Robot Wars (TV series)/Characters

Sir Killalot

 * The Big Bad: Until Mr. Psycho's arrival.
 * Blood Knight: Take a look at him, he's like some cybernetically revived evil knight.
 * Crush! Kill! Destroy!
 * Humiliation Conga: Both the giver and taker of this trope, shared with the other House Robots.
 * Jousting Lance: Used to pick up robots and drop them in the Pit.
 * The Juggernaut
 * Knight in Shining Armour: With glowing red eyes and a crushing claw.
 * Mighty Glacier: Was until The Sixth Wars the heaviest House Robot, clocking in at 520 Kilos.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast
 * Red Baron: The Undisputed Titan of Mechanizaed Warfare.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Shout-Out: To Sir Lancelot of the King Arthur legends.
 * Tin Tyrant

Dead Metal

 * Awesome but Impractical: The saw was originally on a ferocious-looking swinging arm, but didn't actually work. In series 3 it was revamped so it did work, and the saw mechanism was now far more compact.
 * Frankenstein's Monster: Chris Reynolds, who built the original House Robots, suggested Dead Metal was created when a bunch of junk parts came to life and fused together.
 * Sword Sparks: Saw sparks, more accurately
 * Scary Scorpions

Shunt

 * An Axe to Grind
 * The Brute
 * Construction Is Awesome
 * Lightning Bruiser: At first. When the weight limit was increased to 100kgs, Shunt lost a lot of his pushing power. They fixed this by amping the power of his axe Up to Eleven. He still had a great deal of power for his size, despite being the smallest house robot.
 * Ramming Always Works
 * Ship Tease: Jonathan Pearce implied that Shunt and Matilda might of been intimate.

Matilda

 * Chainsaw Good: In the first 2 wars, that is. Afterward, with more robots gaining thicker armour, Matilda's chainsaw became useless. It was replaced in series 5 with a 27kg Flywheel. It was much more destructive.
 * The Chew Toy: Matilda was the first house robot to be flipped (by Recyclops in Series 1), may have been flipped or otherwise attacked by competitors more than any other house robot, and on one spectacular occasionally literally ended up as a chew toy for Razer.
 * The Dark Chick
 * Red Baron: The Matriarch of Mayhem.
 * Took a Level In Badass / Everything's Better With Spinning: The aforementioned flywheel

Sgt. Bash

 * Drill Sergeant Nasty
 * Kill It With Fire
 * Military Mashup Machine

Mr. Psycho

 * Drop the Hammer: Had possibly the biggest one in robot combat.
 * Expy: Meant to be an Expy of Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist.
 * Mighty Glacier: Was more than 200 Kilograms heavier than Killalot. Peculiarly, Psycho was actually faster.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast
 * Off With His Head: In one series 7 battle, Psycho goes into combat with his fibreglass head obviously not attached properly (it is visibly wobbling). Eventually it falls off, and Hilarity Ensues.

Growler

 * Angry Guard Dog
 * Canine Companion: To Mr. Psycho
 * Expy: Of Bill Sykes' dog Bullseye.
 * Lightning Bruiser: one of the heaviest and fastest house robots.

Cassius Chrome

 * Drunken Boxing: His movements and rapid punches make it look like he is trying out this trope.
 * Good Old Fisticuffs

Refbot

 * Combat Referee
 * Exactly What It Says On the Tin

Roadblock (Series 1 Champion, Series 2 3rd Place, Series 3 Semi-Finalist)

 * Determinator: Effortlessly cleared the gauntlet, defeated a house robot (albeit in a suicide attempt), and easily won both it's battles to reach the grand final. Upon getting there, it purged the arena, defeating all but 2 of the 5 opponents (who immobilised each other). All this while being a simple wedge with a top speed of 5 miles per hour.
 * Ramming Always Works: Won it's battles through pushing power and tipping over others with it's wedge, and was still a force to be reckoned with in the Third Wars, where it reached round of the semi finals (round 5 out of 7).
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The team actually entered series 3 with "The Beast of Bodmin", which was identical except for the paintjob, moving eyes and the addition of a flipping tusk.
 * Weak but Skilled: Not exactly weak, per se, but had inferior weaponry to a lot of other robots in series 3 (as Beast Of Bodmin) and still mopped the floor with them.

