website in 2000, cofounder Greg
Munson chalked it up to pure
human nature: “People like to see
things get destroyed,” he said in an
answer to one question. History
agrees; robot combat is really just a
slightly more humane version of
gladiator fights in ancient Rome.
Whatever the reason for the appeal,
it is certainly true that the BattleBots
television show brought huge
mainstream popularity to robot
combat.
The Start of
BattleBots
As I discussed in last month’s
issue, the late 1990s were a
turbulent time for robot combat.
Marc Thorpe, the founder of the
popular Robot Wars competition,
was entangled in legal battles over
the Robot Wars brand. Several
events in San Francisco, CA were
planned and then cancelled due to
legal issues. Eventually though, a
pair of veteran builders — Trey Roski
and Greg Munson — were given the
legal go-ahead to host an event. A
few months later in August 1999,
the first official BattleBots
competition was held in Long
Beach, CA.
The event had three weight
classes: Kilobots ( 25-55 lbs
wheeled, 25-83 lbs legged),
Megabots (56-109 lbs wheeled,
84-164 lbs legged), and Gigabots
(110-200 lbs wheeled, 165-300 lbs
legged). Notice that legged bots —
FIGURE 1. Mechadon.
Photo courtesy of teamkiss.com.
like the impressive 450 lb
Mechadon from Mark Setrakian
(Figure 1) — were allowed to be
much heavier than their
traditional wheeled counterparts.
Because of the difficulty involved
in building them, only a few
legged bots were entered in the
competition.
There were the obligatory
Thanks for the Memories
FIGURE 2. Tentomushi.
Believe it or not, it has been over 10 years since BattleBots first
aired on television. Some of the veterans of the competitions were
kind enough to share their memories of participating in the events.
Terry Ewert, driver of superheavyweight champion Son of
Wyachi, remembers the challenge and fun of the competitions: “The
days were really long; [we did not get] much sleep during the event
week. But we were operating under the motto of work hard and
play even harder.”
Michael “Fuzzy” Mauldin, driver of FrostBite (along with many
other ice-themed bots), gave us a vivid account of his proudest
moment: winning against Brian Nave’s Phrizbee Ultimate during
Season Five. “Phrizbee Ultimate had been tearing its way through the
brackets, demolishing robot after robot (and wreaking havoc on the
arena walls, too). After the first big hit, IceBerg’s plow blade tore off
and flew across the arena. But the huge hit disconnected Phrizbee
Ultimate’s weapon batteries, and from then on, our weaponless
superheavy pushed Phrizbee around the arena. Then, Iceberg
pushed Phrizbee up against the screw hazards and Phrizbee
toppled upside-down. It wasn’t our first knock-out, but it was our
most satisfying.”
Jason Bardis, who drove Dr. Inferno Jr. (which took home two
lightweight championships), recalled the spirit of camaraderie that
surrounded the competitions: “My best memories ... are the many
instances where a competitor helped another fix their robot, just
before they were to fight each other, so that it would be a fun, fair,
and exciting fight. My largest and closest set of friends comes from
the robot combat community. Whenever I go on a trip, I meet up
with my bot friends.”
SERVO 02.2012 29
