We can’t quite promise you the full-on Robot Wars experience with the jaws of death, power saws, fire and all those other enemy-killing devices (just how big a bank balance do you have?) but we can go close – for a lot less cost!

With your Microbric Viper and the Sumo Pack, your robot can go into battle against other robots and, depending on how good your programming and control are, flip him/her/it over on its back, disabling it. You win!

Besides, you don’t really want to totally destroy your mates’ robots, do you? OK, forget we asked. . .

By the way, the Microbic Sumo Viper is an ideal first step if you do want to get into the real Robot Wars world of mayhem!

What it does

When fitted to your Microbric Viper (which incidentally needs the line tracker module also fitted), your Viper seeks out the opposition with a servo-controlled scoop which you have under your control to attack with. Your Viper knows to attack when the bump sensors at the front are activated. This triggers the program into turning the Viper into attack mode!

We mentioned a moment ago that you will also need the ‘Line Tracker Expansion Pack’ (March 2006 SILICON CHIP). This is used to keep within the rules and detect the border of the Sumo ring so your Viper doesn’t drive over the edge. (Yes, there are rules in Robot Wars!).

The Sumo ring is either a round white ring with a black border or, more popularly, a black ring with a white border. The former can be as simple as some black electrical tape forming a round border on a white surface, to a specially built, raised Sumo ring.