Yes the Ranking lists haven't stopped! This time I wanted to do sumpthing different and that is to judge each arena as each series went by. Now to be fair some Series used the same arena as the series before (i.e. Series 8-10 ) but aside from those series pretty much EVERY series had a unique or different arena compared to the previous. So here I'll do what I did before, list my least favourite (trust there is a bad one(s) this time!) to my favourite arena. I list what's good and bad from each arena. You can comment and list what you like about each arena and this will be updated when I have the time!

7. Series 1 Arena

Once again, poor Series 1 is last but I simply cannot find anything truly positive about it except it was the first one and had a lot of space for the robots (which is also a negative!) So the first Series has a pretty poor arena and here's why it's my least favourite.

Negatives

It is so basic, it hurts. Now I know that it's the "first arena" and the original US Robot Wars was nothing to look at, but surely, with a TV budget and a desperate need to entice viewers so what better way than to make the arena look so cheap that anyone from a third world country could do a better job with bamboo and mud. The arena is plain with no real obvious features, the CPZ is marked by a basic yellow and black striped tape....TAPE! The hazards include two trapping devices, four house robots, arena spikes that are randomly placed in some arenas of the arena with no markings and a spiked ball swinging about doing nothing. Yeah really enticing arena, but even during the gauntlet there's cheap and silly things added for no reason such as springs that block a pathway.

The grill was a rather silly and quite stupid hazard that meant both competitors and House Robots could get caught up by poor driving. To be fair it was the predecessor to the pit, but it doesn't change the fact that it's quite a lazy hazard that didn't always work. To make make matters worse...there's already a bad "trap" hazard like the grill. The arena side bars. Both have the same function and both are just lazy and cheap in my opinion.

The lighting: RED AND PINK LIGHTING WILL AND HAVE NEVER BEEN GOOD! I hate red and pink with a passion (so be prepared for Series 8-10 arena being low!) it looks awful, it disorientates the visual appeal of robots (sometimes making them completely black or invisible) and just doesn't look good on camera. It's funny how the US Robot Wars had better lighting with the practically black with clear lighting to create a visually appealing battles and atmosphere. However, I will say the spot lights are a saving grace for it does allow for some clearness for the fighting (look at the Moris vs Recyclopse image for an example)

Too much space: For a decent/good arena you need to make sure the space is good enough for robots. Some arenas have WAY TOO MUCH space with means robots will most likely use that space but are also very much likely to fight one another in one small corner of the arena meaning the large amount of space is wasted and you only see a tiny bit of the arena, making most hazards insignificant as well pretty much most of the arena. Of course there is the flip side of having too little room but we'll get there soon...

I think over all the first Wars arena suffers from "first series syndrome" by which I mean, they're cheap and playing it WAY too safe rather than taking risks and going in for the kill to make your series fun and exciting instead of drab and boring with nothing in it....basically this arena in a nutshell, dull, drab and nothing in it what so ever. It also uses TAPE to out line the CPZ...this arena is best described by "Harry Stormer" as a "just a box" which Series 1's arena was...just a box.

6. Series 2 Arena

How to piss off (Toast don't make confusing mistakes :P) Nick by having Series 2 lower than Series 3 but personally I really don't like the Series 2 arena as much. Sure it's unique and was in a sense the "experimental arena" in the Robot Wars canon but I still can't stand this arena...yet technically it isn't all the arena's fault.

Positives

New and better hazards: The pit is perhaps the most famous hazard introduced and it may not be the pit we all know and love but it's still a pit and a fabulous hazard that competitors can utilizes to quickly defeat opponents. The flame pit is also a great hazard to burn the insides (or outsides) of robots, however it's location is a bit problematic.

It's unique. Something you can't really say about most RW arenas is that they're unique. Sure they all have something new here and there but for the most part they the same for most part. Series 2 arena is certainly the most unique looking of the lot and you can instantly recognize it apart from the other shows.

The lighting was also improved, though not perfect it is much better to see the competitors and they got rid of that horrid red look.

