Heavy Lobster

"This time, we will succeed! Heavy Lobster, AWAY!"

- Captain Vul

Heavy Lobster is a large, mechanical, gold lobster-like boss who has first appeared in Kirby Super Star. It has made a few appearances since, usually serving under Meta Knight. Equipped with flamethrowers in its claws and jets near its feet, Heavy Lobster is one of the most powerful foes Kirby has come across in his journey. It is one of the few sources of the Paint Copy Ability.

Kirby Super Star / Kirby Super Star Ultra
In Kirby Super Star, Heavy Lobster first appears in Revenge of Meta Knight, where he is fought twice throughout the course of the sub-game; the first time is on the engines of the Halberd, which blows Kirby and Heavy Lobster away (the whereabouts of Heavy Lobster after this is unknown). The second time it is fought in the cabins of the ship, where Heavy Lobster chases Kirby through a maze which Kirby must navigate through. When the maze ends, Heavy Lobster jumps up and the chase is turned into the standard boss battle, giving Kirby a chance to counterattack. As with the rest of the sub-game, though, the two battles with Heavy Lobster are timed so Kirby must deal with it quickly. Its attacks range from ramming Kirby, sending out Mini Lobster projectiles, blowing out fire, and jumping in place attempting to stomp on him.

Heavy Lobster may also deploy Paint Slimes. If Kirby eats it, he gets the Paint ability. If he uses Paint, Heavy Lobster will be entirely covered in red paint, thus blinding it and heavily damaging it. When Heavy Lobster goes blind, it will obviously be helpless, move around unpredictably, and attack erratically. In Revenge of Meta Knight, doing this results in humorous dialogue from The Meta-Knights as they are astounded by Kirby's new-found ability and know that Heavy Lobster no longer stands a chance.

In the first battle, if Heavy Lobster is defeated, its body explodes, and the pieces lie there until Kirby and the debris are blown off the Halberd. When defeated in Kirby Super Star Ultra, Heavy Lobster falls into pieces rather than disappearing in an explosion.

Later on, Kirby must contend with Heavy Lobster in both Milky Way Wishes and The Arena, again serving as a boss in both instances. In Kirby Super Star Ultra, its gold plating is replaced by silver in Milky Way Wishes, which is the same for its appearance in Helper to Hero. In Milky Way Wishes Heavy Lobster is fought on Mekkai. These encounters omit the brief chase sequence from the Halberd.

In Kirby Super Star Ultra, Heavy Lobster, alongside Kabula, Galacta Knight, Masked Dedede, and Dyna Blade / Wham Bam Rock, have their own exclusive boss battle theme as opposed to the regular boss theme.

Kirby Mass Attack
In Kirby Mass Attack, Heavy Lobster appears as the penultimate boss in the Sub-Game Kirby Brawlball. Its attacks are slightly modified versions of its attack from the previous game. A Wheelie also appears at the bottom of the arena, darting around and serving as an obstacle.

Heavy Lobster use the same attacks it has previously, but instead of utilizing the fire cannons in its claws, Heavy Lobster shoots out encapsulated bullets that burst into flames when they hit the ground. Heavy Lobster can still releases Mini Lobsters, but he can now fire gold colored missiles in-between sets. It also charges from one side of the screen to the other. Additionally, the Paint Slimes it fires are now oil-colored and will splatter and obscure part of the screen if Kirby hits one, making it tough to see.

Heavy Lobster has a great amount of HP, and it takes a lot of hits to take it down. Heavy Lobster is the fastest foe in the sub-game, and will jet around the arena using its rocket boosters. These fast-paced movements also allow Heavy Lobster to dodge attacks.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Heavy Lobster appears as a primary, Advanced-class shield spirit. It sports no effect when applied to a fighter.

Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
"That monster is mechanical! Cook Kirby cannot stop it!"

- Meta Knight

Heavy Lobster makes an appearance in the 99th and penultimate episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, "Combat Kirby," as the final monster to appear in the anime.

