Fastball Special



""You can't just throw people at all your problems, dear.""

- Emma Frost (to Colossus), Astonishing X-Men

Want to make a dramatic entrance into melee combat? Here's one way to do it. A character (usually The Big Guy) will pick up an ally (usually The Hero, maybe The Lancer or even an action-oriented Chick) and hurl him headlong into the enemy (often a group of Mooks).

Often used as an alternative to the Colossus Climb. A staple technique of the Bash Brothers. This should be between two allies; hurling enemies into each other is something else, and hurling enemies at your friends is just not nice.

The maneuver is famous enough for That Other Wiki to have an article about it. For the self-propelled version, see Dynamic Entry. For being launched into combat by a siege engine, rather than another person, see Catapult to Glory. For other forms of person-based combat, see Grievous Harm with a Body and Equippable Ally.

Anime & Manga

 * Rurouni Kenshin
 * Sanosuke and Yahiko did this thrice in the episode, and during the last one Yahiko was making a "cut it out, bitch" face as he was tossed across the scenario by Sano. Given that Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Kenshin, is a major X-Men fan, it was probably meant to be a reference/ShoutOut.
 * A variation was done in the manga, combining Sanosuke's arm strength with Kenshin's leg strength to reach a hot air balloon.
 * Yoh Asakura is known for doing this to his poor Oversoul, Amidamaru, in Shaman King. This move was even brought over as a special attack for Yoh in Jump Ultimate Stars.
 * Related to the example above is Jotaro Kujo, from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure: in one chapter, he throws poor Iggy in order to find an enemy Stand User. It was also turned into a special attack for Jotaro in Jump Ultimate Stars.
 * Twice in the Zoids anime, a Liger has been fired by another Zoid at the enemy. From a gigantic antimatter cannon no less.
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
 * After Kamina hijacks a giant Ganmen, he uses it to launch Simon's Lagann at the other two beastmen. It initially misses, but Simon uses the Lagann's drill to tunnel out of the cave and destroy the beastmen-controlled Ganmen by attacking from behind. Even Yoko is impressed.
 * The Dai-Gurren deploys Ganmen by throwing them into combat with its arms.
 * In the last episode
 * And in the second movie...
 * Played with in Digimon Adventure: Tai and Agumon attempt one of these, but Agumon's too heavy to lift. They instead switch from baseball to soccer, and Tai kicks Agumon into position.
 * In one episode of Strike Witches, Charlotte throws Francesca into a Neuroi while Francesca uses her shield to inflict damage on impact.
 * One Piece
 * Sanji has his Armée de L'air combo moves, in which he uses his powerful legs to launch his friends in the direction of the enemy. He mainly launches Zoro, as it's usually them who end up having to work together. Which makes this sort of an inversion, because Zoro's the one with Super Strength.
 * The Crazy Enough to Work plan during the Alabasta arc, where, to reach the top of the tower in time, Usopp is shot into the air by Nami's Clima Tact, Chopper leaps off of Usopp, where Sanji then kicks him into the air, then Zoro then slashes them into the air, and finally Chopper throws Vivi.
 * The Movie of this arc included a scene in which Luffy catapulted Vivi to safety from the ground away from Crocodile. Zoro (who was riding a giant crab) catches her, but gets knocked out in the process.
 * Big Girl Chouhi and Lancer Kan'u do this in the last episode of Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny
 * Ranma ½ both subverts it and plays it straight at different times:
 * Subverted in Ranma and Akane's skating fight against Handsome Lech Mikado Sanzen'in and Kawaiiko Azusa Shiratori. When Mikado attacks them by grabbing Azusa and spinning her around so she can kick them, Ranma tosses Akane onto the air... but Akane is not the one who hits Mikado; as soon as he thinks Akane will kick him, Ranma punches him in the gut and forces him to stop their attacks, while Akane lands safely not far from them.
