Made O' Gold

From top left to bottom right: A gold heart, a golden apple, a gold flower, and a gold fishing crate.

"Huh?! The next round of staples is GOLD! That's so... fancy!"

— Olivia, Paper Mario: The Origami King

A normal item, made of gold. Has a few reasons to exist. Sometimes Bob's wealth or greed is visualised via owning an item like this. Sometimes Bob's desire to have wealth is made apparent via wanting an item like this. Sometimes it's just that gold is considered better.

Super-Trope to Midas Touch, Bling-Bling-BANG!, City of Gold, Gold Tooth of Wealth, and Villainous Gold Tooth. Sub-Trope of Gold Makes Everything Shiny. Can also overlap with Taken for Granite should the item be a living thing somehow turned into gold; for living creatures who can voluntarily turn themselves into gold, see Chrome Champion. Compare Gem-Encrusted. An inversion would be an item normally made of gold, such as a crown, being made of something like wood, non-valuable metal, or plastic.

Very little Truth in Television, as gold is a metal that is very soft and malleable, rendering it ineffective as anything more than decoration for most purposes. Macro-level objects with any degree of actual utility in real life are usually just plated with gold, not made entirely from it. (Gold does have several niche practical uses, e.g. as a corrosion-proof electrical contact, but they aren't, like, a golden hammer or something.)

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Richie Rich has an entire museum with objects made of gold because they simply want to drive the people of their homeworld crazy with gold.

Comic Strips

• Prince Valiant is given command of a regiment of soldiers to deal with a band of mercenaries that have seized control of a province, and are plundering merchants plying the trade route. The mercenaries were paid in gold, but not as coin. The gold had been made into armor plating, then allowed to tarnish until it resembled bronze. When the two forces clashed, the mercenaries discovered the hard way that gold is excellent for commerce, but horrible for warfare: their armor did little to protect them from spears and swords.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: When talking about Ami's ostensible allies ordering her to create wasteful objects because they fear her wealth, one item they request is a gold swimming pool, which, upon seeing the request, Ami remarks:
  I don't even have a golden bathtub.
• Quizzical: Basements of Doom has some In-universe fanfiction:
  Professor Heart's own epic fanfic, Daring Do, And The Golden Cupcake.

Films — Animated

• In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Skipper plans to use their Monte Carlo winnings on a solid gold airplane. When told by Kowalski that such a plane would be too heavy to fly, Skipper replies, "We're rich now, Kowalski. The laws of physics don't apply to us."
• Pocahontas: During "Mine, Mine, Mine", Governor Ratcliff envisions himself returning to England with a suit and cape made of gold that will cause his rivals to squirm. It rather quickly sums up the man's priorities when it comes to establishing Jamestown.

Films — Live-Action

• Austin Powers:
  • In The Spy Who Shagged Me, Austin mentions this when Ivana Humpalot states her name.
    Austin: Yeah, and I want a toilet made out of solid gold. It's just not in the cards now, is it?
  • The titular Goldmember in Austin Powers in Goldmember loves gold so much that he accidentally lost his genitals in a smelting accident, then replaced them with prosthetics made of gold. He also plans during the film to use a tractor beam to attract a solid gold asteroid to destroy the polar ice caps and flood the planet.
• Face/Off: Castor Troy wields a pair of impressive gold automatic pistols, which fit his flamboyant, violent style. The real guns used onscreen are obviously not made from gold but instead plated with titanium nitride, which looks very similar to gold and is a lot more durable.
• The Man with the Golden Gun: Francisco Scaramanga carries four seemingly innocuous gold objects at all times: a pen, a lighter, a cigarette case and a cufflink. They snap together into his signature weapon, a single-shot golden gun that he uses with deadly accuracy.

