Mix-and-Match Critters: Difference between revisions
→Tabletop Games
m (categories and general cleanup) |
|||
| (32 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you,''
''But I get the feeling that you don't like it.''
''What's with all the screaming?''
''You like monkeys, you like ponies.''
''Maybe you don't like monsters so much.''
''Maybe I used too many monkeys.''
''Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?"''
|'''[[Jonathan Coulton]]''', "Skullcrusher Mountain"}}
A common way of making monsters or fantastic creatures is to simply take existing animals and combine their parts. For instance, the Chimera (lion head, goat body, snake tail) or the [[Minotaur]] ([[Horned Humanoid|bull head]], human
Compare [[Biological Mashup]], which is when two characters are combined after the fact;
* [[Hippogriff]] - Horse with wings and bird head
* [[Pegasus]] - Horse plus wings
Line 21 ⟶ 22:
* [[Our Gryphons Are Different]] - Lion-bird mix
* [[Our Mermaids Are Different]] - Human-fish mix
* [[Basilitrice]]: Snake-chicken mix, sometimes with toad added.
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* Big Mixx, the mascot for the now-discontinued cereal of the same name, combined the features of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7mIp4dd89w a wolf, bear, pig, and chicken.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H5xtZGUr4E This commercial] has Coca Cola use a focus group for their new Cherry Vanilla Coke (as in, a mix-and-match soda) consisting of a satyr, griffin, mermaid, minotaur, and centaur. [[Don't Explain The Joke| They don't seem to see the logic there]], but they do have positive reviews for the product.
== Anime and Manga ==
* The world of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is populated with creatures ranging from the apparently delicious Molepig, to the truly bizarre [http://www.epicwin.org/img/misc/grapehippo.jpg Grapehippo]. The Grapehippo is the director's favorite character.
* The Chimera Ants in ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' are like this, as the queen can spawn soldier/grunts with traits from any creature she has consumed. And by the end of the arc, she has consumed pretty much an entire country's worth of animal life, and it's almost impossible to tell just how much of what creature went into her final creations. [[Hunter X Hunter]] also has naturally-occurring fox-bears and spider-eagles.
Line 33 ⟶ 39:
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', the three-tail beast is a cross between a turtle and a prawn (most noticeably its tails), while the eight-tailed is a giant bull with octopus tentacles for "tails" and large humanoid arms. We see in an artbook that the Five-Tails is a dolphin-horse.
** {{spoiler|Manda 2, a modified clone of [[Kaiju|Manda]] made by Kabuto}} is a combination of several different kinds of snakes: a pit viper's head, cobra's hood, and a rattlesnakes tail. It also has eagle-like claws, much the same as the traditional Eastern dragon.
* [[Fullmetal Alchemist]] has chimeras, which are regular animals alchemically combined. And sometimes they [[Talking Animal]].
** {{spoiler|[[It Got Worse]]: [[Complete Monster|That human in question is the alchemist's daughter!]]}}
* ''[[
* Chimairamon of ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' is based on the mythical chimera, and it shows. Several other species fall under this on a less extreme scale, with other obvious ones generally the product of a [[Fusion Dance]].
* All the ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' series and spinoffs contain Ryo-Ohki, a cat-rabbit hybrid, often referred to as a "cabbit". ''[[Tenchi Muyo! GXP]]'' also contains a second cabbit, named Fuku. ''[[Alternate Universe|Tenchi Universe]]'' has Ken-Ohki, a male cabbit who ends up as Ryo-Ohki's boyfriend.
* In ''[[Ranma
** [[Fridge Brilliance|Freshwater spring, saltwater sealife]].
* Plenty of ''[[Berserk]]'''s Apostles and other monsters can be described as these, ranging from Zodd (Bull/tiger/ape) to the ogres (giant humanoids with sperm whale snouts and elephant tusks) to the trolls (Rat/monkey/pig). Then there's the Pisacha, they look like those sea monsters from old sea maps, with elephant trunks, made by mutating a whale.
** There also happened to be a kelpie (mythological water horses known for luring and drowning their victims) that looked like a cross between a horse and a toad - https://web.archive.org/web/20140903221102/http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-25-page-101.html
* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' is practically MADE of this trope; most of the [[Airborne Mook|low-level demons]] are serpents or arthropods.
* ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* Five words: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100823015228/http://superdickery.com/index.php?view=article&catid=29%3Aconfounding-comic-covers-index&id=1262%3Athe-animal-vegetable-mineral-menace&option=com_content&Itemid=51 The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man]. Technically, he was a ridiculously overpowered [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Shapeshifter]]. [[This Is Your Premise
* [[The DCU]] character B'wana Beast's power is to ''make'' these from two animals.
* [[Marsupilami]], from ''[[Spirou and Fantasio]]'' and the eponymous title, are vaguely monkey-like creatures, oviparous but with a belly button, with a leopard coat and the occasional melanistic individual.
* Also from [[The DCU]], Ultraa, the Multi-Alien. Four alien races have rayguns designed to [[You Will Be Assimilated|turn unsuspecting people into members of their race]]. Ultraa gets hit by all four at once.
* If [[Everything's Worse
* H-142 From [[wikipedia:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II#Issue 6: .22You Should See Me Dance the Polka...22:|League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]
== Fan
* [[Script Fic]] ''[[Calvin and Hobbes
Line 62 ⟶ 68:
* Romero's animals in ''[[Spy Kids]] II: The Island of the Lost Dreams''.
** Of course, most of the "Zoo Too" creatures being referred to have names already associated with existing animals, such as [[Hurricane of Puns|the tiger-shark, sheep-dog, horse-fly, cat-fish, bull-frog and the plot-important]] {{spoiler|spider-monkey}}. And these were created by ''accident''. Whatever you say, Romero.
