Rocket Punch

"ROKETTO PANCHI!"

"Suck... on my missile punch!"

— President Michael Wilson, Metal Wolf Chaos

The Humongous Mecha isn't so much a speculation of practical weapon design as a convenient visual metaphor for the character(s) who pilot it. Steed, sword, and shining armor in one unified package. Extending that metaphor, it may be more satisfying if The Hero's final blow For Great Justice is dealt with "their" own right hand across the villain's jaw.

Problem: Said villain is flying in midair, and is halfway across town.

Solution: Fire your forearm like a missile!

Problem solved. Don't you forget to tell everyone what you're doing, though. And be sure you don't miss; large-scale Rocket Punches tend not to have retrieval mechanisms.

The most famous Super Robot Genre weapon, even more so than drills, so much so that many old Super Robot toys would include a firing-fist gimmick even if the actual show never used it.

Sub-Trope of Rocket-Powered Weapon and Enhanced Punch. See also Explosive Punch. Related to Detachment Combat.

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Examples:

Mazinger Z

• Mazinger Z is, of course, the Trope Maker here, including it in almost all the incarnations of the Mazinger franchise. Depending on the iteration, the arm would come back on its own, or he'd have to pick it up. The standard rocket punch is eventually upgraded to the Kyoukagata Rocket Punch ("Reinforced Rocket Punch"), consisting of identical fists with stronger armor. Mazinger Z possess a technique called Daisharin Rocket Punch ("Giant Swing Rocket Punch") in which it spins its arms rapidly, building up momentum before firing off both fists in standard Rocket Punch fashion. Mazinger Z also once used a technique called "Boomerang Fist", in which the rocket punch was attached to the upper arm with a retractable chain, and the "Iron Cutter", a Rocket Punch with blades extended on the sides of the forearms.
  • Older Than They Think The original 1967 manga of Giant Robo featured the mecha GR-2 who could shoot rocket punches as a means of naval combat and a way of knocking around the titular mecha
  • Being a Combat Pragmatist and quick-thinker, Kouji comes up with a ton of new uses on the fly... including pulling a Giant Robot Hands Save Lives once.
  • A Mechanical Beast -Dian N4- was equipped with a Rocket Punch variant. Dian used its oversized, flying hands to grab, crush and lift things, or to deflect enemy fire. Another Beast, Genocyder F9, invoked the trope when it ripped its own arm off and hurled it at its target.
  • Unbuilt Trope: The Mazinger's design also kept in mind several things later shows neglected: the mechanisms of launching and retrieval were clearly visible, Mazinger was built to be able to use all of its other weapons even if it was missing its arms (hence, Kouji was not hindered when a Robeast picked up, disabled or shattered Mazinger's fists, which happened very often like you would expect), and Prof. Yumi ensured there always was at least a pair of Mazinger's spare fists in the Institute to launch at Mazinger in case Kouji needed them urgently.
  • Deconstructed: Ironically, the Trope Maker series also deconstructed the trope. In one episode, Boss cajoles Prof. Yumi's assistants to build him his own Humongous Mecha (Boss Borot)... using junk. When he eagerly asked if Boss Borot will have a Rocket Punch, Prof. Morimori's answer was: "Are you out of your mind? Your robot is made of SCRAP METAL. The fist would shatter upon impact."
  • Great Mazinger has the Atomic Punch and adds spinning blades for the "Drill Pressure Punch", meaning it has the most and second-most ubiquitous Super Robot weapons in one.
  • ... as does UFO Robo Grendizer when using the "Screw Crusher Punch".
  • Mazinkaiser uses the Turbo Smasher Punch.
  • Mazinger Angels: The Fem Bots of Sayaka and her team combine their traditional Torpedo Tits attacks with the Rocket Punch of the series where the characters piloting them were introduced (Sayaka's Aphrodite A combines its Photon Missiles with Iron Cutter, and so on). Minerva X is the exception, wielding a regular Rocket Punch.
  • In Shin Mazinger, Mazinger Z can literally transform into a fist.
    • More than halfway through the series, Physical God Zeus (Yes, that Zeus) sees Mazinger Z pull off a Rocket Punch and decides that it's so awesome that he should do it as well... By chucking his own severed hand/forearm at an evil God. It works.
    • Kouji himself does the same thing in the Shin Mazinger Zero manga, ripping his arm off and throwing it as a projectile.
  • As if the Big Bang Punch wasn't awesome enough, they manage to top themselves again in the final episode. "Rocket Punch 100 Rapid Shots" is all that needs to be said. We're not sure whether that falls under Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs or Macross Missile Massacre.
  • Mazinkaiser SKL has it, of course, but it also hangs a lampshade on their Awesome, but Impractical nature:
    Ken Kaido: Yeah, it looks impressive, but I freaking hate having to wait for the damn things to come back!
  • Panda Z (or Robonimal Panda Z: The Robonimation): This 2004 series of super robot parody shorts features Panda-Z, a cute, teddy-bear-proportioned pastiche of Mazinger's design elements. It pushes the Rocket Punch into a massive case of Awesome, but Impractical: The mecha has rocket fists that don't return on their own, leaving the question of how to reattach them to its pilot Pan-Taron, who, utterly mystified, stands there in his armless robot staring down at the fists on the ground as the sun sets. Day turns into night, and we find the robot and its pilot still incapable to resolve the situation. One can only assume that the Photonic Research Laboratories sent someone out to get him when he didn't come home.