As the Halberd approaches Nightmare's Fortress, Nightmare sends Heavy Lobster to the ship to track down the engine room and rip it apart to destroy the Halberd. When Heavy Lobster goes on a rampage attacking a trio of several Cappies and Kit Cosmos, Meta Knight orders Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby to track it down, and they have a remote that can open and close metal barriers. He also sends Sword and Blade after it, who take with them a rocket launcher. Heavy Lobster is among Nightmare's stronger creations, managing to best Kirby's Cook ability and Sword Knight's rocket launcher without a scratch and destroy the solid metal walls in a few seconds with its energy lasers and beams. As it reaches the engine room, Chef Kawasaki gives Kirby ice cubes, allowing him to become Ice Kirby, who freezes it with his ice breath. While it was frozen, Sword Knight shoots the rocket launcher at it, destroying it once and for all.

Physical appearance
As the name suggests, Heavy Lobster is a large lobster-like robot. Its primary color is bright gold with some white here and there. It has small legs and long feet, and its body is pill-shaped with a jet thrust behind it. It has wing-like appendages on the sides of its head and green colored eyes. It is equipped with two claws and has a furnace-like mouth. It is also shown in the anime that Heavy Lobster makes loud dinosaur-like roars similar to that of the Ice Dragon.

Powers and abilities
Being the final monster to be sent by Nightmare, Heavy Lobster is one of the strongest monsters in Kirby: Right back at Ya!. It possesses far greater strength than WolfWrath and even Masher 2.0 combined. While it can walk on its own, it is also equipped with jet thrusts to go in high speeds as a means of faster travel, and it has strong armor that is powerful enough to be hit by Sword Knight's rocket launcher three times (one fired directly into its furnace-like mouth) as well as taking a hit from a blast of Cook Kirby and not even getting a scratch. Its primary ability is firing pink energy lasers from its claws; these lasers are very strong and on top of that, each contact that the laser makes will cause huge explosions similar to the Domestic Servant Robot. It can also sometimes fire a blast of small but powerful pink energy bullets, fire large pink energy beams that are powerful enough to melt steel doors, or fire the energy lasers in a spread from its claws.

Trivia

 * In the anime, Heavy Lobster is exactly the same in the games in terms of its physical appearance and movement, but it attacks primarily using pink energy lasers and beams rather than ramming and using bubble projectiles and its flamethrower in Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra.
 * Heavy Lobster's role in the anime can be seen as ironic, as it originally cooperated with Meta Knight to defend the Halberd in Kirby Super Star, and attempted to destroy the Halberd in the anime.
 * Heavy Lobster is mentioned in the Halberd trophy's description in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where it refers to "a shrimp-like robot called Heavy Lobster."
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Galleom's attack pattern is similar to Heavy Lobster's.
 * In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, a remix of Heavy Lobster's theme from Kirby Super Star Ultra can be heard when Robo Dedede is in critical mode in Level 3 of Scope Shot. However, Heavy Lobster itself does not appear.
 * The background used for his battle in Milky Way Wishes and The Arena in Kirby Super Star Ultra seems to have been based on Stage 4 of Shiver Star from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and his theme seems to be a remix of the song used for that stage. Also, a robot resembling the hammer-headed enemy in said stage can be seen in the background.
 * Not only that, but the remake also adds what appears to be a factory assembling more Heavy Lobsters and/or mini Heavy Lobsters that can be seen in the background. In addition, the paint blobs that Heavy Lobster uses can be seen being created and moving along on a conveyor belt.
 * Heavy Lobster is one of the few monsters in the anime not to come with its original Copy Ability, similar to Bugzzy and Kracko (among others).
 * In Kirby Super Star Ultra, multiple Heavy Lobsters are seen being manufactured in the background of its arena on Mekkai during Milky Way Wishes. This may explain how Kirby re-fought it on the Halberd.
 * Heavy Lobster and Heavy Mole are comparable in that they both have "Heavy" in their names and look to be made of the same material. In addition, their names and appearance are both based around animals.
 * In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, during the fight against the mechanical "Artificial Blade" Rosa, her battle theme borrows the key notes from Heavy Lobster's theme at 0:11 to 0:22.
 * Based on concept art of Whispy Woods for Kirby Star Allies, Heavy Lobster appears to have been the inspiration for the boss weaknesses in the aforementioned game, as it even makes an appearance in the concept art.