Eater

**Eater** (Chinese: **吃货**, romanized as **Chīhuò**, meaning **Foodie**) was a robot from the United Kingdom which competed in the 2018 series *This is Fighting Robots*.

Captained by Ian Watts, it was the successor to The Grubs, and was chosen by Red team captain Wu Chun after he became interested in the robot's unusual design. However, following a loss at the hands of Shrederator Tiger Claw, Eater became one of three robots eliminated from Chun's team at the end of the first Freestyle Combat round.

## Design

Eater is a two-part multibot. The lighter half is an invertible wedge, which intends to hold robots in place, and the robot is identical to **Banger** from Eater's predecessor, The Grubs. The main body of Eater is a larger, invertible machine driven by two wheels. This half was equipped with two horizontal bar spinners at the end of extended arms, allowing both weapons to connect with opponents at once, while also providing a back-up weapon if one bar spinner were to fail.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

While the initial 'blind selection' process took place, Red team manager Wu Chun took an immediate liking to Eater, selecting it as the third robot for his line-up. Chun then elected to use Eater in the very first battle of the main competition: a Freestyle Combat melee against Fango (Zhang Yishan), Green Agate (Zheng Shuang) and Shrederator Tiger Claw (Sa Beining).

As soon as the fight started, Eater found itself charged at by Green Agate, but the Chinese robot missed and hit the wall behind it instead. Turning around, Eater hit the side of Green Agate but did not seem to cause any noticeable damage. Founding itself chased by Shrederator Tiger Claw after this, Eater drew around Fango, hitting the slow-moving walker in the process. After a few more hits against the Australian robot, Eater went on the offensive against Shrederator Tiger Claw, but was unable to land any successful hits against it, eventually receiving one itself that sent it flying across the arena and into a wall. Recovering from the attack, it received yet another hit from the American shell spinner, this time causing a belt from one of the spinning bars to come loose. With the remaining bar still working, Eater made another attack on Fango, ripping one of its claws off.

For much of the battle, the wedge minibot had mostly remained in the background, but finally made an attempt to get underneath Fango - however, it instead ended up on the floor flipper and was subsequently thrown into the air by the hazard. In the meantime, Eater once again found itself under assault by Shrederator Tiger Claw, the impacts sending it towards a wall and making it lose its second weapon drive belt. Following a few more hits, the main part was deflected away, and was temporarily left immobile by the flame jets. The wedge minibot came in an attempt to avenge Eater, but with just a few more hits from Shrederator Tiger Claw, it soon became immobilized after one of its wheels detached. Although Eater as a whole was eliminated via knockout, the main part regained mobility later on, only to once again be left temporarily immobilized by the arena corner. As a result, the main part of Eater survived to the end of the battle along with Shrederator Tiger Claw and Fango. However, the whole multibot had already been ruled out of the subsequent Judges' decision, thus suffering its - and Wu Chun's - first competition loss.

At the end of the first Freestyle Combat round, Chun chose Eater to be eliminated from his team, along with Bonfire and Mr Hippo. As a result, its participation in *This is Fighting Robots* came to an abrupt end.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 1

## Series Record

* Eater's offcial statistics
* TITR Robot Illustrated Book Eater
* Eater official cartoon photo
1/3

 Season 2 | Did not enter

*NOTE: John Frizell entered the 2018 Featherweight UK Championship with The Mighty Unicorn.*

## Outside King of Bots

The main chassis of Eater - still bearing battle damage - was displayed at *RoboNerd* in September 2022 and September 2023, alongside various *Robot Wars* competitors associated with its team members.

### Ian Watts & Sam Watts

A lecturer at the University of Brighton, England, Ian Watts originally competed in the aforementioned shows as part of **Team Big Brother**, a family team primarily consisting of himself and his children, Joe, Ellie and Sam. The team earned considerable success in the original series of *Robot Wars* with **Big Brother**, a wedge-shaped robot armed with a 'morning star' mace, and its successor **Bigger Brother**, armed with a pneumatic flipper. Big Brother competed in Series 3, reaching the Semi-Finals in its only appearance, while Bigger Brother finished runner-up in Series 5, reached the Semi-Finals in Series 6 and won the Minor Meltdown competition, the latter broadcast as part of the second series of *Robot Wars Extreme*.

