I am going to ramble about Robot Wars toys now.
Robot Wars was a BBC TV show about robots fighting. It was fucking awesome. One of the Beeb's biggest money-spinners prior to the revival of Doctor Who, there was of course a mountain of merch, and today I will be talking about the "Pullbacks," a series of small plastic replicas of robots from the show with pullback motors in them, produced by Logistix between 2000 and 2003.
Specifically, I'm going to be addressing those that used flipper weapons, an arm or panel that rapidly fired upwards to overturn opposing machines. And all the ways that they got it wrong until the last possible attempt.
Also, I should note that flippers =/= lifters. While lifters can overturn a robot with enough speed and power, their primary function is control, arresting an opponent's movement by lifting its wheels off the floor. Flippers were specifically designed for overturning robots, or, in later series, throwing them out of the arena entirely.
This was actually an accident. George Francis, driver of Chaos 2, thought he was going to be disqualified when Fire Storm sailed over the arena wall, only for the move to become Chaos 2's signature, and be replicated many, many times afterwards. In a later series, George was 'gifted' one of many arena lights that he'd smashed with 80-100kg of low-flying metal.
The first wave of pullbacks was based on Series 3, and featured the first five House Robots, and competitor robot Hypno-Disc. This meant that there were two lifters, one functional (Matilda's tusks) and one not (Shunt's rear dozer blade), but no true flippers.
No, the first of those would come in the second wave, based on Series 4, and of course, it was the legendary double champion, Chaos 2.
In order to replicate the power of the real Chaos 2's explosive flipper, the panel on the front of the robot was powered by a pair of tightly-coiled springs, and held down by a catch operated by a spring-loaded button built into the robot's left side.
This weapon is very powerful on the toy, more than capable of throwing over other robots. But it had issues.
Firstly, the the original hook that held down the flipper was a very thin bit of plastic, and it was constantly under stress from the powerful springs, which resulted in a lot of first-run Chaos 2s breaking, with the book snapping off and leaving the flipper unable to stay closed without being held down. This was actually corrected by a running change, which retooled the toy, removing the inbuilt hook and replacing it with a bigger, thicker one that was screwed onto the inside of the panel.
It's difficult to see due to the lighting, but the original is on the right. The variant is on the left, with its additional piece. My Chaos 2 was the running change variant, and as such, the flipper mechanism was still fully functional 25 years after I got it.
But this wasn't the only issue, just the most serious. The second issue was that the button to release the catch was... temperamental. It could be genuinely difficult to actually get the flipper to fire, especially if you were a small nerdy child in 2001.
The third problem was one that plagued most flipper-based Robot Wars toys: Ground clearance. See, flippers don't work if you can't get the panel under the other robot, and Chaos 2's flipper did not sit flush with the floor. Instead, the springs constantly held it off the ground, necessitating that you push down on the panel to get it to go under something. It unfortunately made the robot quite unwieldly in combination with the other problems.
Chaos 2 released alongside Razer, Pussycat, and Panic Attack (and a multipack-only Refbot), being the only true flipper of its wave. The next wouldn't appear until the Series 5-based third wave, which featured two of them.
The first was Firestorm III, Series 3, 5 and 6 third placer, usually found fizzling out against Razer or Tornado before the final hurdle despite being a genuinely solid machine.
Firestorm III's plastic counterpart inherited a lot of Chaos 2's issues (and had the new one of its aerials snapping off), unfortunately.
Like Chaos 2, the catch holding down its spring-loaded flipper was quite thin and prone to breakage, though it was much, much easier to fire.
But the most egregious issue faced by the Firestorm III toy was the ground clearance again. In order to help it roll more easily, Firestorm III's toy featured a pair of small black wheels at the front that raised it ground clearance significantly. It also featured a pair of screws to hold the front end together that stuck out of the bottom of the robot, lifting the front end of it high off the ground and preventing it from getting under anything besides Pussycat, who was literally made of ground clearance.
Which was actually sizeable contributing factor in Firestorm III defeating Pussycat in Series 5, so that part at least reflects reality.
Released alongside Firestorm was Logistix's third attempt at a flipper, Wheely Big Cheese.
Wheely Big Cheese was an insanely powerful flipper, designed by driver Roger Plant to be able to flip Sir Killalot in vengeance for the House Robots' attacks on his previous entry. While capable of throwing Killalot's listed weight, the leader of the House Robots was actually secretly twice as heavy, meaning that Wheely Big Cheese was unable to achieve its revenge when the producers gave it the chance in Series 4.
Nonetheless, being able to overturn 750kg with a single shot still made for the most powerful flipper ever seen on Robot Wars (besides maybe the Series 10 incarnation of Apollo), best demonstrated when the Cheese hurled opponents Axe-Awe over the wall from basically the middle of the arena.
Unfortunately, the pullback was nowhere near this good. In fact, it may have been the worst one of the bunch. Certainly, the worst I ever had.
Like Firestorm III, it had the same ground clearance-raising black wheels at the front. The design of the toy and its nature as a pullback toy meant that it couldn't roll inverted like the real thing.
But the real problems were with the flipper mechanism itself. The flipper fired by pulling backwards on the red disc behind the flipper jaw, but the release was extremely tight, even moreso than Chaos 2's. I actually had this one for all of ten minutes, before all parties involved (myself and my parents) realised that I was physically unable to get the flipper to open. Even my much-stronger dad struggled with it, and Wheely Big Cheese went back to the shop.
And it didn't stop there. The screws holding the mechanism together couldn't be replaced and were prone to slipping out of alignment.
And to top it off, the flipper was weak. Far from the incredible strength of the real version (which inspired conspiracy theories that Roger Plant was running an illegally-high pressure gas system inside the robot), the toy could barely lift anything, let alone flip stuff.
The final pullback with a flipper would be released in the last wave, based on Series 6. It was the Sixth Wars' breakout newcomer, Dantomkia, a robot that punched its ticket to stardom when it threw Chaos 2 itself out of the arena during the Heat Final.
The Dantomkia pullback was one of the last released and one of the most sought-after, making me very glad that I got mine when it released and it's still in good shape. It also, finally, solved the problem that had plagued all previous flippers in the toyline.
Dantomkia's flipper is operated by a manual lever that sticks up out of the back. That's it. Its ground clearance is almost perfect, with its front wheels being recessed into the underside of the machine. It's so simple. And it makes Dantomkia the best Robot Wars toy, without contest.
In light of this, after 25 years, I finally disassembled my Chaos 2 and removed the springs from its flipper. The flipper now rests against the floor, and is operated manually, allowing it to easily slide under other robots and throw them.
Firestorm III's front wheels and screw-housings are next.