Mutant Robots, also known as Team Lock-Jaw in recent years and sometimes called Mutant Robotics, are an active team who have been present throughout all five seasons of Comedy Central BattleBots and every World Championship to date on ABC and Discovery. The team have competed since early US Robot Wars events in 1996, and have entered every single televised BattleBots competition.
The team are led by Donald Hutson who built and drove all of the robots, with his wife Dawn Hutson and teammates Dave Cook, Michael Douglas and Mike Moore originally operating the weapons and assisting in repairing the robots between matches. The team found their greatest success during the Comedy Central BattleBots seasons, scoring a total of 28 competitive wins in all competitions between 1999 and 2002 with Tazbot, Diesector, Root Canal and Easty Beast. The team also earned two superheavyweight BattleBots titles as well as the heavyweight title at the 2004 NPC Charity Open.
Mutant Robots currently compete with their 250lb heavyweight Lock-Jaw, whose career-best finish to date is came in World Championship III where it reached the semi-finals.
Outside BattleBots[]
Prior to the 1999 BattleBots events, the Mutant Robots team originally competed with early versions of Tazbot at the US Robot Wars competitions held in San Francisco by Marc Thorpe.
For the inaugural SOZBOTS event in 2002, Donald Hutson built 1lb robot Incinerator. It was the joint No.2 ranked 1lb robot in 2002 after winning the July 2002 event[1] and moved down to 6th in 2003.[2][3]
In 2015, Mutant Robots were joined by John Remar as Lock-Jaw performed a demonstration on ESPN's SportsNation.
In November 2024, Hutson announced a brand new walker build called Cu-Jaw, which would be displayed at IAAPA Conference in Orlando.[4]
Team Members[]
Donald Hutson[]
- "My name is Donald Hutson, and I am most definitely a robot enthusiast that has spent the last twenty plus years fabricating and creating all sorts of robotic creations for both work and play."
- — Donald Hutson
A presence within the sport's history since 1999 with heavyweight Tazbot, Donald Hutson has spearheaded each of Mutant Robots' entries as team captain. He mentored in FIRST Robotics for over nine years leading to the show's reboot. Hutson originally worked as a welder and fabricator for a local awning company before spending almost a decade working to repair and develop home medical equipment as a rehab technology specialist. He credits LEGO and similar construction toys, which engaged his brain as a child. This evolved into various RC toys and later, a career in product development and engineering.
Donald Hutson with the Giant Bolt.
He worked as a design engineer for The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego for 13 years. Now working for Qualcomm Research, Hutson designs robots for more practical uses including transporting small goods and navigating different environments.
- "My experience with robotics started way back in the day with LEGOs and all other toys that I could either take apart or modify in some way or fashion. For some reason I always wanted to make them better or experiment with how they worked. I got into remote control gliders & helicopters at a early age..."
- — Donald Hutson explains his origins
Between the Comedy Central and ABC seasons of BattleBots, Donald Hutson served as a judge during BattleBots IQ 2004 and held demonstrations with Diesector in the BBIQ arena. As well as this, he mentored UCSD Triton Robotix and Triton during the 2009 Collegiate Championship.
Main article: Donald Hutson
Dave Cook, Michael Douglas & Mike Moore[]
Mutant Robots' crew for Diesector and Root Canal's Comedy Central seasons, Cook, Douglas and Moore were responsible for all aspects of the robot alongside team captain Donald Hutson.
Dawn Hutson[]
Present throughout each of the Comedy Central seasons, Dawn Hutson is wife to team captain Donald.
Paul Ferrell, Jonathan Medina & Alex Kozarev[]
Donald Hutson's crew since the 2015 season, Ferrell, Media and Kozarev have all been ever-present since Lock-Jaw's debut. All three are listed as mechanics within the team, with Jonathan Medina also holding the role of team strategist.
Walter Maksimow[]
Walter "Wally" Maksimow joined the team for World Championship II and has been present for each season since.
Allie Levy[]
Levy joined the team ahead of the 2019 BattleBots competition and is head of admin and marketing for Mutant Robots.
Reginald Wilson[]
Reginald Wilson is listed as the team's chief engineer. Joining Mutant Robots in 2020, he was formerly the weapons operator for SubZero's drone, Spitfire, but is the current weapons operator of Lock-Jaw.
Dylan Walter[]
The most recent addition to Mutant Robots, Walter joined the team ahead of the 2021 season. As well as being a general mechanic within the team, Walter's specialties surround simulation and CAD.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Tazbot | Heavyweight | Long Beach 1999 Las Vegas 1999 Season 1.0 Season 2.0 Season 3.0 Season 4.0 Season 5.0 |
| Diesector | Superheavyweight | Season 1.0 Season 2.0 Season 3.0 Season 4.0 Season 5.0 |
| Root Canal | Middleweight | Season 4.0 Season 5.0 |
| Heavyweight | 2009 Pro Championship | |
| Carbide | Middleweight | Season 5.0 NPC Charity Open JavaOne 2007 (as Carbide) |
| Karcas 2 | Heavyweight | NPC Charity Open |
| Pro-Pain | Middleweight | Cisco Party 2006 |
| Gear Crow | Experimental | 2009 Championships (Demonstration only) |
| Lock-Jaw | Heavyweight | World Championship I World Championship II World Championship III re:MARS all:STARS 2019 World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 63
- Losses: 36
External Links[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20021030024142fw_/http://www.sozbots.com/ranking1_2.htm
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20021014024421/http://www.sozbots.com/sozbotindex2.htm
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030210081614/http://www.sozbots.com:80/sozbotindex2.htm
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TeamMutantRobots/posts/pfbid02fqGJvXYbr5Q3KQbWExrqXgiP1od7sDYz9AufmdguATK61rJf7TxA37vfqvQGuaSrl