Morph Weapon

He swiped with his Blade, but didn't come close to connecting. 'I should have practised more with the sword,' he muttered.
Oh. That's right. You probably want me to be a spear, don't you?
The weapon fuzzed to mist, then elongated and grew into the shape of a silvery spear, with glowing, swirling glyphs along the sharpened edges of the spearhead.

— Words of Radiance

A weapon that can shapeshift into different forms for different situations. Generally magical, but can be explained with Nanomachines or some other scientific flavour of Applied Phlebotinum instead. It might be guided by magic or Electronic Telepathy, or even be an Empathic Weapon with a mind of its own. Whatever the case, it tends to be significantly cooler than any boring old stays-the-same-all-the-time weapon. It is also an invaluable tool for the Multi-Melee Master, who can benefit from the increased versatility of multiple weapons without the encumberance of actually carrying those multiple weapons (but with increased danger of being disarmed if said user leans only on the morph weapon as his sole weapon).

A subtrope of Swiss-Army Weapon.

A Sister Trope to Shapeshifter Weapon when it's part of the wielder's body, Retractable Weapon when it's limited to taking a more compact form, and Adaptive Armor for its defensive counterpart. Also compare Transforming Mecha.

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Example Subpages:

• Video Games

Other Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Lance of Longinus.
• The zanpakuto in Bleach, for Soul Reapers who have learned to release their upgraded forms, Shikai and Bankai. In their sealed form, most zanpakuto take the form of a katana; Shikai will turn it into a weapon that's suited to the wielder with a small handful of special techniques, while Bankai will often give a new form to both the weapon and the wielder (even if it's just a costume change), along with granting a new and extremely powerful version of the special move. For example, Renji's Zabimaru transforms from a Katana into a Whip Sword, and as Hihio Zabimaru becomes a gigantic snake skeleton. But since the whole system runs on Personality Powers, exceptions abound; a few don't change form at all and simply reveal new powers in Shikai and Bankai.
• In Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Panty and Stocking's namesakes work as these.
• Every device in Lyrical Nanoha has at least three forms, sometimes changing its weapon class. As a bonus, one of these forms is always its user's own Transformation Trinket, so there's no need to invest in more items.
• Musica in Rave Master wears around his neck a silver skull which, due to his particular brand of abilities, he can manipulate and change into any form he wishes, most commonly a spear.
  • The protagonist, Haru Glory, also possesses a sword that has ten different forms, including a simple iron blade, a weapon that explodes on contact, or one that can cut through smoke, magic and other non-cuttables. Two Big Bads possess Evil Twin versions of Haru's sword.
  • Also in Hiro Mashima's next work, Fairy Tail, Knightwalker wields the Ten Commandments in spear form.
• Rosario + Vampire features Moka's younger sister, Kokoa. She can command the Combat Commentator bat to turn into a mace, a mallet, a sword, a spear and... well, a bat.
• Vash and Knives' handguns turning into the insanely powerful Angel Arms in Trigun.
• The Aqua Ribbon in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, which only really takes the form of a ribbon in the merchandise.
• As the narrator explains, the Carrot Weapon that Mina uses in Getsumen to Heiki Mina responds to her thoughts. As such, it can be whatever the heck kind of weapon it wants to be — and it has been quite a lot.
• Black Star's weapon Tsubaki in Soul Eater has multiple forms: really big shuriken, kusari-gama, smoke-bomb, ninja blade, and, later, Demon Blade (and the several variations this mode allows). She, and the other Weapons, also counts as Equippable Allies and Shapeshifter weapon.
• Ed's arm in Fullmetal Alchemist is effectively one of these, not due to any facet of its construction, but because Ed constantly uses his alchemy to change it into various weapons, most commonly a simple blade, though he has been seen changing it into more advanced forms, such as a BFG, or even altering its chemical composition to make it more effective against certain enemies.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Negi and Albireo's book weapons. In Negi's case, he chooses an applicable name from his class register to use the pactio of. In Al's case, he uses a special book mark thanks to the sheer size of his library of names.
  • Jack Rakan has the artifact "Hero with a Thousand Faces", which can assume the form of any sword, "sword" being defined as "thing that Jack wants to hit you with".
• In YuYu Hakusho, we have the Toguro Brothers. The Elder Toguro can shapeshift into any weapon the younger, muscular Toguro wants to wield; sword, shield, you name it. When the Elder fights alone, he's a Shapeshifter Weapon.
