"Why would a prototype be more efficient than the finished model? Did they think that Big Daddies being fast, flexible and capable of self-preservation was just not being fair on everyone else?"
The Federation has deployed a new Humongous Mecha, or The Empire is beginning tests of a new starfighter, or the Mad Scientist is designing a new warbot. In any case, they design a prototype to test this new design. A prototype with better weapons, stronger armour, and higher-quality speakers when compared to the mass-produced models.
There is a tendency in stories to use a prototype model to refer to a much more powerful version of whatever vehicle, machine, or device is used fairly often in a show. If there's a model of robot soldiers, the prototype will be the strongest and fastest. If there's a new line of Giant Mecha, the prototype has the best weapons and maneuverability. This is especially common in Real Robot Genre series, where the prototype is usually piloted by the hero of the series, explaining why they're so much more effective than the dozens of factory-line models operated by the Redshirt Army (And often, why the Ordinary High School Student who Fell Into The Cockpitcan survive fighting against the enemyAce Pilot long enough to become so good). In a few series, the Super Prototype will virtually be a full-fledged Super Robot Genre. Even when there isn't very many of whatever device was designed in the first place, the prototype model is almost always the most powerful, or has at least some advantage over the other models.
A similar phenomenon, especially in the Mecha genre, is the Ace Custom, a mass-produced or prototype mecha customized or re-designed for the use of an Ace Pilot, taken from the customized paint jobs of planes used by Ace pilots (particularly the Germans, and especially one) of World War I. These are often essentially Super Prototypes, with the only difference being that it was made after the mass-produced mecha. In addition to a personalized paint job, an Ace Custom may have a tweaked engine, extra sensors, or a distinctive weapon, all keyed to the individual fighting style of its pilot.
A question that often comes up is why the Super Prototype is so, well, super compared to the production model. The typical reason given is that the production model is far cheaper or easier to make in large numbers, as a result of or resulting in budget cuts (if La Résistance has stolen the prototype, The Empire may have had to rush out the production models in order to counter it). The designers may have put in some stuff they decided wasn't feasible, possibly for the express purpose of impressing the approval committee. Sometimes, the technology that makes the device so much more powerful is Black Box tech (although one wonders why a prototype of a future possible design would include tech the mass-produced versions would never be capable of including), and thus not easily replicated (if at all), or may not be as useful for standard use. Or the technology in the prototype is unstable or otherwise difficult to use, thus requiring an ace pilot to use effectively, while the later models are less effective but stable enough for the rest of the soliders to use. Mass-production models were likely made (in the grand tradition of military equipment) by the Lowest Bidder, who obviously cut corners wherever possible. But mostly, it just helps the machine, or the hero using it, stand out more. Or perhaps still the prototype was created with a general "everything and the kitchen sink" design but the production model was stripped down of excess features for a more specialized usage.
Strange as it may seem, this can be Truth in Television. Military Prototypes will often post impressive test results that will never be replicated by production models. This happens simply because the point of a prototype is to test the limits. Anyone actually trying to use the thing will never approach the limits to avoid having to get an overhaul after every usage, or to avoid getting themselves killed by exceeding the limits. Additionally, certain features may only be reliable in controlled and optimized conditions, and may in fact pose a hazard to friendly soldiers in actual combat.
On the other hand, military history is also filled with gear that was substandard or even outright dangerous when first issued to troops, but became a gold-standard for reliability once bugs were worked out in the field. So in real life it is not usually a good idea to assume the prototype is always better. There is some overlap with the idea of an experimental model, which has great abilities but was never intended to enter production. Military test pilots refer to this as "pushing the envelope" - the upper edge is height, the left edge is speed. Visualize this as the kind of envelope you mail somebody and you realize that particular area is where the postage gets canceled. Also, if the prototype is in fact an Ancient Artifact or captured Exclusive Enemy Equipment, it becomes fairly logical that reverse-engineered copies would be inferior.
It's also very common for advanced prototypes to lose out on military contracts in favour of more conservative designs. The YF-23 was more stealthy and faster than the YF-22, and looked better (though only marginally so on all counts), but the YF-22 had a better turn rate and weapon layout. Similarly the G11 rifle that West Germany experimented with could fire faster, weighed less, and carried more bullets, but eventually lost out to the more conventional G36 due to minor issues of funding.
This is a specific instance of Older Is Better: The prototype came first, so it is better than all that came after it.
Also, series may use this because The Hero does, after all, have to Travel Cool.
See also: Conservation of Ninjutsu. Contrast with No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup and Disposable Superhero Maker. ContrastFlawed Prototype. May result in Explosive Overclocking or Tim Taylor Technology. See also Mass Super Empowering Event in the case of super powers. See Monster Progenitor when this happens to a whole species of monsters. Will often overlap with Nose Art, which is when the paintjob is unique, as opposed to the performance specs.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
The Gundam metaseries makes extensive use of both forms of this trope..
The eponymous Mobile Suit Gundam was a super prototype, pioneering the used of beam weaponry on mobile suits. Char Aznable's infamous red Zaku II (three times faster than the standard Zaku II) is a textbook ace custom. Also note that, when the Zakus were first "introduced" to the Federation, they would have been this.
RX-78-2 Gundam is not actually the first gundam prototype, instead it was RX-78-1, which interestingly was mass-produced, unlike the titular gundam itself.
Char's Zaku was Retconed to a more reasonable 1/3 faster in The Movie, and later material indicated that Char's aggressive fighting style and tendency to push his machines to their limits (along with some situational speed-boosting tricks in the battle that first earned him his reputation) led opponents to think he was moving even faster than he really was.
In addition, the mass-produced GM line turned out to be highly customizable, and ended up with its own Super Prototypes in places.
Subverted, however, by 08thMSTeam, where the Gundams used were cobbled together out of discarded spare parts — making them a nightmare to repair and maintain, while their performance wasn't notably better than other more standard MS.
However, the 08th MS Team's Gundams were shown wielding Beam Weaponry and had slightly better performance than the run of the mill GM suits. They are better than Zaku II's, able to at least outclass them. Still a far cry from Amuro's RX-78-2 Gundam.
Another subversion from 08th MS Team. The Mass Production Guntank has inferior armor to the prototype, but it can turn the torso and thus make it much easier to aim at moving target.
Meanwhile Gundam 0080 has the Gundam Alex, an ace custom specifically designed and built to be used by Amuro, the protagonist of Mobile Suit Gundam, as the original RX-78-2 was increasingly unable to keep up with his lightning-fast reflexes. He never gets it, though.
The Methuss in Zeta Gundam is a very unusual example. It was built as a transformation testbed and given a mobile suit mode pretty much as an afterthought. Though it can fight, it does so very poorly and is only really redeemed by the fact that it can be repaired easily. On the other hand, its simplified transformation was a rousing success, inspiring two upgrades to itself, a new Guncannon (that used the variable frame to assume a stable gunnery position) and two developments of the Zeta itself (the upgraded Z-II and the mass production ReZEL from Gundam Unicorn).
The Hyaku-Shiki from the same series is another example. It began its life as the Delta Gundam, an early testbed for the Zeta, but the builders ended up stripping out the transformation parts, leaving a basic but high-performance machine. Like the Methuss it inspired several spin-offs including an unused mass production version, a ground combat version, and in Unicorn they revisit the original concept with the Delta Plus.
Gundam Unicorn's RX-0 Unicorn and RX-0 Unicorn "Banshee" Gundams are both prototypes for mobile suits designed to counter Newtypes by using a psycoframe system lining the chassis. The Unicorn's NT-D "Destroy" mode only activates when fighting a Newtype, and in this mode, the suit is far more powerful.
Pointedly averted with the titular Victory Gundam, which was mass-produced by the League Militaire. Played straight once again with the V2 Gundam, though, which was supposed to be a limited production run but ended up being unique due to the other ones being destroyed before finishing assembly (well, except one of them if the manga side story is considered).
Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam averts this as well, revealing that, though in limited numbers, they had not only mass-produced the titular Crossbone Gundam - the XM-10 Flint - but they had also mass-produced the Gundam F91. And despite the fact that the F-91 was 10 years behind the Crossbone units, it still put up a damn good fight!
The titular mech of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ gets to enjoy the fact that it's the only unit in the Zeta family not to get some sort of mass produced version of itself because the damn thing was such a resource hog!
Gundam Wing plays with this trope. The Tallgeese is supposedly the prototype upon which all other mobile suits were based; it's so high-spec that it can actually kill its pilot through sheer acceleration, and thus was mothballed until Zechs took it in hopes that it could match the Gundams. The Wing Gundam Zero is similar; all of the five main characters' Gundams were based on its design, but they were deliberately downgraded since the designers decided that Wing Gundam Zero was too powerful for anyone to be trusted with.
On the Ace Custom side of things we have the Maganac Corps, Quatre's Badass Army. They deserve special mention because, while their forces all use a single type of mobile suit, each pilot is given free rein to customize its weapons, armor, cosmetic mods, etc. as he sees fit. So each and every one of their 40 mobile suits is an Ace Custom, though differ only marginally from the base model (which exists only in supplemental material and toy form).
Gundam SEED features the five GAT-X machines, which carry most of the action for the first half of the series, and are prototypes developed by Morgenroete for the Earth Alliance (before being stolen). Most of them eventually spawned a mass production variant of some form or another. Also notable is the Mobius Zero, an ace custom version of the mobile armor Mobius, which added four gunbarrels. And then there's the various Ace Customs flown by Rau Le Creuset.
The Mobius Zero suffers from a similar problem as the Tallgeese, namely that the four barrel configuration combined with the linear cannon was too much for the average pilot to handle. The standard Mobius is a significantly scaled downed version, to the point that the only thing it has in common with the Zero is that it can fly and carries the Linear cannon (It doesn't even look like the prototype Zero anymore). There were initially so little people that could handle the Zero, they were all formed into a single unit (which all but one were promptly obliterated before the series even began).
This also happens with the series' Super Soldiers, believe it or not. Shani, Clotho, and Orga of Gundam SEED were much better suited for facing off against Coordinators, than their successors, Auel, Stella, and Sting of Gundam SEED Destiny were. However, they were also clinicallyinsane. Basically, the Extended program swapped out better combat ability for improved loyalty and utilisation outside of combat.
The spinoff manga Gundam Seed Astray revolves around the super prototypes to the M-1 Astray series of mobile suits. All of which get modified in to become even more "super", in the process becoming three distictly different machines, when originally they differed only in color (and a few minor internal differences).
Gundam 00 does this with the GN Drive, the power source of the Gundams. The mass-produced models miss a critical component that makes them have a limited operation time whereas the five original ones can go indefinitely. This also comes with an additional trick: the original drives can use Trans-AM mode as much as they want with the drawback of the Gundam operating with reduced power mode for a while until the drive recharges the GN Condensers. The mass-produced "Tau" version, since it can't refuel itself during operation, shuts down completely when it runs out. Eventually a way to make Trans-AM work with the mass production drives is found.
None of the villains, even the one who probably knows how, ever duplicate the "true" GN Drive...because Jupiter is the only place they can be made, and the production time is 20 years (including transit time between Earth and Jupiter).
On the Ace Custom side we have Graham Aker, who repeatedly upgrades his Flag so he can fight the Gundams on an even basis. Even his Season 2 suits the Masurao and Susanoo are just Flags with lots of funky-looking armor on them. Then in The Movie, he and his squadron are flying a Flag-derivative model (the Brave), and his Custom variant of it even uses a Twin Tau Drive, like the Reborns Gundam.
Graham has a justification for his unique set-up: he was part of a team of Cape Busters piloting Flags, and when they were massacred by Team Trinity, he swears on their graves to defeat the Gundams with a Flag.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross usually averts this, with the production models being built up from the Prototype's capabilities. The Ace Custom trope is confined to Maximilian Jenius and his wife, Zentradi defector, Milia Fallyna, being granted the privilege to give their mechas distinctive paint jobs for being the top pilots of the force.
