Mix-and-Match Critters: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you,''
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''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;
'''Sub Tropes Include:'''
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** 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''.
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* 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.
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* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' has featured a hippogriph. This one didn't appear though.
{{quote|'''Arthur:''' It is said to have the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and [[Blatant Lies|the... face of a... bear]].}}
** 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''?
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** 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 [[Damsel in Distress|young women]] and children and the only way to kill it was [[Weaksauce Weakness|cutting off its tail]].
* 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 (comic strip)|Flash Gordon]]'', ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', ''[[Warcraft]]'' and, of course, ''[[Harry Potter]]''.
** 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 (game)|Munchkin]]'' also has a hippogriff - a hippo with small fangs and two small wings.
* ''[[Dragon Mango]]'': One of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|many]] main characters summoned a
* [[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."
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*** 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.
* 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 Gathering]]'' uses a lot of the same
** 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]]''!
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** 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.
* ''[[Mother 3]]'' provides the page image, with some of its many Chimarae; bio-engineered animal hybrids that are the standard [[
* 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).
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** [[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.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' with its chimerae and [[Shapeshifting]] [[Transformation Ray|devices]] which is taken to another level involuntarily with Vlad/Vladia being created from DNA from several bats, owls, hawks and even a leopard in addition to human and an alien and voluntarily with Grace who can mix and match aspects from [[Partial Transformation|any]] and [[Shapeshifter Mashup|all]] of her continually growing number of forms. Also, [http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2004-03-07 this] critter in filler.
* ''[[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|Eight Bit Theater]]'': [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/04/10/episode-406-and-badger-snakes/ I'm sorry, no I won't take it. If we accept orc zombies, then we open the gate to all kinds of crap. What's next? Centaur dragons? How about demon fairies? Maybe buffalo elves? Heck, why not whale vultures?]
** 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.
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* In ''[[Shan Shan|The Adventures of Shan Shan]]'', [http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=026&chapterid=1 a winged lion].
* ''[[Mountain Time]]'s'' snailbear somehow manages to combine this with [[Fauxlosophic Narration]].
* ''[[Dissonance]]'' takes a relatively realistic approach to
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** 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 as We Know It]]; after the holocaust, people rebuilt, and memories of Asian culture and the old 'pure' forms of animals gave the world the show has today.
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** 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]]).
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** 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.
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* 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 (animation)|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.
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** 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. [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)
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