Let's start a 'Bring Back Robot Wars!' Petition

[kodster]

A huge conversation over MSN with Andrew Jackson, Martijn M Benschop, and Martyn Forsyth, stuck this idea in my head, as they made some pretty good points about this. They gave me a crapload of knowledge of recent events at the FRA, so I think this is the right thing to do, since Ed Hoppit has left, and since XFM has seperated from the FRA.

BBC (mostly; Five just finished it off) killed off Robot Wars. How? Because they had put the show in the wrong time slots. It was good for the viewers, but really bad for Robot Wars itelf because other events were taking place at the time, and thus it was likely to get snuffed for golf, tennis, or other live events. Thus the show got moved all over the place, and through the confusion popularity decreased strongly. Such a decrease forced BBC to quit broadcasting Robot Wars, and thus it died. :sad:

Now Im sure you all know this already, but I just want you to know I do too, so you know what I plan to do. Even though I am from Canada and not England, I plan to start a petition with you guys on the BBC website, asking/begging/pleading (really demanding ) them to bring back all seven series of Robot Wars onto their channel, in a slot where people will find time to watch it, but where it wont conflict with other live events. Doing this will result in boosted popularity, and might even get Mentron Inc. thinking about bringing the show back!

BBC made an error in putting Robot Wars in the wrong slots, and so it was their mistake, but theyre not too keen on puttng the show back on. Thats not good enough! We have to make BBC see that Robot Wars is one of the greatest shows ever! There are still thousands of people, even on YouTube, EVERYWHERE, who miss the series!

And about the petition: this may have been done before, but with few successes. There was actually one I signed myself, but it only got over a hundred signatures, not nearly enough to bring our beloved series back on the air. :sad: So Im going to take it (mostly) into my own hands this time, but I want lots of people, LOTS, to help me with this. Im going to try and get as many people to sign as I can, so Ill be doing my part. Im quite serious about this.

Just think, if this works and Robot Wars is brought back and gets enough airtime, there may even be funds to help build a proper and safe arena for those awesome heavyweight spinners!

But seriously, I want to hear what you guys think of this. Im expecting a lot of criticism, but thats okay. You may call me crazy, you may say Im fighting for a lost cause (right! ), but still thats okay. I want my voice to be heard, because I have been a fan of Robot Wars since early 2001, when I first watched the show. The love that I have for the show will never die, and I think there are quite a few people lik me out there who just as badly want this show back. Thats why Im proposing this petition, not just for me, but to those eager fans of the sport!

And AJ, Martijn, and Martyn, please post here if you can.

Come on, everybody, tell me what you think!

[typhoon_driver]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

I hate to say it but I think we are better off without Robot Wars.

I would much prefer to see a large live event sponsored by a large engineering firm or similar.

Robot Wars was in essance a complete farce, done entirely for Tv ratings. One of the main reasons the FRA was setup as far as I know, to make sure that the roboteers dont get a bum rap if the TV show ever returned.

Just my 2 cents whilst having had one too many beers and just about to head to bed.

[ady]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

i would like to see it back, even though it was done purely for ratings, it would help continue the sport. i would sign the petition, i think their is still money/ratings to be made from it for the bbc, which is what they are after. what i forget now is how long ago it was originally on, my daughter is 9 and did a talk in class about her hobby but all her friends ask whats robot wars? and never heard of it, which is surprising. so i think their is a new audiance it would appeal to all over again.

[ady]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

what someone needs to do is build a simple, cheap,safe fighting robot kit, take it to dragons den, get some backing/funding, get it in the shops near xmas, make lots of money, which will also promote the sport, everything else will follow. simple

[RogueTwoRobots]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

I agree with Five contributing to the demise of Robot Wars with its pathetic alternating timeslot (its on Saturday - no wait, now its on Sunday - 8pm - oh hang on , this week its at 4.25pm) That annoyed the hell out of me. And yes, towards the end of its reign on BBC, it was constantly getting substituted for golf, tennis and everything else in that genre but before that I felt the Friday teatime slot was quite nice.