• The "Ultimate Weapon" is the main MacGuffin during an early story arc of Space Adventure Cobra. When finally discovered, it looks rather inconspicuous: an ovoid fitting in the palm... from which an eye open. But then, if this eye catches sight of any weapon, it can turn into a copy of it... whether a sword, a gun or a tank. And the Weapon can also turn its wielder into a freaking giant along with its own scaling up. When confronted with this, Cobra takes great care of avoiding that the Weapon could become a spaceship...
• Hunter × Hunter: Kaito's weapon Crazy Slot, upon activation, turns into one of nine very different forms... at random.
• Flame of Recca: Kaoru's madōgu is a "puzzle weapon" and can be assembled five different ways; given how the weapon looks after the changes, how exactly this happens is unknown, as one form is basically a lance and another involve a long chain. The chain is shown to be hidden inside the Lance's shaft at one point, so most of the pieces are actually accounted for. The Bow and Arrow, however, is inexplicable on a lot of levels.
• MÄR: The characters fight using magical objects called Ärms. Ärms usually take the form of jewelry, and many of them, especially weapon and guardian Ärms, change into something else when they are activated. Babbo is a unique Ärm who is animate even when he hasn't been activated and also has the special power of being able to transform into anything that his user imagines, with the limitation that his transformations have to be programed into magic stones placed in him. In his normal form he is a metal ball with a face chained to a hammer, resembling a Kendama, with the ability to change size. As more magic stones are added to him, Ginta imagines more forms for him to turn into. His first transformation turns him into a metal boxing glove that can also change shape into a dagger (which kind of cheats the limits of how many forms he can have), his second transformation is a gun that fires explosive bubbles, and his third transformation is a huge gargoyle with a powerful Breath Weapon, and even more forms are added through the story.
• In Naruto, one of the Seven Swords of the Mist has the ability to change its shape.
• One Piece:
  • Ohm, one of Eneru's Priests in Skypiea, has a sword with an iron cloud dial (A seashell that emits clouds as hard as iron) built into the hilt. With it, he can make his blade as long as he wants to ranged attacks, or even a wall for defense.
  • Diamante, an Executive Officer for the Don Quixote Pirates, at the Hira Hira No Mi, allowing him to make any object he touches as malleable as a flag without compromising their structural fortitude. He keeps several folded-up weapons on his person to use when he sees fit, and at one point folds his sword into a club shaped like a bull's head.
  • A spoilery example is Nami's Clima-Tact after the soul of the homie Zeus fused with it, allowing him to change its shape to make Nami's attacks pack a lot of extra oomph.
• In Guardian Fairy Michel, after Laura repairs it, Kim's gun can turn into a magical crossbow.
• The title armors in Symphogear come with magic-based weapons that can take on a variety of forms depending on the relic fragment that powers them. For example, Ame-no-Habakiri^note a legendary katana arms Tsubasa with several flavors of Cool Sword and BFS, while Ichiaval^note a magical bow can seemingly produce any kind of ranged weapon that Chris can come up with (laser crossbows, Gatling guns, LOTS of missiles...the list goes on).
• Black Rock Shooter / Stella, the titular character of the Black★Rock Shooter franchise can change her Rock Cannon weapon into various forms, from the typical cannon to a katana, gattling gun, a huge sword, and a spectrum-laser-firing BFG as seen in the anime.
  • The offensive skills on the video game can change the equipped weapon into a homing-missile launcher, grenade launcher, hammer, chainsaw, and even a sniper rifle.
• The magic weapons in Dog Days have the power to assume whatever form the wielder desires; protagonist Cinque tends to use his as a Martial Arts Staff because he knows Bojutsu, but he's also shown transforming it into a shield, a surfboard, and even a Frisbee. However, for some reason he can't change it into a sword until the climax of the first season, where a demonic entity goes on a rampage and threatens Princess Millhiore's life.
• The Demon Girl Next Door has the 'Whatever Staff', implied to be the Biblical Aaron's rod, an Ancestral Weapon of the Yoshida family. It is an instrument of chaos with no true tangible form, and takes the shape of whatever is foremost on the bearer's mind. For Yuko, it takes the shape of a common fork when she's not using it for something else. The Whatever Staff's workings defy logic to the point that the less Yuko knows about how it works, the more she can do with it, only being held back by a lack of imagination.
• In Assault Lily: Bouquet, CHARMS are the kinds of weapons utilized by Lilies, the girls who fight monsters called Huges. The CHARMS usually have a melee mode and a ranged mode.
• Teacher in Reincarnated as a Sword gains the Shapeshifter skill, allowing him to be one for Fran. However, he's limited by how much mass he has. This weakness is later overcome when the skill evolves into Formshifting, allowing Teacher to transform into a bug, create Combat Tentacles, or form armor on Fran.

