Top 10 Robot Wars Series 5 Competitors

After 3 series of unfortunate circumstances and mechanical failures the Razer team return, hungry for the UK title. The machine started out with a scare against Big Nipper, but quickly dispatched of all the opponents in it's heat, and dominated it's Semi-Final fights. It had a very tough fight with Firestorm in the Grand Final, and then fought Bigger Brother for the title. The fight went to the judges, and Razer won, giving the team their first ever UK title. Certainly the Crème de la Crème of their trophy collection.

Bigger Brother went out very early in Series 4. In Series 5 however it returned heavily improved. It's flipper was a lot more powerful and was able to chuck 2 of it's 3 opponents out of the arena. It then dispatched of a couple of dangerous opponents in the Semi-Finals, including the reigning champion Chaos 2. It then got absolutely trounced by Hypno-Disc, yet refused to die, and in an amazing comeback managed to pull off a famous win. Before the Grand Final countless teams (Hypno-Disc included) helped the Bigger Brother team repair the damage done to their robot and get it ready for the final. Ultimately Razer won the fight, but Bigger Brother's run up to the Grand Final was nothing short of heroic.

Man, Firestorm had quite the journey throughout this series. It had it's problems as early as it's first fight against Bee-Capitator, when it drove into Matilda's flywheel, which tore off it's flipper. They managed to repair it after that fight, and it still worked, even getting a surprise out of the arena KO against Reactor 2. It then lost an underwhelming fight with Hypno-Disc, before winning the loser's melee against Panic Attack and Wheely Big Cheese, and then defeating Pussycat. It had a very close fight with Razer, which it ultimately lost, but then won the third-place play-off by getting revenge on Hypno-Disc.

Firestorm had more fights than any other bot in the series, and it was quite beaten up and war torn by the end.

The UK's most destructive bot returned, with a tougher and sturdier spinner. It didn't have as many fights where it decimated it's opponents, this time preferring to go for a quick knockout and to conserve energy. It's spinner certainly had the capability to do just that. Once again it made it to the Grand Final where it fought Bigger Brother. It was ripping Bigger Brother to pieces, and tore off it's flipper, but as the fight went on Hypno-Disc wore down, and in a moment of comeback Bigger Brother opened the pit and pushed Hypno-Disc right down in it.
I think at this point Hypno-Disc proved to be a machine that's devastating in it's first few fights, but doesn't have the longevity to go all the way.

The two-time UK champion return, again with a relatively unchanged machine. Of course with George Francis' driving skills and the bot's speed Chaos 2 still proved a difficult machine to beat. It had a scare in it's heat final when it nearly lost to S.M.I.D.S.Y., then it's fight against Wild Thing was simply fantastic, and was one of the best (if not the best) Robot Wars fights ever. It then fought Bigger Brother in a classic flip-off. Chaos 2 ran out of gas and was unable to self-right, and so such a long, undefeated run in the main competition finally came to an end.

Now this robot came as such a surprise. The team that previously had Sting and Sting 2 came back with a different beast entirely. It was a weird looking vertical spinner robot that could run both ways up (think Daisy Chopper if it actually worked), it ripped apart bots like Plunderbird 5 and Mouse Trap, and even got a famous win over the 5th seed Stinger. It struggled more in the Semi-Finals against tougher robots, and eventually the run ended when it was beaten quite comfortably by Razer. Still, for a team who previously hadn't won a fight to come back and do this good, this was pretty darn impressive.

Wheely Big Cheese was a design that boasted a lot of power, but not the easiest weapon to maneuver. In it's heat it got 2 impressive out of the arenas, including the record at the time for the biggest flip against Axe-Awe. In the Semi-Final fight against Dominator 2 it was looking on top of the world, flipper working a dream and almost managing to immobilize Dominator 2. Unfortunately technical gremlins struck and Wheely Big Cheese stopped working. It then fought in the loser's melee with Firestorm and Panic Attack, which it was ultimately eliminated from.

The runner-up from the previous series return, and once again it proves to be a challenging opponent, what with David Gribble's excellent driving skills and it's 'Death by 1000 cuts' method of fighting. The thing is though, as the weight limit increased armour became more thick, so the blade wasn't able to tear through robots quite as successfully this time. Also it get very lucky in it's heat final against Fluffy. It still did well enough to make the Top 8, before it was beaten by a very good Firestorm on a judges decision.

The Adams family return with a new version of Wild Thing. This time with a spinning flywheel on the wedge. Not the most practical of designs, but still the machine was as reliable as ever, and self-righted well. It had a couple of hard fights in it's heat, and it won a very questionable judges decision over Prizephita Mach 2, but once again Nick Adams driving skill, along with the machine's excellent reliability was all the bot needed to do well. It then lost after having an excellent fight with Chaos 2, and in it's loser's melee put up a brave fight against S3, but ultimately lost on a judges decision.