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Robot Wars returns!

I can't remember the old Robot Wars as vividly as most people do, but I liked the first episode of the reboot. Not sure about the league table... but the rest was good.

Like mentioned Dara looked out of place with that suit. Angela looked far more fitting and relaxed (not that Dara didn't look relaxed, although a suit always gives off the impression you're anything but relaxed).

Looking forward to future episodes, and of course this was handled far better than Top Gear (just rest it for a few years), bravo to BBC.
 
I did quite like the head to heads. It removes any sense of doubt from the final result and means that an early breakdown or unlucky result doesn't necessarily mean game over.

Some might say that luck is all part of the competition, but I do think this system ensures that the best robots go through.

It was also interesting to see how different robots' strengths and weaknesses matched up against one another. If Robot A beats Robot B and Robot B beats Robot C, that doesn't necessarily mean Robot C can't beat Robot A. This aspect was obviously there in the old show but it didn't seem as important given the old format.

However, I'm not sure the final is totally necessary. It would be a bit gutting to win all of your fights and be the clear leader on points only to be knocked out in the final by a robot you've already beaten.
 
It would of been nice if instead of all the head to heads we got to see a bit more of the 4 robots that were nocked out. Think about it, 8 robots competed but only half of them got real airtime. And we know some pretty good bots can go out in the chaos of the first round, Razor being the prime example.

Ps. I really enjoyed the show :)
 
I quite liked it, there was a bit more chatting and less action for me and I skipped through most of it in the second half. I love Dara, but I'm not convinced on him presenting this series really, I miss Craig Charles' enthusiasm.
 
I agree, I do miss Craig Charles but hey there's worse presenters out there ( not digging at Chris Evans as I do like him.)
 
Looking forward to tonight's episode, I watched last weeks on Iplayer, very entertaining, hope to see a couple a familiar face or two in this episode but I enjoyed a lot of the filler although it may get a little grating in later episodes.
 
Tonight's episode was more or less the same, though IMO the filler seems to be a little bit down on last time, but not much. Then again I might have bit more tolerance than others. I was shocked at the winner of this episode and one of the head to head battles was one of the worse fights I've ever seen, those who've seen it will probably know what I'm on about. Anyhow...Roll on next week!
 
I would add dead metal seemed to have a real starring role in this episode whilst sir killalot still hasn't done anything! There was one terrible match but there was imo one really good one, feels like they should do the league at the beginnings a I can't help feel the robots that go out straight away are a little hard done by, especially as it's a 4 way free for all, one of the robots tonight really proved why they shouldn't of gone through.

Still very enjoyable episode, I hope the reboot does well.
 
A massive improvement on this episode over last week's I thought. Toned down filler plus the much better camera angles made it a more enjoyable watch.
 
This weeks show was better, after last weeks reintroduction for the new viewers. It looks like the camera people are getting their eye in for filming robot fighting. Really enjoyable show, even if one battle was totally crap.
 
I thought this Sunday's just gone was rubbish tbh. They did cut out more of the inane chatter and focussed more on the fights but they were all boring. It just doesn't have the feel of previous Wars where big name robots were out in force and fights were exciting and unpredictable, if anything it looks like the technology and ingenuity has gone backwards in this series. Bring back, Chaos 2, Hypnodisc, Pussycat, Fireball etc.
 
I thought this Sunday's just gone was rubbish tbh. They did cut out more of the inane chatter and focussed more on the fights but they were all boring. It just doesn't have the feel of previous Wars where big name robots were out in force and fights were exciting and unpredictable, if anything it looks like the technology and ingenuity has gone backwards in this series. Bring back, Chaos 2, Hypnodisc, Pussycat, Fireball etc.

I disagree. If you put any of those robots into the arena today, they would need quite a bit of modification to be competitive. Chaos 2 found itself beaten in the early rounds by the end of the old series. The robots today are notably faster and more powerful than before.

I was very impressed by Thor. It isn't much to look at but it was so nimble, fast and well controlled. Plus it had one of the most effective axe weapons I've seen. Very unlucky to have lost in the way it did.

Foxic was useless. It was sort of funny how the team kept trash-talking the competition and saying things like "we're going to cut them in half" before going on to unceremoniously lose all their fights.
 
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The robots today are notably faster and more powerful than before..

Foxic was useless. It was sort of funny how the team kept trash-talking the competition and saying things like "we're going to cut them in half" before going on to unceremoniously lose all its fights.

Contradiction? :p

Apart from Thor, they were all useless, the spinner was poorly designed and flippers would have been destroyed by previous series robots. It just looks like a budget version of previous Robot Wars. Last Sunday's was dull as dishwater in my opinion. Bring back the old robots! :D
 
Contradiction? :p

Apart from Thor, they were all useless, the spinner was poorly designed and flippers would have been destroyed by previous series robots. It just looks like a budget version of previous Robot Wars. Last Sunday's was dull as dishwater in my opinion. Bring back the old robots! :D

No, I don't think so. Every series has had its share of useless robots. It is never going to be the case that every robot is brilliant. Only a handful rise to the top. That's how it's always been.

My point is that the average level of performance is now much higher. Even Foxic had enough pushing power to shove the nearly 350kg Dead Metal across the arena. There aren't many robots from the old series that could do that.

Just because a robot is well known doesn't garuantee they will have success or produce exciting fights. We saw this with Razer last week.

In some ways it's good that there aren't too many recognisable names. It allows the show to create new stars for itself that will generate their own following.
 
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I'll just agree to disagree. ;)

We'll see how this weekend's show goes. :)
 
It just looks like a budget version of previous Robot Wars.

I do agree with this, to an extent. I watched some old Robot Wars battles on YouTube last night along with one full epsiode so that I was reminded of how it used to be. It was far more exciting and destructive than we have seen so far this series. The whole set up was far more impressive, the show flowed better and the house robots were frequently active (they've done very little this series so far). If a robot was disabled the house robots would often come in and finish the job off, okay this may not be great for those that have put in hard work building their robots but it made better TV. The new format doesn't help with this either as they don't want a robot totally destroyed in its first group battle as then it may not be able to compete in the further two group battles.

I'd imagine that the budget for the re-boot is relatively smaller than it was for the latter series of the old run so hopefully if it is successful there will be an increased budget and a better set up. They also need to make some proper opening credits rather than the silly "intro" they have at present and please bring back the old iconic music!

Anyway, this weeks episode was okay. Glad to see an honest team provail over such an arrogant one.

:)
 
^ I agree totally about the house robots being....well, dull.
Rightly so when a robot was immobilised the house robots came in for the kill.

It seems now that as soon as a robot is immobilised the match is over resulting in a match lasting (no exaggerating) 20-30 seconds.

This is my only gripe...house robots need to get in there more...a lot more.
 
From the last episode, it was a mix bag of a episode, though speaking of the House Robots, the highlight for me was a wee chuckle with Killalot over a certain little incident with his lance. :p
 
I always found the appeal of Killalot was his sheer size and strength actually playing to his disadvantage. The small nippy competitors can literally run circles around him.
 
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