History Main / SchematizedProp

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/06_sandvich.png]]]]

-->-- ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'' by Derek Landy

* Valve seems to like this kind of trope: in ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', there was a scene showing turrets being assembled piece by piece, ''from the metal frame right down to their tiniest parts''. Also, in some trailers, diagrams are provided for the turret and portal gun. Additionally, several of the loading screens for the co-op puzzles contain these.

* This is mostly averted for ''WesternAnimation/theTransformers'', as creating these might involve giving the eponymous mecha [[TelescopingRobot specific sizes]], which would involve [[ContinuitySnarl Continuity Headaches]] the size of Fortress Maximus (i.e. [[BroadStrokes pretty big ones]]). [[Film/Transformers2007 The live-action Movie]] put an incredible amount of attention into each Transformer's size, scale and composition, however.

* This is mostly averted for ''WesternAnimation/{{Transformers}}'', as creating these might involve giving the eponymous mecha [[TelescopingRobot specific sizes]], which would involve [[ContinuitySnarl Continuity Headaches]] the size of Fortress Maximus (i.e. [[BroadStrokes pretty big ones]]). [[Film/Transformers2007 The live-action Movie]] put an incredible amount of attention into each Transformer's size, scale and composition, however.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* Likewise the weapons and vehicles of ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'', ''Manga/{{Appleseed}}'', ''Anime/RidingBean'' and ''Manga/GunsmithCats''. (Masamune Shirow for the first two, and Kenichi Sonada for the second two). In the ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' manga, Masamune Shirow also loves continuously footnoting character talk with explanations, down to the point where entire scientific theories are outlined in a small block of footnote text.
* The ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' series is ''so'' schematized that they have grades of model kits for the HumongousMecha that actually have working, accurate gears, pistons, and the like, with full range of mobility, incredibly intricate components, and removable armor plates to show off the inner workings. One almost has to wonder what would happen if an engineer simply scaled up the models to 1:1. Possibly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVwbUljGs3g something like this.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6nUX57gCg Ahem... and they said it couldn't be done]]

* An Anime and Manga example without the mention of ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' would not be complete. They went out of their way to extensively use BrandX to name their parts. Henceforth the names like Mauler, Bifors, Remmington, etc.
* Played for comedy in ''Manga/OnePiece'''s Arabasta arc. While Usopp was fighting Mr. 4 and Miss Merrychristmas, Usopp suddenly whipped out a giant mallet that he called the Usopp Pound and knocked Mr. 4 out cold. After a game of whack-a-mole with Miss Merrychristmas, a cannonball set the Usopp Pound aflame, and its entire head vanished in the fire. A full schematic of the hammer revealed the whole thing to be an inflatable balloon lined by enormous frying pans to make its ends harder and give the hammerhead its distinguished shape.
** Creator/EiichiroOda has included the blueprints of several vehicles and ships used by the Straw Hat Pirates including the "Going Merry" and [[spoiler:its replacement "Thousand Sunny"]].

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

* In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse all of [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark's]] tech is designed with this in mind, the most impressive example obviously being the Iron Man suit itself. The first movie gives an especially good look at the mechanics of the suit, focusing on its development, flight control surfaces, assembly and weaponry and showing off just how much thought went into designing that thing.

* The Heisei-era ''Franchise/KamenRider'' shows '''love''' this. Go to the official Toei website for most of these shows and you can get a detailed breakdown of exactly how any given Rider's suit, weapons, TransformationTrinket, etc. function. Want to know how [[Series/KamenRiderDenO Den-O]]'s armor appears from thin air, or what function [[Series/KamenRiderWizard Wizard]]'s BadassLongcoat serves? Now you can!

[[folder:Tabletop games]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has Snake extracting all sorts of information from people on the other side of the radio on his weapons and gear. Parodied with Nastasha giving an impossibly thorough and detailed description and history of the cardboard box. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' Naked Snake starts reciting the customization of a Colt 1911, demonstrating just how much more interested in the intricacies of his new firearm than the scantily clad woman standing next to him he is.

