In Robot Wars, some robots leave an impression on the viewers. Sometimes it's a big impression that makes the memorable for years to come, sometimes they leave little impression and are forgotten about with even die-hard fans barely ever mentioning them again, and sometimes they leave either a positive or negative impression. This robot is an example of both. This is a robot that fans either love or despise for a myriad of reasons. I personally am in the camp that loves this robot. This robot is known by one name, or technically three names. This robot...is Dantomkia
Built in Surrey by Michael Lambert and named after his three children, Daniel Thomas and Kiara (hence the name Dantomkia), this yellow and black flipper bot debuted relatively late in the classic era and yet became a superstar household name in spite of that. It was twice a semi-finalist, an All-Stars runner-up and always a high performing machine with very few defeats to its name. The machine currently holds the record for the most out of the arena flips, having scored nine in total. It was also one of the last robots in the show's history to have a pullback toy made of it, and a damn good one too. Despite always showing promise, the robot never managed to win anything major and always kind of fell at the last hurdle. And as mentioned before, this is a robot with a mixed reception. People either love Dantomkia and remember it fondly (like me) or they despise it for its tendency to flip opponents out of the arena swiftly, which made for dull and uninteresting fights. I don't think Dantomkia deserves that kind of reputation myself as it most certainly did NOT have dull fights and its tenure on the show was very memorable. But hey, we all have our biases.
Anyway, I'm here today to celebrate this robot's career by recapping it from beginning to end, from its big highs to its big lows, from its fiery debut in the classic series to its return in the reboot that was sadly short-lived. This is the career of Dantomkia...
Dantomkia's Big Debut
Dantomkia first debuted in Heat C of Series 6, but this wasn't the first time that Michael Lambert had ever tried to get on the show. You see, he actually attempted to enter Series 4 with Dantomkia, albeit a very different looking Dantomkia to what you see above:
This version of the robot had no weapon, had a boxier design and was coated in 8-12 mm polycarbonate armour. It fought two qualifier matches against Anorakaphobia and Last Rights respectively and despite winning both matches, the machine did NOT make it onto the show. Michael Lambert chalked it up to the battles being seen as "boring", and so he sought to make a more competitive and efficient machine. It was a relaxing pub session with Ian Watts from Team Bigger Brother and Sam Smith from Team Tiberius in where the inspiration for Dantomkia's flipper came from and so the machine was rebuilt into what we know it as today.
Dantomkia is a boxy bi-wedge design with a frame made from box-section steel, 25mm thick at the front, 20mm on the rest of the robot and it was drilled so the robot wouldn't be overweight. The armour was grade 5 titanium with an extra layer of polycarbonate (between 10 and 12mm thick) on top. It had Hawker Odyssey batteries, Bosch 750 Watt motors and Vantec RDFR 47E speed controllers. The flipper was powered by high-pressure pneumatics with liquid CO2, at 1000psi. The machine was fast, able to move at 20mph, and its flipper could fire with two tonnes of pressure. Firing at one twenty-fifth of a second, Dantomkia could manage between 25-40 flips at a time. Interestingly enough, the weapons system was inspired by Bigger Brother, and Dantomkia itself would go on to inspire Gravity with the pneumatics system of their machine. This will turn out VERY ironically for reasons I'll explain later on...
Unlike Series 4, Dantomkia DID qualify for Series 6, doing so with ease by dominating a melee they fought with Destruct-A-Bubble, Iron-Awe 2 and Maximus. Out of the four, only Iron-Awe 2 would qualify for the show along with Dantomkia, and both were in the same heat no less, albeit in different melees.
To say Dantomkia left a big first impression is an understatement. It dominated its first-round melee against Mr. Nasty, Dr. Fist and Crushtacean and qualified along with Crushtacean to the second round, where they effortlessly dispatched of Mighty Mouse. The mouse bot was the first of many, MANY out of the arena flips Dantomkia would score in its tenure. This lead to Dantomkia being a Heat Finalist on its first try, and boy did it have a big opponent to face in that Heat Final! Imagine you're Michael Lambert: this is your first time on Robot Wars and you're in a Heat Final against CHAOS 2! If that were me, I'd be crapping myself with anxiety! Still, Dantomkia gave it a good tussle and despite being flung into the air by Chaos 2 at one point, they landed back on the floor and then both machines got flipped over in the CPZ. Dantomkia self-righted while Chaos 2 struggled, thus giving Dantomkia the opportunity to flip them out. Chaos 2 was the first machine in the show's history to flip another out of the arena, and now here it is getting flipped out itself. The irony is delicious. XD
So Dantomkia made a semi-final on its first try. Pretty big way to start your career, eh? Their next battle was against S3 in where they missed a charge on the silver spinner bot, and...
