Drop the Hammer

My other hammer crushes suns.

YOU WANT ME TO PUT THE HAMMER DOWN

— Thor Odinson, God of Thunder, The Avengers
Look upon this hammer I hold before me, for it is far more than a weapon. It is a symbol of the Imperial justice that smites the diabolic enemies of the Imperium wherever they are found, just as I. Though it has banished even a mighty Greater Daemon to the hell from which it was spawned, it remains true and pure, just as I. Furthermore, it is a symbol of my order and my office, of the authority granted to me by the divine will of the Emperor. By that authority, I am commanding you and your entire regiment to obey me without question or hesitation. Advance, or it will not be daemonic blood that stains my hammer this day.
—Inquisitor Lord Hephaestos Grudd, addressing Colonel Molian of the 223rd Gudrunrite Rifles, Warhammer 40,000

Hammers used in battle. They come in different sizes, from squeaky mallets to giant sledgehammers. The lighter ones inspire laughs, while the bigger ones inspire terror. Some are thrown, but most are used to pound things into a bloody smear in the ground. It sometimes comes with Shock and Awe due to a certain thunder god.

Used by The Big Guy, the Mighty Glacier, and the Cute Bruiser. Also a favorite of clerics in High Fantasy settings, smashing someone's head in with a hammer often lets them get around the "no spilling of blood" rule enacted by their gods. But really, blunt damage can easily cause bleeding. Imagine breaking a bone with a hammer: there will be blood involved.

The truth is the less inventive fact that warhammers, along with other blunt force weapons like maces and flails, were far more effective against heavy armor than blades. Real European warhammers featured a beak-like spike on one side for piercing armor, and a flat hammerhead or set of blunt claws on the other for crushing helmets. They bear no resemblance to the massive sledgehammers often featured in various fantasy games, and aren't seen as frequently in fiction. As armor became heavier and more widespread, the use of warhammers rose as well. It is fairly common for characters who use sledgehammer-types as their weapon of choice to be black, probably due to the influence of American folk hero John Henry & African demigod Makoma... Or, less likely, MC Hammer.

See also the Hyperspace Mallet, the Weapon of Choice for cartoon animals seeking to inflict Amusing Injuries (as well as the angry Anime female's favorite tool against perverts and other sources of irritation). Also see Carry a Big Stick for other kinds of bludgeoning weapons. Not to be confused with When All You Have Is a Hammer, although you can achieve this with a hammer if it's the only thing you have to work with.

Examples of Drop the Hammer include:

Anime and Manga

  • GaoGaiGar's Goldion Hammer is one of the biggest hammers ever in media. Its entire gimmick is turning things it strikes into photons, and it's so powerful that GaoGaiGar suffers severe damage from the backlash of its use, and needs another mech to act as a giant oven mitt to use it safely (said mech, Goldymarg in his Marg Hand form, can be seen in the above picture replacing GaoGaiGar's right hand).
    • In the Expanded Universe, King J-Der is able to use the same hammer in the form of the "Silverion Hammer." King J-Der being a transformed battleship, the hammer, a bit taller than GaoGaiGar, is proportionally the size of a mallet.
    • GaoGaiGar FINAL features the Goldion Crusher, a hammer with a handle made out of three giant spaceships, and a head roughly twenty times the size of the handle, making it several orders of magnitude bigger than the Goldion Hammer. GaoGaiGar actually hangs off the end of its handle. In a show notorious for its revival of over-the-top shouting and Calling Your Attacks, just imagine how the main characters handled it. Especially when they use it to smash the Sun, for Pete's sake.
      • To put that in a normal human's perspective, imagine you, as a person, using the Mir space station as a giant hammer (with the head itself roughly the size of an ocean liner). Yeah, kinda like that.
  • The Gigantform of Vita's Graf Eisen in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is larger than she is. It grows even larger when she uses it with the Gigant Crusher attack, to the point that she's barely visible holding it. Its standard Hammerform is probably the best for enhancing spells. The Rocketform adds a spike on one end and a rocket-jet on the other for fast and powerful strikes—whereas Gigantform is probably intended for larger, slower opponents, the rocket form is probably for faster, human-sized ones. The last form, seen in Season 3, is the Destructionform, which is basically a combination of Gigantform and Rocketform, except with a drill on the business end—it's probably intended as an anti-structure weapon, for use against completely immobile but fortified targets like engines.
    • Graf Eisen's Destructionform is basically the insane lovechild of the aforementioned Goldion Hammer and the Giga Drill.
    • Cranked up even more in Force, where Vita gains a new weapon called Warhammer. It's huge and looks like it has a fusion reactor in the middle.
  • Skuld of Ah! My Goddess with the extendable polo-style mallet she uses for debugging. Which mostly involves chasing around furry hybrid rabbit-insect creatures and pounding them in the head.
  • Usopp of One Piece fame has three of these: a normal one used for carpentry (though it's a surprisingly good weapon; he managed to beat one of Arlong's Quirky Miniboss Squad half to death with it), the "Usopp Pound", a massive-looking hammer that supposedly weighs five tons but is really two frying pans bound in plastic on a stick that weights 2 kg, and the "Golden Pound", an even bigger hammer, supposedly weighing ten tons, that is really a balloon which pops upon impact.
  • Zudomon of Digimon Adventure had a massive hammer made of Chrome Digizoid (the Digimon universe's answer to Adamantium or Vibranium) that could kick up energy attacks or be used for good ol' bashing. (It could even be thrown to strike an opponent, and return like a boomerang.)
    • In Norse Mythology, Thor's hammer Mjollnir shared the same properties - it grew or shrank as needed, could be thrown like a boomerang (and hit with the force of thunder when it did). The only thing Mjollnir lacked was the ability to throw a energy bolt.
      • Considering that Mjollnir is supposed to be lightning when thrown, the energy bolt isn't so much missing as used differently...
    • Puppetmon, a child-sized marionette-based Mega-level Digimon, had a (significantly smaller, but still large in comparison to himself) hammer as a weapon. Power Levels being what they are, though, Puppetmon was stronger (Zudomon's an Ultimate, one stage below Mega), so when the hammers collided in one battle, Zudomon's hammer was sent flying and the force knocked him back to his Sleep Mode Size.
    • And then there's Grumblemon of the fourth season: he can usually be found Dual-Wielding giant sledgehammers to knock around multiple, far-larger heroes in a way that'd make Puppetmon jealous.
  • Lavi of D.Gray-man has a hammer, maybe six inches long, as his weapon. When he activates it, it grows very, very large, usually with the head reaching human-sized. We haven't seen any specific limit, but he's made it so large that he once demolished a building with a mis-swing. In another instance, he makes the hammerhead as large as a house. He's explicitly mentioned once in response to a reader's question that, since it's his Empathic Weapon, he doesn't notice the weight.
  • In Ranma ½, the Hyperspace Mallet shows up often enough and in a pretty impressive size—Kodachi uses one with a head about the size of Akane's torso in her first ambush. Shampoo, meanwhile, prefers to alternate between Carry a Big Stick (or two) and wielding a BFS.
  • Saki in Shikabane Hime uses a huge, fancy-looking hammer as her Weapon of Choice.
  • The appropriately-named Marie Mjolner from Soul Eater is a hammer when in weapon form.
    • More like a tonfa.
    • A possible subversion as we are treated to her nicknames prior, the Demon Hammer and The Crusher. Her name is also a transparent hammer reference. Then when she is unveiled she is shown to look identical to the short-handled Mjolnir. Then the view point pulls back and we realize she is tiny and toy-like. She only grows into a Tonfa when it is revealed that her power is contrary to most hammer wielders, speed.
  • Daisuke Ido from Battle Angel Alita uses a rocket hammer (it accelerates during the swing).
  • When Mashiro first appears in Tayutama, she's wielding a significantly-sized mallet. She's a goddess, but still, that's some impressive hammering.
  • Sana and her mother in Kodomo no Omocha regularly use the squeaky toy version.
  • In Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, Buttercup wields an oversized Daruma Otoshi hammer with casual ease. As a testament to her strength when transformed and how heavy the weapon actually is, her teammates (working together) can barely lift the thing.
  • Shin from Dorohedoro uses an average hammer as his main weapon. It is incredibly surprising however the amount of damage that he can do with it.
  • Vento of the Front from A Certain Magical Index uses a hammer to channel the winds.
  • In The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer, Sir Noi Crezant, the Lizard Knight, has been sent to gain the aid of the great warrior Amamiya Yuuhi in hopes of finding the Princess Samidare and protecting the planet from the incredible 'Biscuit Hammer' poised to crack the Earth in two.
    • Then they try to destroy said hammer with the Blues Drive Monster, which... also has a hammer.