Comic Books

• Defunct comic Operation: Strikeback!'s main character Rascal had a red and white striped scarf that morphed into whatever Rascal wanted or needed at any given moment. From a frying pan to a chainsaw. Yes, a chainsaw.
• The Tactigon in Avengers: The Initiative
• In Annihilation Conquest, Wraith's polymorphic weapon took on a variety of forms, including a gun, a whip, and a small blade, and could somehow deactivate/disarm other weaponry.
• The artifacts from the Top Cow universe (The Witchblade, The Darkness, and The Angelus) act as both morphable armor and weapons.
• Death's Head II's right-arm implant.
• DC Comics: During the Druspa Tau story arc of Hawk and Dove (1990), tridic metal that let the wielder transform it into any desired weapon, using either Name Magic or a laboriously detailed knowledge of the weapon.
• Paperinik and Morgoth in Paperinik New Adventures each have such a weapon. The former has a shield with many configurations and utilites, the latter has a one-handed trinket which can turn into countless weapons such as sabers, axes, clubs, spears and even a pair of wrist-mounted wings.
• Jane Foster: Valkyrie: Undrjarn the All-Weapon, formerly a copy of Ultimate Thor's Mjolnir, which got broken during War of the Realms, and becomes stuck to Jane Foster's arm. It can turn into any weapon the situation requires, along with a shield, wings, or a grappling hook. It also seems to be slightly predictive, restraining itself from lethal force, what with Jane's Hippocratic oath and all. Jane speculates that it was always a morph weapon, but it just stuck as a hammer because that was what Thor (all three who held it) wanted.
• Magik from the X-Men and New Mutants has her Soulsword to a limited degree. It doesn't change to any other weapon besides a sword, but she's had it changed from a rapier-like long sword to a BFS greatsword and in Savage Avengers, her Soulsword is a cleaver with an odd hilt. It's power levels vary greatly as well - sometimes it can't hurt mundane living things but will stun them, other times it can't harm mundane inorganic things and then there are times when it'll shred through anything such as in the 2020 Marvel Zombies miniseries it split the Silver Surfer and his surfboard in half.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Whisper the Wolf's Variable "Wispon" is a prototype built by her old team's engineer that acts as different weapons depending on which of her Wisp allies is loaded into it, including a laser rifle, hammer, and helicopter.

Fan Works

• In Child of the Storm, Laevateinn is revealed to be this, having previously been a sword, a wand, and for the last millennium and a half a phoenix feather. No one's entirely sure, but it's hinted to have a mind of its own.
• In Danmachi: The Last King, Bell's Mjolnir has seven configurations including it's hammer form, Stormbreaker, Odinsword and the Valkyrie Shield.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero one of the slider's enemies is equipped with two of those. Later, Kyon and Fujiwara take hold of them.
• In UA:LA, One of the bad guys, Heiki has a Quirk called Cache that allows him to turn any weapon into any other weapon, if it isn't a gun.
• DNMC: This trope as already shown up at least twice with Nara's weapon Wonderful World able to shift between a Grenade Launcher and a shovel and Cyena's weapon Nilesblood able to shift between a bow and a kusarigama.
• Zero Context: Taking Out the Trash has Callista's weapon of choice, dubbed "Shape-Shifter". By default it takes the form of a purse, but it is also depicted turning into a serving tray, a flaming longsword, and a rainbow-edged scimitar that fires elemental attacks.
• The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf takes away Jaime's golden hand and returns it able to morph into whatever Jaime wants, including growing spikes to stab an attacker's arm, then a piercing tentacle to get at said attacker's heart, and also function as a normal hand. From the context it's probably been possessed by a Slaaneshi daemon.
• Vow of Nudity: Spectra the changeling gains a Pact Weapon at level 3, which she can summon as any melee weapon in the game.
• Vow of the King: Kesshōgiri's crystals can transform into a variety of forms, such as a kanabo, gauntlets, or a naginata, assuming Isane doesn't do something even simpler and just grow the crystals into giant spikes to impale an opponent.

Films — Animation

• In Barbie in the Nutcracker, the Mouse King's sword could transform into any other weapon he wanted, including a crossbow that somehow starts out with ammunition.

Films — Live-Action

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army: Prince Nuada has a spear that can change into a dagger and vice versa.
• The Cutlass from After Earth; its unique design extends its sharp-bladed ends in a variety of shapes which can be chosen by the holder, each blade shape seemingly fitting a different style of attack.

