Hercules 1997
    Battle 5
     

    Battle Number 5 - Heavyweight Melee Finals!


    Hercules, Biohazard and LaMachine do a battle spin.


    The Final Heavyweight Melee drew 8 Heavyweights into the arena, and Hercules looked very outmatched in there, let me tell ya! As things were almost ready to get underway, it was discovered that two of the other robots (Do-All and Vlad the Impaler) were on the same radio frequency, so they made a last minute change to do two 4-way rounds for the finals, so four of them left. My fears were realized as Hercules was left in the arena with the biggest competition there- La Machine, Biohazard and Do-All. (All three of the top and most popular heavyweights!) Well, I didn't know what to think, so I just went for it.

    First to hit me was Do-All, who pushed me into one of the flipper-traps on the side wall, which held me there for a while before I was able to get away, and I started trying to cut into one of the other robots with my metal-cutting saw blades. I stayed out there for a while, afflicting the occasionnal cut or gash into someone, and Do-All was the first one out. I'm not exactly sure what happened to him, but he just stopped moving.

    LaMachine and Biohazard were pretty intent on each other, and I kept on both of them, trying to get a couple cuts in here and there and getting between their blood bath. A minute later, Biohazard got a good flip on LaMachine, and overturned him completely. That left just Hercules and Biohazard!

    I didn't have much I could do against Biohazard, because he was just too low to the ground for me to scoop underneath, so I mostly just got pushed around, and then he flipped me completely over in one of the corners. The crowd cheered, and everyone assumed it was over, but Hercules' flipper arm is dual purpose, so in a few seonds, I was able to flip back over and get back into the battle. The crowd went crazy!

    Biohazard tried again, flipping Hercules over on the other side of the arena, but once again, I was able to flip back onto my wheels! The cheers from the crowd told me they loved it!

    Biohazard (probably pretty annoyed at this point) turned around once more and got Hercules on the other side of the arena, and then flipped me into a precarious position near the wall, and it was over. For a second, I thought I could get out, but I was in such a position that I just couldn't quite reach the wall with the flipper arm. I lost the melee, but man, it looked great. This last event made the whole thing worthwhile, seeing my first time entry go head to head with the big boys made me realize that I COULD do this!

    I got a few good cuts into LaMachine before he got flipped over by Biohazard.
    Biohazard flips Hercules into the corner...
    ...and I flip back onto my wheels and keep coming...
    ...He flips me over again...
    ...and like a good little robot, Hercules gets right back up...
    Biohazard flips Hercules for the THIRD time
    Another picture after Biohazard flipped Hercules for the 3rd time.

    		That was it for Herc. I couldn't get leverage to flip back over that time, my saw blades were holding me up.
    I guess I won't let THAT sort of thing happen again! : )
    What a BLAST!
    Hercules I was 100% built by Jim Smentowski, but there are several people who helped out at the event and along the road, I would like to acknowledge them here.

    Special Thanks to:

    • Dan Danknick (from Team Delta), who helped me out with the speed control problems on Hercules, and helped several times along the road to the next Hercules '98
    • Grant Imahara, who also works at ILM in the model shop. Grant has helped me out a lot with everything from radio control to motors to distributor advise,and of course for target practice!
    • Trey Roski, who, in his kindness, loaned me a spare Vantec speed controller at the 1997 event, which Hercules promptly burned up after installation! Whoops!
    • Marc Thorpe, who thru all the legal garbage,kept a faithful optimism towards the Robot Wars idea, and of course, for starting this whole thing!


    Here is a picture of most of my team (in our official Hercules T-Shirts).

    From Left To Right:

    Ken Corvino-helped with most of the lifting, transportation and troubleshooting at the event,

    Barbara (she wasn't actually part of my team, but was part of the Robot Wars staff, and happened to be Joe's fiance- now wife),

    Joe Lovullo-Helped out with the encouragement and setup at the event,

    Me- Jim Smentowski-Designer, builder and controller of Hercules, a.k.a. the guy who spent all his money on a crazy idea, and

    my wife-Erica, who, besides all the encouragement, helped tremendously along the whole way, and let me use the living room for my robot during the many months leading to the event!

    Not pictured is Lydia Greenfield, (who was taking this picture)- she helped out a lot with match info and organizing stuff for me during the event.


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