Media Essays: The Career of Wheely Big Cheese

It's been a while since I've done a Robot Wars essay, hasn't it?

Well it's time to rectify that. It's time to return to the world of Robot Wars with an essay about another popular and well-remembered contestant. At the same time, I found myself having this HUGE craving for cheese all of a sudden, so that gave me the perfect idea for today's blog post. Why not cover the robot that's based on a wedge of cheese? Yep, only in Robot Wars do these things exist am I right? XD

This essay will be covering the cheddar-themed flipperbot that is flipping marvelous in battle and memorable for its really big flips. That robot...is Wheely Big Cheese.

Originating from Somerset, England, Wheely Big Cheese is a fighting robot who appeared in Series 2, 3, 4 and 5 but not always under the same guise. Roger Plant and his team entered the show with two previous machines before making this one, which I'll also cover. Thier success rate is very hit-and-miss with the furthest they ever got in the series being the first round of the semi-finals at least twice and they don't have any real major wins aside from a Best Engineered Award from Series 2. Yet Wheely Big Cheese is one of the most beloved and memorable machines ever to appear in the show. It's recognizable and has also been a merchandise giant with appearance in video-games such as Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction and Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem (as The Big Cheese) and getting its own pullback toy and die-cast mini-bot. Why is that? Why is it so well-remembered? Well a summary of its career should hopefully tell you that.

I'll be covering Team Big Cheese's entire career from Series 2 to 5 and giving a summary of their post-Robot Wars lives and also hopefully providing a bit of fun for you all along the way. Also I'd like to give thanks to a friend of mine on Facebook who requested that I cover this particular machine. This one's for you.

So without further ado, let's get into this cheesy bot's career...

Kick-starting its career as The Mule

If you thought Pokémon evolutions were weird, wait till you see this one. Yeah, as you can see, Wheely Big Cheese didn't even start out as a cheese-themed robot at first, it started out as a horse-themed one! Wacky origins, am I right?! XD

This strange box-shaped robot has three "bucking legs" as weapons and a CO2-powered forklift that could lift up to 150kg. The "bucking legs" themselves were actually CO2-powered rams. It was powered by a 12v 25 ampere hour Hawker Energy Cyclon battery, supplied by sponsors Hawker Energy, and three Briggs and Stratton starter motors, which gave it 4 horsepower electric drive. The wheels and motors were from second-hand lawnmowers. Sponsors David Brown and Fairchild Semiconductor provided the gearboxes and power Mosfets respectively. The Mule had three 225 amp mosfet 4 quadrant motor controllers, designed and built by Roger Plant himself, and had full solid state remote control using fibre optic links between the electronics and speed controllers to minimise interference. The armour was 1mm aluminium. Curiously enough, the robot's weight was said to be 80.1 kgs in the show itself, which nearly put it over the Heavyweight limit at the time. However, the Big Cheese Robot Company website says The Mule weighs 79.4 kgs. So...which one is it? Is the show wrong or is the website wrong? I have no idea.

The robot used a unique split between red and green for its colour-scheme, with drawings of kicking mules to further emphasize its name. The artwork was supplied by AP Signs, Taunton. The robot had variable height suspension, which allowed it to lift the chassis up and down, so The Mule could travel at full speed over rough ground. Roger Plant spent four months building The Mule, at a cost of £400. It may seem affordable at first, but those costs would end up being the end of his career as you'll see later in the essay. Also the machine had the words "Buck off" written at the back. Talk about getting dangerously close to having an actual swear word on your robot, guys.

Roger Plant was the sole member of the team at the time of Series 2. The rest wouldn't come in until Series 3 next time.

The Mule started off Team Big Cheese's career quite strongly, managing to win the Gauntlet trial, holding its own against Dead Metal in the King of the Castle trial by lasting the full 30 seconds and then it defeated Demon in the heat semi-final before falling to Plunderbird 2 on a Judge's Decision. This loss granted the Plunderbird team its ONLY ever semi-final appearance in the entire series. As is, reaching the heat final on the first try was a pretty solid way for The Mule to kick things off (no pun intended) for Roger Plant. It got even better when you consider he won the Best Engineered Robot Award for that series so yeah, not bad for a first time on the show am I right? Of course, a robot like this wouldn't do much in later seasons so Roger Plant had to make some big changes going forward for his later tenure in the show...