Literature

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The tickets Willy Wonka gives to his factory are this. The book states when Charlie finds his ticket that it isn't merely gold-coloured or gold-covered, but full gold pressed to be as paper.
• Discworld: In Going Postal Moist Von Lipwig gets the idea to dip the official hat of the Postmaster General in gold paint. This is done for the spectacle of it allowing him to publicly attract attention away from his con-man rival Reacher Gilt. In the direct sequel, Making Money, the suit of the bank president gets the same treatment, allowing Moist to drum up interest in the bank's latest invention; paper money. Later the two items become important when Ankh-Morpork finds itself playing host to a thousand Umnian Golems whom nobody knows how to control. Moist is able to do so because the Umnian priests who originally created the golems wore gold vestments as a symbol of their nation's massive wealth.
• The Heroes of Olympus: Camp Jupiter (or at least their highest-ranked officers) uses "imperial gold" weapons rather than the celestial bronze used by Greek demigods. Somehow, the gold is strong and light enough to actually be used in battle.
• Professor Branestawm: It's mentioned in passing that one of the Pagwell councillors tried to get a government grant to have his bathroom taps replaced with solid gold ones. Unsurprisingly, his request was turned down.
• The Tower of the Elephant: The tower's door is made of gold.

Live-Action TV

• Richard Osman's House of Games: The "House of Champions" weeks featuring former winners have special gold versions of the regular prizes (plus one or two special prizes such as the amulet and the atomiser).

Music

• The Charlie Daniels Band recorded "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" in 1979. A golden fiddle is the prize for Johnny in his violin duel with the Devil. "Johnny rosin up your bow and play that fiddle hard / 'Cause hell's broke loose in Georgia, and the Devil deals the cards / And if you win, you get this shiny fiddle made of gold / But if you lose, the Devil gets your soul."
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The song "Don't Download This Song" mentions that if too many people steal the artist's music instead of paying for it, he won't be able to buy another solid gold Humvee.
• "All Gold Everything" by Trinidad James
  Lemme give your ass a checklist
  One gold watch, two gold chains
  Six gold rings, it's nothing, God Dayum

Mythology & Religion

• The Eleventh Labor of Heracles is to retrieve the golden apples of Hesperides. It took a while to get to Hesperides's garden, and Heracles had to slay a dragon guarding the gate, but finding and gathering the apples was easy-peasy. There are conflicting stories as to whether these apples could grant immortal life, or make a god mortal, so Heracles ate none of these apples himself.
• From Greek myth comes the tale of King Midas, Trope Namer of the Midas Touch. Given one wish by the gods, he wishes that everything he touches will turn to gold. It ends up becoming a nightmare, when he turns every chair, cushion, dish (and the food inside), flower, and eventually his own daughter to gold. Luckily he manages to fix it.
• In Norse Mythology we have Gullinbursti, which means Golden Mane, a giant boar made from gold by Brook and Eitri, the best dwarf artisans, and was given to the god Frey. And the Golden Apples of Idunn, that the Aesir must eat to maintain their inmortality.

Tabletop Games

• An exclusive $2 million Monopoly set was created by the jeweler Sidney Mobell of San Francisco in 1988. The board is made from 23 carat gold (8% platinum to resist warping), as are the eight tokens.

Toys

• LEGO has quite a few.
  • The LEGO corporation has released a white gold R2D2 figure, and a solid regular gold C-3PO.
    • In a special pack they also had sterling silver and 14k gold Boba Fett figures.
  • Serving as one of the most expensive LEGO pieces ever is a gold version of the common 2x4 LEGO brick◊.