Comic Books

  • Aside from the obvious of Thor and Mjolnir (see below), we should mention Marvel Comics' version as well. Of course, in that universe, he is the god Thor.
    • When the Skrulls tell them that (their) God is on their side, Nick Fury, on Thor's side, responds with "Well, my god has a hammer!" And it was awesome.
    • Marvel's Thor stories eventually give Mjolnir a twin - Stormbreaker, whose bearer is Thor's brother-in-arms, the anthropomorphic cyborg alien horse Beta Ray Bill.
    • Also, there was Thunderstrike, given to Thor's temporary replacement for a job well done. Though it was technically a mace.
      • And now, in Fear Itself, a bunch of Hammers like Mjolnir have appeared, for those of the "Worthy", designed by The Serpent and for those of the "Mighty", those hammers made by Odin and his dwarves after a deal with Iron Man.
      • And then there's the perfectly ordinary sledgehammer that Deadpool gives the Walrus, covered in rhinestones and glitter-glue to convince the Walrus he's been chosen as Worthy. Of course, since Deadpool's miniseries in Fear Itself was written by Chris Hastings, it turns out to be a magic sledgehammer that can kill werewolves...
    • Thor used to have a debilitating weakness: if he let go of his hammer for more than a minute, he turns into med student Don Blake, with a crippled leg and a limp, and the hammer turns into a flimsy walking stick. Esentially, House. Fortunately, this was removed, thus making Thor practically invinicible.
  • Steel, aka John Henry Irons, DCU Superhero in Powered Armor.
  • Wulf in Strontium Dog carries around a big massive hammer called the Happy Stick.
  • Luba in Love and Rockets always carries a hammer, often to fight off guys attracted by her large breasts.
  • When Calculus is first seen in Destination Moon, the multiplex helmet he is wearing is being attacked with a hammer to test its strength. ("Glass isn't nearly tough enough," Calculus explains.)
  • Hammerstein in ABC Warriors has a lump hammer for a hand.
  • So do Rack and Ruin in Transformers Generation 1. Well, okay, one of their hands is a hammer and the other is an anvil that can be used pretty much identically anyway.
  • Ramona Flowers' purse contains a girl-smiting hammer, among other things.
  • Slapstick's primary weapon is his oversized cartoon mallet.
  • The main character of the italian comic Cattivik uses a large wooden (or sometimes steel) hammer in order to mug people. And he often ends up being hit by said hammer or being forced to swallow it, courtesy of a particulary large, victim.


Fan Works

Gendo: A squeaky mallet.
Maya: I have no idea how she destroyed Sub Commander Fuyutsuki's car with it.
Yui: How do you bend steel with a squeaky hammer?!
Gendo: From a 45 degree angle, apparently. (Yui facepalms)


Film

  • In Blade 2, a member of the Blood Pack named Lighthammer wields a large maul with retractable spikes.
  • Jodie Foster has to use a sledgehammer against a thief in Panic Room, who then falls straight down a flight of stairs and instantly recovers as though nothing happened at all. Presumably after one of his cohorts pulls a Heel Face Turn and shoots him in the back of the head, said thief spent a painful afternoon in physical therapy and made a full recovery.
  • Thor again. And my god does he use it well.
    • In The Avengers, Captain America makes the mistake of ordering Thor to "drop the hammer." Iron Man warns him that this was a bad idea... but not soon enough to prevent several hundred feet of the surrounding forest from being flattened.
  • Kevin from Sin City uses a sledgehammer to lay The Big Guy and Badass Marv out cold.
  • Ilsa from Hellboy carries a sledgehammer and later uses a smaller hammer to shatter some glass.
  • Morrell in A Room For Romeo Brass wields a claw hammer.
  • In Oldboy, Oh Dae-su fights an entire corridor filled with mooks using only a claw hammer. He later uses it for some improvised dentistry.
  • Subverted in one scene in the remake of Dawn of the Dead: Michael discards his (almost certainly more useful) crowbar in exchange for a croquet mallet, and then promptly gets jumped by a zombie. As expected, the mallet promptly breaks across the zombie's head without fazing it; he ends up killing it by driving the broken-off mallet-handle under its chin and through its brain.
  • Braveheart: William Wallace uses a war hammer to great effect during the battle of Stirling before switching to his massive honkin' claymore.
  • Conan the Barbarian. Thorgrimm (one of Thulsa Doom's associate bad guys) wields a sledgehammer-type with a head that seems about the same size as his thigh. His habit of smashing things without thinking gets him killed during the Battle of the Mounds when Conan sets up a trap that relies on him smashing what he thinks is Conan's helmeted head, which sends a spike the size of your average birch tree right through his chest. Ouch.
  • In Zombieland, the somewhat-cowardly lead character winds up grabbing a sledgehammer from a Test Your Strength carnival game and using it on his greatest fear (a clown zombie).
  • In Streets of Fire, hero Tom Cody and villain Raven fight a duel, each armed with 12-pound sledgehammers.
  • In Mikey the title character uses a hammer to try to kill his second foster mom after she finds out his past.
  • In Following, several characters use claw hammers as weapons for self-defense or torture.
  • In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Ramona keeps a sledgehammer in a bag that really shouldn't be able to hold such a thing.
  • The climactic duel in Jade Warrior is fought with a pair of heavy blacksmith's hammers.
  • The obscure slasher film Sledgehammer.
  • A thief is beaten to near-death with a hammer in Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!.
  • The Toolbox Murders and its remake both feature characters getting stabbed and brained with a claw hammer.
  • There's a hammer claw to the stomach in Las Vegas Bloodbath.
  • Michael Myers uses a claw hammer to off a security guard in Halloween II.
  • In Kung Fu Panda 2, Master Thundering Rhino wields a large war hammer. He can use it well enough to beat Lord Shen's kung fu, but it's no match for the peacock's cannon.
  • Played with in Adventures in Babysitting. At one point an auto mechanic is required. He arrives in a descending cargo hoist, carrying a sledge hammer and looking very much like the pictures of Thor (Marvel-style) that one of the children has been drawing, but never actually uses the hammer for anything beyond being a thematic prop (and an excuse to show off substantial muscles by toting it like it's nothing).
  • In The Wild Hunt, Bjorn carries around a gigantic sledgehammer he calls Mjolnir, which is not made of foam like the other LARP weapons. Unfortunately Bjorn proves to be an ineffectual coward when things in the game go bad. In the end, however, he uses it in brutal fashion to avenge his brother.
  • This is the serial killer's weapon of choice in The Chaser.


