The Paddler

The Paddlers (ピンポン人) are blue, box-headed humanoid figures resembling the Space Dancers who first appear in Rhythm Rally in Rhythm Heaven and Rhythm Heaven Megamix.

Story
These strange beings live on planet Ping-Pong, and on a diet of table tennis. If they stop playing, they grow weak and sickly. Some have successfully weaned themselves off table tennis by substituting paddle ball. In rare cases, some of them turn into dancers.

They are also described as being Racing Fans, appearing in Freeze Frame. A pair of Paddlers can also be spotted in the crowd in Battle of the Bands. The image of a Paddler can be seen occasionally in Cheer Readers 2.

Throughout Rhythm Heaven, the Paddlers play table tennis is a variety of locations, such as a featureless white plain, a tropical island (where their color changes to orange), and outer space on a UFO. In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, they play in a cardboard room, on a giant flower, a giant cake and a barbershop (where their color changes to red). In Cosmic Rhythm Rally, they take on the appearance of the Cosmo Dancers.

In Rhythm Tengoku Gold Comic 05 彼らのダンスがすごい理由の巻 (Why Their Dance is Amazing by Maki), a trio of Paddlers are shown trying to do the Space Dance, but always coming up short. Suddenly, what appears to be Space Gramps in Paddler attire comes in to suggest they play table tennis to get back in the groove. They find this method to work, and continue their dancing, albeit as Space Dancers.

Appearances

 * Game 3DS ntrPingpong S.png Rhythm Rally
 * Game 3DS ntrPingpong L.png Rhythm Rally 2
 * Game DS 2-5.png Remix 2
 * Game DS 8-1.png Rhythm Rally 2 (Rhythm Heaven only)
 * Game DS 8-5.png Remix 8
 * Game DS 10-5.png Remix 10
 * Game DS B-Complete.png Battle of the Bands (cameo)
 * Game Wii 9-2.png Cheer Readers 2 (cameo)
 * Game 3DS remix 04.png Barbershop Remix
 * Game 3DS remix TED 2.png Final Remix

Trivia

 * The presence of Paddlers who look like the Cosmo Dancers in Cosmic Rhythm Rally implies that both Space Dancers and Cosmo Dancers come from different looking Paddlers.