Maker Faire 2018

I got to check out the Orlando Maker Faire today and got to meet several of the builders from this past year's Battlebots.  I even got to meet Ray Billings (of Hardcore Robotics and Tombstone / Last Rites fame) briefly, but he was one of three Battlebots makers I didn't get to take any good photographs of (others being Predator/Foxic and Battle Royale with Cheese).

I'm standing behind Axe Backwards, a robot that didn't get very much airtime on TV, although it had a few spectacular fights with War Hawk and Monsoon.  I'm always impressed with the sheer size of these 250 lb robots!

 Captain Shrederator is another one of those robots that really grew exponentially in reality versus television.  Whew, that fanny bag and the belt to hold my shorts make me look awkwardly shaped! I was amazed to find out the spinner part of Captain Shrederator weighs almost as much as I do!

 Witch Doctor is relatively compact, but it's still a pretty massive robot! I'm especially impressed with the mass in the ribs and the vertical spinners.  Later on in the day, I would be able to get a selfie with the builder, Andrea Suarez, along with Nicholas Nave of Captain Shrederator doing a little photobombing.

 I would have liked to have seen Witch Doctor in combat in person, but given the size and structure of the arena, this was probably a good thing that it didn't go into the arena with its vertical spinners.

 Kraken is quite amusing to look at and watch! It also put on a couple of great fights today as a grappling robot.  The spelling on the one that actually went into the area today left a bit to be desired though... This was one of the more artistic robots on the show, along with Sharkoprion, Warhead, Predator, and Valkyrie.

 This was me with Tantrum, which didn't work so well this season, but is still quite fun to look at.  It's a very compact robot - still around 250 lbs, but in a much smaller space compared to many of the other robots I got to touch and look at. 

 Robert dared me to stick my head in the show model... There's plenty of room in there for either a reckless human or a reckless robot.  It's supposed to be a sea monster, but I think of it as more like a huge snake head minus the rest of the snake!

 I'm with Hypershock, including driver Will Bales (farthest to the right). They are quite the showmen, and their robot is hard to love. They had a rough season in Battlebots, but always proved to be highly entertaining as the bouncy, super-fast robot.  My favorite fight of theirs in the 2018 season was against Free Shipping, although their fight against Reality was also quite fun.