Blendo
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Blendo was a combat robot designed and built by Jamie Hyneman and wired by Adam Savage.[1] It first competed in the second Robot Wars competition in San Francisco (1995). Blendo had the first effective implementation of the full-body kinetic energy spinner weapon that became important in the game.
The robot had a spinning shell made of a wok and powered by a lawnmower engine. Blades attached to the spinning weapon caused grievous damage to its opponents, tearing away pieces and hurling them over the Lexan shields into the audience. After two fights it was deemed too hazardous to compete by the event supervisors and was given co-champion status in exchange for withdrawing from the competition.[2]
Blendo would later compete in several BattleBots competitions. However, Blendo had little success in BattleBots; often the robot would damage itself during battle.
Blendo's creators are now the co-hosts of the Discovery Channel show, MythBusters, which also features fellow combat robotics competitor, Grant Imahara. Unlike his fellow battlebot, Deadblow, Blendo has yet to make any contributions in Mythbusters.
Blendo is an inaugural member of the Combat Robot Hall of Fame.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.adamsavage.com/design.html
- ^ 'Gearheads' by Brad Stone, ISBN 0-7432-2951-7