 * Played straight in the second half of the "The One to Carry On" two-parter OAV. Female Ranma uses a horizonal Hiryu Shoten Ha to shoot Akane forward like a human cannonball in order to beat Natsume and Kurumi.
 * Slayers
 * During Slayers Return, Naga performs a similar move utilizing their fat guide (Whose name is Becker) by literally kicking him out of mid-air, taking out an enemy with it. It is known as the Beckerball.
 * Lina Inverse herself uses her boyfriend as the "Gourry Bomb!" at one point in the anime.
 * Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children took the Fastball Special ven farther than usual, with each and every one of Cloud's friends hurling him higher and higher into the sky in a chain to fight a summoned Bahamut.
 * In Monster Rancher, Golem once threw the armadillo-like Mocchi into battle this way.
 * Golem also regularly tossed Suezo straight up into the air so that the eyeball monster could scope out their surroundings. Unfortunately, he didn't always catch him. Notably, this was Suezo's idea the first time, but after Golem failed to catch him the first time, he was less than thrilled when the group adopted it as a regular tactic.
 * In one chapter of Ai Kora, Maeda teams up with Kirino in a martial arts contest. One of their opponents is the Harugasumi brothers, whose special technique, the "Human Shuriken", involves the big brother Jinpachi throwing the little brother Anija.
 * Bleach used it several times:
 * In an early episode, as the Hollow Shrieker is trying to fly away, Rukia gets Chad to throw her at him. It's also nicely lampshaded, as Chad is a bit uncomfortable with it.
 * It happens again to Rukia, when she gets tossed at Renji by Ichigo, who was standing on top of the Sōkyoku. Neither Rukia nor Renji were pleased.
 * In the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA, Team Sonic pulls this move twice in rapid succession to defeat Metal Robotnik. Knuckles throws Sonic, Sonic flies through the robot, then Tails catches Sonic in the air and throws him back into the robot.
 * Toward the end of his fight with, Naruto uses two of his shadow clones to throw himself at in order to strike him with the Rasengan fast enough to catch him while he was open and finish him off.
 * himself also used a clever variation of this. could summon his whole team to one location, so he twice had her thrown a long distance to get his team past 's defenses while making it only seem that one was coming.
 * And in his battle with the, Sasuke does this with Juugo's help so he can catch up to him before he runs away.
 * Double Subverted in the anime when Sakura throws Naruto into the air towards Tobi, which then seems to just be a decoy as he goes way too high while Sakura and Kiba try a sneak attack, but then Naruto comes down with his attack anyway (all of which Tobi loudly announces, knowing there's no way they're going to hurt him anyway)
 * Perhaps taking a note from Jugo, Killer Bee partially transformed his arm and used it in the same way to help launch Guy half way across the island they were on
 * The first instance of this trope in Naruto is actually in the fight with Zabuza. After Kakashi is caught in his water prison Naruto changes into a giant shuriken and Sasuke throws him so that Naruto can catch Zabuza by surprise.
 * Pokémon
 * Nando's Lopunny did this with his Kricketune in his Grand Festival battle against Zoey.
 * In "Why? Wynaut?", Ash has his Bayleef throw him by Vine Whip to try to get to Team Rocket's escaping balloon.
 * The 35th episode of the 2001 series of Cyborg 009 has 005 hurling 004 to get a clearer shot at a giant robot with his rocket-launcher leg.
 * The Tachibana twins's Skylab Hurricane from Captain Tsubasa is performed by having one brother slide on the ground and launch the other brother into the sky with his feet. The purpose is to create a surprise heading from an extraordinary height.

