"You can't just throw people at all your problems, dear."
— Emma Frost (to Colossus), Astonishing X-Mennote In the previous scene, she was an unwilling partner in this move and was still a little pissy about that. She was also wrong.
Want to make a dramatic entrance into melee combat? Here's one way to do it. The Big Guy of a team will pick up a (usually) willing ally and hurl him headlong into the enemy. In most cases, the thrown ally has unique abilities and/or weaponry that makes being thrown a particularly effective tactic.
Often used as an alternative to the Colossus Climb. A staple technique of the Bash Brothers. This should be between two allies; hurling enemies into each other is something else, and hurling enemies at your friends is still another technique.
For the self-propelled version, see Dynamic Entry. For being launched into combat by a siege engine, rather than another person, see Catapult to Glory. For other forms of person-based combat, see Grievous Harm with a Body and Equippable Ally.
Sanosuke and Yahiko did this thrice in the episode, and during the last one Yahiko was making a "cut it out, bitch" face as he was tossed across the scenario by Sano. Given that Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Kenshin, is a major X-Men fan, it was probably meant to be a reference/Shout Out.
A variation was done in the manga, combining Sanosuke's arm strength with Kenshin's leg strength to reach a hot air balloon.
Yoh Asakura is known for doing this to his poor Oversoul, Amidamaru, in Shaman King. This move was even brought over as a special attack for Yoh in Jump Ultimate Stars.
After Kamina hijacks a giant Ganmen, he uses it to launch Simon's Lagann at the other two beastmen. It initially misses, but Simon uses the Lagann's drill to tunnel out of the cave and destroy the beastmen-controlled Ganmen by attacking from behind. Even Yoko is impressed.
The Dai-Gurren deploys Ganmen by throwing them into combat with its arms.
In the last episode Viral does it with the Lagann while it's combined with the Gurren, and since he's piloting the Gurren that means he had the mech rip its own head off and throw it towards the target. This is after being launched out of a bigger mech launched by an even bigger mech launched by a mech even bigger than the last. and it's fucking awesome.
Played with in Digimon Adventure: Tai and Agumon attempt one of these, but Agumon's too heavy to lift. They instead switch from baseball to soccer, and Tai kicks Agumon into position.
In one episode of Strike Witches, Charlotte throws Francesca into a Neuroi while Francesca uses her shield to inflict damage on impact.
Sanji has his Armée de L'air combo moves, in which he uses his powerful legs to launch his friends in the direction of the enemy. He mainly launches Zoro, as it's usually them who end up having to work together.
The Crazy Enough to Work plan during the Alabasta arc, where, to reach the top of the tower in time, Usopp is shot into the air by Nami's Clima Tact, Chopper leaps off of Usopp, where Sanji then kicks him into the air, then Zoro then slashes them into the air, and finally Chopper throws Vivi.
The Movie of this arc included a scene in which Luffy catapulted Vivi to safety from the ground away from Crocodile. Zoro (who was riding a giant crab) catches her, but gets knocked out in the process.
Ranma ˝ both subverts it and plays it straight at different times:
Subverted in Ranma and Akane's skating fight against Handsome Lech Mikado Sanzen'in and Kawaiiko Azusa Shiratori. When Mikado attacks them by grabbing Azusa and spinning her around so she can kick them, Ranma tosses Akane onto the air... but Akane is not the one who hits Mikado; as soon as he thinks Akane will kick him, Ranma punches him in the gut and forces him to stop their attacks, while Akane lands safely not far from them.
Played straight in the second half of the "The One to Carry On" two-parter OAV. Female Ranma uses a horizonal Hiryu Shoten Ha to shoot Akane forward like a human cannonball in order to beat Natsume and Kurumi.
During Slayers Return, Naga performs a similar move utilizing their fat guide (Whose name is Becker) by literally kicking him out of mid-air, taking out an enemy with it. It is known as the Beckerball.
Lina Inverse herself uses her boyfriend as the "Gourry Bomb!" at one point in the anime.
