Coconuts

Coconuts (アイアイ) is a reoccurring enemy in the Sonic the Hedgehog series which first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It is a monkey-type Badnik created by Doctor Robotnik which is usually seen hanging and moving on palm trees, from where they throwing bombs at their target.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Coconuts were first seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as Badniks were featured at Emerald Hill Zone. Coconuts are seen climbing palm trees back and forth, as the player comes more close, it stops moving and throws a coconut, which look similar ones that are in palm trees.

The player has to look out and avoid coconuts that are thrown to the direction where he / she's moving. Some Coconuts climb more higher at palm trees, which might make impossible to attack from the ground. If the player is close enough to reach the Badnik from the ground, it can be destroyed with Spin Jump, but at the same time it's recommended to watch if it throws the coconut as same time.

Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld
Coconuts make short appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld, being part of "Tree Climb" mini-game. In the mini-game, three competitors (including the player himself) have own Coconuts that they have to control. The player has to keep pressing button as much as he / she can, as Coconuts has to climb to top of the palm tree as many times than others. The winner is the one who's Coconuts has climbed to the top of the most number of times.

Sonic Blast
Coconuts made a reappearance in Sonic Blast as these Badniks can be found at Green Hill Zone. Instruction manual only states his Japanese name, Aiai. Coconuts are little bit smaller but despite the size, these Badniks act really similarly like in their first appearance.

These Badniks hang on palm trees and coconuts what Badniks throw are really small which might be difficult to recognize. Like all Badniks in Game Gear and Master System, Coconuts don't have animal friend inside of them.

Sonic Pocket Adventure
Coconuts make appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, where they serve as enemies in Neo South Island Zone. Coconuts appear and have same attack pattern from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Unlike in Sonic Blast, Coconuts have again animal friends inside of them.

Sonic Rivals
Coconuts appears as a collectible card in Sonic Rivals.

Sonic Lost World
Coconuts make an appearance in Sonic Lost World. During the game, it turns out that Badniks, including Coconuts, got hijacked by the Deadly Six. They are being featured as enemies in Tropical Coast Zone 4, where they throw exploding coconuts at the player, while climbing on palm trees. In gameplay, Sonic is able to kick the exploding coconuts back to avoid damage. To destroy a Coconut easily, the player can perform the Homing Attack.

Appearance
Coconuts is a monkey-type Badnik that has a somewhat sphere shaped red body. His head is red colored and his ears are round tinplates. It has white eyes with black pupils and small nose. His face and half of its belly are colored peach. Coconuts have grey and red colored arms, feet and a metallic monkey tail that is part of its grey lower body.

Abilities
Coconuts are able to nimbly climb palm trees. As these Badniks saw the target, they use their coconuts to bomb its target down.

Sonic the Comic
Coconuts make several appearances in early issues of Fleetway's Sonic the Comic as these they belong to Doctor Robotnik's Badnik army. In Sonic the Comic, Coconuts have their appearance closely from games and coconuts that Badniks throw are actually grenades. Coconuts also appears in pin-up of issue 65.

These Badniks were first seen (having vastly different appearance) attacking to monkeys of Forest Hills with Kid Cruel as leader who is employer of Robotnik. All childs of town are as power source of Coconuts and also having bomb inside of badniks while Kid Cruel is forcing the town to hand over every scrap of gold from their mines. As Sonic comes to save town, he manages to remove bombs and get all children from Badniks and defeats Kid Cruel.

Three Coconuts were actually stationed on the Floating Island, where a trio of them waited on trees to ambush Knuckles the Echidna. However they got noticed and destroyed by Shortfuse the Cybernik. During the infiltrating to Badnik Processing Plant, both Amy Rose and Porker Lewis dressed as Coconuts. Years later Robotnik mentions in his speech about using them to cut off the Jungle Zone.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog television series, Coconuts is one of the main antagonists in the show, though not appearing as frequently as Scratch or Grounder. In this media, he is one of Dr. Ivo Robotnik's Badniks, but had been demoted to the janitor of the doctor's headquarters. Furious over his low status, his primary goal was to capture Sonic the Hedgehog in hopes of earning a promotion from Robotnik. Whenever he appeared, he would usually attempt to go after Sonic himself and make sure that Scratch and Grounder did not beat him to the punch, but would ultimately fail every time.

Related Badniks and upgrades
Like many Badniks in the series, Robotnik/Eggman has made several monkey-type Badniks that have similar appearances and attack patterns much later. The most well known are E-series robots E-01 Baby Kiki and its later models.
 * Monkey Dude
 * E-01 Baby Kiki
 * E-20 Kiki
 * Kiki
 * Mon
 * Circus
 * Ape

Trivia

 * The SEGA character AiAi from the Super Monkey Ball games has the same name as Coconuts' Japanese name.