Media Essays: The Career Of Panic Attack

Robot Wars has spawned many legends throughout its history. I've already covered four of them in this little series of mine including Behemoth, Hypno-Disc, Razer and Chaos 2. So it's time we cover another legend in the Robot Wars community. A crowd favourite, a fan-favourite and a robot that is always known to deliver a solid, reliable performance in battle, this machine is known to the Robot Wars fandom simply...as Panic Attack.

Built by Kim Davies and originating from Cardiff in Wales, Panic Attack is an instantly recognizable machine who has had quite a successful career in the early years of Robot Wars that sadly began to fizzle out near the end but it was still known to be a reliable competitor that was always going to perform well in the arena. Kim's driving skills especially helped in Panic Attack's history-defining career and he's cited as among the best drivers in the show's history.

Panic Attack has quite a few feats to its name that we'll cover in this essay and to this day, it's still a very beloved machine with many fans remembering Panic Attack fondly even years after its debut. It's also been featured in much of Robot Wars's merchandise too including a pullback toy, a die-cast minibot, a construction kit and has appeared in all the Robot Wars video-games currently made except for the GBA version of Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction. It even got to be a playing piece in the Robot Wars board game! So yeah, Panic Attack's definitely a popular bot. XD

So with such a reputation to its name, what did Panic Attack accomplish in its career? What were the highs and lows of its time on Robot Wars? What tournaments did it win and what were its biggest losses? Read along fellow readers for I'm going to tell you everything. This is the career of Panic Attack...

Winning On The First Try

Few bots can say they've had a first impression as big as Panic Attack's. And a big first impression it was!

In Series 2, Panic Attack appeared in its familiar yellow colour-scheme with the spider-mascot on top and the fearsome eyes on the front but it looked considerably boxier than its later models do, literally looking like a giant cuboid on wheels with a pair of lifting forks at the front. Kim Davies cited American competitor, BioHazard, as the main inspiration for Panic Attack's low profile appearance. For the Series 2 model, it was a four-wheel driven machine that was 20cm high and driven by 750W Bosch windscreen wiper motors with two 24 Amp batteries. This allowed Panic Attack to travel at 10mph, though the statistics board said it could only go at 9mph so whoops on that. The lifting forks were 12 inches in length and powered by a homemade system integrating two 12 C (90W) Parvalux motors. There were surprisingly strong too, being able to life a tonne and could also be used as ramming spikes. Only the Series 2 model used a homemade system for the forks. The later models used custom-made electronics.

The spider-mascot is an interesting one to talk about. You may remember how the Panic Attack team would have this big cartoon spider on their robot and team shirts but what's it all about? Very simple: team member Kevin Pritchard worked at a school and he held a competition in which the theme was to design something that made you panic. Fitting considering the machine's name. A 12 year old girl from Year 7 designed the spider and it was the winning entry. The spider would go on to be featured on all versions of the robot with changes made to its design over the years. Can you imagine being that girl and seeing your design being featured on a fighting robot? If that were me, I'd feel like I just won the lottery! XD Appropriately enough, the Panic Attack team called their mascot "Webster". Well what else were they gonna call it? =P

As for why they called it Panic Attack? It was inspired by the team's panicked state they were in when trying to get the robot ready in time. They panicked, so the name stuck for them. They were going to call it "Toxic Shock" but they felt the name might be inappropriate so they stuck with Panic Attack.

In Series 2, Panic Attack was the only sponsored machine competing in the series alongside Roadblock and Mortis with the money they raised increasing for each round they progressed through. They were raising money for charity at the time, said charity being St. David's Foundation, and considering they ended up winning the series, I imagine they raised quite a bit for them. Speaking of, let's talk about Panic Attack's legendary Champion winning run...

