Puddle Jumper

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Puddle Jumper was a Featherweight robot built by Hardcore Robotics that competed in the 2004 NPC Charity Open. It was a two wheeled, invertible wedge shaped robot, Puddle Jumper was incredibly fast, and it usually used its wedge as a thwacking arm.

Puddle Jumper did not do that well in battle, only winning two of its five fights, however it did place fourth in the NPC Charity Open. Puddle Jumper was retired after the event. Hardcore Robotics would later have much more success with their robot Tombstone, which won the Superheavyweight division at the NPC Charity Open, and became champion of ABC Season 2.

Robot History[]

NPC Charity Open[]

Morpheus plows into Puddle Jumper — Puddle Jumper bounces over Morpheus.

The Featherweight class of the NPC Charity Open was quite strange for a BattleBots event, as it was the only time in history that a BattleBots weight class has been run in a round robin format. This was necessary because despite 11 robots registering, only 6 wound up actually competing, Puddle Jumper's first match in the round robin was against Morpheus.

This fight started with Morpheus rushing out of its square, as Puddle Jumper spun up, once the bots made contact, Puddle Jumper's thwacking wedge was too high to hit Morpheus, and simply bounced over the top of the low wedge. Puddle Jumper then flipped itself, and drove around before flipping itself again. After this Puddle Jumper got under morpheus, and attempted to shove it into the wall, however it was unable to push Morpheus, which got away as Puddle Jumper bounced off it again, and wedged itself under the wall.

Once Puddle Jumper freed itself, it got under Morpheus again, like before it was unable to do anything with this, and bounced around some more before Morpheus took it to the wall. Puddle Jumper got away, and Morpheus delivered another slam to it before both robots locked together, and spun around. Following this Morpheus drove up Puddle Jumper's wedge, and slid off before Puddle Jumper flipped itself again.

Morpheus then delivered yet another slam to Puddle Jumper, and repeated this attack several times before Puddle Jumper got under it once more. However like before it was unable to do anything with Morpheus, which got away again. Morpheus then slammed into Puddle Jumper again, which then got up to speed, and delivered a blow to Morpheus's wedge, however this did not matter as the final 20 seconds of the match ticked down.

Puddle Jumper's next fight in the round robin was against Totally Offensive. This fight started off with Puddle Jumper Spinning up, and delivering a blow to Totally Offensive that took out its right wheel drive. From this point on no more contact between the two bots would be made, and Totally Offensive eventually limped under the pulverizer which destroyed its remaining drive motor, Totally Offensive then tapped out, giving Puddle Jumper the win by knockout.

Puddle Jumper attacks Doom — Puddle Jumper delivers a blow to the side of Doom.

Now Puddle Jumper faced Doom. This fight started with Puddle Jumper reversing into the wall, and flipping itself before spinning up, and flipping itself again as it spun. While this was happening Doom attempted to ram Puddle Jumper and missed as a result of Puddle Jumper flipping itself. This caused Doom to misjudge the angle of attack, and wedge itself under the pulverizer, where it got stuck, resulting in the match being paused to free Doom.

Once the match resumed, Puddle Jumper spun up again, as Doom slowly inched towards it, and Puddle Jumper landed a blow on the side of Doom. Following this Doom rammed Puddle Jumper into the wall before Puddle Jumper, promptly got under Doom, and attempted to do the same. Puddle Jumper then spun back up, before Doom rammed it two more times, the first ram did nothing. However the second ram by Doom put Puddle Jumper on its side where it was counted out.

Puddle Jumper slugs Totally Manipulative.

Puddle Jumper was then up against Totally Manipulative. This fight started with both bots coming out of their squares, Puddle Jumper than spun up, and flipped itself while spinning. Totally Manipulative thane charged at Puddle Jumper, but missed, and when it finally did get ahold of Puddle Jumper, it couldn't do anything with it due to Puddle Jumpers design.

Totally Manipulative then stopped in the middle of the arena, and Puddle Jumper got under it, and started turning, shoving it sideways. Totally Manipulative then got away, and and both bots charged at each other with Puddle Jumper bouncing off the lifter of Totally Manipulative, and right into the wall where it got stuck. Totally Manipulative then used its lifter to free Puddle Jumper before getting under it from the side, nearly taking the later to the wall.

Puddle Jumper locks weapons with Totally Manipulative.

Puddle Jumper got away, and started spinning, however it stopped just as Totally Manipulative drove into it. Totally Manipulative however was unable to get ahold of it, and Puddle Jumper started spinning again. This time however it managed to get a solid hit in on Totally Manipulative, it followed this up by getting under Totally Manipulative, wedging its bladed wedge between the chassis, and lifter of Totally Manipulative, and slaming it into a deactivated Pulverizer.

Following this Puddle Jumper got under Totally Manipulative again, and slammed it into the wall, before flipping itself again. After both bots got away from the wall, Puddle Jumper attempted to spin, however Totally Manipulative got under it, and attemted another lift nearly succeeding this time. Puddle Jumper then launched a final attack on Totally Manipulative as time wound down, slamming it into the wall, and delivering a very minor blow with its thwacking wedge, Puddle Jumper won the resulting judges decision, and was now playing for third place against Totally Offensive again.

Puddle Jumper digs into Totally Offensives armor.

This fight started with Totally Offensive immediatly attacking the wheels of Puddle Jumper to no effect. Puddle Jumper then delivered an attack of its own, slicing into the UHMW armor of Totally Offensive, and disabling one half of its drive. Puddle Jumper then attempted to wedge into Totally Offensive, however the later delivered a solid hit to Puddle Jumper's wedge.

Totally Offensive then delivered two more devastating hits, with the first one sending Puddle Jumper spinning away, and the second one ripping Puddle Jumper's right wheel clean off. However these hits took a toll on Totally Offensive, and it now lost mobility in its other wheel. However Puddle Jumper would not get the KO, as in a very clever driving tactic Totally Offensive started using its blade to move around the arena. By this point Puddle Jumper was dead, and since the countdown had not started, nor had Puddle Jumper tapped out, Totally Offensive started drifting toward Puddle Jumper, and delivered two nasty hits, tearing even more pieces off Ray Billing's machine as the clock ticked down. As Totally Offensive was the only robot still mobile at the end it won the match by KO, this meant that Puddle Jumper took fourth place in the 2004 NPC Charity Open Featherweight division.