Video Games

• Amateur Surgeon: Donny Debonair's surgery consists entirely of 'blinging' his insides; he wants one kidney replaced with a golden substitute, a gold plate that reads "Pimp" implanted into his flesh, and a golden ribcage to replace the one you removed putting the plate in. You also use golden, gem-studded staples instead of the usual kind to seal up wounds.
• Completing certain objectives in the Animal Crossing games will enable the player to obtain golden versions of their tools (axe, fishing rod, net, shovel, etc.). Prior to New Horizons, golden tools were unbreakable, though New Horizons' crafting system renders this moot once the player receives the appropriate DIY cards.
• The Binding of Isaac: Almost every consumable has a rare golden variant. Golden keys and bombs grant unlimited of that consumable for the current floor. Golden batteries damage you when picked up then teleport to another random room, allowing for "infinite uses" at a cost and great annoyance. Golden pennies have a high chance to spawn another golden penny in the room when picked up, and likewise golden pills grant random pill effects but have a chance to vanish after each use. For the oddballs, golden hearts surround your rightmost heart and drop money when broken, and golden trinkets grant double their normal trinket effect.
• Chantelise: Some treasures, like the Golden Scales:
  Practical AND attractive! The gold makes it seem a bit decadent, though. [Treasure]
• In the Donkey Kong Country games, King K. Rool's chest and belly are shiny gold compared to his normal green reptilian skin everywhere else.
• Fate/Grand Order: King Gilgamesh (the Caster version), instead of carrying a regular clay tablet (no paper in his era), he instead uses one that's made of gold and has magical properties called Dingir. In his summer costume, in which he wears modern clothes, he replaces Dingir with a modern tablet device that's also gold, just like every celebrity or influencer who wants to flaunt their wealth. Then again, Gilgamesh literally owns every treasure ever, so him having most things he own made of gold is mostly a factual statement than him flaunting.
• Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town has the rare Gold Lumber, which never rots. However, if you have any out in your field, it will anger the villagers and they'll come to your farm to yell at you every morning until you remove it.
• Just Cause 3: A golden version of the Urga Mstitel, the game's best helicopter, is unlocked by collecting all cassette tapes hidden around the land of Medici. It functions the exact same as the normal variant, making it almost definitely not worth it. Then again, the normal Urga Mstitel is the reward from the final boss of the story mode, whereas the golden variant could theoretically be obtained just after the tutorial.
• Mercenaries World In Flames: Mentioned but not shown- Nilsson at one point expresses a desire to become wealthy enough to buy a custom gold-plated Lamborghini with diamond-encrusted hubcaps.
• Minecraft:
  • Golden apples and golden carrots are items that can be crafted by surrounding the respective non-golden item in gold or found in chests. Golden apples can be eaten for a regeneration buff and a few extra temporary hearts while golden carrots can be eaten to restore a large amount of hunger or brewed into night vision potions.
  • You can also make golden tools, weapons and armour, but they're actually inferior to plain old iron ones, accurately reflecting gold's real life softness. They do have one advantage over the iron equivalents - they are much easier to enchant. A secondary, but much more conditional, advantage is that Piglins won't attack you on sight if you wear at least one piece of gold armor.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
  • Explorers features golden variants of seeds and apples, with Golden Seeds raising 5 levels and Golden Apples completely filling and increasing the belly of the player by 50%.
  • In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, they become part of a set of treasures known collectively as the Golden Items, with spikes, fossils, bananas, and spikes also getting golden variants as part of this.
• In Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, Steve gets his hands on a set of golden Luger pistols that, while actually being real functioning firearms, also double as keys needed by Claire to open a door. Even thought it would behoove both of them for Claire to open that door as it'd get them both one step closer to escaping the zombie-infested island they're on, and even after Claire saved his life from the deathtrap he triggered trying to claim them, the little pissant still refuses to fork them over unless you find him "something automatic". There's a reason most players hate this little punk, and this incident is one of many.
• Rune Factory: Every game has the emery flower, and from Rune Factory 3 onward, there's golden versions of turnips, cabbages, pumpkins, and potatoes. In Rune Factory 4, they also get giant versions, the Gold Prince Potato, the Gldn. Doom Pumpkin, the Golden King Cabbage, the Golden Tyrant Turnip and the Great Emery Flower.