During this period, Team Big Brother also competed in the original *BattleBots* competitions, initially with Bigger Brother (Season 2.0), then a repainted and renamed version of the latter known as **Little Sister** (Seasons 3.0-5.0), achieving a few victories throughout their appearances. They also entered the *Robot Wars* spin-off show *Techno Games* with **Big Bro**, a weaponless version of Bigger Brother, and **Jake the Peg**.

Ian Watts began his collaboration with John Frizell in 2015, where the pair entered **Bull Dog** into the first season of ABC's *BattleBots* reboot, but were not chosen to compete on the show. Along with Ian's son Sam and various students from the University of Brighton, they returned for Season 2 with **Creepy Crawlies**, a five-part multibot with an insectoid theme which was defeated by Son of Whyachi in its preliminary round. Ian Watts also competed in the 2018 season of *BattleBots* with another multibot, **The Four Horsemen**.

Team Big Brother returned to *Robot Wars* following the show's revival in 2016, competing with two new machines and with Sam Watts as a full-time member. They entered Series 8 with **Or Te**, a successor to Bigger Brother, which was defeated in the first round after having its removable link dislodged within seconds. After not being selected to compete in Series 9 with the latter, they returned for Series 10 with **The Swarm**, a clusterbot featuring five completely unique robots. These included **Rubber Duck** (flipper), **Blenda** (a horizontal spinner with an identical design to three of The Grubs' segments), **Pinza** (horizontal pincers) and two versions of **Skye** (one an invertible rammer, the other equipped with entanglement devices). The Swarm performed well in its debut appearance, finishing fourth in its heat, with Ian and Sam driving Blenda and the invertible Skye respectively.

Ian Watts, Sam Watts, Ann Gribble and Ryan Pratt competed in the 2018 season of *BattleBots*, aired on the Discovery channel, with **The Four Horsemen**, a robot nearly identical to The Grubs. In their first battle, The Four Horsemen immobilized Double Jeopardy, before two segments of The Four Horsemen broke down in battle with Gamma 9, one of which was due to a battery fire. However, Gamma 9 also became immobile at the end of the battle, allowing The Four Horsemen to win via a split Judges' decision.

### John Frizell & JME Anderson

In addition to his collaborations with Watts, John Frizell, a former member and director of Greenpeace, also competed in *Robot Wars* as the captain of **Team Terror Turtle**. The team itself fought in Series 7-8 and 10 as well as the second series of *Robot Wars Extreme*; their robots included **Terror Turtle**, a two-wheeled heavyweight robot designed to resemble a turtle, **Steel Sandwich**, a two-wheeled middleweight, and **The Kegs**, a two-part clusterbot with segments made out of one half of a beer keg.

JME Anderson, a jeweller by profession, joined Team Terror Turtle in Series 8 and Series 10, driving one half of The Kegs during the latter.

### Ann Gribble

Ann Gribble is the widow of UK roboteer Alan Gribble, who achieved significant success in the original run of *Robot Wars* as a member and team captain of the **Cold Fusion Team**. Under Alan's captaincy, the team finished runner-up in Series 4 and reached the Semi-Finals of Series 5 with **Pussycat**, an unusual invertible pyramid-shaped robot armed with a custom-made cutting disc, driven by Alan and Ann's son, David. Following David Gribble's death in a motorcycle accident in October 2001, Pussycat did not compete in Series 6; however, it returned for the second series of *Robot Wars Extreme*, with Ann joining the Cold Fusion Team alongside Alan and fellow roboteer Stuart Barnwell. During this series, Ann served as Pussycat's driver for the Iron Maidens competition, where it finished runner-up to Chompalot. Ann Gribble also joined her husband to compete in the Featherweight Championship during the same series with **Kitty**, although this lost in the first round.

## Trivia

* Eater's lighter wedge was previously seen as part of The Grubs.
* Due to Eater being eliminated early on in the competition, this allowed Ian Watts the time to compete in *BattleBots*, while other seasoned *BattleBots* competitors continued to battle in China.
* Eater appeared at *Robonerd* in 2022 as a hollow shell, where it was given away to Foxii, who intends to restore the bot in the future.

## External Links

* Team Big Brother on *Robot Wars Wiki*
* Team Terror Turtle on *Robot Wars Wiki*

1. ↑ https://youtu.be/DdRQe\_khaZY