Cards Games

 * Magic: The Gathering
 * Stone Giant.
 * Bloodshot Cyclops.
 * Lowland Oaf.
 * Brion Stoutarm.
 * Fling.
 * Pygmy Giant.

Comics -- Books
"Kitty(in mid-flight): Okay...so, serious wedgie."
 * Named for Colossus and Wolverine's favorite maneuver, first seen in Uncanny X-Men #100. Other Marvel characters (especially X-Men-related ones) occasionally do it as well.
 * In Avengers vs X-Men #2 Colossus (who is also the Juggernaut) is thrown straight through the Avengers' Helicarrier. By Magneto.
 * In one issue, a reversal took place on the moon, where, due to the low gravity, Wolverine threw Colossus.
 * When Colossus came Back From the Dead in Astonishing X-Men; it was in the middle of a furious battle. The Big Bad was getting away in a spaceship, and the heroes had no way of stopping him... until Wolverine walked up to him and said, "I got just two words for you, bub." The next panel? Wolverine flying towards the enemy, with Colossus in a tossing pose far in the background.
 * One issue had Colossus performing this move with Nightcrawler, as Wolverine was unavailable. Nightcrawler did not like it one bit.
 * Colossus has also performed this move with Kitty Pryde. Notably during Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing.

"Spider-Man: Fist him! Iron Fist: Hate it when people say that."
 * In an issue of She Hulk, She-Hulk and Wolverine team up on this. Of course, She-Hulk being who she is could not help but comment on Wolverine's physique. Which led to this classic response "First rule of Fastball Special: Do not talk about Fastball Special!"
 * Spider-Man and X-23 did this in Marvel Team-Up. Spider-Man made an ironic comment about how someone else might have the trademark to the move.
 * In the original run of Marvel Team-Up, Spider-Man did this with Kitty Pryde. She even asked Spider-Man, "How's your fastball?", being familiar with the move as a member of the X-Men.
 * X-23 did it again with Psylocke in Second Coming with Psylocke using her telekinesis, in front of Wolverine to boot.
 * In the Incredible Hulk arc Planet Hulk, Hulk and Korg would perform the Fastball Special; in this case, they traded off being the thrower and throwee.
 * Spider Girl and J2 (Juggernaut Junior). With the twist that due to some invisiblity-inducing Phlebotinum, Mayday had no idea what she was being thrown at.
 * In an issue of Deadpool, the Great Lakes Avengers (who at the time were calling themselves the Lightning Rods) did this, even calling it by name. And a footnote appears explaining that they have apparently copyrighted the term, and no one else is allowed to use it.
 * Squirrel Girl, a future member of that team, has done the move with her pet squirrel Tippy-Toe. She calls it the "Fuzzball Special".
 * In Secret Six, "evil Atom" Dwarfstar hides in Lady Vic's arrow fletchings while super-small, to a similar effect.
 * Runaways: Molly Hayes has super-strength. Victor Mancha is durable. Molly likes putting her power to use. Victor Mancha is a fan of Wolverine. This was made all the more amusing by Victor being the size of a boy in his late teens and Molly the only young girl in the cast.
 * Even cute little kids are doing it.
 * A variation in Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic uses his stretchy powers to launch the Thing like a slingshot. They also play it straight, with Reed forming into a ball and Ben chucking him at something.
 * Artax does this with his adventuring partner Yeagar, using magic to toss the warrior in the Nodwick comic parody "A Kind of Tragic", poking fun at the Highlander series. They call it the Bullwinkle Maneuver.
 * PS238, another title by the same author/artist, has Coach Rockslide use the Special to toss teacher Miss Kyle (a.k.a. Micro-Might) into fights after she's shrunk herself, thereby increasing her density and strength.
 * In New Avengers #13, Luke Cage needs to take down a plane. His projectile of choice? Iron Fist, of course. ("I hate it when he throws me!") In #21, Spider-Man does a web-slingshot variant of the same trick.

"Loa: Eat your heart out, Wolverine."
 * Ombre and Chance pull their own version of during the tactics exam in Freaks' Squeele.
 * In the Defenders-esque tie-in to Fear Itself, the mutant Loa asks Hulk's daughter Lyra if she's ever heard of a fastball special. Lyra hadn't, but she's a quick study.

Fan Works

 * In With Strings Attached, Paul chucks John into the air during the battle on the Plains of Death because John can't spare the water to blast himself into the air. Inverted in that Paul is chucking John away from combat.
 * Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow pull one in Fake News Rumble to kill some monsters. Rachel is positively gleeful about it.
 * In Poké Wars: The Incipience during the fight with Ho-oh, Regigigas uses an interesting take on this move. He throws Regirock at Mewtwo but as a grenade, not as blunt projectile

Films -- Animation

 * Happens at the end of The Incredibles, with Mr. Incredible throwing Elastigirl.
 * In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, it's not so much a Fastball Special as a Concentrated Ballistic Cannon in which every single party member further gives Cloud more height and speed.
 * Used in An Extremely Goofy Movie. The cheating Bradley Uppercrust III has his partner use "The Whip" on Max's team, effectively gaining first place (and having Tank knock them over as they look on in shock helps).

Films -- Live-Action
"Gimli: I cannot jump the distance! You'll have to toss me! ... Don't tell the elf!"
 * Because it wouldn't be right or proper not to include the move in the film series, X-Men: The Last Stand has Wolverine and Colossus do this to decapitate a (simulation) Sentinel. However, it was considerably altered, resembling more of a discus toss than a fastball throw, to compensate for the fact that Hugh Jackman is like fifteen feet tall compared to comics Wolvie.
 * In the second of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, Gimli has Aragorn do this to him, but only on the condition that he never tells Legolas about it.


