Mix-and-Match Critters: Difference between revisions

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 body -- a [[Half-Human Hybrid]]). Also common is to simply take an existing animal and vary it a simple way -- [[Pegasus]] is a horse, but with wings, hippocampi have the heads and front bodies of horses but the tails of fish, etc.

 

 

== Sub Tropes Include: ==

* 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.

** {{spoiler|[[It Got Worse]]: [[Complete Monster|That human in question is the alchemist's daughter!]]}}

* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', Dio Brando loves to make creatures zombies and then fusing their parts.

** 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 the Beast]]'' has the mane of a lion, the beard and head of a buffalo, the brows of a gorilla, the eyes of a human, the tusks of a wild boar, the body of a bear, and the hind legs and tail of a wolf.

* ''[[Q – The Winged Serpent]]'' has the head of a vulture, feathered wings, a snake-like tail, and four limbs sort of like an iguana. On top of that, Q is meant to be the dragon-god Quetzelcoatl... and doesn't really look like him either.

* One of Flint's failed inventions on ''[[Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs]]'' is the pigeonrat.

* ''[[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 [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] than the other.

** And as the title suggests: [[Weebl and Bob|Badger-Snakes]]?

* ''[[Homestuck]]'': [[Mook|Mooks]] encountered in the Medium (imps, ogres, basilisks, etc) assume various combinations of features (and included powers) from the players' prototyped sprites when they enter; in the kids' session it's a mix of harlequin outfits from Nannaquin, wings and a sword from Seppukrow, cat features and tentacles from Jaspers, dog features and various levels of [[Reality Warper]] powers from Becquerel. The royalty of Prospit and Derse take on all the prototyped features at once through their [[Requisite Royal Regalia]], and any Prospitian or Dersite can use said regalia. This is taken to an extreme in the [[Troll|trolls]]' session when they accumulate ''twelve'' separate prototype features including some nearly gamebreaking psychic abilities that made the Black King almost unbeatable.

== 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.

* 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.

* [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]/[http://zoofights.squarespace.com/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=/storage/zoofights4_images/losers_r1_f4/Hyperfauna.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1269858258233 Hyperfauna] (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.

** [http://fav.me/d11vggc Humming-Gryphon]

** [http://youkaiyume.deviantart.com/art/Kanga-Lion-48360022 Kanga-lion]

** Chalicothere is fond of canine/fish hybrids like the [http://fav.me/d1zabij Moray Corgi]

** [http://fav.me/d1wbqqb The Dogbunnyfroglemur]

** [http://fav.me/d1755r6 The magnificent Elephenguin]!

** The fearsomeness on legs [http://fav.me/d1vbsi7 Antshark]

** [http://fav.me/d2zzfy1 Crocoraffe (crocodile/giraffe)]

** The "[[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|penguins]]" from the first episode have four flippers and otter-like tails.

** The farm in "Zuko Alone" has almost every common meat animal, albeit mixed with a pig.

** 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.

** 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?).

** Catgators: catfish/alligator crosses. Kept as pets by the waterbenders of the swamp region.

** Dragonfly: [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|figure it out for yourself]].

** 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.

** [[But Wait! There's More!|And there's more...]] The real kicker is that [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] are such a common reality in the ''Avatar'' universe, that the main characters actually show a bit of shock upon hearing a "normal" animal (the Earth King's pet brown bear) exists in "City of Walls and Secrets".

*** 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]].

* The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' has more.

** Korra's [[Canine Companion]] Naga the Polar Bear dog, just as [[Canis Major|giant]] as one might assume

** 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."

* ''[[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 [[Mix-and-Match Critters]]. They include a wolf-eagle and a scorpion-cobra (no points for guessing who took what side). The television series explained this as a result of technical problems that occurred when they were scanning for new forms.

* Ligers ([[Napoleon Dynamite|bred for their skills in magic, of course]]) and tigons. [[The Wizard of Oz (film)|(And bears, oh my!)]] Hoo-boy, let's not even start on [[wikipedia:Felid hybrid|hybrid cats]].

** 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]].

** 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".