Weaponized Headgear

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Actual patent


A Nice Hat as an Improvised Weapon, such as for Using Your Head, a thrown hat, and a Cool Helmet that can shoot Frickin' Laser Beams, etc.

Horny Vikings (and dwarves) sometimes use, well, helmet horns.

Sub-Trope of Clothing Combat, Arsenal Attire, and Unusual Weapon Mounting.

The Hard Hats are especially useful for this. See also Hat of Power.

Not to be confused with Headcanon.

Examples of Weaponized Headgear include:

Advertising

  • One ad for Delicious Fruit Pies has Spider-Man taking on a villain called Demolition Derby whose shtick (like Oddjob's) was that he wore a bowler hat he could throw as a weapon.
  • Cap'n Crunch used his hat as a boomerang in one commercial, and as a gatling gun in another, using his cereal for ammunition.

Anime and Manga

  • Sailor Moon‍'‍s tiara, which turns into a magic Frisbee thingy.
  • Dragon Ball‍'‍s Chi-Chi had a helmet with a blade on it that she could use throw to decapitate animals and fire laser beams at her enemies, a direct reference to Ultra Seven.
  • G Gundam: Master Asia uses Domon's headband to destory a Dark Army soldier in his debut episode.
    • From the same series, there's Tequila Gundam, Neo Mexico's entry into the tournament—it's not only wearing a sombrero, it has ten Vulcan cannons installed in its giant mecha-hat.
  • In Ranma ½, Ryoga's bandannas can be whipped off and thrown like razor-sharp Precision Guided Boomerangs. One of these was responsible for giving Akane her Important Haircut.
  • Soul Eater: Blair's hat which can grasp and throw stuff
  • The Big O: the Megadeuce fires lasers from the red crest on its head. R. Dorothy could launch her "hairband" to circle around like a boomerang and then catch an enemy's neck and "staple" him to a wall or something similar.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Speedwagon's hat apparently has bladed edges, as he manages to throw it and have it sink bone-deep into JoJo's arm in his introductory chapter.
  • In Rozen Maiden Ouverture, Souseiseki throws her hat to disarm Shinku during a fight.
  • Durarara!!: Celty uses her Cool Helmet to fight Seji.

Comic Books

  • DC Comics
    • Wonder Woman often throws her tiara to knock out people.
    • Both Hermes and Jay Garrick's helmets have been thrown as decap pieces.
    • There were two Mad Hatters ... one of whom used his as a mind control device whilst the other actually used weaponized hats ... such as straw hats that had buzzsaw rims ... etc.
    • In the Fables series (from DC's Vertigo line), the animal Fables had weaponized headgear (including a gun on a helmet, which was a normal gun with a unique firing mechanism, as Snow White was able to fire the gun) for the inevitable fight against the Adversary.
  • Marvel Universe
    • The Unicorn has headgear that can project concussive energy blasts (electron or neutron beams), lasers, and microwave energy.
    • The Ringmaster has a hat with a hypnosis generator that can mesmerise an entire crowd of people.
    • The headdress worn by Storm of X-Men is a set of lockpicks rather than a fighting weapon.

Film

  • Goldfinger: Oddjob uses his razor-edged hat as a deadly throwing weapon.
    • Parodied in the first Austin Powers film, where Random Task throws a razor-edged shoe.

Austin: Who throws a shoe, honestly?

  • In The Matrix Reloaded, Trinity uses her motorcycle helmet to beat down several security guards.
  • Subverted in Kung Fu Panda 2 in an Epic Fail.
  • Meet the Robinsons: The bowler hat worn by the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Bowler Hat Guy is not only a former robotic "helping hat" capable of cloning miniature versions of itself, mind control, spying, mechanical claws, and levitation, but it is also the true villain of the entire movie.

Literature

  • Bruenor Battlehammer, mainstay of R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt books and leader of the Battlehammer Dwarf clan, wears a distinctive one-horned helm that he is more than willing to use as a weapon. It was originally a two-horned helm, but it's been through a lot of fights and come out worse for the wear.
    • In the same series, a dwarf berserker with the improbable name of Thibbledorf Pwent has a helmet with a large spike (half as tall as the dwarf himself) designed specifically for skewering people by headbutting them. His armor is similarly designed for use as a weapon.
  • In one of the Discworld books, Willikins mentions that he was in a gang when he was a kid, and he used a hat lined with sharpened pennies as a weapon.
    • Inigo Skimmer, from the same series, has a hat that basically has a chakram sewn into the brim.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire Tyrion's first battle had him wearing a set of extremely mismatched armor including a helmet with an oversized spike on it. After being dismounted he headbutted a horse with it, and the knight who was riding was severely hurt in the fall. The spike broke off though.
  • In The Looking Glass Wars, this trope seems to be a trait possessed by all hats belonging to members of the Millinery, said hats being able to change between being headgear and weaponry with a flick of the wrist.
  • In Sergey Lukyanenko's The Stars Are Cold Toys, the Alary are, basically, human-sized rats that evolved into sentient beings on another world. Given that their forward limbs aren't very well suited for anything but crawling, all their weapons are head-mounted and operated with the tongue. Good luck talking while shooting.