The trope itself is played straight in Macross Zero where the prototype VF-0 Phoenix was head-and-shoulders above conventional aircraft and managed to win by surprising the enemy pilot. On the other hand, maintenance was a helluva nightmare, even compared to the Tomcat.
The heads of the various Valkyrie models also serve to differentiate them. "Trainer" Valkyries (VF-1D) have two "visors", stacked vertically, and two guns on the head. Grunt Valkyries (VF-1A) have one gun on the head, centrally mounted. There are two Ace Custom Valkyries, Hikaru's that has a triangular visor, two guns and a "chin" (VF-1J), and the Skull-1, with FOUR guns on the head (VF-1S). Both have custom paint jobs as well - Hikaru's is painted in red stripes, the Skull-1 is painted with black and yellow ones, with prominent skull-and-crossbones.
Max and Milia's units are slight Ace Customs - they are VF-1Js upgraded with the VF-1S's improved avionics suite. In Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Hikaru, Max, and Kakizaki (Rick, Max and Ben) are issued the first prototype VF-1Bs, which are -1A's with better avionics and a -1S style head.
Ditto in Macross Frontier, where the custom packs don't make them all-around better, just specialized, such as Mikhail's Long-Range Pack and Luca's EW Pack. Super Packs and Armored Packs do make standard VF-25s better, but it's never so dramatically overpowered.
The majority of Macross Plus consists of a contest between two super prototypes (YF-19 and YF-21) competing to be the new mass production model. Eventually both prototypes are scheduled to be dropped in favor of the Ghost X-9, a third super prototype piloted by an AI, which, in an A.I. Is a Crapshoot moment, handily trounces both of the other prototypes before being taken out in a Heroic Sacrifice. The Ghost project is canned and the YF-19 is made the new standard model, the VF-19.
One exception: the YF-21 from Macross Plus' Nova Project, which later became the standard VF-22 Max pilots, did include a neural link interface that allowed the pilot to become the Valkyrie, and control it like he would his body. Although the Valkyrie itself was fitted for use, the neural link was discarded due to the mental stress it placed on the pilot. In addition, the YF-21 used morphing wings for variable cant and control surfaces; these were removed from the VF-22 in place of more conventional options.
Said neural link interface was later fixed and incorporated into the VF-27 Lucifer, making it capable of defeating just about everything else. It's never shown whether Brera's Purple-1◊ is an Ace Custom or he's just that good.
Based off of side info like model kit manuals, Brera's VF-27β is indeed an Ace Custom, while the VF-27γ piloted by Grace is the "common soldier" version.
Alto's YF-29 from the second movie, incorporating design elements of the VF-27 and the VF-25 with Tornado Pack into one super fighter.
One Piece has the World Government-developed Pacifistas. The original, created by rebuildingBad Ass Bartholemew Kuma into a Hollywood Cyborg, is able to make short work of some later models, though this is mostly because Kuma had Devil Fruit powers that apparently couldn't be transferred to the others or technologically duplicated. It is stated that more powerful models have been created over the Time Skip, though it has not yet been shown how well Kuma would stack up against them.
The police protagonists on Patlabor had three prototype AV-98 Ingram mechs. One episode focused on the introduction of a mass-produced line of Ingrams, subverting the trope a bit in that the prototypes weren't exceptionally good so much as the mass-produced ones were exceptionally shoddy. Also, other kinds of mass-produced police and military mechs are shown to be close in quality to the Ingrams.
The first film has the Type Zero which was supposed to be an advanced replacement for the AV-98. It proved to be a fearsome opponent in melee combat against other labors and when it was overtaken by the Babel virus, it completely mopped the floor with Ohta's Ingram and Noa barely managed to subdue it. Seeing as the Type Zero wasn't seen in the subsequent films, it can be assumed that the design was abandoned.
One character from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Subaru Nakajima is a self-admitted homage to Super Robot Wars. It turns out that she is the prototype to the Number cyborgs, stronger than the rest of them, and so is her sister Ginga. The special moves "borrowed" from such super robots like Gear Fighter Dendoh, GaoGaiGar, Combattler V and more make this homage especially apparent.
Fate Testarossa is another Super Prototype in a way — she was the very first successful Artificial Human created by an illegal cloning project run by the master of the Numbers, Jail Scaglietti. She bears the project's original name, and is the prototype that Jail used to create all the other Artificial Mages of the setting.
Simultaneously subverted and played straight in Sentou Mecha Xabungle. The titular mecha (referred to as such by the regularly no-fourth-wall characters) is both a production model - they get two of them, unheard of in a mecha show up to that point - and a Prototype in the sense that a) no prior Walker Machine is built specifically for combat (hence the series name - Combat Mecha) and b) it incorporates a number of features that imply it to be a space machine.
Not to mention the Walker Gallier in the second half of the show, which is a textbook example (and even has a production model of sorts in the Brackary). It's famously "Super" enough to catch and throw a falling ICBM (albeit a museum copy, but still).
Ram-Dass in Soukou No Strain is an illegally made mecha where the Union only condones standard issue. Because Sara saved them in it, it's explained away as a "prototype" to anyone that asks. Her brother's Gloire, on the other hand, is an Ace Custom.
The Emily doll also turns out to have been a very early prototype Mimic... with a very cruel origin that the current Union knows nothing about.
Gurren Lagann in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is significantly more powerful than the Grappals/Gulaparls created from it. Justified in that the point of Gurren Lagann is that it becomes more powerful the stronger the pilot's will is. The series also lampshades the use of this trope:
Gimi: Anyway, aren't Grappals supposed to be superior to Gurren-Lagann? There's something wrong with a prototype being stronger.
It then justifies the use when Lordgenome remarks that Gurren, Lagann, and all the other Ganmen were made for combat with Anti-Spirals, while the Grappals were not.
The Four Generals' Ganmen are referred to as custom, although it looks more like they were specially built one-offs rather than simply upgrades.
Code Geass features several Super Prototypes, progressing in power with the times. Supplementary materials explain the backstory of KMF development, where they were literally putting pieces together just to see how it worked. The first real "Super" Prototype is the third-generation Ganymede, a junky machine with a giant external battery that by the start of the series is reduced to baking giant pizzas. The first real super prototype introduced is the Lancelot, piloted by Suzaku, a seventh-generation machine which absolutely stomps the fourth and fifth generation machines. Next is the Guren Mk-II, piloted by Kallen. It's just as powerful as the Lancelot, but not as heavily armed, and during their first battle Kallen had Suzaku on the ropes. Later battles have them about even. After that, Mecha Expansion Packs are generally used instead of all-new machines. Then comes Li Xingke's Shenhu, followed by complete redesigns on the Guren and Lancelot, resulting in the ninth generation Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight-Elements Type and the Lancelot Albion, the two most powerful Knightmares in the series by its conclusion.
Notably, the Chinese Shenhu and Japanese Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight-Elements Type are actually built only as a proof-of-concept machines (at least the first one was, the designers just got carried away for the second) with such high specs that it is believed nobody can pilot them, but of course, an Ace Pilot appears for both.
And then, you have the Ace Customs. On the extreme, Britannian side, the Knights of the Round are an elite, 12-person Ace Custom squad piloting highly personal, one-of-a-kind mechs, including the Transforming Mecha Tristan. The Japanese side has Shinkiro and the Zangetsu as their Ace Customs.
C.C.'s Lancelot Frontier is a subversion. At the end of the series she's is handed Suzaku's old Lancelot; because it was badly damaged in its last battle they had to repair it with maintenance parts (as well as removing the Conquista upgrades). This means that she spends the final battle in an inferior machine and gets beaten by Kallen very easily (though thankfully they finally got that stupid Ejection Seat working).
Subverted with the Gawain. It represents the "lost" sixth generation, the stage in Knightmare Frame development marked by ideas that looked good on paper but didn't work properly. This includes an early, inefficient flight pack and Energy Weapons that needed outside modification to fire in a straight line. On top of that, it's slow, bulky, and awkward in standard combat, even before you factor in Lelouch's poor piloting skills. In the final battle of the first season, Cornelia walks all over Lelouch in an inferior machine because she's a far superior pilot, and if not for outside interference she probably would have killed him.
The Expanded Universe story Oz the Reflection will introduce the Lancelot Grail, an Ace Custom version of Suzaku's machine that's red, caped, and has twelve swords.
Neon Genesis Evangelion technically follows and averts this trope; the prototype Unit-00 is apparently less powerful than any EVA that follows it, yet the test-type Unit-01 is more powerful than both it and the full production model Unit-02. Having said, the EVAs aren't strictly robots and their performance has a lot to do with how well they synch with the pilots and the human soul fused to it.
Provisional Unit-05 appears to play this straight: it's a unique model using robotic limbs and overhead power lines instead of an umbilical cable. Unlike the others, this Eva is quadrupedal and moves on wheels, though it also has thrusters in the groin area for limited flight and drills for rapid braking. Also, it doesn't appear to have a progressive knife (it wouldn't even be able to hold one with it's pincers), nor ranged weaponry; instead, it uses a big-ass lance, jousting-style. It might be possible that this isn't the final form, as Kaji states that it had to be rushed to service.
Curiously enough, the original series almost totally averted this. Units 00 through 04 were all prototype and test type models, and the Mass Produced Evas seen at the end of the series are clearly superior in almost every way: they can fly under their own power, their regenerative abilities are far in excess of any non-Berserk Unit, and they possess unlimited power supplies. Unit 01 is the exception, as it was cloned from Lilith, not Adam, and it also ate Zeruel's S2 Organ late in the series, giving it unlimited power much like the MP-Evas. Of course, we never get to see it fight the MP-Evas (at least not in the anime and the later movie), and it is implied that it was built specifically for being the key to Instrumentality, so it might better be said to be a unique unit rather than a prototype.
Interestingly, Mazinger Z has this despite being the archetypal Super Robot Genre series. The manga introduced the Mazinger Army, a trio of weaker robots each designed to wield one of Mazinger's distinctive weapons. All three made minor appearances in the Mazinkaiser movie, and all three were destroyed, with only Million Alpha putting up any kind of a fight.
Averted in, of all things, Great Mazinger - the Mikene Empire get a hold of Great's plans and mass produce it perfectly (with the exception of its wings). They usually show up in any Super Robot Wars installment when the Great Mazinger storyline is used.
Sky Girls features this: The three original Sonic Divers are prototypes, and they do their job well. Subverted in the fact that the mass production model can do just as well, but the WORM attacks the production assembly plant, making the only one model that was completed a Super Prototype in its own way.
Also used straight when the Vic Vipers make their debut, it is marketed as cheap, much better and more heavily-armed alternative to the Sonic Divers that the titular characters use, and hence, is mass-produced. Not only it really is underperfoming in comparison, the best thing it can do is act as support rather than replacement. It actually even gets beaten by an old, conventional fighter piloted by the show's The Ace in the end, and it's a two-against-one battle.
Metal Armor Dragonar plays with this a bit. The beginning of the series shows the Dragonars as a set of stolen Super Prototype units, but their pilots are inexperienced, and the Ace Custom units just trounce them often. After a while, the Dragonars are used as the template for a new Mass Production model that has specs stronger than any of the Dragonar units. However, after Professor Plato guides the heroes back to the military, the Dragonars are upgraded into Ace Custom Super Prototypes.
Pretty much the only mechs that accomplish anything important in Eureka Seven are Super Prototypes, with the two Nirvash (which are actually alive) units being the most prominent. There's also Holland's late-series mount, the TB-303 Devilfish, which is ridiculously powerful and has enough firepower to wipe out multiple capital ships, but requires the pilot to take life-threatening drugs to operate it... Aside from those, the rest of the powerful LFO's are all Ace Customs. Anything with "KLF" or "Mon-Soono" in its name is utter cannon fodder.
