The Martian

"*When I first saw Martian, I was so excited. Honestly, [with] every other robot, I knew exactly what it did, I could tell what its weaknesses were… and with The Martian, I had no idea! So desperate to find out, and so I fell in love right away…*"
— Emma Dumont on The Martian

**The Martian** (Chinese: **火星人**, romanized as **Huǒxīng rén**, also known as **Mars Man** or simply **Martian**) was a Chinese competitor robot which appeared in Season 2 of *King of Bots*. Notable for its unique appearance and locomotion, it was the first robot to be selected by celebrity Emma Dumont during the season, and fought one battle against Pixel Hunter in the opening episode, losing via knockout. Wang Chao was able to choose his opponent during the Redemption Round, and fought Excelsior, but became immobile and was eliminated at this stage.

The Martian was entered by Wang Chao and the Real Steel team, who previously competed in Season 1 with Nuclear Bomb and *This is Fighting Robots* with Wall Breaker.

## Design

The Martian was a white and red biped robot with a rectangular-shaped upper body, using two cylindrically-shaped titanium ‘feet’ as its locomotion. Mounted on a large pivoting bar immediately beneath the upper body, the ‘feet’ contained electromagnets allowing the robot to stick to the floor, and rotated horizontally to provide movement across the arena. The Martian was capable of strafing with both of its ‘feet’ rotating in opposite directions, and could turn by clamping one ‘foot’ and pivoting around with the other. Additionally, the robot could rotate its entire upper body a full 360 degrees, as well as raise and lower its side arms through special controls worn by the operator.

On its upper body, The Martian featured a variety of weapons, including flamethrowers integrated into each of its arms and a set of spinning flails with spiked maces. The flails were mounted horizontally on the top of another arm hinged at the back of the robot, which could lower down to reach opponents and act as a self-righting mechanism. Both weapons were capable of offering attacks from The Martian's front, sides and rear, depending on the placement of the flail arm and the orientation of the robot's upper body.

## Robot History

### King of Bots II (Season 2)

The Martian made its *King of Bots* debut in the first episode of Season 2, where it quickly gained interest from Emma Dumont. Fascinated by the robot’s unusual design and locomotion, Emma Dumont ultimately selected The Martian as her first robot for the opening head-to-head battles of the season.

With this, The Martian was drawn to face Pixel Hunter in its first-ever battle. Prior to the battle starting, its team performed a ‘robot dance’ during their introduction, while the robot itself impressed rival celebrity captain Tao Shen with a demonstration of its arms and flamethrowers.

The Martian began tentatively, spinning its ‘feet’ to strafe away from the red corner while raising its arms. Eventually, it approached Pixel Hunter, firing its left flamethrower before taking two blows to its ‘feet’ from its opponent’s bar spinner. The Martian spun round and spouted more flames, pivoting around its seemingly-inactive left ‘foot’. It proceeded to spin its upper body and flails as Pixel Hunter lurked nearby, but could not damage Pixel Hunter as it lowered the flails onto the latter. Seconds later, The Martian was knocked off its ‘feet’ by Pixel Hunter’s spinner, and tumbled onto its side.

Immediately, The Martian began raising and lowering its flail arm, until it successfully levered itself back onto its ‘feet’. This action left Tao Shen and the audience in amazement; however, The Martian accidentally pressed its flail arm against the floor, causing it to topple onto a flame jet. As before, it recovered, pivoting its ‘feet’ around until it could use its flail arm to self-right again. Smoke poured from The Martian’s body as it stood upright once more, now seemingly unable to move its ‘feet’ at all.

At this moment, the flamethrower drone attempted to attack The Martian, only to dive sharply and crash-land right next to it. As the drone erupted into smoke and flames, The Martian activated its flails once more, before lowering them and rotating its body in succession. The flails cleaved through the top of the drone on contact, sending components and shards of bodywork flying. The Martian swatted away the remains of the drone, only to violently shake backwards as it tried to return its flails to their normal position. This caused one of its arms – and part of its electronics - to pop out of position, just before the referee began counting it out.

As a result, The Martian lost the battle to Pixel Hunter via knockout, and would not join Emma Dumont’s team at this stage. Nevertheless, its design and self-righting capabilities attracted further praise from Tao Shen during his post-battle interview, and The Martian left a lasting impression.

In the Redemption Round, Wang Chao was able to choose his next opponent, and selected the American entry Excelsior as his target.

The battle was broadcast only during a montage with little footage shown, so the contents of the fight remain largely unknown, but The Martian started slowly, which drifting forwards whilst Excelsior made more movements across the arena. After an unseen sequence of events, Excelsior drove The Martian into the arena wall, where the arena hammer came down on The Martian. The arena hazard stopping the momentum of its spinning flails, but also pressed the weapon into Excelsior. Nevertheless, The Martian came to a standstill here, and was counted out, eliminating The Martian from *King of Bots II*.

Following Season 2's initial airings, The Martian's outlandish design was recognized by the *King of Bots* Organizing Committee, who awarded it and Spectre the 'Original Design Master' awards for that season.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 2

## References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/cbg8un/anybody\_care\_to\_explain\_this\_walking\_monstrosity/
2. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/KOBCHINA/posts/750373105491984

## Trivia

* Although The Martian's team name has not been shown in *King of Bots II*, Wang Chao's team were known as "Real Steel" in Season 1, and "Fang Bao" in Season 2.
* Team captain Wang Chao is the CEO of the Beijing Tiejia Steel Fist Company.