Our first fight was against The Wall Pt 2, the highest seeded bot in the tournament. Because of this, we were lucky enough to be on the main Youtube livestream, compete in the main bxo, and had a premium experience the kids loved!

Our next fight didn’t fair much better. We faced the gremlins again, but refused to give up. Noah controlled the bot for the first time.

We will come back stronger and better!

We competed in the November 2025 NRHL event and learned a lot! We made an updated version of Vector and nearly one a fight. Luckily, we made it into the March 2026 fights at NHRL and are coming with an upgraded bot.

Some of our key changes include:

• Changed wheels to Banebot for better traction and much easier to swap than the foam wheels

• Reconfigured to narrower body, pinching in at inside of wheels rather than outside, 1) to allow for more “weapon” sweep; 2) lighter weight

• Upgraded motor to 2814 which is approximately 89% larger than the previous motor

• Upgraded to 850mAha battery which is approximately 89% larger than the previous battery

• “Bump out” the 3d printed body from the metal, so if we get hit from the rear, the TPU will take damage rather than metal (hopefully the $0.30 part breaks and not the $30 one!).

Wish us luck!

Our goal was to make sure we had a working bot for at least 2 matches and learn as much as we can. We were hugely successful!

Our first battle was against Usawgi. Usawgi is a top competitor and was a very high seed. Eli drove and lasted all 3 minutes, landed a few blows, and eventually lost to a judges decision. We had some first fight jitters, but the bot really held up. We took some MASSIVE hits and multiple people came up afterwards to commend us on our armor. We saw other bots get knocked out by Usawgi in a single hit, so going 12 rounds was pretty amazing.

Our second fight was against Mondo Bizarro, also a top competitor who has made it to NHRL finals 3 times. With first fight jitters out of the way, Eli drove and was more aggressive, had more patient and control, and DOMINATED. Unfortunately we did not have a large enough battery and ran out of juice at the end. Since we could not show drive or motor, we lost the judges decision.

With 0 - 2 record our day was done, so we competed for bragging rights in the rumble. A total free for all with 7 other 3lb bots. This time, Noah took the controls, was in the action the entire time, and lasted the whole 3 minutes. Only 2 other bots were still working by the end.

Great job team!

It was a very popular bot due to readily available kits, parts, and also the design was available on Thingiverse. However, many of the parts are no longer available for sale, we spent over 20 hours just hunting down parts that could work, and the bot has seen few design changes to remain competitive. We learned this first hand in our first competition. We’ve made some key improvements and you can download and sharing our parts list publicly to save you time and money.

Download the revised models on Thingiverse.

Key Improvements

Strengthened corners in metal to limit bending. We found the corners just above the motor mounts was a weak point and bent in multiple battles and once caused us a knockout.

Reworked motor mount to accept Just ‘Cuz motors. The motors from the original design are no longer available and Just ‘Cuz are of high quality.

Change the metal plate guarding wheels to a 3d printed “bumper” that wraps further around the bot offering superior protection. We found the metal plate to be a liability, with any hits on the metal plate causes the plate to bend on the motor axel, seizing that wheel. The bumper also wraps further around offering protection to more of the bot.

Lightened weapon to save weight for strengthen bot. The old weapon weighs in at about 315 grams. The revised model takes some weight from near the hub and reduces weight to a more manageable 260 grams. This was needed to allow for the heavier drive motors, thicker top and bottom plates, and the added weight of the bumpers.

The bot weights in at 2.904lbs.

Download the revised models on Thingiverse.

Parts List

These are the parts we used. I’m sure there are better or cheaper or newer parts available. Be aware sometimes parts that worked for me might not work for you.

1. Drive motors: Just ‘Cuz Dartbox Vipers ($70 for 2)

2. ESC: FPVKing ($16)

3. Weapon motor: SunnySky X2212 KV980 ($16)

4. Weapon ESC: EMAX D-SHOT Bullet Series 30A ($35)

5. Battery: OVONIC 3S Lipo Battery 80C 450mAh 11.1V ($48 for 4)

6. Wheel Hubs: FingerTech Twist Hubs Wide (pair) 4mm x 0.75” ($20)

7. Wheels: FingerTech Foam Wheels WIDE (pair), 2.00” x 0.75 ($4)

8. Switch: FingerTech Mini Power Switch ($9)

9. Top & Bottoms: 7075 T6 Aluminum (.125”) ($128 via SendCutSend for 2 of each)

10. Weapon: AR500 Steel (.187”) ($35 via SendCutSend for 2)

11. Filament: TPU (~$5 including spares)

12. Standoffs: PATIKIL M3 Hex Nuts x2 ($18 for 12)

13. Belt: BESTORQ 180-XL-025 Trapezoidal Timing Belt, 18” Outside Circumference x 0.25” Width x 0.09” Height, 0.2” Pitch, 90 Teeth ($22 for 5)

14. Needle roller for weapon: uxcell RCB121616 3/4” Bore 1” OD 1” Width ($15 for 2)

15. Weapon Standoff: 5/16”-18 Thrd Sz, 1 in Bd L, 3/4 in OD ($6)

16. Misc screws, bolts, etc: $10

= $457 + transmitter & receiver and spares

Please build at your own risk. We are not responsible for accidents or injuries, nor are we to be held responsible for any issues you might have, parts you might buy that no longer work with other parts, etc.

It was a blast!

We’ve been a spectator many times at NHRL, but this was our first time in in the pits. It’s intense! But also friendly and community-driven. People were patient with us. We spent some time walking around checking out other bots, and asking questions.

We are also so impressed with the quality of NHRL. The production value. The amount invested. It wasn’t lost on us that it’s a serious event.

We learned in safety check we didn’t have the failsafe set. Thankfully it only took a few minutes to program on the transmitter. We also learned the weak points of our bot and already made some design improvements. Which is good, because we are competing at NHRL in the November competition!

It’s the Endbots Vector design which is a beetleweight (3lb) combat robot design released 2019. It has been a very popular design since it’s available on Thingiverse. We named our bot Tasty as Hell.

• Design: Endbots Vector

• Drive motors: Endbots

• Weapon motor: SunnySky X2212 KV980

We had fun building the bot together and learned a lot in the process. Some things we learned:

• Use standoffs between each piece of metal. We used these.

• Print in TPU not PLA.

• Bot building is fun and a family activity.