Red River Hong

*Not to be confused with the unrelated heavyweight Red River Bull*

Red River Hong with its builder

**Red River Hong** (Chinese: **红河战车**, **Hónghé zhàn chē**, meaning **Red River Chariot**; alternatively referred to as **Red River Tank** in Mech+ subtitles) was a robot which competed in the one-off series *This is Fighting Robots*, named after its team captain's home town. It was the successor to Wild Beast, and would itself be succeeded by Mist Lion.

Red River Hong was the first robot selected by Wu Chun, participating in the main competition as a member of the Red team. Initially, it enjoyed mixed success; while fighting well in its first battle against 008, Cat King and Weber, Red River Hong ultimately lost after getting turned onto its side by the Russian flipper. In the Alliance War stage, Red River Hong earned it and teammate Tungsten's first victory in a 2v2 match, splitting apart Saturn before Tungsten immobilized Slash Boy. In its first head-to-head battle, it defeated the powerful vertical spinner of Two BBQ after the latter's bar spinner became disabled, before immobilizing Sandstorm in a single hit to reach the Quarter Finals. There, Red River Hong was immobilized by former teammate Tungsten, ultimately finishing *This is Fighting Robots* in the top eight.

At the end of *This is Fighting Robots*, Red River Hong's captain Cao Yu received the 'Best Driver' award, with its battle against Two BBQ receiving singular praise from the *King of Bots* Organizing Committee.

## Design

Red River Hong used a tried-and-tested design popularised by robots such as the Brazilian **Touro Maximus** and its *BattleBots* equivalent Minotaur. Roughly rectangular-shaped in design, Red River Hong runs on a two-wheel drive system, 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. The robot was also quick, with the ability to turn quickly despite the force of its weapon, and it can also 'gyro-dance' through the use of the weapon's gyroscopic forces. The robot was painted pink, despite the name, and was decorated with comedic eyes.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

During the initial 'blind selection' process, the colorful design of Red River Hong immediately caught the attention of Wu Chun, and it became his first choice as part of the Red team. This allowed it to take part in the main competition, where it initially fought 008, Cat King and Weber in a Freestyle Combat melee.

Red River Hong initially waited to allow its drum spinner to reach its top speed. It was chased by Weber during this process, but its higher top speed allowed Red River Hong to escape, tricking the Russian machine into being overturned by the ejection board. Red River Hong then charged into 008 for a weapon-to-weapon contact, generating many sparks. Cat King threw Weber over, while 008 and Red River Hong crashed into each other's weapons once again, ripping armor from both machines.

Red River Hong had started smoking, but it still smashed into 008 for a third time, ripping another armor panel from it. Red River Hong drove over the fire pit, while Weber and Cat King both lost full mobility. Red River Hong carried a small fire across the arena, avoiding the battle rings which had caught 008 and Cat King. However, this fire prompted Red River Hong to drive into the arena wall repeatedly. From this precarious position, Red River Hong then drifted across the arena to slam into Weber.

With twenty seconds remaining in the battle, Red River Hong started to pull ahead in spite of emitting smoke, as it slammed into Cat King. However, Red River Hong made a critical error, as it drove up the wedge of Weber, and was flipped directly onto its side. Completely balanced, Red River Hong became the only robot to be rendered officially immobile, despite all three active robots struggling for movement. Red River Hong continued to emit smoke for the remainder of the battle, which was ultimately won by Weber.

Red River Hong remained in the competition by the start of Alliance War rounds. As such, it was chosen by Wu Chun to fight in a 2v2 battle alongside UK entry Tungsten from the Green team. There, the pair faced fellow British machine Saturn of the Blue team and Slash Boy of the Yellow team.

While its teammate was pitted in the early stages as a result of a side-on attack from Slash Boy, Red River Hong charged into Saturn, sending pieces of debris flying and throwing Saturn into the air. The same attack also caused Saturn to be flipped over; Red River Hong spun round and retreated towards the maces, only to meet Saturn again as the latter self-righted and tried to axe it.

"*Nice… good job, guys!*"
— Sam Smith of Team Carbide, praising the Red River Hong team for their attack on Saturn

The two competitors exchanged attacks, with Red River Hong surviving an axe blow from Saturn while repeatedly throwing it with its drum. These attacks were sufficient to cause the top part of Saturn’s shell to detach from its base; with one final flip, Red River Hong separated the shell entirely, resulting in Saturn becoming immobilized even as it self-righted using its axe. Red River Hong briefly drove towards Tungsten after its teammate was raised back up by the trap, but played no further part as Tungsten attacked and immobilized Slash Boy. Needless to say, both competitors emerged victorious via knockout, securing their places in the next round of the competition.

Towards the latter half of the 1v1 Fights stage, Wu Chun mounted a challenge which saw him pit Red River Hong against either Sandstorm or Two BBQ. This resulted in it fighting the latter, taking captain Cao Yu by surprise.