In Monster Rancher, Golem once threw the armadillo-like Mocchi into battle this way.
Golem also regularly tossed Suezo straight up into the air so that the eyeball monster could scope out their surroundings. Unfortunately, he didn't always catch him. Notably, this was Suezo's idea the first time, but after Golem failed to catch him the first time, he was less than thrilled when the group adopted it as a regular tactic.
In one chapter of Ai Kora, Maeda teams up with Kirino in a martial arts contest. One of their opponents is the Harugasumi brothers, whose special technique, the "Human Shuriken", involves the big brother Jinpachi throwing the little brother Anija.
In an early episode, as the Hollow Shrieker is trying to fly away, Rukia gets Chad to throw her at him. It's also nicely lampshaded, as Chad is a bit uncomfortable with it.
It happens again to Rukia, when she gets tossed at Renji by Ichigo, who was standing on top of the Sōkyoku. Neither Rukia nor Renji were pleased.
In the OVA Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Team Sonic pulls this move twice in rapid succession to defeat Metal Robotnik. Knuckles throws Sonic, Sonic flies through the robot, then Tails catches Sonic in the air and throws him back into the robot.
Pain himself also used a clever variation of this. One of his bodies could summon his whole team to one location, so he twice had her thrown a long distance to get his team past the Leaf Village's defenses while making it only seem that one was coming.
And in his battle with the Killer Bee, Sasuke does thiswith Juugo's help so he can catch up to him before he runs away.
Perhaps taking a note from Jugo, Killer Bee partially transformed his arm and used it in the same way to help launch Guy half way across the island they were on to catch up with Kisame.
The first instance of this trope in Naruto is actually in the fight with Zabuza. After Kakashi is caught in his water prison Naruto changes into a giant shuriken and Sasuke throws him so that Naruto can catch Zabuza by surprise.
Nando's Lopunny did this with his Kricketune in his Grand Festival battle against Zoey.
In "Why? Wynaut?", Ash has his Bayleef throw him by Vine Whip to try to get to Team Rocket's escaping balloon.
The 35th episode of the 2001 series of Cyborg 009 has 005 hurling 004 to get a clearer shot at a giant robot with his rocket-launcher leg.
The Tachibana twins's Skylab Hurricane from Captain Tsubasa is performed by having one brother slide on the ground and launch the other brother into the sky with his feet. The purpose is to create a surprise heading from an extraordinary height.
In episode 5 of the High School Of The Dead anime, Takashi and Rei show up to save the day on a motorcycle. After dropping off Rei, re-arming Hirano and bowling over a few zombies with his bike, Takashi uses the momentum from his bike to hurl Saeko into the fray, Fastball Special-style.
The Tears To Tiara anime gives us the 'Rathty Missile' when the aforementioned Rathty is hurled, giant hammer and all, into the middle of a bunch of mooks by her companions.
In the Poseidon arc of Saint Seiya, this is how the Main Breadwinner of the Marine Realm is finally destroyed. Using the combined force of their attacks, Shiryu and Hyoga hurl Seiya into the Pillar, bringing it down along with Poseidon's kingdom.
Named for Colossus and Wolverine's favorite maneuver, first seen in Uncanny X-Men #100. Other Marvel characters (especially X-Men-related ones) occasionally do it as well.
In one issue, a reversal took place on the moon, where, due to the low gravity, Wolverine threw Colossus.
When Colossus came Back from the Dead in Astonishing X-Men; it was in the middle of a furious battle. The Big Bad was getting away in a spaceship, and the heroes had no way of stopping him... until Wolverine walked up to him and said, "I got just two words for you, bub." The next panel? Wolverine flying towards the enemy, with Colossus in a tossing pose far in the background.
One issue had Colossus performing this move with Nightcrawler, as Wolverine was unavailable. Nightcrawler did not like it one bit.
Colossus has also performed this move with Kitty Pryde. Notably during Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing.
Kitty (in mid-flight): Okay...so, serious wedgie.