Maybe its due to the fact that from February 1998 until its demise, my teatime telly consisted of The Simpsons, then Robot Wars (then more Simpsons on Sky One ) and, knowing that I didnt have school the next day, could go up to my room and play Robot Wars all night with lego, Knex and any other piece of crap that my imagination turned into a robot. It makes me partial to the Friday teatime slot that BBC first gave to it.

But more than anything and, as much as saying this feels almost sac-religious, I believe the demise of Robot Wars was more down to the unchanged format of the show, which I deem to have gone stale after Series Five-ish.

By that point the format was battle after battle after battle since Series 3, with events such as pinball and sumo reserved for time-filling sideshows. Not many people agree with me when I say this but I enjoyed the format of the older series, where roboteers had to prove they can drive first and then have some fun in games before the serious carnage kicked in. With the constant battles format, technology advanced so rapidly that by the time Series Seven came around, anything that wasnt a spinner or a powerful crusher couldnt really cause damage. Yes, there were still plenty of flippers around but they ocasionally led to very quick fights, barely giving you time to get into the rhythm of the match before it was over. There were planty of rammers left but any rammer built since the appearance of Storm 2 which didnt boast as much speed and power as Storm 2 all of a sudden moved like a snail and punched like a pillow (no offence to flipper owners or post-Storm 2 rammers)

I agree with Gary when he says were better off without Robot Wars - consign it to the glory years it had. By all means rerun the previous series and generate interest in it that the youth of today have not yet been able to experience (unless theyve been to a live event) but the downside to the regenerated interest is that it wouldnt benefit the current crop of roboteers much as all the money would go to the TV company/broadcaster and wed still be limited to non-spinner capable arenas (no disrespect meant here to the live event organisers - I appreciate all the work you do and understand that the extreme costs of building and maintaining an arena to contain heavyweight spinners make it currently unviable)

Roaming Robot and Robots Live have proved with their numerous sell-out shows in 2007 that robot combat is still incredibly popular. Even though their shows are similar to Robot Wars in terms of format, its still more enjoyable to watch these beasts fighting through a polycarbonate protective screen rather than a TV screen.

While I do enjoy seeing an old episode of Robot Wars on Sky One occasionally (we dont have Challenge or Sci-Fi or whatever channel has the freqent repeats of RW) or several battle clips on Youtube, I think its as good as dead on TV for the forseeable future. Maybe after a while, and with a new format (different terrains and landscapes, a bit like the RW game) robot combat could be on our screens again but until then, and in perfect honestly, I doubt well be seeing a new series of Robot Wars on our TVs, petition or no petition.


Jeez, that was a big post

(Message edited by K_C_R on January 09, 200

[kodster]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

Thank you for your input Gary, Adrian, and Jamie. Anybody else have 2 cents to share?

[swanaldo]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

got to agree with jamie and gary i am afraid.

[team_mayhem]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

i would love to go on robot wars as i never had the chance to and i would sign the petition but i think the fact that battlebots and robot wars were killed off in america aswell says something but i think robot wars should come back on tv but we need to find the right agreement with a tv company first (they pay for a new spinner arena)

[grant_ploughbot]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

I would sign the petition, but if anything like robotwars was to come back i would hope it would have a more hardcore and technical view to it, rather than all pretty colours aimed at young children. That way i believe would be more interesting to watch, and atleast be a little different.

[typhoon_driver]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

That was one thing that really annoyed me about robot wars actually. We did a good few minutes talking about the various different parts of the typhoon 2 chassis, how things worked, what they were made from etc. None of that interview went into the final show.

Scrapheap challenge style diagrams would have made that show.

[grant_ploughbot]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

exactly, just needed a little more of a technical side

[anukhet]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

Heres an idea that Geoff and I have often talked about - Robot Wars Uncut :blush:

[kodster]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

This is getting very interesting...Robot Wars Uncut?

[swanaldo]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

how uncut.....i hope this doesnt go into the social side of things

[john]

Lets start a Bring Back Robot Wars! Petition

adrian i thought that an events organiser could go on dragons den and ask for a new arena and money to put it on TV, with even getting on the show 10000s of people would be interested and google it after the show - i no iv done that for a few of the ideas

the robot building 1 , well theres loads of kits out in shops but i guess the Rampaging Chariots kit could be sold in shops - wouldnt be cheap tho but im sure cheaper kits should be made

(Message edited by john on January 09, 200