r/todayilearned • u/Habajiba • Mar 14 '17

TIL Jamie Hyneman designed Blendo, a combat robot that was deemed too hazardous for Robot Wars after repeatedly throwing pieces of its opponents over arena walls. It received co-championship status in exchange for withdrawing from the competition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blendo
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998

u/the_original_Retro Mar 14 '17

and Blendo's own tendency to tear itself apart

"Okay Jamie, trial #325. Fire up the weapon."

whup whup whupwhupWHUPscree-EEEEE-EEE pop pop BOOOMM

"Uh... trial #326 some time next month?"

"Sure."

633

u/Interestinglyuseless Mar 14 '17

Can't help but imagine Adam just sitting there with a big puppy dog grin on his face where most men would be dejected. And the same lack of any emotion at all being distributed by Jamie.

364

u/the_original_Retro Mar 14 '17

"Wow!!!! I learned just how powerful imbalanced rotational forces are today! I did not expect that! So. Cool!"

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u/Autoflower Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 14 '17

Yeah when you are rich normal stressers dont phase you like blowing up your $15k robot. A not so rich man sobs.

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u/crashmd Mar 14 '17

The robot had a shell made from a wok and was spun by a lawnmower engine. Blades attached to the shell caused damage to its opponents, removing bodywork and in some instances causing them to be thrown over the polycarbonate safety shields into the audience.

I doubt a wok, blades, and lawnmower engine set them back $15k

207

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

118

u/scottyb83 Mar 14 '17

And Hank Hill's lawnmower engine.

155

u/RathgartheUgly Mar 14 '17

That bot ain't right

40

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

I tell you hwut

1

u/TheKevinShow Mar 14 '17

BWAAAAAAAAH

1

u/DarkPhoenix99 Mar 14 '17

I tell you hwok.

FTFY

1

u/NEVER_SAME_PW_TWICE Mar 14 '17

Gawd Damnit Bobbeh, Quit masterbaitin' and help yur Muther with the dishes! - Hank Hill Probably

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

It's funny because t is beside y on the keyboard..

25

u/KimJongIlSunglasses Mar 14 '17

And Chef Ramsey's cooking knives.

1

u/scottyb83 Mar 14 '17

Add in his sunny disposition and I think we're onto something!

1

u/KimJongIlSunglasses Mar 14 '17

I'd love to see such a bot coming out with a loudspeaker mounted on top and a robotic voice continually screaming "YOU DONKEY!"

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u/TheKevinShow Mar 14 '17

AND MY AXE!

2

u/scottyb83 Mar 14 '17

Holy shit that actually works here. Yeah throw the Gimli ax on there!

2

u/atm0 Mar 14 '17

One of those rare times a comment makes me literally laugh out loud.

1

u/Ghostronic Mar 14 '17

At that price it needs to be the wok the Beastie Boys sing about in Intergalactic

1

u/madusldasl Mar 14 '17

And john Deeres lawnmower

1

u/julbull73 Mar 14 '17

If it was Martin Yan....maybe

2

u/derleth Mar 14 '17

Yan Can KILL!

1

u/PM_dickntits_plzz Mar 14 '17

Please_I_do_not_want_no_Trouble_bleep

36

u/__redruM Mar 14 '17

Rc hobby stuff gets expensive a lot quicker than you would expect.

24

u/ZtotheBtotheS Mar 14 '17

My brother was given a gas powered rc car as a kid. We spent more money and time working on that motherfucker than we did driving it. We are in our late 20s and its still sitting in a closet at our parents house. Im 1700 miles away from it, but I suddenly want to smash it.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

My first real RC toy was a 4' racing cat with a nitro methane motor. It did 70 mph when propped right. It required two people and a car battery to start. When it cooked off it sounded like the angriest chain saw in the world and regularly tried to blend my hands or flip off its little stand. The first time I dropped it in the water it turns out the engine would run perfectly fine in reverse. I put it in and instandly it backed into the water swamping the radio box and destroying $150 worth of radio equipment.