* The Beast in Disney's ''[[Beauty and
* In ''[[Shrek]] 2'', we see children of [[
* ''[[Q
* One of Flint's failed inventions on ''[[Cloudy
* ''[[Sharktopus]]''! Heck, Sci-Fi Channel original movies tend to run on these, to the point where there almost appears to be a competition as to which movie features the most ludicrous monster. (Mansquito, Sharkodile, ad infinitum.)
* In ''House II: The Second Story'', we have Bippy, the dog with a caterpillar body that was found in the Triassic period.
Line 71 ⟶ 77:
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' has a few. Most notably Hutts, who are slugs with small arms. Also Toydarians, who look like giant mosquitos...sort of. And Jar Jar is a frog with eyestalks.
== Gamebooks ==
* [[Fighting Fantasy]] gamebooks often have odd monsters, including this type:
*
** Also, ''Island of the Fire King'' has a Flying Scorpion, a giant scorpion with wasp wings. Ironic, seeing as wasps often prey on scorpions.
== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'';
** In the
*** Making for "a wossname total of three homicidal maniacs."
** Discworld also has the chimera in ''[[
** From ''[[Going Postal]]'': It was said that there was one horse in Ankh-Morpork that had a longitudinal seam from head to tail, being sewn together from what was left of two horses that had been involved in a particularly nasty accident.
** And in ''The New Discworld Companion'', it's mentioned that many of the animals kept at the College of Heralds are descended from previous generations of heraldic models, who'd gotten rather friendly with one another. And it shows.
* In Mary Stanton's novels, Anor, a demon in horse mythology, is a red horse with feline eyes, claws, and fangs, and an appetite for red meat.
* ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' had several: Billy-bumblers combined traits of a raccoon, a badger, and a dog. Taheen looked like humans with the heads of birds. The Low Men looked like humans with rodent-like
** The lobstrosities - 50% frog, 50% lobster, and 100% delicious.
** Not sure what book you guys were reading, but the lobstrosities were ALL lobster, and not humanoid, just very large, with odd vocalizations. Also, the taheen were not only birds. In fact, Finli O'Tego, one of the main antagonists in the final books, was a ''weasel''.
Line 87 ⟶ 98:
** There was also a very short-lived line of stuffed toys by Remco based upon these characters, which identified these hybrid creatures as "Firffels". Coincidentally - or not - they arrived around the same time the Wuzzles toy line was launched ([http://babbletrish.blogspot.com/2009/07/highly-dubious-andor-forgotten-80s-toys.html this blog post] has a few pictures and was written by someone who [[Adaptation Displacement|had no idea]] they were based on a book).
* [[Piers Anthony]] has quite a lot of these. In his ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' series, he uses classical mythology. His Dragon's Gold books feature multiple hybrids.
** And, of course, who can forget ''[[
** In another [[Piers Anthony]] book every animal in an [[Alternative Universe]] is one of these except dragons and possibly froogs. This leads to things such as bearvers and meer.
* ''[[
* ''[[Dune]]'' has the Bene Tleilaxu's Sligs - slugs and pigs genetically mashed together. Apparently it makes the meat tender and succulent.
* [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' has quite a few including wolvogs (genetically modified wolf/dogs designed for home defense), the spoat/gider (a goat with spider genes, used for the production of high-strength fiber), and the snat, described as "an unfortunate combination of snake and rat" (apparently both lethal and testy).
* [[Jack Chalker]]'s [[Well World]] is filled to the brim with semi-mythological mix-and-match critters, justified as the result of lazy alien species designers cribbing each others' work. Meanwhile, the mix-and-match critters from mythology are justified as legends and "racial memories" stemming from our own species' creation on the Well World.
* ''[[
* [[The Draka]]'s ghouloons, who are constructed from the genes of a baboon, a dog, and a human. They are actually sentient, and used as [[Cannon Fodder]]. To some extent, the [[Superior Species|post-human]] ''Homo Drakensis'' race itself qualifies, as the Draka used traces of feline DNA to increase muscle strength and sense acuity.
* Most of the animals on Skeeve's home dimension of Klah, from the [[Myth Adventures]] series, appear to be this trope, at least to judge by their names (e.g. 'spider-bear').
* In ''[[Leviathan (
* The Wearets in ''[[Redwall]]''. Half weasel, half ferret, all [[Ax Crazy]].
* The Mock Turtle in ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' is supposed to be "the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from." In [[Real Life]], that would be a calf's head, so Tenniel's illustration gave the Mock Turtle one, with hooves and tail to match, placed on the body of a turtle.
Line 102 ⟶ 113:
* Most of the main characters in [[Maximum Ride]] are arguably this. Even if you don't count the human/avian and human/lupine hybrids, there are still the Krelp. Not to mention some... ''interesting'' creatures given rather more detail in the "manga" version.
* [[Graeme Base]]'s ''Truck Dogs'' features dogs with vehicle body parts.
* The book ''Catbirds and Dogfish'' actually featured these as [[Visual Pun
* Some of the insects in the ''Bugs in a Box'' series pop-up books by David A. Carter appear to be either vertebrate animals, plants, or inanimate objects with insect body parts.
* ''The Wingdingdilly'', which is about a dog that was turned into a chimera as a result of a magic spell cast upon him by a witch.
* The [[Dr. Seuss]] book ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' ends with the egg [[Horton Hears a Who!|Horton the Elephant]] was taking care of [[Whale Egg|hatching into a tiny elephant with wings]].
* Although the main character of [[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]] initially assumes the insect/shrimp creature at the end of the second episode is the combination of several different animals, it’s actually just a modified mantis shrimp [
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' has featured a hippogriph. This one didn't appear though.
{{quote|
** Also, since monsters in ''Merlin'' tend to be creatures from medieval heraldry or Arthurian legends,
* Alluded to on ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'': Marco thinks bees are "like flying death monkeys".
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has had a few, since because of the rubber suit, all of them have to be humanoid. Most notable is one in the first season, right after Tommy joined, that was part turtle and part...''traffic light''?
* ''[[Kratts' Creatures]]'' has Ttark, an [[Roger Rabbit Effect|animated creature]] who is a combination of a mammal, a reptile, and a bird.