Literature

  • Durnik in The Belgariad, as a blacksmith, wields a hammer. Later, when he becomes a disciple of Aldur, his silver amulet is decorated with a hammer. His Crowning Moment of Awesome just before being handed said amulet was to pulverise a demon lord with guess what weapon.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire
    • Robert Baratheon's signature weapon is a large warhammer said to be so heavy that few men were able to lift it. Robert wields this one-handed with a shield at the Battle of the Trident and kills Rhaegar Targaryen with a blow hard enough to crush his breastplate.
    • Similarly, Donal Noye, the one-armed blacksmith of the Night's Watch, uses a warhammer in the battle against the wildings. He also happens to be the person who forged Robert's hammer.
    • In A Dance with Dragoms Big Guy Archibald Yronwood wields a great warhammer.
  • "Grond", Morgoth's "Hammer of the Underworld" in JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion is a mace in some adaptations, a hammer in others. Not to be confused with the giant wolf-shaped battering ram named after it that features in Return of the King, despite equal massive smashiness.
  • Drizzt Do'Urden's friend Wulfgar wields a huge magical warhammer called Aegis-fang in battle; aside from him being strong enough and the hammer being powerful enough to stagger a giant when he throws it, it returns to his hands after it's thrown.
  • Perrin Aybara in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time often finds himself choosing between a blacksmith's hammer and a battleaxe, each representing the sides of personality able to create and destroy. In Towers of Midnight, he trades in his blacksmith's hammer for Mah'alleinir, a massive warhammer that is is also the first weapon forged with the One Power in three thousand years.
  • Roger Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness features a weapon called the Hammer That Smashes Suns. Of course, it might look more like a giant crossbow. That fires comets.
  • The Shining's Jack Torrance is well known for being Ax Crazy with an actual axe, but his weapon when he finally goes nutso in the original Stephen King novel is a croquet mallet.
  • In the Malazan Book of the Fallen Verse by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, the Ascendant Caladan Brood wields a great hammer so Badass that it has the power to awaken the sleeping earth goddess Burn (whose body is apparently the earth itself). No one wants Brood to Drop the Hammer any time soon...
  • The preferred weapon of Baron Edmund Talbot, aka Charles the Hammer, former ruler of Anarchia, in John Ringo's Council Wars series.
  • Roran's weapon of choice in the Inheritance Cycle. He kills 193 people with it in one go, and ends the day standing on a house-sized pile of bodies. This earns him the name Roran Stronghammer. The hammer isn't even that special.
  • A picture book called Little Rabbit Foo Foo depicted the rabbit as using a motorcycle and a net to scoop up the various other forest dwellers, and then a hammer to "bop them on the head".
  • A long handled hammer is the weapon of choice for most of the characters in The Runelords books. The description of the weapons, however is somewhere between a medieval poleaxe and a military pick.
  • 1632 has some Swedish soldiers deciding that ogling the wife of Tom Simpson is a bad idea for many reasons including the fact that Tom is a very big, muscular man (he was a college football linebacker who was just short of making it in the NFL). When one of them asks Tom out of curiosity what his weapons of choice would be in a duel, he responds with "sledgehammers". Ten-pound sledgehammers.
  • Khynan Rhys Gower, of Time Scout, prefers a war maul for a close quarters weapon. He'll substitute a croquet mallet if he has to.


Live Action TV

  • Several Power Rangers characters have hammers as personal weapons, on the good and bad sides of things, most notably Dustin from Power Rangers Ninja Storm and Will from Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.
  • Kamen Rider Kiva has Dogga Form, empowered by Battle Butler Dogga/Riki and wielding a gigantic fist-shaped hammer as well as lightning attacks for finishers.
    • Kamen Rider Fourze has the Hammer Switch, which makes a rather small hammer on his left hand. Still effective, however.
  • A standard way of interrupting sketches on Monty Python's Flying Circus was smashing characters with a giant hammer.
  • The Umbilical Brothers have an act that involves a few hammers hitting a koala puppet (the show this appeared on used the trio of puppets as pseudo-mascots and the koala (as he mentions during the act) was always on the receiving end of some rather brutal actions by the other two who were known - aptly - as the Threatening Bears): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azwjs 931 nm M
  • As Sheriff Sam Cade in one of the episodes of his 1971-1972 modern western TV series, Cade's County, Glen Ford had to do battle with a recalcitrant miner in front of a hostile group in a miners' bar with both of them using the supposed miner's weapon of choice, a pick hammer.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season five. The magical troll hammer that even Spike has trouble lifting. Buffy can swing it like a ten pound maul. And does so, repeatedly, on Glory in the finale. Also, at the start of season 2, vampires have exhumed The Master's skeleton as part of a ritual that involves messing with Buffy's mind, a sledgehammer that was wielded by one of the vampires she slew presents a perfect opportunity for her to work out her remaining issues while making him Deader Than Dead.
    • Not quite! In the comic it's shown that he's actually been alive again for quite a while.
  • A brightly-colored hammer is the weapon of El Chapulin Colorado.
  • Dexter's fourth season features the Trinity Killer, who finishes out a cycle of ritual murders by bludgeoning a father to death with the claw end of a framing hammer.
  • Top Gear: While he has never used it in battle, per se, Jeremy Clarkson's tool of choice during a challenge is, has been, and always will be a hammer.


Music

  • Stop! Hammer time!
    • Alright there are no actual hammers in the song. Let's just get the joke out of the way.
  • Steamhammer Sam, who'd have guessed you'd be an unhappy man?
  • Maxwell Edison (majoring in Medicine) in The Beatles' “Maxwell's Silver Hammer.” He wields a silver hammer that goes "bang bang" and then "clang clang" when it comes down upon his victim's head. It makes sure that s/he is dead.
  • Parodying the old folk tale of John Henry is the Arrogant Worms Filk Song “Steel-Drivin' Man” about Mike McCormick, a feckless layabout who for some reason takes John Henry's place in the tale, only to get crushed by a falling meteor in the middle of losing badly to the spike-driving machine.
  • “If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening…”
  • You can't drop the hammer without mentioning the mighty Hammerfall. The band name, songs like “Hammer of Justice,” “Let The Hammer Fall,” “Reign of the Hammer,” “Raise the Hammer,” and “Bring the Hammer Down” (Slam it down to the ground). Suffice to say, the guys love hammers.
  • And One's "Metalhammer"
  • We're just waiting for the hammer to fall.
  • "Hail to the Hammer" and "Hold the Heathen Hammer High" by Tyr
    • The Hammer of Thor too, and probably a few other songs. When this Troper was at a Tyr concert, Heri said "we have a lot of songs about hammers."
  • Trollhammaren!
  • Three words. Hammer Smashed Face.