In an issue of She-Hulk, She-Hulk and Wolverine team up on this. Of course, She-Hulk being who she is could not help but comment on Wolverine's physique. Which led to this classic response "First rule of Fastball Special: Do not talk about Fastball Special!"
Spider-Man and X-23 did this in Marvel Team-Up. Spider-Man made an ironic comment about how someone else might have the trademark to the move.
In the original run of Marvel Team-Up, Spider-Man did this with Kitty Pryde. She even asked Spider-Man, "How's your fastball?", being familiar with the move as a member of the X-Men.
X-23 did it again with Psylocke in Second Coming with Psylocke using her telekinesis, in front of Wolverine to boot.
In the Incredible Hulk arc Planet Hulk, Hulk and Korg would perform the Fastball Special; in this case, they traded off being the thrower and throwee.
Spider-Girl and J2 (Juggernaut Junior). With the twist that due to some invisiblity-inducing Phlebotinum, Mayday had no idea what she was being thrown at.
In an issue of Deadpool, the Great Lakes Avengers (who at the time were calling themselves the Lightning Rods) did this, even calling it by name. And a footnote appears explaining that they have apparently copyrighted the term, and no one else is allowed to use it.
Squirrel Girl, a future member of that team, has done the move with her pet squirrel Tippy-Toe. She calls it the "Fuzzball Special".
In Secret Six, "evilAtom" Dwarfstar hides in Lady Vic's arrow fletchings while super-small, to a similar effect.
Runaways: Molly Hayes has super-strength. Victor Mancha is durable. Molly likes putting her power to use. Victor Mancha is a fan of Wolverine. This was made all the more amusing by Victor being the size of a boy in his late teens and Molly the only young girl in the cast.
A variation in Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic uses his stretchy powers to launch the Thing like a slingshot. They also play it straight, with Reed forming into a ball and Ben chucking him at something.
Artax does this with his adventuring partner Yeagar, using magic to toss the warrior in the Nodwick comic parody "A Kind of Tragic", poking fun at the Highlander series. They call it the Bullwinkle Maneuver.
PS238, another title by the same author/artist, has Coach Rockslide use the Special to toss teacher Miss Kyle (a.k.a. Micro-Might) into fights after she's shrunk herself, thereby increasing her density and strength.
In New Avengers #13, Luke Cage needs to take down a plane. His projectile of choice? Iron Fist, of course. ("I hate when he throws me!") In #21, Spider-Man does a web-slingshot variant of the same trick.
Spider-Man: Fist him!
Iron Fist: [in flight] Hate when people say that.
Ombre and Chance pull their own version of during the tactics exam in Freaks Squeele.
In the Defenders-esque tie-in to Fear Itself, the mutant Loa asks Hulk's daughter Lyra if she's ever heard of a fastball special. Lyra hadn't, but she's a quick study.
In With Strings Attached, Paul chucks John into the air during the battle on the Plains of Death because John can't spare the water to blast himself into the air. Inverted in that Paul is chucking John away from combat.
In Poké Wars: The Incipience during the fight with Ho-oh, Regigigas uses an interesting take on this move. He throws Regirock at Mewtwo but as a grenade, not as blunt projectile
While not mentioned by name in TSA The Amazing Spiderman, Hulk likes throwing Spider-Man after people he's sent flying.
Films — Animation
Happens at the end of The Incredibles, when Syndrome is escaping with Jack-Jack. Mr. Incredible states that anything he throws could hit Jack-Jack, so Elastigirl asks him to throw her.
Used in An Extremely Goofy Movie. The cheating Bradley Uppercrust III has his partner use "The Whip" on Max's team, effectively gaining first place (and having Tank knock them over as they look on in shock helps).
In Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoole, a group of crows has snatched Twilight's lute... which happens to have Mrs. Plithiver in it. They're unable to keep up, and Twilight offers to do a mid-air throw to get Soren closer.
Twilight: I'll get you closer! We're going to lock talons! Soren: What? Twilight: Trust me! I know what I'm doing! Soren: Yeah, but have you done this before? Twilight: No, but I've always wanted to try it!
