| This article contains information that does not coincide with the main series canon. | (Similar) |
|
This article is about the vehicle in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. For other uses, see Tank (disambiguation). |
King Dedede's Tank was King Dedede's original transportation device in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. It appeared until the episode The Kirby Derby - Part I, where it was replaced by the Limousine he purchased from Nightmare Enterprises in that episode (although it made a cameo appearance in a picture of Dedede and Escargoon in the episode Escar-Gone). The origins of the tank are unknown, but it's very likely that he also purchased it from N.M.E. The tank is driven by Escargoon whilst the king rides shotgun to handle the cannon. The cannon itself was the reason that Kirby remained in Cappy Town at the conclusion of Kirby Comes to Cappy Town, and it has been used in later episodes, usually to herd Kirby towards his latest monster, or to just be a nuisance in general.
King Dedede's Tank as it appears in the English Dub.
The tank resembles a jeep with a large cannon situated on the passenger side. It also has a large cylindrical metal container attached to the back, which is used to securely contain and transport objects (including living beings like Kirby). They are collected off the ground and placed into the tank's container, by means of a long robotic arm with a claw that extends from the inside of the container. In the Japanese version of the anime, the tank was painted in military camouflage colors; in the English dub, it was recolored with an orange color scheme with King Dedede's emblem painted on the front.
The tank's paint job could have been changed to identify it more strongly with King Dedede, to avoid the use of military imagery in a negative context (especially in the years following 9/11), or both. As the tank appears in many episodes and is shown from complex angles with 3D rendering, editing it for localization would have been a significant undertaking, so the change must have been deemed important and necessary by 4Kids.
Trivia[]
- King Dedede's tank can be seen in the Japanese colors (the military palette) for a split second in the dub of Un-Reality TV. This was almost certainly a mistake.