== Mythology ==
* The Chimera(who resembles a three-headed monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent) is probably the most prominent of these, to the extent that a number of works of fiction use "Chimera" as a generic term for Mix And Match Critters of all sorts.
* Many mythological creatures - the Chimera, the [[A Load of Bull|Minotaur]], the Sphinx, the [[Our Gryphons Are Different|griffin]], [[Harping
* Some scientists believe that the dragon is itself a mix-and-match creature that was deeply ingrained into our psychology through evolution, which would explain why so many different cultures feature some kind of dragon. The theory states that the dragon is a combination of mankind's animal enemies. The body comes from dangerous snakes and other reptiles. The maw comes from big cats. The talons come from birds of prey. The wings come from bats, etc.
** As for fire, animals instinctively fear fire. Humans have largely conquered that fear by conquering fire, but it still crept into the subconscious.
* Many works of fantasy using these exact same mythological creatures.
** They also saw extensive use in heraldry, along with many other
* The Peluda was a dragon from France that had the head, neck, and tail of a snake, the body of a green porcupine, and the feet of a turtle. Much nastier than it sounds - it could breathe acid and fire, its quills were toxic and could be flicked at prey, had a special taste for [[
* The Egyptian gods are often depicted as humans with animal heads.
** Parodied in [[Discworld]], "Gods are human-shaped. Even Offler the crocodile god is only crocodile ''headed''. Ask humans to imagine an animal god and they'll come up with someone in a really bad mask."
** Ammut the Devourer was depicted as having the head of a crocodile, the forequarters of a leopard or lioness, and the hindquarters of a
* Two-headed dogs seem to be very common, possibly as a lesser version of Cerberus. They are already present in Greek Mythology, e.g. Geryon's watchdog Orthus from the tale of Heracles.
** Most of the monsters from Greek myth were siblings. That is, all those that didn't have some other origin story were.
** Both Orthus and Cerberus must have been insanely jealous of three of their other siblings: the Khimera, the Lernaean Hydra that started out with nine heads and could generate more, and Ladon, a dragon with ''100 heads''. At least they beat out the Nemean Lion (not Mix and Match) and the Sphinx (indeed Mix and Match).
** Both of whom are beaten out by daddy dearest, Typhon, who had a hundred serpent's
** Actually, in some sources, Orthrys wasn't Kerberos's brother...well, not ''full'' brother. He was his half-brother...''[[Squick|and father]]'' (Ekidne was mother [[Parental Incest|to them both]]).
* The peryton is a [[Ascended to Carnivorism|man-eating]] half-bird, half-deer creature from Atlantis that casts a human shadow. For this reason it was believed that it was [[The Shadow Knows|a human soul trapped inside a monstrous body]].
* In a deliberate subversion, 16th-century Italian author Ludovico Ariosto created the ''hippogriff''
** Hippogriffs have appeared in ''[[Flash Gordon (
** One of Dream's three guards in ''[[The Sandman]]'' is described as a hippogriff but is drawn as a Pegasus-type winged horse.
** Card game ''[[Munchkin (
* ''[[
* [[Older Than Dirt]]: The earliest civilizations, such as Sumer, the Indus Valley, Minoan Crete, and [[Ancient Egypt]], had various mix-and-match beasts such as griffins, lamassu, leogryphs, serpopards, sirrush, and winged snakes. The early Sumerians had [[Our Mermaids Are Different|gods that were part man and part fish]]. And some sculptures found in villages older than the first cities also reflect this motif.
* The alicorn, pegasus crossed with unicorn, goes back to ancient Greek descriptions of "Ethiopian Pegasoi."
Line 151 ⟶ 162:
* [[The Jersey Devil]].
* The [[Ars Goetia]] portrays many of the demons bound by Ham and Solomon as manifesting in this way. Examples are Zagan and Haagenti (gryphon-winged bulls...although how you're supposed to tell those are gryphon wings and not eagle wings [[Fridge Logic|is anyone's guess]]), Marchosias (she-wolf with a snake's tail and gryphon wings), and Ipos (lion with a goose's feet and head and a hare's tail).
* In German, there's the common term of the ''Eierlegende Wollmilchsau'' or ''egg laying wool-milk-sow'', the holy grail of farmers and by extension any manufacturing business. One animal (or product) that produces absolutely everything and adresses anything the customer might wish for. Some people [https://web.archive.org/web/20140327125518/http://whichboxmedia.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/coolstory3/eierlegende_wollmilchsau.jpg made pictures of it].
* The worst of all? The Tarasque. It had the head of a lion, the body of a bull, the shell of a tortoise covered in spikes, six bear legs, and the tail of a serpent with a fish's fin. Doesn't much look like its [[Dungeons
Line 166 ⟶ 177:
== Tabletop Games ==
* Look at an old ''[[Dungeons
** A few more examples: some were specifically stated to be the result of wizard experiments, some had no origin given.
*** Chimera (1/3 red dragon, 1/3 lion and 1/3 giant goat... yeah, you heard me)
Line 173 ⟶ 184:
*** Griffon (half lion, half eagle)
*** Hippogriff (half horse, half eagle)
*** Thoul (1/3 troll, 1/3 hobgoblin, 1/3 ghoul) Exactly how two living monsters could be combined with an undead monster to create a living one is something of a mystery; one source suggested it was the result of divine magic through the cult of Yeenoghu.
** That's not the worst of it. One [http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?articleid=18739 article] on this in [[Dragon
*** Possibly it's a reference to an optical illusion (see [[Real Life]] above).
** As of 3rd Edition, templates made it easy for DMs to Mix And Match their own custom-made game critters.
** The cavalcade of "Half-Something" templates combined with the weird sense of humor gamers tend to have ensures that whatever can be spawned with D&D 3+ tools ''will'' be spawned. Whatever ''cannot'' be spawned, thanks to the stated rules, will be spawned
** A [[Prestige Class]], the Master Transmogrifier in 3.5 can do this, combining the traits of at least two creatures when using a polymorph or shapechange spell, such as combining a squid's tentacles with a dragon.
