Hypno-Disc was a contestant entry in the Robot Wars TV series, and was one of the first robots permitted to use the kinetic flywheel weapon. Hypno-Disc's design, however, was somewhat basic, and its high ground clearance made it an easy target for robots armed with flipping weapons, such as Chaos 2. Hypno-Disc was the creation of the Rose family — twin brothers Derek and David, and their father Ken. It was the first competitor robot recreated in toy form when the Robot Wars pullback toys were released.Hypno-disc pull back robot replica otherlandgadgets.com
Series 3 Hypno-Disc's debut battle was against fellow newcomers Robogeddon. In the battle, Hypno-Disc hit its opponent several times, as the armour started buckling, then coming off completely. Further attacks damaged the wheels and weapon, as well as rupturing its canister, leaving the robot in a huge mess. The wheels were still turning, and the flipping weapon was still functional, but the wheels and tyres were so badly damaged and the chassis so deformed that they couldn't get any traction on the arena floor. Robogeddon couldn't go anywhere, so cease was called, and Hypno-Disc was declared the winner of the battle, putting it through to the second round of the heat, as the rising heat favourites.
In the second round, Hypno-Disc was placed up against another newcomer to the wars in Stealth. Hypno-Disc only began by landing scratches on Stealth's front, but then used a small spot in Matilda's CPZ to turn around and attack Stealth's rear. However, the arena spike caused Hypno-Disc to fly upwards, with its disc ripping Stealth's rear circular saw right off. From then on, all armour panels began to fly off Stealth after every impact from Hypno-Disc's flywheel weapon. Stealth then finally used what life it had left to turn back around again, but still had its flipper gaping open, Hypno-Disc took advantage of this and disabled the flipper completely, before cease was called. This comprehensive victory put Hypno-Disc through to the heat final. Hypno-Disc was then placed up against Berserk 2 in the Heat Final.
Berserk's armour was notably harder than the other two competitors and Hypno-Disc was only able to cause a few minor slices in the rear of Berserk 2. However, about halfway through the bout, Berserk 2 was flipped onto its side by an arena spike. Hypno-Disc righted the machine and went through on a judges' decision. However, there was a real scare for the future runners-up, as Berserk 2 had damaged the disc and Sergeant Bash had caused the robot to have blackouts. To make matters worse, Derek departed for America, leaving Dave and Ken alone to work for four hours straight in order to avoid disqualification. They nearly had to retire from lack of parts and time, but they brought their robot back to life just in time for the Series Semi-Finals.
Hypno-Disc entered the second of the Series Semi-Finals, and was placed up against Evil Weevil in the first round. In this battle, Evil Weevil lacked the agility that Hypno-Disc had, and couldn't bring its weaponry into effect at all. Although Hypno-Disc started tentatively as well. After merely scratching the surface of the armour with the disc, Hypno-Disc soon managed to cause proper damage, After slicing both antennae of Evil Weevil off, Hypno-Disc steered Evil Weevil towards Sir Killalot's CPZ, before it smashed the side of Evil Weevil, managing to break a wheel. Evil Weevil suffered control problems, as it could only turn around in circles after the slam from Hypno-Disc, and the house robots finished the immobile machine. This led to one of the closest battles in Robot Wars, as Hypno-Disc was put through to the second round of the Semi-Final, and was placed up against the experienced 101, this was to fill the final spot in the Grand Final.
In this battle, 101 drove in and pushed Hypno-Disc. 101 managed to stop the blade and drove on top of Hypno-Disc. 101 then reversed into Dead Metal and Hypno-Disc attacked it a few times, before reversing into Dead Metal itself. Hypno-Disc escaped and pushed 101 into Dead Metal. Both robots attacked each other and the fight ended with a pushing match. This was an extremely close match; for the first time ever, the judges emerged from their booth and studied the robots for damage, before eventually making their decision, which went in favour of Hypno-Disc, putting the newcomers through to the Grand Final.
In the Grand Final eliminator, Hypno-Disc was drawn up against original reserves for the Third Wars in Steg-O-Saw-Us. In the battle, Steg-O-Saw-Us drove in immediately and attacked Hypno-Disc's rear. Both bots drove into CPZs, and Hypno-Disc then attacked and ripped Steg-O-Saw-Us' side armour. Steg-O-Saw-Us tried to avoid Hypno-Disc's blade and it rammed it again. Hypno-Disc then rammed the rear of Steg-O-Saw-Us and managed to jam one of its wheels. Dave Rose regards this as the most difficult fight of the series.Interview With Dave Rose fortunecity.com
Hypno-Disc was subsequently put through to the Grand Final, where it went up against Chaos 2. Chaos 2 had a fast start, circling Hypno-Disc, getting in a good position for a flip. However, Hypno-Disc seemed to be very sluggish and appeared to have control problems, but Chaos 2 decided not to immediately finish the battle and drove away. Chaos 2 then used its flipper unsuccessfully, bouncing and landing on Hypno-Disc's disc, temporarily stopping the disc. Chaos 2 managed to escape without any damage done, however Hypno-Disc was also able to get its disc up to speed again. However, as Hypno-Disc drove over the flame pit, Chaos 2 was able to drive in again and land the final blow, ironically, getting under Hypno-Disc to flip it over onto its back, and win the title. While Chaos 2 then took on the House robots, the defeated Hypno-Disc machine was dragged into the arena corner by Dead Metal, before cease was finally called.
