Growler was introduced in the sixth series as Mr. Psycho's loyal and terrifying dog, designed by Robin Englebright. The jaws of Growler were capable of creating 4 tons of force. The shell and chassis of Growler was predominantly steel with industrial digger gauge used in the jaw. Growler had two 48 volt 5 kW motors running a 4 wheel drive motive system, 300 ampere speed controllers and 6 batteries. He was based on Bullseye, who was Bill Sykes's dog in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist (Mr Psycho was based on Bill Sykes himself), and his original working name during the design process was Pitbull (not to be confused with the Series 3 semi-finalist).
His main weapon was a large dog-like crushing jaw, which he would use to clamp hold of other robots. Growler was the fastest of all the House Robots, until Cassius Chrome was introduced in Series 7, reaching speeds of up to 17 miles per hour due to a skid steer driving mechanism (a mechanism also used by Robot Wars champion Tornado). This, combined with his weight of over 300kg, meant that Growler could easily damage another robot just by ramming into it. A rear mounted flamethrower was briefly installed for Extreme Series 2, but was removed afterwards due to a lack of reliability.
In March 2016, the BBC confirmed that Growler alongside Cassius Chrome, Mr Psycho, Refbot and Sgt Bash will not return for the 2016 series.
Armament[]
Growler was armed with hydraulic jaws. These had over 4 tons of power. He also had a rear-mounted flame jet. This flame jet was removed for Series 7 as it was unreliable.
Robot History[]
Series 6[]
Growler was introduced with a bang as he and Mr. Psycho spun around in circles and tested their weapons. Growler's speed, coupled with the skid-steer system, made him a dangerous package. Growler's debut battle allowed it to bite Cyrax and drag it around the arena, even outside of the CPZ. Growler was able to do the same thing with Thor, using the full arena to attack it, after the robot was initially pushed into the CPZ.
In Heat I, Growler was responsible for immobilising Kronic 2 on one side, which was still mobile before Growler rode over the top of it. Kronic attempted to lift Growler with its top flipper, but Growler survived to slam Kronic into full immobilisation, and left it to burn on the flame pit.
In the first heat semi-final of Heat J with Dominator 2 and S.M.I.D.S.Y., both robots had found themselves in a CPZ and Growler rammed into them both at full throttle and at full length of the arena which ruined S.M.I.D.S.Y.'s manoeuvrability and it was also revealed later on that Dominator 2's baseplate had split in half, yet it was fixed for the heat final.
Extreme 2[]
Growler had been fitted with a rear-mounted flamethrower, yet it was unreliable and was removed for the next series.
In the Lightweight Final, after Ellie's Little Pink-Bot was counted out by Refbot and placed on the arena flipper by Shunt, it flew straight across to the other side of the arena where Growler grabbed both Ellie's Little Pink-Bot and the pit release tyre. He placed them both on the flame pit and then onto the arena flipper. Ellie's Little Pink-Bot ended up at the same end as last time while the pit release tyre went out of the arena. Growler then rammed Ellie's Little Pink-Bot just as cease was called, utterly demolishing it. Shunt finally pitted Ellie's Little Pink-Bot.
Growler also got stuck on Bulldog Breed during the Tag Team Terror.
Series 7[]
Growler received large spotlight in Heat H, where it was able to assault Mega Hurts LT. Growler's jaw pierced the baseplate of Mega Hurts, after which Growler could spin on the spot with Mega Hurts in its grasp, and eventually drop the robot into the pit.
Along with Mr. Psycho and Cassius Chrome, Growler appeared in the House Robot Rebellion against Behemoth and Gravity. However, within a few seconds, Growler had rushed Gravity, been flipped over, for the first and final time, and was out of the competition.