Top Five #037: Pop Culture Vehicles
Top Five is a show where the hosts categorize, rank, compare, and stratify everything… from cars to gadgets to people and movies. From stuff that is hot, and things that are not nearly as interesting – it’s Top Five.
It gets the characters from Point A to Point B – our favorite Pop Culture Vehicles!
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21 Comments
WTH???? None of you chose any of my top 5 (although Rodrigo came the closet):
5 – KITT – no one listed KITT – ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! this is the best freaking car EVER! It’s what made Trans-Am as cool! (Sorry – Stephen, Rockford Files was a great show, but not 100% for the car, Knight Rider was all about the car)
4 – Robotech VF1 – it was the best and first airplane that turned into a super suit which was awesome!
3 – Airwolf – similar to Knight Rider, but as a kid who LOVED and grew up around aircraft… this was the BEST Helicopter (better than Blue Thunder) and I loved it as a show when I was a kid soooooo much… I know it’s more ambiguous than some of your other references, but I miss “The Lady”…
2 – TARDIS – OK, I know Doctor Who is waaaaayyyy overplayed, but it’s a really cool vehicle, you can go to any time or point in space… just amazing
1 – The Enterprise (NCC1701-D or E) – not on the list… W.T.F. are you kidding me…. Millennium Falcon has got NOTHING on this mother lover – there would be no Millennium Falcon without the Enterprise NCC-1701 (Yes, George Lucas even admits that he took concepts from the Enterprise for the falcon)
Honorable Mentions:
Silver – from Lone Ranger (no one brought that up)
Thunderbirds – All of them
Optimus Prime – OK, that one might be a bit of a stretch, but he’s still cool!
5. The A-Team’s Van from the A-Team – The mobile base of operations for the A-Team. This GMC cargo van had an awesome red strip up the side culminating in a spoiler! Reliable, and seemingly bulletproof, this vehicle got our heroes out of many a scrape. Had a Hot Wheels or Matchbox version of this one for a while allowing me to have crossover adventures with the General Lee.
4. Comet the Wonder Horse-Brisco County Jr.- Comet saved Brisco’s life on more than one occasion. He could apparently communicate with Brisco and it was sometimes implied he was the smartest character on the show.
3 The Lexx – from Lexx – With a dragonfly’s eyes and body, the Lexx is the size of a city and super cool. Sentient and excessively literal at executing instructions the Lexx is the most powerful weapon in two universes and happens ti be in the hands of a sex obsessed, blithering idiot. 3b; The Moths, smaller short-range shuttle type craft within the Lexx used for shorter voyages.
2. The Phantom Cruiser from Space Ghost – A super sleek 60s design by Alex Toth just looked cool as hell. Capable of interstellar travel, it could turn invisible and was essential in Space Ghost and company’s battle agains E-Vil!
1. Mad Max’s Interceptor from the Mad Max films – What better way to make your way around an apocalyptic wasteland than in Max’s Modified 1973 XB GT Ford Falcon Coupe. Tough as hell, and just like Max, it can take a hell of a beating but can still turn around and dish one out!
wow – forgot about the A-Team van… good call man, good call… Comet was cool, but I think Silver and then Trigger were better horses personally…
5. The Gummi Ship from Kingdom Hearts – I know most people hated the Gummi Ships, but I had so much fun making an awesome spaceship and flying from world to world, blowing the crap out of everything.
4. Bumblebee – Transformers have got to be the best of ALL ROBOTS and this guy could be my best friend and turn into a car (for those times when I want him to be low profile).
3. Chocobos – You guys mentioned Chocobos in your honorable mentions, but I gotta say that these things are sweet. Super fast, super cute, all awesome all the time.
2. James Bond’s Aston Martin – Another one you mentioned in the podcast. I had to put 1 real automobile on the list and how can you go wrong with a super stylish, gadget filled sports car? No one gonna mess with you in this baby.
1. Falkor the Luckdragon – The Flying Dragon (I always thought it was a dog) from The NeverEnding Story. He was cuddly and could breathe blue fire. 100000% chance that he was the inspiration for Appa from Avatar :The Last Airbender.