Justified for the Nirvash Type Zero at least, in that it was created by the Scub Coral, along with Eureka, in an attempt to communicate with mankind. The fact that it only works at full capacity for Eureka (and later Renton) suggests that it was made specifically to protect her, and being built by an intelligent entity that can kind of warp reality (as we mere mortals perceive it) at will justifies it being epically powerful. There's no explanation in the anime as to where The End comes from, or why it's also called a Nirvash, aside from being the only other obviously-alive LFO. Though it may be more of an Acid TrackPrototype.
Sagara Sousuke of Full Metal Panic! handles the ARX-7 Arbalest◊, one of the first mecha to be fielded by MITHRIL to possess a Lambda Driver. Later in the series he goes up against many enemy mecha with Lamba Drivers of their own, but proves his to be the more powerful while defeating them in combat. It is suggested that this is because the Lambda Driver in Sousuke's mecha is a prototype model compared to the mass-produced variants fielded by the enemy, and is capable of increased output at the cost of stability. It does, indeed, fail to function properly on a number of occasions, leading Sousuke to become thoroughly frustrated with it.
It may also be that everyone else powers their Lambda Drivers on either Psycho Serum or raw Ax Crazy, whereas Sousuke prefers angst.
It was once mentioned that he was quite the pilot at Arm Slave combat. Doesn't help that the ARX-7, being third-gen outstrips just about all other models in hardware and software until only recently.
Seeing that the Arbalest have never went past the prototype stage, it is the textbook example of this trope.
Interestingly, the Arbalest qualifies both as a super-prototype and an ace custom at the same time. While the Lambda Driver is a super-protype Black Box unit, the rest of the chassis is a modified M9, which is a mass produced (albiet not yet widely adopted) Arm Slave. However, except for the Lambda Driver functionality, the Arbalest's performance is not signifigantly different from that of the other M9s, though it does apparently have a slightly smaller mission loiter time due to the Lambda Driver taking up some space otherwise used for additional fuel cells.
And then there's Bonta-kun... even though we don't get to see whether the original is better than the later models.
And the Plan1056 Codarl, aka Venom. At least three versions were seen: a regular model, an upgraded model (red) and a mass-production model (black). Yui-Fan in the black version was pretty good but when she attacked Gates who was using a red model, he killed her in less than ten seconds (she was already fighting for hours so she was fatigued).
If we are really detailed, the M9D Falke◊. Only two were ever built in contrast to the mass-produced M9E Gernsback◊ due to technical problems (the M9D was intended to carry a Lambda Driver but the design got scrapped). It is unknown which one the Arbalest was based on but it got it's ass handed to it from an M9D when Sousuke couldn't use the Lambda Driver (and the Arbalest's head design gives suspicion that the other M9D was reconstructed into the ARX-7).
The M9D models were commissioned under the assumption that Mithril would be producing more Lambda Drivers after testing and tuning in the Arbalast. Unfortunately, the Whispered scientist Mithril had working on the project died, and left No Plans and No Backup, which set back their Lambda Driver project development considerably. As a result, Mithril suspended the M9D variation from production until they could get the project back on track. Since the prototype Lamba Driver is currently confirgured to synch with Sagara, he is the only pilot they have that can operate it. The M9D is functionally identical to the Arbalast otherwise.
Later we get the Plan1055 Belial and the ARX-8 Laevatein, the former was custom built from scratch and is considered the most powerful Arm Slave in existence (as proven when it tore the Arbalest to pieces with little effort); the latter was made from the remains of the Arbalest and is even more powerful than the original, thanks to a special device that can completely KO all Lambda Driver's effects in vicinity.
Though both count only as Ace Customs since they were never intended to enter production at all but rather, they were custom-built by/for their respective pilots.
They both also subvert the trope, as powerful as they are, both Arm Slaves have their own fatal flaws: the Belial is entirely dependent on its Lambda Driver for offense and defense, a flaw that nearly resulted in Leo's demise when Sousuke used the Fairy's Feather equipped on the Laevatein while the Laevatein lacks even basic ECM, can't fire its demolition gun (a portable howitzer) without using its Lambda Driver to stabilize it (otherwise the recoil will break its arm) and due to the high-powered muscle packages, it can only operate for a quarter of the time a regular arm slave can (20-30 hours; by comparison, its predecessors could operate for about 90-100 hours).
Belial is still a capable Arm Slave though, even without the Lambda Driver. Meanwhile Laevatein, especially when Fairy's Feather is activated, will drain the reactor quickly and reduces it to a Glass Cannon due to the low mobility. And did we mention that the Fairy's Feather will only work for a few minutes before the fuses burn out?
Armored Trooper VOTOMS subverts this trope utterly - for most of the series, if Chirico has a say in what mecha he uses, he picks a Scopedog (the Gilgamesh mook mecha). And proceeds to wipe the floor with his opponents in it.
To be fair, Votoms is one of the only Robot series that lacks any form of notable Super Prototype at all. All the mecha are just variations of about 3 different types of MP designs, such as the Scopedog, and while their are some Custom units they generally only have addition weapons and improved performance that while useful isn't visually notable and certainly doesn't make them invincible. Closest Chirico gets to a Super Prototype is the Rabidlydog. A custom blue Scopedog with an arm replaced with claw arm with a built in gun and a mine pack, as well as upped specs to the standard Scopedog.
Midway through Martian Successor Nadesico, ace mechanic Seiya Uribatake begins work on a Super Prototype Aestivalis nicknamed "X-tivalis" as a pet project. Unfortunately it turns out to be a failure, with the mecha's Wave Motion Gun being so unstable that it would cause the machine to explode. This is subverted when Admiral Munetake underwent a brief bout of psychosis and attempted to pilot the X-tivalis through sheer willpower. He fired the Wave Motion Gun... and it blew up.
Partial subversion in Vipers Creed, in the last episode we see a prototype white mech with greater speed, armor and two additional arms; but its software is not optimized, so at critical moments it freezes from bugs.
Played straight in Outlaw Star. The XGP 15 A-II was purpose built using advanced military tech for the purpose of reaching the Galactic Leyline.
Chachamaru of Mahou Sensei Negima!, the first of Hakase, Chao, and the engineering club's line of androids, which Chachamaru refers to as her little brothers and sisters. As Ku Fei mentioned before she kicked the asses of multiple mass-production versions of Chachamaru at once, as long as it's not Chachamaru herself, the fight is easy.
Mind you, that was probably more for emotional reasons - Ku would have trouble beating up her classmate, but if it's just a machine... ...which then brings up the point that Chachamaru does seem to be the only one that's more than just a machine (waiting to see what exactly the hell was going on with Negi using Black Magic to force a pactio, in the face of her apparently not having a soul)...
Clamp managed to do this in an episode of Angelic Layer to the titular toys when the design team unleashed against the tourney players a new prototype model with improved capabilities. Also, the original series can go to "Hypermode" which the later versions can't. Subverted by Shuko using a prototype that can barely move to beat the later version doll Wizard around like a, well, ragdoll even with vastly inferior tech and movements simply because she's that good.
Getter Robo Āḥ has mass-produced Getters who are nowhere near the godly power of Shin, who was too terrifyingly destructive to replicate. There's also the fact that limiting the amount of Getter Rays the machines can hold prevents them from turning sentient.
In Getter Robo Armageddon, Professor Saotome mass produces Getter Robo G in massive numbers with the sole purpose of forming them into Shin Dragon. Ryouma doesn't care and still beats the machines to a pulp.
Admirals on both sides in Legend of the Galactic Heroes get Ace Custom flagships, which tend to be slightly more powerful than their factions' regular fleet ships and serve as Ships of the Line in their Standard Sci Fi Fleets. This does not mean, however, that any of them will be winning any battles on their own; merely that it will take a little more effort to down one than it would a regular battleship (which, given this is a series where battles take place using tens of thousands of ships, does not mean all that much).
In a way, the Sage of the Six Paths can be considered a Super Prototype of all the ninja in the Naruto series. He is the legendary figure who first invented ninjutsu, and easily the most powerful mortal ever to live. He also possessed the setting's most powerful bloodline ability and carried relics capable of manipulating souls that would kill most people to use. His most epic deed was defeating the series' Cosmic Horror by sealing its soul in himself and making the moon to contains its body and later splitting it into the nine Tailed Beasts, just one of which can smash mountains with its tails. No ninja has even come close to his power, and all of the settings' most powerful ninja are in some way inheriting only a fragment of his power whether that be through his or his sons' bloodlines, becoming jinchuuriki like him, or inheriting his relics.
The Hyper-Zoanoids in Guyver are, like ordinary Zoanoids, genetically-altered humans. The "hyper" designation is usually applied to prototype genetic templates, which are designed around an individual soldier's DNA; mass-production designs must be simplified to allow them to work on a wider range of humans, so the Hyper models tend to be considerably more powerful.
Genesic Gao Gaigar from GaoGaiGar FINAL - GaoGaiGar and GaoFightGar are both based on it's blueprints, but are significantly weaker, partialy due to humans being unable to perfectly copy ailen design, partialy on purpose, as some of original's weapons were modified to serve non-offensive purpose.
In Infinite Stratos, it turns out that Ichika's IS core is actually the very first one ever made. It's noted that the inventor "poured all your heart and soul into that core," since it was her first creation. Note that this is not the reason he can use the IS (he's the only male who can); rather, that is never revealed. Not even the original inventor understands why.
Comic Books
This happens when any villain tries to replicate a Super Serum. The first villain to try it is bigger, stronger, faster than the original, but the original never pushes it to the limits because of the idiocy-inducing effects of an overdose, or the subject becoming completely musclebound or even exploding. On the rare occasions that the villains continue to use the super serum on Mooks, they will have much smaller doses and usually be sent in groups.
Related to the above, Captain America is the Super Prototype for the Super Soldier program. Villains are constantly trying to replicate his success with results ranging from mental retardation (Truth: Red, White and Black) to creating the Hulk (Ultimate Marvel) and the Weapon X program (Wolverine).
Also Nuke, who was actually tougher then Captain America, but had no mind of his own and was only a puppet for his superiors.
Speaking of Captain America, his shield is a Super Prototype as well, being the precursor to adamantium. Adamantium is the attempt to recreate the material of his shield, but even primary adamantium is weaker than it.
The comic book version of Iron Man both subverts this trope and plays it straight. The subversion comes from Stark constantly producing improved models after the original prototype. The straight examples come from any even vaguely mass-produced derivatives, like the Guardsman armors, which are never on par with Iron Man's own gear. Of course, readers probably wouldn't want a bunch of glorified prison guards to be as powerful as the superhero.
And, in fact, it's explained that Iron Man himself doesn't want a bunch of glorified prison guards to be as powerful as he is. He deliberately withholds the best tech for himself and even goes so far as to build in exploitable weaknesses in case the armors are ever used against him.
Considering the number of times Stark's technology has been stolen, duplicated or reverse-engineered, he's got a right to be paranoid and hold back technology. (Although, as seen in the Armor Wars story, sometimes he takes that right too far, beating up innocent people like Stingray and Captain America.)
In a way, The Hulk. While created by accident, Hulk was the first gamma mutant, and most following gamma beings (the Leader, the Abomination, Madman, Ravage, etc) were based off either recreating that accident or specifically copying his dna. While some have had greater base-line strength than the Hulk, and most have retained their higher intelligence where as the Hulk is most often shown to be a savage, Hulk's potential strength(increasing with anger) and his other abilities(Healing Factor, psychic resistance) have shown him to be the most powerful of the gamma beings.
Fan Works
In Exoria, a modern-day Legend of ZeldaFan Fic, Epona is a prototype military motorcycle, codenamed MRX-402A (second prototype model of the fourth generation military reconnaissance X-series). Aside from being able to achieve speeds over three hundred kilometers per hour, it has onboard electronic systems that allow it to analyze the terrain ahead instantly and adjust the suspensions real-time. It also has an auto-drive function, and two .50 machine guns. Seatbelt not included.