Panic Attack first appeared in Heat F of Series 2 and like all machines in the heat, it started off in the Gauntlet run where it achieved a distance of 10.8 metres, finishing third overall and allowing it to qualify. At one point, the went up the ramp but Sir Killalot was holding it down so they had to dive off the ramp...where they got stuck and Shunt pepper-potted them with their axe, even punching a hole in Webster the Spider's eye. I bet that girl who designed him winced at seeing that. X( I bet this is where Panic Attack's long-standing rivalry with Shunt started because from here on out, they'd go on to fight Shunt several times in later series and later in this very episode, they would beat Shunt in the Sumo match after the bulldozer House Robot drove off by accident. This put Panic Attack in the Heat Semi-Final where they fought Whirling Dervish and defeated them by tipping them over with their forks. They then had a go at Sgt. Bash afterwards, even causing big damage to the sergeant to the point his rear-mounted saw fell off and had to be replaced! The Heat Final was against Disruptor and after a bit of a tussle together, Panic Attack defeated them by pushing them down the pit, the first of many victories it would achieve this way.

Panic Attack was now in the semi-finals and it was quite a run for them. The first round saw them compete in the Gauntlet where they achieved a distance of 6.9 metres, which was good...but Mace also managed to achieve the same distance. Ergo, they had to have a "Race-Off" to break the tie with Panic Attack emerging victorious thanks to Mace falling into the pit. Panic Attack would then compete in the pinball round, finishing first with a whopping 320 points overall. That's quite a score, wouldn't you agree?

They were through to the semi-final rounds where they were against the infamous Mortis. Mortis looked to be the one to win the series but Panic Attack pitted them and were through to the Grand Final, making them the ONLY unseeded machine to make it there. Talk about starting strong, am I right? And they only continued to show their strength in the Grand Final where they fought and defeated Killertron after ramming into them so hard they tore free a tiny pin inside the machine that killed them stone dead. And they say you can't solve anything just by punching it very hard. XD

This put Panic Attack into the Grand Final where they were against the powerful Cassius and their great flipping arm. On paper, this sounds like an easy win for Cassius. But no, Panic Attack was able to get under Cassius and pit them, making them the Series 2 champions. Some people suspect Cassius "threw the fight" given they had opportunities to flip Panic Attack but never capitalized on it and Rex Garrod being the nice guy he is probably didn't want to win against a machine that was raising money for charity. I don't think Cassius threw the fight and Panic Attack won legitimately but it does make you wonder I'm sure. Still, they were victorious and no doubt the girl who designed Webster was screaming for joy getting to see the machine with her competition winning design painted on top emerge victorious above all others. She can pretty much brag for the rest of her life that "My artwork won a robot-fighting competition!" XD

This also makes Panic Attack the only Champion alongside Chaos 2 and Carbide to win their UK Championship title via knockout with their pitting of Thing 2. All other Champions won their title matches via judge's decisions.

Panic Attack's Reign Is Short-Lived

With the prize money he won for winning Series 2, Kim Davies wasted no time in making a new robot for Series 3. This machine would start evolving into the more familiar design of Panic Attack with a sloped front and larger, more effective forks that have the more iconic design that would be associated with Panic Attack from here on out. The new design was shorter than before, the forks were custom-made and imported from Sweden and were capable of lifting and pushing 81.6 kg , the frame was alloy, the bodyshell was 3mm thick and it also sported a new self-righting mechanism for in case they got flipped over. They also added plastic cones onto the side so Panic Attack wouldn't get stranded there. Curiously, the machine would be named "Panic Attack II" on the sides but it was never referred to as such so why they added that number was anyone's guess.

Unfortunately, Panic Attack had a big design flaw that made its battle capabilities challenging. Its balance point was too central, so it was very hard to control at times and get the machine in the direction they wanted it to go in. That didn't stop Panic Attack from getting pretty far, all things considered...

Panic Attack appeared in Heat K of Series 3 where they battled Axios in Round 1. Coincidentally, the team that built Axios had built Ron, which was in the same heat as Panic Attack in the last series but Ron and Panic Attack didn't battle each other. I wonder if Axios was hoping to pay them back for winning the Sumo while they lost? Revenge wasn't sweet in this case for Panic Attack defeated Axios by lifting it over and it couldn't get up. Panic Attack also ended up lifting Matilda over as well, just to show off I guess. Next they fought Toecutter, the robot whose weapon is great at slicing watermelons...and that's about it. No wonder Panic Attack beat it. XD They ended up facing newcomers, X-Terminator, in the Heat Final. The two gave a tough battle but Panic Attack ultimately won in the end when X-Terminator was flipped over and couldn't self-right again. Their lack of armour underneath didn't exactly help for it gave Panic Attack a lot of moments to get the forks under and lift them up.