Mythology

  • Older Than Print: The thunder god Thor and his hammer Mjolnir from Norse Mythology.
  • The “Steel-drivin' Man” John Henry…
    • Who may or may not have been inspired by legends passed down from former slaves about Makoma, a West African mythic hero who used an iron sledgehammer to fight giant monsters. Probably best known in the Northern hemisphere for his legend being adapted as a Hellboy comic.


Professional Wrestling

  • Triple H's foreign object of choice is a sledgehammer, although he usually thrusts it at his opponent/beatdown target, as an overhand swing is too dangerous.
    • Key word being usually. When Randy Orton made the mistake of punting not just Vince McMahon (which would be bad enough for Orton if he hadn't won the Royal Rumble a few days later and locked in a Wrestlemania title shot) but Trips' wife Stephanie McMahon as well (and defeating Shane in a match the previous night), he went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge with one the next week which The Legacy narrowly escaped without major injury.
    • An even earlier example of Triple H using not only an overhand but an overhead swing is against Vince McMahon at Unforgiven '06. DX has just been through a Hell in a Cell match versus Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, and The Big Show. After leaving Shane and Show bloodied and lying prone on the mat, Shawn Michaels and Hunter turn their attention to Vince. Hunter raises the hammer over his head and brings it down so hard on Vince's back that it cracks in two. Whether or not that was meant to happen, the "HOLY SHIT" look on Hunter's face is priceless.
    • Shawn used Hunter's sledgehammer in tribute the night after New Year's Revolution '07. Hunter had just torn his other quad, and Shawn was wrestling Rated RKO in retaliation. Shawn beat the holy hell out of Edge and Orton, rolled out of the ring, found Hunter's sledgehammer and stared at it for a good three minutes, then beat the holy hell out of them some more. The lesson? Don't fuck with the man with a sledgehammer, and if you do? His best friend will kill you.


Tabletop Games

  • Dungeons & Dragons clerics used to have a restriction to use only blunt weapons, based on the Crusades-era restriction against drawing blood (through bruising or breaking bones was seen as an acceptable loophole); ergo, the hammer being a favored weapon. It's still the favored weapon of some clerics (for example, those following the dwarf god Moradrin, who is also a god of smithing and whose symbol includes a hammer).
    • In 3ed, warhammers, along with maces, are still considered the default weapon of any generic good aligned cleric who doesn't follow an established god.
    • In addition, there are certain types of enemies that take greatly reduced damage when not struck by a particular type of weapon. One of these (usually possessed by skeletons) is bludgeoning damage, so prepared adventurers will bring a mace or hammer along just in case.
    • And, of course, the Dwarven throwing hammer. (No, it isn't a hammer that throws dwarves).
    • Not to mention in 4th Edition that any Dwarf, no matter what class, can use the warhammer and throwing hammer. So getting up close and personal with a Dwarven wizard or warlock may not be as good an idea as originally thought.
    • In addition, there's the two-handed maul, which saw popularity in 3E and 4E, in addition to the even bigger Mordenkrad.
  • Warmachine occasionally involves giant steam and magic powered robots with even bigger hammers. The aptly named Hammersmith even dual wields them.
  • There's a reason it's called Warhammer Fantasy Battle, you know. The titular weapon is named Ghal Maraz (Dwarf for "skull-splitter") and was wielded by Sigmar Heldenhammer, the Empire's founder-turned-god with a hammer for a holy symbol. Stat-wise it's one of the nastiest weapons in the game. The Dwarfs additionally favor hammers as much as they do axes.
    • Incidentally, Heldenhammer is German for "Hero-hammer," which was Warhammer's nickname during the character-centric 4th and 5th Editions.
  • Warhammer 40,000 features Thunder Hammers, which though cumbersome are wrapped in an energy field that delivers an electro-sonic shockwave with every impact, stunning anything hardy enough to survive a blow from them. The Inquisition's Ordo Malleus (literally "order of the hammer") makes use of consecrated variants when they go out Demon Slaying.
    • The Salamanders chapter of Space Marines are known to prefer Thunder Hammers along with flamers and melta weapons, it helps to reinforce forging and smithing motifs.
    • Orks being Orks, their Tankbustas' "tankhammers" are nothing more than rockets on long sticks they bludgeon enemy armor with. Given their ranged accuracy, this is a more reliable way for them to get tank kills.
    • In the Horus Heresy novels, Eidolon of the Emperor's children wields a big-ass hammer.
    • Naturally, the Dawn of War RTSes include thunder hammers; the main character gets a Daemonhammer in the first game, and in the sequel thunder hammers are the best melee weapons in the game.
  • Exalted, naturally, not only has hammers, but big fucking hammers made of one of the five magical materials. These are called Goremauls. The Abyssal signature character Falling Tears Poet is often seen carrying one that could probably fell an elephant in one blow.
    • The Grand Goremaul is even bigger than the average Goremaul and could be used to smash out the front door and back door of your house in one blow.
  • In Fudge hammers and other blunt weapons ignore half of armor's damage resistance, making them better than sharp weapons when dealing with people in heavy armor. Due to knights in heavy armor typically being dangerous, the game practically asks you to haul them around. That said you could just use a sling.
  • In Cyberpunk:2020, there was a rocket sledgehammer... with a two use solid fuel rocket in the head, you start it swinging to aim and press the button on the handle, then hang on.
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse featured one tribe, the Get of Fenris, who were descended from Nordic stock, and conflated Norse mythology with the Garou's animistic view of the world. Artifacts of the tribe included the Jarlhammers, seven unique and immensely powerful "fetishes" (imbued items or weapons). There were also non-unique "Lesser Jarlhammers".
  • In the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and the RPGs based off them, monsters like Stone Golems and Crystal Warriors cannot be harmed by edged weapons and must be destroyed with maces or warhammers.
  • GURPS: Ultratech has rocket boosted warhammers that increase the force of impact.
  • There are a few hammer artifacts in Magic: The Gathering. One from the Mirrodin set has the unusual distinction of killing both the wielder and the target.
  • Rolemaster averts the 'big block of steel on a stick' style of War Hammer, depicting it as a quite realistic long-handled weapon with a smallish hammer head and a back spike (The Standard System edition even includes a picture). It also included a similar War Mattock, which is a two-handed weapon, as opposed to the one-handed War Hammer.
  • Mutants and Masterminds has the villain, Hexenhammer. His preferred weapon, also called the Hexenhammer, is designed to shut down or seriously weaken the abilities of any magical character who gets hit with it.


Toys

Mazeka: Where's the third one?
Makuta: There. And there. And some over there.