In The Open Door, the Stiletto is the first craft built by newChaos as a test bed for the combination of the technologies available to them. Although officially rated as a frigate, it can punch far, far above its supposed weight. Eventually, with its long shakedown cruise over, its equipment receives rather drastic tonedown.
Subverted and defied in An Entry With A Bang!: The first GDI monitor is an unstable hodgepodge of Clancy-Earth and Battletech... uh, tech. The first prototype BearCat aerospace fighter is not mounting weapons. Both in-universe and at the writers' level, there has generally been agreement to take things slow and not do any funky stuff.
Film
In Star Wars, Darth Vader's TIE fighter was a custom model with a distinct appearance. At least one Expanded Universe technical manual says it's one of a Low-Rate Initial Production batch of unsuccessful Super Prototypes; the design was rejected as too expensive and the TIE Interceptor was selected instead.
There's a Mythology Gag in the comic series introducing Baron Soontir Fel that implies that Vader had his TIE Advanced made because Baron Fel kept beating Vader in simulations and training.
The various Star Wars space sims featured prototype craft: X-Wing featured the Rebel B-Wing and the Imperial Assault Gunboat; TIE Fighter featured a whole host of prototype TIEs being developed by Zaarin's R&D group as well as new introductions to the Imperial Navy fleet. The player is often tasked with protecting, escorting, and eventually flying prototype fighters as part of their missions. The TIE Defender in particular (infamous as the Game Breaker of TIE Fighter) would eventually see production, but its limited numbers, both due to its cost and its figurative flying in the face of standard doctrine, were too few to turn the tide of the Galactic Civil War.
Zaarin also wanted to stage a coup with the help of the technology he had created, but was defeated with most of his projects lost as a result. This happened shortly before the Battle of Endor, and the collapse of the Empire went a long way towards ensuring that that the same faction did not possess both the knowhow and the resources to recreate Zaarin's work.
In the Rogue Squadron game series, craft from the prequels - which should be decades out of date in-story - are among the most potent weaponry available.
The Jedi starfighters themselves are an example, with the decently-shielded Episode II prototypes, and the smaller, poor-shielded, crazy fast production models from The Clone Wars and Episode III.
All of the Clonetroopers/Stormtroopers are clones of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, who himself had (presumably self-taught) battle skills far superior to any of his Imperial-trained clones. He also raised a particular clone as his son (Boba Fett) who was NOT subjected to the same growth hormone as the others, and yet turned out to be far superior in terms of battling prowess.
And when the Stormtrooper corp expanded to also accept non-clones (as well as using clones of people other than Jango), they became, well, Stormtroopers.
The Trade Federation in The Phantom Menace uses two types of battle droids, that look the exact same. You have the OOM models, which possess advanced and independent programming, and the B1 models, which are dumb as a box of rocks. The kicker, the OOMs are the prototypes. You would think that with code being easily replicated, ALL battle droids would be OOMs, but instead the Trade Federation decided to shoot themselves in the foot.
Maybe the computers are too expensive to stick into expendable droids.
Or the Trade Federation may want to avoid a possible Robot Rebellion
Arguably, Jason Bourne was a kind of prototype to Treadstone assassins. He was "better" in the sense that he beat all the agents sent against him, but he was less stable.
Batman's costume in Batman Begins is a prototype armor suit that was rejected by the army because it was too expensive.
Literature
In Joel Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov trilogy, the title character is a prototype of a new and improved version of the "GIs" used as soldiers in interstellar combat. The main improvement is in her intelligence rather than her physical capabilities. She is creative and capable of lateral thought, making her more flexible and independent than lower level G Is who mostly serve as grunts that follow orders.
Technically, this is averted, as she's the final production model, complete with a failsafe killswitch. The real prototype is a much less attractive version of her that never got the opportunity to grow, mature or escape, but are othwerise identical. There aren't more of her as she was a field test that failed spectacularly.
Honor Harrington subverts this trope with the Mesan Shark-class ships, which were meant to be only testbeds for the spider drive. The moving up of Oyster Bay forced them into use, but the Alignment would rather have used the production Leonard Detweiler-class ships, which are proper warships.
Averted in Dale Brown books, where later versions of the EB-52 Megafortress, EB-1C Vampire and Tin Man Powered Armor have newer, better toys than the first models.
The Caterpillar Drive is the whole reason that there was a Hunt For Red October in the first place.
In the Star Trek novel Final Frontier (no relation to the fifth movie), it was revealed that the Enterprise was the prototype for the Constitution class line. It was deliberately overbuilt, explaining how Kirk (and Scotty) could constantly push it past its design limits. Constitution ships-of-the-line were economized, resulting in them being more delicate ships.
You'd think the prototype for the Constitution class would be the Constitution.
A more likely explanation would be the "ace custom" variety, with engineers making their own improvements. Scotty would never allow the Enterprise's maximum speed to be what the manual said it was, and the solutions-of-the-day when the problem affects the ship's tech have to start to add up even if they aren't referenced.
The Long Shot in Larry Niven's Known Space 'verse is the only Quantum II hyperdrive ship ever built. Big motor in the biggest hull made left no room for profitable cargo.
In Mad Skills by Walter Greatshell, coma patient Madeleine Grant is a testbed for an experimental brain surgery that uses leech brain cells to supercharge her mind to Singularity levels. Actually, she's a prototype testbed for a lot of separate projects, qualifying as an Artificial Human to some degree; her body is the repurposed shell of a brain-dead pop star, while her brain is entirely artificial and contains heavily-edited memoriestaken from an orphan girl who was quietly killed, and that brain is what's upgraded with the Leech-Tron. The Leech-Tron also incorporates a wi-fi connection that allows subliminal commands and advertisements to be beamed directly into her brain, but the amount of brainpower she has available allows her to slip the leash by mid-book.
In Daemon the first AutoM8 is an armoured, solid-tired Hummer that is Immune to Bullets. Later versions use normal cars as a base and are thus less survivable.
Live-Action TV
The Cool Starship equivalent is the USS Defiant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In its debut, it took a dozen Jem'hadar attack ships (just three of which had shown themselves capable of easily destroying the previous most powerful ship in Starfleet) to disable the Defiant, and that was after it was heavily damaged in an ambush. Not to mention, they hadn't even worked all the bugs out of the design yet; in later appearances it was even more formidable. The specs indicated that it was about 1/10 the mass of the Enterprise-D yet carried armament equal to it. Starfleet eventually does make others which are apparently just as powerful (including a replacement for the original when the Dominion finally manages to destroy it), but it takes a while to get them into production.
The explanation given was that the Defiant was designed to fight a very specific enemy, and had severe design flaws to boot (such as the fact that it would literally rip itself apart if the engines were used at full power!). When the threat from that enemy seemed to recede, Starfleet (being only Mildly Military) decided they had little need for a single-purpose warship, so even after the flaws were ironed out they didn't build any more. Until a huge quadrant-wide war broke, and Starfleet basically needed nothing but dedicated warships.
Also fully justified in that the Defiant was Starfleet's first dedicated warship in recent memory-not even tailored to fight a single threat, it was the first Starfleet vessel designed and built expressly for combat, rather than the science vessel/warship hyrbids that most Starfleet ships are, and as such has little purpose when the Federation is not at war. However, the Prometheus class may or may not indicate that Starfleet is reconsidering this position-the Prometheus's full capabilities are unknown, but it is a tremendously powerful warship.
The Enterprise-E also showed evidence of a more military-based design, with a far sleeker look and a narrow profile, as well as a lotmore dakka than any previously-seen Federation ship (if we don't count ones in/from the future.)
The Prometheus-class design seems to be good enough that it's still being used in the 26th century. (In the form of a blink-and-you-miss-it model re-use in a flash-foward. Apparently, that ship - no doubt with under-the-hood improvements - will still be around in the days of the Enterprise-J.)
A subversion of this appears in the SNES game Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, where one of the simulator missions involves a battle against a stolen prototype Excelsior-class ship. Of course, you end up being able to use one...
Star Trek actually kept a pretty good eye on its tech level as various ships are introduced. The registry for the prototype ships usually have an NX prefix. The Excelsior was originally NX-2000 and was more of a testbed for the (ultimately failed) "Transwarp" engine more than anything else. Once the testing phase was over, she was given a proper NCC prefix. Otherwise, it didn't appear to completely outclass other starships like the Enterprise in terms of combat performance. In later series it seemed that the Excelsior design was actually one of the most versatile in terms of longevity, the design showed up as modern starships as late as Deep Space Nine's fourth season, more than 80 years after it was introduced.
The titular ship of Star Trek: Enterprise, the NX-01 Enterprise, also subverted the super prototype as her successor, the NX-02 Columbia, left drydock with capabilities that surpassed and were later retrofitted into Enterprise. Production designs for the uproduced fifth season of Enterprise and Word Of God statements from Doug Drexler recently revealed that the entire NX class was one big work-in-progress and that every ship was its own prototype, as evidenced by these sketches showing off the engineering hull that was to be added to the "NX-01.5".
Another Star Trek example are Data and his brother Lore. Data is way more "robotic" than Lore, the former having no emotions, (allegedly) being incapable of using contractions and quite socially inept. But it turns out that Lore was built before Data. The problem was that the colonists of Omicron Theta considered him way too creepy, and therefore Dr. Soong had to shut him down and construct a less advanced android instead. (Note however, that Lore is not Soong's first android. Before him, there were some less sophisticated models, like B-4.)
Part of it may have also been because Lore was a Complete Monster to the core of his being.
Western subversion: Knight Rider: In "Trust Doesn't Rust", KARR takes KITT for an "inferior production-line model" and assumes himself to be a Super Prototype. He turns out not to have any apparent technological advantage over KITT (of course, KITT is hardly "production-line"), aside from a slightly improved speech module (In the next episode, KITT's is replaced by one similar to KARR's).
Though surprisingly, when KARR reappears in the third season, while still not more advanced than KITT, he does possess a number of features which KITT had only gained during the second season.
Power Rangers RPM has the Paleozords, abandoned mecha from the early days of Project Ranger. The reason they were abandoned is because the zord tech hinges on bio-energy fields of living beings, and the Paleozords (based on dinosaurs, as you might have guessed from the name) were trying to connect to creatures that no longer existed, which made them powerful but uncontrollable. By the time the Rangers rediscovered them, the technology had advanced enough to bring them under control.
In Power Rangers Time Force, the Quantum Ranger and his Quantasaurus Rex Zord were created during the early days of Time Force, and lost in an early time travel experiment until being rediscovered. However, they're quite stronger than the main five Rangers and any of their tech. However, there's a drawback: the main five have a DNA lock, so only you or your Identical Grandson can use it (hence Wes.) The Quantum powers have a voice lock, making it easier for, say, the Monster of the Week to sic your Zord on the Rangers with just a voice imitation device.
In Denji Sentai Megaranger, the Megasilver suit is a lot stronger than the others... until we find out that its power only lasts two and a half minutes. (In Power Rangers In Space, the 2.5 minute problem existed for different reasons and the suit wasn't a prototype.)
A two-episode story on Space: Above and Beyond featured "Chiggy Von Richthofen", a enemy Ace capable of wiping entire squadrons of Earth fighters by itself. "Chiggy" flew a special version of the standard Chig fighter that had some kind of stealth technology making it invisible to Earth detection and targeting systems, was invulnerable to cannon fire, and in general displayed greater speed and maneuverability than any other fighter in the show. Also, its nose was painted with a human skull and the phrase "Abandon All Hope".
Generally averted in Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. For example, the Prometheus, earth's first space faring battle cruiser, was constantly being sent in for refits and upgrades, and achieved very few wins during its life. The Daedalus class ships have generally proven to be more reliable, particularly once they received the Asgard beam weapons. Possibly the only exception is the Anti-Replicator Guns. The original, built by Jack and Thor using knowledge from the Ancient database, proved very effective, while the later AR Gs were useful for about one episode. Justified in that Replicators are capable of quickly adapting to new threats.
