Basic Trope: Bob uses a very old piece of technology to achieve a goal.
- Straight: It's the 21st century, and Bob uses a truck from the 1950s to break open a strong barrier.
- Exaggerated: It's the 32nd century, and Bob uses an early car from the 1880s to destroy the thickest wall in the world.
- Downplayed: It's the 1980s, and Bob uses a truck from the 1970s to destroy a fence.
- Justified:
- The truck was travelling behind him, so Alice let Bob borrow her truck.
- The truck is a military-grade vehicle, built very tough, while modern-day (in the time the story takes place) cars sacrifice structural sturdiness for the sake of passenger safety.
- Because of Techno Babble reasons (such as the vehicle being made of a no-longer-produced alloy), the 21st century truck can barrel through the alien barrier while "modern" vehicles would just get smashed. Or maybe it's the only thing that is still functional because of said Techno Babble reason.
- The old truck is more expendable for what Bob is planning to do (such as weld additional armor or stuff it full of explosives).
- It's the only thing that Bob can hot-wire on such short notice (if at all).
- It's Crazy Enough to Work.
- It's all that Bob has available.
- The truck is from the era being honored by the upcoming Old Timer Race.
- Inverted:
- Subverted: Bob looks at his grandfather's truck, but goes for his bulldozer...
- Double Subverted: ...but the bulldozer breaks down, so he goes for his grandfather's truck.
- Parodied: Bob uses an entire museum's exhibits to destroy the wall.
- Bob takes out a stone age primitive spear and uses it against alien invaders in the illogical conclusion of Older Is Better.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes he uses his modern bulldozer, sometimes he uses his grandfather's truck.
- Averted: Bob has a modern truck at all times.
- Enforced:
- The creators want to show that new isn't always better than old.
- It's Product Placement celebrating Ford Motor Company's Nth-Year Anniversary.
- The producers already had this truck on hand, couldn't afford more than static models of the other vehicles and didn't want to resort to Driving a Desk.
- It's easier for the production team to grab a Fifties truck and gut it to turn it into an A-Team-style tank than grab a Tesla Cybertruck and deal with the inevitable nitpicking about how doing X modification would ruin the electronics necessary for it to run and how Bob had to do Y thing that obviously cannot be shown on screen to bypass the car's security and drive it.
- Lampshaded: “Oh boy, have we been teleported to The '50s?”
- Invoked: Bob realizes all of his modern vehicles cannot break through the wall, so instead of getting a heavier modern vehicle, he immediately goes to his grandfather's old truck.
- Exploited: Bob is aware of this trope when he goes to get his grandfather's truck and intentionally ignores the nearby bulldozer.
- Defied:
- Bob, thinking his grandfather's truck will smash the wall better than his car, immediately crashes and hardly leaves a dent in the wall.
- Bob's little hybrid will crumple like an accordion if he tries to hit a concrete wall with it, and Bob knows it. So he goes looking for a bulldozer, explosives, or at least a very heavy sledgehammer.
- Bob decides that any vehicle can do the job... if it has a reinforced front and goes fast enough. So he does some MacGyvering on his car and goes from very far back.
- Bob just rams the wall with his own (modern) car.
- Discussed: The police officer who comes to investigate the matter, asks why Bob would use such an antique truck for a job more suited to a bulldozer.
- Conversed: Bob then responds by saying his grandfather's truck broke many walls back in the day.
- Deconstructed: Tue truck has no fuel in it, and the engine oil has evaporated, meaning the truck breaks down.
- Reconstructed: Bob is a car mechanic, so he easily fixes the engine and puts some fuel in, and it destroys the barrier with ease.
- Played For Laughs: The salvation of the world depends on a seventy-year-old yo-yo salvaged from a classic toy display. And it's not a Killer Yo-Yo, either — the old trick of "walking the dog" is given a full Bond gadget representation.
- Played For Drama: The salvation of the world depends on a salvaged display of Aborigine weapons, a mimeograph and a restored Enigma code machine. It is treated as the desperate last grasp that it is.
- Played For Horror: The villain of a Slasher Film grabs a bunch of World War One melee weapons early in the plot and kills all of his victims exclusively with them. Seeing somebody disemboweled with a trench knife is just as horrible as it is to see them disemboweled with a chainsaw, doubly so if the killer actually refuses to use the chainsaw just to make it hurt more.
Back to Break Out the Museum Piece.