** One page of the Japanese MSX manual for ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' presented specifications for the TX-55 Metal Gear.
* The original ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' came with blueprints of the space fighters you flew in the game.
** Versions of the very first game before the ''Kilrathi Saga'' compilation required you to input a random detail from these specs to get the game to start as a form of CopyProtection.
* More recent incarnations of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series have taken up this trope, most notably using a Power Suit schematic as the item/weapon status screen (''Zero Mission, Prime, Prime 3, Super, Fusion''; the schematized suit was also seen in the instruction manual for ''Metroid II''). Other examples include the model of the FS-176 solar system in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime1'' (who knew Zebes and Tallon IV were in the same solar system?) and the detailed descriptions of items, ships and upgrades throughout the ''Prime'' games.

* The ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' series has each end every part have exact and in-depth specifications for any attribute the it applies to, to such an extent where you would consider purchasing a different head unit because not only does your current choice seem a bit heavy, it may drain too much energy, lack the stats to support your Fire Control System, not have a built-in radar function, not have a bio sensor, lack ballistic defence, is not very sturdy, and a whole host of other things you wouldn't even give a second look at.
** And that's just the head. At least, you need a Core (body), Arms, Legs, Generator, Booster, FCS, and Weapons. [[OverlyLongGag Depending on the game, you also need Radiators, Inside Units, Hanger Units, Main Boosters, Side Boosters, Back Boosters, Overboosters, Extensions, Shoulder Weapons, etc.]] And ALL OF THE] has stats enough to fill in a small page.

* Valve seems to like this kind of trope: in ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', there was a scene showing turrets being assembled piece by piece, ''from the metal frame right down to their tiniest parts''. Also, in some trailers, diagrams are provided for the turret and portal gun.
** Additionally, several of the loading screens for the co-op puzzles contain these.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* This is mostly averted for ''{{Transformers}}'', as creating these might involve giving the eponymous mecha [[TelescopingRobot specific sizes]], which would involve [[ContinuitySnarl Continuity Headaches]] the size of Fortress Maximus (i.e. [[BroadStrokes pretty big ones]]).
** [[TheMovie The (live action) Movie]] put an incredible amount of attention into each Transformer's size, scale and composition, however.

* The ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' [=DVDs=] have [[AllThereInTheManual bonus material]] with detailed schematics of the airships and all sorts of other machines seen in the show.

* Each episode of the latter half of ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' began with a narrated CGI intro (then a new innovation) showing off the specs of the titular [[RealRobot mecha]].

[[caption-width-right:350:And [[HyperactiveMetabolism now you know]] how a [[FunetikAksent sandvich]] works. [[note]] Larger version [[http://www.steamgames.com/tf2/heavy/images/06_sandvich.jpg here.]][[/note]]]]

HumongousMecha series take this to the extreme, where it becomes a kind of FanService; a RealRobot is almost expected to have {{Schematized Prop}}s. This also extends to weapons seldom being [[FamilyFriendlyFirearms neutered onscreen]]. Swords have a deep heritage in the country, and [[RareGuns guns]] are much more difficult to get in Japan.

[[folder:{{Film}}]]

Animators love machines (except [[Creator/HayaoMiyazaki the ones that only like airplanes]]). If a series has any kind of [[BonusMaterial Bonus Material]], you are very likely to find whole pages devoted to detailed diagrams and blueprints of props and items used in said show. These can be as long as character biographies, and some end pages are specifically filled with this kind of information. For some series, this information is frequently AllThereInTheManual.

* The intro to ''Silpheed: Super Dogfighter'' shows wireframe models and extensive technical specifications for the SA-08 "Silpheed" and the various types of enemy craft.

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/06_sandvich_smaller.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:And [[HyperactiveMetabolism now you know]] how a [[FunetikAksent sandvich]] works. [[note]] Larger version [[http://www.steamgames.com/tf2/heavy/images/06_sandvich.jpg here.]][[/note]]]]

Often ends up as TechnologyPorn. Closely related to DescriptionPorn.

* The end of each volume of ''Manga/{{GUNNM}}'' features this sort of information on all sorts of props and elements of the Scrapyard.