Averted in Kamen Rider: the Shocker Riders are on-par with Double Riders and also have built-in weapons. However, the heroes have much more experience and eventually invent new technique that defeat them all.
Played straight in spin-off Kamen Rider Faiz, the Riot Troopers are nowhere as good as Faiz. Though as above, this may be due to Faiz being far more experienced and an extremely powerful Orphnoch to boot.The Movie also introduced Kamen Riders Psyga and Orga, but this is averted as well. While both are stronger than Faiz's base form, Faiz had to resort to pure skill to kill Psyga. Faiz's Blaster Form can overpower Orga, however, it hardly counts as it was created later as an upgrade to Faiz and not a prototype. However, still plays this straight by being created a good time before Orga was.
Also, the prototype Kamen Rider Birth suit in Kamen Rider OOO has fewer weapons than the main Birth suit.
The eponymous "super-sub" in Gerry Anderson's series Stingray. All the other W.A.S.P. ships that we see are more-or-less conventional-looking (for the 1960s) submarines, and there is no indication that there is more than one of the class. Expanded Universe material in the TV Century 21 comic and official novels imply either that a second Stingray-class sub has been built (and enters service just in time to be stolen by the Mysterons) or that Stingray is an ungraded version of a standard W.A.S.P. patrol vessel with superior capabilities to its sister craft.
The robot Imperiser/Imperialiser from Ultraman Mebius is insanely hard to destroy with thick armor capable of self-regeneration and can evolve right in the mid of battle. The mass production version lacking said qualities, they are still deadly nonetheless. And since they retain teleportation ability, their strength in numbers does made up with it.
The Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica features a Super Prototype, the first U87 Cylon equipped with a metacognitive processor displays the potential for near human autonomy. The problem with this is this level of intelligence is only achieved in a single prototype, if the MCP is placed in a different cylon it does not display sentience.
The Original Battlestar Galactica series had the C.O.R.A. Viper. Very fast, full A.I. computer piloting system, equipped for long range patrols, double the thrusting power of any other viper — at the expense of the guns!
On Chuck, Chuck is the first successfull Intersect and remains the only prototype due to repeated sabotage of the project. However, when they finally decide to create more Intersect agents, they turn out to be way too inflexible in their thinking and tend to overreact in combat situations. This makes the production versions unsuitable for the type of operations the Intersect is used for and the project is discontinued with Chuck as the only Super Prototype.
Subverted with Grimes, whose laidback attitude makes it much easier for him to "zoom" than Chuck's ability to flash, while still being quirky enough to avoid the emotion-killing aspect of the Intersect. For a time.
The thing is, the Intersect that Chuck downloaded was made by the technology's inventor - most of the others were others' attempts to recreate it, and that never works, similar to Captain America's situation. The Intersect 2.0, with I Know Kung-Fu, did work.
Mythology
It's not just for sci-fi, either: in mythology the first member of a given species is almost always far more powerful (and, usually, larger) than its lesser cousins.
Especially true for vampires - the earlier the generation the more powerful they are, in many pieces of vampire-related fiction.
Tabletop Games
Done in the BattleTech animated series, and in the world setting for the original game as well. Many "ace" Mechwarriors have unique mech variants, such as Justin Allard/Kai Allard-Liao's Yen-Lo-Wang Centurion or Natasha Kerensky's "Widowmaker" Daishi. Ironically, Kerensky, possibly the most badarse Mechwarrior of all time, became most famous while piloting an entirely stock mech that she took from battlefield salvage.
OmniMechs, with swappable hardpoints, were pretty much specifically invented to allow players to build their own Ace Customs as well as give particular pilots mechs that can only be described as Ace Customs among Ace Customs.
Prototype Battlemechs are almost invariably less powerful then the production models. The earliest prototypes were built on "primitive" technology that made them slower, more vulnerable and far less efficient.
True, but Battletech is also a setting that involves a lot of Lost Technology from the Star League era, technology which was only just catching up to where it had been around the time of the Clan invasion. Depending on the narritive era a Battletech game is set in, it is quite plausible to find older, more powerful versions of later knock-off technology.
Since they're one of the only factions in Warhammer 40,000 whose technology is actually improving, the Tau exhibit this trope when it comes to their battlesuits. Ace battlesuit jockeys are given the chance to field-test advanced prototypes, and if a Tau commander does really well they may end up with their own custom suit. Unfortunately these shiny new features tend to come with a drawback or two, something notably absent in normal Tau technology.
Subverted with the Chaos Terminators, who are restricted to using Combi-bolters, inferior prototype versions of Storm Bolters, because the latter were not in production when the Terminators Rebelled. Same goes for the Land Raider, the prototypes lacking port and starboard deployment hatches and less interior space (despite being bigger than the mass produced Land Raider).
This kinda applies to any sort of technology used by the Humans (of any faction). The most powerful weapons are inevitably some super-ancient prototype relic. Kind of hand-waved due to a.) the Adeptus Mechanicus's fear of inventing, b.) the relics themselves being of Alien origin and/or a sacred relic and c.) sometimes the owners flat out refuse to let anyone tinker around with their one-of-a-kind toy.
Played straight with the Primarchs, who are superior to any other soldier the Imperium has and are the templates for almost all of the Space Marines in existence today. However, the process which created them were extremely intensive and the Emperor only managed to create 20 of them, which he later deemed to be used as the templates for the Space Marine Legions and commanders for said legions.
Jovian Chronicles, Dream Pod 9's Gundam inspired setting is naturally filled with them. A couple of the prototypes do get mass produced version, but they pale in comparison to their predecessors.
Another Dream Pod 9 game, Heavy Gear, inverts the trope. Generally the common models of gears are so common because they are based on old, proven, reliable, and easy to mass-produce and maintain technology. There are more advanced models of gear out there, but they are not custom versions of more common ones, nor necessarily exceptional prototypes that have not yet seen mass production. They are usually just see limited production due to cost reasons, and the fact that only small numbers of them are needed to augment militaries make up of more simple gears.
Although it does subvert the trope: Lune Zoldark's Ace Custom "Valsione" is weaker than the "Valsion" because it's a custom version of it. Lune disliked the bulky and infernal appearance of the original, so father Bian Zoldark redesigned it as a small, swift mecha resembling a cute girl at the expense of armor, as well as lacking the defensive capabilities the Valsion had that made it extremely difficult to hit.
That being said, Lune's Valsione is much more nimble and harder to hit. It also can be equipped with additional weaponry, something the Valsion can't, and can fulfill a crowd-control duty due to its Sphere of Destruction.
A possible subversion are the "Alt Eisen" and "Weiss Ritter". The Alt was built as a Super Prototype for a proposed Gespenst MK III line and the Weiss an Ace Custom for the mass-produced Gespenst MK II, but due to both being cost-ineffective and the finalization of the Huckebein and Lion lines by The Federation, all plans to mass-produce either were scrapped.
However, this is played straight by the second Super Robot Wars Original Generation, wherein the Alt and Weiss receive upgrades that far outclass the Huckebein and Lion mass-produced lines combined; moreso on the Weiss' upgrade, it being tinkered by a Cosmic Horror.
Another example, although justified, are the original Gespents. When going up against the surprisingly powerful "Gespenst Type-S", more than a few characters voice their shock at its power, before being told since it's one of the prototypes, its funding had been astronomical in comparison to the funding for the mass produced Gespensts.
Plus it's mentioned the Gespenst Type-S they are facing isn't actually the original: it's a more powerful recreation by the Aerogaters.
Taking the trope to ludicrous lengths, the first Gespenst was brought to the setting from another dimension... and was actually the Clipped Wing Angel form of the XN-Geist. To repeat, the prototype for the army's basic Mecha-Mooks was an Eldritch Abomination.
The "R-Blade" is completely averted: it's inferior to the equivalent of its production model "R-Eins".
In a rather bizarre case, Ouka Nagisa is a Super Prototype, having much better stats than the rest of The School children, despite being an "older model", although this may be the case because she is a Recurring Boss character.
Played with in Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden: Mai Kobayashi wonders whether, since in all the robot anime Ascended Fanboy Ryusei Date has shown her, the prototypes are always the strongest, if the "SRX" will become weaker coming out of its research phase.
In the Metal Gear Solid series, the prototype Metal Gear RAY is of far superior quality to the mass-produced models later encountered by Raiden as a boss battle; then again it may have been actually designed for its supposed purpose (to defeat REX derivatives) whereas the mass-produced versions were actually tactical defense units for Arsenal Gear.
Despite this, that RAY is defeated by the damaged, unmaintained, and radome-less original Metal Gear REX after Otacon uploaded a program allowing REX to fight as agilely as RAY, despite Snake having shot it with missiles aplenty nine years before.
Liquid Snake's original motivation is based off an inversion of these. Thinking that he's the older of the two clones, he's desperate to prove that he's stronger, faster, and smarter than Solid Snake.
Mega Man is regularly one-upped by his older "Brother" Blues/Proto Man. Sometimes explained as having to do with Mega Man originally being a lab assistant, or alternatively, Protoman's nuclear core (which is apparently pretty dangerous, thus its not being used for Mega Man).
Not to mention, of course, that Mega Man regularly wipes the floor with armies of robot masters presumably based off his own design, made by one of the same two creators. And it's even worse with Mega Man X, where a robot built at least 60 years before the start of the series and presumably upgraded only by parts which were also built decades before it starts does the same thing with futuristic robots with AI based off his own. Then Zero is presumably a hundred years out of date by the time his series starts...
Of course, this one's justified in the backstory as Drs. Light and Wily being just that good. Reploids, of which X was only a figurative prototype, were really little more than crappy knock-offs created by Dr Cain's rather poor attempt to replicate the vastly superior X. It took a very long time just to fix the bugs in the reploids, before they could even begin improving them, and the line only finally and completely shakes the horrible flaws from being bad copies afterMega Man Zero. Indeed, it might even be argued that X is an aversion, being as he wasn't a prototype, he was the pinnacle of the Mega Man line's development—Mega Man was the prototype, and X averts this trope by surpassing Mega Man by orders of magnitude.
Proto Man does it through Genre Savvy. He pulls Fake Defections left and right, sees Wily's tricks a mile off, and last but not least whistles his own Leitmotif before entering any battle, guaranteeing a Theme Music Power-Up.
Varied with Axl and the New Generation Reploids in the X series: Axl can easily beat his mass-produced brethren in combat, but that's not what they're made for. Their main feature is the ability to copy the forms of other Reploids. Axl is demonstrably inferior in this regard.
Early in Star Fox Assault, the player is attacked by a powerful enemy, referred to only as "some kind of prototype." The same enemy reappears in the last level, more powerful than ever. (You'd think the Aparoids could have mass-produced it by now!)
Somewhat of a aversion — the enemy is a prototype of the remnants of Andross's army, and in the final level, it's simply been corrupted by the Aparoids.
The Delphinus from Skies Of Arcadia is a possible example, but it's not entirely clear whether the weaker mass-produced equivalent (the Spectre-class battleships) are scaled-back mass production versions or the immediate predecessors of the Delphinus. The Delphinus's unique status, though, is explained by the fact that its construction had been completed mere days before its introduction, and it was intended to be Prince Enrique's flagship. It's entirely possible that the Valuans intended to build more like it, but constructing a battleship tends to be a rather time-consuming endeavor (while viewers might accept the idea of a giant robot being built in a month or less, 600 foot long battleship takes years; it's unlikely that a flying battleship would be any quicker to build).
The Delphinus is also said to have been extremely expensive to produce, especially due to the inclusion of the Moonstone Cannon, which Enrique says cost so much that the government can't actually afford to construct any more.
The Delphinus could probably be classified as both an Ace Custom and Super Prototype. On another note, it's often referred to as the most powerful ship Valua has ever produced, and it proves it several times throughout the story; it's fast, maneuverable, heavily armored, and packs enough firepower to destroy a small country.
