Media Essays: The Career of Eruption

The Robot Wars reboot may have been short-lived, but in that short time it returned, it gave us a lot of new memorable machines that have already become modern classics. I talked about two of the big names from the reboot such as Apollo and Carbide. Now I'm talking about arguably the third biggest name that came of the reboot, and also one of the most successful machines in robot combat history. This is a machine with volcanic power that has a fearsome flipper and unmatched driving skills to put it to good use. That machine...is Eruption.

Created and driven by father-and-son team Michael and Adrien Oates, Eruption has quite the reputation to its name, and quite a well-earned one at that. Eruption is one of the most powerful flipper machines in robot combat and it has managed to win numerous upon numerous of live events while also winning the final series of the Robot Wars reboot before its cancellation. At the same time, Eruption is a bit of a controversial machine with some finding Michael Oates's tactics to be underhanded while others praise him for his pragmatism. Eruption has a career worth talking about, and that's why we're here today. This will cover all of Eruption's most memorable wins, most memorable losses and the many battles it went through in order to finally be crowned a Robot Wars champion. Let's dive into the career of Eruption...

Eruption's Weak Start

Eruption made its main series debut in Heat D of Series 8.

The machine is a two-wheel drive, wedge-shaped robot armed with a full-pressure flipper and featuring two red LED "eyes" behind said wedge. It was painted black, yellow and red with warning stripes on the flipper. Its steeply-backed wedge shape allowed it to self-right easier and recoil backwards when flipping. On the back were a pair of long plates called "flyers" that helped Eruption's stability when flipping. The two red plates at the front sides are anti-spinner plates to offer it protection against spinners. The robot is armoured with a 4mm HARDOX wear-resistant steel shell with 10 mm high-density polyethylene impact absorbers on top and an extra layer of 2.2mm wear-resistant steel on the front. Eruption also uses a custom built control circuit to fire the flipper. This allowed the team to alter the amount of CO2 to fire the flipper for each flip, which was intended to make sure it would never run out of CO2 mid-battle. The flipper itself is activated by an independent punch ram that pushes the flipper upwards in combination with bungee cords attached to the front end of the weapon, which softens the recoil of the weapon firing and also allows it to retract. For its drives, Eruption uses custom-built 4:6:1 gearboxes driving its 2x150mm caster wheel in front of its two-wheel drive setup powered by 750w Bosch GPA 750w motors.

The team had interchangeable weapons that they could attach to the top of the flipper. In this series, they had "The Claw of Doom", a small pneumatic gripping claw that could pin opponents onto the flipper and leave them on top of the wedge as Eruption drove them towards the pit or arena wall. It was referred to as a flipper and gripper and was Eruption's only optional weapon in Series 8.

Eruption were up against Storm 2, Sabretooth and Terror Turtle. The melee was pretty much Storm 2 and Eruption's fight to win for Terror Turtle and Sabretooth were no real match for either opponent. Eruption even scored its first of many OOTAs it would achieve in the reboot by flipping Terror Turtle out of the arena. The fight actually had a lot of untelevised flips from Eruption on Terror Turtle. I wonder why that is. Going into the fight, they made Sabretooth their first priority as the drum spinner made them nervous, so they dealt with them first and then disposed of Terror Turtle. Sabretooth's self-righting mechanism had broken prior to the fight, so it wasn't able to get back up again after it was flipped over. Eruption and Storm 2 progressed to the Round Robin stage and funnily enough, were immediately pitted against each other.

Storm 2 proved to be much trickier to handle than Terror Turtle or Sabretooth since, you know, it's Storm 2, and even if the machine was a shadow of its former self from Series 7, it was still really low to the floor and hard to get under. As is, Eruption did manage to flip Storm 2 a few times and at the end of the battle, Storm 2 did end up being immobilized while Eruption was still moving, but unfortunately it was too late as the immobilization happened in the last twenty seconds of the match, so Storm 2 weren't out and they won on a close Judge's Decision.

The second round against PP3D didn't last long as PP3D gave them a big hit and both robots ended up unable to move, only spin in circles, and so PP3D were the winners on a Judge's Decision due to the damage it caused. With 0 points, Eruption had no chance of advancing to the finals as if it managed to win a fight, it wouldn't score enough points. It at least managed to end on a high note by actually defeating Apollo (surprisingly). They may not have got enough points to make it to the Heat Final, but they managed to end their run with a victory at least.

This wasn't the end of Eruption for they were invited to participate in three untelevised whiteboard matches against Infernal Contraption, Shockwave and Behemoth respectively. It won the first two while the one against Behemoth had no winner declared.