Anime & Manga

• Lampshaded in Ah! My Goddess, where Sigel's rocket punch is thwarted by a pair of scissors. Those fists might be tough, but the strings used to reel them back in aren't.
• In Aldnoah.Zero, Countess Femieanne utilizes this with her Martian Kataphrakt, the Hellas. Hellas has six massive arms which can be launched as remote-controlled, iron-fisted attack drones affectionately called her "Servants" (and all are named after the Goetian Demons: Botis, Marax, Ronove, Halphas, Raum and Vine).
  • Count Saazbaum also uses this technology in his Kataphrakt, the Dioscuria, minus the multiple arms.
• Bakugan has the character Vulcan, who has this as his unique trait. Unlike most examples, he actually has a smaller, more shriveled hand underneath.
• The Big O: Big Fau uses its entire forearms as missiles in the Grand Finale. Since the Megadeus robots in Big O have forearms that are about as big as their torsos, this would seem like a more formidable attack than the typical super robots'. Fortunately, since it's piloted by the Big Bad, it fails, resulting in Big Fau being literally disarmed. The Big O itself averts this with its "Sudden Impact" punch, though, which is as Rocket Punch-y as you can get without actually being a Rocket Punch, as it is more of a Pile Bunker type of attack.
• In Bleach, the science master Captain Mayuri has an internal mechanism in his arm that allowed him to launch it in an attempt to grab the fleeing Orihime.
  • When it fails to return (on account of getting shot by Uryu), he cuts it off and regrows the arm.
• In the second season of Code Geass, Kallen's new and improved Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. is upgraded to fire its radiation wave arm at enemies while still remaining connected to the mecha through a cable.
  • In the first episode, Kallen's Glasgow takes critical damage to one of its arms and she attempts a Rocket Punch by weaponizing the system that automatically purges useless limbs. Sadly, it doesn't work, but Jeremiah was impressed by the ingenuity of it.
  • There are also Slash Harkens, bladed projectiles on wires that are equipped on practically every Knightmare Frame. The ones that get closest to being Rocket Punches are all incarnations of the Lancelot (mounted in its arm shields), Gawain and Galahad (all ten fingers) and the Shen-Hu (mounted in the forearms and explicitly based on the rope dart).
• Compiler: In one story of this manga from Kia Asamiya, a humanoid robot appears that is a blatant Shout-Out to Mazinger Z. It has ALL its weapons (Eye Beams, Chest Blaster, missiles stored inside its midsection...), including a Rocket Punch (and even a Rocket Boot).
• Dai-Guard pays homage to the idea in the first episode by having its robot team pick up and hurl their robots' disconnected arm like a javelin. Since Akagi is an Ascended Fanboy that has wanted to pilot a Humongous Mecha his entire life (to the point of taking an otherwise useless college course to learn how to do it and spending years in a dead-end job just to be around the only one in existence), it is unsurprising he came up with the idea.
• The Daichis: Earth Defense Family combines this with the Macross Missile Massacre with Dai's "Missile Punch" — the glove of his Powered Armor sprouts several duplicates that Robotech at the target.
• Dangaioh's Boost Knuckle is a PILOTED Rocket Punch. The Token Mini-Moe of the group really hates this maneuver.
• Dragon Ball:
  • In the anime version of Goku's fight with the giant android Major Metallitron, the latter uses one of these to attack the former..., who takes the full brunt of it. Ouch!
  • Likewise, Android 16 in Dragon Ball Z has this ability, and uses it against Cell. The trope isn't played quite straight, as the arm doesn't explode, and he has to grab it and reattach it after using the attack.
• Dragon Half: One of the robots built by Rogue Fin's elder son is equiped with one. Parodied because the robot is so incompetently built that it screams "Rocket Punch!" and shoots its head instead.
• Nana from Elfen Lied is capable of doing this without any sort of machinery. She uses her diclonius abilities to literally launch her prosthetic arm at her opponent for a long range punch that is capable of covering about 4 meters in a fraction of a second.
• In one Fullmetal Alchemist omake, Winry installs a "rocket punch" function on Ed's Automail, and he accidentally shoots his arm off into the distance, resulting in her beating him up for losing her work.
• Gaiking: The original 1976 series had Gaiking equipped with a typical rocket punch titled the "Counter Punch".
  • Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu discusses this trope: Daiya uses the "Puncher Grind" in his second fight only to find the fist isn't equipped to return on its own, and he has to recover it manually or by using Gaiking's Zector Hooks. In Super Robot Wars K, Daiya only uses the Hooks for a Dynamic Kill where he retrieves the fist, then punches the enemy with it and immediately fires it again.
    • And one of the greatest upgrades the super-powered combined form Gaiking the Great gets? Rockets built into the arm to bring it back. He of course uses this to beat up and embarrass Proist during the initial fight.
• There's a scene in the Galaxy Angel anime where Forte fires both her fists at Volcott. Even though Forte is, to all appearances, a normal human, not a robot or cyborg. No, it doesn't make sense, but that's the kind of show this is.
• GaoGaiGar: Broken Magnum was a combination of this trope and the other most notable Super Robot Weapon, due to the high-RPM spinning of the fist. In GaoGaiGar's case, the fist pilots itself back to the main arm.
  • Genesic GaoGaiGar is an unusual case, in that only the hand from the wrist down detaches from the rest of the arm.
• Kedo from Zatch Bell! has a couple of variants of this, including a rocket fist the size of a train.
• Getter Robo: Neo Getter Robo has the "Chain Knuckle", which as the name suggests, is a Rocket Punch on a chain; inspired by Getter Robo Go, which had a normal Rocket Punch.
• One of the Tachikomatic Days episodes from the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has two of the Tachikomas decide to try out this trope as a means of making themselves more useful to Section 9. The first one successfully performs the attack, but the second tries...and everything but his fist goes flying. The first Tachikoma complements the second's agility.
• Okita does his version of this to Hijikata in Gintama.
• Gravion features another piloted rocket punch, with the added bonus that the vehicle that forms its forearms is a Drill Tank, and can use the drills if more penetrating power is needed.
• Gundam:
  • The original Mobile Suit Gundam has the Zeong, essentially the Final Boss of the series, which is equipped with a pair of wire-guided, rocket-propelled, detachable forearms. They're rarely used for punching in the series proper, as each one is equipped with particle beam canons housed in its fingertips, but this is a common attack in its many video game appearances.
  • In G Gundam, the Master Gundam has the Distant Crusher, which is a Rocket Punch on a wire (though it's more of a Rocket Stab, used with the fingers in a knife-hand formation).
    • In Gigantis' Counterattack (a non-canon manga crossover between Gundam's Universal Century and Space Runaway Ideon), the Mega Zeta has a psychically-controlled Rocket Punch; when Amuro first uses it, Judau is left wide-eyed and stunned.
  • Gundam SEED Destiny's Destroy has these in the form of two "Detachable Arms", which can either be used as Attack Drones, or to invoke this trope. Judging by their size, they probably weigh more than the mobile suits they're launched at.
  • Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Kamille gets his own Rocket Punch in◊ these◊ Super Robot Wars Yonkoma strips. Of course, Amuro, Judau and other mobile suit pilots instantly plead him equipping their mobile suits with them.
  • ∀ Gundam apparently couldn't resist including this either: Corin Nander equips his Kapool with one, as a one-shot custom weapon. It doesn't manage to accomplish much, though, since the one time it was used was against the Nigh-Invulnerable Turn-X.
• In one Hetalia: Axis Powers strip, Sealand, who is literally made out of metal, tells Japan how much he likes Sentai shows. Japan then teaches him how to turn into a Humongous Mecha, complete with one of these.
  • In a gloriously hilarious Deconstruction, it doesn't come back, forcing the poor kid to call his target and beg for its return.
• High School D×D: After Azazel cuts his own arm to defeat Katerea Leviathan, he replaces it with an artificial one that outwardly looks normal, but has plenty of functions including of course flying like a rocket.
• In Hoshin Engi, Taikobo loses an arm in battle and it gets replaced by an artificial one with multiple abilities, the Rocket Punch being one of them.
• Kotetsu Jeeg, another Go Nagai series, has two different versions: the orthodox Dynamite Punch and the Knuckle Bomber, performed with both hands clenched together in ax-handle fashion.
