History Main / FrankenVehicle

* ''VideoGame/BluePlanet: Age of Aquarius'': The GTD ''Sanctuary'' is a SleeperStarship holding the last survivors of humanity hidden from the OmnicidalManiac Shivans. Apart from a few paltry gun turrets, its only defense is a squadron of equally paltry space fighters visibly cobbled together from bits of other fighters and bombers that failed to withstand fifty years without resupply or proper maintenance.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird SR-71]] had a variant, the SR-71C, made from the rear fuselage of a YF-12A (a prototype interceptor based on the SR-71) and the forward fuselage from an SR-71 static test unit. It got nicknamed "The Bastard" because it had a four degree yaw until it was fixed.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird SR-71]] had a variant -- the SR-71C. Made from the rear fuselage of a YF-12A and the forward fuselage from an SR-71 static test unit. Nicknamed "The Bastard" because it had a four degree yaw until it was fixed.

** Unlike the snazzy {{Super Prototype}}s that inhabit other series, the Gundam Ground Types of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam'' are just made from leftover spare parts, which the support crew repair with whatever they have on hand. Karen's Gundam gets its head knocked off and embarrassingly replaced with that of a [[RedShirtArmy GM unit]], while Shiro's overhauled [=Ez8=] only accidentally becomes an AceCustom because they just happened to find the spare room to fit a larger reactor.
** One late twist in ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamThunderbolt'' is the appearance of [[spoiler:its take on the Perfect Gundam. Rather than being a upgraded RX-78-2, the "hero's mecha", it's the frame of the Psycho Zaku Mk-II mated with the armor plating and head unit of a Gundam,]] giving it the best of both worlds in terms of performance.

* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldV'': The titular tank of "The Last Tiger" is, notably, a mishmash of several different Tiger tank variants, namely having the turret of an early production Tiger and using the hull of a much newer late production example. TruthInTelevision, as the Germans actually created a number of these "new" frankenstein Tiger tanks to bolster their increasingly-depleted forces late in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]].

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': In "[[Recap/CSIS11E11ManUp Man Up]]", Hodges buys a used motorcycle that conks out shortly into his first ride. Upon closer inspection he realizes that it has a lot of fresh welding on it, and he finds old bloodstains on some of the parts and a piece of someone's thumb in the air filter pan. He realizes the bike is a "Franken-bike" that was built with pieces of several destroyed motorcycles, and furthermore suspects that one of the crashes involved an unreported fatality, which leads to the arrest of a crooked junkyard manager.

** ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': "[[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S02E09FlightOfThePhoenix Flight of the Phoenix]]" has a depressed Tyrol trying to build a brand new ship after he had to write off one too many [[SpaceFighter Vipers]]. His original plan was to build a brand new Viper from spare parts and chassis. However, this proves too ambitious for what he has at hand. As the episode progresses, he manages to scrounge up other materials such as civilian engines and carbon fiber plating. The end result resembles a Viper but is not quite one.

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* Due mainly to the long-running US-imposed trade embargo, UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}} has a [[https://theengineblock.com/the-presence-of-classic-cars-in-cuba/a large inventory of pre-1959 classic cars.]] To keep them running, many of these vehicles have been re-engined with motors salvaged from imported Soviet vehicles, imported diesels from Korea or Japan, and even sometimes pieces of boat engines.

** ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': After winning the ''Millennium Falcon'' from Lando Calrissian, Han Solo salvages some armor plate from the wreck of an Imperial Navy ''Neutron Star''-class bulk cruiser destroyed in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa and welds it onto the YT-1300 freighter for added protection.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': In the "New Earth" novel miniseries, the Belle Terre colony builds the USS Challenger (a "composite frigate" of the "mongrel class") from the wreckage of several vessels. Its crew was a similarly motley collection of misfits.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Parodied in the Cheat Commandos episode " Two Part Episode!, Part 2", where the mercenary counterpart to the Cheat Commandos, the Topplegangers, have a giant boat-like vehicle known as the "Ramshankle" (the name itself being a take-off on "Ramshackle"), further parodying the commercialistic nature of the show:

* In 1993, an [[https://interestingengineering.com/culture/a-stranded-engineer-turned-a-car-into-a-motorbike-to-escape-the-desert engineer named Emile Leray]] found himself stranded in the Moroccan desert after hitting his Citroen 2CV on a big rock. With the nearest village too far to safely walk to, he came up with a different solution: He cannibalised the pieces of the damaged car to build himself motorcyle. He succeeded, not only managing to drive it to a safe village, but all the way back to France.

** ''Series/Galactica1980'': ''The Return of Starbuck'': After ending up stranded on a barren world, Starbuck manages to cannibalise the pieces from his crashed Viper and a crashed Cylon Raider to build a spaceworthy ship from their parts.
** ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': ''Flight of the Phoenix'' has a depressed Tyrol trying to build a brand new ship after he had to write off one too many [[SpaceFighter Vipers]]. His original plan was to build a brand new Viper from spare parts and chassis. However, this proves too ambitious for what he has at hand. As the episode progresses, he manages to scrounge up other materials such as civilian engines and carbon fiber plating. The end result resembles a Viper but is not quite one.

** There are many variations of "Uglies" (first introduced in ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy'' and greatly expanded upon in ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' and the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries''), built by shade-tree mechanics from salvaged parts of other ships. There are several common variations that hybridize Rebel/New Republic and Imperial ship parts, ranging from reasonably competitive designs such as the [[Literature/IJedi Invids' "Clutches"]] and Twi'lek ''chir'daki'' that are actually built to consistent standards by professional engineers, to the utterly horrible TYE-Wing, [[MaliciousMisnaming also called the "Die-Wing" or "Why-Fighter"]], which mates the weak engines of the Y-Wing bomber to the poorly armed and unprotected cockpit section of a standard TIE fighter.

A "Franken-vehicle" is a vehicle that was constructed by taking salvaged pieces of other vehicles and MacGyvering them together, much like DrFrankenstein famously [[Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} created his Creature]] by [[FleshGolem combining pieces of various corpses]].

--> "The Shady Lady has been rebuilt a lot, you know? And a lot of the rebuilds were kind of ... improvised. I said the starter doesn't go with this model of engine, right? Well, that's true of everything in here." [Awen] gestured vaguely into the engine bay. "When you're out on the edge of civilization, it can be hard enough to find spare parts for a new engine. So, Uncle used whatever he could find to get moving again. The current engine is secondhand, but the exhaust manifold is brand new - except it's for a different model so someone beat it with a hammer to make it fit. The driveshaft looks like some kind of Sylphfree military castoff; they cut it down to size and ground the ends to fit. Each part of the hydraulic system was manufactured by a different group, even the main reservoir, which is a two-hundred-year-old whiskey cask. The wiring is a customised patchwork. Half the gears are worn down. The propeller is unbalanced, and I am pretty sure it was looted from pirates."

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird SR-71]] had a variant - the SR-71C. Made from the rear fuselage of a YF-12A and the forward fuselage from an SR-71 static test unit. Nicknamed "The Bastard" because it had a four degree yaw until it was fixed.

-->''Well, it's a '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56''
-->'''57, '58' 59' automobile''
-->''It's a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67''
-->'''68, '69, '70 automobile''

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!!ImageSource.StarWars, ImprovisedIndex, IndexOfSolutions, QuoteSource.{{Literature}}, VehicleIndex, TwoInOneTropes