Power Pincers

A bit worse than that crab that nipped you at the beach.

"Well, these claws ain't fer just attractin' mates!"

— Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob SquarePants, "Band Geeks"

Pincers and clamps as weapons. A common element for Giant Enemy Crabs and Scary Scorpions, as well as certain Big Creepy-Crawlies.

The pincers may be part of the creature's body, or some Artificial Limbs (compare Power Fist). Compare Shear Menace, where a character carries scissors as weapons. Can potentially become Cumbersome Claws.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• The pincer claws on the Astaroth Gundam in After War Gundam X.
• The Kuwagamon species from Digimon has a pair of giant pincers protruding from its head, which are its main form of attack.
• Zamza from Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai has one of his arms as a giant crab pincer.
• Captain Buccaneer of Fullmetal Alchemist sports Heavy Combat M1913-A automail (prosthetic hand) more commonly known as Crocodile, which is a large chainsaw with a jaw clamp. It's as awesome as it sounds.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Gundam Kyrios has a shield that can become one of these. It's successor unit in Season 2, Arios Gundam, can essentially transform into a giant version of Kyrios' claw.
• In Ninja Slayer, Lobster has really big ones which he apparently uses to communicate.
• "Crab Hand" Gyro, a minor character in One Piece, derives his nickname from the massive metal pincer replacing his right arm, which he attempts to use against Hody Jones.
• Yaiba: Moon Rabbit Mangetsu demonstrates the Moonfolk power of Fusion (Gatai) to merge with another life form, usually resulting in a powerful humanoid creature when done with animals. By merging with a lobster, Mangetsu turns into a shell-covered humanoid with massive fanged pincers over his hands that he can detatch and send flying at his opponent like a seeking missile.
• The Big Bad of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga, Tragoedia, has a pincer as his right hand.

Comic Books

• Subverted in 52, when Hannibal transforms into a giant crab and tries to crush Steel. Steel then sacrifices his suit to break free — literally, breaking Hannibal's hand.
• Doctor Strange is challenged to a duel by Dormammu using Pincers of Power that make pincers out of energy that can bind and numb limbs, or cause unconsciousness if applied to the head. Dormammu chose that method to prove that he could defeat Strange on equal footing, and not just because of an overwhelming difference in raw power. It doesn't work out in his favor.

Film — Animated

• Mr. Scroop from Treasure Planet is an Insectoid Alien with crab-like claws that he sometimes uses as weapons.

Film — Live-Action

• The famous Power Loader from Aliens had giant pincers for carrying cargo.
• Perseus in Clash of the Titans at one point had to battle giant scorpions, which of course not only pincers but a stinger in their tails.
• Ebirah from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep naturally has these being a giant shrimp. While they are effective in crushing ships, they aren't very effective against Godzilla. The giant dinosaur just tears the claws off and even teases Ebirah with one of them.
• Some of the giant insects in King Kong (2005) have crab-like pincers.
• The Big Bad in The Mummy Returns besides Imhotep, The Scorpion King, is revealed to be human from the waist-up with scorpion pincers for arms.
• Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean has a crab claw on his left hand (on his right he has Combat Tentacles).

Literature

• The Scorpion Lady from Journey to the West seems to wield a sort of trident, but it really was her pincers.
• Storm Slayer: The Abyssal Horror is an octopus-looking beast with giant crab-like Power Pincers which it uses to attack.

Live-Action TV

• Kamen Rider Ryuki: The crab-themed Kamen Rider Scissors not only has his Bond Creature Volcancer, which naturally has a pair of these, but he himself can summon one of its claws for his personal use. On a related tangent, his Card Visor is scissor-shaped.
• Robot Wars:
  • Razer has a powerful pincer held over its wedge-shaped body like a scorpion. It tends to make a horrific mess of opponents, either puncturing their inner workings or crushing them outright.
  • House Robot Sir Killalot's main weapon is his large crushing claw modeled after the Jaws of Life.
• Star Trek: Voyager: In "Scorpion", a pair of Borg drones each with a large mechanical pincer in place of one hand clamp them around Janeway and Tuvok's necks so they can be held in place while being forcibly implanted with a device that will link them to the Borg Hive Mind. Fortunately, Janeway is able to talk them out of the idea.
• Several aliens from the Ultra Series have pincer-like arms which can lash out powerfully at Ultras and fire energy blasts. Notably the most iconic alien of all, Alien Baltan.

Other Sites

• SCP Foundation
  • SCP-864 ("Efficient Washbasin"). When filled with water, SCP-864 can generate large (70 centimeter long) pincers that can grasp and try to drown anyone close by.
  • SCP-1568 ("Kingston the Crab"). SCP-1568 is a giant hermit crab with highly flexible claws that can extend up to 40 meters from its body. The claws are powerful enough to grab and hold human beings.