Video Games

  • In Dark Souls , the player is able to obtain Smough's Hammer, a gigantic hammer wielded by one of the bosses in Anor Londo.
  • In the Total War series, Venetian Heavy Infantry wear plate armor, use warhammers, and carry shields. Just to be realistic, they have quite a bonus against highly-armored enemies.
  • The Super Mario Bros. series gives us the Hammer Brothers, and Mario himself sometimes uses the hammer as a callback to his Donkey Kong days. The Hammer become Mario's Weapon of Choice in the various Mario RPGs.
    • In Wrecking Crew, Mario's (and Luigi's) ordinary hammer was good against walls but not enemies, but the secret Golden Hammer could stun enemies and demolish any wall in a single hit.
    • In the original Super Mario Bros game, Bowser (and to a much lesser extent, his last two fakes) for some reason had the ability to throw hammers at Mario/Luigi as well as breathing fire.
  • Shao Kahn from the Mortal Kombat series uses a big hammer to knock foes into next week.
    • Although Raiden usually used a staff for a weapon, in MK4 he used a hammer, then left it on top of a tower the size of the Empire State Building, where anyone who wants to can use it.
    • Noob Saibot uses a Troll Hammer in Armageddon.
  • Silent Hill 1 features a huge emergency hammer that's the best melee weapon. It resembles a medieval war hammer, and Harry sensibly uses the huge, pointy spiked peen For Massive Damage instead of the flat side.
  • Amy Rose of Sonic the Hedgehog has the Piko Piko Hammer.
    • Tails actually uses one as a weapon before she does, though.
  • The Pow Hammer moves from the Tales (series).
    • And variants, like Toss Hammer, which poisons instead of stuns, the Pow Pow Hammer, which drops a giant hammer from the sky that stuns every enemy in a pretty big radius (or is a bunch of Pow Hammers in Colette's case), and Hammer Rain, which does Exactly What It Says on the Tin. There's also Anise's Miracle Hammer from Tales of the Abyss.
    • And a couple of Presea's weapons (the ones that aren't axes).
    • Several of Karol's weapons qualify as well.
    • Will also uses hammers as his main weapons, though being a mage, he seldom uses them for direct attacks.
    • Poisson in Tales of Graces takes the hammer usage to an extreme, wielding one as a weapon and utilizing Pow Hammer, Pow Pow Hammer, Pow Rain, and their status inflicting variations.
  • Multiple hammers are lumped into the axe weapon class in the Disgaea series.
    • Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten lets the Eryngya and Gargoyle monsters magichange into hammers, and these hammers will be very large if a giant monster transforms into one.
  • Legend of Dragoon gave the frail-looking little dancer girl the big-ass hammer, and she did fall over after swinging it in one of her attack animations.
  • A hammer is a recurring weapon in the Zelda games:
  • In the roguelike game Angband, priests were discouraged to use cutting or piercing weapons (the Church disapproves of shedding blood, it said). So, naturally, they had to use different blunt weapons. Hammers were not at the end of the list. Plus, there's Morgoth's hammer Grond, which collapses walls around it when swung.
  • Hammerin' Harry featured a construction worker with a hammer bigger than his head, but there was a power up that made it even bigger than his body.
  • EverQuest's clerics have an animated hammer as pet.
  • The Super Smash Bros. series have Mario's black hammer from Donkey Kong, and Brawl added a Golden Hammer from Wrecking Crew, another Mario game. A character's size has absolutely no effect on whether they can wield the hammers, meaning a Super/Poison Mushroom can result in the user wielding a comically under/oversized hammer.
    • The Ice Climbers both wield mallets to break ice (and the heads of their foes in Smash Bros).
    • Mr. Game and Watch uses them for his downward smash attack and Judgement special. In the case of the former, it actually knocks foes farther if the hammer hits near them as opposed to hitting them directly, though a direct hit launches foes at a low angle that can be difficult to recover from.
  • King Dedede uses a hammer as his weapon in the Kirby games. And Kirby can also get a hammer Power-Up by inhaling some opponents. They both use them in Super Smash Bros..
  • The paladins Dual Wield a war hammer and a lance in Warcraft II. They switch to just humongous sledgehammers in Warcraft III. In the latter case, their twenty-inch biceps are justified, seeing as how the hammers' heads are the size of small ovens.
    • How can we forget the Griffin Riders from Warcraft II and III who have an infinite supply of giant hammers to throw at the enemy. For bonus points their quotes reveal that the "warhammers" cost "40k".
    • The Doomhammer, Weapon of Choice for Thrall, Warchief of the Horde.
      • And let's not forget Thrall's predecessor, Orgrim Doomhammer, whose family has wielded the Doomhammer for generations.
    • In World of Warcraft's end game, one-handed maces (the weapon class which includes hammers) are often designed for healers, playing off the old equation of maces with priests.
    • Don't forget that Rogues can use maces, albeit one-handed maces. But then again, the icon for the technique Sap is a blunt weapon, so they're probably used to incapacitate enemies.
    • And in regards to the Warcraft III reference above: There are plenty of paladins (and shamans, and druids, and even some warriors and death knights) who still use maces. Before some of the later Burning Crusade raids went live, this was considered one of the best weapons in the game for retribution paladins. (Do a Google Images search for "Vindicator Maraad.")
    • BY FIRE BE PURGED! All this talk of Hammers in World Of Warcraft and no mention of Ragnaros, the Firelord's Sulfuras!? Well, I guess it's not Big enough.
    • The Paladin class has a lot of "Hammer of" attacks, a lot of which have graphics of hammers.
    • The quest "Thieving Little Pluckers" has you dealing with pygmy thieves in a certain way.

Nomarch Teneth: Take this mallet, crafted by the titans, blessed by the sun-kings and who-knows-what-else and smash the runts!

  • Diablo II. Mace-class weapons include Warhammers, Mauls, and Great Mauls, plus their Exceptional and Elite versions. 50% more damage to undead, too.
    • And there's also the Paladin's Blessed Hammer skill.
  • Fire Emblem has the Hammer as a Axe-type weapon, which is effective against armored enemies such as Knights and their promotion classes.
  • In Halo 2, the final boss Tartarus wields a giant, glowing hammer that can generate gravity fields and kills you in one hit. In the sequel Halo 3, minor bosses often wield a mass-produced version of this hammer, which is also now a usable weapon.
  • Keeping with its “game that took RPGs out of the dungeon” motif, the most powerful melee weapon in Fallout is the sledgehammer (and the super sledge, a pneumatic version.)
  • Arcanum, from the guys who brought us Fallout, also has a variety of hammers and maces available. They had the special effect of dealing Fatigue damage, which meant that they could knock enemies unconscious and effectively drained Mana from mages. They can also be used to open locked doors and chests without being damaged.
  • The Barbarian Hammer from God of War 2.
  • In the Summon Night Swordcraft Story series, the smith's hammer is the weakest weapon possible - it's the weapon you're forced to use before you forge any real weapons and if all your proper weapons break, and being reduced to it in a duel is a loss.
  • Shows up in other Soul Calibur games, generally in Astaroth's hands as the Great Maul. Decidedly not a joke weapon.
  • Zappa the smith can swing one in Chrono Cross. Getting a certain hammer is also required to craft any character's Infinity+1 Sword or armour.
  • A Magic Hammer shows up in the Power Stone fighting games; it greatly resembles a squeaky mallet, though?
  • Just like every other kind of weapon the game, some warhammers in Rune were absurdly, ridiculously huge.
  • Hammers seem to be the war weapon de rigueur in Beyond Good and Evil—both the good guys and the evil army use them. Some of them are part axe as well, and some even shoot lasers.
  • Yangus uses hammers as one of his favored weapon sets in Dragon Quest VIII.
  • The Order of the Hammer (colloquially known as "Hammerites"), the main religion in Thief, uses the hammer as both their holy symbol, and their weapon of choice.