** In the original boxed sets, gnolls were stated to be crosses of gnomes and trolls; that was later [[Retcon]]ed out, with gnolls presented as their own species of [[Beast Man|Beast Men]].
▲* The [[Fighting Fantasy]] gamebook ''Citadel of Chaos'' featured two monsters: one with a wolf's head and an ape's body, the other precisely the reverse.
* ''[[Magic:
** The Phelddagrif, mind, is a ''deliberate'' in-joke. Its name is an anagram of {{spoiler|'Garfield, Ph. D.' after the creator of Magic}}. That said, Magic has played with the 'build your own creature from individual parts' concept from time to
*** This is actually the point of auras and equipment, but auras have the unfortunate card disadvantage, in that, yes, putting Holy Strength on your Benalish Hero takes its toughness up to three, but a Lightning Bolt (which does three damage) will kill it and your Holy Strength, whereas if you'd played (say) another creature, you'd still have a creature.
** ''Magic'' also has pegasi, merfolk, human/elephant loxodons, human/lion leonin, human/tiger nacatl (nacatli?), human/bird aven (and [[Winged Humanoid]] angels), werewolves (which are a major race in Innistrad), and, anything in Phyrexia, such as Tsabo's spidery cybernetic legs. When Phyrexia is done, [[Body Horror|you will be an example as well]].
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' 4th Edition has this, with more rules on
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', this is the ''least'' of the weirdness you'll find in [[World of Chaos|the Wyld]].
* What happens when you stick an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and a [[Pokémon]] together? ''[[Pokethulhu]]''!
* The ''Alien Wars'' supplement for 5th edition [[Hero System]] gives us the Xenovores, originally created via genetic manipulation to survive a nuclear holocaust no matter what. If they encounter a new race that has a potentially useful trait, expect a new subrace of Xenovores to show up soon with that trait.
* The tizn'ts of [[Low Life]] are sentient mashups of... pretty much anything. The race's name comes from an attempt to categorize them, as in: "Tizn't a Bodul, tizn't a Horc, tizn't a toy car, tizn't a rubber ducky, tizn't a..."
== Toys ==
* Disney's ''[[The Wuzzles]]'', somehow making insect/mammal creatures cute and cuddly, rather than an unholy vision from H.R. Giger's nightmares.
* 'Magna Morph' toys are animals made of separate body parts held together by magnets, and so can be disassembled and reassembled into interesting combinations. [[Stephen Colbert]] pointed out that the set includes a [[Everything's Worse
* According to the back-story of the Jurassic Park '[
** Somehow they combined a [[Giant Flyer|Pteranodon]] with an ''[[Mighty Glacier|Ankylosaurus]]'' and made it '''awesome'''. Other creatures in the series include:
*** Amargospinus - (''Amargasaurus'' + ''Spinosaurus'')
Line 201 ⟶ 211:
*** Tanaconda (''Tanystropheus'' + anaconda)
*** Velociraptoryx (''Velociraptor'' + ''Archaeopteryx'')" (Huh. [[wikipedia:Rahonavis|You don't say...]])
*** And the impressively ridiculous "Ultimasaurus", which is essentially the most fearsome parts of every nonhuman ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' resident combined. The toy was never produced, but fanart of the critter can be seen in Iririv's gallery below and [http://fav.me/d2np75e here]{{Dead link}}.
** Finally, someone was nice enough to devote [http://iririv.deviantart.com/art/Chaos-effect-collection-144644233 a deviantART page] to the overlooked toy series.
* ''[[Bionicle]]'' had the Rahi Nui, a critter who we only know by its description, since it was never released as a toy. Nevertheless, the animals that make it up were available at one time, so we can guess what it might look like: its head is that of a Kane-Ra bull, it has the body and back legs of a Muaka tiger ([[Fridge Logic|which doesn't actually have back legs]]), the powerful arms of a Tarakava lizard, the wings of a Nui-Rama wasp and the stinger tail of a Nui-Jaga scorpion.
Line 214 ⟶ 224:
** The newer games has mix and match critters in the form of the mutants. Examples of such are the Scorporilla (Scorpion/Gorilla), the Snipe (Fox/Tropical Bird) the Rhinoroller (Rhino/Armadillo) and the Battler...which is half Bat, half ''Switch Blade''!
* Many creatures in ''[[Jak and Daxter]]''. One of the main characters is an Ottsel (otter-weasel), and there are yakows (yak-cow), crocadogs (crocodile-dog), monkaws (monkey-macaw) and hiphogs (hippo-hog) running around.
* ''[[
* Variation occurs in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic Adventure 1 & 2]]'', where the Chao develop physical traits similar to the small animals fed to them (bunny ears, peacock crest, tiger arms...).
** Neutral and Dark "Run Type" Chao resemble Sonic and Shadow respectively, with blue or black striped head spines. Also, it's possible to make one look like freakin' CHAOS.
* The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series also has Fang the sniper (aka Nack the Weasel), who is a purple-furred bounty hunter and is (in Japan anyway) half weasel, and half wolf. He is sometimes referred to as a "weasel-wolf" by fans.
* Part of the appeal of ''[[Spore]]'' is the ability to build your own
* The online game Dragonfable inflicted the Dreaded Chickencow upon the world. Head, wings, breast, and front legs of a chicken, hindquarters of a cow; all of which adds up to the meat industries' dreams manifested in flesh.
* ''[[Dungeon of Doom]]'' gives us Alligogs (alligator-frogs) and Lizzogs (lizard-frogs).
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series features mole-bats, or ''moguri'', known in English as Moogles. The fact that they end up looking more like teddy bears than anything else can be chalked up to the [[Rule of Cute]].
* [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
* ''[[
** Always found it odd that the ''Warcraft'' games call those flying lion-scorpion beings wyverns when they are quite clearly ''manticores''.