The Big Cheese Makes A Big Impression

And thus here we are, the cheese theme comes to the robot and we start to see the shape of what was to come for Wheely Big Cheese.

Gone was the box-shaped robot with the kicking legs and in its place was this huge yellow wedge-shaped robot that emphasized the "cheese" part of its name. The Big Cheese's armour and chassis were made from Kevlar and RS285 resin with a monocoque construction. It was powered by 7 horse power 2-stroke STIHL disc cutter engine with hydraulic drive and variable swash plate pumps. Roger Plant designed a lot of the robot's electronics himself, including the hydraulic servos that controlled the pumps and the electronics for the receiver. The Big Cheese could also adjust its ground clearance between 0 and 100 mm at the rear. At the time of auditions, it weighed in at 83.8 kgs so it was about 4.4 kgs over the weight limit. Luckily at the time of filming, it was revised to weigh about 79.4 kgs...and yet the robot's audition weight was erroneously listed on the statistics board in the show. Whoops.

Its weapon was a large rear-hinged hydraulic lifting arm that was red in colour and had a triangular piece on top to help push the robot back on its wheels. The lifting arm was capable of lifting a Mini Cooper and it got to demonstrate its impressive strength in the show by even being able to lift up Sgt. Bash right off the floor! As the team stated:

"This can lift 500kg up to 1.2 metres above the ground. We tested it by lifting lorry engines and by lifting and turning over a Mini Metro that weighed 800kg. ... This robot can not only lift half a tonne - it can drive around with it as well!" — The Big Cheese Robot Company website

The interior of the machine featured guided missile and submarine components, as Roger Plant was a mini-submarine pilot. Plant described the robot as "quite fast, very manoeuvrable and very dangerous"...which is wrong because the robot only goes at 5 mph. Yeah Roger, that doesn't sound very fast to me. =P The engine and hydraulic system will run at any angle, including upside down, without loss of performance, which sounds pretty handy if you ask me. Overall, The Big Cheese cost about £3000 to make. Also rather humorously, there WAS meant to be another robot in Series 3 ALSO called "The Big Cheese" that was made by Liverdyne Robotics. Their machine didn't qualify in the end and production staff told Roger Plant to use the "Big Cheese" name as he needed a gimmick for TV. The other machine would go on to appear in Series 5 as VIPER01.

I also must ask, why did this and Wheely Big Cheese have that cat logo on their machines? I never got that and I can't find any explanation behind it. What does a cat have to do with their robots being themed after cheese? Wouldn't a mouse logo make more sense given mice are associated with cheese more so than cats? I dunno, if anyone knows why they used a cat in their logo, can you explain it to me because even now I'm confused about it.

For the team, Roger Plant was no longer alone he was joined by John McGugan and Paul Otten. John was a mainstay of the team while Paul was on the time for Series 3 and 4 only and would be replaced by Murray Wharf for Series 5 and Extreme.

The Big Cheese had a rather dominant heat until the end where they easily dispatched of Shrapnel and Anorakaphobia with their lifting arm carrying Shrapnel into the pit and clamping on Anorakaphobia to also pit it. But their dominant run came to a high-flying end when the almighty Chaos 2 fought them in the Heat Final. It was a tense back-and-forth battle with Chaos 2 getting some mighty flips on the cheddar bot but The Big Cheese was able to life them over at one point, forcing Chaos 2 to self-right for the first time in the entire heat. Chaos 2 was able to flip The Big Cheese onto its back and unfortunately, their lifting arm wasn't running at full throttle so it couldn't build up enough force to push themselves back on their wheels. Chaos 2 was declared the winner and The Big Cheese was toyed around with by the House Robots.

