BattleBots

[pdub]

Has anybody else ever watched that show? I'm afraid I'm hooked. It's fascinating. Forget all the hype and the talk and all sorts of expected noise, that's all just fascinating except for the talk. Held in San Francisco, I should change the channel. Imagine what it took to make those things, to destroy or be destroyed. From all walks of life, kids from MIT, rocket scientists, plumbers.... they design and build those things and they can weigh up to 250 pounds - they are big......yep, I've gotta see this, I can't stop watching.

I guess I'm some sort of a nerd at heart.

[Dan Barlow]

Well , that leaves me out . The small block chevy is probably 500 lb.

[pdub]

Well , that leaves me out . The small block chevy is probably 500 lb.

Saw it in half, and ..... there seems to be no rules in the contest, run what ya brung. All of the imagining and designing... months or years for sure.... the welding and fabricating (I know nothing about that, which makes it all the more fascinating)....go out there and get your machine beat to a mechanical bloody pulp in three minutes on national TV? Because you didn't have the right design.....and the other team DID.

[studemax]

My Dad and I love it, and I have a couple nerd pals who love it too.

[JRoberts]

I don't watch it on a regular basis, but I enjoy it when I do. It is incredible what these folks can put together and what the bots can do and withstand.

[Whelk]

Comedy Central ran as a show for a few years in the late 90's, Then again on regular network tv the last couple of years. There's a book of rules for it on their site. They're not extensive but they do exist. Primarily it deals with safety, weight classes and weapons limits (no entangling or EM) basically.

It's pretty neat how much engineering goes into these things. To win a tourney you have to go through several rounds so you need tom engineer in the ability to take damage and to be able to make repairs quickly.

[pdub]

Let's go NASCAR/Rasslin' redneck on top of nerdliness, I'll bid Tombstone takes them all out. That machine....it was slinging opponent parts against that bullet-proof plexiglass so hard, the screaming announcers were deep into their reflexes....they saw parts coming at them a hundred miles an hour....they ducked....WHAM!!!!