Meggamouse

Meggamouse
Participation Information
UK Series	9
Team Information
Team	Team Mouse
Team Members	Shane Lale Peter Lale Jackie Lale Sophie Clarkson
From	Derby
Associated Robots	Velocirippa, Mighty Mouse, Ironside3 (Also created by Trevor Wright)
Robot Statistics
Weight	105kg
Dimensions	40cm x 80cm x 60cm
Top Speed	15mph
Power	22v lithium polymer batteries
Drive	2 x 24v CIM motors
Weapons	Low-pressure flipper
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"Meggamouse boasts a powerful hardened steel flipper, as well as four-wheel drive, and a small - but deadly - wedge of cheese!"

— Angela Scanlon

Meggamouse was a robot which competed in Series 9 of Robot Wars. Although it was entered by live circuit veterans Team Tilly on the show, the robot was built by Trevor Wright, who still owns the robot, and designed it as the successor to Series 7 Heat Finalist Mighty Mouse. Meggamouse was less successful on television, falling in the first round after becoming immobilised by eventual champion Carbide.

Design

"Meggamouse has aluminium armour and four wheel drive. At 100kg, the team worry its weight might factor against them in a fight!"

— Jonathan Pearce

Official shot of Meggamouse in Series 9

Like its predecessor Mighty Mouse, Meggamouse was built for speed, although now running on a four-wheel drive, with two exposed tyres at the back alongside its central primary wheels. It was one of the smallest robots in the series, with its longest side only measuring 80cm. The robot’s appearance takes on the head of a mouse, including a nose on its weapon, a full-pressure flipper. The flipper, which retracted using bungee cords and could lift 300kg, functioned as the robot’s self-righting mechanism, although Meggamouse generally rolled over when flipped.

"Meggamouse has 6mm aluminium armour, which is an effective defence against all weapon types. It also has a zero turning circle and can reach a top speed of 15mph."

— Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot

Meggamouse on the turntable

Meggamouse in the pits

Its high speed came at the cost of armour, as the robot was coated in 6mm aluminium, with only the flipper being constructed from 4mm HARDOX. Meggamouse was comparatively lightweight at 96kg individually, and its rear wheels were exposed. This allowed the robot to briefly drive on its back end, but presented a weakness to spinners. The true drive wheels were the two small wheels in front of the large rear wheels at the back and the two small wheels at the front. The chassis of Meggamouse was that of the second Velocirippa, making it almost twelve years old in Series 9.

Meggamouse in the arena. Note the smaller central wheels

"Its minibot, called Charles, is designed to get far underneath opponents to get their wheels off the floor."

— Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot

Charles the minibot wedge

Meggamouse was accompanied by an invertible minibot called Charles, which was wedge-shaped in design, resembling Swiss cheese. It intended to trap other robots for Meggamouse to then attack, or to serve as a distraction. Charles weighs 9kg.

The Team

Main article: Team Tilly

Team Mouse with their robots

Meggamouse was entered into Series 9 by Team Mouse, known outside of the show as Team Tilly. The captain and driver of Meggamouse was 20-year old Shane Lale, with girlfriend Sophie Clarkson driving the minibot Charles. Shane's parents Peter and Jackie Lale complete the team, with Peter Lale being the team's electrical expert.

Although Team Tilly are established roboteers in their own right, Meggamouse itself was built by Team Outlaw.

Qualification

Meggamouse first applied for Series 8 under Team Tilly, but was not selected to compete. The team were more successful with their application for Series 9, with Meggamouse being selected as a reserve and eventually joining the main competition following the withdrawal of another machine. Team Tilly then attempted to enter Series 10 with a brand-new machine, Dizzy Tilly.

Robot History

Series 9

Team Mouse enter the arena

Meggamouse competed in Heat E of Series 9, where it faced a tough draw against the destructive bar spinner of the previous series' runner-up, Carbide, alongside fellow newcomers Crackers 'n' Smash and Trolley Rage. In The Pits, Meggamouse and Charles were surrounded by replica wedges of swiss cheese, which the team pretended to eat in their hero shot.

Dara Ó Briain: "See, on some level, I have a problem with this. The attempt to make a killing robot look cute."

Shane Lale: "It looks cute, but it can pack a punch"

— Team Mouse on their robot's design

Meggamouse is trapped by the arena spikes

When 'activate' sounded, Meggamouse targeted the lighter half of the clusterbot, Crackers, bumping it onto the flame pit where the green robot became stuck. Meggamouse's own clusterbot, Charles was instantly immobilised by the first blow it sustained from Carbide. Meggamouse closed in on Carbide while it was attacking Charles, but missed, and became trapped between the arena spikes.

