Hoodlum was a heavyweight robot designed by Team Sabotage, which attempted to qualify for BattleBots World Championship VI.
It was designed to be a four-wheel drive box-shaped robot with a plow-like front somewhat similar to ROTATOR. Hoodlum had an undercutting disk attached to the front of the robot with four teeth to slice at the underside of opponents. The team compromised of three British competitors who all previously fought on Robot Wars with their own heavyweight creations. These were referenced on Hoodlum, as their names were written in graffiti style typography on its top panel, as well as that of Hoodlum itself. The four wheels protruded from the top of the chassis, suggesting Hoodlum could run upside-down if flipped.
Despite Hoodlum being entered into BattleBots for 2021, it originally had been mocked up by Simon Harrison as early as 2000 for Series 5 of Robot Wars under the working name El Presidente. There were slight changes between El Presidente and Hoodlum, however the overall shape and design of the robot was very similar. Harrison never got around to building El Presidente, and it remained a concept until Hoodlum began development.[1]
An inside look at Hoodlum.
Hoodlum's blade bears a strong resemblance to that of former Robot Wars runner-up Pussycat, a robot Simon Harrison cited as inspiration for the rear spinner on his later King Buxton builds.
- "We wanted it to be a bit cheeky too. And some cheek you may say we had, in borrowing the Pussycat disk concept up front. But will say on this - that Allan Gribble once so very kindly offered and made a disk of this style for the back of King B (probably out of pity of my poor mild steel effort of the time haha) and told me I was free to use the design any way I wished- -and so for the art render on this one, I did ! In my mind then, it’s also a bit of a tribute to Allan that I always wanted to give him as a ‘thank you’ in some way."
- — Simon Harrison on the inspiration for Hoodlum's primary weapon.
Team captain Simon Harrison confirmed Hoodlum had not been accepted for World Championship VI of BattleBots in May 2021.[2]
Outside BattleBots[]
Harry Hills first competed alongside Gabriel Stroud (who fought as part of DUCK! and Beta in BattleBots) as part of Team Legion, before entering his heavyweight eggbeater Hobgoblin into Series 9 and 10 of Robot Wars. He is also an established featherweight competitor in the UK live scene.
El Presidente, the original design for Hoodlum made 20 years prior
Simon Harrison is a veteran heavyweight competitor in the UK, having competed as early as 1999 with his King Buxton series of robots, and as recently as Series 8 of Robot Wars reboot with King B Remix. The Hoodlum design was originally planned to be an evolution of Simon Harrison's King B after failing to qualify for Series 6 of Robot Wars and was set to be called "El Presidente". However, it could not be completed due to money and time restraints, and he sat on the idea ever since. Outside of the United Kingdom, the latest iteration, King Buxton 20, fought in the 2018 edition of RoboGames. It failed to win in the US, losing to Megalodon and Team RioBotz's Touro Maximus. More recently, King Buxton 20 featured in a 2021 Robots Live! event held in Crawley, England. Simon Harrison and his heavyweight won the first ever Robot Wars Tag Team Terror competition in 2000, alongside teammate for the event 101.
Likewise, Jamie McHarg competed in all three series of the Robot Wars reboot. He first formed part of former champion Gary Cairns' PP3D team, before branching off to build to enter Coyote into Series 9 and 10. Coyote earned 1-3 records in both series, and failed to escape its heat. Since the show's cancelation, Jamie McHarg has become known for building replicas of various Robot Wars House Robots and bringing them to demonstration events - notably Shunt and Dead Metal.
Mark Mellors produced the CAD for Hoodlum which was submitted to BattleBots in 2021. He twice applied for Robot Wars as part of Deadlock, but failed to qualify and then withdrew from Series 9 and 10. Deadlock also attempted to qualify for the 2019 and 2020 seasons of BattleBots, but was again rejected on both occasions.
The team also attempted to qualify for King of Bots with a heavyweight eggbeater spinner called Monster, though this was also not selected for the Chinese show.[3]
References[]
- ↑ Correspondence between Simon Harrison and cjc_rw
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1446791652321760
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1253469488320645