Far less ambiguous is the game's non-mecha example of Ace Custom units: all but one of the Valuan admirals have heavily customized versions of the Serpent-class battleship, which in its non-custom form is the standard mook airship. Some of them have purely cosmetic alterations, while others have unique weapons and armor to suit the combat styles and personalities of the admirals. The latter type are the ones that the player actually gets to fight, naturally.
The Big Bad's flying fortress, the Hydra, you fight at the end was so expensive the Empire didn't even bother to make it after the plans had been drawn up. Galcian built the prototype himself, perhaps he was planning to use it to take over the world before Ramirez turned up.
The fictional planes of Ace Combat occasionally fall under this trope, particularly the X-02 Wyvern "Switchblade" of Ace Combat 04 (and which can be unlocked in both 5 and Zero) and the ADFX-01 "Morgan" of Ace Combat Zero.
Subverted with the ADFX-01 and ADFX-02 "Morgan" from Zero. The latter, being boss-use only, is superior in every way, including better maneuverability, armor, speed, and can swap between all three special weapons without needing to RTB like the former, thus making the Morgan a subversion of the trope.
Also subverted by the ADF-01 Falken. The canonically first copy, the "Falken ZOE" from 2, lacks the iconic and Gamebreaking laser of the variants in later games (admittedly, SP weapons, of which the Falken's TLS qualifies as, weren't introduced until 4). However, played straight if you factor in the Falken variant from Zero, which has more special weapons options than the one that appears in 5.
This could be Gameplay and Story Segregation; it can be argued that the Morgan and Falken are supposed to avert this trope in-universe, with the Morgan's traditional engines and cockpit compared to the Falken's futuristic, hi-tech-looking engines and COFFIN cockpit which works by removing the canopy from the cockpit's design, building around it with the same material as the rest of the plane, and dotting it with cameras that point in every direction and project a complete display of the surrounding space on every surface of the inside.
You also have Ace Customs after a fashion, as a fair bit of the 100% Completion in post-Electrosphere games comes from getting enemy aces' paint schemes.
You can actually buy a prototype of the CFA-44 Nosferatu from 6, in addition to the final version you unlock through gameplay. Of course, it costs you 200 Microsoft Points to do so...
The real planes also have a bit of this. 5 in particular both subverts it (the F-15 S/MTD is better than the stock F-15 it was modified from) and plays it straight (the S-32 is better than the later Su-47)
Ace Combat X brought us the Fenrir. The original models had optical camoflage, ungodly maneuverability and a microwave weapon. the production models don't have any of that aside from the ungodly maneuverability at the cost of ammo. In the same vein, the Varcolac from Joint Assault is shown to have a rear mounted machine gun that shoots down any and all missiles that approach it. In game, it doesn't have that but it's still the best plane in the game if you give it the right mods.
The Smithy Gang in Super Mario RPG (Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich and the Axem Rangers) are the Super Prototype models for their production lines. When you reach the last area, you discover that Smithy is creating an entire army of the bosses, though the Machine-Made versions are less powerful than the actual bosses.
Inverted in the Halo series, where the ancient, one-of-a-kind Arbiter armor is actually less powerful than the newer, mass-produced Elite armor suits. Specifically, the cloaking device only lasts for a handful of seconds before needing to recharge, instead of nearly indefinitely. Also played straight in the Expanded Universe, where the more widely-produced SPI armor given to the Spartan-IIIs lack the strength/speed/reflex enhancers, durability, and Deflector Shields of the Spartan-II MJOLNIR armor; in the novel Ghosts of Onyx, the Spartan-II programme is even explicitly called a proof of concept by the man proposing the Spartan-III programme, which he compares to mass production.
This is justified by the fact that while the Spartan-IIs were elite commandos, most of the Spartan-IIIs were suicide shock troops; the handful of IIIs who were reassigned to more elite units received better armor, with the best ones (such as Noble Team) given the same high-quality MJOLNIR as the IIs.
Fully averted with the Master Chief himself. He's given the same enhancements and equipment as his fellow Spartan-IIs, but he still ends up being the best and luckiest of the bunch.
The Edelweiss in Valkyria Chronicles, made by Isara's father for Welkin's father for the previous war. It was found to be an incredible tank, but it was too expensive for any kind of mass production.
It's also mentioned that the basic Edelweiss was really good, but that it was then customized out the wazoo, making it even better. That being said, it still has a hard time going up against enemy Medium or Heavy tanks without even more modifications in-game.
Valkyria Chronicles II has the V0 Power Armor, exclusively worn by Dirk Gassenarl alias Leon Hardins, Avan's long lost brother. The V0 is explicitly dangerous for its user, Dirk is about the only one who can use it and survive, at the cost of his degenerating physical and mental faculty. It shows in the game.
More generally, throughout the series there are weapons that the Aces use; defeating them either earn you the blueprints for said weapons, or the weapons themselves.
Subject Delta BioShock 2 isn't just a Big Daddy - he's the first Big Daddy; unlike the production models, he's nimble and has plasmid powers. Yahtzee pokes fun at this trope in his review of the game.
However, in the said game it's also explained that later Big Daddy models intentionally had the ability to use Plasmid powers engineered out. This makes sense to an extent, as it's easy to imagine having completed the prototype and seeing the results...that they'd opt to not have the hulking behemoths wandering around also all have psychic capability. On top of that, they could only bond to a single Little Sister, and if anything bad happened to her, they would either go into a psychotic rage (even by Rapture standards) or fall into a coma. Delta experiences this himself when Sofia Lamb suffocates Eleanor- it doesn't kill her, but her heart stops long enough for their protection bond to break; when this happens, Delta's body begins to shut down and he eventually dies.
Plus their creator was forced to follow a budget because they didn't have the means to make them like the prototype (in fact, said creator's boss wanted to cut costs beyond the regular Big Daddies only to be told it was utterly impossible).
Subverted in Cave Story. About a third of the way through the professor appears and gives you a prototype jetpack, with very limited functionality. The game doesn't make the following obvious at all, but it's possible to avoid the encounter altogether and keep playing without the jetpack (made much easier if the player has the machinegun weapon, whose ridiculously strong recoil enables the player character to kinda-sorta fly). When you meet the professor again he'll give you the full-blown version of the jetpack, which is far more useful. Note that if you get the prototype you're stuck with that for the rest of the game - the professor dies before he can complete the final version.
Subverted in the first Riddick game. Assault rifles in the game require your DNA to be entered into a database before you can use them. While you manage to accomplish this, you eventually get captured and your DNA access is revoked. When you come across a prototype assault rifle (without DNA encoding) later in the game, you assume that it must be better than the earlier assault rifles, right? Actually, the prototype has a broken ammo counter and half of the old assault rifle's clip size. Still a good weapon, but the mass-produced variant is much better.
Getting technical, any of the titular mecha from Armored Core are Ace Customs. Each one is a specially built engine of destruction that accommodates the pilot's fighting style and can wield an astounding array of weaponry. Also, when Armored Core 4 appeared, mass production models of Cores appeared as mooks— Normals. The newer NEXTS now being the weapon of choice for Ravens, err Lynx.
The Armored Core series also has a subversion: AC technology was developed from MT (Muscle Tracer) technology, which serves as the mooks of the first three games and their spin-offs. M Ts, however, are usually custom-designed for specific purposes, such as construction, long-range bombardment, or close combat. The A Cs superiority isn't from their improvement over the basic design, but from their adaptability and weapon load. The NEX Ts, on the other hand, ARE technologically superior: Lynx pilots actually form a semi-psychic bond to the mech, allowing even better control than MT technology. Plus, you know, shields...
Even in the earlier games, an AC still had three to four times as much health, more defense, usually moved faster, and carried more, better, weaponry. And most likely cost at least two orders of magnitude more. A really, REALLY low quality part can cost around 15 thousand. In comparison, missions that make you pay for lost allies charge at most a few thousand per destroyed MT. Of course, you might not be shouldering the entire cost of replacement, but STILL.
However, the NEX Ts are "mass produced" in the sense they have a standard model, pilots usually swap things while maitaining the base chasis. Global Armaments uses the Sunshine as the standard for all GA NEX Ts for instance. The white Glint is the sole unique unit as it was custom built.
In Sonic Adventure 2, we're introduced to two "ultimate life-forms" created as part of Project Shadow: The final product; a hedgehog similar to Sonic, albeit with jetboots, Chaos Control, and a supposed infinite lifespan, and the prototype; a gigantic dinosaur that projects a forcefield around itself, spits energy balls, and also possesses Chaos Control. While Shadow is certainly very strong, smart, and fast, the Biolizard could be considered practically invincible. However, the Biolizard proved imperfect, and was reduced to being connected to an enormous life-support system just to keep surviving, which explains why it's not the final product.
That and Shadow manages to fight off the fake memories that Gerald planted in him; the fact that the Biolizard determinedly works to keep the ARK on its crash course with earth, plus the repetition of Gerald's final speech when it first appears, implies that it was under the same influence, but too weak-willed to overcome it.
Inverted with the cyborg super-soldiers of Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The 'Uber-Soldat' design encountered on two occasions in the game is much tougher than the 'Proto-Soldat' models used as Elite Mooks, but it's the latter that are the prototypes; Deathshead had his funding cut in favor of "Operation Ressurection", and so was forced to stop production after six units and press the development models into service instead.
Subverted by Zone of the Enders, where the prototype Orbital Frame Idolo seems to be rather less powerful than later high grade frames like Jehuty and Dolores. But then both Anubis and Jehuty (later, at least) have sole possession of the Zero Shift Flash Step, which none of the mass-prod mook Frames have.
But when one considers Nohman's megalomaniacal nature, and the fact the Anubis and Jehuty were stolen it isn't too unreasonable to see why that system was never mass produced.
Vivi, like all Black Mages in Final Fantasy IX, is an animated doll. However, as the prototype model, his power is greater than that of his "brothers", and his lifespan is much longer, as well.
A Continuity Nod in Thunder Force series. The mass production model of Styx in III appear as NPC in IV; The Rynex in IV has its production model appear in VI and also serve as prototype of Gauntlet in V. It take Mid-Season Upgrade the Gauntlet into Ace Custom Vambrace and Mecha Expansion Pack Brigandine module that Earth's fighter can fight the Rynex. It's justified since Gauntlet is Earthling's replica, built with alien technology they aren't fully understand.
Final Fantasy VI's Kefka was the very first Magitek Knight (a normal human given magical powers by way of an infusion from an Esper). He consistently has much stronger magic then Celes, a later-generation Magitek Knight that joins your party.*
The first time you fight him as a boss, he is Level 18, and has spells like Blizzara, Poison, Drain, and all three 1st level Fire, Ice, Lightning spells. Celes would only have Blizzard, Antidote, Imp, Cure, and Scan at that same level.
Unfortunately, as a prototype, he was exposed to an imperfect version of the infusion process, which resulted in him going just a teensybitinsane.
In the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth is a Super Prototype who is much stronger and more powerful than regular SOLDIERs and much more physically stable than the competing Project G prototypes Angeal and Genesis, who are subject to degradation. Unfortunately, Sephiroth could not be duplicated and he cannot replicate his genetic traits in monsters (like Angeal) or in humans (like Genesis).
Ultimately, it's a subversion though. Sephiroth is more powerful because he was infused in vitro with Jenova cells, whereas regular SOLDIERs are infused as adults with Mako energy.
An interesting version of this is in Fate/stay night. Gilgamesh has all the prototypes of every Servant's Noble Phantasm, and goes on to explain exactly why his prototypes are that much more powerful. However, this is subverted in Unlimited Blade Works when Shiro "traces" or copies all of Gilgamesh's super prototypes with his Reality Marble, essentially creating a water-downed mass production type version of each one; right after explaining although his versions are weaker imitations, there is no rule about the imitations losing to the originals, he states that he will prove his imitations are superior by destroying all of Gilgamesh's weapons and Gilgamesh himself. Cue Crowning Moment of Awesome.
