I absolutely loved Robot Wars as a kid, always hoping I would be able to design my own robot one day to compete! I really hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane and would love to hear your feedback. If you like the video, it would mean the world if you could give it a like and subscribe to the channel. Hard at work on the next video. Thanks all!

Allowing tornado to basically change their whole bot mid contest was OUTRAAAGEOUS 20 years later im still fuming.

I remember as a young kid being absolutely incensed by Tornado's robbery of Razer! It was bad enough that they were allowed to make such a drastic change to their robot last minute, but for it to be too big to fall in the pit - that was taking the piss!

Razer was a work of art, and totally lethal

"And the show was moved to Channel 5." Is a sequence of words that inspire a very particular kind of dread.

Razer, Hypno-disc and Chaos 2 are the 🐐s

The fact tornado won because they were too big for the pit was an absolute travesty! Amazing doc though mate 👍

Craig Charles was perfect for this show. He brings so much enthusiasm and energy while staying grounded and real

Shoutout to the Robot Wars video game for PS2 that, despite janky gameplay, delivered on the fantasy of Robot Wars by letting you play as known competitors but also creating your own bots. It also had arenas that took advantage of the fact it was a game to add extra excitement like a Siberian missile base with a minefield and a silo hatch that can be opened. Also no mention of Diotore?! The robot best known for always being set on fire? Blasphemy!

I’ll never forget the first self righting robot built by Rex Garrod’s team. It was a stunning moment when it was flipped and then “boom!” It was back on its wheels!

Robot wars was a massive part of my childhood and teenage years. I competed in series 2 with Rottweiler and later in Series 7 with Constrictor. Also built the worlds first featherweight (12kg) robot with a full pressure flipper running on unregulated liquid co2. I still have constrictor in a rather sorry state of repair.

Robot Wars holds a deeply special place in my heart. A shared British childhood cultural touchstone for those of us born around 1990 to 1995. Friday evenings, watching The Simpsons at 6pm, followed by Robot Wars with Fish and Chips brought by dad coming home from work, the heralds of the weekend. Excellent video here. Ignited a lovely warm nostalgic flame ❤.

Looking back I can't believe Hypno-Disc never won it. Hypno-Disc was a bonafide household name, and arguably the one robot most people could name. Kind of like Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy in Wrestling haha!

Absolutely loved this. The one thing that I think could have been included was a special mention for Diotoir always getting set on fire. It was definitely one of the most entertaining bots alongside Razor, Hypnodisc and Chaos 2, but for all the wrong reasons.

Jonathan Pierce's commentary really helped 'make' the show, imo. He really had a way for amping up the excitement and made what could have come across like a bit of a nerdy pursuit, or a 'dad's shed project' type of thing, feel like a bona fide combat sport (albeit with hydraulic fluid in the place of blood!)

Loved Robot Wars! And still do. Can you tell xD I can remember the day Sir Killalot caught on fire and I had it recorded on VHS. Me and my cousin would watch it over and over. Still have all my Robot Wars toys too kept on display.

Loved this show as a kid, and Scrapheap Challenge every Sunday at my nanas after tea Totally agree when you say the role was made for Craig Charles, he's a legend

Still not over the sixth war final… the fact tornado couldn’t fit into the pit was a joke.

Craig Charles absolutely carried this series. So much energy. Gotta love the pationate northerner when it comes to simple tv

this was really nicely put together, thank you. i’d like to add a few more emotional thoughts: 1/ the master stroke that was getting pearce on board as commentator- a very familiar and distinctive voice to football (soccer) fans in the uk, he absolutely helped make robot wars the success it was and you could say he was to robot wars what murray walker was to grand prix racing. 2/ the camaraderie and sportsmanship among the competitors was great and well highlighted in the behind-the-scenes segments in every episode. often teams would be helping each other complete repairs or source parts between heats, and most controversial decisions were taken in good humour. 3/ this was a time well before arduino, 3d-printing, or 1-click pcb design and manufacture services. these engineers were the real deal and that was reflected in the judging panel being dominated by professors of cybernetics, robotics, ai, etc. the fact that teams were allowed to have quite young members was fantastic encouragement for aspiring youth engineers such as myself, and must have been a wild time for the kids themselves! 4/ shout out to the house robots’ designers and pilots: i know next to nothing about them, but great job all round with iconic designs with genuine personalities. 5/ as the series progressed, we gained some awesome vernacular to describe particular events or technologies, even as the implementation of different types of robots diversified in pursuit of dominant designs. for example- spinning discs or blades, flippers, pincers, rammers, spikes, all with pros and cons. but what stands out is SRIMECH: self-righting mechanisms to recover from being flipped over. Hypno-Disc gained a little sideways-flipping arm, Razer gained its little wings which made it look even more awesome, Chaos 2 learned to flip itself as well as everyone else! great stuff. 6/ the owners of these robots did lots of demos in schools and such. i grew up near Razer’s base of operations and got to see it a couple of times in person (i believe they have continued running demos?). those things were BIG and really heavy and seeing them in person made the arena battles on tv seem truly terrifying at times. no wonder the studio audience were placed way back and behind protective screens! anyway thanks for reading :)