Films — Live-Action
In Harry Potterand the Deathly Hallows, Hagrid asks Grawp to help him into the castle, which the latter interprets as a request to hurl him through the window, and complies.
Because it wouldn't be right or proper not to include the move in the series, X-Men: The Last Stand — during a fight against a simulated Sentinel — has Wolverine turn to Colossus and ask “How’s your throwin’ arm?” Audiences cheered. The move itself, however, it was considerably altered, resembling more of a hammer toss than a fastball throw, to compensate for the fact that Hugh Jackman is like fifteen feet tall compared to comics Wolvie.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Gimli was about to gets tossed (without his consent) in order to get across a gap faster. This ticks him off as he decides to jump on his own, only to fall short and be rescued by Boromir grabbing his beard.
Gimli: Nobody tosses a dwarf!
Then, in TheTwoTowers, Gimli has Aragorn do this to him, but only on the condition that he never tells Legolas about it.
Gimli: I cannot jump the distance! You'll have to toss me! ... Don't tell the elf!
Aragorn: Not a word.
In Sky High, Jetstream drops the Commander from a flying start. Warren and Will also pull one off during the 'Save the Citizen' scene.
Butterfly and Sword has a variation where Ko uses her scarf to fire Sing like an arrow.
Literature
In Matt Stover's Star Wars: Shatterpoint, during the Battle or Lorshan Pass, Mace Windu is launched into the air by holding onto the whipping tail of an Ankkoxin order to capture an enemy gunship high in the air.
The Discworld novel Thud! is named for the titular boardgame which puts Dwarfs against Trolls. Dwarf pieces move like chess queens and troll pieces move like chess kings. Dwarf pieces outnumber troll pieces 4 to 1, however Dwarf pieces cannot take troll pieces unless they land on the square the troll piece is occupying and are not allowed to do so unless starting next to a troll piece or by being "hurled". Troll pieces can take any adjacent dwarf piece without moving to that square, thus a lone dwarf piece is defenseless as moving next to a troll piece invites immediate capture on the troll player's turn. Dwarf pieces can be "hurled" a distance of greater than one square so long as the opposite direction has the same number of other dwarf pieces occupying the squares. Thus the only way to win as a dwarf player is to bunch up one's pieces into a big massed group and Fastball Special the outer pieces at the trolls.
Live-Action TV
In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Scissor's Final Vent involves his Advent Beast launching him into the air for a spinning tackle attack. Ryuki, Ohja, and Ryuga's Final Vents also launch them for flying kicks, though with fire, venom, and nega-fire respectively.
Eiji/OOO: What are you doing?! Gentaro/Fourze:(swinging OOO around with his Magic Hand) Don't worry, astronauts handle these kinds of Gs all the time! Eiji/OOO:I'm not an astronaut!!
In Power Rangers Wild Force, Danny (the Black Bison Ranger) would regularly toss Max (the Blue Shark Ranger) at the enemy. Max had bladed weapons as part of the shark motif.
Taken Up to Eleven in episode 22 of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. Wanna stop a giant asteroid from destroying the Earth? Why not throw the nearest giant robot with a drill at it?
In The Aquabats Super Show episode "Showtime!", a super sized Crash McLarson throws the MC Bat Commander and Jimmy the Robot at Space Monster M. While the Bat Commander distracts M, Jimmy removes SuperMagic PowerMan's magic headband from M's head.
In Alphas Bill throws Kat over some villains so they can attack from two directions.
Pro Wrestling
Commonly called the Rocket Launcher. (Among other things, it was a major issue of the feud between the Midnight Express and the Fantastics.)
A campaign journal on the Giant In The Playground forums had this as a semi-regular tactic. The campaign was an Eberron-based version of the Red Hand of Doom and the party psion would often use one of her powers to fling the party's dwarf at the enemy. Although one of its first uses was throwing a stuffed owlbear. Said campaign journal can be found here for those curious.
