IMHO, selling kits is entirely the wrong way to go; sell indvidual parts and the knowledge to use them. You can be much more creative if you have the raw materials and the information to design something original. Constructing a kit mostly teaches you how to use a screwdriver. That's OK to some extent, but people often lose interest when they run out of challenge and ideas.

Combining a cut down Robotmarketplace style store with a book like Kicking Bot AND an on-line forum and directory would lower the entry level and engage new enthusiast's imaginations plus create a community to exchange and develop designs and knowledge, much like we already on the robowars forum.

That would be a large and ambitious project, but it would ultimately pay off way more than just selling a base kit. <end of rant>
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

First off Robowars already has a store

. http://robowars.org/store.html

Neither Brett nor I have money to invest in products that can be easily ordered from Robot marketplace etc.
Jason has a big investment in the IBC, which is the only item currently available.

I think that it is unlikely that anyone will pay extra to buy an item of the Robowars sight and the volume we are talking no one is going to give big enough discounts to make it viable to stock things that are readily available.

If I came up with an assembly so you could just order of the Robowars store sight and then buy the parts of Oatley and put together a tidy drive and build your own unique bot around it sound alright to you Nick.

Don’t worry I think I know where you are coming from.

“Be creative paint by numbers”

Neweyn thought a school should be able to buy 2 scooter drives and join them together themselves.

On the other hand I have Brett telling me that there are people who grow up in a world whare they aren’t surrounded with tools and people that make and fix things and lack even the simplest facilities.

One product I thought of putting in the Robowars Store was pre hacked drills but I haven’t got around to that and Andrew has a good thing going with them now.

Oh and Angus best just PM me at the moment I rarely have opportunity to kick back on msn.

Ok cool.
I think mounts might be a hot ticket. How many new builders have trouble making strong mounts for their drives? All probably, I know for one mine were made by Jeff when I first started. This is another issue I hope to tackle.
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i was going to make some up with shane to hock off on ebay. all the buyer had to do was purchase the IBC themselves and off they go. this was the cad for it. just use two or three 12v drill packs.

would have been cheap too with free steel abound and a $10 weapon motor no doubt somewhat illegal :p

Then you could offer some upgrade parts at gigantically inflated prices and buisiness ahoy. 2.4ghz wireless cameras, higher voltage batteries, modified drills, better wheels, timed motors, better radios and then offer a rather massive "service charge" so they can send it in and get the thing modified for the better parts or repaired and youd probably have something youd at least break even on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/Cobrarobotics/misc%20cad/KITperspective.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/Cobrarobotics/misc%20cad/KITrearangle.jpg

imho theres only one type of true roboteer, and thats the person who will or will at least attempt to make there own. hey, how many of us where 15 and 16 here when we started (and younger again no doubt) and we managed to hack together our own for the most part.

any other people are more or less lazy and probably not that interested in it that much anyway so you might as well just offer a product thats fully functional (for the most part) and hammer it about till they get bored of it.

im partly interested lately in making a book about putting together a pretty cool weaponed robot for less than $100 literally (not this build for $100 then add a speed controller and radio) through some dumpster diving and salvaging guides
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

I have talked to people who think a complete RTFight bot package is the go.

Aimed at the competitors that wont to jump straight into the arena and smash things.

This may be good from a promoters point of view and possibly one of the reasons there is so few of us is finding builders that wont to be competitors as well is a very rarer combination.

If it wasn’t for Matt and Rob doing the fighting and wonting to build something for them that would give them a chance I might not be as motivated as I am.

The thing is most of the people who suggest this have no idea of what is involved.

I beleive team razor developed a kit at some stage , i would be curious to see how it actually went ????
there was a discussion on the old abbl forum many years ago about doing kits
i did a lot of research back then with an aliumiunium manufactuer and we agreed the concept could work ,we didnt get to the market research stage,probably worth doing before you go to far .
i think we decided to design it around drill motors which at the time was just taking off ,the kits were prefabricated ali bases and used 2 shapes ,a square box type ,which could have a bolt on wedge or spikes attached ,and a triangle shape which a saw blade or spinning bar could be attached .
LOL it was a long time ago that we both looked at it and thinking back about 5 years to early ,give it go and good luck
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Photos - http://community.webshots.com/album/154092733uokpXC
Photos- http://community.webshots.com/album/166819552PDWWqP

That kit The Razer boys developed resulted in the Robo-raptor, which they use for the Robogeddon park/Fairground/event robotwars alike setup.

See http://www.robogeddon.com/index.asp for more details.

These are a lot heavier though, around 80 kg's.

there you go folks a great link check it out ...
does it incourage people to compete on a different level ?? i dought it,its know different than putting money into an arcade game
does it create entertainment for the masses yes it does
does bring profit to those who invest in the concept ,possibly yes ..

i look at it this way, it has its place definately i couldnt see the average aussie,dishing out $1000 for a robot party ,but who knows.someone may
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Photos - http://community.webshots.com/album/154092733uokpXC
Photos- http://community.webshots.com/album/166819552PDWWqP

Was just doing some research and came across this kit bot:
http://www.ifirobotics.com/kitbot.shtml
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I'm starting to seriously gather ideas for the MDP (major design project) i'll be starting in a few weeks for DT. Regarding my kit bot concept, i've changed my angle of attack. I'll not be so much focusing on the frame, but on things new builders generaly have a lot of difficulty doing on their own. So.. for starters... Would people be interested if there was a high quality drill mount available? One where it was simple bolt in/bolt out and no real modification to the drill needed (except the obvious removing it from the case and adding grub screws). I know also some people find grub screws hard to get/expensive, so they could even be bought in bulk and supplied in small amounts where needed. So the question is, would people prefer UHMW mounts or aluminium mounts? (5083 or 6061).
In terms with what i'm planning the material difference doesn't influence the total cost much.
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Aluminium mounts. Both Avenger and Sidewinder have died due to motors spinning in worn plastic mounts. Its deffently a place where we need to remember about wear.

True that, it's all too easy to forget and have them die during a fight. Also, being aluminium it would mean the part holding the motor can could double as a heat sink, it would'nt be much trouble to stick in some notchings into it either.
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