Made by Grant Imahara Year of manufacture 1999 Type/Class Middleweight | Name Deadblow Series BattleBots Propulsion Electric | |
Deadblow is a combat robot built and driven by Grant Imahara. It competed in BattleBots in the middleweight division using a fast pneumatic hammer as its weapon. Deadblow won 2 rumbles and was ranked number 2 among middleweights, right after Hazard. Afterwards, it went on with Grant to help in some experiments in the television series MythBusters and is now regarded as a permanent member of the Build Team.
Use on MythBusters
Since Grant joined MythBusters in 2005, Deadblow has been used on the show several times – though often with other attachments besides its original titanium hammer. Its debut came in "Bottle Rocket Blast-Off", when Grant demonstrated it – while its accomplishments were reeled off with accompanying footage – before using the pneumatic system that normally powered the hammer to test the pressure rating of a soda bottle. Its most notable use came in 2009 in "Driving In The Dark", which saw Grant, Tory and Jessi Combs testing the myth that smugglers can beat checkpoints at the Canada–US border by turning off their headlights while not crashing or navigating wrongly due to lack of light. To simulate an oncoming car with its headlights ablaze, Grant fastened halogen lamps to Deadblow – which earned it the nickname of "Blinky" – and drove it towards Tory, who was playing the role of a smuggler in a go-kart with its headlights off, causing him to veer and crash into the tire wall. Its other uses on the show include the "Beat the Guard Dog" myth where it played the part of a robotically controlled cat – all that Grant had to do was modify it to mount a taxidermied cat and make the cat's joints hang loosely.