• In the mock battle of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, after getting far away from Corona's Mighty Glacier of a Golem, Rio and Lutecia starts double-teaming Caro thinking they're safe, until Corona's golem raises its arm and fires it at the two, complete with "ROCKET PUNCH!" command from its controller.
  • She uses it again later during her match against Einhart. Her "Spinning Break" technique not only catches it, but allows her to throw it back hard enough to completely annihilate Goliath in one hit.
• The Aestivalis from Martian Successor Nadesico could fire their fists, retracting them with the cables trailing back to the mecha. Ascended Fanboy main character Akito sometimes refers to this as "Gekigan Punch" after the Rocket Punch move used by his favorite anime Super Robot, Gekiganger 3 (itself a none-too-subtle pastiche of Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, the Robot Romance Trilogy and other series).
  • Similarly, the Tetsujin used by the Jovians even bigger Ascended Fanboys than Akito have Rocket Punch-like attacks.
• Medabots. In the final battle against the Big Bad, who is in a giant robot, Dr. Aki reveals a giant version of Metabee (complete with a Medawatch that is the size of a belt) that Metabeee and several other Medabots hop in to pilot. One of the Giant Metabee's attacks? Rocket Punch. Gets lampshaded by Ikki, asking if Aki has a spare arm. Aki responds, moderately angrily, by saying "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!" before the giant arm rocket propells itself back to the Giant Metabee.
• Naruto:
  • The Asura Path body of Pain in can detach his fist and fire it with great force at enemies, with it partially fortified with chakra.
  • Those stitches on Kakuzu's arms? Yeah, the technique isn't called Jiongu for nothing. Needless to say, Masashi Kishimoto is a Gundam fanboy.
• Chachamaru does this to her creator in the Negima! Magister Negi Magi manga after getting particularly flustered. As does the robot Tanaka in the Tournament Arc. Both are attached to cables that can be used to quickly reel their arms back in.
  • She also does it to Negi after he recover from his initial fight with Kagetaro.
  • Earlier, during the battle with Evangeline, She Rocket Nose-flicks Asuna, who Cross Counters with a flick of her own.
    • And now Negi's gotten into the act with a lightning-based version.
    • And now Dynamis too, with a shadow-based one. Kind of. He teleports his shadow hand and impales Negi with it. And later in that fight, he spams it.
• One Piece:
  • Franky (a cyborg), whose rocket-punch includes a chain for easy recovery.
  • Buggy has a somewhat similar move due to his Devil Fruit powers, which enables him to detach and control every part of his body (which can float) sans feet.
  • Both Akainu and Ace have a similar move — made of lava and fire respectively.
  • In the mail, a reader suggested a new move for Luffy: when he throws one of his elongated super-punches, the swordman Zoro cuts the arm. As the reader noted, "It works only twice". The author was not enthusiastic about this idea.
  • Katakuri can launch his already super tough, super powerful punches this way. The process consists of creating an explosion inside his arm which blows it up and propels his fist forward. He can always just grow a new arm right after.
• Patlabor: In the first episode of the OVA, the villain knocks the right arm off Noa's beloved Labor Alphonse. Her partner urges her to turn her grief into rage and strike back with the "fist of justice". She catches up with the crooks and flings her Labor's severed arm at them. Of course, since Noa is an Ascended Fangirl who loves Humongous Mecha shows, she shouts "ROCKETTO PUNCH!" while doing this.
• Pokémon: The Original Series: Parodied in one episode where Pikachu seems to do this (shocking the onlookers)... until the cloud of smoke coming from the fist's wrist end is revealed to be Pikachu in a cloud of dust, having thrown itself bodily at the opponent.
  • Pikachu did hit its opponent...trouble was, said opponent was a Hitmonchan, who received little more than a bruise on its face and proceeded to KO the mouse when its own trainer showed up.
• In Rebuild of Evangelion, Unit 01 has one. It's a very special case involving haxmagic and an energy-based "replacement" arm, but it's a freaking rocket punch!. To be fair, the rocket in this case is Zeruel. Still, when you can launch an enemy for what has to be a couple of miles with your badass energy arm, no one is really looking for clarification any longer.
• The Robot Romance Trilogy gives several variants:
  • Combattler V is equipped with Battle Guleggar (Combattler releases a chain with metal collar from the arms, used for grabbing opponents by the neck) and Magne Claw (Combattler's hands withdraw into its arms and its wrists shot a spiked, square projectile).
  • Voltes V, very similarly to Neo Getter Robo, has the Chain Knuckle, a Rocket Punch on a chain, but swapping the fist out for a nasty-looking mace.
  • Daimos has the Daimos Chain Shark, two chains with a hook shoot from above Daimos' hands. They can be used to deal damage or to drag the enemy.
• In s-CRY-ed, Kazuma's primary attack is a Rocket Punch... only the fist doesn't detach, so... I guess it's more like a Rocket Man?
  • In a different variation, we have unrestrained Zetsui's "Vigorous Fists", which are more like missiles.
• Genesis of Aquarion: Mugen Punch. Not quite a Rocket Punch as Solar Aquarion's arm telescopically extends instead of detaching but it's capable of Roboteching and can extend all the way up to the Moon in around fifty seconds, meaning that it covers around 7688 kilometers per second (over 2.5% the speed of light).
  • Aquarion Evol one-ups it with the Mugen Attack. It's basically the same attack, except it extends up into lunar orbit, Robotechs around until it scores a hit then proceeds to ORBIT THE EARTH TWICE BEFORE COMING BACK DOWN without ever detaching from Aquarion Evol or AE moving a single inch from where it's standing.
• Space Adventure Cobra: While not a Humongous Mecha, the title hero of can eject his cyborg-prosthetic left fist (revealing a laser gun), which can come back on its own.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: In the second movie, Lagann-hen, the title mecha has a Rocket Punch function on both of its hands (can fire several shots over and over).
  • Similar to the Shin Mazinger example above, Kamina snaps Simon out of a Heroic BSoD by throwing Gurren's severed forearm at Lagann. Not quite a "Rocket" punch, but the HUD on Lagann adds a starburst graphic as an allusion.
• God Ginrai in Transformers: Super-God Masterforce has one of these. Overlord has a similar weapon, but it's actually the front part of the Megajet.
• One of Vash's opponents in an early episode of Trigun has a rocket punch attack: Gofsef Nebraska, a 23 feels-tall cyborg mutant whose dad rides on his shoulder. His fist has a retractable cord, enabling him to bring it back and shoot it repeatedly. Vash takes it all in stride, though. He taunts the brute after one attack by scrawling graffiti onto the fist. He then proves his dominance by deflecting the fist in mid-flight by firing five precise shots at it. The last bullet of his gun? That went straight into the hole the cord came out of.
• The OVA Z-Mind had a variation where the title mecha created a wormhole which it punched through. Ion-shooting arm at the enemy, while still connected to the Guren through a cable.
• GoLion has the Four Lion Attack (or 100-Ton Punch), which launches the lion heads that form its hands and feet at the enemy.
• Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!: Nyarko performs Kamen Rider Fourze's Rider Rocket Punch in episode 11 of the second TV series.
• Fairy Tail has a variant. Natsu was unable to outright punch a Barrier Warrior because his shield was both intrusion-repelling and Anti-Magic... so he stuck his arm as far as it went, then used a jet of flame on his elbow to propel his fist the rest of the way into the guy's face. It's seen some use since then — mostly, he just rockets all of himself into the enemy to reach them then hit them.
• TerraforMARS: As a rare non-mecha example, Michelle K. Davis has Michael's Hammer as her weapon. Basically, she has rocket thrusters strapped to her back, ankles and elbows; delivering Rocket Punches is one of the things she does with them.
• In their initial encounter in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, Giorno Giovanna takes Bruno Bucciarati by surprise by taking advantage of Bruno's own Stand power to rip off his own left arm and throw it at Bruno in this fashion, managing to out-range his opponent. Bruno himself adopts the technique, as later fights show him using Sticky Fingers to place a zipper on his own arm so he can detach and throw it at the opposition.
• Maria the female android in Ghost Sweeper Mikami could fire her arms like this for punching or grabbing from a distance. She actually had cables built inside her arms for easy retrieval.
• The Saga of Tanya the Evil features an AK ace of aces pulling one off using his own severed arm in a duel with Tanya.
• Pop Team Epic: Parodied in one strip, where Popuko gets a robot to do a rocket punch, then mocks him when he ends up having to chase down his wayward hand as it flies away.

