Tornado on TV

TORNADO - The Team with the Comedy Flying Cow

TV - SERIES 4

Series 4 was Tornado's TV debut. Our melee in Heat F was only Tornado's fourth fight! Our weapon was the pneumatic spike, and the weight limit was 80kg. At that time Tornado was the most powerful machine ever seen on Robot Wars, and one of the first to use the maximum 36 volts allowed.

| Heat A || Heat E || Heat F || Heat G || Heat H |
| Heat N || Semi 1 || Semi 2 || Grand Final |
Heat A
Tornado's first TV appearance was on the first show of Series 4, televised on 22/9/00. It wasn't actually our heat, but Mentorn chose to put the robot on for a few seconds as part of the programme introduction. We are pushing Katerkiller, as half of Gemini flips them at the same time...

...and then the handover between Philippa and Julia Reed was performed in the pits, while we pretended to work on Tornado...

Heat E
This heat was filmed the same day as ours, and televised on 27/10/00. You can see us in the background and some of our supporters in the crowd.

Heat F
This was our proper competitive heat, which was televised on the 3rd November. The other robots in the heat were Gemini (seeded 8th), Katerkiller, Invertibrat, Beserk 2 (seeded 26th) and Beast. Mentorn managed to get our stats mainly right, the only glaring error was missing off our pneumatic spike.

Our first battle was to be a Melee with Gemini and Katerkiller. We went straight for Katerkiller, pushing them all over the arena. Gemini helped by fliping Katerkiller, and they managed to flip us too.

Once Katerkiller was despatched, we proceeded to have some fun with the house robots. We got a good grip on Shunt, and managed to push him about for a bit! Note the two square holes in Shunt's blade, ringed on the right hand thumbnail below. Courtesy of Tornado! We then proceeded to push Katerkiller about again, removing their tail in the process.

Our next heat was against Beserk 2. They were much slower than us, and so didn't provide that much of a challenge. We pushed them about all over the arena.

Our last battle of the heat was to be against the clusterbot Gemini. We didn't expect it to be easy, but knowing the rules well, we went for one half and ignored the other. We were very lucky to impale one half on an arena spike, immobilising it.

The other half of Gemini continued to flip us, then we lost a chain, then a battery broke and we lost all power. But we had immobilised one half of Gemini first, so we won the battle and thus the heat!

Heat G
Again filmed the same day as our heat, and televised on the 10th November, our supporters can clearly be seen in the crowd.

Heat H
The last heat filmed on the same day, featuring Adrian Bond, one of our supporters. He appears on the forum from time to time as Tytalus. This was shown on 17th November 2000.

Heat N
Shown on 12th January, again our supporter Adrian appears, much clearer this time - but sitting in the same seat as in heat H, and on a day when he wasn't even there watching! Recycled footage, anyone?

Semi Final 1
This was the semi final in which we appeared and fought, shown on 2nd February. Julia does a unicorn impression (courtesy of Wheely Big Cheese)...

Whatever I said, it must have been really amazing. Either that, or Bryan had his hands where he shouldn't. Where would we be without Julia? Our stats were as before - mainly OK, but no pneumatic spike. At the end of our introduction, Andrew has a "Dave Angel" moment...

Our first battle was against Wheely Big Cheese, seeded 15th. As we said on TV, we were less worried about fighting these guys than we would have been about Suicidal Tendencies - we still feel that ST should have won its heat and not WBC. So we were out to get a bit back for the Tendencies guys... We tried to push him around as much as possible, hopefully into one of the CPZ's and avoid his flipper. It didn't go totally to plan, as WBC is one of the more powerful robots and is one of the most difficult to push we have fought. Roger got in an awesome flip, throwing us at least 2 feet clear of the arena floor.

The turning point came when we both ended up in Matilda's CPZ. Roger's reverse (assisted by us) into the arena wall broke the titanium welds on one of his wheels. We continued to push WBC about, until one of the chains dropped, and one side of the drivetrain comepletely seized. We quickly decided as a team to continue fighting, and risk the motor.

Some of our supporters appeared in a quick crowd flash...

The fact that I kept driving over the flame pit can't have helped, as the inevitable happened and the motor burnt out. But we didn't stop; we kept pushing the Cheese about as best we could, until cease sounded.

The replay shows that WBC's reverse into the arena wall was definately assisted by us...

We have no spare motor, but the Steg 2 guys graciously offer to lend us one. We accept, but then Moustrap offer us one too, and as Mousetrap's has no pinion attached, we choose theirs. Fingers crossed...

Adrian explains the intricacies of Pussycat's weapon to Bryans sister. Either that, or he's telling her that he thinks we're all completely loopy. Also pictured are Bryans mother and father.

Our next fight was against the reigning champion and number one seed Chaos 2. At least, our next three fights were - the first was stopped as the arena got damaged, and the second was declared a draw! By the third we were limping, the chain having come off in every fight since our heat battle against Beserk 2. It started well, George missing us with his first flip attempt. He soon had us flying however, the chain went again, so we let go of the controls, and soon got propped against the barrier.

George couldn't resist, and peformed his party trick, throwing us out of the arena. We couldn't complain, as we were out of the way of the house robots down there...

We had lost the fight, and as such were out of the competition, but we were the highest placed newcomer, and it had taken the reigning champion (and eventual winner) to knock us out.

Semi Final 2
Televised on 16th February, our only showing was to demonstrate Chaos 2 going through - so flying out of the arena we went again. Oi Killalot, no! The motor that Mousetrap lent to us got a toasting...

And of course our supporters could be seen in the crowd again.

Grand Final
This programme was shown on 23rd February 2001. Obviously we weren't fighting, but we were shown as part of the series roundup that started the show. Bryan can be seen in the background keeping himself busy while Stinger are interviewed, and more of our supporters can be seen in the crowd.

...and whaddya know - we won an award - Best Newcomer! Also nominated were Robochicken, Atilla the Drum, and Mousetrap.

I wonder who those three in the crowd wearing black T-shirts and sitting a few rows behind Kim Davies of Panic Attack could be then, watching the final? Can't be Team Tornado, they'd need to have turned their T-shirts inside out. Aah. Maybe it was then. See Mentorn, you could still see us!

In the last few minutes of the programme, Richard Swan shows his violent side, lamping George as he celebrates their win. That's gotta hurt!

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