Clanker

Clanker

Game(s)	Banjo-Kazooie Banjo-Pilot (cameo) Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
World(s)	Clanker's Cavern (B-K) Banjoland (N&B)
Speech icon(s)

“Bzzz...I am Clanker, witch's garbage grinder. Clanker not like dirty water, want fresh air.”

—Clanker, Banjo-Kazooie

Clanker is a large mechanical whale who reluctantly serves as Gruntilda's garbage grinder in Banjo-Kazooie. He is featured in the level Clanker's Cavern, which also includes his name in it.

Appearance

Clanker has an outward metallic shell held together by individual tiles. Despite his mechanical appearance, Clanker also has some exposed flesh on the sides of his body, which is supported by his whole interior, entirely made up of organic material. Although Clanker is a whale (which is also mentioned in a Grunty's Furnace Fun question), he also sports the gills of a fish and the teeth and fin of a shark. However, Clanker still retains some features.

History

Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo and Kazooie swimming at the side of Clanker

In his main and debut appearance, Clanker is bound to a massive chain in the large, central room of Clanker's Cavern. Most of the level is centered around Clanker, as the level title suggests. Almost his entire body is submerged underwater. When Banjo and Kazooie first encounter Clanker, he explains his unfortunate circumstance of breathing in unclean water and wants to breathe in clean air instead. To free him, Banjo and Kazooie must swim far downward into a circular area where Clanker is chained from. To free him, Banjo must turn a large key by swimming through its loop three times. By doing so, Clanker moves up to the water surface, and a Jiggy appears on his back as a reward for Banjo and Kazooie to obtain.

After the duo obtain the Jiggy, Clanker asks for their help again and complains that his teeth are hurting because he ate too much garbage. There are two floating platforms, with each one respectively positioned on Clanker's left and right side. Kazooie must fire an egg into Clanker's two gold teeth to knock each one over; each tooth is adjacent to one of the platforms. After firing at both teeth, Clanker tells the duo that he feels better and thanks them.

The duo can enter inside Clanker through either opening and explore Clanker's large interior. When Kazooie fires an egg at his right gold tooth, Clanker tells them that he swallowed a reward. By entering from this side, Banjo and Kazooie can obtain another Jiggy, which is placed at the tip of Clanker's knocked over gold tooth. Banjo and Kazooie can enter from either side to explore the interior of Clanker. The inside of Clanker features a couple of enemies, including Snippets, Whiplashes, and even some hazards such as rapidly spinning blades. There a few exits inside of Clanker that cause Banjo and Kazooie to exit from his gills.

Banjo and Kazooie can obtain a third Jiggy from Clanker by standing atop the large bolt that he breathes in and out of his blowhole. When Clanker spits up the bolt, Banjo and Kazooie are carried up to a small, narrow area with a Jiggy.

Banjo-Pilot

Clanker's cameo appearance in Banjo-Pilot

Clanker makes a cameo appearance in the background of the Clanker's River course in Banjo-Pilot. His flesh chunks are shown in a more reddish-orange color.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

“Clanker was the star of his very own level, Clanker's Cavern in Banjo-Kazooie. Getting him here in one piece was difficult, but the many uses of his ramp-shaped head made it all worthwhile.”

—Banjoland description

Clanker returns as a Banjoland exhibit in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Here, L.O.G. has separated him into multiple sections. His head sticks out of the wall as an exhibit while his teeth appear as a separate display; a portion of his body containing spinning blades serves as a tunnel; the remainder of him is lodged into the ground as a ramp and bridge. One of the challenges involves protecting his eyes from being stolen by attacking Gruntbots. His blowhole seems to be absent in this game.

Gallery

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  Clanker's appearance in Banjo-Kazooie

Trivia

The preliminary design of Clanker from an earlier version of Banjo-Kazooie

• The sounds of Clanker speaking are different than any other character in the Banjo-Kazooie series, as he will make very long groans while speaking, whereas any other character makes constant short-timed mumbles. According to Grant Kirkhope, the sounds of Clanker are actually those of Banjo's slowed down; he mentioned this in both a "Guest Grumps" video and the Rare Revealed video, "Five Things You Didn't Know About Banjo-Kazooie".
• Earlier versions show Clanker appearing to be a living, organic creature. Many beta shots show Clanker opening his mouth fully wide open after knocking out his teeth, but it was never seen in the final version of the game.