For Sgt. Bash, it didn't end well. He was in a proper sorry state when The Big Cheese was finished with him! Who knew a bot with a lifter could cause so much damage? This battle was also voted the Best Battle of Series 3.

It was a good run but The Big Cheese fell victim at the last hurdle just like The Mule before it. And as if to add insult to injury, they didn't win the Best Engineered Robot award, Chaos 2 did this time around. Really sticking it to the cheese aren't you Chaos 2? XD This makes The Big Cheese one of three robots to lost a battle AND an award to the same robot with Bigger Brother and The Creature being the other two having lost battles and awards to Razer and Gemini respectively.

After Series 3, Roger Plant was NOT pleased with the amount of damage the House Robots did to his machine. He said:

"I don't know about S4 with the Big Cheese as I do not agree with all the damage that the house robots are doing to the competitors' robots. The BC will take many hours of repair work to the case and I and the team do not have the time right now. I am in agreement with REX about withdrawing from the RW series. I gave Mentorn a damn good show with TBC and they still tried to wreck it. It will NOT be back against the house robots if they are going to do the same again. I am working on a 100% titanium robot for the next series which will be literally bullet proof. If I get time it will be ready for RW4 TTFN"

— Roger Plant

And thus come Series 4, he gave us his most successful and beloved machine of all time...

Wheely Big Cheese Makes A Wheely Big Impression

Wheely Big Cheese made its grand debut in Seres 4 Heat H seeded Number 15, the highest seed in Series 4 to not reach a semi-final or a Grand Final in the series. Sticking with the cheese theme, Wheely Big Cheese still resembles a large wedge of cheese but now sports an invertible design, large red wheels and very powerful, long flipper capable of tossing 800 kgs. It did so to a Mini Metro during testing, so that should tell you this thing's powerful! The Series 4 model alone was almost one-and-a-half metres long. It was built out of titanium, powered by golf cart motors and the flipper design allowed Wheely Big Cheese to use its weapon whilst inverted, sort of making it an early version of what would become St. Agro's famous double-sided flipper design in Series 6 and 7. The famous red wheels had 256 golf shoe studs on them, each one individually sharpened. There were ball-bearings in the front of the machine to help with mobility and because of how long the robot was, it needed more horsepower than most just to be able to steer it. It also had two 60mm aerials oon both sides so it would receive signal no matter which way up it was.

The primary reason this robot was created in the first place was so Roger Plant could get revenge on the House Robots for what happened to the Big Cheese. The design, length and width of the flipper were all designed this way just so it could get under Sir Killalot and flip him over. Geez, talk about taking your grudges to the extreme!

Heat H saw Wheely Big Cheese up against Wheelosaurus and Prizephita Mk II in the First Round Melee. It was a pretty chaotic melee in which Wheely Big Cheese kept trying to attack the House Robots while not paying much attention to the other robots and all three robots ended up in the pit by the end because of the House Robots. Oh and Wheely Big Cheese's desire to get revenge on Sir Killalot? Eh...it didn't work. They got under Sir Killalot, were in perfect position to flip them, and nothing happened. Nothing, zilch, nada. All that time spent designing a robot specifically meant to flip Sir Killalot, and it was all for nothing. I can't begin to imagine Roger Plant's disappointment over that. It's weird though, Wheely Big Cheese can flip 800 kgs and Sir Killalot doesn't weigh anywhere near that much so why couldn't it flip him over?

Anyhow, Wheely Big Cheese was pitted first, but they alongside Wheelosaurus were the ones who progressed for the judges ruled that Prizephita Mk II had been immobile the longest so they were eliminated instead. In Round 2, Wheely Big Cheese was up against Killertron. And it was this match where we truly got to see what that flipper can do:

This is basically what the fight was, just Wheely Big Cheese getting some big, almost elegant looking flips on Killertron. You could sum up this fight as the "Wheely Big Cheese Killertron juggling act". XD Wheely Big Cheese made it through, to nobody's surprise, but they almost had to pull out in the end after a pin in one of the gearboxes broke and it had to be replaced. Luckily, they fixed it in time and were able to face off against Suicidal Tendencies in the Heat Final.

