What a lovely lot those Colliass kids were; gracious in both victory and defeat, and as bemused by Cherub’s success as we were. Up and up went their robot, floating to the final on a cloud of goodwill and favourable judges’ decisions. Disunity reigned elsewhere, particularly in the Behemoth team where the choice to try out a new weapon proved a controversial one and caused the captain to stalk off in a strop. You can feel his pain – all that preparation, work and time went down the drain because they took a risk that didn’t pay off. You can also sympathise with his teammates; having kitted out their bot with more accessories than Malibu Barbie, they must have been itching to try them out in the arena. Let’s hope all the tensions were ironed out on the drive home. Mysteriously, some of the losing teams weren’t even seen after their elimination. Draven, for instance, or Team Cobra, who disappeared straight after their roasted-marshmallow defeat at the claws of Sir Killalot. Were they not happy with the judges’ decision, or did they just have to hotfoot it back to Belgium in time to make some delicious chocolate/waffles/invent the saxophone? We’ll never know. It was hubris, not risk-taking that led to PP3D’s eventual elimination. Having built a weapon so destructive it destroyed their own bot in a storm of fizzing, spitting sparks, theirs was an Icarian defeat. There were some objectively great bouts in week two, including the “ding-dong battle” that led to the first judges’ decision on a group match. Behemoth in particular proved a really entertaining watch due to its endearing resemblance to a bird trying to scare off a foe every time it fired its weapon and flapped its wings. That said, with kids like the Colliass family around, perhaps there’s hope for mankind yet. Read Louisa’s review of the previous episode here.
