It's called Fallen Windmill.
So my friends and I hold competitions with these things, which are basically just chunks of legos with wheels. The field is usually quite diverse—spinners (both horizontal and vertical), hammers, and, more recently, flippers/launchers.
We have a pretty complex rulebook, but we can remember all the relevant rules for most fights. Essentially we push them into each other, hard. We cannot be touching them when they collide. We have ten hits to KO each other's bots (basically, flip them upside down or take out their wheels) and then it goes to whoever's not fighting to decide (based on a point scoring system) who won.
Anyway, this is one of mine. It's done all right (5-6 record), though its inherently unstable design has caused problems in the past.
Its left wheel is connected by gears to the spinning bar on top, which rotates at about 400 rpms (~7 times per second). With the heaviest bar it stores about 0.04 joules of energy by my rough estimation (it could be a bit lower or much higher). While that's not a lot—a paintball has about 10-20 joules—it's released quickly and without much bending, so it can smash lego structures apart.
In fact, we don't usually use brown bricks in our weapons or armor anymore, because they're more brittle and can shatter with a big hit, as opposed to other colors, which just dent or bend slightly.
Here are the main bar/blade versions I've made:
Thick bar (top)
This one has medium reach, but hits harder than any of the others and is the most durable. I use it when I'm facing a very tough bot.
This is actually the only one of these that I've used in a tournament before. The others are newer.
Long bar (second from top)
This is the longest bar I have, and it's designed for use against vertical spinners, which are very dangerous and often durable bots that have become increasingly common. The stepped ends are meant to reduce the chances of a vert uppercutting the bar (which can be very bad). The weapon spins clockwise, so it hits with the longer part.
I really don't know how well it will do. I'm nervous because the tips are not that securely fastened to the rest and came off in testing. But I'm also optimistic because its range and tip design give me an advantage against verts.
Thin bar (second from bottom)
The Thin bar is the same length as the Thick bar, but is way lighter. It's designed for fights where I don't think I can hit the opponent (say they are very low). Any non-small hit will most likely break off both ends of the bar, so I don't use it for any other fights.
Another interesting property of this bar is that it's bendy from top to bottom. This means that if a vert uppercuts it but doesn't get a big hit, it will probably not break, since the pieces are springy and will bend out of the way.
Balance Beam (bottom)
(Thanks to Heidi for coming up with the name.)
This bar is the shortest one, and it's also the widest. This is meant to maximize stability after a big hit (I've lost like 4-5 matches by getting flipped over, all of them at least partially due to the power of my weapon). It's also pretty solidly built, more so than the Long and Thin bars (though it lacks the strength of the Thick bar).
I plan on using this bar when facing large bots with small weapons.
I also recently made a four-ended weapon called the Quadbar. Unfortunately, it was both too heavy and lacked the bite necessary to really inflict damage.
And here's one more key design feature:
Anti-flip prongs
I mentioned before that Fallen Windmill is not very stable. This is due to a combination of big wheels, a small chassis, and a powerful weapon. In one match, I knocked like a quarter of the opponent off in the first hit and in the next few continued to damage it. But then I hit them at the wrong angle and flipped over. I can sometimes self-right by spinning the weapon, but this was not one of those times. I lost by knockout.
In another match, I was flipped twice. I self-righted the first time, but my weapon was shot the second time and I lost.
So I've added these. I used them in one match last time, and they did their job decently—most of them came off, but I didn't flip over and the fight went to JD, which I lost.
I have upgraded the prongs, and I think they'll work this time. They better—one of my friends has built a flipper.
Other things I've done to fix the flipping issue—first, I made the Balance Beam, so I have a better option against the heavy, well-armored opponents I tend to flip against. Second, I've shifted the center of mass of the chassis farther back, so in a big hit I shouldn't flip over, but instead get flung backward and to the side.
We'll see how well it works.
You can read more about Fallen Windmill and others like it here.
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