Piko Piko Hammer

The Piko Piko Hammer (ピコピコハンマー) is Amy Rose's signature weapon. It is a large yellow and red hammer that Amy uses in combat, either to crush her enemies, perform better movements on her behalf, or execute special moves.

Concept and Creation
The Piko Piko Hammer was originally based on a popular Japanese children's toy of the same name. The phrase "piko-piko" is an onomatopoeia for the chirping sound that these hammers make when struck (which can also be heard in several games when Amy attacks).

The Piko Piko Hammer made its first appearance Sonic the Fighters where it was used by Amy as a part of her combat moves. The reason she was given the hammer as a weapon was to strengthen her tomboyish nature (note that this is also the reason why she is a playable character in the game). As a result, she does not punch.

Appearance
The Piko Piko Hammer mostly resembles that of a sledgehammer. Originally, the Piko Piko Hammer nearly perfectly resembled a real-life Piko Piko Hammer, having a red center head with flexible yellow ends, and a purple handle attached to the head. In Sonic Adventure, the Piko Piko Hammer was given an updated design, here having been  given a larger head in the shape of a red cylinder, with raised rectangular sections on the midsection of the head and solid yellow dishes on the ends, and has a brown handle attached to the head.

Following Sonic Adventure, the Piko Piko Hammer has mostly maintained a consistent design, though the raised rectangular sections on the midsection of the head has since then largely been removed from it and has only been seen on the Piko Piko Hammer in but a few games since then. Also, in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Sonic Heroes, the head of the Piko Piko Hammer has the opposite color scheme, having red ends with yellow center instead of yellow ends with red center

The size of the Piko Piko Hammer varies between some games. Usually, the Piko Piko Hammer is slightly bigger than Amy's head, while in some other games it can be larger than her body, such as in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing where Amy's All-Star Move has her take out the Piko Piko Hammer which is here much larger than the Pink Cabriolet.

Traits
Despite its colorful and innocent appearance, the Piko Piko Hammer is a highly powerful and destructive weapon, being durable enough to repeatedly smash clean through armored robots and yet graceful enough to be used in a variety of moves at high speed. Even powerful characters, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, is filled with dread when Amy threatens them with the Piko Piko Hammer, hinting the height of power and danger that this weapon possesses in Amy's hands.

Usage
The Piko Piko Hammer is mainly used by Amy to combat enemies, and is a vital of her Hammer Attack techniques. With the Piko Piko Hammer, Amy is never the second best on the battle floor. In battle, Amy can use the Piko Piko Hammer to either knock enemies away and far into the air or bring its entire weight down on enemies in a downward swing, crushing her opponents with devastating force. By spinning around with the Piko Piko Hammer, Amy can use it to turn herself into a top that mows down everything or even stir up whirlwinds to send opponents flying. Also, by slamming it into the ground with enough force, the Piko Piko Hammer can generate huge shock waves. It is also used by Amy to mimic Spin Attack maneuvers, such as the Spin Jump.

Besides combat, the Piko Piko Hammer is also used by Amy to improve upon her movements. By hammering the Piko Piko Hammer into the ground, she can give herself extra high jumps, and by spinning the Piko Piko Hammer around like a helicopter rotor, she is able to briefly fly through midair.

When not using the Piko Piko Hammer directly, Amy is able to actually strike fear into other characters by displaying her strength and fury with her Piko Piko Hammer.

Other characters
Although the Piko Piko Hammer is best known as Amy's signature weapon, various other characters have used hammers as well. Tails uses a hammer in the game Tails Adventure.

Also, in the game Sonic Advance 3, when selecting Amy as the leader or the sidekick, her partner will also have a Piko Piko Hammer (it does not matter which character is chosen as Amy's partner).

