Eggbeater Spinners are a type of spinning weapon seen on BattleBots competitors which bear a strong resemblance to drum spinners. Whereas some eggbeater spinners are symmetrical, others were asymmetrical by design.
History and Design[]
Chameleon during Season 3.0 of Comedy Central BattleBots.
Eggbeaters get their name from the kitchen utensils of the same name, which typically consist of whisk-like blades that are designed to combine ingredients while also incorporating more air into the mixture. While important to allow for cakes and similar food to remain light, a similar design was introduced to combat robots as the design of beaters lent themselves well to vertical spinning weaponry. Eggbeater spinners are recognisable by their skeletal shape, resulting in an exposed weapon shaft running through the center.
Team Atom captain Elaine Wu (left) holding an eggbeater whisk.
While similar in appearance to traditional drum spinners, the weight removed from the center of eggbeater drums results in a lighter weapon without having to compromise reach by decreasing its diameter. Due to the complexity of their design, however, eggbeater weapons are typically difficult and expensive to machine when compared to spinning discs or drums. This is especially true of eggbeater spinners from recent World Championships, whose weapons are one solid piece with a lot of material typically machined away from a single hunk of material.
The first BattleBots competitor which bore a weapon resembling an eggbeater spinner was Chameleon - a middleweight which debuted in Season 3.0. However, the weapon itself was dubbed a thresher by the team, and the name "eggbeater" did not become popular until many years later. Chameleon returned for Seasons 4.0 and 5.0, but with a more traditional, solid drum spinner weapon instead.
The eggbeater spinner of Glitch during World Championship VI.
The design was later seen in several BattleBots IQ competitors such as Chigger and Knightrous, but was not seen on a heavyweight competitor until Copperhead and international entrants Railgun MAX and Black Dragon debuted in the 2019 competition, the latter winning the second Desperado Tournament. The team behind Railgun MAX, captained by Elaine Wu, played up to the weapon's etymology, and were often seen in interviews and pit segments with eggbeater whisks. Since their debuts, the weapon has been seen on numerous other competitors, including co-Rookie of the Year winners for World Championship VI - Glitch and Riptide.
Norwalk Havoc Robot League champion, Lynx.
Eggbeater weapons have been far more common in lower weight classes outside of BattleBots, with notable examples including Calvin Iba's championship-winning build Lynx sporting such weaponry. Part of the beater-bar's popularity at the beetleweight class can be attributed to FingerTech Robotics, who produce and sell kits that include the weapon, electronics, and more recently the entire drive system. needed to build a two-wheel drive beater bar. Based on Kurtis Wanner's championship-winning robot Black Adder, these kits have become one of the most common used by new builders. Both seasons of the web-series Bugglebots were notably also won by an eggbeater spinner named K2, which utilized a FingerTech beater bar mated to a custom four-wheel drive chassis. In 2024, the District 2014 Robot Rumble event was won by an eggbeater called Scrambler.
Advantages & Disadvantages[]
Advantages[]
- Like drums and vertical discs, eggbeaters can act like makeshift flippers.
- They are light in weight, so the users won't need to give up much to compete.
- They can be quite destructive (as shown by Riptide and Glitch, the former is notorious for being the first robot on record to kill the immortal Black Dragon).
- They can be combined with other weapons (as proven by Black Dragon).
Disadvantages[]
- Their hollow interior means the weapon-axle can receive damage directly.
- They are known to be complex and expensive.
- They can be stopped if the opponent keeps in the way.
- They can be hard to include with Invertibility, unless the wheels etc. are the same height or taller (as shown by Railgun MAX, Black Dragon and Copperhead). Glitch hadn't considered the possibility of getting put on its back and needing a Self-righting mechanism, which became its undoing twice.
Notable Competitors[]
| Robot | Seasons | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Fireball | BattleBots Proving Ground |  |
| Glitch | World Championship VI - Present |  |
| Riptide | World Championship VI - Present |  |
| Black Dragon | World Championship IV - Present |  |
| Railgun MAX | World Championship IV |  |
| Copperhead | World Championship IV - Present |  |
| More... | ||
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