A question about Robot Wars ...

[Shattered Sponge]

I used to watch Robot Wars for pure amusement until it got on my nerves. It's best to just mute and watch. I guess it's kind of like Junkyard Wars (I love that show).

Funny how you mention Junkyard Wars, because that also started out as an English show; it was called 'Scrapheap' (later renamed to 'Scrapheap Challenge') and was also hosted by a Red Dwarf star - Robert Llewellyn, who played Kryten (and also the title role in The Feeble Files).

Well, I think it's funny, anyway.

[Meowster]

I used to adoreeeee gladiators. As a kid, I especially wanted to ride that hamster ball thing.

But anyway.

Robot wars bored me from the first episode. However, at the Esat Young Sciencist Exhibition last year they had an actual Live robot war event, featuring robots that had been on the show. It was amazing. They are a lot bigger and a lot more powerful in rea life. When they smash together, it's not just the harmless little "pock!" that you see on TV, but in fact a whole bunch of force and armour - piercing weaponry. They're also three times the size they look on TV.

So as a live event it does interest me, but on TV I'd rather... well, read a book.

As for Craig... he was the voice of Asterix for a few of the animated movies (Asterix and Obelix) wasn't he? I remember thinking how shittily cast he'd been. He may kick ass, but Asterix?! What the hell were they smegging thinking!?

[Shattered Sponge]

As for Craig... he was the voice of Asterix for a few of the animated movies (Asterix and Obelix) wasn't he? I remember thinking how shittily cast he'd been. He may kick ass, but Asterix?! What the hell were they smegging thinking!?

I could be going mad, but as I recall those were french movies and Craig (I like hpow we're both on a first name basis with him now) only provided the voice for the english-language re-dubs; you often find with re-dubs that they'll either get the cheapest actors they can find, or the biggest celebrity they can afford (that that was Craig Charles gives you an idea of how low their budget must have been) regardless of there appropriateness for the role.

---edit after a rather surreal brainwave---

I have only two words on Robot Wars and its future:


American... Gladiators...

'...no, you see what happened was the royal servant dropped his glasses, which caused Michael Fawcett to drop the bowl of fruit he was holding in sheer surprise; he bent over to pick it up, and Prince Charles lowered the banana he had managed to salvage to the same level as his crotch out of dissapointment for the shoddy work of the two; with impaired vision, this appeared to the royal aide as if something totally different was taking place, and he fainted backwards.  His posterior served to cushion the blow as he hit the floor, which is why he felt as though he had been anally raped when he woke up.  We have figured it out, go back to bed Great Britain, your government has figured out how it all transpired.  Go back to bed Great Britain, your government is in control again - here, here's Robot Wars; watch this, shut up.  Go back to bed Great Britain, here's Robot Wars...' And so forth.

I don't quite know why I felt the need to type all that.

[DGMacphee]

'...no, you see what happened was the royal servant dropped his glasses, which caused Michael Fawcett to drop the bowl of fruit he was holding in sheer surprise; he bent over to pick it up, and Prince Charles lowered the banana he had managed to salvage to the same level as his crotch out of dissapointment for the shoddy work of the two; with impaired vision, this appeared to the royal aide as if something totally different was taking place, and he fainted backwards.  His posterior served to cushion the blow as he hit the floor, which is why he felt as though he had been anally raped when he woke up.  We have figured it out, go back to bed Great Britain, your government has figured out how it all transpired.  Go back to bed Great Britain, your government is in control again - here, here's Robot Wars; watch this, shut up.  Go back to bed Great Britain, here's Robot Wars...' And so forth.

I don't quite know why I felt the need to type all that.

A group of hooligans just tipped over a dustbin in Shaftsbury!

Boy, I wouldn't want to be a dustbin in Shaftsbury right now!

[Shattered Sponge]

* Shattered Sponge marries DeeGee

[SSH]

Robot wars bored me from the first episode. However, at the Esat Young Sciencist Exhibition last year they had an actual Live robot war event, featuring robots that had been on the show. It was amazing. They are a lot bigger and a lot more powerful in rea life. When they smash together, it's not just the harmless little "pock!" that you see on TV, but in fact a whole bunch of force and armour - piercing weaponry. They're also three times the size they look on TV.

I think that the 2nd-5th series were the best. Since then it has gone downhill, as everyone has seen what makes a good robot and its really now just how well people can construct them and drive them. The design element has gone, which was always what interested me. But there was nothing quite like that first show in which Hypnodisc destroyed threee other robots. And I mean destroyed.

Scrapheap also appeals to me, although it too is now at the point where they've run out of ideas.

As for Craig... he was the voice of Asterix for a few of the animated movies (Asterix and Obelix) wasn't he? I remember thinking how shittily cast he'd been. He may kick ass, but Asterix?! What the hell were they smegging thinking!?

Craig Charles ahs only ever been good in one thing: Red Dwarf. Everything else I have seen him in, he has been rubbish.

"My stupid rhymes give people blisters and sores, I'm the worst thing about Robot Wars"
* kiss two fingers and raise them in a cool-but-not-really salute to audience