Great recap. I remember one bloke refusing to shake the hand of a child he'd just lost to and storming off! Quality telly

It has been 2 decades but I am still absolutely fuming about Stinger being robbed by the judges against Chaos2. This was a great trip down memory lane, thank you

There is still a live Robot Wars style show going round the UK, I've been along a couple of times and it's always good. Back in 2001 I was invited to attend filming at Leavesden helping one of the middleweight teams at Extreme 1 which was being filmed at the same time as series 5, and I watched the Hypno-Disk vs Bigger Brother fight and saw the state that BB was in when it came out of the arena. As soon as they finished the post match interview, EVERY team in the place descended on BB and helped rebuild it, there were about 40 blokes working on that machine to get it up and running for the final. If you think the fights are impressive on TV, you want to go to a live event and watch two 100kg killing machines beating the snot out of each other, you can feel the ground shaking. I really hope they bring it back in the future.

Excellent video, thanks! The only thing missing for me was Cassius flipping itself back over. It was such an unforgettable moment that showed the genius of Rex Garrod.

This and Gladiators I adored, i was born in 91 i loved this show so much.

I had Matilda as an RC car when I was a kid, I'll never forget running over my Grandads feet with this sizable representation of the real thing.

Man in the sixth wars, Razor was robbed. Had Tornado not had the frame they added they WOULD have gone down the pit, regardless of the rest of it - especially as Razor hooked them by the main body.

I remember being so excited as a young kid watching robot wars. Me and my Grandad would sit and watch it whenever I was round for an evening, and I'd think endlessly about what kind of robot I would try to make. The older I get to more I appreciate the creative bots like Pussycat, but like so many others Razer was the coolest thing going. One day my Grandad got us tickets to go and see it live. I got to see Tough as Nails in its first round fight against Robochicken and two others I can't remember the names of (Disco? and one with a spinning top?) Anyway, it was special and I managed to see some of the pits afterwards and even got to meet the drivers of the house robots! It was one of those shows that brought out the true spirit of the people in the U.K. Inwardly quiet, kind fair and good sports, but the creativity and craziness goes into the machine building, sharing designs and ideas that brought joy even when they were smashed to pieces. Presented and made by people who genuinely seemed to love the concept. Nostaglia is a hell of a drug, but it's truly one of those things that looking back was exactly as good as I thought it was when I was younger. That's rare and very special.

In primary school we used to make our own robots. Made out of shoe boxes, pencil cases etc wrapped with paper and other things with pens etc as weapons sellotaped at the front and threw them across the table at each other to see who would win. Not exactly safe but this is how big robot wars back then. Loved it 😊

Man. As a kid i was heartbroken when Chaos 2 beat Hypnodisk, but as an adult, I can see Chaos 2 was such a well made little machine. The manoeuvrability, the flipper, it was so damn good. Hypnodisk really didn't stand a chance, it was too rigid, too brutish. My heart will always belong to hypnodisk, but as a grown up, I have so much respect for Chaos 2

Brilliant video! I know you couldn't go through every detail, but i think the best part of the Finals of the 5th Wars was the aftermath of Hypno-Disc and Bigger Brother. BB was so damaged in the fight that there was doubt as to whether or not they could even fight in the final, but all the Roboteers in the Pits came together to help re-build BB. That's one thing I loved about Robot Wars. Yes, there was drama and controversy but there was such great sportsmanship and a sense of unity even from those in direct competition.

Ian's rant after Razer lost to Pussycat is one of the greatest moments in TV history and you cannot convince me otherwise!