Exalted has a martial arts technique dubbed the Crashing Wave Throw. While it's intended to be used on an enemy (you need to make a grapple attack to be able to use it), it specifically fails to mention any weight limit the throwee has to fall under. Add in a willing ally who uses certain Sorcery powers to turn his body to solid bronze...
Blood Bowl, a Warhammer spin-off fantasy football game, included this as a pair of abilities (one for the thrower and one for the throwee, usually a goblin or halfling). Unfortunately, some creatures capable of making the throw (as the thrower) are too stupid and/or hungry to always get this right, and will sometimes have a snack rather than perform this trope correctly.
The 5th edition Champions book has a section specifically on the Fastball Special. For fans of game rules: the throwing character aims the “fastball” at the target character’s hex. If he hits the hex, the “fastball” rolls for a Move Through on the target.
If the Orks' Shokk Attack Gun malfunctions in just the right way in Warhammer 40000, instead of firing the crazed goblin like it is supposed to, it will fire the Big Mek using it. And, being an Ork and a big 'un at that, he isn't too shabby in that field.
One book for Werewolf The Apocalypse has a list of pack tactics; one, Forward Pass (pioneered by a Fianna rugby player, no less), involves picking up a packmate in wolf form and hurling them at the enemy, with the understanding that they'll shift into war form in mid-air.
Video Games
Used in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, when you get one of The Big Guys next to a smaller character and press the grab button. The same character pairing examples under the Comics header above apply here, among others (you can get the Hulk — if you have him — to throw Wolverine, for example).
In its predecessor X Men Legends, Colossus and other superstrong characters such as Rogue can throw Wolverine at the enemies.
In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, you get Bowser into your party, and one of his weapons allows you to do this with Mario — although if Mario is suffering some kind of Status Effect, Bowser has to settle for throwing a plush toy of Mario.
The Bros. Attacks in the Mario & Luigi games, which sometimes involve using your allies as weapons.
In Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, Luigi mentions that he used this tactic to defeat a boss in the adventure he's having at the same time as Mario's. His partner clarifies that Luigi in fact missed his throw, and sent the partner flying into lava.
In Super Mario Sunshine, Piantas in some places will offer to throw you in exchange for a coin, enabling you to reach high places without the Rocket or Hover Nozzles for FLUDD. This returns in one galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2, but they do it for free instead.
This can be used to win battles in Super Smash Bros Brawl, though doing so is usually a bad idea.
Characters in the Disgaea series can lift and toss each other around the battlefield. Prinniesexplode when thrown, damaging characters on surrounding squares. (Prinnies are also perennial Butt Monkeys, so using them as living grenades just fits right in.) While this kills the Prinny, they're monsters and thus only cost one Hl to resurrect, making it cheap to do as well (also, this doesn't count as a team kill). There are stages designed so that doing this will make it far easier. The baseball stage might even be a Shout Out to the trope namer.
This is Umaro's best attack in Final Fantasy VI. Which party member he grabs and throws is mostly random.
The game features a Fastball with the GF summons "Brothers". After Sacred(the big Brother) tosses the enemy(and the rock it was standing on) into the sky, he and Minotaur(the little Brother) play Rock-Paper-Scissors, which Minotaur always wins. Minotaur then boosts Sacred into the sky to crash into the enemy, sending it spiraling back to Earth.
In the same game, the Granaldo boss is fond of attacking with this trope.
Rinoa also launches her dog Angelo (via her Blaster Edge) towards enemies when it's Limit Break time.
In The Last Remnant, this is an attack used by Castanea (an giant with heavy armour and a huge hammer) and Roeas (a scantily clad girl with dual-wielded swords). Roeas jumps onto Castanea's hammer, who swings it at the enemy, launching Roeas right at them.
Dissidia: Final Fantasy has this done by Tidus and Zidane in the game's intro, with Zidane wrapping his tail around Tidus' leg and Tidus slingshotting him to Exdeath.
In Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, a boss fight features Ventus smacking Stitch at the boss using the keyblade like it was a baseball bat. Another fight has Hercules flinging Ven.
The Swing Fling link attack in Kingdom Hearts 3 D has the participating dream eater swing Sora in circles by the legs before eventually tossing him at the target.
Can be quite useful in Streets Of Rage where one player can throw his ally into a crowd of Mooks.
In United by Fate, the hulking principal Raizo does this as his assist move.
And in Project Justice, the Gedo High School Team's Party Up attack is a variation, which involves the player's two teammates hurling the player's character and his/her opponent at each other.
Kingdom Of Loathing allows Turtle Tamers to do this with their familiar as the thrown character... or a random turtle if no familiar is available. However, familiars do more damage.
Several Double Techs in Chrono Trigger, mostly courtesy of Ayla, who is the physically strongest member of the True Companions. "Falcon Strike" is the most obvious about it. There's also a non-Ayla version, "Blade Strike", where Robot Buddy Robo throws Frog, sword-first.
While not particularly useful in the game, the hero of Noah's Ark, who is responsible for picking up animals and food and filling the Ark with them, can throw the animals and food at will. The only real use for this is throwing bales of hay and coconuts at some of the more annoying animals to knock them out, making them easier/less dangerous to pick up and carry to the Ark. This is the only way to even pick up a monkey without it jumping off your head.
Yukari Yakumo throws not only her own shikigami, but her shikigami's shikigami. This is usually done to strike an unsuspecting character upside the head (or hitbox, depending on whether we're talking about the danmaku or the fighting), and the shikigami further assists by spinning and sending danmaku in all directions. Of course, this doesn't mean Yukari herself isn't going to attack you herself, as well.
Her shikigami, Ran Yakumo, does the same thing with her shikigami, Chennote No, nobody knows why she isn't "Chen Yakumo". Yukari's attack is basically a souped-up version of Ran's, using Ran herself as the projectile. However, Yukari is also capable of using the Chen version of the attack, but only in the fighting games.
Yukari's so reliant on having Ran assist that this is included in her shottype in Imperishable Night (Ran moves to the enemy she's "locked on." she'd have to do it to keep it balanced between the human half (Reimu with homing amulets, as to be expected) and youkai half.
Mega Man Battle Network features the GutsShoot Program Advance, where GutsMan teleports in, picks up MegaMan, and throws him down the row (MegaMan puts up a shield in his face to avoid taking damage from the collision). The move was introduced in the first game as being incredibly powerful (if lacking in area range), but was toned down in each 2 and 3 before it was dropped altogether with the latter games reworking the formula.
In Azure Dreams, a PlayStation RPG, the player character can pick up and hurl his tamed monsters at foes, giving them an immediate attack on the enemy if they strike.
Before the last battle in Kirby's Adventure (and its GBA remake), Nightmare escapes into the sky as Kirby and King Dedede dance around in panic. Dedede then sucks up Kirby and spits him in the direction of Nightmare, before tossing the Star Rod to him so he can chase Nightmare.
Also happens in Kirby Squeak Squad, where Dedede once again tosses Kirby to chase away the Squeaks. As if he were a bowling ball.
In Kirby's Epic Yarn, Kirby and Prince Fluff can throw each other as weapons or to reach distant platforms; the partner being tossed even takes the shape of a baseball when this happens.
In M.U.G.E.N, one of Colossus' special moves is throwing Wolverine at his opponent.
SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 has a couple of tag team moves that invoke this trope, on top of the standard whip moves.
In Sands Of Destruction, Taupy (the little bear with an eyepatch) uses one of these as a finishing move, as a giant pink bear (his sweetiepie, Muffy) picks him up and hurls him toward the enemy at full force.
In Gunstar Heroes, 2-player mode, both players can throw the other like this. Hitting the Mooks with this is quite painful for them. It is also possible to Fastball Special the Mooks themselves.
Hookheads and Grabbies in Dubloon can attack your party by throwing other enemies on the field. Naturally, this doesn't work when there's only one enemy left.
