Panic Attack (robot)

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Panic Attack was a robot that competed in the British television show Robot Wars. In Series 2, first broadcast in late 1998, it was just a box with a set of electrically powered lifting forks, powered by a homemade system. It was emblazoned with the image of a spider. The spider was the result of a school competition to come up with a design of something that made you panic. A 12-year-old girl designed the spider. With his prize money from Series 2, Kim built a newer machine. This one had a srimech (self-righting mechanism), a new body shape, and more effective forks, which were capable of completely overturning opposing machines. The top-mounted self-righting mechanism proved to be unreliable, and was eventually removed. Added in Series 4 were a set of side "skirts" to prevent all but the lowest of robots from getting underneath it, as well as sloping sides. The fourth model had improved skirts, and the srimech was updated to a top flipper, which was the favourite with the driver Kim Davies, who stated it was, in his opinion, the best version.

Panic Attack was constructed in Cwmbran, Wales.^[1]

The Series 6 version was flatter, with silver forks and painted gold as opposed to yellow, as the team had run out of yellow paint when the time came to paint it. As a result, this model was unofficially, but universally nicknamed Panic Attack Gold. For Series 7, the fourth model was reused, with the addition of a rear skirt, and with the srimech being replaced by an anti-hammer cushioned top.

The robot competed in Series 2-7 of Robot Wars, winning the second series and making the semi-finals in three other wars. It also won the "Sumo Basho" competition in Series 4, meaning that it was the only machine to defeat Shunt in this event twice. Panic Attack was one of the longest appearing robots, appearing in six wars and two extremes. Although the only grand champion never to reach another Grand Final, Panic Attack reached the most semi-finals of all Grand Champions at four.

Panic Attack's signature move was to slip beneath a robot, using its forks to get a grip inside the opponent's armour, wheels or other openings, before driving into the pit release button and pushing it down the pit. It achieved this many times, against robots like Axe Awe, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Manta and Kat 3.

The team also entered Panic Attack in one season of Battlebots, losing out to Frenzy. They returned next season with Scallywag, a wedge-shaped lifter with a colour scheme similar to Panic Attack.

As champion of Series 2 and a good contestant in later wars, Panic Attack was one of the competitor robots immortalized in plastic when the Robot Wars toys were released. A 'Minibot' toy plus a working pullback with flipping spikes and a 'Pitstop' toy were released.

Panic Attack could be the bravest robot in the series as it would tackle the house robots when it found a chance to, especially Shunt who became a rival of sorts to Panic Attack. It also had a rivalry with Firestorm, who dethroned it of its champion status in Series 3 and the two fought four more times over the years, though Panic Attack was never able to beat Firestorm in a true fight, and the only win against Firestorm it got was from their last brawl when Firestorm unwittingly drove into the Pit.