 * In Sky High, Jetstream drops the Commander from a flying start. Warren and Will also pull one off during the 'Save the Citizen' scene.
 * Butterfly and Sword has a variation where Ko uses her scarf to fire Sing like an arrow.

Literature

 * In Matthew Stover's Star Wars: Shatterpoint, during the  Mace Windu is launched into the air by holding onto the whipping tail of an Ankkox
 * In Harry Potter, Hagrid asks Grawp to help him into the castle, which the latter interprets as a request to hurl him through the window, and complies.
 * The Discworld novel Thud is named for the titular boardgame which puts Dwarfs against Trolls. Dwarf pieces move like chess queens and troll pieces move like chess kings. Dwarf pieces outnumber troll pieces 4 to 1, however Dwarf pieces cannot take troll pieces unless they land on the square the troll piece is occupying and are not allowed to do so unless starting next to a troll piece or by being "hurled". Troll pieces can take any adjacent dwarf piece without moving to that square, thus a lone dwarf piece is defenseless as moving next to a troll piece invites immediate capture on the troll player's turn. Dwarf pieces can be "hurled" a distance of greater than one square so long as the opposite direction has the same number of other dwarf pieces occuping the squares. Thus the only way to win as a dwarf player is to bunch up one's pieces into a big massed group and Fastball Special the outer pieces at the trolls.

Live-Action TV
"Eiji/OOO: What are you doing?! Gentaro/Fourze: (swinging OOO around with his Magic Hand) Don't worry, astronauts handle these kinds of Gs all the time! Eiji/OOO: I'm not an astronaut!!"
 * Power Rangers
 * In Power Rangers Wild Force, Danny (the Black Bison Ranger) would regularly toss Max (the Blue Shark Ranger) at the enemy. Max had bladed weapons as part of the shark motif.
 * In Power Rangers Dino Thunder and its counterpart Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, the Yellow Ranger/AbareYellow is occasionally thrown in this manner.
 * Rescue Sentai Go Go Five and its adaptation Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue likewise have a move like this, though it involves one Ranger being thrown by all the others, and starts off in a crowdsurfing-like position.
 * In Power Rangers Mystic Force, Xander in Mystic Muscles mode can throw ALL FOUR OTHER RANGERS at a monster.
 * Taken Up to Eleven in episode 22 of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. Wanna stop a giant asteroid from destroying the Earth? Why not throw the nearest giant robot with a drill at it?
 * In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Scissor's Final Vent involves his Advent Beast launching him into the air for a spinning tackle attack. Ryuki, Ohja, and Ryuga's Final Vents also launch them for flying kicks, though with fire, venom, and nega-fire respectively.
 * Kamen Rider OOO's Movie has Kamen Rider Fourze (during his Early-Bird Cameo) doing this to OOO...without warning him first.


 * In Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Crixus uses his shield to launch Spartacus twice.

Pro Wrestling

 * Commonly called the Rocket Launcher. (Among other things, it was a major issue of the feud between the Midnight Express and the Fantastics.)
 * In a 6-man tag match on the 4.19 episode of Raw, Triple H and Rey Mysterio's Fastball Special upped the match's Holy Shit Quotient like whoa.

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons and Dragons Edition 3.5 has a feat that allows players to do this, appropriately named "Fling Ally". This gets amusing if you combine it with the Charm Person spell and the Distant Shot feat. To quote one post on the Internet, "The Andromeda galaxy is within my line of sight, right?"
 * A campaign journal on the Giant In The Playground forums had this as a semi-regular tactic. The campaign was an Eberron-based version of the Red Hand of Doom and the party psion would often use one of her powers to fling the party's dwarf at the enemy. Although one of its first uses was throwing a stuffed owlbear. Said campaign journal can be found here for those curious.
 * Exalted has a martial arts technique dubbed the Crashing Wave Throw. While it's intended to be used on an enemy (you need to make a grapple attack to be able to use it), it specifically fails to mention any weight limit the throwee has to fall under. Add in a willing ally who uses certain Sorcery powers to turn his body to solid bronze...
 * Blood Bowl, a Warhammer spin-off fantasy football game, included this as a pair of abilities (one for the thrower and one for the throwee, usually a goblin or halfling).
 * The 5th edition Champions book has a section specifically on the Fastball Special.
 * If the Orks' Shokk Attack Gun malfunctions in just the right way in Warhammer 40000, instead of firing the crazed goblin like it is supposed to, it will fire the Big Mek using it. And, being an Ork and a big 'un at that, he isn't too shabby in that field.