Panic Attack (Series 2 Champion, Series 3, 4, 5 Semi-Finalist)

 * Boring but Practical: In series 2, it was a box with ineffective lifting forks. It curbstomped most of it's foes through pushing power and Kim Davies's driving skill.
 * Dark Horse Victory: In series 2, it was expected for Cassius to fight Mortis in the grand final in a rematch from series 1 (which Recyclopse, Cassius's predecessor had won). Panic Attack beat both of them (Mortis in the semis's, Cassius in the grand final).
 * Weak but Skilled: See Boring But Practical.

Chaos 2 (Series 3 & 4 Champion, Series 5 Semi-Finalist)

 * The Ace: Defeated nearly every opponent it faced in series 3 and 4 almost effortlessly, and again for much of Series 5, before falling to Bigger Brother.
 * Awesome but Practical: Could throw 250 kilos with it's flipper, was the only robot in the shows run to retain the title, and innovated the "Out Of The Arena" flip.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard: Chaos 2's last appearance in the main competition saw it flipped it out of the arena by newcomer Dantomkia.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Zipped around at 20mph and threw robots straight over the wall.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast

Razer (Series 5 Champion, Series 6 Runner-Up, 2 time World Champion)

 * Awesome but Practical: Razer was incredibly easy on the eyes, and crushed a lot of it's foes with 9 tonnes of squeezability, winning pretty much every title it was eligible for.
 * Dark Horse Victory: Sort of. In Series 2 through 4, it was a popular competitor and had won many side competitions, but was prey to mechanical issues and had never got beyond the heat final. It was expected to repeat this pattern in Series 5, but it went on to destroy all foes easily and become the champion.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard: Lost in Series 3 to the laughable Aggrobot, as its self-righting mechanism accidentally activated whilst it was on its wheels and got jammed, leaving all four wheels off the arena floor.
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Meaningful Name: Jonathan Pearce thought Razer was named after then West Ham footballer Neil "Razor" Ruddock. The spelling should've tipped him off that this was not the case. Razer's name is simply an extension of the word Raze.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: And Raze it did.

Tornado (Series 4 Semi-Finalist, Series 6 Champion, Series 7 Third Place, 2 time Challenge Belt Champion)

 * Boring but Practical: YMMV, but many people feel this way, as it generally won by ramming others into submission.
 * Dark Horse Victory: In Series 6. To much controversy.
 * Jack of All Stats (Not Lightning Bruiser. At 10 MPH its speed is around average, but it is notable for having interchangable weapons.)
 * Ramming Always Works: Although many people consider Tornado boring for this reason, it was an undeniably effective attack strategy. It took Chaos 2 to stop Tornado in Series 4 (although Tornado would later defeat Chaos 2), and Razer in the 2nd World Championship. It lost out in Series 7 to a superior rammer, Storm 2.

Typhoon 2 (Series 7 Champion)

 * Everything's Better With Spinning: A very destructive full body spinner.
 * Executive Meddling: How it won the title, as the executives hated runner up Storm 2 (A hard hitting, high impact rambot). Why? They thought Storm 2 was boring. Nearly everyone except the Typhoon team themselves (and the rest of their Air Cadets detachment) consider Storm 2 to be the true champion of series 7, and the crowd (except the Air Cadets) was so unhappy that Storm 2 lost that they unanimously booed the house down, causing the executives to edit in cheers.

Firestorm (3 Time Grand Finalist, 2 Time Semi-Finalist)

 * Curb Stomp Battle: Dished them out on several occasions, but wasn't immune to them either. Was greatly outclassed by Chaos 2 in series 3, resulting in the first "Out Of The Arena" flip. Was also beaten with ease by Razer on 2 occasion, though it took it to a real nail biter in their final fight.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Incredibly fast, but was able to survive being perforated by Razer and defeated Hypno-Disc while its flipper wasn't working.
 * Numbered Sequels: From Firestorm all the way up to Firestorm V.

