Media Essays: The Career of Firestorm

In Robot Wars, you have a variety of machines that have a variety of performances throughout the show. Some robots perform well and some perform poorly. And then you have some that can be considered reliable. Some of these machines are robots in where they don't necessarily win anything major, yet anytime they're on the show, they always perform well and get a lot of wins. One of those machines is the subject of today's essay. That machine...is Firestorm.

One of the most iconic machines to ever appear on the show, Firestorm is instantly recognizable for its yellow and red colour scheme, dotty deco and, rather uniquely, its forward hinged flipper.

While not the first and not the only of its kind to use such a weapon, it is one of the most famous examples of a forward hinged flipper and probably the most successful robot that uses it. Most flippers flip upwards and send machines into the air, but Firestorm's flipper opens outwards instead and more pushes robots over than flips them sky-high.

Firestorm has had a very successful career in Robot Wars with 33 wins against 11 losses, has finished third three times over the course of the series, was a runner-up in the Extreme II All-Stars Tournament and won the Commonwealth Carnage tournament in Extreme II. The machine has also appeared in Robot Wars merchandise, getting both a pullback toy and a die-cast minibot (the latter of which is extremely rare and hard to find) made and it went on to appear in all three Robot Wars video-games as a playable machine. So yeah, this is a pretty famous machine, and highly successful too in spite of it only winning one major tournament in its career.

And we're here to cover that today. What are Firestorm's most famous victories? What made it such a memorable machine and which series was its best performance? Let's get into it...

Debuting With A VERY Different Machine!

Before we cover Firestorm, let us start at the very, VERY beginning with Team Firestorm's first machine they entered Robot Wars with. Yes, believe it or not, they didn't always enter with Firestorm. In Series 2, they debuted on the show with...this thing. Yes, I'm as weirded out as you are at the sight of it. XD It was called Groundhog and was a VERY different beast compared to the famous fire-themed machine we all know and love. Looking at this, you wouldn't ever have thought this was made by the team that gave us Firestorm, would you?

Anyway, Groundhog was a basic box-shaped robot with a yawning ground clearance due to its wheels being placed on the end of four-protruding legs which could raise the body up and down. Considering Series 2's trials, having adjustable ground clearance is actually a good idea. The Gauntlet especially made it easy to get stuck on certain obstacles, so this was probably the team's way of overcoming that. The legs could actually turn a full 360 degrees, so the machine was essentially invertible. Each wheel was powered by a cordless drill motor and driven by a gearbox from an angle grinder. The rear wheels were unique "omniwheels", that is to say they were tyres embedded with rubber rollers that allowed the machine to skid sideways. Interestingly enough, this type of wheel would go on to be used by Razer, and in the reboot were used by Sweeny Todd. It was armed with a 12 inch horizontal cutting disc that was powered by a cordless lawnmower motor. It cost about £450 to build in total and took about 6 weeks to make. Its chassis was made from MIG welded 1 inch box section steel and was armoured in 2mm stainless steel plate. It was also powered by three 12 volt batteries and driven by four Elu motors.

Groundhog's time on Series 2 was fairly unremarkable, despite it getting to the battle stage. It covered a measly 4.4m in the Gauntlet after getting stuck on the ramp, but it did manage to get one up on the House Robots when Sir Killalot picked it up and toppled over due to overbalancing. This moment is the only time Sir Killalot's really been toppled over by a competitor, although it hardly counts as it overbalanced rather than being "flipped" per say.

Despite this, Rampage did worse than Groundhog, so they narrowly made it through to the Football trial, where they attached a net harness to try and control the ball and score goals. They struggled during the Football and ended up immobilized, but Sting was deemed immobile first, so they once again made it through by the skin of their teeth. Their luck ran out in the Semi Finals when Loco defeated them.

The fight did give us one of the coolest camera angles ever shot in the series. Talk about taking advantage of what you've got there. No other machine could've provided us an image like this, eh?

Groundhog's time wasn't very good in the end and the machine wouldn't return for any future seasons. That was when Firestorm came in...

Firestorm Burns Bright In Fiery Debut

The team returned in Series 3 with their brand new machine, Firestorm. As you can see, quite the drastic departure from Groundhog, isn't it?

