Battle-Bot surprise!

[skullard]

We stopped by the mall for lunch and noticed a mob of people down by the Barnes and Nobel.  Turns out the local college was sponsoring a robot battle event, so we were treated to a free show!  How's that for a nice surprise on a guy's birthday?

The featured heavyweight was an infamous lil' bot called "Humdinger", who you can see in action here:

Click to view

He was fun to watch, but the highlight of the event turned out to be when, in order to kill some time, they put an old computer printer in the arena for Humdinger to bust up.  The bot had tossed the printer around really well, pieces flying everywhere, and the crowd was hooting for more.  The guy controling Humdinger smashed it into the printer again to the crowd's delight, and then he pulled back for one last hit.  And when the bot hit the thing, POOF!, a big black cloud exploded from the printer and filled the little arena.  The crowd loved it and was cheering like crazy, but I watch the operator's face as he looked slowly over to the people he was working with.  I could clearly make out him saying, "You didn't take out the toner?"  The mess was amazing, and the whole event was delayed while clean-up efforts were made.

It was a glorious fuck-up, and Luka and I got to see it first hand.  What a wonderful day!  :D