Diotoir

 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: An obvious joke entry, covered in highly flammable fur with a rather ineffective weapon. But its predecessor Nemesis (which had an even less effective weapon, defeated a house robot and went toe to toe with a future champion, Diotoir itself reached 2 heat finals, reached the semis of the First World Championship, made the final of the International championship, the finals of the Celebrity Special, won the Tag Team Terror and defeated the mighty Tornado in Series 5 (Team Tornado called it the most powerful 2WD pusher they'd ever seen.)
 * Incendiary Exponent: Diotoir caught fire in every single fight it had. And it was glorious.
 * Intentionally taken to its extreme in one of the exhibition matches at the end of series 2. The lineup was Sgt. Bash, Diotoir and a similarily flammable sacrifical robot built for the occasion. The latter two were sprayed with paraffin before the fight. At the beginning, Bash fired the flamethrower once. Hilarity Ensued.
 * Legacy Character: Its full name in its first appearance was Diotoir, Son of Nemesis.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Doubles up as Meaningful Name. It may not sound threatening at first, but check what it means in Gaelic. Diotoir translates as "Annihilator"

Storm 2 (Series 7 Second Place, 3rd World Champion, New Blood Champion)

 * Executive Meddling: Why it didn't win the title. See the Storm 2/Controversy article to see why. The higher ups hated Storm 2.
 * Lightning Bruiser: As mentioned, threw Steel Avenger out of the arena without using its weapon, curbstomped the previous champion, and fought Typhoon 2 (which had demolished most of its previous opponents) while taking only superficial damage).

Hypno-Disc (3 Time Grand Finalist, 1 Time Semi-Finalist)

 * Everything's Better With Spinning
 * The Worf Effect: An example of being Over-Worfed. Everyone said they were terrified to go up against Hypno-Disc, but in a 3-or-more-way melee, it was very easy to beat Hypno-Disc by ganging up on it. Hypno-Disc's final three battles were all melees (all of which it lost), and the other robots barely touched each other until Hypno-Disc had been taken care of.
 * What Could Have Been: Fans voted to see Hypno-Disc fight Razer in Robot Wars Extreme, but the battle never took place, as both teams felt it would be too damaging to each others machines.

Spawn Again (4 Time Semi-Finalist)

 * Actor Allusion: The teams first robot, Scutters Revenge, was named after the robots from Red Dwarf, in which the shows host Craig Charles had starred.
 * Critical Failure: Failed to reach its series 7 semi-final because the ram operating its flipper exploded.

Bigger Brother (Series 5 Runner-Up, Series 6 Semi-Finalist)

 * Made of Iron: Best demonstrated by its battle with Hypno-Disc. Hypno-Disc ripped off its flipper and destroyed its armour, and Bigger Brother still beat it.

Pussycat (Series 3 Heat Finalist, Series 4 Runner Up, Series 5 Semi-Finalist, All Stars Champion)

 * Defeating the Undefeatable: Tore Razer apart on two separate occasions. One of, if not the only robot to defeat it cleanly.
 * Meaningful Name: Always lands on its feet.

Jeremy Clarkson (Series 1 Presenter)

 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Jerkass: "How long did that take to build? I reckon it took 2 months to go 2 yards." And his infamous: "That is the worst robot I've ever seen in my life. And it crossed the finish line twice."
 * Unperson: He isn't mentioned in any tie-in media, and all footage of him was removed from "The First Great War", a VHS release of highlights from the first series. Just as well, really. He didn't exactly hold the show in high regard.

Craig Charles (Series 2 onwards Presenter)
"Craig: So, why did you call your robot Inquisitor?
 * Actor Allusion: The robot Scutter's Revenge was a reference to his role on Red Dwarf. Also, this:

Inquisitor team: Red Dwarf.

Craig: Never heard of it!"


 * Catch Phrase: "LET THE WARS BEGIN!"
 * Ending every episode with a four-line poem ending in "on Robot Wars".
 * "[Robot] GOES MARCHING ON!"
 * Large Ham

Jonathan Pearce (Commentator)

 * Did Not Do the Research: Sometimes, he would get facts about competitors and their history wrong (for example, referring to Terror-Bull as newcomers during Series 6 when they had fought in Series 4). Also, he referred to Killertron as a former Grand Finalist when it arrived in series 2, when it previously reached the heat final. He didn't correct this mistake as far as three years later, where he referred to it as a two time Grand Finalist in its final fight. Also called Tornados 'Anti-Crusher Web' an 'Anti-Pit Device', making Tornados Series 6 championship win a lot more controversial.
 * The Hyena: He was well-known for his occasional laughing fits during matches. Especially obvious when Diotoir caught fire or when Firestorm became the first robot thrown out of the arena.
 * Large Ham: Oh, yeah.
 * Motor Mouth: Sometimes, especially his commentary here.