"Hadst I a hammer, wouldst I hammer in the morning. Wouldst I hammer in the evening, all over this land."

  • Final Fantasy has had hammers and mauls in some of their games, but Final Fantasy XI gives them to White Mages and cranks it all the way up to... well, you know. Hexa Strike + well-geared WHM = a tiny pile of powder that was once a skeleton.
  • Dark Cloud 2 features various warhammers as the main character's Weapon of Choice.
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind features warhammers that range from small and wimpy (the ones made of chitin), to medium (the b&hammer), to Infinity Plus One (the Daedric and the Sixth House Bell Hammers).
    • Special mention goes to Stendarr's Hammer in Mournhold's museum, in the Bloodmoon expansion. While not practical for the player to wield, that's still a really big hammer.
    • See also Volendrung, which has appeared in every single game in the series. A huge warhammer forged by the Dwemer (called "dwarves" in world... by the giants; their stature was on par with any other man or mer) and blessed by the Daedric Prince of Pariahs, Malacath, in its Skyrim incarnation it has the ability to absorb its victims' Stamina, allowing its wielder to abuse Power Attacks.
    • Skyrim's models almost universally follow the historical hammer design, with a spike on one end and a short, narrow blunt head on the other. Some hammers vary in design; for example, the iron, orcish, and daedric versions' blunt ends feature small spikes on the hammerhead, presumably to help punch through armor. The dwarven warhammer is blunt on both ends. The elven warhammer's blunt end is hooked slightly, resembling a hawk's beak (all the elven gear has a bird motif to it) and looks like it could be used to hook and pull. And Volendrung.....Volendrung just looks like anything you hit with it is just going to have the worst day ever.
  • The War Mace powerset in City of Heroes doesn't specifically use a hammer, but since a recent update it has become one of the custom skins for the weapon. (along with a shovel)
    • The Stone Melee powerset also includes two powers, Stone Mallet and Heavy Mallet, which involve a big two-handed hammer formed out of stone.
  • Saavedro's hammer. Ask any Myst fan worth their salt, and they'll tell you that while dear old Saavy's hammer might not be the biggest or most Badass, it can still inspire some serious skull-smashing terror.
  • Vulcan's Hammer is a staple weapon of the later Wizardry games, and is an excellent weapon for the early-to-middle parts of the games, though it tends to be outclassed later on. Lesser hammers and maces are also present but generally unexceptional.
  • In the Fable series of games your character can wield progressively more awesome hammers as they go up in level. And of course there's the Hero of Strength, Hammer who uses a massive hammer from a statue as a primary weapon.
    • The third game in the series reduces the different types of weapons you can use in melee to swords and... well take an educated guess.
  • In the Monster Hunter series, hammers are a whole class of weapons. They are huge, with the head of the hammer often being as big as or even bigger than the character's torso. They have the greatest damage potential of all weapons, and have decent speed, but you cannot guard with them.
  • Baldur's Gate II features the +3 Hammer of Thunderbolts, which requires peak human strength to wield. As if that wasn't bad enough for whoever's on the receiving end, with a scroll, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and one of the Giant Strength belts, you could turn it into Crom Faeyr, an Infinity Plus One Hammer.
    • Best thing about Crom Faeyr? It is one handed. So you can wield an infinity-plus-one whatever in the other hand For Massive Damage.
  • The only non-blade weapon in Bushido Blade was the hammer, an almost polearm-length weapon which was slow, but would rapidly crush through your opponent's guard with repeated strikes. Oddly enough, the best character to give it to was the Fragile Speedster of the group, Tatsumi, as his speed overcame his low strength to allow fairly rapid strikes.
  • Dwarf Fortress features several varieties of mace and war hammer, which trade a reduced One-Hit Kill probability compared to slashing or piercing weapons for a better chance of causing knock-back; high-level mace- or hammerdwarves can launch enemies into nearby walls with enough force to reduce them to Ludicrous Gibs.
    • In addition, a noble/vigilante called the Hammerer shows up once your fort hits a certain population, and starts dispensing his own brand of justice if your guards aren't doing their jobs. As the Hammerer has no use for sissy notions like "restraint," this tends to result in dead dwarves; once the Hammerer arrives, you're better off making that prison and assigning guards if you've previously been putting both things off (since the penalty for unpunished crimes was mostly limited to unhappy thoughts in a few useless nobles, and even that could be countered with enough bling).
    • In the current version, blunt weapons in general but war hammer especially are also (as in real life) the best weapons against heavily armored foes, being able to deal nearly as much damaged to adamantine armored foes as ones with silver armor (the worst kind). Additionally, the effectiveness of such blunt weapons is largely determined by weight, so a literally "silver hammer" is quite an effective weapon, and an artifact weapon made of gold or lead is utterly terrifying. (While, ironically, adamantine is so light, a hammer made of the substance is useless. Unless you can see to it that your Hammerer starts wielding it..)
  • Although he isn't in your party for very long, Cid Polledina wields hammers in Final Fantasy IV.
    • You can use hammers in Final Fantasy XII too and they make a cool booming sound.
    • The number of characters that are likely to wield hammers at some point of the game are greatly increased in the sequel, including his apprentice Luca, the ninja Gekkou and possibly even Golbez.
  • The protagonist of the aptly named, but sadly canceled, Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
  • The weapon of choice for Shiki's father Nanaya Kiri according to one of the Kagetsu Tohya side stories. He knows it's not really an assassin's weapon, but he likes it. Plus, he's such a badass that it doesn't really matter what he fights with.
  • Innumerable games make reference to Thor's Mjolnir - Nethack comes most immediately to mind, where it also strikes with lightning bolts and is probably the best Neutral weapon in the game (and is certainly so for Priests, who are restricted in all bladed weapons).
  • The Thumper from MDK – a Hyperspace Mallet the size of an outhouse, used by Kurt (the protagonist) to smash all enemies that get too close.
  • Nikki's hammer from Mana Khemia looked normal enough, until the head pops off, revealing a chain that somehow turns it into a dual Epic Flail. Impossibly Cool Weapon indeed.
  • The Red Faction in Red Faction Guerrilla has the standard-issue colonial sledgehammer on their flag, and for good reason; it's an effective and useful weapon that never runs out of ammo, and with the extra strength from the low gravity, a man can kill someone or bust through concrete in a single good smash. Hell, there's even an achievement for smashing a hundred EDF soldiers in the campaign with it, upgraded versions you can buy, and in multiplayer it ends up useful in all game times.
    • Low gravity reduces weight, not mass... Nevertheless one could kill someone or bust through concrete with a single hit, just like on earth.
    • It is mentioned that this a technologically advanced hammer, which lets it rip through a concrete wall and the guy standing behind it.
  • The Hammerfist power in Prototype, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. With it Alex can flatten tanks. Topped only by the Blade power, which lets him chop up tanks.
    • Best used when combined with the elbow drop, which lets you Drop the Hammer from the top of the Empire State building.
  • This is one of the weapon types in Avalon Code. Its charge ability is to spin round and round and then throw it—while holding onto it -- which somehow allows the wielder to fly. Coincidentally or not, this was the original explanation for how Thor from Marvel could fly—you know, back when the writers were insane.
  • Bouphua from the Hamumu games uses a hammer most of the time. In one of the games, his hammers had special powers, like shooting superheated steam, zapping bolts of green electric homing bolts, and projecting energy shields, among others.
  • The first weapon you get in Alpha Prime is a small hammer. Each hit is fairly weak, but you can swing it as fast as you can click.
  • Fuuto, the Big Guy of the team in Mini Ninjas wields one as his Weapon of Choice. How he came to use it is the focus of the mini-movie detailing his backstory.
  • Mauls can be used in Dragon Age: Origins. They're good for taking on opponents in heavy armor like golems.
  • In Team Fortress 2, the Pyro eventually received a sledgehammer called the Homewrecker, which does extra damage to buildings but isn't as effective against enemies as the axe. It wasn't too popular, as Sentry Guns (the buildings you're in the biggest hurry to destroy) push you back while shooting at you, until the ability to take out sappers on friendly buildings was added. An automechanic-themed update features the Powerjack, a makeshift hammer made out of a tire jack and a car battery, which doesn't get random Critical Hits, but with a kill restore 75 HP (even going into overheal.)
  • One of the four weapon types in Children of Mana is the hammer. Its unique ability is to smash large objects.
  • In Assassin's Creed 2, hammers and mauls can be used as Ezio's main weapon in place of single-handed swords. There is negligible practical in-game difference between the two.
  • In Purple, hammers are a common and most powerful weapon. It's just too bad it's short-ranged.
  • A gigantic clockwork hammer is the trademark weapon of Malice, originally a very hyped Xbox launch title before a detour through Development Hell.
  • Hammers are popular in Vindictus. Tank character Fiona can use a one-handed hammer, starting at level 24. The first challenging boss on the Perilous Ruins beginner missions, the Gnoll Chieftan, uses a massive two-handed hammer larger than the player character. Many Gnoll bosses on higher-level missions use similarly massive flaming hammers. Starting with the Ruins of Sanctity missions, Gnoll mooks start using big two-handed hammers as well.
    • Use of hammers is handled realistically—packing a massive amount of damage, but slower, more cumbersome, and easier to evade than swords or one-handed clubs. The game AI even emulates the effects of fatigue on bosses that use them. Fiona's one-hander is smaller and lighter than the two-handed Gnoll versions, allowing her more speed and agility by comparison, but causing less damage.
  • Poppy from League of Legends uses a hammer that's as big as she is. She calls it Whomper. Sion also swaps his axe for a huge mallet in his Hextech Sion skin. Items you can buy from the shop also include the Phage, a large wooden mallet, and its 2 upgraded versions, the Frozen Mallet and the Entropy.
  • Probably one of the largest hammers compared to the user's size appears in Touhou Hisoutensoku. It is one of ice fairy Cirno's high-end spallcards, and the head is practically AS LARGE AS THE GAME SCREEN ITSELF. There is also a minor meme based around this spellcard; "CIRNO SMASH PUNY [X] WITH GLACIER MALLET."
  • Alice: Madness Returns uses a Hobby Horse for a gigantic sledgehammer in-game. Turning the game's Physx settings to Medium and above will display more prominently its destructive capability.
  • The Kid from Bastion has the Cael Hammer, a big sledgehammer, as his first weapon. Said hammer is described by the narrator as "his lifelong friend."
    • Because it's not just a weapon-it's the main tool he and others like him used to build the Rippling Wall.
  • Xgen Studio's Stick Arena-Ballistick features a sledgehammer as a melee weapon. It's a one-hit-kill terror-IF you can get close enough. It also slows down your walking rate.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, one of Phoenix Wright's attacks is summoning the judge in giant form (referencing Phoenix's dream) who drops the friggin hammer in the field.
  • In Serious Sam 3: BFE Sam's only melee weapon is a sledgehammer.
  • Zero gets one named T(itan) Breaker in Mega Man X 8
  • Dokoutsui from the second Onimusha title. So powerful that it summons an earthquake when you use the magic attack.
  • Itsuki from Sengoku Basara series (Puff in Devil Kings) uses a huge one as her weapon. Kinda scary, though, since she's a 12-year old girl.
  • The Warhammer from Turok series.
  • In the point-and-click adventure game Stupid Invaders, Gorgeous uses a hammer made of dung to take out a redneck welder for his gas tank.