As is, Eruption didn't have the most amazing beginning ever, but it did show promise and that it was a machine that had potential to do great. Next time, Series 9 would allow it to really show what it could do...

Second Time Round Proves Better

Eruption returned in Heat B of Series 9.

For this series, flame graphics were added to Eruption's flipper and sides, and the machine was also given a new logo that resembled an erupting volcano (get it? Eruption? Volcanoes erupt? Hurr, hurr, hurr!) It also have a new interchangeable weapon that could fit atop the flipper. In this case, it was a spinning drum known as the "Drum of Death". It could damage 4mm HARDOX and the idea was that the spinning drum would damage the edges of its opponents so it could breach ground clearances more easily.

Eruption absolutely dominated its heat, easily winning the first round melee alongside Behemoth on a Judge's Decision against Cobra and Hobgoblin. Come the second round, Behemoth got a good start against Eruption, even surprisingly managing to breach its ground clearance and flip it over. But then they got caught in a corner and the team couldn't see their machine, so they struggled to get away. Then Eruption proceeded to somersault them out the arena. It's honestly one of the most stylish and neat looking out of the arena flips ever performed.

This wasn't the only OOTA that Eruption would acheive in this episode, for they proceeded to do it again against Cherub...

...then again with PP3D...

...and a second time with Cherub. This moment marked the second fastest battle in Robot Wars history and is similar to the battle with Gravity and Dantomkia with how fast it was. With this dominant heat performance, Eruption made the Grand Final, a huge improvement from its performance last time, and it really got to show its potential and how powerful it could be in this dominant heat performance.

The Grand Final was a brutal experience for Eruption. The first round saw them battle against Apollo and Aftershock and they managed to get through after Apollo was knocked out by Aftershock. With Apollo's early exit, Eruption was the ONLY robot left in the competition that didn't have a spinning weapon. It was essentially one flipper against four very dangerous spinners. Talk about being thrown to the wolves! It then entered the arena with its anti-spinner plates attached so it could cushion blows from Ironside3 and score another victory, but then they got mauled by Carbide and were left in a critical match where they had to defeat Aftershock in order to continue on. They managed to win in spite of Aftershock's deadly weapon and made it through to the final against Carbide again. Despite their efforts, it was no contest and Carbide absolutely decimated them, leaving Eruption to finish as the runner-ups of Series 9.

As you can see, it was a very sorry looking sight at the end of it all. Damn...

Still, Eruption lived up to its potential and proved it wasn't all talk and no show in this series. It survived against some of the deadliest spinners in the series, scored four out of the arena flips in a row and managed to finish in second place! I'd say that's a good show overall. But it got even better next time...

Third Time Lucky As Eruption Claims The Title

Eruption returned for Series 10, appearing once again in the second episode (fitting since it was the runner-up last time).

For changes, the machine gained new black protective HDPE panels on either side of its wedge to absorb hits from spinners and also gained new flat red sideguards that were used in its final two battles during the Grand Final of the series. The anti-spinner pods seen in Series 9 were also used again. Interestingly, the side armour panels were unequally weighted. Presumably, I think this means one weighed more than the other, and it was meant to counter the clockwise nature of Carbide's bar spinner. Did it work? We'll find out...

The first round melee saw Eruption go up against Crackers n' Smash and Aftershock. During the battle, Aftershock damaged the Floor Flipper and this caused some confusion as the Aftershock and Crackers n' Smash teams thought Cease was going to be called due to the damage. But Cease wasn't called and Eruption, in what was considered to be a VERY dirty and underhanded move, took advantage of the confusion and flipped Aftershock out in one of the most dynamic OOTAs in the show's history. As you can see, Aftershock literally bounced off the wall with its spinning weapon, thus making it so it essentially hoisted itself out of the arena! If the weapon hadn't been spinning, I wonder if it would've stayed in. Eruption then proceeded to just show off for the rest of the fight as it...

...flipped out Crackers next...

...and then finished off by flipping out Smash. Talk about flexing. XD

With that impressive, yet slightly underhanded, victory, Eruption were through to the next round where they defeated Big Nipper. They ended up against Carbide in the Heat Final and...they lost. Disappointingly quickly no less. But there was still hope for them as Eruption was in the 10 Robot Rumble in order to determine who would claim the sixth spot in the Grand Final. They went up against Apollo, Iron-Aw 6, Thor, Expulsion, Sabretooth, Concussion, Track-tion, Terrorhurtz and Big Nipper and out of all those opponents, they emerged victorious. The secret to their success?

