New Cruelty Versus Toro - BattleBots Season 4 - televised final match
(original air date 02-19-02) Fight 7 - NC Lost 9-36


What can I say? It's (pardon my implied french)... It's freakin' Toro! Awesome! I couldn't freakin' believe it... TORO! I was fighting TORO for the Championship! My first year in BattleBots and it's TORO! Holy shit!

Anyway, I assumed I could do nothing but learn to fly and do it fast! When we were in line I made sure to tell the Toro team that if I became disabled to keep the pounding coming and not back off like Toro always does and go back to his corner and wait for a victory.

After we locked the robots I noticed that Toro was going to go up on New Cruelty's front plate if we went head to head! Was there a chance I could do something against Toro?!

The match started and I made damn sure I was pointing directly at his nose at ALL times! I mean, ALL times! Toro attempted to go around me but I kept New Cruelty's nose always facing Toro's nose. This was going to work!

We collided after a few seconds and I had him up! At this point if he fired the flipper he would destroy his robot! "Yes! FIRE IT," I thought... But he knew his robot too well and could see that my front end was way too thick of steel to play that game with me... Poop... Well, I'll just ram him into the wall and pummel him like I did all the other opponents... I *can* win this!

He hit reverse and backed away. Toro is faster than New Cruelty... Argh! Now what!? I chased him but he ran behind the saws, damn. That is a great move... I quickly took New Cruelty out into the center again and went back to improvised plan A... Go head to head! . This worked again but again Toro pulled away and ran behind the saws.... Should I follow? Is it a trick? I positioned New Cruelty again to wait for him and this continued...

I thought, "Crap, I am losing this fight." This is Toro after all! We want to see a fight not a lot of strategy! I'm going to lose on the scorecards. I can't just nullify his weapon and win a fight against Toro in front of this crowd. Toro is awesome. I have to do something...

Plan B... Get more aggressive and "make something happen" something did happen. Toro got a side of New Cruelty and boom... Now there is a sight I thought I'd never see! New Cruelty 3 feet in the air doing 4 barrel rolls! Hey, New Cruelty landed right side up! No harm - no foul! Nothing to see here!

However It couldn't be ignored that I was losing this fight now. I tried a few more things, but New Cruelty just wasn't fast enough to beat Toro in a pushing game when Toro's experienced driver wasn't interested in a pushing match with New Cruelty.

Plan C... Lose... After about 4 more launches New Cruelty slammed down on it's side and the power switch was knocked out! (This is not an excuse, Toro did it, New Cruelty didn't just break! It was beaten.)

Plan D... Lose with style... I assumed they would continue the beating, as I had requested, but nobody had told Toro's driver. So we start yelling, "Hit it!"... And I mean YELLING, because the Toro driver has in earplugs. Toro's driver is told what we are asking and makes a face and continues to move Toro back.... This still wasn't working!

So finally, Plan E.... I turned off New Cruelty's controller, put down the antenna and slid it across from my driving area to Toro's. So now I don't even have New Cruelty's controller... How dangerous can New Cruelty be at this point?! We continue to SCREAM, "HIT IT!" And then he does come in for a final launch! What a freakin' blast! Back to the top

New Cruelty Versus Diesector - BattleBots Season 4 - Televised semi-final match (original air date 02-19-02) Fight 6 - NC Won 24-21


For a newcomer this was the BIG TIME! I knew Diesector and didn't need to even go and look at it.

Diesector is almost impossible to work a strategy for because it can do most everything. I assumed he would attempt to lift me with his front lifter and try to get me to lose traction that way. I could only hope to catch Diesector in a driving error and get him into a hazard.

The match started and we collided. His hammers were a flying but just as in the Alcoholic Stepfather fight Diesector's hammers were mostly just bouncing off. At one point Diesector got a little up off the ground and I drove under his front edge and then I moved forward and got him balanced on me. With him off the ground I had to FIND A HAZARD... There it was... Pulverizer dead ahead! I knew I could take the hammering on my massive rubber tires, so I just pushed New Cruelty's nose up under the hammer and Diesector started getting a beating! I saw the official start a clock and I kept asking, "How much time?" I was tempted to try and slide Diesector over to another hammer but didn't want to get greedy.

Diesector wasn't just sitting there like a lump! He was just cranking on the power and letting his own hammers fly. He was doing everything to get off... Eventually he got a wheel grip on New Cruelty's chassis and did manage to get off but the damage was done! Almost 30 seconds of hammering! I was sure I had this fight won, big time on points at this time in the fight.

We collided a few more times and the match was over.

The judges came in to assess the damage. Pretty much nothing on New Cruelty and Diesector looked hammered in one spot and his nose was nice and bent up.

Scored with a 2 point victory for New Cruelty... Closer than I thought, but if you don't knock them out anything can happen.

I was sure to tell Donald Hudson that it was a great privilege to even fight him!

Afterward we asked why he didn't use the lifter and they told us they were afraid of giving up traction against us. I guess that is a real concern against New Cruelty. Back to the top

New Cruelty Versus Swirlee - BattleBots Season 4 - quarterfinal match (highlights aired 02-19-02) Fight 5 - NC Won KO


Swirlee had beaten Son of Whyachi and The Swarm. As Swirlee is an Aluminum robot I was really looking forward to this match. I also had been helping them on and off throughout the event and really like them.

I checked the spinning disk blade on Swirlee to be sure it would catch fine on New Cruelty's standard ram bumper. After seeing it would, I removed the spinner posts from the Odin II match.

My plan was to close ground and ram Swirlee against the wall and keep the spinning disk from getting up to speed.