Gorgeous: 60 million years... in one blow!

  • In The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, a hammer is Bugs Bunny's only weapon.
  • In Mr. Do's Castle, Mr. Do! wields a hammer.
  • Blanc/White Heart from Hyperdimension Neptunia, whose weapon of choice is a giant hammer she can easily wield despite her small frame.
  • In Little Nemo the Dream Master, the mouse comes equipped with a mallet to smash enemies and blocks with.
  • The Hammer Bros return in Super Mario XP. Also, Mario can use the Hammer subweapon, which works like the Axe Subweapon in Castlevania.
  • Monster Girl Quest Paradox has hammers as part of the same weapon type as clubs. They ignore half of the target's defense, but also have lower accuracy than most weapons.

Web Comics

  • Mink of Darken uses a massive hammer.

"It's so ecclesiastical! And smitey! Oh come on!"

  • Durkon Thundershield from Order of the Stick. Being a Dwarven Cleric of Thor, it's not surprising that he wields a one-handed warhammer. He's overall more a healer than a warrior, but he has the ability to occasionally grow to positively gigantic proportions when muscle is desperately needed. His hammer, of course, grows along with him.
    • The fact that it grows along with him is justified in that Order of the Stick is based on D&D rules, and just about all of the size-expansion spells make equipment grow too.
  • Bo the Sheep and her Ramrod, from Bleedman's Sugar Bits.
  • Susan in El Goonish Shive and her friend Sarah were fond of the Hyperspace Mallet, until the writer got tired of that particular joke. (A Q&A strip explicitly stated that it could only be used for comedic circumstances, though. Tedd's bugging her, that's one thing. Get mugged in an alley or need to sneak into the Big Bad's lair, though, and it pays to know a Half-Human Hybrid who exemplifies Beware the Nice Ones...
    • Comedy relief part was dropped later, but it's confirmed that the Hammer-call works only if the would-be target is male and does something offensive specifically towards women, so the indiscriminate violence of random muggers and sentinels doesn't fit. And even this depends on the perception.
  • Ronson from The Gods of Arr-Kelaan is an odd case. His hammer is a tiny pink rubber mallet that can kill gods.
  • The Arkenhammer, one of the Tools of the Titans in Erfworld. It can tame mighty dwagons, summon lightning through The Power of Rock, perform other magical feats, and is a formidable weapon in close combat. In keeping with the outwardly cutesy appearances of everything else, however, it's also a plastic toy squeaky mallet. As one fan put it: "It's only a toy if you're a Titan; mere mortals have to settle for using it as an insanely powerful artifact."
    • And it turns every fifth walnut it cracks into a pigeon.
      • And supposedly every fifth bird it kills into a walnut.
  • White Mage of Eight Bit Theater has a hammer as her Weapon of Choice, as the white magi of Final Fantasy I frequently used them.
  • Krunch Bloodrage of Looking for Group uses a big ol' hammer to bash heads when he isn't using his fists. His father dual wields a pair of one-handed maces when he "surrenders". OTOH, Krunch's brother Rayd favors the battleaxe.
  • Van Von Hunter uses a hammer as his primary weapon.
  • Big Bad Khrima of Adventurers! wields "The Mallet of Extreme Pain".
  • John Egbert of Homestuck has hammers as his primary weapon specialty. It proves to be a problem when he couldn't lift his sledgehammer. He gets a much lighter one later though, the Pogo Hammer!
    • All the main characters are given a chance to set their weapon specialty for the rest of the "game." John, picks the hammer mostly because it allows him to free up space in his inventory, commenting that he "can't imagine it's going to be all that relevant."
    • Thanks to Item Crafting, he later gains the gigantic Telescopic Sassacrusher, the burn-inducing Wrinklefucker, and the magic-enhanced Fear No Anvil.
    • And later, through other means, he gets the awe-inspiring Warhammer of Zillyhoo. Even later than that, he enhances it with the Fluorite Octet, Vriska's extremely powerful set of magic dice.
  • Yuuki's main weapon in Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki is a hammer.
  • Hanna of Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name wields an ordinary hammer that he has customized with some runes. While the runes don't seem to have any flashy magical effect, the hammer is just as effective at wounding vampires as it is at pulling out nails.
  • Just like the Hisoutensoku example above, Cirno uses a hammer made of ice with a MASSIVE head in Touhou Nekokayou. The minor meme described above is essentially her battlecry when using it.
  • Wayward Sons: Hurk's weapon of choice is a massive hammer coated with Vastedium, called "Olnir".
  • In the classic Commedia Dell'Arte and Punch & Judy shows, Pulcinelle/Punch uses a blunt club. Commedia 2X00 trades it out for a huge cartoon mallet—the better to bludgeon Super Fighting Cyborgs.

