Robot Combat: Technic vs Mindstorms

Does Mindstorms or Technic produce the better remote-control combat robot? I built one of each to find out. The object of the fight is to knock a minifigure off the opponent or to disable the opponent, such as by flipping the opponent. As the Technic fighter, I chose the RC Tracked Racer. After much experimentation, the contender from the Mindstorms camp is a modification to the TRACK3R robot that can be found in the manual that comes with the 31313 set. So this is a match between two tracked vehicles. They each have advantages and attack methods. The RC Tracked Racer has a distinct advantage in speed and agility, with effective attack by simply driving over an opponent to mow down the minifigure—an example attack is seen in the video below with Batman going after The Penguin. TRACK3R has the advantage in torque to push and grapple an opponent, coupled with a front-mounted hammer to bash the minifigure off the opponent. TRACK3R in action is shown at the bottom of the page. Many battles, including testing with different drivers at a New Year’s Eve party, shows an even match with no clear winner. The fighting continues . . .