As a last comment… How disappointed was I that the Zords were not Matthew’s #1 and the Batmobile as Stephen’s???
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THIS MUCH (arms stretched all the way out like a little child :p )
My Top Five vehicles…
5. Rush from megaman. He’s a spring, he’s a rocket and an undersea boat.
4. The Tardis. I can go anywhere, and at anytime, how awesome is that?
3.Diddy Kong rancing airplane. It’s a very small plane that works, so that I can
go into caves and fly through them.
2.Ramby the rhino from Donkey Kong Country. He’s a rhino that can jump, get the heck out of my way.
1. Gundam from Mobile suit gundam. My own warmachine where I can have epic battles against Char the red comet.
Since I have some time I thought I would throw together a top 5 list and show my work.
5. The Lexx – A ship that is a dragonfly and is totally weird. But then again who doesn’t love a ship that will do exactly what you say everytime. Just doesn’t understand always.
4. Redwolf – I really like Airwolf. I made a bunch of models of it as a kid. But I also really liked Redwolf. It had laser and could supposedly out fly Airwolf.
3. The Tardis – I really enjoy the the idea of having it look like a police booth but having it move from one place to another without having to lift a finger.
2. K.I.T.T- When Kitt wasn’t endorsing trains he was kicking butt and takin names with his human counterpart. He had moxy as long as their was a trail, a road or a walkway.
1. Red Drake – Okay now this is kind of a stretch but in World of Warcraft you can fly around on the back of a dragon. Come on here its a dragon!
5. The TurboKat (Swat Kats) – You know what’s better than Mach 1, a car tricked out with all kind of gadgets? How about an actual fighter jet tricked out with all kind of gadget MISSILES. And oh yeah, it’s piloted by anthropomorphic cats, making it ever cooler.
4. The Slave 1 (Star Wars) – Not only is it the ship Boba Fett pilots to track Matt’s pick the Millennium Falcon, but it’s also piloted by laying down, making it the optimal ship for lazy people!
3. The Impala (Supernatural) – I’m a huge fan of “Supernatural”. I’ve watched the show through up’s and down’s in both ratings (the first five seasons) and quality (the last two seasons), but I have to say one thing makes that show cool. It’s not mythology, the monsters or the rock music. It’s the car. You hear that muscle car growling into the start of every episode and you’re ready for some hunting.
2. The LightCycle (Tron) – My first exposure to anything remotely CGI was “Tron”. I stumbled upon it when I was watching TV as a kid, and I didn’t know what the heck I was watching. I only knew it was very, very cool, and the introduction of wall-generating LightCycles made it that much cooler (Well, that and Jeff Bridges.)
1. The Classic (Sam Raimi movies) – On the surface, there’s nothing very special about this 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, except when you consider it’s been everywhere from the Middle Ages to the Wild West. Filmmakers Sam Raimi put his camera on the hood of this car to make an improvised rig in the first “Evil Dead”, and it’s been in his movies ever since, making me really curious to see how it turns up in “Oz The Great and Powerful.
Glad to see others thought to include the A-Team’s Van and the Robotech Veritech fighter… those were the only 2 that jumped out listening to the episode that were not listed or included in the ending Honorable Mentions.
Voltron criminally not mentioned by anyone yet.
Voltron never grabbed me, because as a child, I considered it little more than a knockoff of Battle Of The Planets.
Now, I know it to be a knockoff of Super Sentai, itself a knockoff of Battle Of The Planets. :)
5. The glowing dot from the 80’s TV Show Automan. Multipurpose car or helicopter. and man could that car take a corner.
4. The rig-o-copter from The Highwayman, starring Sam “flash Gordon” Jones. it was a rig, helicopter, sports car that could turn invisible.
3. T.C.’s chopper from Magnum P.I. it’s just plane cool.
2. The ship from futurama. who doesn’t love cuddly baby Tapirs.
1. millenium falcon!!!!!
Cursor!
oh, no. I don’t curse anymore. I have children.
Cursor? I hardly know– Nevermind.
The Death Star.
Pros:
Plenty of legroom and cargo space.
An awesome sound system (plays the Imperial March while you stroll through the Hangar Deck)
Crew-served, spinal mount weaponry capable of blowing up entire planets. A must-have accessory.
