Coconuts

Coconuts is a fictional robot monkey from the early years of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

In the games
This particular Badnik was first seen in the Emerald Hill Zone stage of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where he would be seen climbing up trees and throwing coconuts. He was named "Aiai" in Japan. A similar badnik called "Super Dude" later appeared in the Angel Island Zone stage of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, also throwing coconuts from trees. True to his name, Coconuts would throw coconuts at Sonic and/or Tails whenever they passed by. Except for compilation games containing Sonic 2, this Badnik did not appear in any of the other primary Sonic games although a similar badnik named "Kiki" appered in Sonic Adventure and its sequel.

The particular Coconuts from the cartoon and comics appeared in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine as a stage boss.



Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Coconuts was featured more prominently on the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. There, he had been demoted to Dr. Robotnik's janitor, a position he was not very happy with. Even though he was seen in the show's introduction sequence, Coconuts did not appear as regularly as fellow Badniks Scratch and Grounder. Whenever he did appear, he would usually attempt to go after Sonic himself, and try to make sure Scratch and Grounder did not beat him to it.

While Dr. Robotnik and Grounder were drawn differently on the show than in the games, the AoStH version of Coconuts looks similar enough to his video game counterpart. The most noticeable difference between the two is that the animated Coconuts has a lightbulb on his head. Coconuts' voice was provided by Ian James Corlett.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)
The AoStH version of Coconuts also appeared occasionally in the early issues of the US Sonic comic book, making his first appearance in issue #2's "Tttriple Tttrouble", which marked the closest resemblance the comic had to the aforementioned cartoon. Here, Coconuts' head was colored light brown rather than red, and his face a light orange rather than the fleshtone used in the games and cartoon. However, this same color scheme was also used for the character's sprites in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (even though the box art used the cartoon's color scheme).

Unlike Scratch and Grounder, Coconuts appeared prominently a few more times in the comics. In issue #11, he captured the Freedom Fighters to lure Sonic into a trap in an attempt to get a higher spot on Robotnik's top ten favorite Badniks list (a list on which even Scratch and Grounder outranked him). He later starred in a short story in issue #30, in which he tried to prevent "an anteater" (Bunnie Rabbot, actually) from stealing Robotnik's Chaos Emeralds, using Wile E. Coyote-type traps that, needless to say, failed. Like his old costars, Coconuts' last appearance in the comic was part of a flashback in issue #57.

According to an article on Sonic HQ, writer Karl Bollers had planned for Coconuts to return to the comic by teaming him up with an amnesiac Nate Morgan. This idea never came to pass, and as a result, Coconuts has yet to make a substantial returning appearance. He makes a one-panel cameo appearance in "The Island of Misfit Badniks", printed in issue #170.