Front Mission 3 has a couple interesting examples. In the start of the game your character is a test pilot for Kirishima Heavy Industries and your first mission is actually a final test run of a new prototype Wanzer for the Japanese Military. The Shunyo Mk. 111 is far more powerful than the test Wanzers you fight against, and if you pick the Alisa Story Path you get to use them in an actual battle where you pretty much mop the floor with the opposition (granted, the other route pits you against turrets and this one against real wanzers, but anyhow). Either way you won't encounter these Wanzers later in the game at which point you're facing off against them and they're still extremely powerful, but so is your party and thus they're a bit more manageable. And by this time you might have access to the true Super Prototype of the game: The Hoshun. This is a Wanzer that is somehow sent to you through the Internet and not only has more HP than any other pilotable Wanzer, but also has one of the only beam rifles in existence, the other two existing on bosses. The Hoshun can soak up immense amounts of punishment, the beam rifle can one-shot most enemies (though suffers a recharge time because of the immense AP cost), and all the parts are capable of giving insane bonus skills. One skill (Revenge-Body) will cause a retaliatory strike that destroys the body of its attacker on the opponents turn (thus effectively destroying the enemy unit), one (AP-0) removes all AP cost of a combat action (thus negating the large AP cost of firing the beam rifle), and one (Body-Smash) will result in an attack that automatically destroys the targeted enemy's body. Of course these skills have a very low chance of happening but they are still deadly when they occur. In addition by this time your pilots will probably have learned certain skills which will allow the beam weapon to be fired with no AP cost anyway if it's used in the offhand for a Double Assault (melee/range combo initiated by a melee attack) or a Double Shot II (a Guns Akimbo skill that works regardless of the ranged weapon combo used) skill, thus putting one of those pilots in command of the Hoshun will make it a nearly unstoppable force.
Not to mention that, if for any reason, the player wants to forego the use of the beam rifle altogether, the Hoshun's ability to carry very heavy loads while being a 5-square mover legs is downright Game Breaker. To give some perspective, 6 and 5 square moving legs are usually reserved for the melee-weapons carrying wanzers in the game, which typically carries nothing but any of three melee weapons type available, plus an optional shield if so wished alongside a maximum weight capacity boosting backpack (because the ratio between weight and capacity gives a damage bonus to melee attacks) or a small item backpack (for, well... items). The Hoshun, on the other hand, can carry the ridiculously heavy Beam Rifle and the final tier shotgun just fine without backpacks with a four-slot item backpack. Without the beam rifle, it could carry the second-to-last tiers of shotgun, shield, missile launcher, and a six-slot item backpack with no problems. Granted, other wanzers can carry this loadout as well, but it usually involves heavy wanzers (usually of the 2-square mover legs) and/or energy backpacks, and almost downright impossible on 6/5-square mover legs.
Incidentally, Japanese Wanzers have a "Mk.1XX" designation to them, indicating model number. The obsolete Kyojun Mk. 107 is Ryogo's starting wanzer and Kyokei Mk. 108 is a police model. The wanzers in service with the JDF include the artillery type Enyo Mk. 109, midweight/general purpose Jinyo Mk.110 and the new wanzer you tested, the sniper/general purpose Shunyo Mk.111. The Hoshun? It's Mk.112.
Interestingly, the starting wanzer Kazuki pilots, the Zenith RV (misromanized as Zenislev), is the Super Prototype of the next game, Front Mission 4, obtainable in Elsa's scenario. Since 4 canonically happens before 3, this indicates how much Wanzer development has progressed.
Prometheus, the last boss in Starsiege human campaign is the first Cybrid. For Cybrid campaign, you become one once reach highest rank.
X3 Terran Conflict plays this trope straight with Super Prototype spaceships, which are generally superior to the mass-produced versions and cannot be mass-produced by reserve-engineering in player headquarters, and subverts it with The Aldrin Prototype weapons, which are inferior to their modern Terran equivalents. Though this is partially compensated by having better compatibility, allowing bigger types of guns on smaller ships.
Phantasy Star Zero makes fun of this trope to a degree. Occasionally you will find messages with tips in them. A message talking about a particular robotic enemy in that area says, "Production model & Prototype. Do we need to spell out which one is more powerful?"
The backstory of Virtual On provides both aversions and straight examples. Some prototypes like Viper Alpha and Proto Temjin have inferior armaments to their production model. Original Fei Yen is much more powerful than the production model but is sentient and eventually runs away from lab. Several Ace Custom appear in MARZ.
Bal Bas Bow from the first game is actually an experimental unit for remote arm weapons. The mech itself has an unstable powerplant. Its successors from sequels are much better in every way.
Near the end of the first planet in Knights of the Old Republic, you get to win a swoop bike race on a bike modified with a prototype accelerator. The adversary tries to deny your prize on the grounds that it was an unfair advantage, but the prize, being a Jedi, takes matters into her own hands by breaking out and killing most of the bad guys.
In Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, any prototype starts out one experience level ahead of a normal unit. This means that, with a Command Center and Bioenhancement Center, a prototype is Elite right off the rack.
This is explained as being due to the soldiers being more experienced, rather than technological superiority.
Fallout 3 has some really powerful prototype stuff. Example: MPLX Novasurge, a unique plasma pistol which greatly increases damage and the critical multiplier at the cost of doubled power usage and weight. It was developed by a "Section A61" shortly before the Great War broke out. The prototype survived the war by being beamed aboard Mothership Zeta approx. 200 years before the Lone Wanderer found it in the ship's cargo hold.. Or the MP-47/A power armor prototype with a built-in medical dispenser and an onboard AI.
Fallout: New Vegas shows that at least one prototype model of eyebots had a TV-screen, and not just a built-in radio. ED-E, however, is not quite this trope, despite being a prototype and much more powerful than its mass-produced cousins: it was the prototype to a series of combat-adapted eyebots that were scrapped in favour of Hellfire power armor, with the common eyebot being its predecessor rather than its successor.
There's also the Tesla-Beaton Prototype, a unique Tesla cannon, and a prototype Laser Rifle with a green laser.
Of the Ace Custom variety, there's A Light Shining In Darkness, Joshua Graham's tricked out Colt Commander (Colt M1911 descendant) with a snakeskin grip, skeletonized hammer, and poignant biblical quote down both sides of the slide.
Averted with Power Armor (best shown in Fallout Two), the post-war made Enclave Armor is better than the pre-war TB-51 which in turn is far better than the TB-45.
Subverted in BlazBlue. While we don't know (yet?) about Alpha-1 to Kappa-10, Lambda-11 is definitely weaker than Nu-13, and Mu-12 may be the strongest of the Murakumo Units.
A similar effect occurs with the Supreme Commander Experimental units. Any player will realize that these 'experiments' are always a great success, and utterly trounce dozens if not hundreds of the 'tested' units. And although you can build more than one of them, the too-expensive-justification is in full effect, as you need a very solid economy before you can start building one.
A single experimental is not a Game Breaker though, given the expense and the fact that each is a sitting duck for a properly prepared opponent. Alone, they are gigantic, expensive paperweights. For example; most of the land-bound experimentals have minimal anti-air defenses (if any) and the airborne experimentals are rarely a match for a massed attack from interceptor aircraft. Amphibious experimentals require fleet escorts or else they'll get hammered by subs, etc.
Hinted at in the first Guilty Gear game. When Sol Badguy defeats Justice, she wonders how it was possible for Sol (Who she recognized as a Gear) to disobey her orders, as she was the first gear, able to command all gears that were designed after her. Sol tells her that he was the prototype, and was thus made BEFORE her, and immune to her orders.
Happens in Starcraft II where a prototype superweapon called Odin is stolen from the Dominion. It doesn't just have more hit points than any other unit in the game and do more damage than anything short of hero units—it's also got several luxury amenities, including a restroom for the driver and an onboard nuke launcher. Rory Swann, the engineer of Hyperion, says it's too impractical to mass-produce, at least with the facilities available to Raynor's Raiders, so a scaled-down machine called a Thor is slated for mass production. (Oddly, the Dominion seems to have agreed with Swann, as the Odin is one of a kind and the Dominion only ever fields Thors aside from it.) There's also the Loki, a prototype for a new class of battleship, which boasts ridiculous firepower and toughness, completed at the same research station.
A unit much like the Loki appears in the hands of a late-campaign Mercenary unit, so clearly the prototype went into at least semi-limited production... or was repaired and stolen by the mercenaries!
Reading the flavour text for the 'Jackson's Revenge' mercenary battlecruiser reveals that it is not only tougher and does more damage, it was one of the first models of battlecruisers ever made. Not so much a prototype as a first edition, but close.
In Red Alert 3, the KingOni is a hulking behemoth capable of bull-charging enemy tanks and shoot Eye Beams for the glory of the Empire of the Rising Sun. Apparently, the original King Oni is a Super Prototype, given to Emperor Yoshiro as a gift, which he uses when the enemy approaches his palace.
In Kane's Wrath, the Black Hand faction fields Purifiers, the prototype for the later mass produced Avatar Warmech. It's an inversion, since the Avatar is actually more advanced than the Purifiers, being able to "commandeer" tech from nearby nod units (friend or foe). However this makes Avatars hilariously impractical since you have to build 5 units to get one fully upgraded Avatar, as well as spend about 2 times the amount for a single Purifier.
In Vanquish, the ARS armor that Sam Gideon is wearing is a prototype of a new weapons system being developed by DARPA, and he is taking it along on the assault on Providence for two reasons: to test out its capabilities in live fire combat, and because the military is desperate for any weapon they can use to stop the colony's microwave array from being fired. In-game, it is indicated that the ARS has several limitations, primarily among them being that the suit will explode if it overheats too much.
Averted when it turns out the Russians have ripped off the design, with Sam actually commenting that it violates the patent. The Russian version is faster, has better armor, carries a giant sword with a rail-gun built into it, and can fly. Sam beats it as well as a second copy by having his Mission Control disable his own suit's safety locks, allowing him to use the defining features of the system for a much longer period of time than the Russian version. Or just because he's more awesome, it's that kind of game.
Xenogears tends to go the Ace Custom route to an extreme. Named characters' Gears tend to be unique models custom-built for the pilot (or else Lost TechnologyMagitek that can't be reproduced at all), while mass-produced Gears are used by Mooks. However, there are a couple of classic examples of both. For Super Prototypes, there's Grahf's Alpha Weltall, which is built using 4000-year-old Lost Nanotechnology that can't be replicated in the modern world. Fei's Weltall is essentially a kitbashed knockoff designed by modern engineers, and is itself a Flawed Prototype; several of the compromises in the original design are patched out when Weltall is redesigned by Taura. For Ace Customs, Seibzehn and Achtzehn are the only Malakh Gears seen, and both are specially customized in their own way.
The Excavated ATACs in Vanguard Bandits are Super Prototypes from which all basic ATACs were reverse-engineered from.
Custom Robo is all about "ace customs" but your "super prototype" has a drawback for each advantage it has against mass produced robos of the same class.
Averted in Sword Of The Stars. Assuming you design a new ship type as soon as you get it, the first Mark will invariably be inferior to later versions that mount better weapons, armour, engines and what-not. The sequel will zig-zag this, as prototypes will have quirks that may make them inferior to mass-produced ones... or superior.
The game does feature the Ace Custom flagship, however, a jacked-up CnC dreadnought you can only ever build one of.
Though any Team Need for Speed car would count as an Ace Custom, what is undoubtedly the most Ace Custom of them all is the Team Need For Speed Scion tC◊. For reference, the Mass Produced Scion tC has 180 horsepower and is a front-engine front wheel drive typical sedan. The Team NFS tC has somewhere in the realm of over 1,100 horsepower, all-wheel drive, not to mention several weight reduction surgeries, a rear spoiler, and a front spoiler. In the respective video-game it's featured in (Shift 2 Unleashed), like any good Ace Custom race car, it has to be won.