Negatives

PPZ: Almost everyone and their pet has moaned about how awful the PPZs are and I'm no different. Pretty much the main problem with the Series 2 arena and why it's not higher that the Series 3 or Series 8 arena is because this thing is such a glaring problem that it truly brings out more flaws in the arena. If you look on the right you'll see my quickly put together sketch of the Series 2 arena and can you see the problem? No. Well let me evaluate for you. The PPZ is where the House Robots roam about, any robot that goes there is basically dead due to the intensive aggression from the House Robots. Still don't see the problem? Well the two hazards I praised for being added in this series, are lingering in the PPZ, meaning competitors have to drive over this already deadly territory to disable the opponent, this pit and flame pit also linger out into the arena slightly. Don't see the problem still? Well consider the diagram on the side which is based off of my recordings of the series and you may be thinking...hmm the actual arena is pretty small isn't it? Well you're right, the series 2 arena is actually very tiny! Whereas the Series 1 arena had too much room, the Series 2 arena has too little, which meant almost all the time the competitors where forced into this tight space and any movement to damage or dispose of opponents will eventually lead to the PPZ and the ravage attacks from the House Robots come and basically screw up the outcome of the match. The arena is also rectangular but the top and bottom parts of the PPZ are larger and as a result take up more room.

At the end of the day the Series 2 arena did a lot of changes, and though most were positive the one MAJOR negative just gets in the way and becomes too much of a distraction and really ruins a lot of battles, it takes a lot of room and creates too little space for the competitors to fight in. Overall,it's certainly a 4/10 arena and is a clear improvement. Of course as revealed earlier it's between the Series 3 and Series 8 arena for the lower half, which is worse? Well you'll find out in time.

5. Reboot Arena

After much debate with myself I decided that I actually don't mind the Series 3 arena...and I hate the reboot arena used in Series 8-10 more and more. Okay so everyone knows the arena from the classic series, it's pretty iconic so for a reboot you need to incorporate those elements that made it iconic as well as making it you're own arena...however despite their efforts to make this "bigger and better" the reboot arena just sucks and yet for whatever reason on a recent Facebook poll about people's favourite arena, the reboot arena won by miles and in my opinion it's because it's recent and not because it was any good. That said let's start with...

Positives

Bigger: Despite early reports saying it was small and cramped it was in fact the biggest arena that has appeared so far. Yes the angles of some promo shots and camera clips are very deceiving as roboteers say it's bigger than the Series 7 arena so yeah, bigger is better and it kinda works...but we'll get to the negatives soon. The pit as well was bigger and better although in Series 8 it was a dull drop box, by Series 9 and especially 10 it has smoke to give it class.

High arena walls: One problem I had with the Series 7 arena was the lower walls making it easy for a quick OOtA, in fact one of my problems with Series 7 was the fact that OOtAs came too often and became boring, however here they were once again a special one every so often event that made me excited to see it happen, these walls prevented boring flipper bots from dominating and practically was stop to the flipper domination in the live events as well as Robot Wars in general (even if two of the three champions were flippers) The walls were also sloped and I must say it's great to see this because robots no longer get stuck and unable to move rather they can slide off.

Doom Dial: I love the look of this thing. I love the Rogue House Robot hazard and the constant fear and anticipation of what will it land on.

Floor flipper flips on it's own accord is something I prefer over the previous arena

Negatives

Bigger but not better: As mentioned above it's bigger but certainly not better, yes it's the biggest arena ever but the only area a robot can fight in is this rather small + because everything else is a hazard which competitors can't really go in. Oh but they make up for that by not incorporating the House Robots in the battles and only having one in the first battle... this then gives the arena TOO MUCH space and brings about the question of...what's the point of four CPZs if you're not actually gonna use them? Just a thought.

because everything else is a hazard which competitors can't really go in. Oh but they make up for that by not incorporating the House Robots in the battles and only having one in the first battle... this then gives the arena TOO MUCH space and brings about the question of...what's the point of four CPZs if you're not actually gonna use them? Just a thought. Lighting: I HATE RED/PINK LIGHTING. So when doing the reboot the producers thought that this was good idea....IT'S NOT NOR EVER WILL BE. What's a real pain is that plenty of promo images had this lush blue/clear lighting which shown the robots fighting and it didn't interfere with the red/black walls but NO red lighting throughout each series (although Series 10 was better it still had the occasional Series 9 red dots about)

Fog of War and Spikes. Useless contraptions are useless moving on...