Video Games

 * Used in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, when you get one of The Big Guys next to a smaller character and press the grab button. The same character pairing examples under the Comics header above apply here, among others (you can get the Hulk -- if you have him -- to throw Wolverine, for example).
 * In its predecessor X Men Legends, Colossus and other superstrong characters such as Rogue can throw Wolverine at the enemies.
 * In Super Mario and related franchises:
 * Egg tossing in Yoshi's Island can be seen as this. "Your unborn children make awesome weapons", as Cracked.com's 31 Life Lessons You Can Only Learn From Video Games put it.
 * In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, you get Bowser into your party, and one of his weapons allows you to do this with Mario -- although if Mario is suffering some kind of Status Effect, Bowser has to settle for throwing a plush toy of Mario.
 * The Bros. Attacks in the Mario & Luigi games, which sometimes involve using your allies as weapons.
 * In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Luigi mentions that he used this tactic to defeat a boss in the adventure he's having at the same time as Mario's. His partner clarifies that Luigi in fact missed his throw, and sent the partner flying into lava.
 * In Super Mario Sunshine, Piantas in some places will offer to throw you in exchange for a coin, enabling you to reach high places without the Rocket or Hover Nozzles for FLUDD. This returns in one galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2, but they do it for free instead.
 * This can be used to win battles in Super Smash Bros Brawl, though doing so is usually a bad idea.
 * Used in Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 to reach high ledges.
 * In Suikoden IV Gau, who was Raised by Wolves, picks up and tosses the shorter brawler, Dario, in the Beserker Attack.
 * Characters in the Disgaea series can lift and toss each other around the battlefield. Prinnies explode when thrown, damaging characters on surrounding squares. (Prinnies are also perennial Butt Monkeys, so using them as living grenades just fits right in.) While this kills the Prinny, they're monsters and thus only cost one Hl to resurrect, making it cheap to do as well (also, this doesn't count as a team kill). There are stages designed so that doing this will make it far easier. The baseball stage might even be a Shout-Out to the trope-namer.
 * This is Umaro's best attack in Final Fantasy VI. Which party member he grabs and throws is mostly random.
 * Final Fantasy VIII
 * The game features a Fastball with the GF summons "Brothers". After Sacred(the big Brother) tosses the enemy(and the rock it was standing on) into the sky, he and Minotaur(the little Brother) play Rock-Paper-Scissors, which Minotaur always wins. Minotaur then boosts Sacred into the sky to crash into the enemy, sending it spiraling back to Earth.
 * In the same game, the Granaldo boss is fond of attacking with this trope.
 * Rinoa also launches her dog Angelo towards enemies when it's Limit Break time.
 * In The Last Remnant, this is an attack used by Castanea (an giant with heavy armour and a huge hammer) and Roeas (a scantily clad girl with dual-wielded swords). Roeas jumps onto Castanea's hammer, who swings it at the enemy, launching Roeas right at them.
 * Dissidia Final Fantasy has this done by Tidus and Zidane in the game's intro, with Zidane wrapping his tail around Tidus' leg and Tidus slingshotting him to Exdeath.
 * In Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, a boss fight features Ventus smacking Stitch at the boss using the keyblade like it was a baseball bat.
 * Can be quite useful in Streets of Rage where one player can throw his ally into a crowd of Mooks.
 * Rival Schools
 * In United by Fate, the hulking principal Raizo does this as his assist move.
 * And in Project Justice, the Gedo High School Team's Party Up attack is a variation, which involves the player's two teammates hurling the player's character and his/her opponent at each other.
 * A recent update to Kingdom of Loathing allows Turtle Tamers to do this with their familiar as the thrown character... or a random turtle if no familiar is available. However, familiars do more damage.
 * Several Double Techs in Chrono Trigger, mostly courtesy of Ayla, who is the physically strongest member of the True Companions. "Falcon Strike" is the most obvious about it. There's also a non-Ayla version, "Blade Strike", where Robot Buddy Robo throws Frog, sword-first.
 * While not particularly useful in the game, the hero of Noah's Ark, who is responsible for picking up animals and food and filling the Ark with them, can throw the animals and food at will. The only real use for this is
 * Touhou series
