules
> (where they're not suddenly applying cluster bot rules to regular
> ones, for instance)
Son of Whyachi, the heavyweight champion this season, must now fight in
the SHW class. Whyachi is for sale on E-bay.
60 pages or so of new rules. The stompbot weight bonus is out.
Pneumatic restrictions are substantial (probably 'cause of The Judge.)
Having competed in Robotica, Robot Wars and Battlebots, I'm still
reluctant to claim loyalty to one over the other; but I'm not going back
to Bbots this year, and I'll go to London if they invite me.
Robotica is still the only event with a truly clear, objective scoring
system.
-gattman
Gattman
Edward Haas wrote:
>
> --Better than Robotica. They spent 2.5 *million* clams on sets,
> invited 24 teams to participate and gave each team one room in a hotel
> that Consumers Reports rates dead last in a survey of all motels in the
> USA.
Consumer Aborts sucks ass. Granted, the hotel we stayed at really DID
leave a lot to be desired, but everything worked. The only time I
remember the police showing up is when one of the Robotica teams got in
a fight with themselves in their hotel room. (It really was a bad day
for that team.)
Compare that to the motel in Pensacola where I threw a chair onto the
lawn because it was crawling with 2" palmetto bugs, or the one in
Seattle with the "no prostitution" sign and the guy four doors down
whistling at my girlfriend like she was a prostitute. Or the one in El
Paso that had no working electricity in the bathroom and a broken
toilet, or the one in Gulfport that had the 3" gap between the air
conditioner and the wall, stuffed with a towel so you couldn't see into
the room from the parking lot...
>Perks? One pair of size 12 Nike knock-offs to split between the team.
"Highest Qoulity"...people are still making fun of those. Jason used
his shoes as weapons covers at Bbots on Doctor Inferno, I believe.
-gattman
Edward Haas
: Consumer Aborts sucks ass. Granted, the hotel we stayed at really DID
: leave a lot to be desired, but everything worked. The only time I
: remember the police showing up is when one of the Robotica teams got in
: a fight with themselves in their hotel room. (It really was a bad day
: for that team.)
: Compare that to the motel in Pensacola where I threw a chair onto the
: lawn because it was crawling with 2" palmetto bugs, or the one in
: Seattle with the "no prostitution" sign and the guy four doors down
(SNIP)
--Were these other robotic contests? Kinda down-market trend it
sounds like... ;-)
andy the pugh
> There were 600 UK teams who went for Robot wars last year, just as 600
> went for BBOts last time. Many got to fight only once, had to take a
> day or two off work, got nothing, had the chance to win nothing,
> sometimes had to wait in line for 4-5 HOURS, no free food, no abilty
> to watch matches that weren't your own,
In the televised rounds, however, everyone got hotels and food. At
Extreme we got 5 nights in a ludicrously expensive hotel for only 2
bouts. Once you are working with a film crew union rules seem to insist
on food every few hours, so there's lots to eat too. How the
interchangeable gorgeuos blondes[1] keep their figures is a mystery.
True, there was no accomodation provided for the qualifiers, and that
seems mean, however 600 teams, 3 per team, that's 900 people @ 100quid a
night (the Extreme hotel was 145 quid a night) is a fair chunk of money,
even for a TV programme.
[1] Talking to the production crew "So, which one is Alice then?".
"She's about so high, long blonde hair, pretty". "Yes, that isn't really
helping..."
Oh, while I am at it, overheard on the PA at Earls Court "Due to health
and safety constraints all runners must walk"
Gattman
Edward Haas wrote:
>
> In uk.media.tv.robot-wars Gattman <ga...@hevanet.com> wrote:
> : Consumer Aborts sucks ass. Granted, the hotel we stayed at really DID
> : leave a lot to be desired, but everything worked. The only time I
> : remember the police showing up is when one of the Robotica teams got in
> : a fight with themselves in their hotel room. (It really was a bad day
> : for that team.)
> --Curious: which team might that have been?
Heh. I'm not comfortable answering that question 'cause I didn't see it
firsthand. Just heard about it from teams who had hotel rooms on both
sides and heard the whole thing go down. We heard it too, but I was in
the parking lot when the police showed up.
> : Compare that to the motel in Pensacola where I threw a chair onto the
> : lawn because it was crawling with 2" palmetto bugs, or the one in
> : Seattle with the "no prostitution" sign and the guy four doors down
> (SNIP)
> --Were these other robotic contests? Kinda down-market trend it
> sounds like... ;-)
No, no. I know I'm gonna catch flak for this, but one of the places
(the one with the gap under the AC) was my HONEYMOON!
Of Robotica, Battlebots and RW, hotel accomodations for Bbots under the
competitor deal was far and away the best.
The hotel in Hammersmith was pretty good by UK standards, I'm told, but
by American standards it was incredibly compact. It's hard to find
rooms that small in the US.
And no matter HOW hard I tried, I couldn't jam my electric razor into
the wall outlet (joke.) Plus, "DO NOT DISTURB" apparently means "Come
on in, make the bed and leave the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the sofa when
you're done", and we never DID get the complimentary breakfasts that
were supposed to be delivered to our door if we requested 'em, which we
did every day.
Having said that, the girls behind the counter at the hotel were among
the most charming I've ever seen. In fact, London as a whole...let's
just say the "California Girls" have NOTHING on the UK! The bartenders
were exceptionally patient and kind too...
-Gattman
Rosie the Riveter
Dave
people. Space is at a premium :)
and yes, our ladies are very nice. and they're hardly ever plastic, and
they can pull a good pint. :)
Which hotel was it in Hammersmith? The Novotel?
Dave
"Gattman" <ga...@hevanet.com> wrote in message
news:3B9D4DC7...@hevanet.com...
Gattman
Dave wrote:
>
> You gotta remember we're just a little island, covered with 60,000,000
> people. Space is at a premium :)
Yeah...I gathered that in the tube! I figure 50,000,000 of you folks
are lucky I didn't try to drive.
There are only 3,500,000 or so people in all of Oregon. Definately an
awesome city, though.
> Which hotel was it in Hammersmith? The Novotel?
Yep.
-Chris
Gattman
andy the pugh wrote:
> [1] Talking to the production crew "So, which one is Alice then?".
> "She's about so high, long blonde hair, pretty". "Yes, that isn't really
> helping..."
No lie. If it's the same ones that were at Earl's Court, (the "tank top
twins" as somebody else referred to 'em), they were perfectly charming
and very helpful, too.
-gattman