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"Let's get funny with the honey! The sticky stuff applies to the drive rollers to maximise grip on the rubber coated conveyor belt tracks! Now you know"
— Jonathan Pearce

Terminal Ferocity was a large yellow and black robot that competed in Series 3 of Robot Wars. It lost its first round battle to Facet after being flipped over. It attempted to qualify for four later series of Robot Wars, and fought an extensive career on the British live circuit, but never appeared on TV again.

Design[]

Terminal ferocity

Terminal Ferocity in the arena in Series 3

Terminal Ferocity was designed to resemble an artillery turret, and was driven by two tracks made out of conveyor belts which ran on crown face pulleys. Its weapons consisted of a large petrol-driven chainsaw mounted on a rotating turret, which was controlled by a joystick, and a gas-powered lifter on the wedged base which was intended to lift opponents towards the chainsaw, which itself could be raised and lowered. Neither of these weapons were properly seen in action, however, as Terminal Ferocity was flipped almost immediately by Facet. Unusually, the robot also had honey applied to the drive rollers powering the tracks, which acted as a makeshift adhesive to help improve the robot's grip.

It was rebuilt for Series 4 to have a wedged back end and a narrower wedged front end. It was now painted black.

For Series 6, it was rebuilt again to resembled a golden submarine, a design it would have for 10 years.

In Series 8, it had a black base with a large red flipper and competed with modern-day internals and armour.

Etymology[]

Its name was a pun on terminal velocity, the scientific term for the maximum velocity a moving object can reach.

Qualification[]

Terminal Ferocity qualified for Series 3 through attending the auditions.

Raizorblade and unknown

The Series 4 build of Terminal Ferocity battles Raizer Blade at Robot Mayhem

For Series 4, Terminal Ferocity was rebuilt with a 36-volt supply, 4QD speed controllers and Bosch 750W motors, giving it a high top speed of 20mph. In order to qualify, it attended the Robot Mayhem live event, where it was drawn in a head-to-head against Raizer Blade. Terminal Ferocity started well, managing to immobilise Raizer Blade at some point during the battle. However, it stopped on Raizer Blade's lifting arm and was turned over. Thus, the rebuilt Terminal Ferocity failed to qualify for the televised Fourth Wars.[1][2]

In Series 5, Terminal Ferocity attempted to qualify once again, but suffered from a compatibility issue between the receiver and the team delta interface. This effectively shut the robot down, preventing it from successfully qualifying. A further attempt to qualify for Series 6 was also cut short, when Terminal Ferocity stopped moving for a short amount of time and was deemed immobile. The team did not attempt to qualify for Series 7 because of a family bereavement.[3]

The modernised version of Terminal Ferocity applied for Series 8, but was once again not selected to compete.Citation? According to John Ryland, an updated version also applied for and was 'kept' as a possible reserve for Series 10. This incarnation of Terminal Ferocity was planned to feature new tracks similar to those developed for his and Fiona's Securotrack system, with a design goal of being able to 'climb' out of the pit.[4]

Robot History[]

Series 3[]

In the first round of the penultimate heat of the Third Wars, Terminal Ferocity was drawn up against previous Semi-Finalist Team Joint Effort with Facet.

Facet vs terminal ferocity

Facet engages Terminal Ferocity

This was a battle with a quick start and end. Facet charged into and flipped Terminal Ferocity onto its side almost immediately, where the latter was unable to self-right. Facet then attacked Terminal Ferocity again and it appeared as if Terminal Ferocity may have been righted, but it merely fell on its opposite side. Facet then left Terminal Ferocity at the mercy of Dead Metal to attack Matilda, and flipped Matilda onto her side. However, she was soon righted by Shunt, but was immobilised as a result. Dead Metal continued to cut through the underbelly of Terminal Ferocity, dragging it around the arena, meanwhile both Shunt and Sergeant Bash boxed Facet in against the arena side wall and the flamethrower-wielding house robot crumpled Facet's flipper. Cease was called just as Dead Metal was about to pit Terminal Ferocity after being on the other side of the arena. Despite the damage caused to Facet, the result was obvious, and Terminal Ferocity was eliminated from the competition.

"He was just a bit too fast for us."
— Fiona Ryland, afterwards

Results[]

TERMINAL FEROCITY - RESULTS
Series 3
The Third Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 1
Heat O, Round 1 vs. Facet Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 0
  • Losses: 1

Series Record[]

Series Terminal Ferocity Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Heat, Round 1
The Fourth Wars Failed to qualify
The Fifth Wars Failed to qualify
The Sixth Wars Failed to qualify
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Not selected
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Outside Robot Wars[]

Melee1

Terminal Ferocity (left) at the Sevenoaks event, sporting a different paint scheme

At the Sevenoaks charity event, which took place around the time of Series 3 and 4, Terminal Ferocity was repainted green and grey with the chainsaw painted black and white, and fought in a six-way melee against Facet, Chaos 2, X-Terminator, Corporal Punishment and Killerhurtz.

After Robot Wars ended, Terminal Ferocity was redesigned, still keeping the basic shape, but vaguely resembling a submarine. It competed in Roaming Robots, but with a new design using a pneumatic flipper, with limited success. It does, however, hold the honour of being the fastest tracked robot in the history of Roaming Robots.

Ryland Research

The Securotrack built by Ryland Research Limited

John and Fiona Ryland run a company named Ryland Research Limited, and in one of their projects, built a Securotrack high propulsion unit, with an element of autonomy, built to represent the University of Reading at the 2008 MOD Grand Challenge. It would later be donated to Collingwood School, where the students converted the robot into Track-tion and entered it into Series 10.[5]

Robot Wars Live Events[]

Terminal Ferocity

Terminal Ferocity from 2011 onwards

Terminal Ferocity made its Robot Wars Live Event debut in 2013 at Guildford where it was due to fight TR2, Dystopia & Weird mAlice in its heat, but couldn't due to the team not arriving in time. It also participated in the Robot Wars Championship 2013 held at Newport. It faced Cherub and Manta in the heats where it started off doing well managing to flip the other two robots a few times, but Terminal Ferocity eventually broke down and was eliminated.

Terminal Ferocity continued to compete on the Robot Wars live tour for some time, but did not pick up a battle victory. Following this, it was sidelined while John and Fiona Ryland began work on a new HDPE shell for it.

Appearances in Merchandise[]

Trivia[]

  • Terminal Ferocity came from a skilled engineering couple John and Fiona Ryland. Fiona and John had previously designed the tracks for Plunderbird 2, Plunderbird 4 and Plunderstorm, as well as the bodies for Plunderstorm and Plunderbird 4. More recently, they provided the Paintball Securobot for the Gadget Show "War of the Robots".
  • Along with Knuckles, Terminal Ferocity was not selected or failed to qualify for four series - the most out of any UK competitors. However, Terminal Ferocity did successfully audition for its debut in Series 3.

References[]

Navigation[]

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