Now sporting its familiar iconic wedge shape, red and yellow colours and front-hinged flipper, this incarnation of Firestorm set the stage for all future Firestorms. It weighed 67.9kg and was made of hardened aluminium. It housed two separate motors, one from a lawnmower and one from a cordless drill, and both of them ran at 36V. It wan on two Go-Kart tyres and a third undisclosed battery was also used. For weapons, it now had the front-hinged flipper that all future machines would use, albeit this one was different to the more familiar design that Firestorm was known for using due to being T-shaped. It also had a retracting spear similar to what Cassius 2 had at the rear of the machine. It also had a pair of conveyer belts that were meant to make it easier for them to drag machines up the wedge so they could flip opponents over. Making the machine took 6 months to design, and that was just on a computer, and ironically enough, it was designed to work well in the Gauntlet. Too bad this series dropped the Gauntlet entirely, so talk about doing all that work for nothing. Ah well, the design didn't go to waste as you'll see in this series.

Firestorm qualified for Series 3 by attending live auditions and running an obstacle course. This was the only time they ever had to qualify for a series for all future series saw them gain automatic entry as a seeded machine.

They debuted in Heat O of Series 3 and had a ridiculously easy win against Crasha Gnasha in Round 1. How easy was it? They literally barged Crasha Gnasha into a wall and it fell over. Yes, really! They didn't even use their weapon, they just slammed them into a wall and they fell over! Either that says Firestorm's really strong or Crasha Gnasha is a piece of junk. XD The second round was more of a challenge for Firestorm as they faced off against Facet. Facet proved to be tough to get under and they flipped Firestorm over a few times, one of the VERY few machines to successfully flip the red and yellow robot throughout its career. Firestorm recovered thanks to its own flipper and was able to win by stranding Facet on its side. The Heat Final saw it win very easily against Diotoir as the Irish machine became immobilized due to its batteries disconnecting, and so Firestorm were semi-finalists for the first time. Get used to this, for Firestorm NEVER fails to reach a semi-final from this point onwards!

The semi-finals saw it up against Pitbull. Pitbull was surprisingly able to grab hold of them a few times with its jaws, but Firestorm was able to win when Pitbull got flipped by the arena spike (ironic considering Pitbull beat Behemoth that way). Then the second semi-final round saw it up against the then reigning champions, Panic Attack. I can't imagine what Team Firestorm must've been feeling at the time. Imagine going into this and then you get the news that your next opponent is the Champion? That's enough to make anyone nervous, I'll bet! Still, Firestorm dominated the match and won on a Judge's Decision. What followed from there was a very one-sided rivalry which saw Panic Attack lose over and over and over again to Firestorm. Still, the fiery bot was in the Grand Final. Looks like things were going well for them and they clearly had a chance to go all the way and...

Oh right, that happened.

If you've read my Chaos 2 essay, then you knew this was coming. Firestorm were swiftly flipped over and then, much to Jonathan Pearce's hysterical amusement, Chaos 2 drove them towards the wall and flipped them over it in a rather clumsy looking manner. This gives Firestorm the VERY humiliating distinction of being the first EVER machine in the show's history to get flipped out of the arena. I know I'd be pretty embarrassed to be known as "the first bot that ever got flipped out". Ironically though, Firestorm would achieve this feat in later battles and even succeed Chaos 2's record by one point (tying with Eruption with 7 Out of the Arena flips while Chaos 2 has 6), but more on that later.

Firestorm was out of the finals and they were meant to have a third-place playoff against Steg-O-Saw-Us, but they couldn't repair the damage done to them by Hypno-Disc. Firestorm was going to be given the Third Place ranking by default, but the two teams agreed to share the position, so Firestorm and Steg-O-Saw-Us both finished third in the end. This will NOT be the last time Firestorm finishes third in the series...

Firestorm's Blazes To The Semi-Finals, But Gets Extinguished Before It Can Go Further...

Firestorm returned in Series 4, seeded 5th and now named Firestorm 2. This version stands out amongst all the other incarnations of the machine due to its inversed colour scheme and the dots being squares instead. Honestly, I really think it looks cool with he yellow behind and the red at the front and I wouldn't have minded if they stuck with this. As is, this was the ONLY time in the show's history where Firestorm bore this colour scheme.