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' includes Moonkin, which are owlbears, as well. Druid characters are shapeshifters, and if one takes the offensive spellcasting talents, you can change into one.
** ''WoW'' also has the wolpertinger. It has the body, head, feet, and tail of a hare... and fangs, wings, and antlers. They can also only be seen when ''[[Mushroom Samba|drunk]]''...
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Yoshi]] is supposed to be a [[Everything's Better
** Bowser is commonly confused to be a dragon-turtle, but he's actually designed to be an ox-turtle. Miyamoto originally envisioned him to be an ox, but his staff convinced him to make Bowser a turtle instead. Bowser's final design merged the two creatures.
* The ratigators from ''[[Sewer Shark]]''.
* Quite a few of the hatchable animals in ''[[Billy Hatcher and
* Of course, several [[Pokémon]], especially plant/animal hybrids under the Grass type.
* ''[[Aion]]'''s natural wildlife would fit right at home with the ''[[Woozles]]'' or ''[[
* ''[[Halo]] 2'': Everyone say hello to [http://img92.imageshack.us/i/dobermangatorpu4.jpg/#%20q=doberman Doberman-Gator!]
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has the Lobsterfrogmen. [[Exactly What It Says
* You get the chance to play as one of these in ''[[EVO Search for Eden]]'', since the game lets you mix and match creature parts.
* [[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]: Dark Legacy'''s Chimera: A lion's body with dragon wings and eagle talons instead of claws, with three heads: A snake, a lion, and an eagle, to correlate with the three types of Gargoyles and their elements (Poison, Fire, and Electricity, respectively.)
* In ''Return to Mysterious Island'', Mina must get past a sea creature with a crocodile-like head and a shark's body. Possibly it's meant to be an ichthyosaur, but if so, the designers [[Did Not Do the Research|put its tail on upside-down]].
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has Nightstalkers, the result of an experiment in splicing coyote and rattlesnake DNA.
** ''[[Fallout]] 1'' & ''2'' have the pigrat as well. Also, the deathclaw is a mixture of Jackson's chameleon and various 'other species'.
* The Sea Creatures of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay''. They have the head of a sea horse, the body and shell of a turtle, the fins and flippers of a fish, and the large bulb antenna of an angler fish. [[Hell Is That Noise|And their calls are... kind of weird]].
Line 249 ⟶ 259:
== Webcomics ==
* Muut from ''[[
* ''[[
** [[Exalted|Is Ma-ha-Suchi involved?]]
** Sarah Ellerton's followup project, ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'', also has Dakor. This time, she left out the humanoid and just made wolves with goat horns.
* ''Triquetra Cats'' takes this trope to the extreme with Splio
* In ''[[Irritability]]'', Exoth keeps a stock of modular chimaera parts in one of his labs that can just be snapped together.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Princess Planet]]'' often have whole strips devoted to Princess Christi and other princesses trying to outdo each other by showing all ever weirder
* ''[[8-Bit Theater
** And as the title suggests: [[Weebl and Bob|Badger-Snakes]]?
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': [[Mook
** ''[[Andrew Hussie|Humanimals]]'', one of Hussie's earlier works, was entirely devoted to exploring this trope and all its potential [[Mundane Utility]]
* Spontaneous Combustion has Swift, Gabriella, and the recently announced "badger-squirrels" that are all animal combinations. Swift is a variety of fast creatures (cats and rodents can be seen) and Gabriella is an amoeba-girl (and an oxymoron).
* Speaks with Monsters answers the question "what do griffons (half-eagle, half-lion) eat?" with pescazelles, half-trout, half-gazelle.
* [[Erfworld]] has the Unipegataurs, which are [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', which is explicitly set in a world based on ''[[Dungeons
** In a later strip, Roy questions the existence of a [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|brontosaurus]], and is told that if gryphons can exist, why not an apatosaurus with the head of a camarasaurus?
* ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'' has spider crabs which (unlike [[Real Life]] spider crabs) are giant spiders with crab claws. There's also a brief appearance by deer that have small trees in place of antlers.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
** Also on [http://mountaincomics.com/comic/asuncion/ Asuncion] page:
* ''[[Dissonance (Webcomic)|Dissonance]]'' takes a relatively realistic approach to this--Pandora has traits of three different kinds of caniform, in addition to traits not typically found in that suborder, but it's definitely its own creature rather than a mix of the others. The protagonists are currently clueless as to what it could have evolved from (having dismissed genetic engineering, and only joked about aliens.)▼
{{quote|'''<u>The Cactus</u>''': Covered in protective spikes. Can go for years without water. Can live for centuries. Cool.
'''<u>The Octopus</u>''': Can camouflage itself instantly. Can fit through spaces far smaller than itself. Can open doors and jars and stuff. Scary.
'''<u>The Cactopus</u>''': God help us.}}
▲* ''[[
== Web Original ==
* ''Lots'' of "[[Furry Fandom|fursonas]]" are this way, to the extent that there are bird-mammal hybrids, or fish-mammal hybrids, or insect-mammal hybrids. For whatever reason, part-wolves and part-Blue Jays tend to be especially popular, with griffon-like Jay/Wolves essentially being the Holy Grail of animal avatars.
** One strange instance had a character which consisted of a hyena crossed with a cuttlefish...
* In a somewhat similar vein to the above example, the [[Furry Fandom]] roleplay City of Unity has this as a major plot point; As maintained by the [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Orwellian]] government, Hybrids, or Uni-Class, (50/50 mix of two species) are held as the next step in evolution over the purebred Outer Class. (single species)
* [http://humandescent.deviantart.com/ HumanDescent] on deviantart.com loves doing digital manipulations of this nature.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130811024504/http://zoofights.squarespace.com/ ZOOFIGHTS] features a few of these, notably the infamous SwanMass (it kept absorbing things and just wouldn't die) and [http://zoofights.squarespace.com/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=/storage/round1_fight7/zoofights%20heart%20of%20darkness%202.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1269275079771 Heart of Darkness]{{Dead link}}/[http://zoofights.squarespace.com/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=/storage/zoofights4_images/losers_r1_f4/Hyperfauna.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1269858258233 Hyperfauna]{{Dead link}} (who might ''also'' be SwanMass).