Literature

• "The Soft Weapon", a 1967 short story set in the Known Space universe, introduced the Trope Maker; the titular "soft weapon" is a combination Sonic Stunner, telescope, Energy Weapon, personal rocket, and Energy Absorber, all accessible via a sliding switch and complete with onboard AI. Hidden functions include a horizon-range Hiroshima-scale matter-to-energy converter and a Self-Destruct Mechanism.
• Iridea's Tear in The Threat from the Sea. But it's an artifact so ancient that even legends about it are mostly forgotten. A Clingy MacGuffin, it does not accept just anyone and requires proper rites for complete binding to its new owner.
• The Great Weapon Godslayer in Dragaera. However, while she's sentient, there doesn't seem to be much logic behind the forms she uses, much to the annoyance of her wielder.
  • It helps that one component in its making was an Anti-Magic chain that always became whatever length Vlad needed it to be at the time.
• One of the Sector General novels has a living continent whose only manipulative tools are silvery symbiotic organisms of organic metal, which respond to thought to reshape themselves. At close range, other sapient beings can override the vast but diffuse mental control of the landcreature.
• The Platinum Flute in the Apprentice Adept series can become any weapon or musical instrument.
• The Sartan dagger in The Death Gate Cycle not only turns itself into a weapon powerful enough to face whatever its wielder's enemies are carrying, it also changes the wielder himself if he can't handle the dagger's new form.
  • For example: an elf wielding the dagger had to face another elf with a broadsword. The dagger changed into an even bigger broadsword, which was so heavy the elf couldn't hold it — so the dagger gave the elf two new arms. (This is when the elf died of shock, by the way.)
  • Sometimes, if the wielder is facing an opponent more powerful than the dagger, it will actually summon something capable of defeating the opponent, rather than turning into it. As a result, a protagonist finding himself threatened by a bunch of Knight Templar demigods accidentally used it to summon a swarm of omnicidal undead, which didn't improve the situation any....
• Dom Sabalos of The Dark Side of the Sun has a "memory sword", which is essentially a hilt containing a device which can produce different types of blades, laser and molecular stripper energy weapons, or even a projectile gun that freezes bullets out of atmospheric moisture.
• The Mesmerist shiftblades in The Deepgate Codex are souls of the dead conditioned to serve as morph weapons.
• The Dark Angel Trilogy has Curoch, which can be made to change into whatever form best suits it.
• The Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff from the New Jedi Order has a comparatively mild version of this power. It can change its length, thickness, and density according to the will of its wielder, meaning that it can quickly shift from whip to spear to staff to sword and back again - and in any of its rigid states, it's durable enough to block a lightsaber. Oh, and it's also a living snake-like creature, meaning that on one end (the "hilt" of its sword form) is a head with venomous fangs that can bite or spit poison, too.
• In Words of Radiance, we find out that a true Shardblade, being wielded by its bonded Radiant, can morph into whatever shape its wielder desires, including non-bladed weapons like hammers and shields. This is because the Blades are actually spren. The ones everyone else is using are dead, but the ones the Radiants use are alive. In Edgedancer, we find out that they don't have to be weapons per se, though apparently any points will still be Absurdly Sharp Blades which makes a Shardfork impractical as an eating utensil. And Lift's spren really doesn't like hurting people, so that Shardblade will only turn into a staff in combat.
• Some of the keys in Keys to the Kingdom are capable of this.
  • The first key, when separated into the minute and hour hand appear as daggers and knives. But when combined they fuse into a sword.
  • The third key in its default form appears like a three-pronged table fork, but in battle mode it changes into a full-length trident with sharpened ends.
  • The fourth key has the default form of a marshal's baton, but turns into a broadsword when Sir Thursday wields it, and into a rapier when Arthur gets into combat.
• Razors in Red Rising can be considered this.
  • When not being used, it's just a relatively harmless whip. But with the push of a button, it extends, hardens, and flattens into a sword.
  • The shape of the blade can even be customized mid-battle, changing from a standard sword to a curved sickle in an instant.
• Carol Berg's Rai Kirah series describes:
  the silver Warden’s knife that could be changed to whatever weapon was needed, that could slice through the incorporeal body of a demon if you could calculate exactly where that was.
• Saintess Summons Skeletons: Pareth's [Shapeless weapon of light] can change size and shape depending on what would be best for the situation. Despite the name, it doesn't even have to be a weapon; he can equally make a tower shield. He's turned it into a dagger, katana, claymore, spear, mace, lance, war hammer, spiked or clawed gauntlet, and even a giant pair of shears. As a chicken skeleton, he was able to get around the lack of hands by turning it into chicken claws of holy light.
• Somewhither: Abby's kusarigama-like weapon has a chain that can lengthen or retract, and act as a winch to pull her and others up.
• Jason from The Heroes of Olympus has a coin called Ivlivs (well, technically "Julius") which, when flipped, turns into a spear or a sword depending on which side comes down.
• Lucy Ellingson in Pale receives a ring from her benefactor, Miss, which transforms ordinary objects into weapons—her preferences are short swords, quarterstaffs, and a handgun.
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: As a reference to Quick Draw McGraw, Flora's magical lute becomes more of a weapon when she says "El Kabong!". A.k.a turning into a spiked club.
• N.E.R.D.S.: Thanks to being enhanced with nanomachines, Jackson's braces can extend and transform into many simple gadgets, including but not limited to, tentacle-like arms, Spider Limbs and giant power fists.
• In The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign, the Sword of Unsullied Truth usually takes the form of a dress wrapped around the White Queen, but shapeshifts into an entire forest of weapons whenever she doesn't feel like attacking with her bare hands. It is partly sapient, and in response to her Villainous BSoD in Volume 9, flies off to become a world-crushing, ever-expanding dome.
• Worth the Candle: Joon is quite pleased to come across the Anyblade, which was a concept from one of his D&D campaigns. It can change its shape and size at the direction of the owner in just about any way, so long as it's still a blade. It's later absorbed by Zona the sentient house, allowing her to dramatically alter her own form so long as she's still a house.

