Díotóir, often simplified toDiotoir, was a heavyweight robot from the Republic of Ireland's Team Nemesis which intended to compete in BattleBots World Championship V.
It was planned to be the fourth iteration of the Robot Wars fan favorite, whose gimmick involved covering the robot in flammable, red and black polka-dot fur which was often set on fire by the flamethrower of house robot Sgt. Bash. Its original version featured a spring-powered lifting arm, which became a lifting scoop for its second build, dubbed Diotoir 2.
Diotoir on fire.
For its one-off special appearance in the Robot Wars reboot, Diotoir sported a large, red vertical flywheel. Although no images exist to illustrate what Diotoir would have looked like for BattleBots, each iteration of Diotoir throughout its career has sported the red and black polka-dot look and large grinning face which became synonymous with the team. In a 2020 RoboNerd interview, Peter Redmond stated the weapon would likely go "back to hydraulics", inferring a deviation from the vertical spinner seen in Diotoir's final Robot Wars appearance.[1] Its signature polka-dot fur likely would have been prohibited by the US show, akin to Ribbot's foam frog shells from World Championship IV.
Team captain Peter Redmond began a fundraiser in early 2020, hoping to raise €5000 ($5,260) to cover the build, travel and other expenses associated with competing as an international BattleBots team.[2] Irrespective of the crowdfunding attempt, the team were not selected to compete and the COVID-19 pandemic and international travel bans that followed would have forced the team to withdraw regardless.
Diotoir was later resubmitted for World Championship VII, but was again not selected.[3]
Outside BattleBots[]
Diotoir with giant glasses during a Celebrity Special episode of Robot Wars.
Diotoir originally debuted in Series 3 of Robot Wars as the direct successor and "Son" of Nemesis, which competed the year before. Despite rarely finding success in battle, finishing with a career-best heat final finish in the main series, the team won a handful of Sportsmanship awards. As a result of its status among fans and fellow builders, Diotoir represented the Republic of Ireland in the International League Championship and both the First and Second World Championship competitions.
It was also selected for the All-Stars event of Robot Wars: Extreme, but lost in the first round to Wheely Big Cheese. Alongside Pussycat (originally Mega Morg), Diotoir won the second Tag Team Terror event, but fell at the first hurdle in their attempt to defend it during the second Extreme series. This proved to be Diotoir's final appearance before the show's hiatus from 2004 until 2016.
Diot-Awe at Fighting My Bots.
In 2017, Peter Redmond and Diotoir (this time a repurposed stock bot for a previous celebrity special named Kadeena Machina) returned for the World Series specials following Series 10 of Robot Wars, representing the Rest of the World. However, it was immobilized in its first round battle at the hands of Team Hurtz and Terrorhurtz. Selected for the final, Diotoir faced Team MAD's Apollo and lost after being flipped around the arena and catching fire.
Diot-Awe fighting Death Toll.
UK live scene regular Iron-Awe 7 was repurposed in January 2018 for the Chinese heavyweight event Fighting My Bots. Paying homage to its original guise, Team Nemesis entered under the name Diot-Awe. It made the finals after defeating Indian robots Gravity and Joker, but fell short of the title to future BattleBots champions OYES Robotics and Death Toll.
The early builds of Diotoir remain under the ownership of Peter Redmond, who now organizes RoboRiots heavyweight events in Dublin, where Diot-Awe often competes.
Team Nemesis also competed in Techno Games with Ulysses and Stanoscloir, and Peter Redmond joined up with John Findlay's Smasher to fight in the short-lived Chinese show Clash Bots.
See Also[]
Trivia[]
- Peter Redmond built a beetleweight version of Diotoir in 2022, named Minítóir.
- The team have previously produced props and created special effects for Game of Thrones, Top Gear, and other television shows and movies.
- Peter Redmond's creation RuBot II held the world record for the fastest time for a robot to solve a 3x3 Rubik's Cube until June 2011. It also featured in the UK edition of the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records.
- Diotoir's name translates to 'annihilator' or 'prosecutor' in Irish.
References[]
- ↑ https://youtu.be/PBh5DqC31-g?t=2313
- ↑ https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22fundraiser_campaign_id%22%3A164409548146030%7D&path=%2Ffundraiser%2F&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fdonate%2F164409548146030%2F&_rdr
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/DiotoirRobot/posts/pfbid024sLc81KhRaMVFW2b4CV3t2AbJP9gpTkPXgVpkHL1Yhfbv2bp1Y4ap65zFeoCse8Gl