Other Variations

 * Long Hammer
 * Anti Piko Piko Hammer
 * Piko Hammer

Trivia

 * In Sonic Advance 2, there is a Badnik called Piko Piko, which wields a toy hammer similar to Amy's.
 * The Piko Piko Hammer has an anti verson used by Rosy the Rascal it is called Anti Piko Piko Hammer.
 * It has been stated that Amy battles enemies with her hammer to impress Sonic or when in danger.
 * The only Sonic universe where Amy doesn't use her hammer as her favorite weapon is "Sonic the Comic", where she uses a bow or a crossbow instead.
 * In Sonic Unleashed, Amy's ability to use the huge hammer is underlined when defeating the boss of Shamar, the Dark Guardian. After the level is over, Sonic the Werehog exclaims "I know little girls that are better with a hammer than you are! Well, one, anyway."
 * Luigi's Squeaky Mallet in Mario Power Tennis\Power Tour looks like Amy's hammer and also both of their hammers are called "toy hammer" in Japan.
 * An accessory AccPikoAmy.jpg of Amy's Piko Piko Hammer, made by Jazwares, was released in late-2012 along with Amy.
 * The Ultra Hammer from the Paper Mario series bears an uncanny resemblance to the Piko Piko Hammer.
 * It is unknown where Amy stores her hammer and where she pulls it out of for use. The question was even parodied in Sonic X and her trophy info in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * In the comics, it is said that Amy absorbed the Ring of Acorn's magic, which allows her to pull the hammer from thin air.
 * She also seems to have an inexhaustible supply of Piko Piko Hammers, as proven by Episode 52 of Sonic X, where she conjured up a Piko Piko Hammer out of nowhere just by waving her hand. Decoe made fun of this by saying that Amy had "more hammers than a hardware store."
 * Amy seems to have some sort of connection to her hammers, because in the Sonic X comic, when she, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Rouge are trapped in a virtual reality by Eggman, Amy says she can't 'feel' her hammer while she's within the illusion.
 * In Sonic the Fighters, Amy's hammer isn't referred to as the "Piko Piko Hammer" but the "Magical Hammer".
 * In the Archie Comics the hammer isn't indestructible. Amy's anti-self managed to break a normal-sized hammer (not a giant one) with her own version of the Piko Piko Hammer.
 * In some games, the hammer can be used to hit Springs, causing her to catapult quite a bit further, and can be used like a spring in Sonic Adventure and sometimes in the Sonic Advance games.
 * In Sonic Adventure, a much stronger version of the Piko Piko Hammer is the Long Hammer, of which is obtained from the Egg Carrier (destroyed) if Amy beats her "own" score she set after beating Eggman's 2000pt score in "his" version of the Whac-A-Mole minigame in Story Mode. It is possible that Amy has different "versions" of Piko Piko Hammers, as seen in Sonic Heroes, where she uses the Air Hammer which utilizes the power of the wind. In Sonic Advance 3, she has a huge brown mallet when teamed up with Knuckles, and her normal red and yellow hammers.
 * Amy's hammer was mentioned in Sonic and the Black Knight in the final cutscene when Sonic says "Yikes! No Amy, wait! Put down that hammer!". Thus, in the multiplayer mode of the game, Amy is playable and instead of a sword, her weapon is a hammer.
 * Amy's hammer has been shown at time having the ability to randomly show pink hearts.
 * The Piko Piko Hammer's modern 3D model in mainstream games differs from the modern appearance shown in the comics, cartoon and some earlier spin-off games.
 * In Sonic Battle it is referred to as "Love Hammer".
 * The Piko Piko Hammer also appear in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd in the accessories room. This accessory is unlocked if the player clears "サウンド"(Sound) in easy mode. It is also Rin Kagamine's favorite item as gift.
 * The Piko Piko Hammer is the most recurring weapon in the Sonic series, unless one counts Eggman's Egg Mobile as a weapon.
 * In Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, during a mission that can be given by Amy about Goombas being on a rampage, Amy says her Piko Piko Hammer has no effect on Goombas for some reason, which is ironic since, in the Mario series, Goombas are the basic enemies, which can usually be defeated by being stomped on or even by smashing them with a hammer.