• Spongebob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom has golden spatulas the main collectable, and golden underwear as the item that increases your max life.
• Stardew Valley: Gold is the fourth equipment tier and the second best, only topped by iridium. Obviously, a golden axe is far better at cutting down trees than a mere steel one.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Sunshine: Gold Bullet Bills act almost identical to normal Bullet Bills, but are composed of solid gold.
  • Super Mario Galaxy: Gold Shells are golden variants of Koopa shells, and are worn by Golden Koopas.
  • New Super Mario Bros. 2: Being that the game is based off coins and gold, there's quite a few examples.
    • The gold flower, a golden version of the fire flower, which turns Mario to gold when he grabs it, and allows him to throw molten gold fireballs. Strangely, when Luigi grabs it, it turns him to silver, despite the flower being gold.
    • Gold Mushrooms, mushrooms made of gold, replace 1-Up Mushrooms in Coin Rush mode. They give their collector 50 coins upon collection.
    • Touching a Gold Ring turns enemies into their golden versions. They all give 5 coins when you defeat them, but some have other money-making properties as well (Gold Koopas' shells leave trails of coins behind as they slide, Gold Lakitus throw coins instead of Spiny Eggs, Gold Piranha Plants spray coins from their pipes after defeat, etc.).
    • The Golden Plains stage in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Ultimate draws from World 1 of this game. Coins are scattered around the stage, and, if a fighter collects 100 of them, they themselves will also be turned to gold, which grants them super armour and increases the knockback of their attacks.
  • Mario Kart 7: The Gold Standard and its parts are a go-kart entirely made of just gold. This includes the steering wheel, glider (because weight is relative to Toon Physics), and tires. It and related parts return in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart Tour.
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: There is a gold bone you can obtain, which serves as a 1-Up should Luigi die. Upon his HP going to zero when he's carrying one, the polterpup, a ghost dog, will run up, eat the bone, and lick him to restore his health.
  • Super Mario Party: The golden drink is a gold-coloured soda can that causes the drinker to gain one coin for every tile they move that turn.
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King: The special attack of the staple boss is to fire golden staples at Mario.
• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside the Golden Plains stage, the fighter that releases Xerneas from a Pokéball will be turned to gold from it Geomancy move. This confers the same effect as collecting 100 coins in Golden Plains.
• Team Fortress 2: Has quite a few,
  • The golden wrenches, individually numbered and only 100 were ever created.
  • The saxxy, only awarded to winners of an annual video making competition.
  • The golden frying pan weapon.
• Terraria: There are bricks, tools and armour, keys, and an entire golden furniture set carried by pirates, all made of gold.
• Tomba!:
  • One massive sidequest in the first game has the titular hero tracking down the "Five Golden Items," which are incredibly rare. Together, they're the Golden Candy, Golden Fruit, Golden Flower, Golden Leaf Butterfly, and Gold Medal. The game also features a Golden Bowl, but it doesn't count as one of the items; instead, recovering it increases Tomba's health meter capacity.
  • Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return has another set of Golden Items—the Golden Moon, Golden Sun, and Golden Star— which manage to be even harder to get than the previous group.
• WarioWare Gold: Wario's "helmet" turns out to really be a golden toilet.

Visual Novels

• The toaster that was stolen from the diner in Daughter for Dessert was expensive, and Mortelli describes it as “the Cadillac of toasters.” Why? It has a gold-quartz heating element.

Western Animation

• Discussed and lampshaded in the Futurama episode "Hell Is Other Robots". The Robot Devil challenges Leela to a music competition for Bender's soul and then hands her a golden fiddle. Leela and Fry start to question how that would even work.
  Fry: Wouldn't a solid gold fiddle weigh hundreds of pounds and sound crummy?
• Goldie Gold and Action Jack: Pretty much everything Goldie owns is made of solid gold.
• One of the early episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has Spike passively mention Princess Celestia's golden apple tree, a reference to Greek Mythology and the immortality of the gods.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Dog of Death", when imagining what he'd do with his lottery winnings, Homer pictures himself as a gigantic version of himself made out of gold.
  • In "The Day the Violence Died", after Chester Lampwick wins the lawsuit to prove he invented Itchy and Scratchy, he buys a solid gold house.

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