Hypno-Disc won the award for the Most Original Entry that series, which turned out to be the only Robot Wars trophy or award ever given to Hypno-Disc.
Series 4 Hypno-Disc returned to the Fourth Wars as the number 2 seed. Since Series 3 the team had changed the size and shape of the teeth on the disc; they were now thicker and were designed to grip hold of whole pieces of armour and tear them off, while the old disc did fairly localised damage to tougher armoured robots. Then, they changed the wheels' colour to white, which was used by later designs of the machine. They also fitted in a self righting-mechanism after the final against Chaos 2. The Rose family (and the new disc) did not disappoint, as their first round melee battle, in the final heat of the series, which saw it go up against The Predator and Raizer Blade, was full of action. To begin with, Hypno-Disc hit The Predator's rear three times, ripping off its armour. Raizer Blade lifted Hypno-Disc, but the heat favourites landed back on its wheels. It hit The Predator again, causing the insides to start to fall out and even the battery. At the end of the fight, only Hypno-Disc was moving, but Raizer Blade was put through as well as it sustained less damage. Hypno-Disc's second round battle was against the substitute robot V-Max.
V-Max drove into Hypno-Disc's side, but the 2nd seeds attacked it and ripped off a side panel. Carbon dioxide was leaking from V-Max when Hypno-Disc attacked again. The substitutes lifted Hypno-Disc and pushed it across the arena, but lost its battery when it was rammed by Hypno-Disc again. V-Max was shredded to pieces and Hypno-Disc was through to the heat final, where it was placed up against Raizer Blade once again. After just a few blows from the disc, Hypno-Disc managed to immobilise Raizer Blade, but despite being victorious, they then caused more damage to the defeated machine; breaking off the whole top and side armour of Raizer Blade, this was then before Raizer Blade was ambushed by the house robots, and then flung by the arena floor flipper while Hypno-Disc stayed out of the way. This sent Hypno-Disc through to the Series Semi-Finals once more.
In the Series Semi-Finals, Hypno-Disc was placed up against the unseeded Splinter, in the first round, initiating what would arguably be Hypno-Disc's most famous battle. Splinter decided attack was the best form of defence and used its front scoop to deflect Hypno-Disc's spinning blade. It looked like there would be a major upset when Splinter grabbed hold of the seeded machine from the rear and pushed it into Dead Metal's CPZ, until Hypno-Disc escaped and came back on the attack. The blade created several gashes in the front scoop of Splinter, which seemed to be holding up well. But it then hit the flywheel at an angle, ripping it right from the front and leaving it hanging on by mere threads. Hypno-Disc then tore off the scoop completely before tearing off pieces of armour from the left-hand side. More attacks buckled Splinter's grabbing arms, and shredded the internal areas. Splinter was defeated, putting Hypno-Disc through to the second round, which saw the number 2 seeds get placed up against the number 11 seeds Wild Thing.
In this battle, Wild Thing tried to ram Hypno-Disc's rear, but hit the blade weapon and spun around as a result of the impact. Wild Thing pushed Hypno-Disc's side and rear but Hypno-Disc attacked with its disc, causing some damage to Wild Thing's wheels. However, the 11th seeds kept attacking, and pushed Hypno-Disc into Dead Metal. Wild Thing then lifted Hypno-Disc onto the arena wall before time finally ran out. The battle ended, resulting in a judges' decision, the decision went in favour of Hypno-Disc, putting the number 2 seeds through to the Grand Final once again.
Hypno-Disc was placed up against the number 19 seeds Pussycat in the Grand Final eliminator. Hypno-Disc went in as the favourites, but just one attack from Pussycat's blade damaged one of Hypno-Disc's wheel guards, jamming the wheel and leaving the robot with severe handling problems. Hypno-Disc was eventually pushed into the CPZ by Pussycat, and Shunt put an enormous hole in the disc with its axe, stopping the disc entirely and damaging the robot's gearing. Hypno-Disc was still spinning in circles at the end, yet it was still plucked up by house robot Sir Killalot, and dumped down into the pit of oblivion. This eliminated Hypno-Disc from the competition, and the damage sustained by it prevented it from being able to take part in the playoff battle against the number 30 seeds Stinger. Stinger was awarded third place by default, and Hypno-Disc placed fourth.
Robot Wars Extreme 1 Hypno-Disc's Mayhem qualifier battle was the Main Event of the second episode of the first series of Extreme, this battle was for a right to fight in the first annihilator of the series. The battle saw Hypno-Disc go up against Wheely Big Cheese and Ming 3. Hypno-Disc convincingly won the battle. It began the battle by tearing one of the wheels of Ming 3, before then putting several gashes into the sides and into the wheels of Wheely Big Cheese. Hypno-Disc dislodged one of Wheely Big Cheese's wheels, before then ripping a wheel clean off Ming 3, before then ripping off the other one. The Refbot then came in, counting out the immobilised Ming 3, and also counting out the limping Wheely Big Cheese, despite one wheel and the flipper still working. Hypno-Disc then held back, watching Ming 3 to be flipped by the arena floor flipper. Hypno-Disc moved in for one more slice at Ming 3, as Wheely Big Cheese tried to flip the wheel-less robot itself. Hypno-Disc then sat and witnessed the demise of Wheely Big Cheese and Ming 3, as both were sent down the pit by the house robots before cease was called. Despite this promising start to the series, Hypno-Disc struggled to make much of an impression in Extreme.