A Sub-Trope of Unusual Weapon Mounting and sister to the Arm Cannon, the Leg Cannon is a cannon mounted on a leg, hidden in a leg, or IS the leg. Expect many of the same features as you would on an Arm Cannon, such as Bottomless Magazines and being fired on thought alone, if only because you could not easily reach a trigger mounted on your own shins.
See also Armed Legs and Anatomy Arsenal.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Big O: Big Duo launches ICBMs from them.
- Brave Exkaiser: Dino Geist has guns that fold out of his legs in robot mode. Being a Transforming Mecha, they go in different places in each of his three modes - Backpack Cannon in dinosaur mode, and Fixed Backward-Facing Weapon in jet mode, if only due to not having the clearance to fold out.
- The Brave of Gold Goldran: Titular robot Goldran has folding leg guns in the same manner as Dino Geist, but without being shifted around much by his transformations.
- In one City Hunter arc, a bad guy who was humiliated by Ryo Saeba turns himself into a weapon, using an assault rifle for an arm and a Grenade Launcher for a leg. Neither weapon does him much good against Saeba in the end, even dying because of his leg bazooka, as Saeba shot a bullet in the barrel as he was about to launch his grenade.
- In Cyborg 009, Albert/004 has rocket launchers installed in both of his legs. In a certain scene of the 2001 anime, he leaps in the air and swiftly fires both rockets at the same time.
- Daitarn 3 has the DAITARN LEG CANNON!
- Digimon Ghost Game: WezenGammamon has auto-cannons for legs, with two barrels under each foot. For added fun (and firepower), he’s a rare four-legged example.
- Hyakkimaru from Dororo has a cannon that fires upwards out of his lower leg.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The pickpocket Paninya has rather unique automail legs, one of which has a 1.5" carbine housed in her left knee.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: All incarnations of the Heavyarms Gundam have leg mounted missile launchers, among other things.
- Post One-Year War variants of the Zaku II produced by the Zeon, and its successor, the Titans-produced Hizack, feature leg mounted missile launchers. Note that the Federation Zaku II's are not included, since most of them were Zeon Zakus captured during the end of said war and re-commissioned as Federation-use units.
- In season 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the Seravee Gundam has beam cannons which fold out from its knees.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Gundam AGE-1 Spallow has needle guns which can be launched from its knees.
- The villainous Bonnie in Gunsmith Cats first encounter went badly for her: Rally shot her thumb off and one of May's grenades blew off her legs below the knee. When she returned for revenge her new prosthetic replacements included a shotgun in one leg (with a bomb in that foot) and a thumb that included a garrote.
- Mazinger Z: Mechanical Beast Deviler-X1 had cannons mounted inside his legs. The Beast blew one entire Mazinger's arm off with one of them. Ouch.
- One Piece:
- Buggy the Clown, who somehow manages to hide a functioning gun in his foot with the proportional power of a giant cannonball that can be used to level cities. It's not clear whether it's actually in his foot or his shoe, however, but seeing as his super power is the ability to harmlessly separate individual parts of his body, there's a lot of wiggle room.
- Baby 5, who has the ability to turn her limbs or whole body into any weapon of her choice, has been seen transforming her leg into a machine gun.
- Grey the Ninelives, a Killer Robot in the anime of Trigun (as opposed to the manga, where it was a horde of dwarves in Powered Armor) has a rocket launcher in its thigh that it uses to destroy its target after its upper half is destroyed.
Comic Strips
- Nero: The captain in the album “De Paprikanen” puts gun powder between his sandwich, eats it, then takes his fake leg off and shoots at anything that moves.
Fan Works
- The Secret Return of Alex Mack: The SRI builds Sgt, Carlson's wife Corine a prosthetic leg with a single-shot .50cal gun inside.
Film — Animation
- In Treasure Planet, Silver's cybernetic leg holds a cannon modification for his arm.