Live-Action TV

• Kamen Rider Kuuga's alternate forms can change random objects into their weapon of choice, with the caveat that they have to resemble the weapon in question; Dragon Form's staff and Titan Form's sword can come from any stick-like object,^note though for the Titan Sword he usually uses the baton stored as his Cool Bike's handlebar, but Pegasus Form's bowgun requires some form of gun.
• Kamen Rider Den-O's DenGasher consists of four pieces which can be configured into a number of different weapons, each of which is the weapon of choice for one of his forms, including a sword, spear/fishing rod, axe, gun, paired handaxe and boomerang, and naginata. Zeronos' ZeroGasher works on a similar principle, but only has two forms, greatsword and crossbow. The various movie-exclusive villains tend to use unique variations on the DenGasher, to go along with the fact that most of them are made from modified Den-O costumes; the best example is G Den-O, which he wields as a gun and jutte.
• Kamen Rider Ghost's Gan Gun Saber operates on the same principle as the DenGasher. It starts out as a typical two-edged sword that can separate into two single-edged swords, which can then be put back together to form a double-bladed naginata, or be transformed into a gun. Add-ons allow it turn into a bowgun, a rifle, and a hammer.
• Super Sentai:
  • Himitsu Sentai Gorenger: Each of the Gorangers have a weapon or tool they can summon by pulling off the outer layer of visor from their helmet, which then transforms. Some of them have multiple forms that their visor weapon can take. The Goranger's finishing move, an explosive ball that they pass around to charge it up, is eventually upgraded to have the power to transform into something the target is weak against.
    • Akaranger's visor weapon normally is a whip but he occasionally turns it into a spear or a net, and in one episode he turned it into a drill. After receiving an upgrade, he can also turn the end of the whip into a claw.
    • Aoranger's visor weapon is a bow.
    • Kiranger initially has no visor weapon, but later gains a device called the YTC that has multiple uses. After being upgraded, the YTC is replaced with a pole weapon that comes in a long and short form and can be tipped with either a spear head or with a hand that can make Rock, Paper, and Scissors gestures, usually used in Rock form for whacking enemies.
    • Momoranger's visor weapon is a small mirror that can change sizes, used for blinding enemies and reflecting light-based attacks. After being upgraded, she can also turn it into a handful of shuriken-like weapons for throwing at enemies.
    • Midoranger's visor weapon is a boomerang, and after being upgraded he can also turn it into a slingshot.
  • Seijuu Sentai Gingaman (and by extension Power Rangers Lost Galaxy) give the main five Rangers a common weapon that can turn into one of five forms, each Ranger having his or her preferred mode instead of a personal Power Weapon, but not being totally averse to changing it if the situation calls for it.
  • Juken Sentai Gekiranger has Geki Blue and Geki Yellow both wielding the Geki Tonfa, which can be used as a pair of dual-wielded tonfa or combined together into a single bo staff called the Geki Tonfa Long Baton. Curiously, in Power Rangers Jungle Fury, the Blue Ranger only uses the Jungle Tonfa and the Yellow Ranger only uses the Jungle Bo, never switching between the two forms or even it being implied that they are the same base components in the show despite it being a single toy.
  • Shuriken Sentai Ninninger gives the team the Karakuri Hengen, a shuriken-shaped weapon that can become a blade, bow, or claw. Power Rangers Ninja Steel gives the weapon an extra function by turning it into the season's Transformation Trinket^note In Ninninger the Rangers transform with their Cool Swords, but Bandai asked Saban to change it to sell more toys.
  • Uchu Sentai Kyuranger operates on the same principle as Den-O above with Kyu The Weapon, the primary weapon for the core team. It consists of three parts (a sword blade, an axe blade, and a grip/beam gun) that can be configured to produce a total of nine different weapons. Sixth Rangers Ryu Commander and Hou'ou Soldier each have their own unique weapons, while quasi-Sixth Koguma Skyblue just uses the same weapon as his Big Brother Mentor Sasori Orange.
• The New Adventures of Robin Hood: The unicorn horn in "Devil's Bride" which can become almost anything, including a Laser Blade.
• Ka D'argo's Qualta blade in Farscape is a traditional Luxan weapon, a broadsword that can convert to a powerful pulse rifle: the blade splits to uncover the barrel, while the hilt and guard become the stock and grip.
• Return of Ultraman: The Ultra Bracelet, Ultraman Jack's backup weapon which he received halfway through the series, where when summoned it assumes the default shape of a dart, but can morph into a lance, a sword, a shield, a capsule, a giant mirror, an exploding projectile...
• In Supergirl (2015), Alex, in her yet-to-be-named superhero persona, wields a Martian weapon that, like its shapeshifting creators, can become whatever the user thinks of.

