The Hammer-Heads of Oz are a rather small and rare race, who live strictly on the top of a high and dry rocky mountain in the red Quadling Country of the Land of Oz. Not too much is known about them and they only make a few appearances in the Oz stories.
The Hammer-Head tribe of Oz.
The Hammer-Heads are not very sociable and do not interact with anyone else in Oz, preferring to stick close with their own kind. They are not nice at all or welcoming to visiters who come across them, being quite unfriendly creatures who are sometimes even hostile and violent. They do not compromise with anyone or thing and are difficult and disagreeable. They will not allow any travelers to cross and pass the mountain they live on and dwell within because it is their territory. The Hammer-Heads do not like to be disturbed and are usually avoided by the majority of people who live in Oz. Like the fierce Kalidahs in the forest of Oz, the Hammer-Heads are also refereed to and known as mysteriously unpleasant "Wild Creatures" who will harm others out of mere spite.
Original Description
Placed as another rough obstacle Dorothy Gale and her companions must venture through on their Journey, these peculiar creatures are not happy to see the traveling group of friends as they approach them.
Hammer-Heads 1900.
Baum introduces the Hammer-Heads towards the ending of the first Oz story 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'. They are rather funny looking critters who are short, stubby and stout with no arms at all. Their big oversized heads are flat on top, and their necks are incredibly long like elastic, stretching out like an accordion. They can shoot these necks out like a spring of a Jack in the Box. This allows the Hammer-Heads to defend themselves as they will strike at intruders with their heads to knock them down hard to keep them away.
The Hammer-Heads knock down the helpless Scarecrow.
After hitting their targets, they then quickly pull their slinky like necks back to their shoulders and back into place until someone else steps foot on their mountain or comes too close to their turf.(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
Adaptations
The Hammer-Heads appeared in the Broadway musical Wicked. They perform a small number during the intermission between act 1 and act 2.
In Magician of Oz (2009), by James C. Wallace II, the Hammer-Heads are viewed from afar as Jamie Diggs, the great grandson of O.Z. Diggs, travels with Dorothy and Glinda to the Tin Palace of the Tin Woodman. Known as the Valley of Fear and located between the Forest of the Fighting Trees and the base of the Mountain of the Hammer-Heads, it is the place where Jamie Diggs confronts his fear of the dreaded hammer-Heads, who he had learned earlier had threatened his great grandfather, O.Z. Diggs, the Wizard of Oz.