Supreme Commander 2 has a combination of this, It's Raining Men, and Ridiculously Fast Construction. The UEF can build a "Noah Unit Cannon" that constructs land units rapidly and launches them across the map, whereupon they deploy on impact. That's right, you are shooting units at the enemy even as they are created.
Tecmo's cover-based shooter, Quantum Theory, is generally considered an unremarkable Gears of War clone with one exception: You have a button dedicated to picking up and throwing your female partner at the enemy, who slices them up.
The Violinist of Hameln game allows Hamel to throw Flute at his enemies if desired, so long as she's not wearing a costume.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 the Soviets have the "Bullfrog" unit which launches infantry with its cannon like human cannonballs. (They have parachutes for soft landings.)
In Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East, cyclopes have the ability to pick up goblins and hurl them at the enemy.
A mechanic for 'dwarf chucking' exists in Dungeon Keeper 2, allowing giants and bile demons to use dwarves and imps as projectiles.
Sonic Heroes allows your Flight and Power characters to throw their teammates at enemies when in their formations.
Amaterasu in Okami can throw her pint-sized Exposition Fairy, Issun, at enemies if she buys a certain artifact. The damage is minimal at first but increases with use. Issun can also steal items while he's at it.
In Cthulhu Saves the World by Zeboyd Games, one of the combo attacks allows one of the party members to use another as a projectile weapon.
Tiny of Dota2 has Toss as his second ability. It grabs a random unit close to him and throws it at the target enemy. It can be used as a textbook Fastball Special, grabbing an ally to throw in middle of the enemy team so that the ally can wreak havoc, or it can be used more directly - a grabbed enemy takes even more damage mid-flight in addition to the impact damage, leading to Tiny being one of the best heroes at killing enemies really quickly. Thrown allies take no damage from the trip or the landing.
Used in multiple variants in Super Mario Bros Z. Sonic's in it, and two protagonists have hammers. It was bound to happen.
Parodied in Press Startepisode 30 where Zack asks Lin-Ku to pull this off on him by name. Lin-Ku interprets this literally and knocks Zack out with a baseball before wondering it was supposed to do.
Web Comics
Black Mage and Fighter occasionally do this as a combo attack ("Fighter-doken") in 8-Bit Theater, when they have a sudden burst of competence. After upgrading to Ninja class, Thief can do this with the "Throw" ability. While it's much more often used to hurt someone, he has used it for transportation or using his allies as human projectiles (never with their permission, of course).
Done, oddly enough, by the two weakest characters in Dubious Company. Tiren and Sal are cornered by Mary and Sue. Walter, a wimpy birdman, hurls Elly, an even wimpier elf, onto Mary. It helps that they were flying a good ways above them.
At one point in Skullkickers, Baldy throws Shorty up a tower to catch a sniper.
The cowardly and innocent but almost indestructible rock-crabs in Vexxarr are used as ammo in ship-to-ship combat. Which doesn't bother them in the slightest.
Rock crab: "Excuse me, may I have directions to your airlock? I need to get back for the second salvo."
In this Oglaf strip,[1] payback is a froggy fastball lobbed at two pranksters.
Web Original
Early in the Whateley Universe, strongman Lancer did this with Squishy Wizard Fey, who then used her magic at the other end. Since then, Lancer has suggested throwing Phase like this (and Fey has warned Phase about where Lancer puts his hands).
One of Cyborg's and Beast Boy's many tag-team moves was the "Beast Boy Blitz", in which Beast Boy morphed into an armadillo, rolled into an actual ball, and was picked up and thrown by Cyborg. For an added bonus, BB would transform into a rhino while in mid-flight.
The flightless Robin and the super-strong Starfire regularly performed this move. Starfire has also thrown Cyborg into battle the same way.
In the episode "For Real", Control Freak sets up tests to see if the Titans East can prove they're "real" titans. In the task Más y Menos have, they must race across town and press two buttons at the same time. As they can only move fast while touching each other, they solve this by going to the top of the tower in the center, clasping hands, spinning really fast, and letting go, sending each other flying to the buttons in a sort of two-person Fastball Special.