Meggamouse mistimes its flip

After this, Meggamouse used the tactics that its predecessor Mighty Mouse relied upon, and avoided the combat, only engaging in light contact with Crackers and the immobile Trolley Rage. Meggamouse aimed for the arena tyre, and the pit descended. It attempted to flip Crackers, but could not get underneath it, and missed with its attack. Finally, Meggamouse summoned up the courage to attack Carbide, but flipped too early and turned itself over. Although it quickly self-righted, this gave Carbide the opening to close in and shatter Meggamouse's wheel.

"Oh goodness me, the Meggamouse wheel was simply lifted into space! Go on, back into your hole, Meggamouse!"

— Jonathan Pearce

Meggamouse's wheel is ripped apart by Carbide

Meggamouse was still functional internally, and it spun around in circles, firing its flipper, but as it could not move beyond the space of its own circumference due to the drive for the robot's big and small wheels on its right being shattered by the force of Carbide's blade. Meggamouse was deemed immobile, and it was counted out, while Smash also pushed the long-beaten Charles into the pit. Meggamouse was eliminated from the competition in the first round, alongside Trolley Rage.

Angela Scanlon: "Could you have done anything differently, do you think?"

Shane Lale: "Try and stay out of these guys' way!"

— Team Mouse regret challenging Carbide

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 0
• Losses: 1

Series Record

Meggamouse in The Pits, decorated with cheese wedges

Series	Meggamouse Series Record
Series 1-7	Did not enter
Series 8	Not selected
Series 9	Heat, Round 1
Series 10	Not selected with Dizzy Tilly

NOTE: This Series Record reflects the participation of Team Tilly. The original builder of Meggamouse, Trevor Wright, competed in Robot Wars with Velocirippa, Mighty Mouse and Ironside3.

Outside Robot Wars

2008-2019

Meggamouse at a live event

Meggamouse was built in late-2008 as the successor to Mighty Mouse, while also retaining the same chassis and drive from sister machine Velocirippa. During Robot Wars' hiatus from television, it enjoyed reasonable success in its early years, reaching the finals of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 FRA UK Heavyweight Championships, with its best performance being a quarter-final finish in the 2010 iteration. Additional successes included overall victory in the 2011 Robots Live! Team Championship under the captaincy of Team Barbie, along with semi-final finishes in the 2012 Robots: Extreme Wars Live Winter Tour (finishing fourth overall) and 2013 FRA European Championships.

In 2014, Meggamouse took part in an exhibition show held at the EB Games Expo in Australia, fighting in friendly battles with Ripper and Thor to give audiences exposure to robot combat.

Alongside the 2013-2016 Robot Wars live events, Meggamouse continued to compete at Robots Live! events following these initial performances. In the 2016 FRA UK Championship, it threw Ka-Pow! out of the arena to win its first-round battle, en route to the quarter-finals once again. At that stage, it forfeited its place in the competition, allowing the previously-defeated TR2 to be reinstated.

At the first Robots Live! event of 2017 in Burgess Hill, Meggamouse made it all the way to the final, where it was finally thrown out of the arena by Eruption. It reached this stage after initially losing to Gabriel alongside Heavy Metal and Puck, but was reinstated, and defeated Weird mAlice in the semi-final by flipping it onto the arena wall.

At Extreme Robots in Manchester, 2017, Meggamouse was in attendance and fought alongside Iron Heart 88, but otherwise only made limited appearances. In Guildford, it fought Atom, Dozer, Behemoth and Saint, where it survived until a head-to-head scenario with Behemoth despite having low levels of gas, but eventually it could not self-right when flipped.

Meggamouse made an appearance at the Robots Live! Stevenage event in September 2018, competing for the UK title. There, it fought in the FRA UK Championship, but lost both its first-round battle to Rapid and its 'redemption' battle to defending FRA champion Manta. Meggamouse also fought in a whiteboard battle against Puck and King of Bots competitor Vulcan, which it lost after getting immobilised and pitted by the latter. It also fought for the UK title at Stevenage in 2019, but was immobilised by a strong hit from Nuts, eliminating it in the first round.

2022-present

Following a three-year hiatus, Meggamouse resumed its live events career at the May 2022 Extreme Robots Portsmouth event, where it was one of four robots to compete for the main heavyweight championship. Having defeated Tectonic to reach the final, it settled for the runner-up spot against Ripper which was crowned the inaugural Extreme Robots heavyweight champion. Meggamouse also competed at the Robots Live! Stoke-on-Trent event two months later, again finishing the main competition runner-up to Tectonic.