Web Original

  • Cole Quentin Hudson from season one of Survival of the Fittest used a sledgehammer. Unfortunately, it slowed him down enough that the one time he used it in combat, he basically got his arse handed to him.
  • Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog averts this; Captain Hammer, despite his namesake, doesn't have a hammer. Well, actually, he does....
  • Many moderators and GMs in numerous forums and mmorpgs tend to refer to their use of their authority to ban rulebreakers, cheaters, and trolls as "wielding their Banhammer." This tendency is widespread enough that a whole category of image macros depict offenders being struck by Banhammer-wielding moderators. In some instances, permanent bans are depicted as the Mods using a Permaban Crusher that is clearly modeled after the Goldion Crusher.
    • 4chan City includes rare footage of banhammers being used in combat.
  • Axem Yellow in Super Mario Bros Z used one. Makes sense, as he was patterned after GutsMan.EXE. He also had An Axe to Grind.
    • Mario and Luigi use them as sub-weapons, and Mario has unleashed the righteous fury of the Hammer Brother Suit.
  • Melna from Dominic Deegan uses one to great effect...and somehow managed to decapitate someone with hers recently.
  • From Open Blue, Admiral Flota Vladimir Ilyavich Tokarev, HERO OF THE TRIBES, uses a Maul, a giant warhammer, in personal combat.
  • Whateley Universe examples: the superpowered mutant Sledge wields a big sledgehammer, and as fits the trope, is a Scary Black Man. Donner is Swedish, has trouble with English, and wields a warhammer much like Thor, right down to the Marvel Comics trick of hurling it (well, using Energizers powers to move it through the air) and letting it pull him after.
  • Mortal from The Insane Quest uses a hammer for fighting. He keeps insisting it's called a mallet, though.
  • In the third RP of Darwin's Soldiers, Alfred uses a sledgehammer to kill a Dragonstorm experiment...by knocking its head clean off.
    • In the same RP, Sharon also uses a hammer to kill a guard.
  • Nash is known to pick up a claw hammer whenever he has to defend himself all but once, where he picked up a fire extinguisher. He was awating fanmail.
  • MSF High Forum: Ilushia weilds one of these. More recently Danny has taken up wielding one.
  • RWBY: Nora's weapon Magnhild, which is also a Grenade Launcher. With hearts on it.

Western Animation

  • Ultra Magnus of Transformers Animated wields a humongous hammer that can even call down lightning, which is called the Magnus Hammer in the show and "Stormbringer" on one of his toy's bios. (If he sounds a teensy bit like Thor, remember, The Transformers comic series was written by Marvel, so it's probably more recycling old ideas than anything else.)
    • Also, the Elite Guard homage the [Comicbook:Avengers\] a great deal. Magnus is basically Thor, while Sentinel is Captain America and Blurr is Quicksilver. (Marvel Comics doesn't have any ninja beatniks, though, so Jazz doesn't seem to fit... but he is awesome, which is what matters.)
    • Word of God has stated that, even if he chooses to actually fight with a different weapon, the current Autobot leader needs to have the hammer in his possession to have the rank of Magnus, making it the Animated equivalent of the Matrix of Leadership. That's probably why Shockwave stole it after badly injuring Ultra Magnus, and when Ratchet gets it back he refuses to give it to Sentinel Prime (who was acting Magnus) because he didn't want him to get even more power.
    • And the fact that Optimus finally considers himself responsible enough to carry it into battle, and is holding it after he returns to Cybertron, may indicate that he is the next Magnus.
    • Sari later gets one to go with her transformation after using the allspark-powered key to upgrade herself.
  • Electric hammers are standard-issue weapons to the Quarrymen in Gargoyles.
  • In one episode of Chowder, Gazpacho bans Mung Daal from his fruit stand, then confidently proclaims that he had to drop the banhammer on him.
  • Breakdown in Transformers Prime has a hammer as his Shapeshifter Weapon. Given his lack of subtlety and love of violence, it's a good choice.
    • Of the thirteen original Transformers, Solus appears to be wielding the Magnus Hammer, mentioned above.
  • Most versions of Harley Quinn prefer bludgeons as a Weapon of Choice, and often a carnival-themed mallet of some sort.

Real Life

  • A number of weapons resembling hammers have been used historically.
    • Warhammers didn't look much different from your average carpenter's hammer - they just had longer handles. Placing a lot of the weight at the point of impact gave the weapon a lot of punch, breaking bones through armor that was intended to deflect the lesser impact of blades. The real-world hammers often had a small flat face on one side of the head and a simple pick on the other. Strike with the flat face and you can quickly use your weapon again; strike with the pick and with any luck you'll penetrate your opponent's armor entirely, at the cost of possibly having to take a moment to yank the pick out again.
    • The horseman's pick also resembles a claw hammer, with an armor-piercing slanted point on the opposite side of the hammerhead. It was used primarily by Islamic cavalry and Polish hussars.
    • Mauls resemble sledgehammers. They were primarily an archer's weapon, serving double-duty in hammering down protective stakes before a battle and attacking any enemies that drew too close for comfort.
  • The use of hammers in war is evident in the sport of polo, which was originally a war exercise for Persian cavalry.
  • Tactical sledge hammers are sometimes used in close-quarters combat fire teams. The doorman will sometimes use it in place of a battering ram or shotgun when approaching a breaching scenario. Tactical sledge hammers come in handy in situations where explosives or shotgun shells would prove too destructive due to the presence of hostages or physical obstructions. It is not unheard of for SWAT members to find themselves using the hammer as a last-second weapon when the suspect is determined to be closer to the team than anticipated.
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