Asian Animation

• Mechamato: Mechamato throws a punch that is enhanced by a rocket at his elbow, hitting Janitoor hard enough to send him across the room.
• Satellite Girl and Milk Cow: KITSAT-1 has a detachable forearm that can rocket forward with the hand in a fist as an attack.

Comic Books

• The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot:
  • Big Guy sometimes uses explosive rocket punches, when he has a spare arm handy.
  • Rusty's "Hypersonic Kicks". Although the feet stay on, they are given really high momentum by the feet jets.
• Not rocket-powered, but DC Comics has a couple of characters that use the same basic principle. Green Lantern Hal Jordan is famous for using his ring to create a giant boxing glove, and Green Arrow often uses boxing glove arrows. Cyborg has a for-some-reason detachable arm with a rocket in it, but never uses it as such (only using the rocket to retrieve/move he arm for surveillance) in the Teen Titans (2003) animated series, but not in the original comics (yet).
• Spider-Man has a villain who later turns hero named "Rocket Racer" who has this via rocket-powered gloves. They don't detach, though; he has mini-missiles for ranged attacks.
• In an issue of Hellboy, he briefly fights a cyborg Nazi with robotic fists linked to his forearms by chains. This character is soon killed off but probably inspired Mr. Wink in the second film (see below).
• The Transformers: Combiner Wars: In one battle, Defensor takes Devastator down by transforming Blades, the robot who makes up his right arm, into helicopter mode and shooting him through the Decepticon's back.
• Micronauts (IDW): As a nod to the interchangeability of the original toys, Baron Karza is capable of launching his hands and fingers as missiles.

Fan Works

• In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Nesbitt (in the form of Perfect Machine King) states that he is perfectly capable of invoking this trope.
  Nesbitt: [To Duke Devlin] Try bringing sexy back now, human! You can't, because there's nothing sexier than a giant robot with rocket-powered fists!
  Yugi: Oh! Come on! He doesn't have rocket-powered f—(gets hit by Nesbitt's rocket-powered fist) Gaaaaahhh!!! I stand corrected...
  Also
  Joey: Serenity! The only way to defeat a robot is by overloading his logic circuits! You'll have to confuse it to death.
  Serenity: Okay, Nesbitt! Which came first: the chicken, or the egg?
  Nesbitt: The rocket-powered fist!
  Serenity: But that wasn't one of the optio— (gets hit by Nesbitt's rocket-powered fist) Bdaaaaaaaahh! I stand corrected...
  • Sachiel has the piston punch variant: The elbow spikes go through the arms and can be slammed into the target through the palms of the hands.
• In Dragon Ball Z Abridged Android 16 uses this in his fight with Imperfect Cell as Android 17 and 18 look on, as per the original series. Their reactions, however:
  Android 18: [thinking] Wow. Really?
  Android 17: [thinking] That is so cool!

Films — Animation

• The Omnidroid 6000 from The Incredibles can fire its appendages off on rockets, with the claws pressed together like a huge spear.
• Megamegamind in the Megamind: The Button of Doom short can fire its arm at the target, which then flies back and re-attaches itself.
• In Big Hero 6, Hiro upgrades his Robot Buddy Baymax with a suit of armor that includes rocket-punch gauntlets. This ends up saving Hiro and Abigail's lives later on, as Baymax uses his rocket hand as an improvised thruster for the transport pod.