* [[Rather Good]] Flash animation [http://www.rathergood.com/zoology "Zoology Dragon"] that is about a Dragon that combines animals... Into cubes.
* A few more gems from [[Deviant ART]]:
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130730215742/http://imaginism.deviantart.com/art/Baterpillar-Farret-58083850 Meet the Baterpillar Farret]
** [http://fav.me/d11vggc Humming-Gryphon]
** [http://youkaiyume.deviantart.com/art/Kanga-Lion-48360022 Kanga-lion]
Line 287 ⟶ 300:
** [http://adonihs.deviantart.com/art/Splice-Contest-BULL-SHARK-165048157 Bulldog-Shark]
** [http://fav.me/dz9wsr The mighty Llamalion!]
** [http://dragoness77.deviantart.com/art/Abomination-100826184 And the Abomination]{{Dead link}} (Horse, elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, deer, crocodile, parrot, babboon, rabbit and buffalo)
** Chalicothere is fond of canine/fish hybrids like the [
** [http://fav.me/d1wbqqb The Dogbunnyfroglemur]
** [http://fav.me/d23ogv9 Dolphidile (dolphin/crocodile), cockager (tiger/cockatoo) and ralk (rabbit/elk)]{{Dead link}}
** [http://fav.me/d1755r6 The magnificent Elephenguin]!
** A whole menagerie of Platypus hybrids: [http://fav.me/d2dt3kg Platypantheree]{{Dead link}}, [http://fav.me/d1jb85t the platypillar] (itself from the hybrid-happy [[Thomas Tapir]]), and the spectacular [http://fav.me/d1yabg9 Dragifforse] (dragonfly, horse, giraffe, antelope, ostrich, cheetah, platypus, centaur, and more)
** The fearsomeness on legs [http://fav.me/d1vbsi7 Antshark]
** [http://fav.me/d2zzfy1 Crocoraffe (crocodile/giraffe)]
** Hellraptor has made a lot of these, including [http://fav.me/d2kfbtd the Spinosaur-Alien]{{Dead link}} and a [http://fav.me/d34vr8s Tyrannosaurus/spider/scariest parts of everything ever hybrid]{{Dead link}}
** [
** [http://fav.me/dh7sp9 The ever-popular Butterfrog]
** [http://fav.me/d1jbsw7 Macadillo]
Line 308 ⟶ 321:
** [http://fav.me/d307e6m Pandafox]
** [http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/210/6/1/Crux_fanart_by_WhiteRoo.jpg Cruxes] are a somewhat less straightforward example, though still considered "hybrids".
** The almost-inevitable [http://fav.me/d46nm7o Spinohog!]{{Dead link}}
** A very different take on the [http://fav.me/d1ypj26 Ultimasaurus concept]{{Dead link}} (see "Toys" above)
*** And on the [http://fav.me/d2qukn9 Duckbunny]...
** What little girl wouldn't want a [http://fav.me/d1qa846 My Little Caterpony]?
** Behold, the beautiful [http://fav.me/d2rti5v Pegaceratops]{{Dead link}}!
** And the glorious [http://fav.me/d2vw0wi Pavotaur]!
** And the magnificent [http://fav.me/d3e3hro Sheenicorn]!
* [http://valley-of-siyyon.deviantart.com/ The Valley of Siyyon], populated as it is with Centaurs, pretty much lends itself to this kind of thing. Which leads to such characters as and [
* Some [[
* The [[
* It's very common to find people on ''[[Pokémon]]'' forums and art sites who like to do "Pokémon sprite splices", in which two or more Pokémon sprites are taken and edited to create a hybrid of said Pokémon. These splices range from ANYTHING to Pikquaza, to Eevedactyl to Mewgong to Bulbatres.
* At [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] in the [[Whateley Universe]], stuff like this is a common problem among the students. Diamondback is half human, half twenty foot long snake. Harpy is... a harpy. Psydoe is half deer. Gila is half lizard. Razorback is half ''velociraptor''.
* The [[Super Mario Galaxy
* Most, if not all, of the animals in [[The 99 Rooms]].
* Several in ''[[Dark Souls]]'', such as the Catbear.
* The [[Memetic Mutation|Bearsharktopus]].
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
** The [[Team Pet]], Momo, is a flying lemur (it has flaps of skin like a flying squirrel).
** Earlier designs of Appa, the ''other'' [[Team Pet]], a flying bison, were a mix between a bison and a manatee, only with six legs.
** The "[[Call a Smeerp
** The farm in "Zuko Alone" has almost every common meat animal, albeit mixed with a pig.
** A side comic on nick.com actually had ''scorpion bees''.
** And the actual series had the slightly less nightmarish but still pretty scary buzzard wasps. In other words, ''goddamned wasps'' the size of a freaking vulture.
*** ''Bigger'' than vultures - think more along the lines of, say, a cow. A cow-sized wasp with a vulture's head and talons.
Line 343 ⟶ 355:
** Sokka mentions hunting arctic hippo, which many have assumed to be a cross between a hippo and a polar bear.
** It's believed that Avatar Kuruk's hat is from a polar leopard. (Snow leopards?).
*** This was later confirmed to be a Polar-Bear Dog.
** Catgators: catfish/alligator crosses. Kept as pets by the waterbenders of the swamp region.
** Dragonfly: [[Exactly What It Says
** There are Hermit Crab Spiders in "The Northern Air Temple".
** Gorilla-goat: Possibly one of the strangest hybrids ever seen on ''Avatar''.
Line 351 ⟶ 363:
** Saber-tooth Moose-Lion: But the baby is so cute!
** Sparrowkeet: Another bad pun.
** Wolf-bats: ''Especially'' because they can fly
*** Except, you know, [[Captain Obvious|outside in the daylight]].
** Badger
** Dragon-moose: Seen drawing a cart in "The Runaway".
** Turtle-ducks: Young Zuko is seen feeding a mother turtle-duck and her babies with his mother. Secretly, they are his favorite animals.