Live-Action TV

  • The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Megazord shot beams from it's head horn crest on rare occasions.
    • In Power Rangers Zeo, the Zeo Megazord had various helmets it could wear. The default one only allowed use of the sword, but the rest had their weaponry built-in. Of note is the one that had a laser cannon mounted on it.
    • The Kajiki Shinken-Oh in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has a headgear on which the katana sticks, allowing it to fell its enemies by just swinging its head around. Conversely, the Swordfish Megazord in Power Rangers Samurai does the same.
    • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, the Rangers' animal designs can leave their helmets and attack (in the opening sequence, at least.)
  • MythBusters: busted that razor-edged hats can be used to decapitate marble statues.
  • Blackadder: The Archbishop.

Prince Harry: Well, he came round the corner, saw the archbishop, rushed towards him with his head bowed in order to receive his blessing - and unfortunately killed him stone dead.
Prince Edmund: How?
Prince Harry: Mortimer was wearing a Turkish helmet.
Prince Edmund: One of those things with a two-foot spike coming out of the top?

  • In The Avengers, Steed sometimes used his steel-lined bowler hat as a bludgeon.
  • Ultra Seven has a fin on his head that he uses as the boomerang-like Eye Slugger, but he can also fire a beam (the Emerium Ray) from the green light on his forehead.
  • Kamen Rider OOO has Head Medals, which give him differing powers dependent on the Medal used (such as the Hawk Medal granting Super Senses, the Lion Medal giving off light, and so on).

Tabletop Games

  • Warhammer 40,000: there is an Eldar hero who is the leader of the Eldar Gang of Hats called Striking Scorpions, whose helmet-mounted Flechette Storm guns are called Mandiblasters. He just gets a much more powerful version.
    • Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka in 2nd Edition had not only a bionic skull, but a nasty horned helmet atop it - with their powers combined they could deliver a headbutt that not only struck at the highest possible strength in the game but also (and I quote) "sends the unlucky victim (or his corpse...) flying backwards", dealing damage to anything it hits. So from a weaponized hat to a weaponized victim in one easy move.
  • The original Deadlands supplement Smith and Robards has a Stetson Gun. That's right. A ten gallon cowboy hat that shoots.
    • Such a gun was patented. It was tested on the TV show ReInventors. It's a worse idea than it sounds.
  • 1st and 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons had helmets with magical attacks (there may be 3E/4E versions of these).
    • The Circlet Of Blasting: Casts Fireball.
    • Helm of Brilliance: Cast Light, Fireball, Produce Flame and Prismatic Spray spells offensively, as well as glowing with a bluish light that harmed nearby undead.
    • Helmet of Darkness: Chill Metal (freeze someone in their armor)
    • Helm of Halav: Sunfire (blinds everyone within 120 feet)
    • Helm of Petra: Moonstrike (stuns everyone within 120 feet)
    • Helmet of Selnor: Charm (Charm Person) a target.
    • Helm of Telepathy: Implant a Suggestion (Charm Person) in a target's mind.
    • Dragonhelm: Cause fear in opponents, causing them to flee.
    • Harrowhelm: Grants psionic attacks to its wearer.
  • In Munchkin, any Headgear that gives a combat bonus could count. It's most obvious in Munchkin Fu, which has the "Bull Kung Fu" style that triples the combat bonus of all headgear.
    • Munchkin Impossible has a Shooty Hat. (The Assassin class doesn't get their gun bonus for wearing it, though.)
  • One of the cards in the Girl Genius card game is "General Cannon-hat and His Amazing Cannon Hat", which is pretty much what you'd expect from the title.

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Schlock Mercenary: Legs got a gun built into her helmet, since her species lacks of hands.
    • Same with heavy exosuits used by Sanctum Adroit and Max's men [1] [2].
  • Girl Genius had some cannon-hat guys, and The Works (strategic card game for the 'verse) got "General Cannonhat and his Amazing Cannon Hat" card. At least that hat got integrated ear protection.

Western Animation

  • In Phineas and Ferb, "Greece Lightning", Baljeet says that he's going to "use his head". Buford uses his axe-shaped helmet to create sparks that cause trouble for the other chariot racers.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Embo wears a hat that works more or less like Captain America's Shield.
  • Secret Squirrel had a cannon hat. It was even mentioned in the theme song.
  • Esmeralda actually uses one of Frollo's henchmen's helmets as a frisbee during one scene from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
  • Stroker and Hoop demonstrates the problems with this trope when Double-Wide puts on a helmet with a turret gun attached to it controlled by an AI to fight zombies. Every time the gun fires it painfully knocks Double-Wide's head back, injuring his neck.

Real Life

  • A baseball cap that also does double duty as a sap.
  • Razorblades or sharpened pennies concealed in the brim of a flat cap are a long-established traditional method of carrying a concealed weapon in the more insalubrious parts of Scotland's major cities, though conventional stabbing is beginning to displace it.
  • Actual patent for a helmet gun.
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