Top 10 Best Robot Wars 2017 Robots

Even though Carbide were the runners-up last year they were the robot everyone was scared of. This year however they came back even better than ever. Their weapon spins up to full speed in half a second, they beat Apollo TWICE in the same heat, destroyed all their opponents so fast that none of their fights lasted more than a minute. Their downfall last year was their weapon breaking down, but here their weapon didn't break down once in battle. All this was enough for Carbide to win the 2017 championships, and well deserved to.

Of course, any robot that has a spinning mechanism on it is gonna wreck everything. Really, the only robot I know that was very successful without a spin weapon was Razer.

Carbide is very different and it's a type of racer

After an unlucky elimination last year Eruption came back refined and nicer looking than before (also with a small spinner on the top that did absolutely nothing). With a flipper so powerful and Michael Oates being such a great driver they were able to get four consecutive Out of the Arena flips (joint record with Atomic). Despite being scared of spinners they made it all the way to the Grand Final before Carbide tore them apart. Just the fact they made it that far shows that there'll always be a place in Robot Wars for the flippers.

The former champions of last year, this robot had such an unfortunate draw being stuck in the same heat as Carbide, and this year they just weren't up to withstanding his ferocious attacks. In all their other fights though they performed brilliantly, flipping robots all over the place, even dealing with a rather fiddly opponent in Crackers N' Smash. Their performance ultimately earned them a wildcard spot in the Finals, before Aftershock got the better of them.
They may have been badly beaten this year, but at least they always go out in style, and as always the team are great fun.

A new robot from the team that had Shockwave last year, Aftershock is a different beast entirely. A big vertical flywheel that stores so much kinetic force it can not only destroy but also flip their opponents and it was capable of self righting. Throughout their heats and first fight of the grand final it seemed unstoppable, that was until Carbide came along. After a crushing defeat at the hands of the would-be champions their repair job just became too great and they couldn't beat Ironside 3 and Eruption to get enough points. But their fight against Eruption was debatably the best in the whole series.

It's always good to see old favourites Behemoth return, now the longest running competitor in all of Robot Wars. This year they had different modular scoops that they could change depending on the fight. Their spinner-killer scoop worked wonders against PP3D, but their grabber weapon was unfortunately awful and was ultimately their downfall. Was absolutely gutted when they lost to Cherub because of a tactical error with a dysfunctional weapon mod.

Bit of a dark horse for the series perhaps? Well certainly good enough to survive a heat filled to the brim with spinners. The bar spinner here is even bigger than Carbides, and whilst it doesn't spin as fast or hit as hard it still gets good enough knocks to break the opponents. Robots like Supernova and Pulsar may have had tougher weapons but Ironside 3 was a lot more durable and stable. It's just a shame we never got to see their new self-righting mechanism in action as Carbide broke it, then in the next fight Eruption flipped it and they couldn't self right. But they came so close to beating Carbide that this is not one to under-estimate.

Finalists in the last wars, Thor returns with a new and refined robot, boasting a sleeker design, a lower and more resilient front end and a more accurate axe. Sadly though their potential was untapped as the cold arena had been making a mess of his pneumatics. In both his fights with Concussion the CO2 vented and they couldn't get a good enough his with their axe. It's a shame because when it was on form it worked wonders. Jason Marston is a fantastic driver and he has such good accuracy with the axe that he can easily bludgeon his opponents to death. Just hope his robot will work better next time.

A newcomer to the show made up of a team of long time Robot Wars fans fulfilling their dream of building a fighting robot for the show. They built a rather nasty drum spinner into a nice compact and low design that was effective enough to beat Thor. Their biggest weakness though was keeping the motors overworked leading them to be the least reliable out of the finalists.
Still the fact they made it that far with their first ever robot is more than they could've asked for, and they fully deserved it.

Another case similar to Behemoth in that it's been a long standing competitor going all the way back to the 2nd series. Terrorhurtz remains largely unchanged, but it can still do the business. It's axe is powerful enough to bend hardox, and those plates on the front can take so much abuse. It's just it's complicated pneumatic stystem that held it back, how it was unable to get good enough results with the axe, then when Sabre Tooth destroyed it's tail the robot was too unstable to use it's weapon. It fought well against Aftershock which ultimatelty ended in defeat, and it is always good to see them, but maybe now it's time for a re-design.

After 16 years of never being able to win a televised fight Gabriel Stroud came back roaring with a new Sabretooth that had a fearsome drum spinner. Not only did they finally manage to win a fight but they caused an upset by beating Terrorhurtz. Unfortunately a brutal encounter with Aftershock pretty much sealed their fate. They were able to repair it for all their fights, but it was just never the same. Hope you enjoyed your victory Gabe, savour the moment.

Pulsar's weapon last year was capable of reaching unprecedented speeds and gave us the famous death hum. This year they return with more or less the same robot but now with an added self-righting mechanism. They had a rather infamous rivalry with Ironside 3 (the latter I think can be claimed the superior) and got an explosive hit against Supernova. Unfortunately though they kept burning through their motors every fight and Ellis was frantic in trying to replace them. I want to like Pulsar more as it is a beautifully designed and well crafted robot, but the fact that it keeps breaking down in it's fights does not bode well.

It was nice to see Crushtacean return, as back in the day this was such a sleek-looking and unique robot that was quite effective. It's also nice to see young Dominic Visser all grown up (he now drives and his Dad does the weapons), however for this series it was always going to be outclassed. When it was drawn up against Ironside 3 and Pulsar I knew it didn't stand a chance, and yeah it only took one hit to kill it. Compared to the damage a lot of other robots received however Crushtacean definitely got off lightly.

I was surprised to see them go out at such an early stage, because I must admit I thought we had a genuine title contender here. Compared to previous iterations this one looks to be better armoured and compact, plus that disc has a lovely death hum to it. It breezed through it's first round and then decimated Frostbite in the second round. A fight against Pulsar however highlighted it's biggest weakness. It can't take knocks from vertical spinners well. After a fight involving what can best be described as a very big bang Supernova was completely immobilised, then they lost to Ironside 3 as they were just too heavily damaged from the last fight. Had they been in a different heat how much better could they have done?