Film — Live-Action
- In Darkman, Durant and his men are stripped of their weapons when they go to have a meeting with a rival crime boss. During the weapon search, it is noted that one of Durant's men has a fake leg below the knee. He later makes good use of said prosthetic to begin a surprise attack on the rival gangsters, using the submachine gun built into it.
- In Fantômas Unleashed, Inspector Juve dresses up as a pirate for a masquerade ball. His peg leg has a machine gun mounted in it.
- Among numerous other hardpoints, the two Mechagodzillas featured in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla can shoot rockets from ports on their knees and toes, and they're just as damaging as their iconic finger missiles.
- Sergeant Markov in The Last Remake of Beau Geste has an entire closet of prosthetic legs. His regular one is an actual cannon. Another one has a built in rapier.
- In The Lone Ranger, Red has a shotgun built into her ivory leg.
- In the trailer for Piranha 3DD, Deputy Fallon returns with SHOTGUNS replacing the legs that the piranha took from him in the first film.
- Cherry Darling of Planet Terror had her leg, which got eaten by zombies, replaced with an M-4 assault rifle, which she used to kick much ass. And then later, she had that replaced with a full-on minigun.
- Tango and Cash: Cash has a gun built into the heel of one of his boots, providing him with a handy one shot weapon that he can fight back with in a hurry when he's knocked off his feet.
- The assassin in Wrongfully Accused is a one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed man, and is seen receiving a prosthetic leg containing a hidden gun.
Literature
- Johnny Moreau from The Cobra Trilogy has a laser that runs all the way through his leg.
- Juan Cabrillo, from Clive Cussler's The Oregon Files series, has a prosthetic leg below the knee. This has, of course, concealed many a weapon, including the notable example of a .50 hand cannon embedded in his false shin.
- Star Wars Expanded Universe: Boba Fett's shin guards are explained to have dart launchers capable of firing normal, explosive, or gas darts.
Live-Action TV
- In The A-Team, Mexican river pirate El Cahon has a shotgun in his fake leg. When cornered, he likes to nonchalantly rest it on the table, and then sucker-blast people. He tries it on Hannibal, but the paper shells were waterlogged from an earlier wade in the drink.
- In the Get Smart episode "Ship of Spies", the evil captain had a gun concealed in his wooden leg.
- Kamen Rider Fourze's Launcher switch attaches a missile launcher to his right leg, while his Gatling switch attaches a Gatling gun to his left leg.
- Star Wars mentioned in Star Wars Legends that Boba Fett had knee mounted rocket launchers as part of his incredibly vast arsenal. This has now been demonstrated twice:
- In The Mandalorian episode The Tragedy, after getting his armor back, Boba uses them as he effortlessly slaughters stormtroopers.
- In The Book of Boba Fett episode In the Name of Honor, Boba uses them in the beginning of the big battle against the Pyke syndicate.
- Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: The Deka Base Robo has the (aptly named) Knee Brace Beam attack, laser cannons mounted on its kneepads. They're carried over to Power Rangers S.P.D. with the Delta Command Megazord.
- Tokusou Robo Janperson: Janperson mounts at least one Kneekick Missile in his right leg, more or less identical to Albert/004.
Radio
- Captain Kremmen (hero of a scifi comedy serial by Kenny Everrett) had a bionic left foot with a detachable big toe that converted into a space cannon.
Tabletop Games
- Occasionally, in BattleTech, some 'Mechs carry weapons in their legs. In spite of the importance of their legs to the 'Mech's effectiveness, the limited space and aiming restrictions for the leg locations means most 'Mechs don't mount weapons there, and heat sinks or jump jets are far more common alternatives. Notable examples of 'Mechs with leg weapons included the light Wasp and the heavy Crusader, both of which carry leg-mounted short range missile launchers. One particular piece of equipment called the A-Pod (antipersonnel-pod) is unusual in that its only allowed mounting points are in the legs. As it is essentially a leg-carried claymore mine, this is justified— infantry making focused attacks on 'Mechs have to scale them first, and these mines easily shred conventional infantry.
Video Games
- Alien Storm: The robot, Scooter/Slammer, can knock back alien opponents using a Grenade Launcher that composes his entire leg minus his foot.