Professional Wrestling

• Bruiser Costa of Canadian based All-Star Wrestling had a pair of red lobster gloves.

Tabletop Games

• Chaosium's All the Worlds' Monsters III has examples including the Shocker Crab, Crystal Creature, and Black Scorpion.
• Arduin, The Compleat Arduin Book 2: Resources:
  • Great Black Scorpions can grow larger than a Sherman tank and have huge dangerous claws.
  • The Ghost Crab is a Giant Enemy Crab with two pincers that each do 4-48 Hit Points of damage and drain a point of Constitution on each hit.
  • The Greater Demon Carchanore the Death Mole has two nine-foot long arms ending in large crab-like pincers that can inflict 31-50 Hit Points of damage.
• BattleTech: The Crab and King Crab Battlemechs both have arms that end with stylized pincers, which close over the weapon barrels in the arms to protect them when the mech makes melee attacks. Fully weaponized pincers are covered as a Claw-type melee weapon.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In early editions, the Apparatus of Kwalish is a large magic item that can carry passengers inside of it. With all of its extensions deployed it looks like a giant lobster, with claws that can attack an enemy in front of it.
  • The game has numerous monsters like giant crabs and Glabezru demons that have powerful pincer claws they can attack with.
• Gamma World adventure GW1 Legion of Gold: In the SAMURAI underwater facility, the Aquatron-7 vehicle has extendable arms with pincers on the ends that can be used against marine monsters.
• GURPS newsletter Roleplayer #10 (May 1988), adventure "The Isle of Night". The Eldritch Abomination T'Soquat has large claws that can do 4-14 Hit Points of damage. If the spell to summon it succeeds, the native villagers under its control will transform and their hands will become claws that do 1-6 Hit Points of damage.
• Hollow Earth Expedition, supplement Mysteries of the Hollow Earth. An illustration on page 67 shows three humans facing off against two gigantic scorpions with huge pincers. Anyone grabbed by them would be in a world of hurt.
• In Mordheim, the great claw mutation causes the arm of a Mutant or Possessed to transform into a large, crab-like claw that boosts their strength in close combat.
• Varanae generic RPG supplement Monstrum 1: The Forester is a tree-like monster with pincers on the ends of two its branches. Each pincer does 1-10 Hit Points of damage.
• Villains & Vigilantes adventure Devil's Domain. The Sl'sssk demon has two huge crab-like pincers that it uses to grasp and crush its prey.
• Almost all Daemons of the Chaos God Slaanesh from Warhammer, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 sport at least one hideous lobster-like claw. These Daemons use their claws to shred an enemy to ribbons with a lucky hit even able to punch through medium vehicular armor. The claws of Daemonettes of Slaanesh are particularly insidious as, when combined with the minor level of Mind Rape powers that they possess, their claws are capable of leaving incredibly painful wounds that leave their targets spasming in ecstasy.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Orks like to use Power Klaws, big hydraulic pincers sheathed in an energy field that can rip right through armor.Warboss Tuska's dying act famously involved reaching up between a triumphant Daemon Prince's legs and "making a gesture of his own", for which he and his Waaaagh! do battle with daemons eternally in Khorne's fortress.
  • Commissar Sebastian Yarrick (pictured above) killed the Ork that severed his right arm, ripped off its Power Klaw, and had it fitted to replace his arm. This is just one more reason the Orks fear and respect him.
  • Crushing Claws of some Tyranid units fit the trope, also evoking somewhat Giant Enemy Crab-like image. Rule-wise, it's slow, but one of the strongest melee weapons available to these guys, allowing them to cut open freaking Land Raiders like cheapest tin cans.
  • Some Dreadnought fists work like this, though with flat flaps instead of pincers.
  • The Striking Scorpions Exarch gets the option of rolling the Scorpion's Claw, which has a built-in shuriken catapult.

Toys

• BIONICLE:
  • Nidhiki has these, and his main physical method of fighting is grabbing at his enemies with them if he isn't spitting energy beams. His set has them connected by flexible tubes that can hold them in either position stably, or be used as an action feature.
  • Two of the Barraki have them. Mantax has a single small pincer on one hand, despite being mutated into a manta ray. Carapar, fittingly for being mutated into a crab, has two (and can detach one, which is why his set only included one) and they're much bigger and stronger than Mantax's. Both their pincers are small enough that they don't need any associated function.
• Hero Factory: Core Hunter's Core Remover, a specialized pair of pincers designed for ripping Hero Cores off his unfortunate victims.
• LEGO Power Miners: One of the Mine Mech's arms has large pincers attached seemingly meant for picking up the small Rock Monsters.