The match started and I moved in quickly. Swirlee moved to the left toward the exit door. New Cruelty caught Swirlee as they rounded from behind the kill saws but heading into a corner against a fierce ramming bot like New Cruelty is a big mistake. The spinning disk stopped dead and Swirlee flew against the wall and then the ramming started. As Swirlee is Aluminum I really wanted to show New Cruelty could put on a hurting.

Swirlee was sitting near the exit door and there is a ramp and the pulverizers are near by. There is also a big steel beam there. The lifting plate of New Cruelty got caught hard under that area and I had a scare. Swirlee was not moving at this time but I didn't notice. I slammed it into reverse and ground away trying to free myself. This worked and then I went in again, slower this time. And again was stuck, not as badly though. Once New Cruelty was loose again I spun my bot 180 and started ramming with the rear end. Swirlee received a few Grade 8 bolt head prints stamped into his spinning disk.

As it turns out Swirlee's drive train was broke by now and the officials called me off and counted Swirlee out. K.O. Back to the top

New Cruelty Versus Rammstein - BattleBots Season 4 - elimination match - not televised - Fight 4 - NC Won 34-11


This robot posed very little threat by looking at it. It has a little spike on the front that I assumed would pop out a little and cause only a little problem.

Rammstein was the only competitor that did any "smack talking" before a match. This bothered me only for the reason that I thought it was simply poor sportsmanship and vowed to put a hurting on them.

My plan was to go head to head and break off the ram spike of Rammstein.

This match started and I came straight at them and they started dancing around a bit. I continued to try and get them head to head and eventually did and started pushing them back with ease then BAM the spike extended out of Rammstein like 3 feet! This surprised me greatly but only pushed us apart. Then we danced around a bit (10 seconds) and Rammstein got New Cruelty's side, "Umm this isn't good," I thought. Then BAM the 3-foot spike again... Argh! But no ill effects, so I thought.

A little more and Rammstein spiked New Cruelty again. None of this did any real damage, so it looked (you can see the damage in the photo of New Cruelty's side). For a point we got stuck together while Rammstein's poker was caught but we managed to break the tip off and continue the match. I ended up pushing them back against the entrance door and they attempted to run by moving closer to it and trying to exit in front of the hammer but again heading to a corner while in a fight with New Cruelty is a big mistake!

I caught them in the side and slammed them broadside into the tight area between the hammer and the wall. Stuck in this little C-shaped area Rammstein couldn't move forward, backward or turn. I heard the official say, "It's over right here," while I rammed them over and over and over... This was not a pin so they couldn't stop me without tapping out. It went the distance and New Cruelty won. Back to the top

New Cruelty Versus Odin II - BattleBots Season 4 - televised elimination match (original air date - 02-12-02) Fight 3 - NC Won 28-17


Odin II is an upside down lawn mower thing-a-majig with a real nasty sharp massive blade. This blade was going to come directly over the ram I-beam on the front of New Cruelty and I couldn't have that!

The Odin II team had seen my previous fights and started to work reinforcing the sides with steel bars. However I had a little surprise for them myself. In a few hours I had fabricated two SOLID steel posts on a spare beam to eliminate the possibility of getting Odin II's blade into my tires, with 8 tires that would have been an ugly mess.

My strategy was to let Odin II's blade to get all the way up to full speed and then catch it on the solid steel posts and it will break off... So I thought!

The match started and I went out slow and Odin II went to the side to get the time to get the blade up to speed, they didn't know I wanted Odin II's blade at maximum speed before I whacked it. New Cruelty slammed into them on the oncoming tip of the spinner and - bam - it stopped the spinner dead, but it didn't break. So I pushed him back and around a bit and then we separated and I let Odin II's blade get back up to speed and then bang, hammered it again and it still didn't break.

Time for plan B (that I made up on the fly). Because I saw I could push Odin II back with ease I decided to hammer him good against the wall. After wedging them against the wall the hammering started. This pretty much brought an end to Odin II's chances, time ran down and New Cruelty won - looks like the solid steel posts in addition to plan B, did the job! Back to the top

New Cruelty Versus Steel Reign - BattleBots Season 4 - Not Televised - Fight 2 - NC Won KO


Steel Reign had watched my Alcoholic Stepfather match and was frantically attaching lexan scraps around to strengthen the robot. Steel Reign possessed a "roto tiller" type weapon that went off a few times in the pits by accident and it was fairly nasty looking. I had planned going head to head with Steel Reign and breaking his weapon, then moving him to the wall and smashing him until he breaks.

We moved out slowly and Steel Reign was not interested in ramming into me head to head and started moving around. I caught him on a side and slammed him into the wall directly in front of Steel Reign's driver and commenced the pummeling. At one point, I yelled over to the Steel Reign driver to ask if he was stuck on the spike strip but couldn't hear his answer so I spun New Cruelty around to try and dislodge Steel Reign from the spike strip. As it turns out he was dead and New Cruelty won by K.O. Back to the top

New Cruelty Versus Alcoholic Stepfather - BattleBots Season 4 - Not Televised - Fight 1 - NC Won 26-19

Alcoholic Stepfather had a very odd omi-directional drive train that concerned me a bit but in all it was an underpowered hammer bot. My strategy was to get Alcoholic Stepfather between my bot and a wall and drive him to the wall with a big bang and hope something would break off Alcoholic Stepfather. With the strange extra bearings in Alcoholic Stepfather wheels this seemed easy.

With Alcoholic Stepfather coming out swinging it's twin sledge hammers and connecting with the top of New Cruelty I started getting a little concerned but noticed that his hammers were just bouncing off. After getting up under him with New Cruelty's lifting plate and wedging Alcoholic Stepfather against the spike strip I commenced the ramming. Once his wheel broke off and he got sideways against the spike strip the fight was pretty much over. Back to the top