Myths & Religion

• Hindu Mythology has Varunastra, the weapon of Varuna, god of water. It is made of water, and can take the form of any weapon as well as summon torrents of water.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Morphing is a magical ability that can be put on a weapon, allowing you to change the weapon within its size category (Light, One-Handed, or Two-Handed). However, since attack range and actual weapon properties stop becoming issues by the time you can have a +3 sword (+1 enhancement, +2 morphing), it is one of, if not the most, useless abilities in the game.
  • A Rod of Surprises can change into one of several weapons, each being close to the concept of "decent-sized stick with a blade on one end". It has a few other functions, but those are the main ones. A DM may also allow a player to apply the Morphing enchantment as well. Since the Rod can change into at least one weapon from all three categories, the rod can now become, with a little prep time, any melee weapon ever published. Of course, all the good ones require special training, but that can be solved by taking a level in Warblade, which actually has Instant Expert as a class feature.
  • A Rod of Lordly Might has six buttons on its shaft that allow its wielder to turn it into a mace, flaming sword, battle axe, spear of 6-15 feet of length, or handheld battering ram; it can also be turned into a climbing pole. The Rod of Lordly Might or Might Not from Dragon magazine includes the weapon form of +3 backscratcher.
  • The Soulknife class is a psychic character who wields blades of psionic energy. They begin with a short sword and later can throw it, and around 5th level they can start changing what the blade looks like, from a short sword, to a greatsword, to a bastard sword, to two short swords. With feats they can turn their mindblade into other weapons as well.
  • The Sizing quality allows you to change the weapon's size category. Between this and Morphing, a single weapon effectively becomes every weapon ever.
  • Karach is an element found in Limbo which can be shaped by the strong-willed and is used by the githzerai, who inhabit the plane.
  • Warlocks in 5th edition who choose the Pact of the Blade get one of these as the symbol of their bond with their patron. It counts as a generically magical weapon and takes whatever form its wielder wishes, changing whenever they want — and, as part of the magic, its wielder is automatically proficient with it, allowing a warlock to casually use any weapon, even if they wouldn't be able to use the mundane version. Also overlaps with Spontaneous Weapon Creation, as it is literally shaped out the warlock's magic and dissipates back into the ether when dismissed or the warlock falls unconscious.
• Exalted: The Lunar Exalted have Moonsilver, which changes and flows constantly. One of the higher level abilities usable with moonsilver weapons is the ability to have a piece break off and burrow to the target's brain. There are also Charms that allow a Lunar to reshape a moonsilver weapon into any other moonsilver weapon they need, be it an axe, sword, or bow.
• Rifts:
  • The Phase World setting has a race named for Japanese mythology, who use advanced nanotech to make a weapon known as the Daisho-10, a laser pistol which can transform into a short vibro-sword and back on command. Less legally, there is also a "Ninja-10" available, which also has the third form of a video camera or pocket computer (fully functional, too, to avoid suspicion).
  • When Cyberknights got the Power Creep, Power Seep treatment, one of the new abilities allow them to change the appearance of their signature weapon, the Psi-Sword. Changing its shape does not change its abilities, however, and maintaining the altered shape burns up the Cyberknight's attacks per round, so its actual usefulness is questionable.
• Games Workshop games:
  • In both Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000, the Changeling carries the Trickster's Staff, a weapon that shares its wielder's shape-changing abilities enabling it to take on the form and abilities of its opponent's weaponry.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • The Yncarne, the Avatar of the Aeldari God of the Dead, wields Vilith-zhar, the Sword of Souls. This powerful Cronesword is able to transform into any weapon that suits the Yncarne's immediate needs, from a BFS to a pair of smaller blades, and anything in between. To reflect this, the Yncarne model can be constructed with either a single large blade or two smaller ones.
    • Obliterators are able to morph their arms into whatever weapon they require for the current situation (e.g. flamer against melee troops, bolters against infantry, lascannons against vehicles).

Toys

• BIONICLE: The Toa Nuva's new Adaptive Armor and corresponding weapons automatically shape-shift to fit the environment and/or the foes they are facing. Upon teleporting into Karda Nui and finding themselves in midair, the Toa saw that their armor had already grown wings and jets; while the weapons became light-shooting "Skyblasters", perfect for battling the shadowy, bat-like Makuta that had invaded the area. It's worth noting that this is a Merchandise-Driven example; by giving the Toa shapeshifting armor, LEGO would've theoretically been able to create new figures without worrying about them looking different... if BIONICLE hadn't been canned two years later and that wave had pretty much been the last appearances of the characters.
• The line wide gimmick to the toyline accompanying Transformers: Dark of the Moon was Mechtech, large weapons that could transform between 2 different forms through a spring-loaded system.

Web Animation

• Banana-nana-Ninja!: In the Feast Master story arc, the Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget can turn into a variety of cooking utensils and appliances, as well as a Humongous Mecha used in the final battle.
• "Trilby Dogtooth" by Harry Partridge shows a non-magical example by having the title character use a billystick that can change into a slingshot.