It's the ugliest arena to date. This arena is god awful to look at, hence why I tried (and failed) to change it in Robot Arena 2 For starters it's blocky and plain with little snazz (I mean look at the control booths for one thing, it's just a rectangluar block with tilted persplex glass and a robot wars logo n the middle with no special lighting just grey!) and lest we forget really amateur looking. It's like the creators went out of their ways to incorporate the Series 1,2 and 3 arena in one and forgetting the clearly better (spoils) series 4-7 arenas. The out lines looks rubbish and barely visible, the arena is just grey with some red and black around the sides which doesn't help with the red lighting and did I mention it has a massive Robot Wars symbol in the middle of the arena that just looks awkward and looks like vomit in the middle of the arena (it's also the WORST of the logos so that doesn't help). Also those arrow heads are just pointless and really were unnecessary.

Overall, the reboot series is a tragic case of the more I look back and think about it the more I hate it. Everything had potential and they wasted it to make everything look "sharp and clean" when really it couldn't have hurt it to add a bit more over the top jazz. Even if the floor flipper and pit was striped in red and black it could have worked. Also if Robot Wars comes back please get rid of that stupid logo.

4. Series 3 Arena

Whereas the reboot arena gets worst the more I think about it, the Series 3 is quite the opposite, where I have slowly become more favourable towards the Series 3 arena. Once again, something from Series 3, this being the Series 3 arena, is often put down by practically everyone because I don't actually know. That said, despite adoring Series 3, the arena isn't all perfect but in contrast to the previous entries, it is a major improvement and a God send.

Positives

It was pretty mush the definitive arena. Series 1 was cheap and missed a lot of items while Series 2 was unique but a enclosed mess. Series 3's arena is pretty much the "Official" first definitive arena which EVERY arena after it based its design on and added to, which is a benefit because it shows how much of an impact this series had. Hell, even the reboot arena is more like the series 3 arena than any other arena.

The lighting. So the previous entries had some bad lighting (except Series 2 maybe) but this arena had over the previous entries and for good reason was the pitch perfect lighting. Series 3 and 4 had the best lighting out of any Robot Wars series but Series 3's lighting is a unique yet beautiful work of art once observed much closely. It utilizes this dark look, whereby almost everything is pitch black except the arena itself, which has pain lighting with an tint of blue and yellow for the CPZs creating this magnificent and clear view of the fighting, I mean just look at the image on the right of Diotoir fighting Cerberus it's beautiful. Most of all it made the show really atmospheric.

Floor flipper: After the success of Cassius and the emergence of flipperbots, a floor flipper was placed. It was a very influencial and beneficial addition...however it was quite plain and hard to see...

Size: Series 1 = Too much space. Series 2 = Too little space this arena, though was utilized sadly due to the many break downs was a decent size for robots to combat it and provided us with some fast pace aggression from the likes of Wild Thing, Panic Attack or Chaos 2.

CPZ return: The idea of having a striking colour coordination of to show where not to go when House Robots are in the arena and the return of the CPZs over the disastrous PPZ was a good move and to have it brightly shown with four House Robots at one time really made the arena fell dangerous and allowed roboteers to be wary of the hazards about...well for the most part.

Negatives

Hard to see hazards. Okay so Series 3 had a higher budget and had upped the game and taken rewardful risks but the hazards were hard to see some times where these hazards are practically invisible where the only out line is...tape... sign Anyways this lack of highlights also made things look quite bland as well with this awkward bright yellow CPZ and a grey arena with nothing really in it once you really look at it, if they highlighted these hazards it may have made the arena look more thrilling. That said we all know another reason why the hazards should have been highlighted....

Anyways this lack of highlights also made things look quite bland as well with this awkward bright yellow CPZ and a grey arena with nothing really in it once you really look at it, if they highlighted these hazards it may have made the arena look more thrilling. That said we all know another reason why the hazards should have been highlighted.... Spikes...wonderful, wonderful spikes. Now the Reboot spikes were annoying because they were useless and should have been removed to give more breathing space but the Series 3 spikes are annoying because they were littered about the arena by the CPZs and there's no obvious sign of them and so will, at rapid speed, smash the bottom of a robot upwards and on a lot of occasions immobilizing them making the battles half arsed on some occasions.

