TC Mechwars Competition - New Cruelty - robots

Bot: New Cruelty
Weight: 337 lbs.
Builder: Richard Stuplich
dick@killerbotics.com

The Battles of New Cruelty
| Twin-City MechWars Competition |

What happened on June 2nd, 2001?

I will start by excerpting a definition from the Twin-City Mechwars web site:

Kill: The bot
(a)cannot be made to move
(b)Evidences a loss of control to the point that it's direction of movement cannot be intentionally altered three times in twenty seconds by the operator(s), or it cannot be made to move across the floor continuously for twenty seconds.

The day begins.....

Watch (18.8M) or Watch (4.0M)
The Killerbotics boys, that came to the event, play with their toys before packing up. This is Mike, with the little bot "No Bull" and Dick with the big bot "New Cruelty".

The battle arena under construction.

Bart flashing his "gang signs"... A single finger on each hand... What is that?

Watch (22.0M) or Watch (4.6M)
A video showing the pits and see some of the robots at the event.

Watch (21.4M) or Watch (5.9M)
New Cruelty vs Team VanCleve.
(New Cruelty wins by 'Kill')
Best announcer quote from this match "Stop beating up their dead robot".

Watch (19.5M) or Watch (4.3M)
New cruelty vs Death Hammer
(New Cruelty wins by 'Kill')
Best announcer quote from this match "Not only deadly but creative and bizarre".

[ I apologize for the quality of the New Cruelty vs Death Hammer battle. Jeff was recording it and when I started to try and break the hammer off Death Hammer by driving off the ramp over the top of them he got all crazy. That is him yelling on the tape "hammer them" and "Take out the weapon". He works with the Death Hammer guys. I have another source that has good views of the entire match and will post later. ]

Watch (20.8M) or Watch (4.1M)
New Cruelty vs Tortoise.
(New Cruelty wins by 'Kill')

Watch (13.3M) or Watch (4.6M)
New Cruelty vs Rhino.
(New Cruelty wins by 'Kill')

Watch (13.5M) or Watch (2.8M)
New Cruelty vs Mid-Evil for the 1st place spot.
(Mid-Evil wins in 2 to 1 judge's decision)

Watch (25.4M) or Watch (5.3M)
New Cruelty vs Mid-Evil rematch. Because Mid-Evil came from the losers bracket and New Cruelty had won every match so far.
(New Cruelty wins by judge's decision)

Ouch. What a day. My robot does not look so nice any more!

The 2 front motors are ok, they are out because "Mid-Evil" bent the rims all up in our first battle for the #1 spot and to even battle him again I had to take them out.

The other parts you see are all I could find if the broken off front pieces. I found all but one 1/4 inch bolt half from the center plates.

The top... The black marks are from "Mid-Evil" and some of the white specks are from the tip of DeathHammer's little pointed stick they used. They could drop the little pick end on me but the damage was like an ice pick sized dent in the top. Nothing went through the 3/16 inch steel.

The welds in the front. The tabs are bent but no broken welds. Hmm... Why are these all bent to the right? I think it was Tortoise and his nasty spinning action and my placing the one remaining ramming plate on him over and over...

The only internal part I was concerned about. This aluminum battery tray rail (the bot has 4 of them) are only held on by 3 1/4 inch stainless steel bolts and lock nuts. They didn't move or bend!

You can see I take no special care of the battery connection wires (other than placing them on so an impact drives them farther onto the battery clips).

This looks worse than it is. The body armor and front end are only about $150 new. I will be making a few simple changes to some hole places in the body and laser cutting a new chassis. The front end that took all the damage isn't at all what it was intended to be in the first place so I hope to get the big, interchangeable, plow on for my next event.

The 4 black dots across the front are "kills" and the 5th one represents the championship victory. These were placed on New Cruelty at the event after each battle.

Vini Vidi Vici

The two similar black plates were removed from New Cruelty (with a wrench). The long black bar bolted to the nice shiny red plate broke off in my very first match and I just used the other side for the ramming the rest of the time.

The other bolts and metal parts are from opponents bots... Some are from bots that claimed I didn't have a weapon. My answer was always "It is the weapon". I stand by that remark.