Webcomics

• APT Comic: Ammika's locket. It's a sword! It's a flail- er, mace! It's a cat!
• Axe Cop: Fire Slicer has a sword that can turn into a torch and then back into a sword, so he can set his opponents on fire while he's cutting them in half.
• In Darken, there's Shard, a sentient, evil sword, who can change himself into whatever form of weapon is most advantageous. Although he's more likely to change into whatever's funny...
• Earth, 2068: The PEMWAM is a handle which can become one of multiple weapons.
• Goblins:
  • Dies-Horribly's metal arm. It's also an Empathic Weapon with Power Incontinence for a triple-threat.
  • Downplayed by the Axe of Prissan; it was intended to be used by multiple individuals and so can alter its size to suit the needs of whoever wields it, but its basic form will always be an axe.
• Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy: The title character's sceptre is supposed to be only able to morph into various eating utensils, but she manages to get around this by arguing that a sawblade can be used as an eating utensil.
• Juathuur: Beisaru's staff can be made longer and sharper.
• MS Paint Adventures: Two stories have featured transforming weapons in several ways.
  • In Problem Sleuth, almost every weapon in the "game" has a duality mechanic that causes it to transform, then revert back to, an apparently innocuous item (for example, the three main characters start their segments with a doorkey/handgun, a ring of keysTommy gun, and a hairpin/heavy machine gun respectively) between commands/panels. Most of these items, especially in the first third of the comic, would have been extremely useful in the playable characters' various quests to escape their rooms...if it weren't for the fact that the "game" (the comic's author) actively antagonizes the player/reader by triggering the weapon/item switch at the most inopportune times. At first, this is treated as something like a glitch, to the point that some commands fail when it is acted upon the item not currently in the inventory. Later on, however, the switch ends up being exploited to perform more powerful attacks (cf. the two female heroes intentionally swapping a paint-roller/stun-gun, a tube of lipstick/chainsaw, a teddy bear/knife, and a can of paint stripper/flamethrower to deal serious combo damage to a boss), and generally stops being an inconvenience so that it can be used in cool ways.
  • Homestuck: Shapeshifting weapons become increasingly common as the story continues. This is shown in several forms, most of which reference Problem Sleuth in some way:
    • In the Midnight Crew Intermission, the four members of the titular gang use the Problem Sleuth inventory system, including weapon/item duality. In this case, their weapons all swap into playing cards, and the only “item” slot each has is reserved for a deck of cards that swaps into...a large container with even more weapons inside. Unlike in Problem Sleuth, however, the Crew are fully aware of the duality mechanic and can swap their cards/weapons at will. Much, much later, the Crew's leader recruits the surviving members of rival gang The Felt to replace the other three now-dead Midnight Crew members, orders them to climb into a hammerspace oven belonging to a Felt member, and swaps the oven into a "13 of Stars" card (which briefly confuses him) before slipping it into his deck and escaping from the blazing ruins of The Felt's mansion as the universe collapses around them.
    • One of the alien "troll" characters, Kanaya Maryam, is introduced with "makeupkind" as her preferred weapon category. Throughout the rest of the story, her weapons are shown to be tubes of lipstick that transform into chainsaws; again unlike Problem Sleuth, Kanaya's weapon-swap is willing and visible, and shows that the chainsaw mechanically folds into a lipstick tube.
    • Dave Strider, a human character, initially uses "bladekind” as a highly-effective swordfighter. After a climactic fight with his Bro, the latter shatters Dave's sword so thoroughly that it actually alters his weapon system to "1/2bladekind," restricting him specifically to broken, half-bladed swords. Fortunately, upon entering his friends' Sburb session, he quickly leverages the game's ridiculously-advanced "alchemy" system and his growing time-manipulation powers to craft 1/2bladekind weapons that he can temporarily “rewind” to use in their unbroken states.
    • Another human player, Jane Crocker, starts with the relatively useless "spoonkind" and a giant spoon to go with it, but after a significant event, the spoon (and Jane's strife specibus) morph into "forkkind." At this point, she can swap her weapons from spoons to forks on command. Like Kanaya's make-up, the change is visibly mechanical.
    • Finally, the alien "cherub" twins Calliope and Caliborn, as well as Caliborn's older-self Lord English, all use weapons that notably swap in a non-mechanical way, simply blurring from one form to the other. Calliope uses a wand that swaps into a revolver, while Caliborn and Lord English use heavy canes that swap into assault rifles.
• In The Story of Anima, How Dante's Animus manifests. Its base form is a black fluid that he can shape into the desired weapon, from a scythe to a monster-sized guillotine.
• Supernormal Step: Fiona's weapon manifests a variety of shapes out of its apparently-fixed handle. So far she doesn't seem to have much control over its shifting.
• Swords has the "Quicksilver Sword" invented by Fphergus Fphancyforge, which can adapt to multiple situations. Swallowing it is ill-advised, though.
• Tales of the Questor: Wildcard, the sword-of-a-million-tricks, made this trick number 1,000,001, debuting this new ability by lobotomizing a dragon.
• Tower of God: Green April, a hook-like baton that can grow into a giant whip and also splits into several sub-branches.
• Yokoka's Quest: Yokoka and Mao wear ribbons which they can transform into weapons at will in the earlier chapters. Yokoka changes hers into a sword, and Mao changes his into both a whip and a dagger.

