A brief history of Team Luna
Luna-Tic, 15 years in the making
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We are a family team, based in Shropshire with little to no experience of engineering or electrical things. We have no workshop or garage and the shed is full of the usual Garden things, we take the term "homemade robots" literally as we only have the basic usual household tools too. But this hasn't hampered the team Captains efforts to full fill a childhood dream.
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"Everybody who watched the original run of Robot Wars wished they could build one, It wasn't until I watched the fight between Behemoth and Hypnodisc during Extreme 1 that Luna-Tic started to take shape. Combining attack and defence into a single weapon package looked ideal, but what chassis to mount it all on? Tornado was showing great control with their 4WD skid steer drive perfect for mounting a Behemoth scoop. The last robot of inspiration was Panic Attack, I loved how Kim Davis controlled the lifting folks to great effect. They weren't as impressive as Gas Flippers, but I wanted the control of lifting to the required height instead of just BANG and sending them into the air."
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The design of Luna-Tic was born, as Tornado themselves developed their own Scoop that severed them very well over the next few years, there was one fundamental problem with it. The scoop only worked when Tornado was the right way up. This then led to the Moon Scoop, a 180 degree concave scoop allowing a zero ground clearance either way up. While only being 18, Chris begin constructing a wooden chassis, one he still has stored at his in-laws. But soon he was offered two car ramps, that when placed side by side was a robot shaped chassis and so begin Luna-Tic XP1.
With a trip to the scrapyard for windscreen wiper motors where he also found a brake disc which turned into a rather nice spinning disc. Four trolley wheels from work and a quick trip to the local model shop for batteries and radio gear suddenly a robot was starting to take shape. However, there is a reason you haven't seen this on Robot Wars. The TV show was cancelled and Chris was very relived in some ways as he had hit a wall with the drive train. Linking the motors to the wheels looked impossible with his limited knowledge and quickly evaporating spare money. Luna-Tic XP1 was sent into the shed where it stayed for the next 11years. Forgotten about and left to rust.
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Fast ward to 2016 and out of nowhere Robot Wars returned to our screens.
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"I sat down and shared my old passion with my now three children. I showed them the rusty remains of Luna-Tic XP1 and they asked me if I would finish it? I didn't want to because of the massive problems I encountered all them years ago. They begged, but I still stood my ground and that was that."
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Despite saying no, the seed was painted in Chris's head and found himself pricing up the parts needed to get the robot finished. But his curiosity soon turned to horror as the price of simple components for Heavyweights weren't cheep. But with all his research he discovered the featherweight class and just how easy these things are to build.
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"What really made me realise I could do this was Pulsar made by Ellis Ware who lived not 20 miles from me. Local media advertised Ellis as a "High School drop out turned self taught roboteer." I discovered his YouTube page and watched videos with his Featherweight build Tormenta. He showed how to extract motors and gearboxes from Cordless drills and how to attach them to wheels. The problems I encountered with Luna-Tic XP1 was gone."
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Ellis's story highlighted the advances in the internet and the wealth of information now at everybody's finger tips. Online videos show everything you would need to learn from what materials to use and how to solder. Even social media plays a massive part, being able to talk to the experienced veterans of the sport in an instant from the comfort of your own home. Armed with knowledge and a new found determination Featherweight Luna-Tic began construction in September 2016 and made its arena debut at Extreme Robots at Manchester April 2017. The rest they say is history....