Control issues aside, Panic Attack made the Semi-Finals where they battled Thing 2 in the first round. Their control issues gave them problems but in the end, Panic Attack rather cleverly used the arena spike to their advantage when the spike flicked Thing 2 up and caused it to land on the machine and then the spike flicked Panic Attack up, causing Thing 2 to topple over and they weren't able to move again after that. Whether Kim Davies planned that to happen or not, I don't know. Come the second round of the semi-finals, Panic Attack battled against Firestorm, the first of many, MANY times the two machines would fight each other in Panic Attack's career. Firestorm proved to be too much for the Welsh machine and in the end, Panic Attack was eliminated via a judge's decision, bringing the Series 2 Champion's reign to a close. A pity it was short-lived, but Panic Attack still performed well overall.

Same can't be said for The First World Championships though. They were in Round 1 representing Wales for the tournament and they battled 101, who represented England. Despite being the superior robot on paper, Panic Attack ended up losing the match when they accidentally drove into the pit. Considering Kim Davies's reputation of being a great driver, this feels especially ironic that he lost because of bad driving. Talk about a black mark on one's resume. XD

As mentioned in my Razer essay also, Panic Attack was meant to compete in a planned Tag Team Terror tournament with Razer as their partners. That would've been one hell of a strong team to watch in a Tag Team tournament, let me tell you! But the reason why it was cancelled requires its own essay so I won't talk about it here.

With their Championship crown lost and an embarrassing Round 1 defeat in the First World Championships, Panic Attack didn't have much to say about its Series 3 performance. Series 4 would be a little better at least...

A Great Performance But Still No Grand Final For Them

Panic Attack returned for Series 4 with another full rebuild that gave us the more familiar shape of the machine as we know it. It now had sloping sides with a set of side skirts added to make it harder for machines to get underneath them, forgoing the cuboid shape altogether. According to Kim Davies, the side skirts had springs pulling them down to the floor so there is always a downward pressure on them. They're also chamfered on the edge, making them a sharp edge to get under and only by driving under the rear and front of the robot was it possible to get under those skirts. Panic Attack's armour was upgraded to bulletproof fibreglass and the srimech on top was improved by taking the two long bars and connecting them with a polycarbonate panel. And most importantly, this Panic Attack model had a gyro added to the robot so it was rid of the control issues that plagued the previous model. Curiously, it was still labelled as "Panic Attack II" on the sides but they still refer to the machine without the number.

What's also interesting to note about this incarnation of Panic Attack is that one of the team members, Christian Bridge, actually got to join the team as a prize for winning a competition in the Robot Wars Magazine that was being published at the time. The image above is the page from the magazine that details everything. Needless to say, that kid is one lucky sod. I sure wish I could've won a competition and joined a roboteer's team as a prize! The PlayStation would've been a nice bonus too but that's neither here nor there. Christian himself even said:

"When I found out I had won the competition, I was over the moon. Panic Attack are my favourite team (Along with Diotoir!)." — Christian Bridge, interviewed in Robot Wars Magazine Issue 7

Christian would be on the team from Series 4 - Series 5, but he didn't appear onscreen in Series 5. Wherever he is now, I hope he's enjoying life and looks back on this moment of his life fondly. ^^

Panic Attack appeared in Heat O of Series 4 and was seeded fourth in recognition for its Series 2 Championship win. Its first Round melee was against Overkill GTI and S.M.I.D.S.Y., although I'd call it less of a melee and more of "Let's just gang up on Overkill for several minutes". Panic Attack spent most of the match just picking on Overkill while S.M.I.D.S.Y. joined in while occasionally ramming into Panic Attack. To no one's surprise, Overkill went out and Panic Attack and S.M.I.D.S.Y. went through. Interestingly, this fight and their melee in the Commonwealth Carnage battle in Extreme II are the ONLY battles Panic Attack has ever won on a judge's decision. They NEVER win a judge's decision in a one-on-one battle. And Wild Thing acts like they're the ones that always lose on a judge's decision. XD

Panic Attack would then face Saw Point in Round 2 and that robot' awkward shape and huge saw-blade wheels made for an unusual opponent for Panic Attack to face but they went through after grappling with them and carrying them around for a bit. Amusingly, they tried to push Killalot into the pit and failed, so they finished the fight by attacking Shunt. Again. XD The Heat Final saw them facing S.M.I.D.S.Y. once more and despite their opponent's best efforts, Panic Attack's superior driving, pushing power and weaponry saw them through when they pitted S.M.I.D.S.Y. and once again, they were semi-finalists for the third time in their career!

