- "Skarab, named after an ancient Egyptian beetle, looks more like a birthday cake on wheels! … very powerful, actually, with the two wheelchair motors, and a big weapon on top, a steel bar."
- — Jonathan Pearce as Skarab runs the Gauntlet
Skarab (also spelt incorrectly as Scarab on its statistics board) was a competitor robot that fought in Series 1 of Robot Wars. It reached the Heat Final in its only appearance, where it lost to T.R.A.C.I.E.. At just over 86kg, it was the third heaviest robot in Series 1 after Barry and Dreadnaut.
Chris Crosskey would later enter Series 2 with the similarly-designed and themed Rameses II, while Jonathan Attias built the super heavyweight Automatic Jack.
Design[]
- "A durable-looking robot weighing in at 86.3 kilograms. Skarab utilises two suspension springs salvaged from a 1923 vintage car."
- — Jonathan Pearce summarises Skarab during its introduction
Official side profile of Skarab
Skarab was a rounded yellow and black box-shaped robot armed with a spring-loaded steel hammer, which could be retracted through the use of a car starter motor. The robot was driven by two wheelchair motors, had a relatively low top speed of 3mph and utilised suspension springs from an antique car as part of its construction.
The top of Skarab's body shell had Egyptian hieroglyphics and an illustration of a scarab painted on top, as references to its name. However, the robot's colour scheme and shape led it to being jokingly described by Jonathan Pearce as a 'birthday cake on wheels', and Jeremy Clarkson as 'cheese on toast'. In response to Clarkson's comment, the team wrote 'CAUTION SLOW MOVING CHEESE ON TOAST' on Skarab's rear end before its Heat Final battle against T.R.A.C.I.E., as well as jokingly saying that it better resembled a 'coffee cake'.
Skarab with the side arms used for Snooker
Skarab with the mace attached
Throughout its heat, Skarab received two key modifications to its body and weapon. For the Snooker trial, a pair of side arms were fixed to the robot's front end, allowing it collect and steer balls into its pocket for that trial. For its Heat Final, a swinging mace - borrowed from Killertron - was fixed to the end of Skarab's hammer, after Team Trojan helped repair the hammer before the battle.
Etymology[]
The robot was named after an ancient Egyptian beetle.
Robot History[]
Series 1[]
- "Chris Crosskey looked more like "Chris Crosspatch" there!"
- — Jonathan Pearce as the House Robots trap Skarab during its Gauntlet run
Skarab reaches the end zone
Skarab competed in Heat F of The First Wars, and was the fifth robot in this Heat to negotiate The Gauntlet. It steadily drove off the turntable and took the right-hand route, being momentarily turned round by Sergeant Bash before negotiating past him. Dead Metal blocked Skarab’s path as Sergeant Bash chased it down the route, but Skarab steadily nudged Dead Metal away to reach the end zone, finishing third in the results table and qualifying for the Trial stage.
Skarab pots its only Snooker ball to qualify for the Arena Semi-Finals
Alongside the other five surviving competitors, Skarab fought in Snooker, now fitted with its side arms. It and The Blob immediately drove out of their pockets in an attempt to collect balls, but Skarab turned and backed away as the former scattered the balls around the arena. Eventually, Skarab collected one ball, potting it just after Prince of Darkness potted its first ball, and deliberately stopped in its pocket, where it remained for the rest of the Trial.
- "…and the Skarab equalises. Now they’ve told me they’re gonna sit on their pocket and protect it tactically!"
- — Jonathan Pearce as Skarab parks up in its pocket
While Prince of Darkness would eventually emerge victorious with six balls, Skarab still qualified for the Arena stage with one ball, after The Blob, T.R.A.C.I.E. and Eubank the Mouse all failed to score at all.
- "Head to head, heavy metal… heavy metal thunder! Like dodgem cars out there."
- — Jonathan Pearce as Skarab and The Blob duel
Skarab pushes the immobile Blob against the railings
In its Semi-Final, Skarab faced The Blob. Both robots trundled towards and bumped each other in the opening moments, before Skarab briefly pushed The Blob back. The Blob retaliated by ramming Skarab back before Sergeant Bash intervened and attacked it. Skarab responded by swinging its hammer, but missed, and pushed The Blob against the side rails, where it became apparent that The Blob had lost mobility. Sergeant Bash and Shunt came in to attack The Blob, with Skarab retreating and spinning around in victory as ‘Cease’ was called.
The message on the back of Skarab before its final fight
- Jeremy Clarkson: "Your robot, right, is the slowest here."
- Jonathan Attias: "Probably, yeah."
- Jeremy Clarkson: "It is also the least powerful."
- Jonathan Attias: "Well, I don’t know about that."
- Jeremy Clarkson: "Mmm, it looks like cheese on toast and its hammer doesn’t work and you still got through."
- — The post-battle interview
Skarab is speared by T.R.A.C.I.E.
In the Heat Final, Skarab faced T.R.A.C.I.E., with Killertron’s mace added to the end of its hammer. It immediately trundled towards T.R.A.C.I.E., but was speared side-on by one of the latter’s spikes and became stuck. The House Robots came in to separate both robots, with Skarab spinning to break itself free. As it did so, T.R.A.C.I.E.’s spike tore part of its front armour off before T.R.A.C.I.E. drove under Skarab’s mace and speared its front end as Skarab attempted to push it back in return.
- "And up against it that mace, is like a little schoolground conker against a juggernaut!"
- — Jonathan Pearce assesses the effectiveness of Skarab’s mace against T.R.A.C.I.E.
Skarab spun around in the middle of the arena as T.R.A.C.I.E. drove into and impaled Sergeant Bash, before getting attacked by Matilda, whose chainsaw cut off the radio control mast for its hammer. It escaped as T.R.A.C.I.E. rammed Matilda away, and continued spinning around until ‘Cease’ was called. The battle went to a Judges’ decision, which unanimously went in favour of T.R.A.C.I.E., eliminating Skarab from the First Wars.
Results[]
| SKARAB - RESULTS | ||
| Series 1 | ||
| The First Wars - UK Championship Heat Final | ||
| Heat F, Gauntlet | Completed (3rd) | Qualified |
| Heat F, Trial (Snooker) | 1 Ball (2nd) | Qualified |
| Heat F, Semi-Final | vs. The Blob | Won |
| Heat F, Final | vs. T.R.A.C.I.E. | Lost |
Wins/Losses[]
Skarab without its shell
- Wins: 1
- Losses: 1
NOTE: Skarab's successful Gauntlet and Trial runs are not included
Series Record[]
| Series | Skarab Series Record |
|---|---|
| The First Wars | Heat Final |
| The Second Wars | Entered with Rameses II (Chris Crosskey) Super Heavyweight Championship with Automatic Jack (Jonathan Attias) |
| The Third Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fourth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Fifth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Sixth Wars | Did not enter |
| The Seventh Wars | Did not enter |
| Series 8 | Did not enter |
| Series 9 | Did not enter |
| Series 10 | Did not enter |
Trivia[]
- Skarab is one of twenty-three robots to have completed The Gauntlet.
[]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||