Firestorm 2 was updated over three months to become the machine you see above. Said updates included bumping its weight up an extra 12kgs, a 3mm aluminium shell and the conveyer belts and lifting bar were replaced with a full front-hinged panel flipper. This flipper design would stay with Firestorm for the rest of its career. It was said to be capable of a higher flip output than even Chaos 2 itself. The flipper was powered by CO2 gas from a fire extinguisher and the machine would also use a jumping cylinder to push the robot's front wedge off the floor when attempting a flip. All future Firestorm machines would use the same mechanism. It cost £2,000 to build overall. The machine arrived at the Fourth Wars, unfortunately overweight, so its larger batteries had to be swapped for smaller ones and its metal castor wheels had to be replaced with plastic ones. For the Heat Final, the team put the larger batteries back in place of the jumping cylinder as the cylinder wasn't have much effect and they needed more power.

Firestorm 2 appeared in Heat C of the Fourth Wars and made its way to the Heat Final after dominating their melee against Scar and The Morgue and winning a Judge's Decision against Bolt from the Blue, the latter battle being considered one of the most boring battles in the history of the show. It really is a chore to watch as it's just Firestorm constantly trying and failing to get under Bolt from the Blue the whole time while Bolt can't do anything. What's really funny though is that apparently, James Proctor is still bitter about losing that Judge's Decision, so much so that in 2017, his wife actually baked him a cake with his machine and the words #StillBitter on it! No, I am NOT making this up! Look, here it is!

I swear that guy's wife has a warped sense of humour. XD I wonder if that cake tasted salty or bitter just to further rub it in...

The Heat Final saw it up against The Morgue and after dominating the fight, they pushed The Morgue onto the pit, but the Welsh machine didn't go in, and Firestorm would accidentally drive themselves into the pit, which made it seem as if they'd lost the fight. However, the judges ruled that The Morgue was technically pitted first since it was over the pit and couldn't get away, so Firestorm 2 were given the win on a technicality. How funny would it be if anyone on The Morgue team was given a cake that said #StillBitter after this fight? Still, this was probably the most controversial semi-final placement in the series with Firestorm 2 getting there on two controversial judge's decisions. Not exactly a stellar performance...

The fiery machine was in the semi-finals once more, but they didn't get any further after they lost a VERY close and controversial judge's decision to Dominator II. This fight is notorious for being one of the closest fights ever filmed and it's still debatable even to this day who really won the fight. Dominator II literally won by one point, it was THAT close! And yet, Firestorm 2 could've won in the end. How so? I'll let the team explain it:

"At the end of the match, we managed to get them up against the side of the arena and they were immobilised. Time-out was called and it went to a judges' decision. The judges went for Dominator 2, slightly disappointed, lost it on damage by one point. Even more disappointed in the pits when we found that one of their batteries had destroyed itself just at the whistle. If the match had lasted only a couple seconds longer, we would have won. Never mind, there's always next time."

— The Firestorm website

Yeah, how much does that suck? They could've won if only the battle had continued...

This marks Firestorm's worst performance in its career and the only time it ever lost in the first round of the semi-finals. It had mixed successes in the side tournaments, finishing with 135 points in the Pinball Tournament (although apparently, they should've been given more points because they hit Matilda's target and for some reason, the broadcast version didn't count this), finishing second-to-last in the Sumo Basho tournament and finishing as a runner-up in the Tag Team Terror tournament after they broke down against King B3 and 101. This was a really weird moment in Firestorm's career, for the machine very rarely ever loses a fight by breaking down. The only other time it would lose in such a way was against Hypno-Disc in Series 5, but more on that later. Also, their Tag Team partner was Scorpion. I cannot begin to imagine how humiliating it is to be in this tournament and have a piece of crap like Scorpion as your partner. No wonder Firestorm 2 lost!

And so that was Firestorm 2's career. Third time would prove to be the charm in the next series...

Firestorm Burns To The Extreme

The team returned in Extreme with another upgraded machine and the colours reversed back to the original machine's colour scheme. The colours would remain this way for the rest of its career.