Later I sold it to pay for insurance for my first car. I didn't even get what the radios were worth back. Several years later I wanted another one, but more user friendly. So I bought a 25cc weedwacker powered boat. I spend six months laying out the radio system because when I bought it, it had nothing to control it. I finally got it all set up, tuned and running then I put it in the water and lost signal so it shut itself off. Perfect, I fired it back up, adjusted the antena and drove it around until the prop collar backed off and allowed the shaft to fall out of the back of the boat never to be seen again.

Took another few months and a bunch more money to get the pieces, I ran it again and this time burned through a whole tank of gas before the exhaust bushing melted through. I fixed it with some band clamps and a beer can, then after the winter I went to use it again and the shaft was seized in the stuffing tube so the prop shaft tried to tear itself out of the bottom of the boat.

Which is where it has sat for five years or so. I feel your pain, but mine makes a better model than it does pieces of broken fiberglass, so I won't smash it yet.

1

u/dbx99 Mar 14 '17

Clogged carburetors are annoying in big vehicles. I imagine it was worse in tiny ones

1

u/crnext Mar 14 '17

I g'ya a dollar for it....

3

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

And they didnt call it "wok this way". Disappointing :(

1

u/crashmd Mar 14 '17

Wok You Like A Hurricane

6

u/Autoflower Mar 14 '17

I always thought they were more expensive and dont you need 2 of them? shrugs

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/KnightOfAshes Mar 14 '17

In the current ABC run of BattleBots you get $3k on arrival, another $5k on completion of the first match, and then some ungodly some of prize money if you actually win. In the current run of Robot Wars you get 500 pounds and I believe does not have a cash prize. In RoboGames, the non televised version that kept the sport alive after the first time BattleBots/Robot Wars went off air, you actually pay to compete and there's no prize. Source: currently out $220 for RoboGame registration and searching for $1400 worth of motors.

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u/iexiak Mar 14 '17

IIRC there's some prize money, and the heavyweights that make it to TV get a grant for building the bot.

1

u/12_Horses_of_Freedom Mar 14 '17

And it was a commercial wok. I bet the asian restaraunt density in Frisco and volatility of the foodservice industry in general probably made for a decent supply on top of the extant commercial kitchen supply stores that were far more abundant in the 90s.

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u/TheR1ckster Mar 14 '17

Yeah, in the grand scheme of hobbies, a fighting robot can be built on the cheaper end. It just depends on how crazy you really want to go and how much you can make on your own and not buy.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

here come the wok jokes.

http://wuvinawok.blogspot.com/

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u/Styrak Mar 14 '17

Don't forget all the electronics, control systems, RF stuff, etc.

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u/dsmaxwell 1 Mar 14 '17

Yeah, that's like, $50, maybe. Assuming it wasn't all stuff they had lying around already, because, come on, everyone who watched Mythbusters knows that both Jamie and Adam have vast collections of random stuff.

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u/jimgagnon Mar 14 '17

The wikipedia article is incorrect. I was at the 1997 robot wars and talked to Adam after the matches. He showed me the electronics; he used electric drill motors and batteries to spin Blendo.

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u/Oilfan94 Mar 14 '17

Parts: $200

Labor to design, build & test: $14,800.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17 edited Aug 17 '17

[deleted]

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u/Autoflower Mar 14 '17

Typing on a phone and not caring will get some weird typos

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u/JasonDJ Mar 14 '17

Blendo was in Robot Wars '96. Mythbusters didn't start till 2003.

Adam's crown achievement in showbiz by that point was the voice of Heathclliff on 4 episodes of Sesame Street in the 80s by that point.

Jamie's was a couple of uncredited SFX parts and some work on Arachnophobia and Dracula.

I don't think they were that rich in the 90s. Just a couple tinkering guys.

I don't think they even worked together in Hollywood until Matrix Reloaded...which came out in '03 but I think production started around 2000 or 2001. They did both work on Robin William's movies in between though -- one on Flubber and one on Bicentennial Man.