It wasn't a great fight for the cheese with Suicidal Tendencies dominating the whole match thanks to their tracked design and lifting forks making it too hard for the cheddar bot to get under them and flip them and the end of the fight was basically the two dancing near the pit trying to get one of them in in the end. All of a sudden, I'm reminded of the times I'd do the same thing to beat my opponents in Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction. Suicidal Tendencies was the one to get Wheely Big Cheese in the pit which should've made them the winner. BUT...there was just one problem. At the end of their fight, the left-hand track had stopped moving so they could only move around in circles, thus technically meaning they were immobilized. They'd been like that for too long, so Wheely Big Cheese won on a technicality, putting them through to the semi-finals, although the conclusion of the match remains a controversial topic even to this day with fans debating how legitimate the decision was. I think it was fair. Suicidal Tendencies were immobilized for too long, therefore Wheely Big Cheese won, simple as that.

So good news, Wheely Big Cheese FINALLY won a heat and is in the semi-finals! Bad news, they ended up against Tornado in their eliminator round! So yeah, they probably wish the judge's didn't give them that heat win now. Still, the fight was a fast and furious contest with the cheese getting some mighty big flips on Tornado but Tornado's superior speed, pushing power and invertible design meant the flips didn't really mean a whole lot in the end and Tornado was able to do damage to Wheely Big Cheese's right wheel, buckling it as you can see in the picture above. The cheese kept on going until the end, bringing the fight to a judge's decision. In the end, Tornado was given the win, eliminating Wheely Big Cheese from the series. It was all gorgonzOVER for them but this wasn't the last we'd ever see of them...

An Extreme-ly Poor Performance

Wheely Big Cheese returned for Series 5 and Extreme with a new model created for the series. This version of the robot fixed some of the design flaws and weaknesses of the first version. This Wheely Big Cheese was stronger through use of thicker and more durable material grades, new construction techniques and better components. The pneumatic system was more powerful than before and dimension wise, it was 11cm shorter and 12cm narrower while being 2cm taller than the pervious model. The flipper had bottles holding CO2 at 70 bar pressure and 140 bar pressure rams. It was able to run at 10mph and was held together with 480 allen screws.

Did any of this mean a thing for Wheely Big Cheese's Extreme performance? NOPE! The ONLY match it managed to win was an All-Star battle against Diotoir because as if Diotoir was ever going to beat Wheely Big Cheese in a fight. In the Quarter Finals round, it lost to Chaos 2, making this the second time Team Big Cheese have lost to Team Chaos. It's such a lame fight too with Wheely Big Cheese acting like a crippled old man throughout the whole thing and Chaos 2 just effortlessly dominating it. What the hell happened there guys? How is it the The Big Cheese put up a better fight against Chaos 2 than Wheely Big Cheese did? It sucks and I'd love to see a fight between those two with Wheely Big Cheese working at full power to see who was truly stronger. Given how light Chaos 2 is, I doubt it would've stayed in the arena if the cheese got a flip in on them. XD

Next was the UK Mayhem where they fought Hypno-Disc and Ming 3. Yeah, that wasn't a favourable match-up. The cheese got grated by Hypno-Disc and was left tattered with a buckled wheel by the end. So much for it was going to be "Flip-No-Disc", eh Roger? And then they finished off their Extreme career with the Flipper Frenzy...

It didn't end well. Matilda mullered them with that flywheel of her's and that was it. I would've loved to have seen how high Wheely Big Cheese might've been able to flip Matilda if it had managed it.

So yeah, not a good showing for Wheely Big Cheese. Even Hypno-Disc had a better track record by comparison! But Series 5 would change all that...

The Cheese's Most Famous Flip

Once again, Wheely Big Cheese appeared in Heat H and was seeded tenth this time around. In the first round eliminator, they were up against Wolverine. No I'm not going to make an X-Men joke, that's too predictable. =P Wolverine started off strongly at first but then made the mistake of getting too close to the wall so Wheely Big Cheese flipped them over it and won the match.

