Trilobyte was an American robot that competed in the second season of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors participating in the US Championship, and in the Tag Team (alongside team-mate Trackzilla), but lost both first round battles to Mad Cow Bot.
The team dressed up in business suits with dark sunglasses.
Design[]
Trilobyte was a roughly triangular shaped robot, running on tracks. Its weapon was a lifting arm/pincer combination with a pincer reportedly capable of applying a pressure of over 500lbs, and was designed to resemble an American turkey vulture in shape and black-and-red colour scheme. However, the machine was slow and cumbersome, which often came to its disadvantage in both of its appearances.
Etymology[]
Its name was a portmanteau, combining the words Trilobite, an extinct marine arthropod whose fossil record spanned hundreds of millions of years, and -byte, a suffix referencing a unit of digital information.
Robot History[]
Season 2[]
Trilobyte and Manta in the arena.
Trilobyte competed against former semi-finalist, and Civil War winner Manta and fellow newcomer Mad Cow Bot in its first round battle. For this match, Team Innovation added ropes and cloths to the sides and back of the robot to entangle its opponents' spinning weapons. Trilobyte entered the arena with its lifting arm raised.
Manta rams into Trilobyte
As soon as the battle started, Trilobyte turned to face Manta, but was slammed into by the lower machine, knocking it off the ground and spinning it around. With its weapon still raised, Trilobyte was not able to attack Manta back and was pushed away from one corner to another and then into the arena centre. Trilobyte's weapon finally lowered as Manta pushed it towards the flame pit, but by this point, Trilobyte had stopped moving.
- "And there doesn't seem to be much movement in Trilobyte. Could these guys be in trouble already? It just started."
- — Stefan Frank
Mad Cow Bot rips the fur from Trilobyte
With Trilobyte immobile, Mad Cow Bot attacked its rear, which resulted in Trilobyte's cloth getting snagged in Mad Cow Bot's drum. This was not enough to save Trilobyte, as Refbot counted it out, whilst Manta struck its rear and caused some damage. Trilobyte was picked up and spun around by Sir Killalot, but its size and weight caused the house robot to tip forward, forcing him to let go. After Sir Killalot had re-righted himself, landing on top of Mad Cow Bot in the process, he grabbed hold of Trilobyte and overturned it, before using his lance to drag Trilobyte across to the floor flipper. Trilobyte was thrown across the arena floor, signifying its elimination in the first round of the US Championship.
- "Well, we made the deadly mistake, we got careless, we forgot to latch down some batteries that came loose, we lost power early in the match."
- — Lawrence Feir after the battle
Trilobyte also competed in the Tag Team Terror alongside teammate Trackzilla. In their first fight, Trilobyte started out in the arena against Mad Cow Bot for the second time and Texas Tornado, the latter of whom started for their team. Trilobyte retained the cloth from its US Championship appearance.
Trilobyte comes under attack from Texas Tornado
It immediately began the fight by pressing the pit release button, before engaging with Texas Tornado, but was unable to utalise its weapon. After Texas Tornado pushed it back a few times, Trilobyte went to tag in Trackzilla, but quickly rejoined the battle after Mad Cow Bot came out of its corner prematurely to double-team Trackzilla. Trilobyte was able to restrict Texas Tornado's movements after the latter drove into Sir Killalot, but it soon escaped and Trilobyte's sluggish speed meant it was unable to catch Texas Tornado as it went to attack Trackzilla.
Trilobyte dives into the pit
Eventually, Texas Tornado got stuck trying to move around Refbot, which allowed Trilobyte to wedge underneath it, but Trilobyte was unable to use its weapon and was then forced to retreat after Mad Cow Bot slammed Trackzilla over the top of Texas Tornado, obstructing Trilobyte's attack. By this point, both Sir Killalot and Dead Metal had entered the battle in an attempt to control the robots, with Dead Metal catching Trilobyte in the arena centre and slicing into its right side. Trilobyte was released and Texas Tornado pushed into it, turning it towards the pit. Although Texas Tornado moved away afterwards, Trilobyte simply drove forward into the pit itself under no further pressure.
- "So it's not only a tag team, but it's a bad driving ceremony! Oh, Lawrence Feir, he's in disgust driving Trilobyte like that! Look at that, unassisted, found the hole and went down in it. Wow, he didn't do his team any good with that little move."
- — Stefan Frank as Trilobyte drives into the pit
Trilobyte's large size meant that Dead Metal tried to attack it whilst it was in the pit. Meanwhile, Trackzilla had become immobilised following attacks from the house robots and was thrown by the floor flipper, eliminating Trilobyte and Trackzilla from the tournament.
Results[]
| TRILOBYTE - RESULTS | ||
| Season 2 | ||
| US Championship Heats, Round 1 | ||
| Heat B, Round 1 | vs. Mad Cow Bot, Manta | Eliminated |
| Tag Team Terror Competing with Trackzilla, Round 1 | ||
| Round 1 | vs. Mad Cow Bot & Texas Tornado | Lost |
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 2
Series Record[]
| US Series | Trilobyte Series Record |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | Did not enter |
| Season 2 | Heat, Round 1 Entered with Trackzilla |
| Nickelodeon | Did not enter |
Gallery[]
Outside Robot Wars[]
TrackZilla, as Botzilla
BrickSlayer shortly before competing in a battle.
Like many other American competitors, Team Innovation Robotics fought in Robotica, with a robot called Botzilla, likely based off of the general build of TrackZilla, and was driven by Trilobyte team captain Lawrence Fier. Botzilla was much more successful, finishing as runner-up in Season 2 only to lose to Team Robot Dojo's Flexy Flyer in the Final Fight to the Finish. TrackZilla would also participate in live events within the United States, including one in Hendersonville in North Carolina for the 56th N.C. Apple Festival, in which it saw some success against Total Anarchy.
Team Innovation Robotics would also compete in some live events around 2002 with BrickSlayer, which had a similar weapon and body shape to Trilobyte, although it is unknown how well the robot did in live events.
Trivia[]
- Both of Trilobyte's battles saw it lose to Mad Cow Bot. This is similar to Night Stalker, which lost to Rosie the Riveter 2 in both of its battles.
External Links[]
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