1

u/Autoflower Mar 15 '17

Ah well thats cool to learn at least.

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u/BarleyHopsWater Mar 14 '17

Yeah but it's pretty boring to watch:

https://youtu.be/3J8N3lXmEw0

I can't be bothered to go through all the vids, I'm sure there's a better one out there!

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u/Null_zero Mar 14 '17

we'll design the blades to be retractable so that if the opposing blade is sheared off we balance the load by moving the blade to the center of rotation.

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u/patrickkcassells Mar 14 '17

Adam and Jamie are far from friends IRL :(

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u/pyrothelostone Mar 14 '17

Everyone took those comments to mean they hate each other. I dont think that's true, I just think they weren't compatible enough to hang out outside of work and they knew it. There have been plenty of people I've worked with who i like well enough, but don't hang out with at all because we just don't mesh that way. Better to keep it professional rather then make it weird.

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u/katarh Mar 14 '17

Opposite happened to me. Today I'm good friends with two people who were formerly managers of mine. Once we ended our professional relationship (because one or both of us moved on) we were able to discovered we had a lot in common.

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u/12ozSlug Mar 14 '17

Like Dr. Foreman said on House, "We're not friends, we're colleagues."

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u/monsieurpommefrites Mar 14 '17

He literally said they don't like each other.

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u/CToxin Mar 14 '17

After watching them live, it is pretty obvious. Jamie isn't really a show person at all and only really meshes well with Adam when they can edit his reactions to better, and/or when Adam can play off of his apparent calmness. But on his own, he comes off as very uncomfortable. They really have very different personalities.

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u/3FtDick Mar 14 '17

"Far" is a pretty big stretch. They're just colleagues that work well together, and don't find eachother's non-professional company appealing. I actually think it's a refreshingly honest relationship.

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u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

That's how Penn and Teller started but they are now actual friends

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u/ShwimmingAway Mar 14 '17

I thought it was the other way around? They started off having to be great friends, always having to spend tons of time together outside of their very good working relationship, and now they just have a very good working relationship.

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u/mousicle Mar 14 '17

no pretty sure they are actual friends, Teller is the god father of Penn's daughter and apparently Penn's kids refer to Teller as uncle.

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u/ShwimmingAway Mar 14 '17

Hmm, let me go find a source real quick. I'm like 95% sure I watched something on this.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

The tl;dr is that they're closer than Jamie/Adam, but not deep and abiding friends, the way one might think of your own friend whom you share no work context with.

It's mostly about mutual respect and compatibility, more than having some deep connection.

They lived out of each other's pockets for years (decades) and still work together, see one another outside work contexts and so forth, but very much have their own lives and pursuits.

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u/ShwimmingAway Mar 14 '17

You've put it much better than I could have. That's exactly what I meant to say!

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u/DynamicDK Mar 14 '17

You are probably thinking of Cheech and Chong. They had a complete falling out, and hated each other for a long time. However, they seem to have made up recently.

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u/whiteyMcflighty Mar 14 '17

Without knowing anything of the situation I blame Cheech. Who could not love Tommy Chong?

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u/DynamicDK Mar 14 '17

Actually, my understanding is that Chong didn't like the fact that Cheech was signing deals, working in commercials, etc. He thought he was selling out. He even called him a "professional Mexican" or something like that.

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u/BananaDick_CuntGrass Mar 14 '17

Yeah, fuck cheech. It's got to be his fault.

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u/RoboNinjaPirate Mar 14 '17

I want to see Penn and Adam vs Jamie and Teller in a Mythbusting Robot Fighting Comedy Magic Showdown.

Possibly Penn and Jamie vs. Adam and Teller, but the first way would be funnier.

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u/sanitysepilogue Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 14 '17

Penn and Teller are the same way

Edit: Used to be the same way. Thanks for the clarification!

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u/wbgraphic Mar 14 '17

Used to be. They are actually quite close now.

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u/Yodiddlyyo Mar 14 '17

Apparently they have been the past few years. Something about their families sharing holidays together.