Web Originals

• In Chaos Fighters-Route of Peaks, Cogra's pen has a laser blade and it can change into a gun pod and a shield.
• In Worm, Miss Militia has this as her superpower. She can manifest any handheld weapon she wants, and never has to reload.
• Whateley Universe: Absinthe's weapon, Needle, has sword, and spear forms.

Western Animation

• Of the funny variant; in the Van Beuren Studios Tom & Jerry^note No relation to the famous cat and mouse duo short "Rabid Hunters", Tom corners a rabbit, first pulling out a handgun, but then he turns it into a hunting rifle on the spot.
• The Lotus Blade in Kim Possible.
• Yang's bamboo sword in Yin Yang Yo!
• The Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "Enchanted Adventures" stars a knight named Galen who is armed with a sword he can command to change into other weapons.
• Xiaolin Showdown does one of these with Omi's Shimo Staff.
• There is a transforming sword in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987). Splinter is the only ninja skilled enough to wield it; otherwise, it sprouts extra blades and such uncontrollably.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power:
  • She-Ra's power sword can change shape when she says the phrase "Sword to <desired shape>".
  • Her friend Bow's... bow can change into a lute whenever he wants to sing a song. This doesn't come up very often, thankfully.
  • Hordak, who can shapeshift his own body into any kind of weapon needed.
• The Continuity Reboot She-Ra and the Princesses of Power retains the shapeshifting nature of She-Ra's sword, but she just has to will the sword to change shape now. It takes her a while to get the hang of it, in the process discovering that its list of forms includes things like "coffee mug" and "flute" for some reason.
• Inspector Gadget's hat can function as one when it deigns working right.
• The Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Slaver Weapon" involves Spock, Sulu and Uhura held captive by a crew of Kzinti (the episode was written by Larry Niven, adapted from his own "The Soft Weapon") while carrying a case of artifacts from a long-lost race called the Slavers. One of the artifacts turns out to be a hand-held weapon that can change form with a twist of a dial, from an energy pistol similar to a phaser, to a telescope, to a vocalizing computer, to a long-range weapon that carries the impact of a small nuclear bomb. Fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, it also has a self-destruct (which the vocalizing computer tricked the Kzinti into triggering). Sulu hypothesized that the device was used for espionage instead of combat, since the average grunt wouldn't need all those settings.
• Star Trek: Prodigy: The metallic lattice Gwyn wears on her arm is a shapeshifting metal that she controls by thought, willing it into whatever shape she needs. She's demonstrated blade and shield forms when fighting Rok. Besides using it as a weapon, she has also used it as a splint when she broke her leg and as a rope when Dal rescued her from the "Murder Planet". She can control it over long distances, allowing her to summon it to her even when isolated in different rooms. She can even reassemble it when it is shattered into small pieces.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: While the Royal Magic Wand will automatically shift itself depending on the user’s personality, the user can also transform it into a different weapon. One time, Star turned the wand into a mace.
• Guardian Keytools from ReBoot (also an Artifact of Power), such as Bob's Glitch.
• Galtar and the Golden Lance: The title weapon is somewhere between this trope and Swiss-Army Weapon as it starts off as a stick that looks like a pair of collapsed pummels, extends into a double-sword/lance, can bifuburcate into a pair of swords, or recombine into a more powerful sword.
• The Bayard sidearm from Voltron: Legendary Defender, which goes from a knuckleduster-like standby mode, to a Hard Light projected weapon fit for its Paladin wielder. Big Bad Emperor Zarkon, the original Black Paladin ten millennia back, kept his Bayard when he betrayed his team. He's shown to be able to access multiple weapon modes, including (but likely not limited to) a cutlass, energy shield, BFG, chain whip, giant mace, and BFS!
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise has Decepticon Hunters, able to take the form of any weapon the wielder can think of. Each of the team has his or her preferred mode, but will use other forms as needed.
• Lord Dominator from Wander over Yonder can morph the gloves on her armor into any sort of weapon she desires, but usually sticks to just shooting blasts of lava and icicles later on. In "The Battle Royale", she contemplates about what one to use to make her grand entrance.
• The Owl House:
  • Some witches use abomination magic this way, shaping various weapons from the same slime typically used to form a Muck Monster.
  • Big Bad Emperor Belos can also do the same in his cursed state, morphing his own arms into blades and axes.
  • Jean-Luc can do this too, due to being a golem.
• Zak Storm has Calabrass, a talking sword who can gift his wielder Elemental Powers via the Eyes of the Seven Seas. When using The Eye of Dezer, Beru, Zite, Vapir or Aeria, Calabrass changes from a sword into one of the following weapons:
  • A hammer, club or shield when the Eye of Dezer is used.
  • A hybrid of a shield and a water canon when the Eye of Beru is used.
  • An axe or a shuriken attached to a flail when the Eye of Zite is used.
  • A staff when the Eye of Vapir is used.
  • An axe or shield when the Eye of Aeria is used.

Real Life

• The CardShard Credit Card Knife is a knife which can transform into a card. One day, we'd have to pay attention to people playing with cards.

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