Films — Live-Action

• The evil Eunuch main villain of the kung-fu film, Butterfly and Sword, wears a clawed gauntlet, which he can launch with his qi as a ranged projectile weapon on the heroes. Probably one of the few examples of this trope that isn't robotic / mechanical / technologically-based.
• Ultraman Copy Inframan in The Super Inframan receives a new weapon called "Thunderball Fists" before the final confrontation in his self-titled film. Two guesses what they do. Strangely, the original Ultraman didn't have a rocket punch, and isn't exactly a robot either.
• In Jingle All the Way, there is a parade based on a show themed after a Sentai show, where both the protagonist and antagonist steal (for some reason fully functional) outfits of the corresponding characters. The antagonist gets a rocket punch amongst his abilities, which surprises both of them when he uses it.
  "TA TA, Turtleman!"
• Robot Jox: In the climactic fight scene, after our hero is ejected from his Humongous Mecha, he proceeds on foot to hotwire the rocket fist from a fallen piece of his opponent, defeating the enemy mech with its own severed arm.
• The fist bazooka in Hot Shots! Part Deux, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• A troll called Mister Wink in Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army has a prosthetic metal hand that he can fire and call back using a chain and the hand's ability to crawl with its fingers. It's still no good against The Right Hand of Doom as it crumples up like a car in a front-end collision. Mister Wink wasn't too happy about that.
• Pacific Rim features some more realistic examples:
  • Gipsy Danger literally has giant thrusters in its elbows to add extra force to its punches. It uses them to deliver one hell of a sucker punch to Leatherback, one of the kaiju attacking Hong Kong. In the Japanese dub, Raleigh (Tomokazu Sugita) actually does yell "Rocket Punch!" when he fires it.
  • Cherno Alpha has Tesla-coil infused fists that give it electro-punches. More in line with the trope, Cherno Alpha has hydraulics in its fists to add more force to its punches.
• In the documentary Wonder Women: The Secret History of American Superheroines, a girl being interviewed says a superpower she'd like to have is the ability to shoot her hand at people.
• Interstellar has a weird aversion. Two characters are shown using gauntlets which fire pressurized gas from the elbow in order to boost their jumps on a low-gravity planet. They later have a fist fight while still wearing them, yet neither of them use these gauntlets to Rocket Punch the other. Its notable in that not only is it a huge missed moment of awesome, but the gauntlets don't seem to serve any purpose to the story other than to set a Rocket Punch up and then not do it.
• One of Zeus' henchmen in Turbo Kid has a robotic fist he can throws at his opponents. Unfortunately for him, the Kid's Turbo Fist is a much better weapon and he is vaporized before his fist can even reach the Kid.
• A different take in Flash Gordon (1980). When our hero first arrives on Mongo, one of Ming's Faceless Goons extends a seemingly friendly hand in greeting, only for it to shoot off onto Flash's throat and choke him.

Live-Action TV

• Super Sentai (and therefore Power Rangers) have mecha that do this on occasion. Count on the body part fired, which typically explodes, to be back in place and intact in the next shot of the mecha.
  • An unusual example came from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, where one of the villains, Diabolico, demonstrates the ability to detach his hand and send it at an opponent — complete with flaming exhaust — then suddenly rush forward and link back up with it. And he was fighting one of his fellow demons at the time!
• Kamen Rider OOO can launch the forearms of his Gorilla Medal-powered arms at enemies, making them a rocketless Rocket Punch.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One shows that this might be a standard for gorilla-based Riders, as Kamen Rider Vulcan's Punching Kong form can perform much the same move; its Finishing Move even involves using his gun to "fire" the gauntlets.
• Kamen Rider Fourze has his Rider Rocket Punch, performed while equipped with the Rocket Module that covers his right arm; unlike the classic example, however, it's just a jet-propelled punch. Fourze's movie-exclusive Super Mode, Meteor Nadeshiko Fusion States, can actually perform a traditional Rocket Punch using the Modules.
• Video-game themed Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's first upgrade form, Robot Action Gamer, comes with a big robotic left hand. His finisher involves launching said arm Rocket Punch-style, then retrieving it by running up to the enemy (now pinned against a wall) and punching them a second time the old-fashioned way. When Kamen Rider Snipe briefly stole the power-up, he could combine it with his gun to fire an energy projection of the fist as a finisher.
• Super Robot Red Baron has the "Baron Punch", which involves launching both of its fists (conjoined, at that). The actual "launching" sequence consists of a stylish wipe, that depicts the fists heading towards the screen.
• Denkō Chōjin Gridman (and to a lesser extent Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad) had a Combining Mecha named God Zenon (or Zenon for short) that could shoot its fists at the Monster of the Week. The fists automatically returned to Zenon's arms after landing a blow.
• Ultraman Z: In a nod to Mazinger, the series re-introduces the robot kaiju, Sevengar, and gave him rocket-propelled fists (called "Rigid Core Iron Fist Rocket") which are effective against weaker kaijus. Such as Gigass which goes down after one hit.
• Kenan & Kel have an action figure called Robo McFist with a fist that can be launched into Kenan's father's face.
• Tokusou Robo Janperson: The titular hero is capable of using this attack, with enough force to break concrete walls.

Music

• The Korean rock band W And Whale had a song called Rocket Punch Generation Shine (or RPG Shine), which invokes this trope in both the lyrics and video. And it's catchy as hell.
• The Japanese pop singer T.M. Revolution has a song called Madan -der freischutz- (Magic Bullets) has this trope in the video.
• This is one of the features of the eponymous robot in "Giant Robot-Birdhead!" by The Aquabats!:
  Jumbo machine, shiny and clean
  Who else can save the people with the megaton punch?

