Spatula

Spatula in the arena at the 2004 NPC Charity Open.

Spatula was a Hobbyweight robot built by Team Wazio that competed at the 2004 NPC Charity Open. It was an invertible, four-wheeled silver and blue robot with a hinged wedge, designed so that it would work no matter which way up the robot was.

Spatula did well in the competition, reaching the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Ricochet. Spatula would continue to compete at various RFL events for multiple years, including the first two RoboGames events before retiring in 2006 after being sold to Team Moon.

Team Wazio also attempted to enter the Featherweight class of the NPC Charity Open with Skewer. However the robot did not compete, and it is unknown if it even showed up or was ever completed, as only CAD Drawings exist for it.

Robot History

NPC Charity Open

Spatula gets underneath War Drums.

Spatula's first match was against War Drums. This fight started with Spatula immediately coming out of its square, and slamming into War Drums, flipping it. Spatula then slammed War Drums into the wall before charging at its spinning drum. This used the power of War Drums own weapon against itself as War Drums was sent flying by this hit, War Drums only had half of its drive at this point so Spatula slammed into it again, flipping it once more.

Now upright, War Drums then landed a hit on Spatula that sent it flying through the air, however it was still having drive issues, and this allowed Spatula to take it to the wall. In doing so however Spatula got itself stuck under the wall, and the match had to be paused to free Spatula. Once the match resumed it was clear that War Drums' weapon was not working, and Spatula took it into the wall again, Spatula then pushed War Drums around the arena as the final seconds ticked down on the clock.

Spatula starts driving Chigger to the wall.

This win put Spatula into the next round where it faced Natasha. It won this fight, and was now in the quarter-finals where it faced Chigger. This fight started with Spatula getting under Chigger several times, before both bots slammed into each other again. This sent both bots flying, Chigger then came in on the attack, and landed a hit that sent Spatula flying.

Spatula then got under Chigger, however Chigger backed off the wedge, and used its eggbeater to deliver an attack onto Spatula's wedge. Spatula then got underneath Chigger, and slammed it into the arena wall, however Spatula got its wedge lodged under the wall with that attack. Chigger however was unable to capitalize on this as Spatula freed itself before Chigger could bring its eggbeater into play.

Spatula shoves Chigger around.

Spatula then got under Chigger several times, which seemed to have lost drive on the left hand side, before slamming it into the wall again. Chigger then flipped itself after making contact with Spatula's wedge, which had gotten stuck under the wall in the process of ramming Chigger.

This seemed to have knocked whatever was loose inside Chigger, back into place, and Chigger took this opportunity to send Spatula flying. Chigger then attacked the front wedge of Spatula again before getting around to the side of Spatula popping it into the air.

Spatula then got under, backed off, and rammed Chigger with 30 seconds left on the clock. Chigger then delivered an attack on Spatula's wedge, and Spatula took Chigger to the wall two more times as time ran down. Spatula lost on a very close judges decision putting it in the loser's bracket where it faced War Drums again.

Spatula slams War Drums.

This fight started with War Drums grinding away at Spatula's wedge before getting around to the rear of Spatula, and sending it flying. War Drums then drove over the top of Spatula which then rammed it, this flipped War Drums, and Spatula delivered two more slams, stopping the weapon of War Drums. Shortly after this attack War Drums stopped moving, and tapped out.

This win put Spatula into the semi-finals where it faced Ricochet. This would prove to be a relatively dull match with both robots being so fast that they missed each other most of the time. Of the two Ricochet was the more aggressive, and mostly came out on top when the two machines did collide. Ricochet won the resulting judges decision, meaning that Spatula was eliminated from the competition.

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 3
• Losses: 2

Competition	Wins	Losses
NPC Charity Open	War Drums (x2) Natasha	Chigger Ricochet

Trivia

• The CAD drawing for Spatula.
• Team Wazio's other entry: Skewer, which registered for the Featherweight class but did not compete.

1/2

• Like the other Hobbyweight semifinalist VBT12 Spatula first lost to Chigger in the winner's bracket before being eliminated by Ricochet.