Panic Attack appeared in the second bracket of the semi-finals in which they faced the 10th seeds, Spawn of Scutter, in Round 1. The battle was no contest for Panic Attack, easily defeating Spawn by stranding them against the wall. Once again, they ended up attacking the House Robots with their attack on Sir Killalot even breaking a hydraulic cable in the side of its lance. Tellingly, the X-Terminator team would blame Panic Attack for their loss to Wild Thing, saying that them breaking Killalot's cable like that cost them the fight. Nevertheless, Panic Attack made it to Round 2 of the semi-finals where they faced the 30th seeds, Stinger. This seems like an easy match for Panic Attack but Stinger's awkward shape, invertible nature and aggressive attacking style meant Panic Attack couldn't do much to it and spent most of the battle lifting it up and carrying it around while Stinger flailed away. The judges would give the match to Stinger in the end, eliminating Panic Attack. To this day, this is one of the most controversial judge's decisions in the show's history with people even now still debating who really won the match.

It wasn't the end of Panic Attack's time on the show though. They also competed in the Sumo tournament where they got to have a rematch with Shunt. They beat Shunt in the Sumo in Series 2 and they were able to do it a second time when Shunt mistimed a charge and caused them both to fall off the arena together. As Shunt hit the tyres first, Panic Attack was given the win. I can only imagine how annoyed X-Terminator and Behemoth felt what with having lasted the whole minute in the ring against Shunt and then Panic Attack comes and gets him off the ring, thus invalidating their efforts and winning the whole thing. XD

Panic Attack would also compete in the War of Independence Tournament but they only made it to Round 2 where they lost to Mortis, no doubt giving catharsis to Mortis after they lost to them in Series 2. Interestingly, the fight was filmed twice and the final broadcasted version was actually a mix-up of both fights. The reason it was filmed twice was because the judges gave the match to Mortis but production wanted Panic Attack to win so they filmed it again and the judges still ended up saying Mortis won. Goes to show that you can't always get what you want producers. =P

So yeah, they made the second round of the semi-finals again and won the Sumo tournament. Not a bad run overall for Panic Attack.

Extreme Ups and Downs

Panic Attack returned once more for Extreme and Series 5. This Panic Attack had improved side skirts, lorry windscreen wiper motor power at up to 8mph and the srimech was updated to a movable flipper-like panel that the robot could used for either lifting or clamping purposes. Due to the weight increase from 80kg to 100 kg, Panic Attack weighed 17kgs more than last time. This version of Panic Attack was also Kim Davies's personal favourite version of the robot. In his opinion, it's the best version of Panic Attack thanks to its zero ground clearance and turning circle, durable polycarbonate added to the bulletproof fibreglass shell that made it virtually impenetrable and pneumatic power to the electric lifting forks that allowed Panic Attack to lift twice its own weight. Despite how well this Panic Attack performed, it did have issues with weaponry and the srimech in some of its battles. This version was also referred known as PA3 but was still referred to as Panic Attack.

Panic Attack's Extreme record saw it with a very hit-and-miss record with their first battle against Firestorm 3 in the All-Stars Tournament being yet another loss to Firestorm for them. This battle always annoyed me when watching because it's not only badly edited, but Panic Attack is unfairly eliminated in this battle. You see, the Refbot starts counting Panic Attack out even though Panic Attack isn't technically immobilized yet! It was stuck on top of Dead Metal's pincers and all Dead Metal had to do was shake Panic Attack off and they'd have been moving again but no, Refbot just counts it out without giving Panic Attack a chance to move! So yeah, this loss never felt right to me because of it. Firestorm 3 obviously would've won regardless but it would've been better if Panic Attack was eliminated more fairly is what I'm saying.