This version of the machine, named Firestorm 3, weighed 100kgs and the team were able to add more armour to the robot as a result of the weight increase. A new chassis was constructed for the wedge, which resulted in slight dimensional increases across the board and two more batteries were added. The transmitter was noted to be unreliable however. Firestorm 3 was able to move at a top speed of 12mph thanks to the motors being replaced in order to improve the robot's speed.

In some of their battles, the team clad the machine in Diotoir's fur as you can see here. Funny enough, one of their Extreme battles was a Vengeance match against Diotoir, which they won (obviously). Said Vengeance was made because Dr. Zulu, the captain of the Diotoir team, made an insulting comment about the Firestorm team and if they won the battle, Zulu would have to write an apology in a future issue of the Robots Wars Magazine. Firestorm won, but the magazine was cancelled before Zulu could write his apology. Whoops. XD There was also a moment where Zulu "sabotaged" Firestorm 3 before the Vengeance match, but that moment was fake and staged. No actual vandalism was committed. I guess they did it because they thought it made for good TV?

Anyhow, Firestorm 3 also competed in the All-Stars Tournament which saw them defeat Panic Attack and Wild Thing but lose to Razer in the Semi-Finals and they also competed in the Second World Championships, but lost in the first round to DrillZilla on a Judge's Decision. They may not have had a lot of fights in Extreme, but I'd say winning three fights out of five was a pretty decent record by the end. Some machines are lucky if they won even that many in Extreme.

As is, Firestorm would burn even brighter in the next series...

Firestorm Blazes Its Way To Third Place Again

Firestorm 3 returned for Series 5, seeded 7th and appearing in Heat D. Its first round was against newcomer Bee-capitator, and it almost ended disastrously for the machine. How so? It actually lost mobility in the arena gate and had to be rewired. The team explains as so:

"A new robot this one. Well constructed, although the team didn't have much experience. We did have a few problems though. The rebuild of FireStorm had resulted in a rewire and replug. This time round we decided to have the ability to charge the batteries with the lid on. This meant having some connectors beneath the arm. Before the filming we had tested the electronics, and the pneumatics - no problems. Unfortunately, we had not tested both together. So back to the filming. In the bullpen before the fight, we activated the electronics, checked that everything was working, and then activated the pneumatics. Problem, the arm came down and broke the contact. FireStorm was dead in the water. We had to come out of the bullpen and do a quick rewire before we could continue. Once that was done, it looked like we didn't have any problems."

— The Firestorm website

Talk about a close call, eh? Imagine the humiliation of losing to Bee-capitator because your machine wasn't working...

Once that problem was fixed, Firestorm 3 dominated their first round match, but got a bit careless and ended up with their flipper broken by Matilda's flywheel. Not that it mattered as they still won anyway. Round 2 saw them face off against Sir Chromalot, which saw them win in what was one of the quickest immobilizations ever filmed. It literally took them just five seconds to get under Sir Chromalot and flip it over, simple as that. The Heat Final saw them up against Reactor II, which was no doubt a surprise for many as most viewers would've expected Gemini to make it to the final. Reactor II was a tricky bot to handle since it just rolled back onto its wheels when it was flipped, but Firestorm 3 still put up a dominant performance that eventually saw them flip Reactor II out of the arena. Amusingly, it was flipped out of the arena in the House Robot entrance section, making this one of the very rare occasions where a robot was flipped out of arena into the entrance gates.

Firestorm made the semi-finals once again, but it looked as if it wouldn't get much further as their first round saw them up against Hypno-Disc. In what was a VERY unusual moment in Firestorm's career, it was knocked out in a single blow from Hypno-Disc's disc and that was it, game over. It was SO unlike Firestorm to die so easily, so who knows what happened there? Luckily for Firestorm 3, they had a Loser's Melee to get through and they were able to win after Wheely Big Cheese was immobilized and Panic Attack struggled to get involved due to technical issues, and so they weren't able to beat Firestorm on a Judge's Decision. Firestorm 3 was back in the Semi-Finals and they clinched another Grand Final position after winning a Judge's Decision against Pussycat. Unfortunately, their Grand Final match-up pit them against Razer, who beat them in Extreme. Unlike their first fight, this match was a lot closer and more action-packed, complete with two near misses by the pit. In the end, Razer won on a Judge's Decision and Firestorm was up against Hypno-Disc in the Third Place playoff.