The nostalgia hit this video just gave me. Just scrolling through with nothing on my mind and then bam; smacked right back to 1999. Thank you so much for this upload. I’m 8 years old all over again. ❤

"You can stick your vegetarians, and your old carnivores, we only eat metal here, on Robot Wars".

The fact that Tornado come into season 7 without their "new weapon and support structure" says everything you need to know about what they did in season 6....

I attended the Robot Wars shows when I was little and meet many of the roboteers. The teamwork, creativity, competitiveness and all the good old laughs. I witnessed first hand the controversial season 6 Grand Final between Razer and Tornado and remembered being devastated and felt Razer were cheated with Tornado being suspended over the pit. Such a shame that show like Robot Wars will never return. Now its a tremendous place of nostalgia for me.

This video is criminally underrated. Not only is it so high quality in production, but in managing to get such high quality videos from the original series. I always loved the original series (despite being born in 2006) and this was such a good look back at some of the most iconic moments of such a good show.

What a brilliant video and a marvellous trip down memory lane! I was actually there back in 1997, in the audience at Docklands, for the filming of the Series 1 Finals. The series 1 champion, Roadblock was built by classmates of mine. Hender built the robot as a A-Level Technology project, along with Chris, who did it as part of his GCSEs. Peter, Chris' dad, was also our Technology teacher at Bodmin College. When they had made it through the heats, a bunch of us from the class were invited to travel up to London to watch them compete in the final bouts, and ultimately witness them winning the first wars and experience history being made first hand. We were all very proud! Sadly, I never made it into any of the audience shots, so dodnt get on telly myself...though friends of mine did and I think you could just see my arm at one point. 🤭 However, I did get to meet Jeremy Clarkson (he is very, very tall!) and Phillipa Forrester...which was a hugely memorable moment form me in itself as I had a massive teenage crush on her! 😊 Also...I will always remember that during the coach journey from Cornwall up to London, there was a passenger got on mid-way, who I would later realise was the judge, Prof. Noel Sharkey! 😁

Bring Robot wars back, it is one show I really miss.

I competed in RW back in the day. This brought back some some great memories. Sadly some of the faces are no longer around but my memories are golden. There would be all kinds of capers going on behind the scene and at the live events it was hilarious. Happy days.

A brilliant documentary, not too long or too short. It was only at the end when I realised this wasn't a TV programme as such. Perfect commentary and background music that didn't sound like a casio keyboard on demo mode, a rarity on KZfaq. Wonderful!

1998 - 2004, I was aged between 11 - 17 & this show was my favourite of my childhood. Watching your video took me back down memory lane all those years ago the reboot was good but it couldn't hold a candle up to the original Robot Wars. Great video mate👍

Chaos 2 forever holds a place in my heart, the size of the thing compared to the immense power of its hydraulic lift which flipped everything from rivals to house robots brought so much pleasure to my childhood.

I was raised on Robot Wars, it was awesome! Hypno Disc and Razor were my favourites because of how destructive they could be. I was delighted when the BBC rebooted it. The only thing I didn’t like was how much stronger the armour was in the reboot. Watching the robots annihilate the opposition’s armour was the best bit.

What a show. I loved it when growing up and loved the reboot too. The names of Chaos 2, Panic Attack, Razor and Hypnodisc etched into the memory and debating with my brothers who would win.

I remember being very vey young and watching Robot Wars thanks to American PBS switching over to BBC after 9pm. I managed to watch and record all of season 2 onto VHS that way and has cemented my love for robot combat to this very day with shows like Battle Bots.

My brother competed on robot wars and I got to go to some of the shows around the season 4-5 era. Met a bunch of the other competitors in the pits and Craig Charles too, was a blast! Would love to see it come back again.

this hit me in my nostalgia bone, this was so well put together, honestly it is amazing. Also the fact that stinger, a bot which can be described as, 2 wheels and a pointy stick. Almost made it to the final, blows my mind

Be really interesting how many of the original robots still exist and what did the teams get upto afterwards. Team Tornado still have their website running with their build photos and others like Terrorhurtz and Thermidor came back in the reboot. The only bit missing from the video was Diotor on fire :D

Very high quality editing, i can tell a lot of effort was put into this. Keep up this quality and you’ll have a ton of subs in no time

I was a huge fan of Robot Wars, but the quality of robots and battles on BattleBots is a different league.

I'm glad the series retured for a few seasons but wasn't renewed again. Carbide was a frikken monster with the damage it could dish out.