While both robots powered up their spinners, Red River Hong was directionless in its drive, driving in odd angles before eventually driving its side directly into Two BBQ's blade, and was thrown over. Two BBQ followed this up, punching Red River Hong backwards. This prompted Red River Hong to flee again, but a devastating hit from Two BBQ threw Red River Hong over a meter into the air, straight towards the corner of the arena. Wu Chun activated the spray hazard in front of the Two BBQ team to limit their vision, which caused Two BBQ to drive around aimlessly. In turn, this allowed Red River Hong a chance to dodge Two BBQ until it was turned over by the latter's wedge. Two BBQ followed this up by using the same wedge shape to fling Red River Hong into the air.

However, when Red River Hong landed, its drum collided with one of Two BBQ's wedges, ripping it from the robot. Relatively unfazed, Two BBQ struck the back of Red River Hong, and then punched its drum to push the robot back. While using 'gyro-dancing' to right itself, Red River Hong instead brought its top panel directly into Two BBQ's spinner, but despite its lack of direction when attempting to leave the corner of the arena, Red River Hong was still surviving. Red River Hong coasted into Two BBQ, slamming its side panel into the vertical bar spinner, but this caused Two BBQ's weapon belt to fall loose, leaving the robot without a functional weapon.

This afforded Red River Hong a chance to strike, hitting Two BBQ's weapon using its drum to completely silence the weapon. Red River Hong then crashed into the front of Two BBQ, and used its drum to throw Two BBQ over. Two BBQ could still run inverted, and slammed into the mace to try and self-right, but landed the same way up again. On its path to another mace, Red River Hong intercepted Two BBQ's charge and knocked it into the air, so upon Two BBQ's landing, it was then leaning against the housing of the mace, pinned on its spinner and its one remaining wedge. Two BBQ was counted out, and Red River Hong spun in circles to celebrate its unexpected victory.

Securing its place amongst the Top 13, Red River Hong then faced Sandstorm in another 1v1 clash. Red River Hong started the fight by driving around in circles, which allowed the approaching Sandstorm to momentarily push it towards a wall, but the Chinese machine escaped before anything more could be done by Sandstorm. Driving back out to the middle of the arena, Red River Hong landed a critical attack on Sandstorm, using its drum to send the robot through the air, and despite the robot being otherwise mobile, the pinned Sandstorm was unable to move. Red River Hong remained in the background as the British machine was subsequently counted out, awarding Red River Hong yet another victory.

For proving its worth in the competition so far, Red River Hong was one of the two robots Wu Chun choose to enter into the Top 8 alongside Xiake. In its quarter-final, Red River Hong fought Tungsten. As soon as the battle began, Red River Hong sped towards Tungsten, and rode straight up its disc, careening into the air. Red River Hong landed on is side, and was buffeted into the arena wall by Tungsten. Already, Red River Hong was having trouble spinning its drum, and Tungsten smashed it across the arena, into a Grinder. Just as Red River Hong found slight movement in its drum, a huge hit from Tungsten tossed it into the plexi-glass wall, high above the ground. Red River Hong was temporarily suspended atop the box between the two maces, but eventually freed itself, and Tungsten's disc also stopped turning.

While Tungsten offered no offense, Red River Hong drifted around the arena and crashed into the front of Tungsten, but still lacked momentum to its own drum. On a direct charge after finally powering up its weapon, Red River Hong ripped away Tungsten's wedge and threw the robot over, forcing it to self-right using the disc it had only just revived. Finally, Tungsten retaliated by slamming into the back of Red River Hong to throw it into the arena wall, where Red River Hong was briefly balanced on its front end. Just as Red River Hong landed and attempted to drive away, it suddenly lost mobility without explanation. Tungsten used its axe self-righting mechanism to press Red River Hong's drum, then otherwise left it idle so that the referee could count it out, awarding the win to Tungsten. This eliminated Red River Hong at the quarter-final stage.

At the end of *This is Fighting Robots*, Red River Hong received the 'Best Driver' award; the *King of Bots* Organizing Committee particularly praised Cao Yu's performance during its battle against Two BBQ, citing Yu's improved driving skills and 'patient' approach towards the initial stages of the latter.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 3
* Losses: 2

## Trivia

* Red River Hong was the first choice of Wu Chun.
* The team captain has suggested that "Pink Memories" would be an applicable name for the robot to English speakers, although Red River Hong (or Red River - Hong He) is the robot's official name, based upon the team's location. "Pink Memories" is used in the subtitled Mech+ captions for Episode 1, reinforcing this suggestion.
* Despite the naming similarity and shared drum spinner weapon type, there is no confirmed relation between Red River Hong and Season 2 competitor Red River Bull.
* The baseplate of Red River Hong featured a pink character resembling a Minion from the *Despicable Me* film franchise. This made it one of two *This is Fighting Robots* competitors to include elements of this theme; the other being Polar Opposite.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.facebook.com/KOBCHINA/photos/a.238468580015775/372039386658693/?type=3&theatre