They spent some of the match just lurking in the corner watching everyone else fight and preserved their energy, thus allowing them to finish the stronger while everyone else was worn out. Sneaky and underhanded? Maybe. Clever and pragmatic? Definitely! It feels like at times, Michael Oates is the only smart roboteer in this show. XD

Eruption were back in the tournament and their first round saw them up against Rapid and Magnetar. Rapid ended up stuck on their own flipper after a failed attempt to self-right and Eruption looked as if it may conk out as its flipper was noticeably struggling to properly flip Magnetar, but then Magnetar was flipped by Matilda and it wasn't able to move due to its srimech being stuck open, so Eruption won (narrowly). The next round saw them up against Behemoth again and the fight could barely even be considered a fight. More like the "Eruption Juggling Act" as they tossed Behemoth around the arena like they were nothing. They won (no duh) on a Judge's Decision and found themselves against Carbide once again in the Grand Final. Remember those side armour panels that were unequally weighted and meant to counter Carbide's weapon? They DID work, for this time Carbide wasn't able to kill Eruption straight away and Eruption was able to take hit after hit and keep going. As the match dragged on, Carbide began to wane while Eruption looked very much in control. Time ran out and the judges were called to decide the victory. It was a tough decision, but in the end...

...the trophy was given to Eruption. They'd finally managed to win a series of Robot Wars after so much trial and error. They were worthy winners and sadly, the last winners of the reboot as it was cancelled after Series 10 concluded. Still, at least they managed to end the series as the Champion, much like how Typhoon 2 ended the classic era as the Champion.

Eruption would conclude the series as the captain of Team UK in the second World Series Special. Carbide was originally going to have the role, but their defeat to Eruption had them decide to pass the role to them instead. Eruption took part in the first battle against Weber and The Bash with Big Nipper as its partner and won the battle easily. Then they took on Cathadh in the last battle of the entire reboot and dominated the match, taking the win on a Judge's Decision. Talk about ending on a high note, eh? Winning the last series of Robot Wars AND winning the last special on Robot Wars? Double win for the win!

But Eruption's competitive years are far, far, FAR from over. The machine still competes in live events to this day, and I actually got to see the famous machine in two of those events, both in Grantham in 2019 and 2024 respectively. So much like Apollo, Behemoth and others, I got to see this machine for real. Needless to say, it was quite an experience!

Now to conclude this essay with the closest thing we now have to a new series of Robot Wars...

Mech Mania

Eruption participated in the 2024 Mech Mania tour that was filmed in events held in the English counties of Grantham, Crawley and Stoke-on-Trent and the Welsh town of Llandudno. The series was filmed and aired on the Robot Wars streaming service, Mech+ and can only be seen there, so you better have a subscription or else you won't be able to see it. Interestingly, Eruption not only appeared, but Michael Oates also entered a second machine in the tournament.

This is Implosion, which essentially looks like Eruption, but as an axe-bot instead of a flipper bot. It was surprisingly good no less and won a lot of its matches rather easily.

Eruption and Implosion would win their events and qualify for the Grand Final in Wales, but Michael was only allowed to enter with one machine, so he took Eruption in the end despite favouring Implosion's performance. Eruption looked as if it was the favourite to win the first ever series of Mech Mania. But you know how Eruption is often criticized for dirty under-handed tactics? Well, they got a taste of their own medicine for they ended up being ganged up on by Meggamouse, Immersion and Leviathan. They managed to make it to the end of the battle, but due to being ganged up on for most of the match, they were eliminated on a Judge's Decision and took a surprisingly early exit in Mech Mania's Grand Final. Let me tell you, I was NOT expecting this when I watched the episode! Still, I can't fault the others for ganging up on Eruption. If they had any chance to win this series at all, then they had to do it or else Eruption would've just dominated them all. Also, not so fun when the opponent also plays dirty, eh Eruption?

As is, Eruption's days in the ring are far from over and I'm sure if Mech Mania gets another series, they'll be back for more...

Overall

And that's the story of Eruption and its career on Robot Wars. Needless to say, they had a lot of highs and some big lows, but mostly highs. They started off looking decent, but nothing special at first and then ended the series as one of the most fearsome names in the arena alongside Apollo and Carbide. The machine is reliable at what it does and is one of the best flippers competing in robot combat today. While their tactics might gain some criticism due to seeming underhanded at times, I more see it as pragmatism and being smart than anything else, hence I don't fault them like many others might. Eruption is an example of how a good machine, good driving and clever tactics can take you far and in Eruption's case, it got very far indeed. No wonder it's such a high performer and has so many wins under its belt. Who knows how many more wins it'll get in the future...

And that's it for this essay. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to leave a comment down below. Which Eruption fight is your favourite and what's your favourite Eruption win? Do tell me.

Next time, I'll be collaborating with Jacob Coad on a special post for World Puppetry Day. See you then media fans!