I remember being in awe at Razer when i was little, always waiting on the edge as i knew the second that pincer got a hold of you it was over

I love Robot Wars, I go back and watch old fights all the time. My hot take is that Tornado vs Razer final was what killed the original series, as nothing was never really the same after that fight.

Robot wars changed my life as a child! I loved it so much

I loved Robot Wars so much growing up. Getting onto that and Crystal Maze were my dream. I can't remember how many 'robots' I designed and build of out scrap metal and wood while having no idea how to make them move. I'd get as far as needing to do something eletrical and stop then go make something else. I drew sketches in school all the time. Then when I got to highschool I managed to get some like minded friends on board and even got help from the D&T teachers to start really building a competitor, only for the show to get cancelled half way through. I was crushed. Dreadge Pirate was a wedge shaped flipper bot with two mean spikes that would be fired up from the wedge by compressed argon canisters. It was basically one use but the idea was to drive under a bot, impale its undersides to grab it and go flip it into the pit. It had its armor and then an inch above it was covered in wire mesh to catch saws and picks/axes. It was running on two lawnmower motors so it was going to be quick. Then for the rest of the battle we'd use its high speed to ram and flip whenever we could. It was going to be a goddamn champion. I could have been a champion. God I miss this show.

The organisers from live events such as Extreme Robots, deserve recognition for keeping the sport going.

Ah Robot Wars! A huge part of my childhood. I remember competing with our robot, Chip. Sadly we never progressed very far in tournaments but it was fun nonetheless. I still have a lot of Robot Wars merch including the official guide books that came out (wished Chip had been included in them). We also competed in Techno Games around the same time (copycat version of Robot Wars) and we won a bronze medal in the 'Sumo' contest...a medal that I still have!

man I remember seeing Robot Wars Live such an experience was honestly amazing

Thank You! It is indeed a Nice trip down Memory Lane.

Me and my father competed in the third wars we never got through the first qualifier. Dad built our robot on the premise that it should be more maneuverable based on the second wars trials challenges the change in format really threw him for a loop. My cousin and uncle also competed.

I got to meet the firestorm team once. I can you these robots are much bigger than you think they are just from seeing them on TV.

This show was so damn hype, and the Spaced Robot Wars episode was an absolute classic

that was a lovely and nostalgic 45 mins

This was a huge treat to come across. being an avid fan as a kid hearing the House robots and the likes of Tornado, Firestorm and Hypno-Disc unlocks core memories alongside the more avant-garde bots like Gemini and that one walking bot (that always got destroyed). Couldn't believe they canned the new series after just a few seasons but oh well, thems be the way contracts be. If anyone has nay knowledge, i'd love to know the fate of some of these bots and maybe the House bots, they're national treasures worth preserving, dents and all

I remember getting the toys from the show as a present once. This is proper nostalgic. Great video😊

Man, this was such a cool show. Thank you for such a thorough documentary, it brought back so many memories. I was a 90’s kid and my grandpa recorded a couple of the “wars”, I think 2 and 3, on VHS, as well as a couple seasons of Battle Bots. I watched them a several times as a kid.

Loved this show, was obsessed with hypno-disc. SPIN TO WIN!

Oh wow, memories flooding back, Hypno disc, Chaos, roadblock and many more. 22:10 I remember this decision and in our house we thought it was criminal and favoured reigning champions.

This show was my childhood until I was about 8. I had loads of the toys from it and used to play with them on the fireplace.

I was a Robot Wars Club member and saw a few seasons of taping (Hypnodisk in person was a sight to behold). Still annoyed about that Tornado final, haha. The reason why it was cancelled wasn't just because of the lower viewing figures but down to cost. The price of competing got really high around seasons 5 and 6, which led to the battlers calling for more price money. It went slightly up in 6, but not enough, and the beeb wouldn't put any money in, hence the switch to Channel Five. I was sad to see it go and did enjoy the reveal, though I wish Crag had been involved. Pretty good documentary: D.

I grew up watching this show. I saw Nickelodeon Robot Wars first, and then I saw the UK series on G4 Tech TV. I still have the pullback toys in my room. I had dreamed of being on the show with a robot of my own, but I don't have any robot building experiences. Still, maybe the show will come back. It did once, and it can happen again.

Who won the world championship? Razor baby!! Whoop whoop!! Thanks for putting this together, great watch 😊❤️

Don't believe you didn't even mention the first SRMECH in season 2! I still have that memory etched into my brain!