This time, they DIDN'T die in a single hit, but the damage done to them throughout the series saw them face Hypno-Disc with a very battered looking machine and no weapon. As is, Firestorm 3 held their own and in a very wacky moment, they drove Hypno-Disc and themselves down into the pit! Talk about kamikaze! The judges called for a rematch, but the impact of Hypno-Disc slamming into the pit caused it to break down, so a rematch wasn't doable and Firestorm 3 were granted the win by default, giving them their second Third Place win in their career. Overall, Firestorm 3 had a relatively solid run in Series 5. But I think many will agree that Series 6 was when it really shone...

Firestorm's Best Run Yet

Firestorm returned for Series 6 with Firestorm 4, seeded third due to finishing third last time. The machine was completely rebuilt over four weeks, using a new 5mm T6 aluminium body shell and featuring a slightly more powerful flipper which, according to Robot Wars: The Official Magazine, fired at a pressure of 120psi and could lift up to 170kgs. It was also finished on the day before filming, much like its predecessor. This team likes cutting it close, doesn't it? Firestorm 4 was also the first to make it a thing where it would rear up onto its back to assist with out of the arena flips. This functionality WAS available for all the earlier Firestorm machines, but it was this one where they really started to do that. Come Extreme 2, a large steel strip was added to the tip at Firestorm's wedge so it could withstand more damage and minimise the wear the machine's front would receive over the course of each series, so it could potentially get under other robots more easily than before.

Firestorm 4 had one of its most dominant campaigns of the team's career, easily winning its melee against Cedric Slammer, Mega Hurts and Colossus despite accidentally driving into the pit at the end (seriously, this machine really does have a habit of driving into the pit at times, what's with that?). Colossus and Cedric Slammer were immobilized first, so Firestorm went through anyway. They won their second round against Barbaric Response and even flipped the Refbot over at one point in the fight. I might be wrong, but I think Firestorm 4 was the first machine to ever flip over Refbot in the show. This saw Firestorm 4 in the Heat Final where they exterminated X-Terminator and qualified for yet another semi-final. They went up against 13th Black and won with no difficulty and they made it to the Grand Final after they flipped S3 against a wall in such a way that S3 over-balanced and tumbled out. It's one of the wackiest OOTAs in the show's history, let me tell you. As I say, Series 6 was unquestionably Firestorm's most dominant run yet, never really struggling against any of its opponents and easily making it to the Grand Final

Unfortunately, their luck ran out when they went up against a big powerful boxy robot with a wedge that's called Tornado and got pitted despite their best efforts to try and beat them. But it wasn't the end for Firestorm 4 as they ended up battling Terrorhurtz in the Third Place playoff and, yet again, finished in Third Place after Terrorhurtz conked out. It was quite funny to watch since Terrorhurtz couldn't move, but its axe was still working, so all it could do was just swing its axe in a vain attempt to look alive. XD Still, Firestorm really did shine in this series with its best run yet and another Third Place victory. But its finest hour was still to come when Extreme II came.

It competed in the All-Stars Tournament and finished as a runner-up when they were defeated by Razer (again). But they also competed in the Commonwealth Carnage, a tournament that saw robots representing different countries that were part of the Commonwealth battling each other. This tournament was practically gift wrapped for Firestorm as they defeated all their opponents with no problem at all, even scoring yet another victory against Panic Attack. But the most notable moment of the tournament was when THIS happened:

Yeah. That actually happened! If you want to see it for real, check out this video below:

Skip to 23:25 to see the moment Firestorm flips Mr. Psycho.

This moment has given Firestorm the distinct honour of being the first and ONLY contestant robot to ever flip Mr. Psycho over. It's still pretty amazing how they pulled it off! Anyway, the Commonwealth Carnage also serves as the only time Firestorm ever successfully won a tournament, and that's pretty much because it was gift-wrapped for them. Let's be realistic here, who else was going to win this tournament out of all the contestants we got? Terror Turtle? =P

With a Third Place win and a tournament victory, Firestorm 4 had the most successful run of all the Firestorm machines so far. Did the next one top its record? Let's talk about it...

