Breaker Box's Discovery Season 4 appearance with minibot, Hacker.
Breaker Box was a heavyweight robot built by Team Nightmare which fought in the 2009 BattleBots Professional Championship. It was a box-shaped robot armed with a titanium lifting scoop on a 360-degree axle so it could function while being invertible. It didn't do well at the event, winning one battle, but losing two. Breaker Box would fight at RoboGames for a few years with progressively better results.
Breaker Box was originally a middleweight built in three weeks for a competition in 2006 and was a essentially an up scaled version of Team Nightmare's antweight, Shazbot. On Facebook, Jim Smentowski confirmed that Breaker Box would return in place of Nightmare with a new look and weapons for Season 4.
For its Season 4 look, Breaker Box gained a neon yellow and copper color scheme, as well as an electrical warning sign on the top plate and LED panel on its bottom plate. For its weapons, Breaker Box could either use one of three lifting wedges designed for the type of spinner it faced, or a 46 lbs hammer, all of which could rotate 360 degrees. Breaker Box also brought in a little wedged minibot called Hacker, which came equipped with a flamethrower that would shot up at a 45 degree angle, as opposed to other which would either shot them straight forward or down. It also swapped out its drive motors for more speed at the cost of reliability. Unfortunately, Breaker Box didn't live up to the hype, going 1-3 and managed to burn itself out or drain all of its battery power in each fight due to the detriments of its new, faster motors.
Unfortunately, Breaker Box's time in the spotlight was short lived as Jim said he wouldn't be competing in any further seasons.
Robot History
2009 Pro Championships
Breaker Box's 2009 appearance.
In Breaker Box's fight against Brutality, Breaker Box got the first attack in before Brutality could spin its blade up to speed, pushing Brutality with the scoop. Brutality escaped and retaliated, causing sparks with the impact of its blade on Breaker Box's scoop. The impact was so great that Breaker Box became immobilized, eliminating Breaker Box.
Discovery Season 4
Breaker Box made its return to robotic combat with a match against the new Falcon. In response, Breaker Box stuck with its trademark lifting plow to hopefully absorb hits from its opponent and/or thrown them around the arena. Since it was also slightly underweight, Breaker Box was accompanied by a minibot named Hacker that was equipped with a titanium wedge and a flamethrower. As the match got underway, that's pretty much what they were able to do as Falcon was having drive issues. This allowed Breaker Box to shove them all around the arena. Falcon managed to get some mobility back but Breaker Box flipped them over and maintained their advantage over them. However, the fight took a surprising turn as Breaker Box soon had troubles of its own, firing its weapon when Falcon was out of reach and not driving all that well, even having no life in the last stages of the fight. Regardless, both robots made it to the end of the fight. The judges awarded a split 2-1 decision to Breaker Box.
Breaker Box's second opponent was newcomer Uppercut. As a result, Breaker Box kept its usual lifting plow to at least reduce the damage it would take during the fight. Unfortunately, Breaker Box wasn't able to do much against Uppercut as their plow had a small part of it ripped up. Still, Breaker Box attempted to take control of the fight and managed to shove Uppercut around a few times and tried to keep it on its side, but it came down every time. Uppercut's weapon kept going and Breaker Box eventually began to smoke again and was suffering a similar problem in its fight with Falcon. As the match continued, the smoke got worse and Breaker Box found itself immobile once again, trying to use its plow to move. Since there was more time on the clock, it was counted out as Uppercut bashed the rear of Breaker Box, denting the panel and giving Uppercut the win by KO.
Breaker Box next went against another newcomer in Bloodsport and opted for its curved black scoop in attempt to deflect Bloodsport's blows and/or control their opponent. As the match bot underway, Breaker Box managed to keep Bloodsport at bay with their weapon and push them into the arena barrier. However, Bloodsport got its weapon going and Breaker Box took a hit to the side of its plow. After another impact, Breaker Box's right support arm for its plow had come loose and Breaker Box was having some drive issues. Breaker Box then lost its entire plow and was left exposed with nothing to fight with. Luckily, Bloodsport's weapon stopped working correctly by this point, but Breaker Box had no way to take advantage. Breaker Box took one final hit from Bloodsport and stopped moving before being counted out, giving Bloodsport the win by KO.
Having had little success thus far, Breaker Box was in need of a second win and was placed against Will Bales and HyperShock. In response, Breaker Box went with its classic scooped lifter setup, which also had pointed tips at the top to allow the lifter to double as a hammer. However, as the match got underway, Breaker Box wasn't doing well as they were quickly thrown into the air repeatedly by HyperShock. None of this seemed to phase Breaker Box, but parts of the lifter did come off, the rear panel was thrown off, and Breaker Box could only drive on two wheels now. However, Breaker Box got a lucky break as HyperShock managed to flip themselves over and had no functioning self-righting mechanism, leaving them to drive inverted. Additionally, HyperShock got one of its weapon supports stuck in the killsaw slots so Breaker Box freed them. HyperShock then got stuck in the killsaw slots again and its weapon wasn't working that well, allowing Breaker Box to get in an attack before it stopped moving. Breaker Box was counted out with seconds left on the clock, giving HyperShock the win by KO.
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 2
- Losses: 5
| Competition | Wins | Losses |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 Pro Championships | Suspect Device | |
| Discovery Season 4 | Falcon (Undercard Match) |
Uppercut (Undercard Match) Bloodsport (Undercard Match) HyperShock (Undercard Match) |
Faruq Tauheed Introductions
Breaker Box as a middleweight in 2006.
"It puts the beat in beat-box, and you're about to break in to electric boogaloo. Pop it, lock, you can't stop it. It's BREAKER BOX!"
"We've got a 10-33 emergency. The 10-20, the BattleBox. What's the 10-36? Time for smashing. You're going to need to take a 10-100, 10-4 good buddy? It's BREAKER BOX!"
"This bot's got two turntables and a microphone. It'll spin you around and break your bones. It will be cutting and scratching while it puts you in tr-tr-tr-tr-traction. BREAKER BOX!"
Trivia
- Before Breaker Box was brought to the 2019 season, Jim fought with a similar version called Wrecker in China, which failed to win.