Inconsistent pit. Something I can never wrap my head around is the inconsistent and annoying open and close pit. It's no wonder they went for the descending pit after. Good riddance open pit with tires you will NEVER be missed.

Random grate in the arena. I really can't think of anything other than why is this here? Was it meant to produce smoke like it would a series later and they didn't have time?

Overall, the series 3 arena is a step in the right direction but is still missing or has elements that just down right suck and it all really comes down to the hazards in a way. Series 3 has the best lighting out of any series (other than Series 4) and the arena as a template is what inspired the future including the reboot which sucked. Series 3 really revolutionized Robot Wars in practically every way and the arena is no exception.

3. Series 6/Extreme 2 Arena

With the final four arenas, pretty much all of them are the same, however if one is observant or just watches the show you'll realise that the arenas from series 4 onwards are all very different. Lowest of course is the much beloved Series 6. Why? Well I will answer that shortly when I get onto my negatives, won't I? But first let's look at what this arena did right.

Positives

Just to get this point out of the way because I will be repeating it over and over again for the next few, it has great size. The size has been an issue with the previous arenas particularly Series 1,2 and reboot but here the arena used for the "golden era" of Robot Wars had been perfect. It wasn't too large and it wasn't too small, rather it allowed for the robots to have enough breathing room and hazards to keep the robots on their toes.

Drop Zone: Out of all the new and hip hazards to make a show, the Drop Zone was considered by myself and many others to be the best addition. This hazard didn't activate until AFTER the robot was eliminated so the hazard wasn't getting in the way of the robots fighting, this was a spectral to watch drop onto a robot, causing damage and putting on a show at the same time.

The lighting: A problem I have with Series 5 and 7 is their lighting (SPOILERS) but Series 6/Extreme 2 had much better and visually appealing lighting. Unlike the before mentioned series, the lighting isn't a pure bright white lighting (making the show rather grey and dull) or completely blue (making it hard to spot robots, particularly see through ones) but instead goes back to the Series 3 style lighting of a dark look (albeit slightly brighter) with the odd blue and yellow lighting added to create atmosphere and most of all makes the shows visually appealing and make the robots the centre of attention. Even the spotlights are unique and brilliant in this series, so what's wrong with it?...

Negatives

Disc-Of-Doom (and Drop Zone): Now I like hazards in the arena but in Series 6 and Extreme 2, they went a little over board with the additions. Series 6 is certainly the most hyped series with DVDs, toys, magazines, new house robots, new (returning) format and even a book to go and hype this series up, so they went all out. Which on paper is great, but maybe a bit too much... Series 6 is fantastic but I the hazards are a bit much, and it's because they're useless and get in the way. Let's see we've got a flipper, pit, angle grinders, House Robots, CPZ, flame pit, flame jets, air vents, Drop zone and disc'o'doom, that's too much. I praised the drop zone but unfortunately the drop zone was rarely used, meanwhile we also have the Disc-Of-Doom which was the champion of worst hazard before the Fog of War in 2017/18 took the title. This thing did nothing and for the most part was just there to throw robots off balance only it never did because they needed to press a button to activate it, which never happened, it was ugly looking and served to...(see other problem)

Wedged. So if the reboot arena hates spinners then the Series 6/EXT2 arena hated robots with wedges. For whatever reason this was was a major problem in this arena, and I feel it may be because of all the hazards inserted and the increase in flippers but the fact that the hazard are trapping opponents instead of allowing them to fight freely, doesn't speak very highly to me what so ever.

Overall, I really like the next four arenas but Series 6 just caught the short straw due to it's hazard problem but everything else seems to be just right, of course the other arenas have done things much better! Series 6 was just missing out had these flaws been omitted it would be much higher.

2. Extreme 1/Series 5 Arena

You cannot deny out of all the arenas, this arena is perhaps the most iconic and most famous one. If someone were to describe Robot Wars and were to use any arena as an example you can guarantee they'll describe this arena. The Extreme 1 and Series 5 arena is practically what a good arena incorporates and has been home to a great many battles. So it's only third? Why? Because of a few minor things.