Rocky and Bullwinkle has the "Alley-Oop" play, where Bullwinkle throws Rocky up in the air to give the flying squirrel an added boost of speed.
Bulkhead and Prowl pull this off against Blitzwing.
Also used with Bulkhead and Bumblebee on Starscream.
A two-stage version had the Autobots needing to dispose of a bomb capable of destroying half of Detroit. Prowl held Bumblebee standing on Bulkhead's wrecking-ball launcher. Prowl had limited flight capabilities and Bumblebee had rocket jets for that episode, so Bulkhead made the initial launch, Prowl lifted him higher and Bumblebee got even further, throwing the bomb into the lower stratosphere.
Optimus Prime does this with Brawn in Transformers Generation 1 upon the latter's request so he could take on the high flying Insecticons (it's the episode where the Insecticons made their first appearance).
In the Beast Wars episode "Call of the Wild", Rattrap is riding on top of Rhinox (in his beast form). Rhinox transforms to robot mode, reaches back, grabs Rattrap's hand and flings him into Terrorsaur, as Rattrap transforms into rat mode to roll under his legs, before transforming back up and shooting him from behind.
Rhino, of all people, uses this with Spider-Man during The Spectacular Spider Man when the two briefly team up to destroy information on how to build Super Rhinos (Rhino wants to be unique, Spider-Man doesn't want more Rhinos running around).
The unwilling throwee variant, in the Ed Edd N Eddy episode "Ed, Ed, and Away". The Eds are trying to capture a balloon that has floated too high. Ed's idea:
Ed: Fly, Double-D, fly! Edd: Yaaahh!
He then tries this again with Nazz, who just happened to be walking by.
Ed: Fly, Nazz, fly! Eddy: She didn't even make a grab for it!
The Herculoids. Gloop did this a couple of times with Igoo by turning himself into a giant slingshot, for example in the episodes "Temple of Trax" and "Attack of the Faceless People". Gloop also did it in "Revenge of the Pirates" by throwing Gleep to block a escape rocket's ejection tube.
An inverse of this trick shows up in a couple episodes of Galaxy Rangers. Zozo may be a small fellow (about four feet high), but he borders on Cute Bruiser in an unarmed brawl. His fellow Ambassador Waldo is much taller (at least 6' 5"), but not as inclined for an up-close brawl. Zozo's got a trick where he drops, uses a leg-throw maneuver, and pitches an enemy into Waldo's forcefield for a nasty jolt.
Because it's basically mandated by franchise law, Wolverine and the X-Men features one. This time with Blob throwing Wolvie.
Blob: Nice knowin' ya!
In an episode of X-Men, Wolverine performs a variation of the maneuver with Beast, as Colossus was not a team member on the show. Additionally, rather than a pitch, it was more McCoy propelling Logan into the air with both hands.
There was a variant in an earlier episode with a tiny Ant-Man riding an arrow fired by Hawkeye. Ant-Man then changed back to normal size to punch the guy in the face. This also appears as one of Hawkeye's Hyper Combos in MvC3.
And of course in the episode "The New Avengers" they pay tribute to the Fastball Special when The Thing Hurls good ol' Wolverine at Kang!
Let's not forget The Super Hero Squad Show. One such occurrence is handled subtly in "Night at the Sanctorum", right after Dormammu shows up in the mortal world: without any warning, Hulk picks up Wolverine and throws him at the villain - only for Wolvie to slam against a forcefield right before Dormammu.
Performed in several episodes of Young Justice, usually with Superboy involved. Bonus points for referring to it as "Maneuver Seven", which is what Wolverine and Colossus originally called the move in its first several appearances.
People watching that scene closely noticed that Princess Cadance did not show any sign of surprise at being picked up and thrown by her newly-wed husband. Some people quip that "wife tossing" is something they must have practiced together.