 * Yukari Yakumo throws not only her own shikigami, but her shikigami's shikigami. This is usually done to strike an unsuspecting character upside the head (or hitbox, depending on whether we're talking about the danmaku or the fighting), and the shikigami further assists by spinning and sending danmaku in all directions. Of course, this doesn't mean Yukari herself isn't going to attack you herself, as well.
 * Her shikigami, Ran Yakumo, does the same thing with her shikigami, Chen . Yukari's attack is basically a souped-up version of Ran's, using Ran herself as the projectile. However, Yukari is also capable of using the Chen version of the attack, but only in the fighting games.
 * Yukari's so reliant on having Ran assist that this is included in her shottype in Imperishable Night (Ran moves to the enemy she's "locked on." she'd have to do it to keep it balanced between the human half (Reimu with homing amulets, as to be expected) and youkai half
 * Mega Man Battle Network features the GutsShoot Program Advance, where GutsMan teleports in, picks up MegaMan, and throws him down the row (MegaMan puts up a shield in his face to avoid taking damage from the collision). The move was introduced in the first game as being incredibly powerful (if lacking in area range), but was toned down in each 2 and 3 before it was dropped altogether with the latter games reworking the formula.
 * In Azure Dreams, a Play Station 1 RPG, the player character can pick up and hurl his tamed monsters at foes, giving them an immediate attack on the enemy if they strike.
 * Before the last battle in Kirby's Adventure (and its GBA remake), Nightmare escapes into the sky as Kirby and King Dedede dance around in panic. Dedede then sucks up Kirby and spits him in the direction of Nightmare, before tossing the Star Rod to him so he can chase Nightmare.
 * Also happens in Kirby Squeak Squad, wherer Dedede once again tosses Kirby to chase away the Squeaks.As if he were a bowling ball.
 * In MUGEN, one of Colossus' special moves is throwing Wolverine at his opponent.
 * A 5-person version of this appears in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, which consists of White Magician Girl Porom and Black Magician Boy Palom casting a superpowered Berserk on the Cute Bruiser Luca, who then proceeds to throw the The Hero Ceodore and Waif Fu-practicing Rebellious Princess Ursula through the enemy party.
 * Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 has a couple of tag team moves that invoke this trope, on top of the standard whip moves.
 * In Sands of Destruction, Taupy (the little bear with an eyepatch) uses one of these as a finishing move, as a giant pink bear (his sweetiepie, Muffy) picks him up and hurls him toward the enemy at full force.
 * Plants vs. Zombies: The Gargantuar will throw an Imp into your defenses when its health is half-depleted.
 * In Gunstar Heroes, 2-player mode, both players can throw the other like this. Hitting the Mooks with this is quite painful for them. It is also possible to Fastball Special the Mooks themselves.
 * Hookheads and Grabbies in Dubloon can attack your party by throwing other enemies on the field. Naturally, this doesn't work when there's only one enemy left.
 * Supreme Commander 2 has a combination of this, It's Raining Men, and Ridiculously-Fast Construction. The UEF can build a "Noah Unit Cannon" that constructs land units rapidly and launches them across the map, whereupon they deploy on impact. That's right, you are shooting units at the enemy even as they are created.
 * Tecmo's cover-based shooter, Quantum Theory, is generally considered an unremarkable Gears of War clone with one exception: You have a button dedicated to picking up and throwing your female partner at the enemy, who slices them up.
 * The Violinist of Hameln game allows Hamel to throw Flute at his enemies if desired, so long as she's not wearing a costume.
 * Inazuma Eleven's "The Icarus" technique. Performed by swinging a partner into the sky. The partner grows wings and creates a flash that blinds an opponent.
 * The DLC, The Blue Destiny Unit 1 in Gundam Extreme Vs involve this to his assist charcter, GM, in EXAM System Mode.
 * Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 the Soviets have the "Bullfrog" unit which launches infantry with its cannon like human cannonballs.
 * In Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East, cyclopes have the ability to pick up goblins and hurl them at the enemy.
 * A mechanic for 'dwarf chucking' exists in Dungeon Keeper 2, allowing giants and bile demons to use dwarves and imps as projectiles.
 * The Handymen in Bio Shock Infinite will be able to do this to both friends and enemies. On a giant open-world flying fortress.
 * In Conquest of the Crystal Palace, you can do this with your dog, Zap, once you buy the Dog Whistle from the shop.

