Haardvark was a robot that competed in Series 2 and 3 of Robot Wars. It reached the Semi-Finals of Series 2, losing to Cassius in the arena stage, but it broke down in the final seconds of the first round of Series 3, and was eliminated. It was narrowly over the then Heavyweight Limit in both series. The team originally intended to update Haardvark and enter it into Series 4, but decided not to enter and build a new robot, Haardervark, which failed to qualify for Series 5 and 6.
Team Haardvark decided to enter Robot Wars on the recommendation of Owen Barwick's wife. Barwick formed the team with two colleagues from his workplace - Mike Evans and Liz Harrison, with Steve Farley, a friend of Evans, supplying Haardvark's armour and creating its artwork as Barwick built its chassis and Evans did its electronics.
Robot History
Series 2
Haardvark made a strong start in the Gauntlet and Trials, it finished top of the leaderboard in The Gauntlet stage of the heat as it covered a respectable distance of 10.6m. Haardvark followed that up by coming second in the Sumo trial, lasting after 17.9 seconds before being pushed off by house robot Dead Metal, who drove off itself in the process.
This put Haardvark through to the arena stage of the heat. In the Heat Semi-Final, Haardvark was placed up against fellow newcomers, yet also heat favourites, Vercingetorix. Despite a problem with its forks stabbing into the floor and preventing the robot moving forwards, Haardvark was able to defeat the Isle of Wight machine, as Vercingetorix stopped moving due to a transmitter problem very early on, allowing Haardvark to reach the Heat Final, where it was placed up against another newcomer in Havoc.
In this battle, Haardvark was able to push Havoc around the arena with ease, quickly getting Havoc into the PPZ. Havoc was too sluggish in escaping from the PPZ, and it was flipped onto its side, courtesy of Shunt's scoop. Havoc was unable to self-right, and was therefore deemed immobilised. Cease was soon called and Haardvark was put through to the Series Semi-Finals.
In the series Semi-finals, the Haardvark team's electronics engineer Mike Evans was called back to work, leaving it at a disadvantage from the start. It scraped through the Gauntlet stage after only covering 2.4 metres. It attempted the Sentinel route, but bumped into Matilda who dragged it back almost to the start. Ordinarily this distance would have eliminated them from the competition, but this was still enough to surpass Plunderbird 2's run of 0.9 metres. Haardvark did not have much more luck in the pinball stage of the Semi-Final. They started well, knocking over the barrels and bricks at the top of the arena, but were then overturned by Sir Killalot. Having scored 160 points, they just managed to surpass G.B.H., who scored 145.
In the arena stage of the Semi-Final, Haardvark was placed up against the number 5 seeds Cassius, and there was a problem right from the start for Haardvark, as the machine was only able to go in reverse. In the battle, after a long period of being thrown around by Cassius's flipping arm, Haardvark fought back strongly to push Cassius into the PPZ where Cassius' drive chain came off. This gave Haardvark the potential to take a surprise victory, although Cassius had enough mobility to move away and Haardvark was picked up by Sir Killalot (despite not actually being in the PPZ), flipped over, and placed onto the flame pit, eliminating it from the competition.
Series 3
Due to health & safety regulations, the Haardvark team was not allowed to use the sawblade they had brought. They were forced to use an ineffective grinding disc in its place, which they attached to a bigger plastic blade to make it look more threatening. Haardvark was placed up against newcomer Henry in the first round of the heat. Haardvark's grinding disc did not cause tremendous damage, but it was enough to create scars on the surface of Henry's armour. Haardvark was very sluggish throughout the battle and Henry was able to have a few run-ups, but it didn't make the most of them, as Haardvark's blade was ready to halt a charge from Henry. However, despite dominating the battle and constantly attacking Henry with its weapon, Haardvark suddenly broke down completely with ten seconds of the battle remaining, and was controversially eliminated from the competition despite being immobile for less than 30 seconds. The reason for Haardvark breaking down was because it had blown a drive motor fuse. The fight also went to a judges decision, but it was not shown on the televised fight.
Results
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 7
- Losses: 2