HellaChopper

HellaChopper
Participation Information
Reboot Seasons	World Championship II (Withdrew)
Other Names	Hella Chopper
Team Information
Team	Team Half-Life
Team Members	Rob Everhart Kimberly Everhart Robert Everhart III Steven Weaver Adam Heard Jason Heard
From	Lake Arrowhead, CA
Other Entries	Atomic Wedgie, Skid Mark, Booby Trap, Atomic Wedgie - Accelerator
Robot Statistics
Weight	250lbs
Weapons	Horizontal spinner
Statistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

HellaChopper was a heavyweight robot built by Team Half-Life for BattleBots World Championship II. The team had previously competed in BattleBots with Atomic Wedgie.

Team Half-Life originally tried to qualify with Atomic Wedgie - Accelerator, a successor to their popular Comedy Central BattleBots superheavyweight, but were not accepted.

HellaChopper was armed with an overhead spinning flywheel, which could be fitted with several attachments. One of these was a configuration consisting of three scythe-like arms protruding from the center, as seen in the only test video caught of HellaChopper inside the BattleBox. This setup was named "Beast Mode" by the team.

The other known configuration featured the same spinning flywheel, but with three tethered hammers on the outside, each held to the center of the robot by an internal winch system. Once spinning, the centrifugal forces in play would extend the tethers to create a circumference around the robot itself. The team designed 8ft, 10ft and 12ft lengths for this configuration. Each tethered hammer weighed 8lb, and had 50 degrees of flex to, in theory, stabilize the robot when necessary. According to Team Half-Life, the weapon could reach tip speeds of 450mph due in part to the two Magmotors powering it. This was some 50% over the then-300mph tip speed limit for competitors during the ABC seasons of BattleBots. However, HellaChopper had an eight second spin-up time, relatively slow when compared to other powerful spinners in World Championship II. For drive, HellaChopper made use of omniwheels to allow for strafing, a method of locomotion used to great effect in later seasons with Shatter! and in the design of Ominous. HellaChopper also had four spring-loaded feet with magnets allegedly capable of 1500lb of downforce.

Team Half-Life arrived at filming with a finished robot, but due to the diameter of the weapon and safety concerns surrounding the robot as a whole, HellaChopper's first spin-up test was performed in the test box and in its "Beast Mode" configuration. The test was successful, but production requested a second weapon test within the BattleBox itself with the weapon's greater reach. The weapon started spinning up with minimal strafing, though this changed as it hit an alleged 2000rpm, or "50% power". Eventually, a speed controller powering the weapon's Magmotors gave way and fire broke out inside the robot. This was the test that was uploaded to YouTube.

"Oh s**t... God damnit! Son of a bitch... Son of a bitch!"

— Team Half-Life as a fire erupts inside HellaChopper during World Championship II filming

The robot was repaired and HellaChopper underwent another attempt. This time, one of the towels added to HellaChopper's hammer heads to prevent scratches to the BattleBox floor was sucked into the weapon mechanism, causing serious damage. According to Rob Evenhart, Team Half-Life returned to the pits with two hours until their scheduled tournament fight against HyperShock, where Greg Munson and Trey Roski requested that they reduce the length of each tether to 6ft and rebuild their weapon to spin with 35-50% power in order to fight while ensuring relative safety. Team Half-Life were not able to comply with these demands and HellaChopper withdrew from BattleBots, replaced by UltraViolent. Following HellaChopper's forfeit from the competition, spinning weapons were reduced to a 250mph tip speed limit from World Championship III, a rule that affected 2016 season champion Tombstone and has been strongly enforced ever since.

"We ran some numbers after we looked at the specs of the box, and found that even at low speeds our weapons if severed from the bot would easily blow through the glass..."

— Rob Everhart acknowledging the safety concerns surrounding HellaChopper in a 2016 Reddit post

HellaChopper would later shoot for World Championship III as HellaTank, swapping out its complex drive with a more traditional tracked system. It can be inferred that HellaTank was built with the intention of "flying" according to a Reddit post from Rob Everhart, though the viability of its design was questionable. HellaTank was also planned to go by the name of Creeping Death outside of BattleBots.