Born in 87. Robot Wars, Gladiators, Crystal Maze, Scrapheap Challenge, Pokémon Red and Blue, The Simpsons at 6pm on BBC, Neighbours, dial-up internet, getting Xbox 1 (and by that I mean THE original Xbox) at launch and staring open-mouthed at Halo's ground-breaking graphics, playing Warhammer at my local Games Workshop... God bless the old days. I feel so sorry for the kids now, they will never know what it was like to have things to look forward to, no stress from f-ing smartphones and not having everything at their fingertips.

Brilliant nostalgic look at love of my favourite programmes. I'd love there to have been a quick moment on Cassius 2 - the first self righter. That first time Rex Garrod did that is one of my strongest RW memories!

Outrageous nostalgia watching this

Really nice video to watch before bed. Thanks for the nostalgia!

Robot Wars was always a personal childhood favourite. I was rooting for Chaos 2 after such an iconic final battle in the third series. Watching George Francis and his team get flipped out of the arena by DanTomKia in a later season really stung... It's a shame the rebooted series didn't last long. The show still deserves a place on modern TV sets.

A really fab look back at probably my favourite show of all time! Great job!

I always remember thinking Tornado's big frame thing must have been somewhat cheating because it stopped the robot from fitting in the pit. Surely that should have been factored into the decision

I saw Robot Wars being filmed when I was a kid. I think it was series 6 that was being filmed. An amazing memory, i still can hardly believe I went. I loved the revival series as well and was so upset when it was cancelled l. Dara was a great host.

Great nostalgia trip, I watched a lot of Robot Wars (reruns) when I was growing up in the late 2000s, I used to make cardboard models of the robots and some of my own designs

I remember watching that sixth wars final as a kid and RAGING at my telly. How Tornado got away with that modification I will never know. Razer was robbed.

The Spaced episode that features a Robot Wars crossed with Fight Club street fighting mash up! So funny and the robot that Tim and Mike build even has a re appearance in the tear jerking finale of Spaced. This Robot Wars episode showed just how ingrained Robot Wars had become into UK life, EVERYONE had fun watching Robot Wars (unless you were some kinds heartless, boring weirdo)

I met the razor team with their robot in Bournemouth when I was a kid. I felt like I'd met big-time celebs at the time

My favourite to this day as a man in his 30's, will always be Mortis, the tanto blade, the Kevlar construction, the tracks. For me it was everything. The only problem was Rob Knight's arrogance

They should bring it back 😢

It was one of my favourite shows and had to argue with my dad if I was allowed to watch this "nonsense"😅 Think nobody thought at this time that it was becoming such a huge and important topic (not just the fighting of course). thank you for reviving the great moments and the old heroes. Keep up the great work. Greetings from Germany.

I remember having the robot wars arena as a toy with loads of robots, those were the days haha.

Literally my favourite show there has ever been, still watch it on a regular basis. Hot take: I don't mind Tornado having some mad configuration for certain battles, and I was a massive Razer fanboy at the time lmao

I remember as a kid i loved this show and loved shunt, i once tried to design my own robot based on him called “return of shunt” but due to my lack of knowledge around robots. I sadly couldn’t do it :(

Excellent video! I remember I even had the Robot Wars video game on my Gameboy Advance

I LOVED this show! And like many have said, I hoped to grow up and build my own robot to compete. The American version of this show is a bit cheesy at moments but flip they are building some insanely powerful machines!

I always remember seeing cassius' self-righting by flipping itself back. It was a first and it was EPIC

I remember going to watch an episode of this being filmed, the battles were great fun although there was quite a wait in between battles which for a 7/8 year old was quite boring and so it meant we only saw a few battles which was a shame. I think I remember getting a tour of the workshop behind as well though. On our way home we stopped at a service station for food and while there one of the teams came in (maybe firestorm? I remember it being yellow). We went over to ask them questions and they offered to show us their robot in their car which was nice. Those things were huge in person, well to a child they were huge! Good memories, I had various toys of them as well including chaos 2, razor and the ref bot (which I got given at the filming I think, maybe to compensate for the long waits). I wonder if I still have them in the loft somewhere.

Great documentary. Where is Diotoir? Haha. I know they were never any good but I feel like the red and black fur, matching with the team and the material and eyes melting on the metal body as it inevitably caught fire was one of the most memorable and iconic scenes in Robot Wars!

This really was a golden era

THIS was my favorite thing to watch with my dad

use to love watching scrapheap challenge too