Robot Mini Wars Part 1 (of 10) Introduction

[spongebot64]

I must say, the Lightning model at 0:10 looks very impressive.

[Calvertfilm]

@spongebot64 Aha, yes, actually we used the resin model for that shot, as it is more detailed than the paper one. Well spotted.

[thekingofcoolness1]

@Calvertfilm

what's resin???



[Calvertfilm]

@thekingofcoolness1 The resin model is a solid heavy substance, that modellers use. It is mixed up as a sticky liquid and then poured into a mould. It then hardens and takes the shape of the mould, this is called a cast. Our cast was in the shape of Lightning and Mike Onslow (Plunderbirds) made a few of these for us (we have run out now). Then you paint it up. Resin models can be very detailed. Being it is heavy and solid we could not motorise it, so we used paper versions for that.

[GJTITANIC]

Where is Razer?

[Calvertfilm]

@GJTITANIC Bit hard to make out of paper. We chose the easier shapes first.

[robotbakugan]

Lighting was one of my favourite robt until something went wrong when it was fighting Gravity. So from there I hated Gravity

[Calvertfilm]

@robotbakugan We had a flat tyre and didn't know it. Thanks for being a fan :-)

[robotbakugan]

did you make lighting

[Calvertfilm]

@robotbakugan Yes. Well to be precise, I was the driver/team leader, Albert put up the cash, and Richard made it. We also had some help from others: Phil, John, Jacky, George, Ian to name but a few.

[Bowsersshell]

you use the same sort of rc that i use to make my antweights

[jwtube65]

hey i checked part 10 and theres no plunderbird 5 instruction

[Calvertfilm]

@jwtube65 What I meant was Part 10 shows how the paper models are stuck onto the radio control micro cars. But you'll still need to design your own Plunderbird. It is basically a black box with a slanted front and a spike that you can cut to shape out of card.

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd No. 

[jedandtodd]

hey, iv put a vid on my account plz check it out and sub

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd No mate.

[Mechavrore]

@Calvertfilm Wow dude, you made those yourself?

[Calvertfilm]

@Mechavrore Yeah - see Part 10 of this series.

[jedandtodd]

ok ill let him know

[jedandtodd]

me and my bro r u going to be making some vids of rc rw.ill tell u when iv dun them and put them on youtube.the first fight will be x1 vs thunder.

i'll let you know when we have made the video. Thx please suscribe.

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd Cool, ok. Also let 147JaC know (my son) and if you sub to him he'll sub back.

[jedandtodd]

@Calvertfilm ok

[jedandtodd]

@Calvertfilm can you because my dam laptop wont

[jedandtodd]

so r u goin to try?

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd Not yet - no time!

[jedandtodd]

@Calvertfilm ok



[jedandtodd]

when are you goin to be makin some new vids on rc mini robot wars maybe you could do tag team terror

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd Interesting idea.

[jedandtodd]

hi me and my brother have bought two micro cars but we notist that they were working for each other did u have that problam? wat cud i do?

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd Yeah, they are both on the same frequency I expect. Have a look for stickers on them such as 27mhz or 45mhz. They need to be different. A 27mhz transmitter will work all 27mhz cars in the area otherwise. So all you need to do is buy one more car on a different frequency to what you have.

[jedandtodd]

@Calvertfilm ok thanks a lot when r u goin to make some new vids of robot wars with the micro cars?

[Calvertfilm]

@jedandtodd Don't know. My son might do something first. He has uploaded some similar but different RW YouTubes. His channel is 147JaC.

[nooloo3000]

holy shit how did you make theses or are these the toys

[Calvertfilm]

@nooloo3000 We made these paper cut outs and stuck radio control micro cars underneath them. The end part of this series shows how.

[Calvertfilm]

@nooloo3000 See Part 10.

[IndianaJoel93]

I have the lightning cut out :D

[Calvertfilm]

@IndianaJoel93 That's nice to know. We have uploaded all of the others we use but YT blocks links. So you'll have to search 'Calvertfilm Lightning' and find our robot home page, scroll down to near the bottom, then there is a link for loads of others.

[IndianaJoel93]

@Calvertfilm I know, i have saved them onto my computer, they are very good by the way :)

[Calvertfilm]

@IndianaJoel93 Cheers. Why not make some of your own designs? If you haven't already....

[IndianaJoel93]

@Calvertfilm I will give it a go, but they probably wont be that good :L

[kingkanton]

ah ok, but this is still amazing, so amazing, thnx for this vid,

[Calvertfilm]

@kingkanton That's not to say you couldn't have a go at making things like this with working weapons.