Anyhow, Panic Attack would later compete in the International Inferno as a UK representative fighting against Manta (USA), Flensburger Power (Germany) and MaxiMill (The Netherlands). To no one's surprise, Panic Attack won the round with ease, marking a win for the UK in this case. Next they competed in a Vengeance battle against X-Terminator where they won with ease thanks to X-Terminator screwing themselves over by sticking a large spike on the robot that only ended up impeding their ability to self-right with their axe when they were toppled over. They also won the Wild Card Warriors battle by dumping Axe-Awe in the pit and won their Mayhem against Diotoir and Shere Khan. This allowed them to qualify for the second Annihilator for Robot Wars Extreme where they battled against Steel Avenger, Fighting Torque, Disc-O-Inferno, Napalm and Spirit of Knightmare. It looked like their annihilator to win but after reaching Round 3, they took a lot of damage from Disc-O-Inferno and despite a Vengeance battle with Bigger Brother and Comengetorix being staged to give them more time to repair the robot, it still wasn't enough and Panic Attack were forced to withdraw so they ended up being the fourth robot to be eliminated in the annihilator overall.

Still, they had more wins than losses in their time on Extreme so I wouldn't say they did too badly here.

Another Heat Win But Not As High As Before

Panic Attack competed again in Series 5 where they were seeded 6th and they appeared in Heat J. Amusingly, every battle in this heat ended with the robot being pitted and Panic Attack was responsible for three of those cases, pitting Barber-Ous, Tiberius 2 and Kat 3 in each of its battles with Kim's skilful driving and use of Panic Attack's forks. I can only imagine how the pit-operator must've felt because he sure got his work cut out for him in this heat! XD Nevertheless, Panic Attack won its battles with relative ease. Even Barber-Ous's destructive weaponry didn't stop it and Panic Attack comfortably made another semi-final.

Unfortunately, they were up against the second seeds, Pussycat, and much like with Stinger, an invertible robot proves to be Panic Attack's biggest kryptonite. It also wasn't helped by the machine having intermittent issues throughout the battle where it would stop and go, stop and go, stop and go. With Pussycat's destructive blade and Panic Attack's issues, the judge's ended up giving Pussycat the win. Panic Attack was then placed in the loser's melee along with Wheely Big Cheese and Firestorm 3 where they lost to Firestorm 3 on a judge's decision. This would mark Panic Attack's lowest performing run on the show thus far. But sadly, they would perform worse and worse in their next two appearances...

Panic Attack Hits Rock Bottom

You knew this was coming Robot Wars fans. So unfortunately, it's time to talk about the worst version of Panic Attack yet...

Commonly nicknamed "Panic Attack Gold", this version of Panic Attack was a completely new design with a much flatter profile at only 9 inches tall, silver forks made from Dural plate and it was painted with gold vinyl because the team couldn't get yellow paint in time. They had to lose the srimech as it would've gone over the weight limit if they put one on. It had 2 Hawker Energy SBS 15 batteries and 3 4QD NCC-70-24 speed controllers, two used to drive and one used for the weapon. This Panic Attack was infamous for being less powerful, slow and not as easy to control as before and even Kim Davies would view it in an unfavourable light, stating:

"I am working for Robot Wars on the technical team and had to drive home from filming Series 6 on the Friday. The next day was spent working on the robot to get it ready (7 am Sat till midnight). I finally finished the robot on Sunday morning at 10am. As I had to be back at the studio at 12pm to carry on with filming Series 6, I never had a chance to test the robot so its first real test was in the arena!"— Kim Davies on the Panic Attack website.

And let's just say it didn't go well.

Seeded 8th for this series, Panic Attack did make it to the Heat Final in spite of its sluggish performance but they were ultimately hammered into submission by Terrorhurtz and were in quite a sorry state thanks to its axe, Matilda's flywheel and the Drop Zone dropping a washing machine on top of it. Embarrassingly, this gives Panic Attack the unfavourable distinction of being the only Grand Champion to be a victim of the Drop Zone. Not sure if I would want that on MY resume...

Name: Panic Attack

Achievements: Second Wars Champion

Notable facts: Only Champion in history to have a washing machine dropped on their head!