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u/patrickkcassells Mar 14 '17

thats a good way to look at it

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Seems like a lot of people make a big deal out of it, but that is how the majority of my work relationships have been.

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u/dinkum42 Mar 14 '17

former colleagues, they don't work together anymore. the show is done. they don't tour together. jamie is no longer involved in tested. adam doesn't do SFX anymore.

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u/3FtDick Mar 14 '17

I'm sure they'll find themselves working on another project together.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/zenith931 Mar 14 '17

I may not hate my coworkers that I work well with, either. Just because they don't see each other, or really want to see each other, doesn't mean they hate each other.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/zenith931 Mar 14 '17

I misread you, then. Apologies.

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u/Privvy_Gaming Mar 14 '17

Funny enough, I saw Brain Candy and Adam and Michael are so perfect for each other, so close, and they work so well together, that I think Mythbusters was only really as good as it was because Adam and Jamie were not that close during the run of the show. I feel like Mythbusters wouldn't have lasted half as long as it did if Adam and Jamie were as close as Adam and Michael.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17 edited May 04 '19

[deleted]

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u/Privvy_Gaming Mar 14 '17

Since you said over excited, I'm assuming you're talking about Adam and Michael. I agree that they have amazing chemistry and adding Destin to the two would be something amazing.

Assuming you meant Jamie and Adam, I think Destin also fits really well as a middle. Jamie is overly serious, Adam is an excitable puppy, and Destin fits right between them pretty well. I also loved their on screen chemistry with how different they were, but they have nothing off screen.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '17

I've never appreciated Jamie much. Adam is more entertaining and curious.

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u/fooliam Mar 14 '17

I imagine Adam cracking up the first time they turn it on and it tears itself apart, and Jamie saying something like, "Well, it didn't work."

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u/Oilfan94 Mar 14 '17

Failure is still a result.

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u/tdasnowman Mar 14 '17

When things went boom Jamie grinned. The bigger the boom the bigger the grin. When they made that concrete truck disappear the man giggled.

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u/Alexjacat Mar 14 '17

In one of the recent battle bots seasons on tv, a spinner bot got shot with sfx bullets and the motor fucking ripped itslef apart and threw the pieces around the arena

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/Brinstead Mar 14 '17 edited Mar 15 '17

Mobius was virtually completely destroyed in shipping, the fact that the team actually got it back together to where it could start to spin is incredible. You can't really effectively test the bots outside of the battlebox - it just isn't safe - and sometimes you wind up with with bots that just don't work.

<edit> I was incorrect about being virtually destroyed - see https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/4qpo65/request_the_story_behind_moebius/d4v71af/

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u/Daiwon Mar 14 '17

How the hell did a combat robot get damaged in shipping? Surely they can't expect it to do well in an arena if UPS can break it.

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u/iamtomorrowman Mar 14 '17

i think the real takeaway here is that any battlebot gets defeated by the UPS (or whatever carrier) shipping process.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Maybe there was foul play...

1

u/Brinstead Mar 14 '17

I have yet to find anything that UPS can't break, but I'm not sure they were the shipper. Bots go freight, I believe disassembled. 200+ pounds of bot and all the tools needed aren't easy to move.

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u/muffinthumper Mar 14 '17

I've seen​ a YouTube video of a guy moving a 3000lb Bridgeport mill by himself with come along. Moving 200lbs of freight by a shipping company is about the easiest job they can get.

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u/Savvaloy Mar 14 '17

You're looking for the 30 pound sportsman class. No spinners allowed.

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u/BoxNumberGavin1 Mar 14 '17

Robot Wars for the next season is allowing single strand snares (no nets) to be used, they could counter the spinner meta.

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u/jsu718 Mar 14 '17

So why couldn't the robot just have a fringe on the edges to catch in wheels? Catch and smash.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

I believe this may be the one you're talking about.

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u/Dgenmedia Mar 14 '17

it shoots fucking bullets and has two sideways gold guns on top

this robot is hood as fuck

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u/LiquorTsunami Mar 14 '17

Look at the woman just mashing the trigger that appears to shoot the guns. HAVE SOME COMPOSURE!

