Firefox

**Firefox** (Chinese: **火狐**, romanized as **Huǒhú**, alternately written as **Fire Fox**), was a robot from India which competed in the one-off series *This is Fighting Robots*.

In its televised robot combat debut, it advanced through its preliminary group battle after demonstrating the gyroscopic forces of and landing blows with its vertical spinner. The former action lead to Wu Chun selecting it to join the Red team, less than ten seconds after the match itself started. However, it would subsequently lose its first main competition battle against Vulcan and Zen Oh after getting damaged and immobilized by the latter, and was dropped from the Red team as a result.

Firefox was entered by the **CK Robotics Club** (**Cereal Killers Robotics Club**), who dressed in traditional Indian garb throughout their appearance on the show.

## Design

Firefox was an orange and white robot which used a four-wheel drive system to offer speed and manoeuvrability. It was armed with a large vertical spinning bar shaped like the head of a fox, as well as a front feeder wedge designed to draw opponents into the bar. An overhead 'tail' also provided the robot with a self-righting mechanism.

Firefox's design was originally created as a CAD drawing for Team Danby's heavyweight machine **Foxic**, picturing the robot with a vertical spinner and self-righting tail in place of the usual lifting arm. This design was used by CK Robotics Club without Craig Danby's permission, leading to controversy (see below).

## Controversy

* The finished Firefox
* ditto
* ditto
1/3Firefox's design proved to be controversial, as it was not the original work of CK Robotics Club.

The design itself was in fact created by British-American roboteer Craig Danby, who created a CAD drawing of a proposed vertical spinner configuration for his *Robot Wars* Series 8-9 entry Foxic. CK Robotics Club were impressed by this rendering, contacting Danby to ask which motors he wished to use to power the spinner.

Although Danby had answered the question, he was unaware that CK Robotics Club were planning to use his design to construct Firefox, doing so without his permission or blessing. This led to an outpouring of criticism from the online robot combat community, who castigated CK Robotics Club and Firefox itself for using Foxic's likeness without permission.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

Firefox was not chosen by any celebrity team managers in their initial selection process, requiring it to compete in a preliminary group battle in order to impress the celebrities. There, it fought the Turkish entry Mad Moustache, Stealth from South Korea, and the Portuguese Zen Oh.

In the opening stages, Firefox took the time to get its spinner up to full speed, while Mad Moustache was shattered by Zen Oh. The three active machines gathered in the center of the arena, and Firefox used the gyroscopic forces of its spinner to lift its entire right-hand side off the floor. This motion appealed to Wu Chun, who added Firefox to the Red team, allowing it to advance to the main competition before the first ten seconds of the melee had elapsed. Despite this, the weaponless Zen Oh bumped into the side of Firefox, causing the Indian machine to prop back into the air. Stealth capitalized on this, and faced Firefox weapon-to-weapon in a shower of sparks, also following this up with a second hit which knocked Firefox away.

The three active robots fought on, and Stealth targeted the wheels of Firefox, ripping a wheel away from the rear of the machine while casting more sparks. Firefox was still able to drive away, but Stealth inflicted more damage, and Zen Oh rammed into the side of it. As a result of these attacks, Firefox lost the remainder of another damaged wheel, and stopped moving. Although Firefox would be immobile for the remainder of the battle, it had nevertheless qualified for the next round.

In the main competition, Firefox was first selected by Wu Chun to fight in the second Freestyle Combat round, where it faced Zen Oh for the second time as well as British entry Vulcan. Before the battle, CK Robotics Club chose to remove the robot’s wheelguards following the damage sustained in its earlier battle, while Chun conferred with and agreed to make a pact with Blue team captain Zhang Yishan to eliminate Vulcan together.

However, Firefox was sluggish to move away from its starting position, and played very little part in the opening moments as Vulcan and Zen Oh fought each other. This was until it drove towards both opponents while Vulcan pushed Zen Oh across the arena. Firefox attempted to dodge Zen Oh’s spinner, but had its left-front wheel ripped off as the Portuguese robot spin into its side. This, along with a second nudge from Vulcan, were almost sufficient to turn Firefox completely over. Already buckled by these attacks, Firefox’s left-rear wheel collapsed completely as it tried to shuffle back and forth across the arena, leaving it completely immobile. Seconds later, Firefox was thrown upside-down into the wall spikes by another hit from Zen Oh, the impact ripping one of its motors out and causing its electronics to short out. As a result, it was eliminated via knockout and did not score a point for Chun, who would later receive ridicule from Sa Beining as he reconciled with Yishan over their failed tactics.

At the end of the round, Wu Chun was required to drop one robot from the Red team, and Firefox was eliminated from the competition at Chun's discretion.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 1

*NOTE: Firefox's group battle is not considered to be a win or a loss.*

## Series Record

* Firefox's statistics
* Firefox official cartoon photo.
1/2

 Season 2 | Did not enter

## Trivia

* Firefox is the name of an Internet browser, possibly providing the etymology behind the robot's name.