Jack Hadaway-Weller & Richard FoxYorkshire, Sutton-on-the-Forest
BBCIn the late 1990s the BBC’s Robot Wars made household names of Sergeant Bash, Shunt and Sir Killalot as the extravagantly-named mechanical monsters did battle with the UK’s best amateur roboteers’ creations.
While the teatime telly favourite may have been consigned to the scrapheap in 2018, in a farm building near York fans of the series are keeping the show’s spirit alive.
“It’s not so much about winning, it’s just about having a good fight,” says Becky Dowson, who has travelled to Sutton-on-the-Forest from her home in Nottingham.
She is one of a group of roboteers who have gathered at the farm for Robodojo – a combat robotics club.
Inspired by the BBC classic members meet regularly to pitch their home-made robots against each other.
“I really liked watching Robot Wars as a kid, and me and my partner made our first robot in 2019 for this competition,” she said.
“It’s snowballed from there and now we’ve got quite a few robots in different weight classes.
“I find the most satisfying part is just smashing into things really hard.
“I find it very therapeutic.”
Robodojo chair Andrew Davies also admitted to being influenced by Robot Wars, which ran for nine series between 1998 and 2004 and was revived for another run in 2016.
Mr Davies, who travels to the club from Preston, said: “I was three or four when it came on TV. I was obsessed, I’d get all the toys and everything for Christmas.
“I saw it was back on the BBC in 2016 and started watching that, I got involved in a few communities online and eventually thought, ‘I’m going to give this a go’ and here we are.”
Around 30 roboteers regularly attend the club and competitors can choose whether to take part in sportsman events, which are often less destructive, or full-combat events.
The club even includes a genuine Robot Wars contestant, Colin Scott, who appeared in four series, but has a more sentimental attitude towards fights between machines.
“I don’t enjoy smashing them, I like beating them fairly with good driving, good skill and technique.
“I watched series one and thought ‘I can do better than that’ because one moved about three foot and stopped.”
Mr Scott debuted his first competitive bot, ‘Piece De Resistance’, during the second series of Robot Wars in 1998.
“I build mine out of bits and pieces I can find; microwave oven, dodgem car, old dustbins. I’ve had old dustbins on Robot Wars.”
So what does he think makes the perfect robot?
“Reliability – you can make it as destructive as you like but if it doesn’t move, you’ve got nothing.”