Pinball

• Foo Fighters (2023): The Foobot is able to detach its hand for offensive purposes, though it's also used as theming for the "overdrive" ball save — the mech's hand shoots out and flicks the ball back onto the playfield.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The 4th edition version of Eberron has this. A Paragon Path for Artificers called the Self-Forged starts by replacing a hand with a Magitek replacement called a Battlefist. The ultimate "spell" for the Path allows the Artificer to shoot the Battlefist away on a chain of energy, allowing them to continue to control it even while it's detached from their body.
  • 3.5 Warforged (or in theory anyone with access to the Kensai Prestige Class) a +1 throwing returning fist.
  • The Blood Wind spell from 3.5 lets a creature throw its natural weapons, which return by magic. Monks treat their unarmed strikes as natural weapons, and can make unarmed strikes with any part of their body.
  • 4e Barbarians can get the feat "Hurl Weapon", which lets them use any off-hand weapon as a thrown weapon. The Monk's unarmed attack counts as an off-hand weapon...
  • 5E artificers gain access to the Arcane Propultion Armor infusion at 14th level. Among other effects, it turns the gauntlets of the armor set it's used on into magic weapons with the Thrown property (magically creating gauntlets for armor suits that don't normally have them). It explicitly states that the guantlet detaches when thrown, then instantly returns to the wielder after the attack.

Toys

• Several of the original Takara Diaclone robot toys that were used when Hasbro originated the Transformers line had spring-launched fists, but this ability was never incorporated into the original cartoon.
• The Playskool Transformers Go-Bots (aka "1-2-3 Transformers" and "Go-Go-Go-Bots!") toy line featured a character called Aero-Bot, whose toy had launching fists (attached by strings, so they don't get lost) which hung under his wings in jet mode. There was also a slightly redesigned version in different colors named Silverbolt.
• Transformers: Generation 1: Inferno's original toy can fire missiles or his own fist out of his right arm. This ability is nowhere to be seen in fiction, as his right hand missiles are usually interpreted as a water cannon.