Line 362 ⟶ 374:
** Turtle-seals: Seals with turtle shells on their backs, of course (kind of like turtle-ducks). One was padding along at the back of a stampede of zoo animals (providing some interesing [[Mood Whiplash]] of a sort) in "Tales of Ba Sing Se".
** Koala-Sheep. Basically, adorable falls of fluff that make great pillows.
** Ostrich-Horses seem to be the main means of travel before the invention of air-balloon and cars.
** [[But Wait! There's More!|And there's more...]] The real kicker is that
*** The fact that they're given portmanteau names implies that there are (or were) "pure" versions of all the animals mentioned (not just the bear), although they seem to be relatively rare or even extinct. There's a bit of [[Fridge Logic]] when you wonder how the hell they knew that a platypus ''isn't'' a [[Mix and Match Critter]].
*** [[Cute Kitten|Regular cats]] appear to be quite common and socially accepted.
*** Even weirder: if you pay attention you'll notice that almost all animals in the regular Avatar world are
*** Wan Shi Tong also transforms into a Owl-dragon hybrid when he's pissed.
*** Altogether, this has led to some [[Wild Mass Guessing]] theories that the Avatar-verse is actually Earth or a human space colony in the far future. The animals are results of genetic experimentation, as could bending, with aid from magic. People have then extrapolated that said colony had problems with [[The End of the World
* The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[
** Korra's [[Canine Companion]] Naga the Polar Bear dog, just as [[Canis Major|giant]] as one might assume
** Bolin's pet fire ferret Pabu, a mix between a ferret and a red panda
** Descendents of [[There Is Another|rediscovered]] Sky Bison, and Ringtailed Winged Lemurs, close cousins to Flying Lemur Momo, live on [[Island Base|Air Temple Island]].
** Lizard-crows scavenge in Republic City's urban sprawl.
** Bolin once mentions a "poodle-pony."
** Korra uses a comparison to a "weasel-snake" as an insult.
* ''[[Biker Mice From Mars]]'' has Fred the mutant, who has a duck's foot, a bear's foot, a human arm for his right arm, an octopus tentacle for his left arm and three eyes.
* In ''[[Transformers]]: Beast Wars'', Fuzors are Transformers who turn into
** They were an entire sub-group when it came to the toyline. There were some weird combinations, but Injector took the cake as a lionfish/hornet. Injector is also one of the most ''notirous'' shelfwarmers of all time.
* ''[[South Park]]'' has done it several times, including the half-squirrel half-chicken, Scuzzlebutt (looks like Beast but has Patrick Duffy for a leg among other things...) and ManBearPig (although ManBearPig is supposedly fiction created by [[Strawman Political|Al Gore]]).
{{quote|
** And ''the'' [[Physical God|God]] is best described as hippo-cat with a lizard's tongue.
** Doubly subverted in one episode. They try to splice pig and elephant DNA, despite having heard that song by Loverboy. They don't get a pig/elephant hybrid. It looks like a normal pig. But...[[But You Screw One Goat!|its face looks like]] [[Depraved Homosexual|Mr. Garrison]].
Line 388 ⟶ 400:
** Molkrom, a centaur-like demon with the head of a horse, a wolf's tail and teeth, bull horns and tentacles for arms.
** In "Son Of Celice", Orko accidentally creates a chimpanzee with a rabbit's head when he means to summon a gift for the king of Tahrin.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has fun with this, with the Esquilax, a horse with the head of a rabbit... and the body of a rabbit. Oh look, it's galloping away!
** Played straight in one [[Treehouse of Horror]] episode where Homer gets turned into a bizarre creature with a fish's head, a donkey's ears, a pair of brooms for hands, and a chicken's body.
* Most of the jokes on [[Tex Avery]]'s ''The Farm of Tomorrow'' consist of bizarre cross-breeding experiments such as an ostrich with a chicken (for bigger drumsticks), a duck with a banana (you peel the feathers off instead of plucking) and a dove with a high chair (a stool pigeon).
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' villain DNAmy loves plush toy
** She used her knowledge of genetics to create a cat-snake, rabbit-rhino, chicken and pig men, a lobster dog, a poodle-gorilla, a naked-mole man (from Rufus and Mr. Barkin), and supervillain Monkeyfist.
** If you look closely, you can see she wears an otter-fly brooch on the front of her top, one of her favorite cuddle-buddies.
* ''[[The Pirates of Dark Water]]'' had Niddler the Monkey-Bird as one of its [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]].
* In the ''[[Sushi Pack]]'' episode "Near Miss", Paradoxter, himself a man-ox of unknown origin, creates the Animixter Ray that combines two animals into one amalgam. The animals all go back to normal once it is broken, though.
** Funny, that sounds an awful lot like a plot by Dr. Nimnul in ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (
* Just in case humanoid turtles (and a rat, a rhinoceros, a boar, a gecko...) didn't qualify, the first ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' TV series had an episode where the [[Villain of the Week]] was a [[Mad Scientist]] that bred
* ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee]]'' has an episode dedicated to Juniper meeting a bat-otter.
* This trope is exemplified by Disney's [[The Wuzzles]].
** and [[Nelvana]]'s [[Spliced]].
* ''[[Wondermark]]'' gives us [http://wondermark.com/495/ the majestic Piranhamoose]. ''Awesome''.
* [[And Zoidberg]]. His species, the Decapodians, are hybrids of every sea creature there
** They even have a sponge or coral phase. And when they mate, the males display their crest, but when you get lucky, you're really unlucky: All those who mate die.
* The "something that doesn't exist" from the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' opening theme is a half-turtle, half-unicorn with webbed hind legs.
