Top Ten Battlebots, Robot Wars and King of Bots Competitors with Crushers
Crushers (or claws) are a weapon that you rarely see on combat robots, and it's even rarer seeing it done well. Several competitors however made good use of a crusher, be it to crush down, pierce, or simply grab and control. This is a list of the bots from all the main robot combat series (Robot Wars, Battlebots and King of Bots) that I felt utilized the crusher the best.
The champion of the first series of King of Bots, this robot is pretty much the modern day apex of crushing weapons. With a whopping 14 tonnes of crush it not only comes down strong, but the robot is fast as well, and it slams it's opponents so roughly that it's tough to survive such an impact. Even when it has proven susceptible to a strong spinner, this machine is still very difficult to beat.
This is the very robot that popularized the crusher and is one of the most well known Robot Wars competitors. It didn't have much luck in the earlier series, but it eventually managed to win series 5, with it's punishing 9-tonnes of crushing force. It also had rear omni-wheels and a wedge that could get underneath anything, meaning it was well equipped for dealing with a variety of robots.
The team who entered Spectre in King of Bots then made a similar machine for Battlebots called Quantum. It's crusher not only looked great but was capable of piercing through the toughest of armour. It was also very fast and maneuverable. What let it down though was it's wedge, and it wouldn't always survive a hard impact. Still, the team did very well in it's first series, and even won the award for Best Design.
Got stuck in blacksmith
A crusher from The Netherlands that competed in the 2018-2019 series of Battlebots. It was one of the most powerful hydraulic crushers, it's design allowed for efficient self-righting, plus that front end was perfect for dealing with horizontal spinners. It's only real drawback was the wedge was a bit too steep to get a good grab at times.
A team from the modern series of Robot Wars that only entered one series. It's crusher actually did damage, plus the team had the guts to just go head on into the dangerous weapons of the opponents. This got them a famous win over Tauron Mk II, but ultimately the damage accumulated proved too much. It's a shame the series got cancelled, because it would've been good to see where the team could improve after a damned decent first effort.
The third machine in a line of robots from Robot Wars. Tiberius started out as an armour-piercing spike, which became a crusher. The third entry had some bad luck in series 6, but won the University challenge and did well in series 7, with a strong crusher and being well armoured. Also team captain Sam Smith would later go on to win Robot Wars with Carbide.
A competitor from the 2018-2019 series of Battlebots that used a pneumatic crusher. It's not very damaging to say the least, but it has proven to be a good control bot, plus when it does get a win it's always against a reasonably challenging opponent. Also the machine just looks great.
A machine from the classic series of Robot Wars (and the first reboot series) with two horizontal crushers. It was a very unlucky robot that lost in round 1 of every series it entered. It's biggest claim to fame though was winning TWO Annihilators, and it didn't just survive idle. It got stuck in for all of the fights and did some pretty decent damage with it's claws.
Another prominent figure in the classic series of Robot Wars, the Ming team decided to experiment with a crusher for their third robot. The robot had weaknesses, such as exposed wheels and a fairly big turn radius. The crusher was decent though and it wasn't a badly driven machine. Fun fact, this was the only Ming robot that appeared in more than one series.