Web Animation

 * Used by the protagonists of Ronin Dojo Community College DX, who don't quite understand that imitating what you see on TV has repercussions in real life.
 * Used in multiple variants in Super Mario Bros Z. Sonic's in it, and two protagonists have hammers. It was bound to happen.
 * Parodied in Press Start episode 30 where Zack asks Lin-Ku to pull this off on him by name. Lin-Ku interprets this literally and knocks Zack out with a baseball before wondering it was supposed to do.

Web Comics
"Rock crab: "Excuse me, may I have directions to your airlock? I need to get back for the second salvo.""
 * Black Mage and Fighter occasionally do this as a combo attack ("Fighter-doken") in Eight Bit Theater, when they have a sudden burst of competence. After upgrading to Ninja class, Thief can do this with the "Throw" ability. While it's much more often used to hurt someone, he has used it for transportation or using his allies as human projectiles (never with their permission, of course).
 * Zoe throws Bun-Bun right into the eye of a Cosmic Horror in this Sluggy Freelance strip. An unusual case, since Zoe is just an ordinary person, while Bun-Bun is the one with Super Strength. It works anyway since Bun-Bun also happens to be a small rabbit.
 * This Kevin and Kell strip.
 * This shows up more than once in Looking for Group, but probably the most impressive is this one, considering it's performed while Richard is on fire.
 * This strip from Schlock Mercenary fairly adequately explains the tactics and physics behind using the Fastball Special to accelerate something to upwards of 99% of the speed of light.
 * The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob does a deliberate panel-by-panel homage to the Fastball Special scene in Astonishing X-Men #6.
 * Order of the Stick
 * The heroes at one point pull off a Tetherball Special.
 * And at another point, it happens when Hinjo sits on Durkon's head as he casts Thor's Might.
 * These few strips of Weregeek.
 * In the World of Warcraft-based comic Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth, dwarven fighter Flintlocke uses a musket and a plunger to allow the gnomish rogue Lowping to perform the "remote backstab." The results are... messy.
 * In Apple Geeks Hawk asks Eve, a robot, to toss him up on the roof.
 * A recent College Roomies from Hell strip had (werecoyote'd) Roger do this with Margaret.
 * Dominic Deegan here.
 * Mike of the Walkyverse does this often, leading fans to speculate that this is his particular superpower.
 * St. Dyphna Academy. "Go get 'em, kid!" The tosser is a mage using a wind spell, the toss-ee is a little kid.
 * This Axe Cop strip.
 * The Whiteboard: Being a polar bear, Doc is well equipped for this. He's tossed Jinx into the air as a scout once, and sent Kasi into battle against Jinx.
 * Meat Shield. Dhur is big and strong, Ch'p is small... it was bound to happen: "One Fastball Special Comin' Up"
 * Considered, but denied, in Angel Moxie.
 * Done, oddly enough, by the two weakest characters in Dubious Company. Tiren and Sal are cornered by Mary and Sue. Walter, a wimpy birdman, hurls Elly, an even wimpier elf, onto Mary. It helps that they were flying a good ways above them.
 * At one point in Skullkickers, Baldy throws Shorty up a tower to catch a sniper.
 * The cowardly and innocent but almost indestructable rock-crabs in Vexxarr are used as ammo in ship-to-ship combat. Which doesn't bother them in the slightest.

Web Original

 * Early in the Whateley Universe, strongman Lancer did this with Squishy Wizard Fey, who then used her magic at the other end. Since then, Lancer has suggested throwing Phase like this (and Fey has warned Phase about where Lancer puts his hands).