Meggamouse began its 2023 campaign at Extreme Robots Brentwood on 27-28 May, competing primarily in melee, 2v2 and Tag Team battles as part of Team Quake. A pact with Thor in the Sunday show proved especially successful; the pair first won their 2v2 against Ignition and Beast, after jointly immobilising their opponents and causing an internal fire in Team Eruption's machine. This was followed by an equally dominant Tag Team match against Weird mAlice, where the former's intended partner, Uriel, withdrew before the start. While Thor repeatedly axed Weird mAlice and damaged its pneumatics, Meggamouse flipped the latter over multiple times, eventually putting Weird mAlice into a position where it could no longer self-right properly. These combined efforts proved crucial in allowing Team Quake to finish the show first on points, and Tectonic to take overall victory in the final.

At Extreme Robots Guildford (17-18 June 2023), Meggamouse also attempted a Heavyweight Championship challenge against Eruption, captained by Will Owen, but was unsuccessful. A similar 'Survival' challenge also ended in a loss to Tectonic, though Meggamouse still secured two more Tag Team victories alongside Troublemaker and Manta respectively. Further success awaited Meggamouse on the Newcastle leg (22-23 July), where it won three battles as part of Team Wolfpack, including a surprise knockout against Manta.

A busy autumn run for Meggamouse began at Robots Live! Crawley on 9-10 September, where it took part in various competition and whiteboard battles. Highlights included a close three-way competition melee against Iron-Awe 6 and Toxic 2, where it outlasted the 2019 FRA UK Champion to survive to a Judges' decision. Meggamouse would lose the decision to Toxic 2 by just two points, but would still progress to the quarter-finals, where a gas leak cost it the chance to win over Apocalypse despite again lasting the full three minutes.

Just a week later, Meggamouse fought again at Extreme Robots Colchester, initially in two Heavyweight Championship Belt challenges against Tectonic. The first challenge saw it being dominated by Will Thomas' machine, only for the latter to flip and strand itself onto its back with the flipper stuck open. Meggamouse survived to take the Extreme Robots belt for the first time; however, the fight would continue shortly after Tectonic was counted out, ending with Meggamouse running out of CO₂ and being thrown into the Fire Pit. Meggamouse's reign as Extreme Robots champion was short-lived, as Tectonic would defeat it in the second challenge and retake the belt; it would then lose its remaining head-to-heads of the weekend against Ignition, TR4 and Thor.

While not able to replicate its Tag Team successes at Extreme Robots Maidstone (21-22 October) - alongside Brutus and Alpha respectively - Meggamouse still achieved a close head-to-head win over Gabriel by a judges' decision. This was followed by a long and evenly-matched duel against Ripper 6, where Meggamouse prevailed after its opponent ran out of CO₂ during the final minute. The following week, Meggamouse appeared at Robots Live! Stoke-on-Trent, once again fighting in the main competition as well as various melee battles.

Extreme Robots Cheltenham (11-12 November) saw Meggamouse again achieving reasonable success during the first Saturday show. After winning a head-to-head against The Saint, it would be selected as Team Wolfpack's representative in the overall show final, where it would challenge Gladiator winner Gabriel. Despite a difficult start - which involved Gabriel flipping it over with its sword - Meggamouse emerged victorious by pushing and throwing it out of the arena within the first twenty seconds.

For more information on Team Tilly's excursions aside from Meggamouse, see here.

Robot Wars Live Events

Meggamouse's profile at the Robot Wars live events

Meggamouse was a regular competitor on the Robot Wars live tour run by Roaming Robots, appearing in the inaugural event at Barnsley in February 2013. However, it enjoyed limited success outside of Tag Team matches.

Among Meggamouse's appearances included the 2015Robot Wars World Championships in Colchester, where it fought Iron-Awe 7, Nuts, and Weird mAlice as one of the nine seeded machines. Meggamouse started the melee well, repeatedly flipping Nuts around while Iron-Awe 7 threw Weird mAlice out of the arena. Despite coming close to escaping the first round, however, it eliminated itself by driving into the pit.

Meggamouse made its 2016 debut at the opening show in Manchester, outlasting Kill-E-Crank-E after the latter pitted itself. In turn, however, it was pitted by UK and Dutch Series veteran Crushtacean after a close match. At the Guildford event in June, Meggamouse achieved its personal best record, defeating Beast and throwing Stinger out of the arena to reach the semi-finals of the main competition. Following a defeat at that stage against eventual event winner Ripper, it would win the subsequent play-off against Behemoth to finish third overall.

Trivia

• Meggamouse was one of only three robots in Series 9 which did not have clips from VT segments shown in their introduction. The others were Apex and Rusty, which also entered the main series as reserves.

External Links

• Team Mouse Facebook page
• Meggamouse on the Robot Wars website