Firestorm's Fifth Time In The Arena

Firestorm returned for the last time in Series 7, now named Firestorm 5 and seeded second for the series (due to Razer not returning), the highest seeding Firestorm ever earned in its career. For this machine, the pneumatics were once again revamped to allow the flipper to fire even faster than before. The steel strip they added in Series 6 was also kept on at all times for this machine. The only surviving component from the original Firestorm was the framework surrounding its differential drive system. Firestorm 5 was also lighter than its last two counterparts, weighing only 94kgs instead of 100.

Firestorm 5, much like its predecessor, once again had a dominant performance where it breezed through the heat without anyone posing any real threat to it. Not even Ripper could hold its own against Firestorm and were promptly flipped out in the end. The semi-finals saw Firestorm up against Mute, another front-hinged flipper, but Firestorm showed them why it was the best by getting under them and flipping them over. Mute's flipper was too powerful, so it couldn't self-right properly and kept somersaulting onto its back again. Firestorm got Mute near the wall and they didn't dare self-right in case they flipped themselves out, so Firestorm went in and flipped them out anyway. However, they didn't reach the Grand Final this time when Storm 2 pitted them. Funny enough, Storm 2 would then go on to defeat Tornado, the bot that beat Firestorm in the previous series. And thus Firestorm's last series saw them crashing out in the second round of the semi-finals. It may not be as great as their performance in Series 6, but going out in the second round of the semi-finals after a dominant performance is nothing to sneeze at.

The machine returned one last time in the All-Stars Tournament in where they battled Panic Attack, Bigger Brother and Kat 3...whoops, I meant they battled the House Robots alongside Panic Attack, Bigger Brother and Kat 3 instead! They started the battle by flipping over Shunt and joined in with beating up Cassius Chrome. But then they ended up driving into the pit after deflecting off of Refbot, thus bringing their All-Stars run to a surprisingly early end. This match also marks the only time in where Panic Attack won a fight against Firestorm, even though they had nothing to do with Firestorm's demise. It also seems funny their career should end this way since Firestorm had a habit of driving into the pit a lot. XD

And that was it, that was the end of Firestorm's career. When the show was rebooted in 2016, Graham Bone was actually contacted by Mentorn to appear on the show, but he had to decline as he wouldn't have had time to get Firestorm upgraded, and so the machine never got a chance to return, not helped by the reboot being so short lived too (And yes, I'm #StillBitter about THAT! I hope nobody's planning to bake me a cake about it!) The closest we ever got was Alex Mordue, one of the team members of Team Firestorm, making a cameo in the audience during one episode of Series 10. I was pretty surprised to learn that when I was doing my research for this essay!

So where is Firestorm nowadays? In retirement, that's where. The robot has mostly been a display piece from time-to-time and hasn't been in combat much since the show's cancellation. The team did appear in the Techno Games series where they entered with a white and blue version of their machine called Snowstorm (cute) and did appear at live events before Series 7 was filmed. But nowadays, it's only really for display. One of the team members, Alex Mordue, released a set of files so that roboteers could build an antweight version of Firestorm, which was nice of him. He's also returned to combat by building a beetleweight robot called Saw Loser. Graham Bone and fellow team member Hazel Heslop (now going by the name Hazel Bone) also got married after the show was cancelled and are still married to this day and also have a son. I wonder if they brought Firestorm to their wedding...

As is, Firestorm's fire has burnt out and they're living a comfortable life in retirement. But who knows if that fire will ever flicker again...

And that's the story of Firestorm. What a career they've had, am I right? Finishing third three times, finishing second in the Extreme II All-Stars and Fourth Wars Tag Team Tournaments and also winning the Commonwealth Carnage Tournament, those are some big achievements. It's pretty surprising how Firestorm didn't win that many tournaments, yet still has a pretty impressive win rate when all is said and done. I guess the takeaway from this is that you can still achieve a lot of wins, even if you don't win the overall tournament. And with how many battles Firestorm's won over the years? They have a record they can be proud of. All it did was perform well, score a lot of wins and the fans still love it to this day. It's a remarkable machine and one of the finest to ever appear on the show. A mighty fine robot indeed...

And that's it for the career of Firestorm. I hope you enjoyed it and found it a good read. Do share your comments down below, if you wish. Which Firestorm battle was your favourite? Do let me know.

Next week, I'll be reviewing my all-time favourite Transformers cartoon. See you then media fans!