Robot Wars returning to BBC2!

Soldato
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5-6 hours in car with 3 boys and the wife or over 200 quid to fly. Not very attractive options. We did go to the Robot Wars thing in Greenwich where the boys managed to get in the arena and pit and have photos with house robots and go backstage so they might have to do with that lol.
 
Soldato
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So the next series isnt all filmed on the same day like the first? That sounds promising then, could be a lot more entertaining if they have more time to make repairs.
 
Associate
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I am glad to hear that it's coming back...if only we could return to the glory days of 20+ episodes per series.

All they really need to do is fix the reliability problems and sort out who they are actually trying to aim the show at.

Oh yeah and get rid of the pit :)
 
Man of Honour
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I am glad to hear that it's coming back...if only we could return to the glory days of 20+ episodes per series.

All they really need to do is fix the reliability problems and sort out who they are actually trying to aim the show at.

Oh yeah and get rid of the pit :)

Heh link failure got really boring fast - I don't mind the pit as such but there should be far more strategy to using the pit rather than it just opening after a predetermined time as that got boring fast as well.
 
Soldato
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Years ago I went to watch some of series 2 being filmed at a place in Docklands London. TBH it wasn't very interesting most of the time you spent waiting for the technicians to get the arena ready (this is when Robots had to tackle obstacle courses and do challenges like tug-of-war with a house robot) not to mention the time spent waiting for Craig Charles to remember his lines! What did surprise me was just how big these Robots are the TV screen just doesn't do them justice.

Good to see that there bringing this back for another season, I would have preferred to have seen Craig Charles back hosting the show but while I do like Dara O'Briain he looks like the head of accounts department and really needs to change up his look.
 
Soldato
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Well last Sunday we went to see Robot Wars being recorded. It lasted 4 hours. Strange thing was there were meant to be two recording sessions but there was only one. There was quite a bit of waiting between action but it never seemed to be boring or drag because there was nearly always something happening. The warm up guy was pretty good. We were asked quite a lot of times to provide "crowd noise" chants, "ooo's" "ahhhs", etc etc this became evident as when the battles were going on the audience was not very loud. We were too busy watching. Although I can say I was shouting my head off as my voice was croaky by the end of the day.

As you probably have guessed its in a massive hanger/warehouse with the Arena down one end and the pit down the other. The audience are sat at each corner of the arena and only 5 rows deep so we were pretty close to the action. Thank god for the screens though as bits of robot really do fly at them. The arena itself was actually smaller than I thought but it is pretty big. We were also given a certain amount of freedom to wander a little and even had the chance to chat to some of the roboteers waiting to go on. What we saw was not an entire episode either it seemed to be parts of other episodes. It was a kind of strange way to film similiar to when they make a movie although we did see one final but we saw it first.

The dreaded link problem. Pretty sure this has been sorted out. All the robots seemed to be armed/disarmed using the same or a very similiar mechanism and it looked like some thought had gone into the issue. I could see some kind of white/red pole for want of a better word being removed and replaced. The Arena staff are not allowed in till all the robots including the house robots are disarmed and they are all moved over to the entrance. If a robot is not moving the house robots shove it over to the side then they are disarmed.

For those who dont want to know anymore I will continue in a spoiler but my kids and I loved it. Worth the 4hr drive! Celebrity Editions are 29th and 30th December and the new series is Feb 2017

Here are a few observations about the new series. We were suprisingly told we could take pictures and share them only thing we should not do is tell who won the battles.

The pit is larger than before it even looked like the house robots could easily fit in. There is a new pit release. Its still the tyre but there is also a pointer. Once the tyre is hit the pointer can either swing left or right. Left the pit opens. Right the house robots are free to batter any contestants robot without prejudice! We never saw the pointer go right but it was meant to be random. I guess its meant to make them think twice about opening the pit. I never realised how brutal the spikes are too they are massive. Never saw the floor flipper being used though but the flame pit was.

Same house robots as before although Sir Killalot looks like he has had a bit of a makeover. Same presenters.

We saw at least two new types of robot. One called Jellyfish which I wont describe and another which was twin robots. Not little ones like before but two robots similiar in a 2 v 1 battle.

Few of the robots we saw was Carbide, Apollo, Aftershock, Sabretooth, Behemoth seemed to be quite a few new robots too.

The spinners looked to have had the advantage. Although once again one of the spinners was self harming! Carbide is pretty bad ass again and was involved in another bit of damage to the arena wall which stopped the battle but I wont tell you how it got damaged it has to be seen to be believed it was amazing. However Aftershock OMG this is now a spinner but with a "twist" reminded me of the London Eye for some reason and the destructive power of this is out of this world. The Aftershock team were very friendly and spoke to us before and after. Thank god for the protective screens.

My son got a legendary foam pointy finger 3-2-1 Activate. The warm up guy also gives out bits of robot that have come off in the battles.

Won't say anything else will leave the rest as a surprise but it does look a better series this time round despite the host.......

Here are a few pics. Apologies for the poor shots I didnt use the flash for obvious reasons and my phone camera is a bit poor.

Repairing the arena wall after Carbide "missile" attacked it. It was just WOW when you see it. In this shot you can see at the back of Sir Killalot the white/red "pole" used to disarm it I mentioned earlier. This too I saw in the contestant robots.
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Post group battle. Behemoth is here. Two of these won, two lost, can you tell which ? ;)
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Looking towards the pits. You can actually walk round the back of the audience and get right upto it where a barrier then has a notice which warns you away. I told my Dad to take photos but he forgot. Too busy chatting with the Roboteers!
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The Robot Gladiator
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Matilda Ahhhhh crowd favourite
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Associate
Joined
17 Aug 2004
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The American Robot wars (Battle Bots) makes this look like complete amateur hour, its almost laughable.... no it is laughable!

Health and Safety has no doubt killed any possible way the UK version could ever compete, still no doubt the kids will still enjoy it



https://youtu.be/_crakCWwYLI
BattleBots 2015 Episode 3 - Robots Battles HD
 
Man of Honour
Joined
11 Mar 2004
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76,634
The American Robot wars (Battle Bots) makes this look like complete amateur hour, its almost laughable.... no it is laughable!

Health and Safety has no doubt killed any possible way the UK version could ever compete, still no doubt the kids will still enjoy it



https://youtu.be/_crakCWwYLI
BattleBots 2015 Episode 3 - Robots Battles HD

or you know nothing to do with health and safety. `but for several reason including.
only announced a few months in advanced so had extremely limited time to build bots.
the awful format of the show meaning they have like 30 minutes to repair a totally destroyed bot.
lack of corporate sponsors like in america (possibly due to bbc advertising laws)

but use battle bots is a thousand times better.
 
Soldato
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The TARDIS, Wakefield, UK
B
Was it worth it?

Totally anytime you see a tv programme being made and i have seen a few. Battle bots should be better they invented the programme. I thought it was a bit too brash. Commentators really annoying.

Any new Robot Wars is better than none never going to be as good. Oh forgot to mention JP commentating isn't live either. Its recorded later. It was worth going just to see what Carbide did. Won't say what but it's awesome.
 
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