[kingkanton]

can u make the flipper and other weapons work?

[Calvertfilm]

@kingkanton Not on these particular models. The RC cars are not powerful enough to drive anything more than these paper bodies. To make them fully working would require a bit more work, such as with an antweight robot.

[Alexthe15th]

I LUV UR SERIES

[tourdeforce17]

great! remeber seeing these one your website a while back. guessing there's no active weapons? lol

[Calvertfilm]

No active weapons as yet. These really are tiny robots, weighing in at around 25grams only.

We'd have to get proper little R/C controls to do it properly with weapons. These are all pusher or wedge attacks.

[badwolf66]

Brings back memories of when I used to play with my robot wars pullbacks, I still have them today, I bought them all.

[Calvertfilm]

Yeah we have the set too. And the little ones. Great fun!

[badwolf66]

@Calvertfilm I bet you also have the minifigures and the arena and the drop zone?

I have some of the mini figures not all of them tho, also arena and drop zone.

I miss robot wars so much.

[Calvertfilm]

Yeah the kids have everything except the drop zone. This was because we got the earlier arena.

We also have a Chaos 2 toy signed underneath by George Francis too.

[Calvertfilm]

Why not collect the missing figures? We did on eBay.

[badwolf66]

@Calvertfilm

I could.

I kind of grew up with robot wars ever since I discovered it on BBC 2 in 1998, then it went to channel 5 and failed.

[Calvertfilm]

I remember being amazed seeing Cassius self-right. At that moment I wanted to make a wedge flipper. Lightning made it to Extreme 2 and series 7, five years later!

It was funny for me, being a fan, then eventually competing. Now many of the roboteers are still my mates. I was only emailing Chaos 2, Plunderbird and Steel Avenger crews today!

Shame it did fail on C5 but at least of us have our memories, friendships and hopefully lots of entertaining videos for you.

[badwolf66]

@Calvertfilm

Chaos 2 was a good robot but after series 5 it kind of losts it's touch, plunder bird were a funny team.

When they took away robot wars it felt like a bit of my childhood was taken away, then they took away the Simpsons on BBC2 which made it a great line up.

But series 7 had some of the greatest battles like gravity flipping over dead metal and shunt after he finished with lightening, I wanted them to win but Tornado said no.

[Calvertfilm]

Gravity was a strong machine. We fought Tornado at a live event and won. It is on YouTube somewhere.

Check out Chaos 2 stats though, and it has an amazing run of victories. And in series 3 it was so far ahead. I guess things had moved on in later series.

[badwolf66]

@Calvertfilm

yep robot wars has it's own wikipedia now.

I want the BBC to make series 8 of robot wars but it;s highly unlikely to happen, I wonder what ever happened to the house robots did they get destroyed or scrapped?

I hope not.

[Calvertfilm]

House Robots - BBC designer Chris Reynolds was looking after them. I met him at a live event. I'm not sure if he still has them though. They are BBC property as far as I know.

Chris is on the House Robots DVD actually (if you have that) and he talks about how the designs came about. Interesting job.

The Wiki entries are great. I was contacted about Lightning. I think they use Lightning to demonstrate self-righting as I had movie they made into a sequence of images they could use.

[badwolf66]

@Calvertfilm

I watched lightening vs Tornado your robot had the wedge advantage while tornado didn't have much ground advantage to get to maximum speed.

[Calvertfilm]

Lightning also relies on speed and traction, and we were both lacking in that arena. Andrew Marchant was a bit apprehensive of facing Lightning because we are low to the ground. His fears proved correct.

But I really admire Andrew as a driver and Tornado is a tenacious machine. One of my favourites.

[anderson9132]

that's awsome!! so I take it you don't have any of the pullbacks. shame really because you could have put some electronics inside them and make them work. can't wait to see the rest! also will you do more after this series?

[Calvertfilm]

Thanks. We do have the pullbacks but the paper robots are light enough for the micro cars to operate, plus they buckle and can simulate damage. In one heat Lightning's spike bends up for example.

My son Jon is planning a different sort of series, using perhaps the pullbacks and Lego robots. Not sure yet. It will be different. Also we may do another one of these too. Depends if people like it. I will upload the other 8 videos tomorrow. Let me know your thoughts.

[Headbanger142]

0:11 LOL Killalot must have fallen on Tricerabot's horns again