In the unlikely event of you getting a parking ticket, when you drive it to the courthouse the judge will likely be impressed enough to waive the fine…or else.
Cons:
Lousy gas mileage.
Endless hassles with OSHA due to the number of deaths caused by a lack of simple safety features like railings on bridges over bottomless chasms.
Older models have a design flaw that causes them to explode like a Ford Pinto for no good reason.
Another honorable mention:
Baby — Doctor Tachyon’s living ship from the Wild Cards novels. This one wins out over similar living ships from Farscape and ST:tNG because Doctor Tachyon installed a large, luxuriously-appointed bed in the bridge, because he wanted to die in bed.
Oooh, that’s a good one that I had totally forgotten…
5. Batmobile
4. Black Lion (Voltron)
3. Millennium Falcon
2. Tardis
1. The Heart of Gold (with Improbability Drive)
This category has TOO MANY awesome contenders. So here’s my list of favorite pop-culture vehicles not otherwise mentioned:
3. Yoshi – Not just a vehicle, not just a thing that can eat your foes and poop ’em out as eggs, but truly a friend as well, and the inspiration for one of the best mario games of all time, yoshi’s island.
2. The Swordfish II – the eponymous Bebop was very nearly named on this list, but instead I chose the coolest single-person spaceship ever, Spike’s Swordfish. It goes super fast, he can eject the cockpit, it controls like a motorbike and it can turn on a dime, and packs some serious fire power when needed. And it’s movement is practically art in itself.
1. Serenity – Firefly did not just bring us an amazing universe and a set of characters that are more lovable and interesting than most other tv shows, it also delivered unto us a spaceship that really formed the heart of their band. Each character is reflected in its spaces, and really the ship is a character in the show. It is functional, it can twist and turn its engines to loop around and do crazy stunts. It is the best of the best, not just because its a cool vehicle but because its a character in the show.
Also I didn’t do anymore because I feel all my favorites fall into 1 of these 3 categories:
3. Companion Steeds that have a lot of character.
2. Personal Spaceships that are super cool.
1. Multi-Person Vehicles that set the tone of a show and act as a character themselves.
#5- Fred Flintstone’s car. The best gas mileage around!
#4-The Phooeymobile! Have gong, will travel!
#3-Just for Mr. Woolf, the quickcars from Disney’s Gummi Bears. One could certainly draw a lot of D&D references from it, and it stands up as a pretty good show to this day.
#2-Thirty-thirty from Bravestar. Steed? Check. Familiar. Check. Blunderbuss-brandishing sidekick? Check!
#1- Mighty Orbots from the show of the same name. Only 13 episodes, all of which are on the tube of ewes. An awesome title sequence and beautiful animation, this show had a good voice cast and some cool story ideas. The lack of a toy line killed it…….
Honorable mentions
Whatever the hell Ookla the Mok rode in Thundaar….
The stork from the Smurfs….
The Fantasticar….
Ok, I wasn’t gonna do a list due to the plethora of comments on here until I noticed the absence of one of the coolest cars ever, Ecto – 1 from Ghostbusters.
5. Sweetooths Van from Twisted Metal – It has tons of weapons, can turn into a flying mech and it has ice cream!
4. The black and gold Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit – I like the color scheme better than the Rockford Files one. Plus that movie is hilarious.
3. Ecto – 1 – It has a mega trap, plasma cannon, suicide seats and an awesome body design. Plus its one of the best pop culture properties ever.
2. The Condor Car from Condor Man – Condor Man, for those of you who don’t know, was a Disney live action super hero movie from I believe the late 70’s. It had kind of a goofy premise but to a kid it was awesome. His car started out as a Gypsy style truck for covert purposes. Then it turned into a exotic super car with all sorts of James Bond style gadgets. Finally it turned into a boat. Boom! Three cars in one.
1. The BTTF II Delorean – Not only could it travel through time utilizing the power of garbage, but it could also fly. What else do you need?
5) Lightcycle (from the original TRON)
4) Coconuts (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
3) Gunstar (from The Last Starfighter)
2) KITT (from Knight Rider)
1) TARDIS (from Doctor Who)