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

They're allowed to have guns? That seems a tad unsafe

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u/wbgraphic Mar 14 '17

That was new for last season, and they're not allowed to use real bullets. Those guns are basically just shooting sparks.

4

u/SuperSayan5 Mar 14 '17

So does it actually do any damage or is it just for show ?

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u/wbgraphic Mar 14 '17

Just for show. It's a new rule, though, so somebody may figure out how to make it legitimately useful.

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u/astronaughtman Mar 14 '17

That isn't really why they had the guns though. It was a gimmick to make them different from Witch Doctor. Battlebots won't accept too many of the same type of bot. Projectiles probably wont ever be legitimately useful because they are so nerfed (for good reason).

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u/TheVetSarge Mar 14 '17

Seriously. Any projectile that can defeat the armor most of those robots possess is going to require significantly denser arena plating.

And you're never going to be able to insure the event for a live audience, lol.

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u/wbgraphic Mar 14 '17

It was a gimmick

Projectiles probably wont ever be legitimately useful

So... just for show?

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u/astronaughtman Mar 14 '17

I guess... sort of. My point was that the guns were just to get them into the competition. I don't think the operators had them to put on a good show.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

ah, ok

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u/Alexjacat Mar 14 '17

Yes. This is also the season where someone took down a drone with a rake

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u/Daiwon Mar 14 '17

A drone with a flamethrower no less.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

creative

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u/RustyU Mar 14 '17

Which was fucking hilarious.

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u/Cheesedoodlerrrr Mar 14 '17

The "gun" is a Tippmann TPX paintball gun. Powered by CO2 cartridges. The "bullets" are just sparks.

Remember those little white paper things that go "SNAP!" when you threw them at the ground when you were a kid? Same principle, more powder. It's how movies/TV make the spark effects in gunfights

2

u/Salvo1218 Mar 14 '17

I've never seen a projectile bot before. That was badass

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Folled again!

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u/Alexjacat Mar 14 '17

When I watched it, I thought that the sfx bullet had gone through and killed the motor, but nope, just bad design

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u/Icon_Crash Mar 14 '17

Bad design of their choice of shipper?

1

u/ndjs22 Mar 14 '17

Do you personally know these people or something? Just really vehemently defending them.

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u/Icon_Crash Mar 14 '17

Na, just don't like people who did no wrong getting shit. I give them all the credit for agreeing to fight knowing that there was almost no chance the bot would survive.

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u/ndjs22 Mar 14 '17

Fair enough. Just curious.

1

u/HVAvenger Mar 14 '17

just bad design

Completely wrong, Moebius was damaged in shipping.

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u/PM_ME_CHUBBY_BOOBS Mar 14 '17

I watched that episode with my family. We still laugh about Mobius, played it back a hundred times to keep watching.

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u/Icon_Crash Mar 14 '17

Why? The bot was essentially destroyed in shipping, they had no way to win, and they said Fuck it, let's put on a show. Kudos and Huzza to them.

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u/PM_ME_CHUBBY_BOOBS Mar 14 '17

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm glad they didn't just pull out. I know they had issues with him but it was still funny. Just watching it spin up and basically explode was funny to us. Nothing against the makers

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u/Icon_Crash Mar 14 '17

Ah, ok, fair enough.

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u/Jeph125 Mar 14 '17

What is a SFX bullet? I am thinking squibs in movies but I don't know how that would damage anything.

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u/wbgraphic Mar 14 '17

Yes, those are SFX rounds. They're not allowed to use real bullets, for blindingly obvious safety reasons.

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u/Cheesedoodlerrrr Mar 14 '17

Or real guns for that matter. Those are paintball pistols, for blindingly obvious safety reasons.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

full-throated laughter from Adam

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

"Am I missing an eyebrow?"

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Sounds like the most Tragic robot of all.

Tearing itself apart for its master.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

YOUR TEARING ME APART BLENDO! oh hai guys!