Team Danby, also known as Team Mowbot during the 2020 season, are an active team who have competed in five BattleBots World Championships, most notably with their suplex robot Slammo!.
Team Danby during the 2021 season.
The team are led by British-born roboteer Craig Danby, who has competed with robots in various weight classes in the UK and US for over 20 years.
Rebranding as Team Mowbot for World Championship V in line with their main sponsor Mowbot, who also sponsored BattleBots at the time, this sponsorship was dropped after the 2020 season and the team returned to their original name. In line with this, SlamMow!'s name changed to Slammo! for future competitions.
For the BattleBots live shows in May 2023, Craig Danby was accompanied by his father, Derek. Jason Rogers of Team Gruff for its September fights against Skorpios.
Outside BattleBots[]
Craig Danby also built Hyena for the short-lived Chinese robot combat show Clash Bots, which was originally set to be a crusher, but production overruled saying they wanted something more akin to his other televised heavyweights at the time. It fought Bull Devil but was flipped out of the arena, then also lost to Princess of Wales, teams who competed in Robot Wars with Beast and GlitterBomb respectively.
In July 2022, the third iteration of Slammo! fought at Robotica in Houston, Texas. Slammo! placed second overall, defeating Orly, Lil Pip Resurrected, Avalanche and Tiger Plywood but losing to HappyCatter and champion Deferred Maintenance.
Team Members[]
Craig Danby[]
Team captain Craig Danby is a veteran roboteer with experience competing in the US, UK and China. His involvement with the UK show Robot Wars dates right back to the early years, competing in the Featherweight Championship of Series 2 with a robot called Deadline. Team Danby then applied for the planned Superheavyweight event with Toxin, but this was canceled due to a serious behind-the-scenes accident. Failing to qualify for Series 4 with a robot called Vindicare, he then entered TX-108 into the first series of Robot Wars: Extreme and fought in the Wild Card Warriors side competition, where newcomers were pitted against experienced teams, and defeated iconic horizontal spinner Hypno-Disc, though this fight was ultimately cut from the show.
His first televised appearance came at the fifth time of asking with 150g Anto in the Antweight Championship, but it lost out to Combatant. In the Featherweight Championships of the second series of Robot Wars: Extreme and the subsequent main competition, he also competed with two iterations of Gi-Ant-O. Craig Danby would ultimately be unsuccessful in qualifying for Series 5, 6 and 7 of Robot Wars with TX-108, and was an unused reserve in the latter with Tanto.
However, he finally made his televised main series debut in the 2016 and 2017 series of the Robot Wars reboot with Foxic, which would later inspire his first two BattleBots entries. Craig Danby's final appearances on the show came in Series 10, teaming up with brother Chris Danby to compete with Apex, which became well-known for its loss versus Track-tion, where its weighing 87lb overhead bar spinner detached and flew violently across the arena, through the protective Lexan.
Outside of BattleBots, Craig Danby fights in the National Havoc Robot League with 3lb beetleweight Chicken Huffin - a scaled-down verison of Slammo!.
Chris Danby[]
Brother to Craig Danby, Chris has captained the team on occasion outside of BattleBots, with Team Terrafonics being the team name used to signify this change of captaincy. Under this name, Chris Danby entered Apex into the reboot series of Robot Wars. The name was previously the default team name irrespective of captaincy from 1997 until 2008.[1] He would captain Apex during its Proving Ground match with his brother and Slammo!.
Mike Jeffries, Randy Farmer & Jason Brown[]
Members of the now-retired 2016 season runner-up Bombshell, Mike Jeffries, Randy Farmer and Jason Brown played pivotal roles in its success during its first two seasons, though Farmer and Brown were present for Bombshell's final season too. Also known for his 30lb robot Nyx, Mike Jeffries was unable to attend filming for the 2021 season with Team Danby, but assisted with the overall development of Slammo! leading up to the competition. He took on the role of Match Steward ahead of World Championship VII.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Slammo! | Heavyweight | World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII (Alternate) BattleBots: Champions II BattleBots Proving Ground |
| SlamMow! | World Championship V
BattleBots: Bounty Hunters | |
| Apex | Heavyweight | World Championship VII (Not selected) BattleBots Proving Ground |
| WhamMow! | World Championship V (Not selected) | |
| Foxtrot | Heavyweight | World Championship IV |
| Predator | Heavyweight | World Championship III |
Win/Loss Record[]
- Wins: 9
- Losses: 20
See Also[]
- Team Danby's website
- Team Danby on Facebook
- Team Danby on YouTube
- Team Danby on Instagram
- Team Danby on Twitter
- Foxic (Robot Wars)
- Foxic (RoboGames)
- Apex (Robot Wars)
- Hyena (Clash Bots)