- Alone in the Dark 2: Shorty Leg is an overweight Pirate with a machinegun in his pegleg.
- Anarchy Reigns has Durga, a cyborg with a revolver cannon built into one of his legs.
- Ehrgeiz: Han Daehan has a rocket launcher for a leg.
- Krazy Ivan have it's first boss, a robotic Killer Gorilla who has rocket launchers built in it's soles. During the battle it periodically uses it's hands for standing in order to aim its legs at you.
- League of Legends: Urgot, the Dreadnought, is a half-man, half-six-legged Spider Tank who could be be described as having "shotgun knees." While Urgot is also equipped with all sorts of brutal, vaguely grotesque weaponry like a heavy machine gun for a right arm, the cannons built in his legs actually deal the bulk of his damage, each one firing an explosive close-range blast that shreds through enemies as he tramples over them.
- The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night: The Sky Pirate captain Skabb has a small gatling cannon in place of a peg leg. When he uses it, he has to hop in place.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X: Vile has three weapon slots on his body where you can equip weapons received from bosses. The strangest of the three slots is the Leg weapons, which fire from his knees and include several types each of Napalms, Flamethrowers, and Energy Balls. They generally have useful trajectories and high attack power, but take a long time to set up and fire compared to the other two weapon slots.
- Mega Man X4: Jet Stingray releases his stingray drones from a hatch on his leg.
- Metal Fatigue ComBots can be rolled out the mech bay with leg-mounted lasers, howitzers, or missile launchers.
- No More Heroes: Holly Summers has a rocket launcher in her prosthetic leg.
Web Animation
- At the end of the Strong Bad Email "virus", Bubs appears to be holding Homestar Runner's leg when he goes to put a stop to the title Virus that's spreading and wreaking havoc. When the virus goes away, it's revealed that he was actually holding a shotgun, which he used to shoot Strong Bad's Computer. Later, Homestar hops over to Bubs on one foot, asking for his leg back (apparently not realizing that his leg is actually still attached). An easter egg later shows Fightgar of the Cheat Commandos using Homestar's leg as a machinegun.
Western Animation
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Commander Nebula had one of these.
- The Fairly Oddparents has the Bronze Kneecap, a villain from Crimson Chin, who sometimes uses his eponymous weapon to shoot projectiles to his enemies.
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero has Metal-Head, who acts as both a loud, dimwitted walking SAM site and Plucky Comic Relief. He carries a pair of large missile launchers in a Backpack Cannon, but he also packs four smaller rockets on hip-mounted racks.
- Samurai Jack: the Scotsman has a machine gun for a leg cannon. He upgrades it into a Gatling gun in Season 5.
- Skysurfer Strike Force: Air Enforce had missile launcher equipped on both legs of his uniform.
- Cyborg from Teen Titans (2003) has a built-in miniature photon cannon built under his sole, a very useful weapon for sneak attacks. In one episode where Cyborg sings the show's theme featuring himself however he erroneously refers to his foot-cannon as a rocket launcher.
Cyborg: [before taking down Gizmo in one episode] It's about time someone give you the boot! [knocks out Gizmo via foot-cannon]
- The Transformers: Fortress Maximus had a pair of huge double-barrel cannons located in his shins. Given how much bigger than everyone else he was, this was actually a pretty useful place to have them. In addition, attached to the back of his left leg was a platform that could be rotated to the outside, and reveal two more large cannons.
- Transformers: Cybertron: the secondary BFGs of Optimus Prime's Super Mode are attached to his calves.
Real Life
- Honorable mention goes to the type 89 and type 10 grenade dischargers, Japanese infantry light mortars that when captured were sometimes briefly thought to be designed to be fired with the curved base plate on the thigh. The type 10 in particular due to a mistranslation. (The designation of "leg mortar" led to quite a few Australian soldiers being cas-evacced from New Guinea with shattered thighs, after stocks of this weapon were captured in one of the first Allied victories of the Far Eastern war).