"The plan it to compete next season too much money and time wrapped up in it not to have some fun--we are re-moding it currently to see what other problems we can cause for ourself next year-- imagine a 250 lb drone with spinning hammers"

— Team Half-Life's Rob Everhart promises an "improved" build for World Championship III

Team Half-Life would later decide to refrain from entering the 2018 season, likely due to complications surrounding HellaTank's design proposal. Though the team teased ideas for a future build, including a weapon based on an electrical centrifugal gun, Team Half-Life would not return to BattleBots. The numbers behind HellaChopper are up for debate, especially considering Team Half-Life's overambitious approach to building their robot, and their equally overambitious plans for HellaTank. But Offbeat Robotics' Orion Beach expressed his doubts over HellaChopper's effectiveness in the BattleBox, if it was able to compete.

"The weapon motors they had would never have gotten that much moment of inertia spun up that fast, you just can't cheat physics. These are the same weapon motors that Witch Doctor had to abandon because they couldn't spin up Witch Doctor's weapon, just overly optimistic specs that quite a few builders fell for."

— Orion Beach, who was part of Team Skorpios during World Championship II

Rob Everhart took to Reddit in 2019 to confirm he would not be competing in future seasons of BattleBots, citing time spent and the need for sponsorship as his main reasons. He also expressed distaste for how the show operated in the modern era versus how it ran on Comedy Central, stating "all the legal requirements, expectations from the producers, contract terms, and lack of payback doesn't make it fun". The team reaffirmed their intention to not compete in BattleBots again on their social media pages, which have since been removed.

According to an email surfacing from YouTube content creator BattleRobotsFight, Rob Everhart was asked whether he was interested in returning for the World Championship VI, but declined. In September 2022, he listed HellaChopper's disk, mecanum wheels and flail arm for auction on eBay. It is unknown whether they sold.

A render of HellaChopper, explaining key features of the robot.

HellaChopper in a spin-up test, shortly before catching fire.

HellaChopper at World Championship II filming, minus its lid.

A top-down view of HellaChopper.

HellaChopper in its finished state.

HellaChopper in "Beast Mode".

A render of HellaTank.

Controversy

Team Half-Life came under scrutiny from fellow builders and fans when highly unsafe testing videos were discovered on Facebook and YouTube.

One video showed HellaChopper spinning up to speed in a seemingly-vacated warehouse, with the weapon showing signs of being unbalanced as it spun up to speed, even hitting a nearby bench vice at one stage. The robot was not secured to the raised metal platform it had been placed on, and there were no walls a world away from the test boxes used by BattleBots during filming and by other heavyweight competitors. Towards the end of the video, HellaChopper makes contact and sends an object hurtling towards the team member, who was present behind the camera. It is understood nobody was hurt, but the video sparked outrage in the community for how unsafe it was.

Kimberley Everhart working on HellaChopper in the pits.

The second notable video showed HellaChopper placed on a mat in the hallway of a house, again performing a spin-up test. The robot had been placed in an environment not much wider than the diameter of HellaChopper itself, with only the walls of the house in between the robot and those testing and recording it. Both original videos have since been made private, though the warehouse test video resurfaced in early 2022.

Further controversy arose when it became apparent in Team Half-Life's photoshoot for the 2016 season, co-captain Kimberley Everhart was wearing a hat bearing a strong resemblance to those worn in Nazi Germany during World War II. HellaChopper's logo also featured a Totenkopf skull - an elite division of Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS military branch. Upon learning of this connection, BattleBots censored the questionable logos from both the robot and team attire on HellaChopper's page on their official website.

Robot History

World Championship II
HellaChopper vs. HyperShock (Forfeit) HellaChopper was due to fight HyperShock in the first round of World Championship II's tournament bracket, but due to aforementioned circumstances, were forced to withdraw. Despite losing its respective qualifying rumble to Son of Whyachi, UltraViolent was reinstated and would fight HyperShock instead.

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 0
• Losses: 0

Competition	Wins	Losses
World Championship II *	None	None

* HellaChopper's withdrawal from fighting HyperShock does not contribute to their win/loss record.

Trivia

• Though HellaChopper did not compete in World Championship II, it did make an appearance in the BattleBots Coloring Book, released in 2018.