Video Games

• The final boss of Ballpoint Universe Infinite uses such an attack. He can do a fast punch using one fist, or send out a bunch of them, but slower.
• In Battle Clash and Metal Combat, Garam is able to use these (in the latter game, they can be charged up for devastating damage...especially useful in 2P Combat mode, where one player gets to control the mecha). They can only be fired once per match, though.
  • The AI usually only uses it when you've placed it in critical or when you've blown off certain parts as well. It's also pretty cool in the amount of variations of rocket punches it can do as well.
• Parodied in BlazBlue. In the segment of Teach Me, Miss Litchi!, Kokonoe installed a Rocket Punch in Iron Tager (it's not part of his actual moveset). However, she's not satisfied with the result and was thinking to move it somewhere else. Maybe on his chest... or his — "GIGANTIC TAGER!"
• Annihilator Droids in Champions Online regularly use rocket punches. Somehow, they leave them with their arms intact.
  • The fake Dr. Destroyer also uses that same attack. What's more, partway through the fight he loses his arms, which proceed to fly around and beat players up, while he fights using eye beams and chest blasts. At least unless he heals up a bit.
• Robo from Chrono Trigger has a Rocket Punch as his weakest special ability, where he throws his fist at the enemy; it's hooked to a chain so he can reel it back in. A stronger attack, named "Uzzi [sic] Punch", has him do this multiple times in rapid succession.
• The Robot costume's main attack in Costume Quest is a Rocket Punch, even called by that name.
• In Cyborg Justice, the Launch arm works like this, but it requires you to walk over to where it landed and pick it up to reattach before it blows up.
• Darkstalkers: Jedah, everyone's favorite self-harming vampire, not only fires his arms off in bloody geysers, but also his fingers and his goddamned head.
• Devil May Cry 5, Nero's original Devil Bringer arm gets amputated, which he replaces with cybernetic prosthetics called Devil Breakers. One of which, "Punch Line", lets him fire it out like a rocket as well as riding on it like a surfboard.
• In the Dragon Ball Z games, Android 16 has the Rocket Punch as a basic ki attack. And yes, he does yell his attack.
• Kurtis, whether in human (cyborg) or Prinny form, has at least one variant of this as an attack in each of his appearances throughout the Disgaea series. He also yells it out in 3 and 4, though only with the Japanese audio on.
  • His Final Arm attack (Used in 2, 3, and 4) seems to pay homage to the rocket punch's origins, as it drills though the target, then inexplicably causes them to explode after they crackle with electricity in a fashion you'd expect from a damaged Humongous Mecha.
  • In 3, and the remake of 2, his robot clones can magichange into a fist weapon (With two rocket punch special attacks), while his true Prinny self magichanges into a gun that can shoot rocket punches.
• Aschen Broedel, the Lamia expy from Endless Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga, has a wired rocket punch, which is generally announced by her Genki Girl "released" personality: "Aschen PUNCH!"
• In Fate/Grand Order, this is the Noble Phantasm of the oni Ibaraki-douji, who cloaks her fist in fire and shoots it off her arm to grab and explode her enemy with its enlarged size, though the hand seemingly just grows back (or is summoned) at will. This is due to her weaponizing how she got said arm chopped off in legend before getting it back.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The Defenders in Final Fantasy X can fire one of their fists to halve a character's HP. Another one instantly locks into place afterwards.
  • This is a Blue Magic spell in Final Fantasy V. Among its users are Omega and Gilgamesh, the latter of whom was also given the attack in Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy.
  • One of Barret's weapons in Final Fantasy VII has the appearance of a boxing glove instead of the usual gun-arm and is actually named "Rocket Punch", but it subverts the trope as a close-range melee weapon instead of a ranged attack.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, the raid boss Omega can create fist-shaped rockets from thin air and launch them at the party. Take a wild guess as to what this attack is called.
• Galaxy Angel: Ranpha's Emblem Frame, the Kung-Fu Fighter, is equipped with a pair of Anchor Claws (both of which look a lot like arms) that can be launched at the enemy and retrieved with electromagnetic cables. Her Limit Break involves firing them at a single target for massive damage (and in the second and third games, they'll seek out nearby enemies if they overkill the target).
• In the licensed game Godzilla Domination!, Mechagodzilla has this as a charged attack.
• "Rocket Kubochi" and "Double Rocket" In Inazuma Eleven, rocket punches that are used in a soccer match as a goalkeeper's punching techniques.
• League of Legends:
  • Blitzcrank has a rocket punch. However, the arm is retractable, and its main purpose isn't to punch enemies out but grab them and drag them away from their allies toward Blitzcrank and their allies to be promptly slaughtered.
  • Vi has a pair of gigantic Hextech gauntlets that are rocket-propelled. She uses them to charge at people fist-first and smack them in the face, or uppercut them into the sky.
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: Byrne has a big power glove that he can fire to grab or punch his opponents. It's attached to a chain, making it retrievable.
• In Makai Kingdom, the Robosuit uses this as one of its attacks. The Robosuit is obviously intended as an homage to the classic Giant Robot school of mecha design.
• Variation in the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. The turian Havoc Soldier uses his rocket pack to leap a huge distance and stab his omniblade into a hapless enemy.
• Several weapons from the Mega Man (Classic) series give the Blue Bomber the ability to do this, starting with Mega Man 3's Hard Knuckle.
  • Mega Man V (Game Boy) replaced the usual Mega Buster with this as its charged attack. Megs can also do this in Mega Man 6 with the Rush Power Adapter.
  • In Mega Man Battle Network:
    • By using an arrow combination as he activates the Guts Punch chip, Rock can transform it into the Rocket Guts Punch. The combination, of course, is down, down-right, right. Gutsman himself enjoys using the Rocket Guts Punch at higher versions. In the anime, Rock uses the Rocket Guts Punch as his primary weapon when in Guts Soul (in Battle Network 4, he can only do the Guts Punch). Also possible a Program Advance consisting of selecting Guts Punch, Ice Fist and Dash Attack, (in that order) to fire a stream of fists straight ahead, while time is frozen.
    • In the second game of the series, there are three successive powered-up versions of Guts Punch that have increasingly complicated Rocket Punch commands — Bronze Fist fires a single rocket punch, Silver Fist fires an individual Rocket Punch down every row, and Gold Fist fires three punches down each row.
  • Spring Man from 7 has the retractable-arm variety of rocket punch in the same vein as Robo.
  • The Rush Super Adapter of 7 shoots powerful rocket punches on a full buster charge. After picking up a certain upgrade, they become homing punches. Also, Bass has a rocket punch in the second Dr. Wily stage when he's merged with Treble.
  • The General in Mega Man X 4 has a rocket punch attack, though the most dangerous thing about this attack are that 2 laser cannon weapons that appear where his wrists used to be. The fists themselves are pretty harmless, and can be used by X/Zero to get a better shot at General's weak spot, his head.
  • In Maverick Hunter X, Vile can obtain an entire set of weapons which launch his fist forward with differing amounts of speed, damage, range and power usage. They're used in place of arm-mounted vulcans or missile launchers, and are usually stronger on average but harder to work with since Vile can't fire more than one of his arm at a time.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has a tongue-firmly-in-cheek variation performed by Zadornov, where he makes a peace sign and shoots it while shouting "Rocket peace!" The theme of the game is nuclear deterrence (peace gained through rockets), so this is either symbolic or just one of Kojima's references to the anime he watched as a kid. Or both.
  • In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Big Boss can upgrade his prosthetic arm to fire a remote-controllable version of this, allowing him to take out foes from a distance. He even occasionally shouts the trope name (though it comes across as "Roketto Paunch!" in the Japanese version, naturally).
• Metal Wolf Chaos has a literal Rocket Punch, where an imposter of the main character grabs a single missile out of a Macross Missile Massacre, and punches his enemy in the face with it's back end.
• The final boss of Mischief Makers, the Beastector's Combining Mecha, does this. This being Mischief Makers, you have to throw it right back at it.
• Doomfist's core ability in Overwatch. He stays attached while his giant arm goes flying, allowing for some great mobility.
• In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Lord Crump's mecha, Magnus von Grapple, fires its fists which turn into targets.
• Persona 3's Aigis has this as one of her weapons. By the time you get it, however, it's usually outclassed.
  • Labrys, from Persona 4: Arena, has a Rocket Punch of her own, connected to her body with a chain. This ability is shared amongst the other 5th Generation Anti-Shadow Weapons.
• Persona 5 has the God's Hand physical skill, which summons a giant gauntlet that goes rocketing around the screen before smashing into the target for a lot of damage. Bonus points for the Shadow that primarily uses it, Melchizedek, using an animation that makes it look like it's firing its own fist when using the skill.
  • Also present in Persona 5 Strikers due to a boss in a mech suit. Amusingly, Ryuji is so impressed by it that Makoto has to remind him to get out of the way.
• Plok is a rare biological example in which the title character is able to shoot out and reattach not only his fists, but his legs as well.
• Falcon of Power Stone uses this as his main method of attack in his super form.
• In one scenario of Radical Dreamers Mecha-Lynx uses this attack.
• This is Rayman's main power, where he swings his fist around and then swings it at his opponent. It helps that his fists (and feet, and head) aren't attached to his body.
• Robot Alchemic Drive: Vavel's a big remote-controlled homage to Mazinger Z, so it stands to reason it would have its own version of the Rocket Punch, called "Assault Knuckle"
• Lady X uses this as a Finishing Move in Rumble Roses, but it doesn't look nearly as cool as one might expect, knocking her opponents across the ring despite being so slow-moving that they should be able to stop it cold with just one fingertip.
• Demolitions expert Araym from Septerra Core blew his arms off in the last war, and had them replaced with, essentially, big rocket arms. He gets very few attacks that aren't some form of Rocket Punch.
• In Shining Wisdom, one equippable weapon is the Magic Hands, which are a homing, returning Red Boxing Glove.
• The Death Egg Robot from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 can fire its fists.
• Spyborg in Star Fox 64 likes to fire both of its fists in succession.
• Precis Neuman from Star Ocean: The Second Story fights in a suit of self-made Powered Armor, so naturally, a Rocket Punch is included in one of her special attack sets.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Bounty Hunter has an ability called Rocket Punch where they use rocket boots to uppercut an opponent.
• In SteamWorld Dig, the Steam Punch upgrade allows you to break blocks at a distance.
• Area, a Mad Scientist (even though she looks more like the daughter) from the Street Fighter EX games has something similar. Instead of launching her arm, she wields a huge mechanical gauntlet (named 'Cancer' for some reason). Some of her attacks feature it launching in various manners. Her most powerful attack fires it off and then detonates it; while the move does excellent damage, you then lose the gauntlet for the rest of the match, which basically kills her offense.
• Some of Geno's weapons in Super Mario RPG do this. He's an animated doll.
• The Grungust series of mechs in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation have the BOOST KNUCKLE ability, which launches their entire forearm at an enemy like a missile. It returns afterwards. The Type-3 Grungusts combine tropes with This Is a Drill in the form of the Drill Boost Knuckle, as does the Thrudgelmir.
  • KoRyuOh, having been made from Kusuha and Bullet's Type-3, also sports a Rocket Punch in the form of the Tiger Knuckle.
  • The Garmraid from Super Robot Wars MX attaches it's shoulder guard to it's fist before launching it. The guard then opens up, revealing More Teeth than the Osmond Family.
  • The Coustwell from Super Robot Wars Judgment launches fists made of Hard Light. Its upgraded form Brachium makes copies of itself to fire three huge ones. In the same game, the Granteed Dracodeus has the more traditional variant, detaching its fists to launch them encased in Orgone Crystals at the target.
  • Soulgain's Rocket Soul Punch Genbu Goudan
  • Despite being a human-sized Robot Girl, Aschen Brodel of Endless Frontier can launch her fists at enemies and pull them back with wires.
• G. Kaiser, from Tech Romancer, has Rocket Punches as a standard special attack. Considering it's a blatant Expy of Mazinger...
• Unzan from Touhou Project shoots giant pink fist-shaped bullets. He's also a giant pink living cloud.
• TwinBee, who stars in the Cute 'em Up series TwinBee, and regularly appears the Parodius series, has giant boxing glove hands, and in many of the games one of the weapon upgrades will be a rocket punch of some kind.
• Asgard in Wild ARMs 5 uses one as a sort of ejection seat to get Avril out of harm's way before the start of the game. He uses it again near the end of the game, this time in the traditional manner, when his missing arm returns during his time of need and Rocket Punches Volsung's Humongous Mecha in the face.
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown: The MEC Trooper's suit from the Enemy Within Expansion Pack can have a "Kinetic Strike Module", a gigantic piston-like knuckle duster with rocket engines to accelerate it, as its option for subsystem. As a backup melee weapon, it's highly effective, dealing 12 raw damage at a point where most enemies will be below 10 even on harder difficulties, and unlike other subsystems, it has unlimited uses and absolutely no cooldown. It can be upgraded with the "MEC Close Combat" Foundry project that makes the punch cost only one action point instead of ending the trooper's turn, which by itself is already good, but with the kicker that it also increases the damage of the module from 12 to a massive 18^note the only enemies that can survive an upgraded KSM punch are Cyberdiscs (Classic and above), Muton Elites (Impossible), Mechtoids (Normal and above), Berserkers (all difficulties), Ethereals (all difficulties) and Sectopods (all difficulties); the only one that can survive two punches is the Sectopod, thanks to Reinforced Armor, and even then not by much. The punch can also destroy walls or anything that counts as high cover, including whole trees. Downplayed in that it's exclusively a melee attack — while the KSM is rocket-powered, it never detaches from the MEC's arm.
• In X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Sentinel can fire its arm at a foe. It even says "Rocket Punch" when doing so. In the words of Yipes: "PLAYING BLOODY KNUCKLES"
  • Cyber-Akuma, the modified clone of Akuma made by Apocalypse in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter also has one of these as one of his attacks.
  • In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Nova does a variation where he fires his entire body at the enemy at full speed to deliver a powerful punch. Considering his nickname is the Human Rocket.
• Zettai Hero Project: Comes in two flavors, depending on which arm you equip the Rocket Punch to: the left arm uses Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, while the right arm launches its target in the air and smacks him around a few dozen times.

