Thunderpants still lives in my garage. It was a massive step up from previous robots and took a very long time to build. By the time it was completed, Robot Wars had finished on the BBC, so I had time to experiment.

The concept was simple – can you build an ‘axe’ bot that can run both ways up? Axe-bots / hammer-bots were notorious for being vulnerable to being flipped. I figured if we could work out a way for it to run boths ways up, the chance of a flip hurting us was much less.

It re-used the air system that we’d developed in Hot Pants but with more advanced electronic controls. Still using the C5 motors, the tricky bit was working out a mechanism to make the sledgehammer work both ways. (We changed to a hammer because a two-headed axe tends to nail itself to the floor of the arena.)

It took weeks and weeks of design sprints and revisions to work out the mechanism. In the end, we went with a relatively simple idea of shaping the joint at the end of the pneumatic ram so it picked up the hammer.

Once the mechanism was built and we started testing, we found that from a distance it was difficult to tell which way up it was (and therefore which way to push the controls on the radio). We tried using devices to automatically reverse the controls but they weren’t very reliable and were quite heavy. So instead we simply painted the chassis two distinct colours.

It worked really well and was easy to see. With practise, the driving got easier. We were ready for Robot Wars again which was now on Channel 5.

Because so many people now wanted to enter Robot Wars, they were now doing live shows that they were using as qualifying rounds. We entered and were given a melee against M2, King B Powerworks and Pressure.

At this point, it is worth saying that there is some mis-information on the internet about this fight and what happened after. So let’s give our version.

Before the fight, Simon Harrison, driver of King B, told me that he regarded Thunderpants as a threat and was going to target me first. True to his word, he did just this and rammed the spikes of King B into Thunderpants several times. This did cause disruption to some elements, including the drive, but Thunderpants was (just about) still moveable at the end. The CO2 had frozen from repeated use of the ram and its fair to say I was pleased that the fight ended when it did.

We were informed that we would be invited to the filming of the series and we did wear silly costumes (as can be seen below and encouraged by the production crew). But from discussions with the production team, the performance of the robot was enough to take it through, not the daft costumes.

I know how much effort and time goes into building these beasts so can fully understand and sympathise if others felt they had been missed out.

The filming was in short order after the qualifiers (a couple of days from memory). I was staying with my sister because it was all too far from home. When I started looking at the damage, I realised there was significant damage to the motor supports which needed welding. I had no bench and only a few tools. Thankfully I had brought the welder with me. I patched it up as best I could. I had little space to test so a simple back and forward was all it got.

Robot Wars Series 7 Heat E

30th Sept 2003 – Nottinghamshire.

When we arrived at the filming, the technical checks were starting even before we got out of the car. As we were unloading, Kim Davis (who was now working as a scrutineer on the show) remarked to me about the lack of ends on the gearboxes of the C5 motors. “Don’t the belts slip off?” he asked. Talk about foreboding… They never had before in the other robots.

Much of the first day was spent hanging around the pits, doing the usual weighing, photos, filling in forms, etc.

On day two (after a rather heavy night) we were due to fight. We had the usual interviews with Jayne Middlemiss, who was great and got ready to load the robots into the arena.

As I drove Thunderpants forward there was a lurch and then nothing!! I could hear nothing either with the noise in the arena.

They opened the gates and hauled her back. Both drive belts had come off, just as Kim had predicted. On later analysis we realised that the damage to the wheel supports from King B3 had twisted the wheel supports so they were no longer straight. Under load the belts moved outwards and flipped off the ends.

Derek Foxwell gave us a few minutes to try to get them back on but to no avail. We were out in the worst possible style! With no time to fix anything and a live audience waiting, Derek decided to push Thunderpants back into the arena as a chew toy for the house robots. There was nothing we could do.

Jayne did come up and do an inpromptu interview with us. OMG, what’s happened? Can you fix it? etc. The interview was never used and while Thunderpants is seen on the show being thrown around in the arena, neither Steve nor I appear on screen – which saved them the appearence fee.

When we got it back, it took us about an hour to modify the gearboxes with large plates so they didn’t have an open end. I wish we’d done that on day one when we had so much time to kill.

It was a disappointing end and although Thunderpants did appear at some live events after, it never got a chance to show what it could really do. Robot Wars UK was cancelled after just one season on Channel 5.