The Missing Link

The Missing Link's Season 1.0 appearance

The Missing Link was a lightweight robot built by Jason Bardis of the Infernolab that competed at Long Beach 1999 and Season 1.0 of BattleBots. It was an unpainted robot originally armed with a variety of weapons. The weapons were a chainsaw, composite ballistic armor on a stick, a harpoon gun, a scoop, a pair of spikes, and a circular saw. It performed decently in BattleBots, reaching the televised rounds in Season 1.0.

Robot History

Long Beach 1999

The Missing Link's Long Beach 1999 appearance.

The Missing Link's first ever match in BattleBots was against the multibot Spike of Doom. Immediately, both opposing robots charged at The Missing Link, before it attacked Spike with its circular saw. This hit stalled the motor that powered the saw blade, but also incapacitated Spike. Wedge of Doom began having control problems at this point, and was also knocked out by The Missing Link after suffering a few hits from its tail. Despite both parts of the multibot being immobilized, the fight had already been over as, due to the regulations concerning multibots at the time, once 50% of the robot had been knocked out, the entire robot was declared as out. The Missing Link won by KO in 38 seconds and advanced to the next round, where it faced The Crusher.

The Crusher pushes The Missing Link against the spikestrip.

Crusher swerves around Missing Link to avoid the saw and nearly scooped The Missing Link from its left side. Crusher then charges right into The Missing Link's saw and the process drive under The Missing Link. The Crusher then scoops The Missing Link and crashes it into the wall. The Crusher also drives itself onto the killsaws. The Missing Link managed to hit The Crusher with its saw but The Crusher continued tackling. The Crusher rams into the The Missing Link's saw by the rear and scoops The Missing Link on top. This seems to have disabled The Missing Link's saw which wasn't spinning anymore. The Missing Link then pins The Crusher against the corner with its tail. However The Missing Link couldn't pull away and looked stuck. A timeout was called to break them up. After that The Crusher started pushing The Missing Link around and nearly drove itself into the killsaws but stopped right on time. Missing Link's battery drained prematurely and The Crusher won by KO at 3:13. The Missing Link was now in the loser's bracket, where it faced Endotherm. Endotherm won by KO at 2:55 as the battery connector popped off and The Missing Link was eliminated from the tournament.

The Missing Link wasn't finished, however, as it participated the kilobot royal rumble at the end of the tournament. Unfortunately, The Missing Link got flipped by running full speed & launching over Mouser Catbot 2001, where it got stuck against the spikestrip. The Missing Link was left there for the rest of the rumble and HammerHead was declared the winner of the kilobot royal rumble.

Season 1.0

The Missing Link's first match in Season 1.0 was against Chiabot. The Missing Link used its chainsaw to good effect as it went through the fake plants of Chiabot. After this, both robots were stuck together and were separated shortly after. After the match restarted, The Missing Link fired both of its scuba spear guns into Chiabot & then pushed it to the killsaws, where a wheel came off of Chiabot. Chiabot stopped moving and it was now being counted out. The Missing Link won by KO at 2:20 and advanced to the round of 16, where it faced Ziggo.

The aftermath between Ziggo and The Missing Link.

The Missing Link's battered wheel after its match against Ziggo.

The Missing Link charged straight at Ziggo while it was spinning up to speed, but failed to slow the spinning down. Ziggo drove away and tried to attack The Missing Link, but was deflected off of the attachment added to The Missing Link for this fight. Ziggo managed a glancing blow on one of The Missing Link's wheels, before managing to send The Missing Link flying with its next hit and tearing the wheel clean off. Ziggo attacked its crippled opponent again, loosening the other wheel, which rolled off of its own accord seconds later & making sparks fly. Immobilized, The Missing Link took a final hit from the killsaws and was counted out. Ziggo won by KO at 1:18 and The Missing Link was eliminated from the tournament again.

An immobile The Missing Link next to the immobilized Tentoumushi.

The Missing Link wasn't finished, however, as it participated one of two lightweight consolation rumbles at the end of the tournament. The Missing Link started spinning with its stick and managed to hit Das Bot. After this, Backlash ripped the left wheel off of The Missing Link. The Missing Link was now moving in circles and Tentoumushi pushed it against the spikestrip, which it got stuck under The Missing Link's stick. Both robots were stuck there for the rest of the rumble and Backlash, along with Thorn, were declared the winners of the lightweight consolation rumble.

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 2
• Losses: 3

Competition	Wins	Losses
Long Beach 1999	Spike of Doom	The Crusher, Endotherm
Season 1.0	Chiabot	Ziggo

Mark Beiro Introductions

"Weighing in at 57 pounds and from the creative minds of Jason Bardis. Hailing from Goleta, California. Introducing THE MISSING LINK!"

"Weighing in at 57 pounds and created by Jason Bardis. Ladies and gentlemen, from Santa Barbara, California, here is THE MISSING LINK!"

• The Missing Link's stats in Season 1.0.
• Missing Link armed with the circular saw and harpoon gun at SORC 1998.

1/2

Trivia

• The Missing Link appeared in the UPN sitcom Grownups as Circuits, pet robot of the manager of a computer software company.