Web Animation

• Dreamscape: Anjren, while in her robot suit, can fire rocket fists, but the aren't as devastating as most examples.
  • Dylan's Mechelly can fire her entire fist and have it return to her like a boomerang.
• Yang performs this during a Food Fight in RWBY, with a pair of roast turkeys she had been using as substitutions for her gauntlets.

Webcomics

• In A Modest Destiny, Hechter does this.
• A variation is executed by Space Kid in Episode Two.

Western Animation

• Voltron (specifically GoLion) had its "Lion Head Attack," which fired its "hands" and "feet" at the enemy. Naturally, Voltron was always flying at the time, so it wouldn't fall over from suddenly losing its feet.
  • The Sequel Series, Voltron Force not only brings back the Lion Head Attack in the final episode, but includes the Black Lion's head in the barrage.
• Bump in the Night was a series that took place with all the monsters and toys that live in a kids room. One of the Running Gags was a Lawful Stupid toy robot firing its "Fist Missiles" at the titular Mr. Bumpy. Said fists frequently stopped, looked around for Bumpy, and lifted up objects and used tools to better help them find him.
• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the Batmobile pulls this off against Babyface.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender of all places has a variation: members of the Dai Li have gloves made of rocks that can be launched as a punch or to grab someone inconspicuously. In addition, the gloves are segmented, so small sharp pieces can be shot off like bullets, and it can be bent into a claw or fist while flying at enemies.
• On episode of Men in Black: The Series has J shrunk down to the size of a small alien and forced to use a robot suit built to look just like him. The robot suit in question can actually fire off its fists as Rocket Punch attacks, which unfortunately bites J in the ass when he misses and sets the arm way farther than he has the chance to get back to.
  J: I like that arm.
• A truly bizarre variation occurs in a rare and obscure experimental cartoon called The Little Island. One of the three unnamed characters raises his fist, which suddenly enlarges and pops off his wrist, then comes crashing down on him from the heavens. Several times. It starts at the 3:46 mark of this segment.
• Transformers: Animated:
  • In the season 2 finale, Lugnut launches his fists (in both robot and jet mode), to little effect against Omega Supreme.
  • Lockdown plays it straight. Since he's made largely of stolen parts, it's no surprise that they can fly off.
  • Bulkhead's wrecking ball takes the place of his fist and swings out on a cable.
• Teen Titans (2003): Cyborg's arms work somewhere between this trope and Attack Drone when he launches them.
• The titular Megas XLR has a set of these, though like Genesic GaoGaiGar, it fires the actual fists at times.
• Rex is temporarily capable of doing this during the crossover Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United thanks to fusing with Upgrade.
• Garnet from Steven Universe can fire her gauntlets like missiles at faraway enemies. Bizarrely, this is once shown as her firing her hands with them (minus her gemstones, which move to the stumps), then regenerating them.
• S.T.R.I.P.E. uses this in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Chaos at the Earth's Core".

Real Life

• Apparently, a prosthetic arm has been developed using rocket propellant bursts to overcome the strength limitation of more traditional mechanisms like servos and hydraulics. In time, someone's bound to get punched by one.
• A Japanese TV show has replicated the Rocket Punch from Mazinger Z in the form of a remote-controlled launcher.

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