And now the one you've all been waiting for. This is it, the moment that immortalized Wheely Big Cheese as a Robot Wars legend forever. In its Round 2 match against Axe-Awe...well, just watch. Photos can't do this moment justice, you need to see the actual clip for yourself.

...yeah. THAT really happened! Wheely Big Cheese ACTUALLY did that! Even to this day, no robot has managed to flip a robot that far through the air and out of the arena. How they did it, I'll never know...

Now let's see it again with a Goofy Holler added!

Ha, ha! Perfection! XD

After that, Wheely Big Cheese went on to have a Heat Final where unlike Series 4, THEY were the ones who dominated and they won fair and square against Crushtacen, no strings attached. As a joke, the crab-bot entered the arena with a cheese grater tied to its claw. Real cute guys. But Wheely Big Cheese were the ones who grated them in the end and they made it to the semi-finals where they fought Dominator II.

And they achieved another insane flip. This photo shows you Dominator II coming back down FROM THAT HEIGHT! Yes, they ACTUALLY flipped Dominator II THAT HIGH INTO THE AIR! That flipper power is insane, isn't it?! With a big flip like that, it looks like Wheely Big Cheese had an easy win on its hands and was going straight into the second round of the semi-finals...

Oh right, that happened. Dammit naff breakdowns, always ruining good fights!

Yeah, Wheely Big Cheese just randomly conked out after a strong performance and so Dominator II won the fight. It went up against Panic Attack and Firestorm 3 in the Loser's Melee for another chance to get back into the semi-finals...

...but it conked out again, the only robot to lose the melee via knock out while Panic Attack and Firestorm 3 made it to a Judge's Decision with Firestorm getting the winning vote.

And that's the end of our story my friends. Wheely Big Cheese never appeared on the show again after this and didn't even return for the short-lived reboot. Why is that? MONEY. Roger Plant just could not afford to keep going in this sport with repairs and maintenance of his machines being too expensive and so he just couldn't keep it up anymore. He had expressed his disillusion with the show prior to this by saying:

"I was spending £5K + each year of my own money and they paid out nothing in return, they just smashed up our robots. It was a no win situation." — Roger Plant

He felt the show's producers over-prioritized smashing things up over the sport of robot combat and he hated the way the show handled money. Roboteers would make minimal proceeds from merchandising, the excessive damage caused to competitor robots and the show did not give rebates to high-level roboteers to allow them to keep building. I'm with him on this one, this really is disgusting and the roboteers should've been paid better for their time on the show. No wonder he became so disillusioned with how it was going.

After Robot Wars ended, Roger Plant retired from robot combat and sold all his machines to various other roboteers, including Team Hydra, and has expressed no desire to return to the sport. As of today, Wheely Big Cheese, The Big Cheese and The Mule all make appearances as static display pieces at many comic cons and robot events such as RoboNerd. Will we ever see it battle again? Maybe someday, but that doesn't seem likely in my eyes...

Conclusion

Wheely Big Cheese is an icon of Robot Wars and it's easy to see why. With that unique design not seen anywhere else, the cheese theme, the punny name and its iconic flips, Wheely Big Cheese is a robot that always makes a big impression when it battles. It's a shame it never does as well as you'd think it would but it still manages to capture everyone's attention regardless. I love this thing and I consider it among my favourite flipper-bots of all time. It's no wonder it's such a fan-favourite and I only wish it could've had a better conclusion to its career rather than being screwed over with by money troubles. Still, this machine's career was quite the interesting story to tell and as the sport of robot combat continues to evolve, we'll forever remember this bot for its wheely big flips. It is well and truly a Robot Wars legend...

And that's it for this post. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to comment down below. What are your thoughts on Wheely Big Cheese? What's your favourite Wheely Big Cheese fight? Do tell me.

Next week I'll be doing a special post for Pokémon Day on the 27th and a new Vs. essay. See you then media fans!