Rust Boar

Rust Boar with its team

"*King of Bots is the chance he waited decades for, and he wants to prove that what he has been insisting for so long is valuable.*"
— The *King of Bots* website on captain Chen Bo's ambitions (translated from Chinese)

**铁锈野猪** (romanized as **tiě xiù yě zhū**, roughly translated to **Rust Boar** or **Rusty Boar**) was a robot from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, which competed in the first season of *King of Bots*. With its powerful drum spinner, it defeated Unlimited Numbers, Blade Gyro and Knife Legend in three straight wins to reach the top eight of the competition. There, it withdrew from the main competition due to a faulty weapon shaft. It later sustained severe damage in a Tag Team battle against Great White and Spin Doctor. Rust Boar was succeeded by Mr Hippo.

## Design

"*It has a bloody mouth and steel teeth, full of bad marks, it is a bulimia beast that only feeds on steel.——Rust Boar*"
— — The King of Bots website on the team captain (translated from Chinese)

Rust Boar used a tried-and-tested design popularised by robots such as the Brazilian **Touro Maximus** and its *BattleBots* equivalent Minotaur. Roughly square-shaped in design, Rust Boar runs on a two-wheel drive, and is armed with a powerful drum spinner at the front. The drum was balanced in a way that its single tooth carries a huge weight, and its maximum rotational speed was a remarkable 10,000rpm. Rust Boar itself had a top speed of 7 meters per second (25.2km/h or approximately 15.7mph), with the ability to turn quickly despite the force of its weapon. Through the use of the weapon's gyroscopic forces, it could also lift itself onto one side as the drum spun, a motion referred to as a 'gyro-dance'. To match its namesake, the robot was painted brown, to resemble a boar, although it caught fire spectacularly in its final appearance.

## The Team

Rust Boar was primarily built by then 50-year-old Chen Bo, who at the time had been involved in manufacturing robots for decades. The robot's entry enabled Bo to fulfil a life-long ambition, amidst opposition from friends and family members surrounding the viability of this career path.

## Robot History

### King of Bots (Season 1)

"*I have waited so long just for an opportunity, not to prove that I am stronger than others, but to prove what I have adhered to for decades is valuable.*"
— Chen Bo (Season 1, Episode 2, Mech+ subtitles)

In its first battle, Rust Boar was drawn against The Extreme in what proved to be a quick battle.

Rust Boar drove straight out of the starting square, and the immediate contact with its opponent caused The Extreme to be knocked upwards, and a chain powering its weaponry fell loose, leaving The Extreme without a form of attack. Rust Boar was briefly destabilized with a slam, but landed a direct blow to the side of the machine. Rust Boar drove under The Extreme using its drum, but The Extreme pushed it into a corner where the hammer was brought down on Rust Boar.

However, despite instigating this attack, The Extremes' poor turning circle meant that it struggled to leave that corner of the arena, and was struck by the hammer itself. This allowed Rust Boar to line up an attack which tossed The Extreme into the air, inflicting damage. Rust Boar held its ground while The Extreme managed to escape slowly. It was at this stage that The Extreme had exposed its back end to Rust Boar, and the drum spinner ripped pieces away from the rear of The Extreme before barging it into an arena drum, which turned The Extreme over through a combination of both spinners. The Extreme was stranded on its back with no method of self-righting, and it was immediately counted out, awarding the win by knockout to Rust Boar in little over a minute.

In the second round, Rust Boar faced the horizontal bar spinner of Blade Gyro.

At the start, it drove out of the red square and constantly spun around the arena, avoiding Blade Gyro as it got its drum up to speed. Eventually, Rust Boar charged into the side of Blade Gyro, hitting its bar and causing both robots to spin away. Seconds later, it rammed into Blade Gyro again, momentarily lifting its opponent off the floor, and retreated towards the left-most grinders. However, Rust Boar sustained a front-on hit from Blade Gyro which knocked it into one the grinders and slowed it down considerably. It attempted to evade a pursuing Blade Gyro, but was hit again by the latter, and left in the corner as it started to lose forward drive.

Rust Boar spun around constantly as it was bumped a few more times by the now-weaponless Blade Gyro, dodging the nearby hammer at one point. With its left wheel clearly disabled, Rust Boar continued to dodge Blade Gyro and shuffle its way back onto the red square. In doing so, it deflected an approaching Blade Gyro into the spikes, and survived as the latter pinned itself under another set of spikes a few seconds later. Rust Boar spun its drum up again, approaching Blade Gyro as the latter was counted out; it celebrated its victory by gyro-dancing across the arena.

In the third round, Rust Boar fought another horizontal bar spinner, Knife Legend.

Rust Boar quickly left its starting square in order to chase down Knife Legend, while spinning up its drum. However, Knife Legend immediately turned into the arena wall, causing its weapon and part of its framework to shear from the robot, with its debris narrowly missing Rust Boar. Knife Legend had also been immobilised through the recoil of the impact, and so it was immediately counted out, allowing Rust Boar to win the battle without once making contact with its opponent.

Although Rust Boar had reached the top eight of the competition, and was drawn against the multibot Thunder and Lightning, Rust Boar had to withdraw from the championship due to a faulty weapon shaft, which was damaged in the battle against Blade Gyro. Rust Boar was directly replaced by Greedy Snake, which ultimately lost the battle against Thunder and Lightning.

Rust Boar later fought in a Tag Team battle, where it collaborated with Wild Beast to battle the Australian-American pairing of Great White and Spin Doctor.

It immediately darted out of the blue square, cutting across Wild Beast and tussling with Great White as the former attacked Spin Doctor. One collision allowed Rust Boar to knock Great White off-balance – seconds later, it clipped an approaching Spin Doctor, and was promptly hit and pushed into Great White and Wild Beast’s minibot by the American machine. Immediately, Rust Boar bumped into and was lifted by Wild Beast’s drum – it maneuvered across the arena close to one of the grinders and reversed into Great White.

The impact immobilized Rust Boar instantly – seconds later, smoke started billowing from the machine as its batteries caught fire. It was briefly pushed next to the grinder mount by Spin Doctor – which would later become immobilized itself – and continued smoking as the battle progressed. Eventually, Rust Boar’s internal fire resulted in the battle being stopped early, the robot having emitted enough smoke to fill most of the arena and prevent the surviving robots from continuing safely. With this, the battle went to a Judges’ decision, which went against Rust Boar and Wild Beast.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 3
* Losses: 1

*NOTE: Rust Boar's withdrawal before its battle with Thunder and Lightning is not considered to be a loss.*

## Trivia

* Rust Boar defeated two horizontal bar spinners in two consecutive matches.
* It was also the second robot to win a battle without making contact with its opponent.
* Rust Boar was the only robot to withdraw from the main competition, coincidentally giving the robot no head-to-head losses.

## External Links

* Rust Boar's profile on the *King of Bots* website (Chinese, archived)