** The Bango-ru dolls from "The Chronciles of Meap: More than Meaps the Eye" are apparently like custom-made Wuzzles. Stacy orders an adorable bunny-bear, while Candace orders a Bango-ru that's half-cow, half-frog, which... didn't turn out so well.
{{quote|
** Also [[The Wizard of Oz|"The Wizard of Odd"]] had Buford as a combination Lion, Tiger and Bear.
{{quote|
'''Buford:''' [[If I Had a Nickel]] for every time I herd that... }}
* Alfe from ''[[The Problem Solverz]]'' is supposed to be part human, part dog, and part anteater, although he doesn't really resemble any of those.
* Maleficent's goons from ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'', which all resemble evil pig-vulture-gorilla-things.
* Season one of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* Penny, Gumball's girlfriend from ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'', is an anthropomorphic peanut with antlers.
** Non-anthropomorphic animals are often this trope to the extreme.
* The inhabitants of Tulgey Wood from ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'', which include Bread-and-Butterflies, Rocking-Horseflies, Dog-and-Caterpillars, pencil birds, hammer birds, [[Visual Pun|umbrella birds]], cage birds, mirror birds, glasses birds, accordion owls, honker ducks, cymbal frogs, timpani frogs, and a broom dog.
* [[
* One scene in ''[[Duck Amuck]]'' had the animator erase [[Daffy Duck]]'s entire body, leaving only his head. Daffy then gets angry at him and tells him to draw his body back. The animator doesn't listen, and as a result he instead redraws Daffy as a bizarre quadruped with a flower-shaped head, mismatched feet, and a flagpole for a tail, with Daffy's flag displaying a screw and a ball. The animator then draws a mirror in front of Daffy, causing him to freak out after seeing his reflection.
== Real Life ==
* The [[Everything's Better
** The platypus injects its venom through the spurs on its FEET. While not stolen from another animal, it is still a damn freaky thing to do.
** The female, on the other hand, ''sweats milk''. And both of them can sense electric fields...
Line 431 ⟶ 443:
** Speaking of the Greeks, in the unknown land, anything goes. People with dogs' heads, people walking on their hands...
* It was believed for a long time that African and Asian elephants couldn't interbreed. This was proved wrong by the rather unexpected pregnancy of an Asian female in a zoo where the only males were the African variety. The resulting offspring, born in 1978, had physical traits of both varieties, but unfortunately died of septicaema aged 12 days.
* Ligers ([[Napoleon Dynamite|bred for their skills in magic, of course]]) and tigons. [[The Wizard of Oz (
** But let's start on the ligers' less fictious claims to awesomeness: mane (the beard of the animal kingdom), golden striped color scheme, being [[Gentle Giant|twice the size of a tiger, and gentle demeanor]].
* Kirk Cameron's fictitious "Crocoduck", which he believes [[Strawman Political|scientists believe]] would be the [[Artistic License: Biology|ultimate proof of evolution]].
** Hmm.... snout filled with nasty teeth and a long, powerful tail, but at the same time bipedal and feathers? Wait, we have something like that. It's called a ''dinosaur'' (more specifically, a theropod, and if you want to get really specific, only maniraptoran theropods have vaned feathers).
** [[wikipedia:Notosuchia|Anatosuchus]], a small extinct crocodile with an unusually broad snout has since, rather cheekily, been nicknamed the "Crocoduck".
** Also cheekily, the gag Golden Crocoduck Award is now granted to whichever creationist whackjob is caught on film making the year's stupidest argument against evolution.
* Some biologists hypothesize that some animals that undergo metamorphosis do so due to hybridization in their evolutionary past eg. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110613040313/http://www.americanscientist.org/my_amsci/restricted.aspx?act=pdf&id=13825705089663 Luidia sarsi] a "jellyfish" that becomes a starfish.
** A "jellyfish" is not any animal that happens to be
* Sheep-goat chimeras can actually live and they indeed look like both sheep and goat.
** And camel-llamas (camas)
Line 447 ⟶ 459:
* According to a theory by one philosopher of ancient Greece, all animal parts appeared independently and were combined in different possible ways to form whole creatures, but natural selection pruned out all the silly combinations.
** Well, ''most'' of the silly combinations.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130918085837/http://www.cracked.com/funny-5588-hybrid-animals/ Cracked comes to the rescue again] with various bizarre and scary hybrids.
* The Okapi; one of the few remaining giraffes that doesn't look like the tall blondes one thinksof when one hears the word. It has the body of a horse, the legs of a zebra, and the horns of a giraffe...
** Speaking of Zebras, lets talk about Equines. Most people are familiar with what you get when a donkey and horse mate, [[wikipedia:Mule|a mule]]. But what happens when you cross-breed a Zebra with a horse or a donkey? You get a [[wikipedia:Zebroid|Zorse]] or [[wikipedia:Zebroid|Zedonk]] respectively.
Line 454 ⟶ 466:
* The Blind Men and Elephant story from India, where a group of blind men mistook each part of an elephant they touched as belonging to separate things (body is a wall, tusks are a spear, trunk is a snake, ear is a fan, tail is a rope).
* One well-known optical illusion depicts a creature that alternately resembles a duck or a rabbit, depending on whether you think of the long, paired structures on its head as a bill or as ears.
* Looking closer at a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120404123911/http://blog.webosaurs.com/2010/11/18/weekly-dino-fact-mighty-mosasaur/ mososaur], this troper thinks someone finally managed to take the badass qualities of a shark and a crocodile and combine into one badass dominant marine predator of the Cretacious period.
* [[wikipedia:Chalicothere|Chalicotheres]] looked like a pumped up-cross between a horse and a gorilla. Strangely, its closest relatives are the tapir and rhino.
* The extinct glyptodont species, [http://iririv.deviantart.com/art/Doedicurus-clavicaudatus-133480077 Doedicurus clavicaudatus] look like if someone took an ankylosaurus and an armadillo (already two awesome animals by themselves) and combined them into an even more awesome one.
Line 460 ⟶ 472:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]
[[Category:Animal Tropes]]
[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
| |||