Due to the damage done to the machine, Panic Attack Gold was retired and the Series 5 machine came back for Extreme II where they fought in the Commonwealth Carnage. They won their melee alongside Crushtacean but were beaten by Firestorm 4 in Round 2 thanks to Refbot breaking their srimech. Geez House Robots, when will you stop screwing with Panic Attack in these fights? Is Firestorm paying you to do this or something?! =P This was Panic Attack's only battle in Extreme II, hence why I've covered it here and not given it its own segment.

Panic Attack's Worst Year And A Weak End To Its Career...

And now we conclude with Series 7, which was my introduction to Panic Attack along with many other robots. Yeah, NOT a good first impression of the robot, am I right? XD For Series 7, Kim Davies had joined the technical team of Robot Wars and couldn't enter the series as well because of it, so Panic Attack was entered by Kevin Pritchard instead. He was a member of the team in Series 2 so it's only fitting really. This Panic Attack had no srimech for it would've made the robot too heavy again and so they replaced it with a rubber-mounted anti-hammer cushioned top to withstand axe blows, the lifting forks were replaces with new steel forks and a hinged wedge was added to the rear of the robot. The spider mascot was also changed as a result of a competition on the Panic Attack website and it was also here when Webster was given its name. This machine loves its competitions, doesn't it? That's like what, THREE competitions it's had in relation to it?

Seeded 8th just like last time, Panic Attack appeared in Heat M of The Seventh Wars where they toppled over Spin Doctor and teamed up with Mega Morg to pit Edge Hog. But they got no further for they ended up losing to Tough As Nails on a judge's decision. Fancy going from being a Champion to being unable to get past Round 2 of your heat! Can any other machine have an even bigger fall from grace than that?

They returned for the All-Stars Tournament at the end of the series where they took part in a crazy first round melee against Kat 3, Bigger Brother and Firestorm 5 and just attacked the House Robots. It's a bonkers battle you need to see for yourself for how crazy it gets! They would qualify after Firestorm 5 and Bigger Brother drove into the pit, making this the ONLY time in their career they've won a battle against Firestorm. Sadly, they didn't get much further when Dantomkia flipped them out of the arena in Round 2. Bet you wish you had your srimech now, don't you Team Panic Attack? =P Amusingly, the machine was revealed to have "Hello Mum" written underneath. Not sure why it does, it's just there whatever it's there for. XD

And...that's the end of our story. That's it for Panic Attack's career in Robot Wars. They didn't appear in the reboot in any capacity and Kim Davies no longer owns the machine for he ended up selling it in 2022 due to having no time to maintain the robot, nowhere to store it and needing money to buy a new motorcycle. In 2021, he also sold his Series 2 and Sumo Basho trophies on eBay. Whoever won those, I envy them. XD Panic Attack was then sold to a North American event known as Norwalk Havoc Robot League (NHRL) and it now forms a part of their Bot Museum Collection alongside a number of retired modern BattleBots competitors. I wouldn't have minded buying that thing myself but it's not like I would've been able to afford it anyway. So for now, Panic Attack is living a life in retirement as a museum relic. And for that, we end our story on this robot's illustrious career...

Conclusion

Panic Attack started off strong and sadly petered out over time, though it was still able to perform reliably and win a lot of matches. It had a reliable design that allowed it to control matches and pit machines whenever it got a hold of them, so much so that it has one of the highest knockout ratios in Robot Wars history with 26 of its 28 victories being determined via knockout. Not bad for a robot who's only armed with a pair of lifting forks, isn't it? While it sadly wasn't able to repeat its strong debut and win another title, it can't be overstated on just how much of a legend Panic Attack is with its great success rate, iconic design and many achievements to its name. Panic Attack should be hailed as an example of how even if you peak early and can't replicate that success, as long as you can still perform reliably and still achieve great things with what you're capable of, then that's OK and you have skills that are still something to be proud of. It's a damn fine machine that deserves its reputation as a Robot Wars legend...

And that's it for this one. I hope you enjoyed reading about Panic Attack and I invite you to share your thoughts down below. Do you like this robot? Is there another robot you'd like me to talk about? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Next week we go back into the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! as I list my Top 10 Favourite Archetypes to come from the card game. See you then media fans!

Images courtesy of the Robot Wars Wiki