And they were pulling the robots into the arena on an invisible twine because nothing was working," he said. "Well, the first day, I was in the dressing room and looking in the mirror and looking down at the arena.
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In an interview with Outline, the program’s presenter, Craig Charles, mentioned having concerns about the show before its premiere.
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What may have seemed like an odd idea for British TV turned out to be a hit.
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The series - also called "Robot Wars" - premiered in 1998 on BBC Two. Robot Wars became an international phenomenon when the idea made its way from the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom. Thorpe continued hosting Robot Wars events until 1997, but the biggest mainstream break for the world of robot combat happened on television. Another competitor was the inventor of "The Sims" video games, Will Wright. The inaugural Robot Wars event featured some notable competitors, including Caleb Cheung, who went on to invent a less lethal - but arguably creepier - type of robot that became a hit toy in the later 1990s: Furbies. The event made its debut in San Francisco, with Thorpe realizing the marketing potential of fighting robots, offering attendees the chance to buy posters, T-shirts, and more with the Robot Wars brand. He came up with the name "Robot Wars" and eventually got the event up and running in 1994, according to Servo Magazine. He had an idea for an event much like the one several years earlier at The MileHiCon, but Thorpe realized the potential of the idea as a business. In 1992, Marc Thorpe was an animatronic designer who had also done special effects work on some of the original "Star Wars" films. One man recognized the business potential of robot combat The Critter Crunch was a success and hugely popular with fans, so much so that word about it spread across the country, and other conventions started hosting their own robot events. This limited the weaponry that could be (safely) used, but it didn’t stop some people from sneaking in some of the more dangerous weapons, like flamethrowers and pneumatic rams. These robots were smaller than those that would be seen on television a decade later, and the fights took place on a folding table with sci-fi convention attendees in close proximity. The idea for the competition came from mechanical engineers who combined aspects of other robot competitions, like one hosted by MIT that had builders vying to see who could build a robot that would pick up the most ping-pong balls. The competition was called the Critter Crunch, and it was the first of its kind, taking place in Denver, Colorado, at The MileHiCon science fiction convention in 1989. While some pop culture phenomenons start in unexpected places, the pre-"BattleBots" robot combat scene started where a lot of people probably expected: at a science fiction convention in the final days of the 1980s (via Servo Magazine). The history of BattleBots started before it appeared on television
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Over the years, various iterations of "BattleBots" have made appearances on television around the world, but the somewhat underground robot fighting scene predated the first version of the show by about a decade. "The appeal of the sport is universal - People like to see things get destroyed," he said. Greg Munson - one of the early pioneers of robot combat - summed up the popularity of the sport in a simple, accurate way during an online question and answer session with fans hosted by The Washington Post in 2000. "Battlebots," the show that pits teams of roboticists against each other to see who can build the most lethal fighting robot and knock out the competition, has been on the air in various forms for over two decades of homemade, robotic mayhem. It only makes sense that throwing robotic pugilists into a ring and letting them slug it out would make for good television.