Video Games

• Catherine: The Child Nightmare of the clock tower has a chainsaw for an arm, and a pincer for the other arm.
• Kroctopus from the GBA version of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has pincers upon Combat Tentacles at its tips.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man X3 has Crush Crawfish, who can use his pincers like scissors. His regular attack has him rushing to X, and if he manages to catch him, he'll repeatedly pinch X with them, dealing heavy damage. Subverted by Bubble Crab, who doesn't normally have pincers and only creates a pair of laser ones in a jumping attack.
  • Mega Man Star Force has Cancer Bubble.
• Bloodlust from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which is part machete, part pincer.
• The Space Pirates from Metroid have been depicted with these from Super Metroid onward, though the Metroid Prime Trilogy indicates that they are part of a mechanical exoskeleton rather than actual parts of their physiology. They typically have plasma cannons stuffed inside the claws.
• Torbjorn from Overwatch has a large red claw in lieu of a left arm.
• Pokémon:
  • The move Vice Grip is an attack described as clamping down on the target with the user's claw. It can generally be learned by any pokemon with pincers.
  • There's also the move Crabhammer which is only learned by Pokemon based off of crabs. This attack involves using crab pincers for bludgeoning rather then snipping.
  • Pokemon with pincers include various insect and crustacean based ones, with the exception of Tapu Koko, who has pincers largely to emulate a chicken's beak when it brings them together. Notable among them are the Clawitzer and Crabominable line; the former uses their one larger claw as a cannon, while the latter uses them for boxing.
• In Sengoku Basara, one of Goto Matabe's moves involves using his Precision-Guided Boomerang like a pincer by trapping an enemy between the blades and crushing them with it as slowly and torturously as possible.
• Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: The Crab Claw upgrade to the Crab transformation allows Shantae to attack enemies by snipping at them, when in that transformation.
• Sipho: The Claw zooid takes the form of a large pair of pincers. This is especially in play with the Guardian of the Depths boss, which has two arm-like structures each ending with a Claw.
• Slashout contains mechanical Giant Enemy Crab mooks called "Forbici" ("scissors" in Italian) in the third stage, whose main attacks are snapping at you with their metal pincers.
• The Wild Wurger in Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 (and later Original Generation) has the Stag Beetle Crusher, mounted on its right arm and used to devastating effect during its strongest attacks.
• Skeleton Prime from Terraria has the Prime Vice arm, a melee arm with a pincer that tries to make contact with the player and deals very heavy damage should it succeed.

Western Animation

• Seen on Rampage, whose beast form is a crab, in Beast Wars.
  • Also seen on Scorponok, Squeezeplay, and Pincher in Transformers: Generation 1.
  • Tankor from Beast Machines has giant pincers for hands, as do his Tank Drones (and any character repainted from Tankor).
• Clamps of the Robot Mafia from Futurama's main weapon is his clamp hands.
  • Zoidberg, in the few times he's angry enough to use them.
  Clamps: Scuttle on home. This ain't none of your business, Slick.
  Dr. Zoidberg: My name isn't "Slick". It's Zoidberg. John fucking Zoidberg!
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): Clawful. He appears to be a hybrid between a man and a crab or lobster, with large, sharp claws that can crush the life out of his opponents. In most media, his right claw is extra large and thus achieves an extra-deadly grip.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: The Crab Khan have large crab-like pincers in their right arms, and large scorpion-like stabbing claws in their left arms.

• Jonny Quest episode "Pirates From Below". The Underwater Prober has waldoes with large pincers on the ends. Near the end Dr. Quest uses them to crush one-man submarines attacking the Prober.
• Kenny and The Chimp: Professor XXXL utilizes a huge crab claw in his plan to annihilate the PTA. Astoundingly, the PTA somehow defeated him and severed his crab claw to give it at a cookout.
• Chrome Claw, Dr. Blowhole's Giant Mook has a large claw made of chrome in The Penguins of Madagascar.
• Sonic Boom: Burn Bot's primary offense is a pair of sharp metal pincers, which are strong enough to slice through the Tornado's wing.
• In Spiral Zone, the Black Widows' Snapper Claws backpack has "bionic claws" that "give the wearer power to bash through walls and doors, stun the victim with energy bolts and then grab them."

Real Life

• There is a Fireman's tool called "The Jaws Of Life" that is essentially a giant hydraulic pincer that is used to cut through the roof supports on crashed cars in order to remove the roof and rescue people trapped inside. Not a weapon, but uses the same principle.
• Aside from the massive pincers well-known on crustaceans and scorpions, echinoderms sport thousands of clusters of miniature versions of these on their skin. Called pedicelariae, these micro-pincers can be used for discouraging parasites, in self-defense against larger threats, or for trapping small prey. In some sea urchins, they're set loose like a cloud of snappy caltrops, and many are even venomous.

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