page_title: K*bot World Championships
section_title: Turret hammers
hierarchical_section_title: K*bot World Championships / Key technologies / Turret hammers
caption_attribution_description: English: My own photograph, taken August 2006. Source: kbotworld.com
context_page_description: K*bots are moving models made from K'Nex Construction kits, built to participate in specific events run by the K*bot World Championships and K*bots UK. Events are open to children aged 7–16 years and focus on competitive design and engineering challenges. The K*bot World Championships are an annual event in which students from around the World compete to be crowned World Champion across four distinct categories, called divisions, which are explained in detail below.
  K*bots events are currently run in the United States and the United Kingdom. Students come together for an event lasting anywhere from two to five days, during which they are guided through a range of simple engineering concepts in a workshop environment, with all students building one or more K*bots for competitive demonstration on the final day. The K*bot World Championships are the ultimate destination for successful builders, at which students compete against each other in each of the divisions.
context_section_description: As if in response to the rising dominance of the flippers, Turret Hammers made a brief appearance at the 2005 World Championships, before positively exploding in number in 2007. In a single year, the multi-pivot flippers were eclipsed by the sheer effectiveness of these new hammer weapons, and they began to pervade the field.
  A conventional hammer can only be fired in one direction; namely, whichever direction the K*bot happens to be facing, since adjusting the K*bot's position before firing a weapon is strictly prohibited. However, turret hammers exploit a loophole in the rules which allows users to adjust the positioning of their weaponry before firing. Turret hammers are therefore built on a fully rotating platform atop the K*bot, allowing them to be rotated to face an opponent before the hammer is fired, virtually guaranteeing a hit (and therefore a point) every time an opponent's K*bot comes within striking range.
caption: A turret hammer has a pivot mechanism mounted on a rotating platform, allowing it to strike 360°.
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