Which reveal videos from this year are your favorites and why?
I’d probably say the Killer Bees and Robowranglers. They make great robots every year. I especially liked the Star Wars theme to the Robowrangler machine this time around. The Killer Bees, in my opinion had the best design this year.
For me, it’ll take quite a bit to ever surpass FIRST Team 148’s Breakaway reveal video.
For those who weren’t around in 2010, it’s important to understand and appreciate not just the video itself, which is very well done, but the context in which it was released. The 2010 build season was an ugly one, due to the extreme amount of snow many areas of the country received, but more importantly, the game. The game rules severely limited means to control the soccer balls (no more than 3" into the frame perimeter), and presented enough brand new “grand challenges” (kicking, hanging, suspending). A very large number of teams basically accepted the idea that the game was intended to prevent robots from gaining proper control of the balls, and to simply “dribble” them like real soccer. Teams that refused to accept this limitation faced a build season with a nasty prototyping challenge that I don’t think FIRST has surpassed since. The only footage, and presumably for most teams, the only results, were loose “dribblers” which spun the ball backwards into the robot and only really worked at slow speeds in ideal conditions, and suction systems which created a death grip, but required pinpoint accuracy to acquire a ball.
And then 148 posts their video. It was already a great piece of work, with the detailed photo log of an intense prototyping process, the tease at the thunderchickens collaboration, and the beautiful as always Robowranglers sheet metal work. Drops mind blow #1 with the first articulating drive of the modern era and the reveal of the Nonadrive. And then, the shot at 1:46 of the robot accelerating into a ball, reversing, with the ball stuck to the front like glue, dropped the jaws of the entire FIRST community. It was simply on another plane of performance from what the majority of us had experienced, providing pure functionality seen as impossible to achieve.
And it wasn’t done yet. It was also the first reveal video of the year to feature a vertical post hang, yet another paradigm shift for many teams.
Many videos have matched it’s quality in recent years, but nothing has touched it in terms of making teams realize that they needed to up their game. It was simply orders of magnitude above what we thought was possible.
I have to agree here.
In a more cinematic way, Team Alberta Tech Alliance (4334)'s reveal video](http://youtu.be/aWpSX5VQavk) this year was amazing. Had it not been Premiere Night I would have thought I was seeing a sci-fi film.
I’ll second this one.
Wow, that was really good.
This was the video that inspired me to start making reveals for 33 back in 2011. (It’s still as awesome as I remember.:] )
Shout out to 971 this year for their awesome video. here
, Bryan
Team 857’s 2002 drivetrain reveal. First time most people had seen an omnidirectional drive train. Unfortunately, the video appears to have disappeared from the internet. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22207
Team 118 2007. Fully functional robot in 3 weeks. 6 motor crab drive and a turret. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3l6Xqts4to
wildstang had some great videos back in the day. They also had a great playlist of technical videos from 2012
2004 Encore was my favorite
This is a great one and one of my favorites. Not to mention the usage of one of the greatest hardcore songs of all time (Refused-New Noise).
I’ve always been a big fan of 2012 and 2013 Robonauts videos.
2016’s 2011 one is also one of my all time favorites (as well as one of my all time favorite robots)
If we’re talking about all time, definitely hard to beat 118’s 2013 video, for me at least. The song choice was too good.
I absolutely loved 33’s robot reveal video this year, for a variety of reasons-- excellent song choice, some good syncing, and an excellent robot.
I’d say the all time best for me though is still Robonaut’s 2013-- the video that, at least for me, proved that robot reveal videos could be something other than dubstep laden dropfests or classic rock swagger. To this day, even though I dislike the song, I still get a smile on my face when I hear “Can’t Hold Us” on the radio or at a party. The video was just that darn good. There was a genuine artistry that I don’t think many reveal videos have that makes it unforgettable for me.
I think you mean “Can’t Hold Us”.
Agreed. I still watch it in amazement.
That robot looks an awful lot like a copy machine… 
33’s video this year. It was very well fitted and thought out.