...got stuck. Whoops. XD So because they couldn't move, S3 knocked out the safety link with their flywheel and Dantomkia was immobilized as a result, even when Refbot freed it from the wall. But that didn't end Dantomkia's tenure just yet, for they fought a Loser's Melee against 13 Black and Wild Thing 2. They dominated the melee (expect to hear me say that A LOT in this essay) and emerged victorious when Wild Thing 2 was pitted and 13 Black wasn't able to outperform them on a Judge's Decision. There was a funny moment in where Dantomkia and 13 Blakc took a moment out of the battle to just spin on the spot as if they were having a dance-off. Bet the crowd enjoyed that. XD So now Dantomkia has a second chance, will they get any further?
Eh, nope. This image speaks for itself.
So yeah, that was Dantomkia's Series 6 run. I'd say it's comparable to Tornado in Series 4 in how they started off on a massive high note with a dominant heat performance, a surprise Heat Final victory and finishing in the second round of the semi-finals to the current champion at the time. Heck, Dantomkia even won the Most Promising Newcomer Award for this series just like Tornado did! Didn't think there'd be that many similarities between them, yet here we are.
Dantomkia certainly started off strongly in Series 6 and showed it was a machine with much potential. Did it carry on showing that potential? Let's find out in the next part:
An Extreme-ly Memorable Run
Dantomkia had two appearances in Extreme II, the first being the All-Stars Tournament. They pretty much spent their melee against Terrorhurtz and Tornado just bullying the former along with the latter. Seriously, poor Terrorhurtz just couldn't catch a break in that fight! Dantomkia came VERY close to flipping them out at one point, but to no avail. The axe bot was pitted in the end, making Dantomkia and Tornado the ones to qualify for the next round. Dantomkia was against Firestorm 4 next and despite being one of the few robots in the show's history actually flip them over, Firestorm 4 was ultimately too much for Dantomkia. It was fast-paced and frantic battle that had a rather abrupt end when Dantomkia self-righted and then just died afterwards, so it was immobile with its flipper stuck open like you see in the image above. Sadly, Dantomkia would have quite a few defeats like this in its career.
Their next appearance in Extreme II was in the Challenge Belt Tournament in where their first round melee was against Hypno-Disc, SMIDSY and Sir Chromalot. YET AGAIN, Dantomkia dominated the melee, even chucking Hypno-Disc out of the arena like they were nothing, and disposing of Sir Chromalot with ease. Apparently, they even flipped SMIDSY out of the arena, but that moment wasn't seen in the televised cut of the battle. Despite that, SMIDSY qualified along with Dantomkia. Round 2 saw them against Iron-Awe 2 in where they flipped them out within seconds despite their opponent lowering their ground clearance to try and prevent this. The Heat Final saw them face off against Terrorhurtz for the right to fight Tornado for the Challenge Belt. This time however, Dantomkia got battered into submission. Terrorhurtz ain't so easy when Tornado's not here to help you, is he Danny girl? =P
(Before you ask, Michael Lambert would refer to Dantomkia with female pronouns, so that's why I called her that.)
Despite not winning either competition it was in, Dantomkia's Extreme II run saw it achieve some memorable wins and losses and take out some big names like Hypno-Disc and Terrorhurtz. Overall, a good run even if it didn't win either competition it fought in. As is, Dantomkia was looking very promising with its brilliant runs in Series 6 and Extreme II. Could it keep up the momentum?
A Dominant Heat And A Quick Exit
Dantomkia returned for Series 7, seeded 5th in the competition, and just like in Series 6, it appeared in Heat C of the series. In terms of upgrades, the front was upgraded with 3mm HARDOX and re-armoured due to Michael Lambert's fear of spinners and it featured a new set of HARDOX cone wedges.
Its first round melee was against King B Powerworks, Hassocks Hog 2 and Rick. Three guesses what happened. That's right, Dantomkia dominated the melee! You're shocked, I can tell. =P They flipped over Hassocks Hog 2 and the hog bot conked out when their flipper didn't work and for the rest of the fight, Dantomkia pretty much toyed with King B and Rick. It was a split decision from the judges in the end with Dantomkia as the obvious winner of the melee while King B and Rick were tough to choose from. In the end, Dantomkia and King B qualified the melee. Dantomkia would face Scorpion in the next round and despite flipping them out of the arena in the end, they didn't get away unscathed as Scorpion managed to scar them a little with their spinner. Their Heat Final saw them face off against the scary looking IG-88. Despite their opponent seeming like a threat, it was over with VERY quickly. How quickly? Well watch:
Yes, that really happened! It really was over that quickly! Mind-blowing isn't it?