Western Animation
"Ed: Fly, Double-D, fly! Edd: Yaaahh!"
 * The Powerpuff Girls
 * Once used (and referenced by name) in the What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? rescue of a scared classroom pet. Notable in that the eponymous girls can fly unaided.
 * Buttercup has thrown Bubbles like a bowling ball at foes.
 * Teen Titans
 * One of Cyborg's and Beast Boy's many tag-team moves was the "Beast Boy Blitz", in which Beast Boy morphed into an armadillo, rolled into an actual ball, and was picked up and thrown by Cyborg. For an added bonus, BB would transform into a rhino while into mid-flight.
 * The flightless Robin and the super-strong Starfire regularly performed this move. Starfire has also thrown Cyborg into battle the same way.
 * In the episode "For Real", Control Freak sets up tests to see if the Titans East can prove they're "real" titans. In the task Más y Menos have, they must race across town and press two buttons at the same time. As they can only move fast while touching each other, they solve this by
 * Rocky and Bullwinkle has the "Alley-Oop" play, where Bullwinkle throws Rocky up in the air to give the flying squirrel an added boost of speed.
 * Transformers Animated
 * Bulkhead and Prowl pull this off against Blitzwing.
 * Also used with Bulkhead and Bumblebee on Starscream.
 * A two-stage version had the Autobots needing to dispose of a bomb capable of destroying half of Detroit. Prowl held Bumblebee standing on Bulkhead's wrecking-ball launcher. Prowl had limited flight capabilities and Bumblebee had rocket jets for that episode, so Bulkhead made the initial launch, Prowl lifted him higher and Bumblebee got even further, throwing the bomb into the lower stratosphere.
 * Optimus Prime does this with Brawn in Transformers Generation 1 upon the latter's request so he could take on the high flying Insecticons (it's the episode where the Insecticons made their first appearance).
 * In the Beast Wars episode "Law of the Jungle", Rattrap is riding on top of Rhinox (in his beast form). Rhinox transforms to robot mode, reaches back, grabs Rattrap's hand and flings him into their enemies, as Rattrap transforms into rat mode to roll under the enemies' legs, before transforming back up and shooting them at point blank range.
 * Rhino, of all people, uses this with Spider-Man during The Spectacular Spider-Man when the two briefly team up to destroy information on how to build Super Rhinos (Rhino wants to be unique, Spider-Man doesn't want more Rhinos running around).
 * The unwilling throwee variant, in Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. The Eds are trying to capture a balloon that has floated too high. Ed's idea:

"Blob: Nice knowin' ya!"
 * Etrigan does this to Batman on the Sherlock Holmes episode of Batman the Brave And The Bold.
 * The Herculoids. Gloop did this a couple of times with Igoo by turning himself into a giant slingshot, for example in the episodes "Temple of Trax" and "Attack of the Faceless People". Gloop also did it in "Revenge of the Pirates" by throwing Gleep to block a escape rocket's ejection tube.
 * An inverse of this trick shows up in a couple episodes of Galaxy Rangers. Zozo may be a small fellow (about four feet high), but he borders on Cute Bruiser in an unarmed brawl. His fellow Ambassador Waldo is much taller (at least 6' 5"), but not as inclined for an up-close brawl. Zozo's got a trick where he drops, uses a leg-throw maneuver, and pitches an enemy into Waldo's forcefield for a nasty jolt.
 * Sam and Max Freelance Police: Sam and Max used this against Lactose the Intolerant in "The Second Show Ever".
 * Because it's basically mandated by franchise law, Wolverine and the X-Men features one. This time with Blob throwing Wolvie.


 * In an episode of X Men the Animated Series, Wolverine performs a variation of the maneuver with Beast, as Colossus was not a team member on the show. Additionally, rather than a pitch, it was more McCoy propelling Logan into the air with both hands.
 * Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes. In episode 26, Giant Man throws the Hulk at a frost giant. Surely, a deadly combination.
 * There was a variant in an eariler episode with a tiny Ant-Man riding an arrow firied by Hawkeye. Ant-Man then changed back to normal size to punch the guy in the face. This also appears as one of Hawkeye's Hyper Combos in MvC3.
 * Wakfu
 * Ruel propels Yugo toward the Monster of the Week at the end of every season 1 Title Sequence (save a few with Sadlygrove).
 * In season 2, major demons Rushu and Anathar plain and simply use minor Shushus as projectiles -- while keeping count of their scores.
 * Used in a Strange Bedfellows episode of the Lilo and Stitch series, specifically 111. Gantu throws Stitch at a rapidly-climbing experiment, even going as far as commenting "That's crazy! So crazy it just might work..."
 * Performed in several episodes of the Young Justice animated series. Bonus points for referring to it as "Maneuver Seven", which is what Wolverine and Colossus originally called the move in its first several appearances.