Positives

If you've read the previous arena entry then you know what my first point is (See the first point for the sixth wars arena)

Colour: This arena is technically the most colourful arena we got, with blueish grey, red, black and yellow being incorporated. The colour isn't just aesthetically pleasing but also helpful in highlighting certain hazards, for example the striped lines across the arena side walls indicate that that arena is dangerous for an OOtA.

Balcony. The extreme 1 and Series 5 arena has the best looking balcony out of all of Robot Wars. The balcony is flashy, industrial and everything to do with Robot Wars. The series 1-3 balcony was cheap, the Series 4 balcony was a step in the right direction and then they ruined it with the god awful reboot arena. This balcony is striking, it's perfect and shows a great might with its height looking down upon the arena.

Negatives

Series 5 lighting: Here's a slightly strange nitpick but Extreme 1 and Series 5 lighting is different. I don't mind Extreme 1 lighting, it's clear and incorporates the lovely neon blue look but as soon as Series 5 comes around the lighting changes to a bright white (clear) light that strangely enough makes everything look...kinda grey. the thing about lighting is, you need to have clearness as well as having some colour so that the robots look impressive and bring life to the battles. The lighting here kinda makes the battles lifeless, for example look at Diotoir in Extreme 1 and Diotoir in Series 5, the lighting change makes the robot look drab in comparison to the livly and colourful Extreme 1 counterpart.

Angle Grinders: These things replaced the spikes and the circular saws and were really,really, really, really, really, really, really useless. I never liked these things and what's worse is some robots would get caught by these things and it would get in the way from a famous OOta. Overall, they suck.

Overall, my thoughts are pretty much the same as my thoughts on Series 6 arena, it's practically perfect with not much to complain about as the problems are so small. The series 6 arena had too much while this arena has the right amount of stuff but suffers from playing too safe. Only two to go, which is better Series 7 or Series 4?

The Final two

Seeing as I am struggling to choose between the two I will instead do a comparison...Yes that's right this time there will be a table with each compartment for the arena (e.g. hazards, balcony, lighting etc.) what I like/dislike from the two series and the fourth and final column will be which series did it better. This is it! Which is best arena?

Feature Series 4 Series 7 Winner Hazards Overall, I feel the winner is Series 7. Yes it contains the Angle Grinders which should put it at a disadvantage but the drop zone and the inclusion of the pit release make this arena only 1 point ahead of Series 4...only one point. Colour And general design The Series 4 arena has a slightly blue arena floor with bright colourful CPZs and flipper. A red border highlights the hazards which benefits the roboteers to avoid these hazards. The arena side walls are these persplex walls and yellow spike to accompany them. This all looks so gorgous to look at as well as the lighting which I will talk about in the next section. The size of the arena is decent enough for robots to fight in even the hazards. Of course it wasn't too colourful and still kept some of it's darkness in and I quite like that balance. So if you read what i though of the Series 5 and 6 arena you know basically what I like. However, there is two other things, one I like, the other I don't. The thing i love is the fact that this arena, strangely feels larger than previous ones. Whenever I saw an episode of this series I'd always noticed how the robots seemed so tiny in a large open space, in fact looking at the side lines it looks MASSIVE and what's better is that there is still a lot of stuff around such as a pit, drop zone and flipper, meaning it's not too much space. The bad thing is that the arena side walls were lowered during this series which made OOtAs too often. Now I love an OOtA but i prefer them to be a once in a while thing and not an every episode occurrence (okay it wasn't every episode but still!) they also seemed more flimsy than before. Series 7 does have the better size but I feel Series 4 had the better overall appeal, I feel it's more balanced than Series 7 in many aspects and the colour was more controlled as were the side walls. Lighting Series 4 by miles Balcony See previous entry for my thoughts on the balcony. I mentioned already that I find the Extreme 1-onwards balcony being the best so...Series 7 BUT at the same time I adore that grungy industrial look from Series 4 nontheless.

Okay so as a result of all these points it seems that it's a tie. Huh....I mean these two really are hard to chose apart, maybe a combination of the two would have created the best arena ever. I guess these two really are just too good to decipher. Hmmm...I think I know why: