Razer

Few robots in the UK series Robot Wars matched Razer’s trophy cabinet. Built in Bournemouth by Ian Lewis and Simon Scott, with Vincent Blood as third team member, the 92 kg machine measures 114 × 60 × 41 cm and runs on an electric four-wheel skid-steer drive, with its hydraulic pump driven by a motorcycle starter motor.

The weapon is a hydraulic piercing arm shaped like a crocodile or scorpion beak: the cylinder develops up to 9 tons per square inch and the tip 3 tons per square inch, enough to punch through armour plate.

Competing from 1998, Razer won the UK championship of Series 5 (final on 1 November 2002), two Robot Wars World Championships (years not recorded), the 1999 BattleBots Gigabot Rumble in Long Beach, the All-Stars of Extreme 1 and 2, the International Championship, Pinball Warrior in Series 3 and Annihilator in Series 4. As of 24 July 2016 its record stood at 47 fights, 40 wins, 6 losses and one forfeit.

It retired after the 2016 revival and is now toured by Robo Challenge. Status: retired. The catalogue photo from Heatherton in 2005 is by Michael Walton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Its successor as Britain’s crusher is Spectre.