The Unholy War has a regular unit called Razorfane, a robot that attacks with circular saw blades. One of the secret unlockable characters is called Betarazor, which is basically just an upgraded version of Razorfane, with more health and more powerfull attacks.
Invoked (but not in any meaningful manner) in Sonic Heroes. One of E-123 Omega's combo-score quips is "Worthless consumer models!"
Omega could probably be a justified example of this. He's a far higher caliber than the run-of-the-mill Mook, but that's because he was built to contain Shadow; considering what Shadow has done in the past forrevenge, a tank-armored bot with huge gatling guns in his arms isn't at all unreasonable.
Demonbane has this trope play on two examples. First is the Destroyer Robot, while the prototypes are still far inferior to Magitek-based Deus Machina, at least it can withstand some beating. The mass production model can be destroyed by Demonbane's head vulcan guns and oneof them even got disabled by Winfield, who punched through its sensor camera, on foot. The second examples are various grimoire, their original appear as little girls with magic power, the copies are just books.
The eponymous armor from Vay has been copied and mass-produced by the Danek Empire to create their massive robotic army. However, once the five magic orbs are retrieved and the Vay Armor's power is fully realized, it can stand toe-to-toe with almost anything Danek can throw at it.
Web Comics
In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, uberninja Mongo, the result of early ninja gene experimentation, wields chainsaw nunchucks and has "All the speed, agility, martial arts ability [of a ninja], combined with giant like strength and general insane awesomeness." The reason they didn't make more? It's too expensive. The "Inverse Ninja Law" is an actual in-universe force and the maker knows this, so that might also be a factor.
Gunnerkrigg Court has a room full of them. Most notably, the first robot of the Seraph series, S1, looks much better than the more recent ones. And it has actual hands, rather than the simple claws of the later S models. The explanation given is that, since the original designer died, no one (not even the prototypes themselves) understands the cutting-edge technology underpinning them (for example, these robots have no visible power source, or motor, or means of moving their limbs). The robots were forced to simplify their designs just for future robot generations to survive.
In a later chapter, this trope gets turned on its head when Kat reactivates one of the prototype robots, and he thinks the latest generation of Court robots are more impressive than his own kind.
Prototype: Such elegant designs! So efficient! A wonder! We trusted the future with our legacy, and I have seen that we have succeeded beyond our dreams!
He has a point. With their less delicate designs, the later robots would be less prone to breakage and easier to repair.
From Girl Genius: The one or two Dingbots that Agatha has actually personally built, referred to as Dingbot Prime, are much better in every way than their successors. This is because most Dingbots are built by other Dingbots, and each generation is inferior to the previous one, leading inexorably to this trope.
According to Spinnerette, the 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook is indeed a magic book that the Drow-themed Evil Spinnerette uses to turn herself into a Drider.
In The Wandering Ones, Zephyr Crow is one of several engineered humans designed by Dr. Elizabeth Flynn. She has incredible strength and speed, and a strong mental guard, and these, along with a lot of practice, allow her to train the Alliance's Special Forces. However, she is the fourth in a batch of five. The first, Arthur (Alpha) has extreme strength and speed, and the second, Bob (Beta) has Telepathy powerful enough to control the minds of five people at once, including Zephyr as one of them.
Web Original
There's twenty-six Ilivais prototypes that fit this to a T in Ilivais X (well, twenty-five, as A is [[Weak, but Skilled anything but "super"). They range from having slightly stronger weaponry to controlling six classical elements at once to being powered by a freaking Perpetual Motion Machine, but all of them are way more powerful than the MP units. The Aztecs hardly rely on them- their tactics are built specifically to best make use of a One-Man Army unit.
Western Animation
The e-frames given to Able Squad in Exo Squad were all modified versions of the usual models, testing new features which inevitably turn the tide in the first battle they are used in.
Phaeton's personal Command E-Frame is capable of shrugging off direct hits that would destroy a normal E-Frame. He later has it further customized with medical equipment to help treat his automutation syndrome.
Megas XLR is both a Super Prototype and an Ace Custom (so customized, in fact, that no one but Coop can pilot it, simply because he changed the controls that much). Although it is technically a "prototype" (the main villain refuses to call it Megas), you never see what production line models of it would be until the last episode where they go to a Bizarro World, where Coop's Evil Twin has an army of easily-destroyed production models. Subverted, however, in that Evil Coop has a vastly superior later-generation bot, which is ultimately defeated by sheer willpower.
"Good" Coop having the Glorft Armada's entire complement of Mechs on his side probably didn't hurt. Also, considering that Kiva christened MEGAS, short for Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System, and it was a stolen Glorft prototype, its unlikely that the Glorft would call it anything else.
Played straight with an attempt in the series were the Glorft created "Mecha-Megas", an evil version of the original. While it wins at first, its only because Coup was using a faulty secondary control bridge inside Megas chest. When he gets the real one back, Coup makes short work of it. However, this could be due to him being far more experienced with Megas.
Subverted in The Mighty Ducks when the Migrator is greatly damaged, and Tanya reveals she's been working on a next-generation model. However, while the engine works well enough for a villain to steal it, the new vehicle's various gadgets and weapons don't work right, (when the ducks know how to use them) and it eventually explodes when they try to drop in a new engine. At the end, Tanya rolls out plans for a third generation model, and the ducks decide they're happy with the old one.
The titular character in Generator Rex. Rex's nanites come from an earlier batch that had already received full programming and testing. The nanites that were spread all over the world in the Mass Empowering Event came from a later batch with incomplete programming.
Alpha, the Big Bad of the crossover with Ben 10, is a prototype model control nanite from when the creators were still working out a way to control the nanites. Alpha is so powerful he has the potential to destroy the world single-handedly!
Real Life
The Avro Arrow◊ was almost an inversion. The vehicle depicted would indeed have been far less capable than the production version, if the production version had ever flown... as it was, the RCAF had to make do with the CF-101 Voodoo, which didn't measure up even when compared with the Mark I prototypes, due to Political Meddling.
Concept cars are usually much more impressive than what companies end up offering. This is usually because automakers want to impress people at shows, but when it comes to actually making their ultra-high tech, extreme horsepower machines, there are practical problems like manufacturing costs, safety regulations, and emissions tests to pass. Especially true with the flashy bespoke interiors of most concepts. These always get toned down a bit because of the costs of mass production.
Actual prototype cars made for testing are an inversion; they're frequently camouflaged in black-and-white plastic overlays to render their design undetectable and get used hard, the idea being to test all parts for durability to avoid customers' new cars breaking down during the warranty period once in production. And the warranty period is now a minimum of three to as much as ten years...
High end sports cars run the gamut of this trope, starting out themselves as testbeds for new engines or suspension, then being turned into Ace Custom race cars built and setup for one or two race drivers, and then often special versions of the road car will be released with elements from the race cars, e.g. the Audi R8 GT and the Aston Martin DBS. And then of course there are prototype class race cars which are used to prove the durability of very new technologies - Audi's T Di system and Mazda's modern rotary engines, for instance, and do so by racing at average speeds over 120 mph for 24 hours straight.
The legendary Spitfire is a real-life example. Prototypes had flat rivets that were flush with the skin of the aircraft, but these would have been too expensive and time-consuming to use on production planes. Because any bumps on the hull produced drag which could drastically affect speed, range, maneuverability and maximum altitude (absolutely key factors for fighter aircraft, and the British needed the Spitfire to be better than the Messerschmitts on all of these) tests were run by gluing dried peas to the hull of prototypes to find an optimal pattern that minimised drag with normal rivets.
Spitfires are also a real-life inversion - early prototypes flew so high that the guns would freeze in the cold and jam while firing. Then when they descended the guns would thaw and the shock of landing would often set them off, to the consternation of runway crew. The solution? Cycling the engine exhaust through the wings kept the guns warm.
The Breda Ba.88 ground attack aircraft of Fascist Italy during WWII. Designed in 1937, it was a higly futuristic design that set several worldwide speed records. That is, until the production version was loaded down with all the equipment that it would need in its military duties, which had a profound effect on the aircraft's handling. It performed so abysmally that within mere months of the introduction into frontline service, the few remaining aircraft were stripped of all useful components and left scattered around airfields, where they were very useful as tantalizing punching bags to draw enemy attention away from the other aircraft on the airfield that WEREN'T totally useless.
PS3s, anybody? The earliest models had the ability to play PS2 games. These models could also have Linux installed on them. These features have since been removed in later revisions. This has undoubtedly angered many, many people.
It would not be so bad if those features were included in some kind of higher priced premium model, but Sony has removed them from production entirely (including removing the Linux support retroactively from existing units) which in turn limits consumer options for how they use their hardware. For a system sold with the Tag Line "It only does everything", the feature removal is particularly Ironic.
The famous USS Monitor was an inversion, although it nearly played it straight. The thing had monstrously powerful guns designed and cast under the direction of the legendary naval designer Dahlgren, who also planned and built the ship. However, the Navy was worried the guns would burst when fired; years before, a Dahlgren gun had done so and killed some high-ranking Navymen. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem, except that Dahlgren designed the guns to punch through anything the Confederates could armor their ships with. When the Monitor fought the CSS Virginia/Merrimac, the two pounded each other with the Monitor having only a slight edge. Later tests showed that if the guns were loaded with the right amount of powder instead of the Navy-ordered half measure, they'd have blasted clear through the CSS Virginia/Merrimac's armor and obliterated the rebel ship.
Imperial Japan played with this trope. Imperial Navy Zero pilots defending Rabaul received the first of the much-heralded A6M5 models and the last Imperial Navy warplanes that would be truly well-built, making them unintentional Super Prototypes. They frequently further ordered that their ground crew remove the troublesome radios they were given to save weight and improve performance, resulting in Ace Custom as well...which had the side effect of reducing in-flight coordination and making them vulnerable to being bushwhacked by high-flying US aircraft that had been detected by ground radar but that fact could not be communicated to radioless Japanese fighters in the air. A few of the smarter pilots, or those who had seen their wingmen going down with little or no visible damage to the aircraft but a dead pilot, took an opposite tack and had their ground crews weld simple armor plates around the cockpit to improve survivability. These are perhaps the only Ace Customs in reality or fiction that were worse in raw performance.
A number of prototype Transformers toys have features that didn't make it to the production model. One of the most irritating cases is Leobreaker, who can form a massive clawed arm for his series' Optimus Prime. The prototype could more properly fold up its legs for the forearm, and had actual fingers for the arm. But an oil price spike correspondingly spiked the price of plastic. Transformers toys have a limited plastic-per-item budget, and the extra joints and parts could not be kept unless he were moved up to another size class. Bloody, bloody, damn.
Whenever a company offers products only for a limited time, they are almost always in some way better and more popular than the regularly produced products.
Legend of the near-extinct Muay Boran martial art claims it makes its already brutally effective successor Muay Thai look wimpy.
The first space shuttle Columbia had ejection seats installed for its first four flights with only 2-man crews.
The US Navy's Sea Wolf class attack submarine is this to the Virginia-class.
The "tester" doses for a given batch of drugs will often be better quality and purity than the main batch. These testers are given out for free to create good word of mouth for the upcoming sale.
The A-12 Oxcart spy plane was a precursor to its more famous descendant, the SR-71 Blackbird. Whilst the aircraft are all but identical to the naked eye (it takes intimate knowledge of the two aircraft are spot the difference), the older machine could fly a bit faster and a bit higher (mach 3.33 and 95,000 feet verses mach 3.2 and 80,000 feet). The A-12 wasn't an undisputedly superior aircraft though, the SR-71 had more range, could carry a heavier payload and and had a crew of 2 as opposed to the single overworked crewman on the Oxcart. The Blackbird didn't really have to be faster than the Oxcart, of course, just faster than whatever SA Ms the enemy had at their disposal.
When the Eurofighter Typhoon was still in the design stages, (then West) Germany demanded and got the other partners to agree on a lower spec final product when costs got out of control.