And yet surprisingly, this wasn't all cheers-and-yays for Dantomkia. You see, Michael Lambert revealed in a 2015 Facebook post that somehow, IG-88 had managed to actually damage Dantomkia despite how brief the battle was. IG-88's weapon hitting the lip of Dantomkia's flipper sent a surge through the robot that overheated the radio relays and driver CCT's. This caused the weapon to become less responsive and they weren't really able to fix it for the remainder of Series 7. I find this quite bizarre since Dantomkia's flipper seems to work just fine in its other battles afterwards, but hey, I'm only a viewer, I can't believe everything I see on TV.
Anyway, Dantomkia was a semi-finalist once again and their next round was against Gravity. If you thought Dantomkia vs. IG-88 was brief, just watch this!
Ironic isn't it? Dantomkia set the record for the fastest battle ever, then Gravity went and broke it immediately afterwards. Also ironic since Gravity took inspiration from Dantomkia for its pneumatic systems and then went on to beat their inspiration. So much irony in this fight! XD This battle would hold the record for the shortest battle in Robot Wars history until Rapid vs. Tracktion in the reboot broke it.
So after that speedy exit, Dantomkia would return one last time in the Series 7 All-Stars Tournament. They qualified their melee alongside Pussycat after flipping Behemoth and King B Powerworks out. Interestingly, Michael Lambert would reveal Mentorn actually told him to flip Behemoth out and they even set up the cameras in the corner for where Michael would do it. I'm not sure if I believe that, but I have to say it was a bit scummy of Mentorn to literally instruct him to do that to Behemoth. Just let the roboteers fight how they want to, don't instruct them like that. Anyway, Dantomkia would go on to dispose of another former champion by flipping Panic Attack out of the arena, the last time a robot would be defeated in such a manner in the classic era and also Dantomkia's last televised out-of-the-arena flip. Their All-Stars final was against Pussycat. On paper, it seemed like an easy win for Dantomkia, but Pussycat sniped their aerial and knocked them out, making Pussycat the All-Star winners. Pity really. This tournament was practically GIFT-WRAPPED for Dantomkia, and they couldn't even win that.
Still, Dantomkia finished its classic era run on a high note I'd say. Reaching the semi-finals again and finishing as an All-Stars runner up? I'd be happy if my career ended like that. However, this wasn't the end of Dantomkia's career for they returned 12 years later in the reboot...
Returning For The Reboot Under New Owners
Dantomkia was among many veteran machines making a comeback in the reboot, though this time it wasn't under Michael Lambert's ownership. The machine had since been sold to Team S. Tek in the period between Robot Wars's cancellation and return. The robot was upgraded with tank-grade steel armour, its weight was increased to 108kgs and the robot could now spin on the spot at 500rpm. The classic bulldog logo on the front was also replaced with Team S.Tek's logo and Dantomkia's name was removed from the paint job.
Even after all these years, Dantomkia was still able to do what it does best: dominate melees. It easily dispatched of Glitterbomb while King B Remix knocked Overdozer out in one hit and Dantomkia spent the rest of the melee toying with both until Cease was called. Dantomkia and King B qualified and battle together again in the Round Robin matches. Dantomkia easily beat King B Remix, but was then easily beaten by TR2 in the next match. It managed to win a judge's decision against Big Nipper in order to clinch enough points to qualify for the Heat Final in where, again, they fought TR2 and were essentially dominated. It's rather funny isn't it how Dantomkia's biggest struggles seem to be against other flippers, eh? Team S.Tek may refer to TR2 as a "boring doorstop", but the result was the same: TR2 won and Dantomkia failed to win a heat for the first and only time in its career. Sadly, they didn't appear again after this episode, making this their only reboot appearance.
Nowadays, Team S.Tek have sold Dantomkia to Team Slam, and they attempted to enter the machine in Series 9, but to no avail. The machine still competes to this day in live events and makes appearances at shows like RoboNerd, so their career isn't over by any means. Dantomkia's still going strong even now, and I'm sure it'll keep on fighting for many years to come...
Conclusion
And that's the career of Dantomkia. It may not have been around as long as some other machines on the show, but whenever it was on the show, it always left a big impression. Its striking appearance, yellow and black colour scheme, efficient weaponry and how nearly all of its battles have something memorable about them makes for one of Robot Wars's most noteworthy competitors they've ever had on the show. It's a pity they never won anything major, but as Dantomkia has proven, you don't need to win a trophy or an award of some kind to catch people's attention. Sometimes, all you need is a strong performance and some noteworthy moments in your battles to really strike a chord with people. Whether you like Dantomkia or not, you can't deny this is one truly memorable machine and I'll continue to remember it fondly from this day forward...
And that's it for my essay on Dantomkia. I hope you enjoyed reading it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Do you like Dantomkia? Do you not like Dantomkia? What's your favourite Dantomkia battle? Do tell me.
Next week, I'll be reviewing a Disney classic from their Renaissance period. Which one? You'll find out next Friday...
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