* More recent incarnations of the ''{{Metroid}}'' series have taken up this trope, most notably using a Power Suit schematic as the item/weapon status screen (''Zero Mission, Prime, Prime 3, Super, Fusion''; the schematized suit was also seen in the instruction manual for ''Metroid II''). Other examples include the model of the FS-176 solar system in ''MetroidPrime'' (who knew Zebes and Tallon IV were in the same solar system?) and the detailed descriptions of items, ships and upgrades throughout the ''Prime'' games.

** Creator/EiichiroOda has included the blueprints of several vehicles and ships used by the Straw Hat Pirates including the "Going Merry" and [[spoiler:it's replacement "Thousand Sunny"]].

* The wireframes in ''StarCraft'' veer perilously close to this trope...as well as providing a handy way of estimating damage.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had a 1960s annual, ''The Dalek Book'', which showed a cutaway of the inside of a Dalek.

* ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'''s sourcebooks often show schematics of its [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]] and other vehicles, along with exploded views of individual components such as their fusion reactors.

* An Anime and Manga example without the mention of ''[[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross Macross]]'' would not be complete. They went out of their way to extensively use BrandX to use which parts were used for what. Henceforth the names like Mauler, Bifors, Remmington, etc.

* The ''TrinityBlood'' [=DVDs=] have [[AllThereInTheManual bonus material]] with detailed schematics of the airships and all sorts of other machines seen in the show.

* In the {{Marvel Cinematic Universe}} all of [[{{Film/IronMan}} Tony Stark's]] tech is designed with this in mind, the most impressive example obviously being the Iron Man suit itself. The first movie gives an especially good look at the mechanics of the suit, focusing on its development, flight control surfaces, assembly and weaponry and showing off just how much thought went into designing that thing.

* The detailed designs in both ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' and ''YoureUnderArrest'' reflect their creator's obsession with motor vehicles.

* The end of each volume of ''{{GUNNM}}'' features this sort of information on all sorts of props and elements of the Scrapyard.
* Each volume of ''SaintSeiya'' illustrates how each Cloth (a Saint's signature suit of armor) transforms to and from a statue representing the Saint's respective constellation. Many of these are implausible, mind you (parts have a habit of being ''way'' out of scale), but seeing how most of these designs are for one-shot villains, it's a surprising amount of detail.

* Arguably half the point of ''InitialD''. Aside from the fandom holy war of whether grip or drift is faster, the various car modifications are reasonably technically accurate.
* Due to its HumongousMecha influence, ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' has these, with blueprints of the different [[EmpathicWeapon Intelligent Devices]] being shown in the last chapter of the ''[=StrikerS=]'' [[ComicBookAdaptation supplementary manga]]. There's also ''Nanoha Force Next'', a monthly feature in Nyantype Magazine that gives the blueprints and details of the new weapons and upgrades in ''Nanoha Force''. TechnologyPorn [[http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5498/nanohastrikecannon.jpg at its]] [[http://i43.tinypic.com/28w16dw.jpg purest]].

* The Nintendo Power guide for ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' featured pull-out blueprints of the various vehicles used by the team, including details regarding their top speeds, propulsion systems, cost, and manufacturers. The guide also featured planetary information on all of the levels in the game. It had minor issues with scaling such as making a planet smaller than a satellite that orbits it.

Of course, this is endemic to any science-fiction series which might attract Geek fandom; ''StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', even many ComicBooks. For example, an entry in the ''ComicBook/OfficialHandbookOfTheMarvelUniverse'' describes {{Spider-Man}}'s webshooters: ''Because the fluid almost instantly sublimates from solid to liquid when under sheer pressure, and is not adhesive in its anaerobic liquid/solid phase transition point, there is no clogging of the web-shooter's parts''[[labelnote:note]]Sublimation refers to a solid/gas transition, such as when dry ice turns into carbon dioxide gas, and shear pressure (with an A) is pressure applied at an angle[[/labelnote]]. If only Stan Lee could have worked the phrase "anaerobic liquid/solid phase transition point" into Spidey's first appearance, imagine how well it would have sold!

* The OfficialHandbookOfTheMarvelUniverse (at least the earlier versions) is practically dedicated to this trope, as mentioned above. We learn how practically everything works, from Nomad's stun disks to Iron man's armor. And, as mentioned above, Spiderman's web shooters.