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Look, if it bugs you, then you tell him he can't have a Hulk-cycle!
"I want a car! Chicks dig the car!"
Robin, Batman & Robin

Sometimes, a character's theme goes beyond wearing his underwear on the outside. These are vehicles that follow a costumed character's theme; they may resemble the costume, or extend the idea behind the character. Regardless, these conveyances are recognizably a part of the individual's leitmotif (not to mention the show's merchandising campaign).

This trope doesn't necessarily include ''iconic'' vehicles. While the X-Men's Blackbird is identifiable by fans, it doesn't continue their visual theme, and it wouldn't be recognized by someone who wasn't familiar with it. A good determiner is to ask yourself, "If I saw this for the first time on the street, how likely would I be to identify it as belonging to <character>?"

If the vehicle stands out from being at least some decades old in the setting, it is the Hero's Classic Car. Ordinary vehicles (and even race vehicles) with cartoon characters slapped on their bodies have their own variant, Itasha.

Most of the time a Cool Car, particularly a Pimped-Out Car; if the character isn't supposed to be particularly enthusiastic about cars, or fabulously wealthy, or have specialized transportation needs it counts as an Improbably Cool Car. For a specific type of Thememobile, see Faceship. Not to be confused with the Pope Mobile, although it is an example of this trope. May overlap with Signature Team Transport, Absurdly-Long Limousine or (if there are no performance upgrades at all) Rice Burner. Compare Vehicle-Based Characterization, where the vehicle reflects the character's personality or characterization without necessarily resembling their outward theme.

Most of the toyetic live-action 1960s Trope Makers were customized by George Barris, the only leading Southern California-based customizer/showrod builder willing to work to Hollywood's hurry-up-and-wait production schedule more than once.

For the grammatical construction associated with this, see Hyperaffixation.

Due to The Problem with Pen Island, this trope can either be pronounced "theme-mobile" or "the me-mobile." Make of that what you will.


Examples:

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    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Code Geass:
    • They don't call them ZeroFrames, but Zero has had three Knightmares whose colour schemes were made to fit his theme, and when Suzaku becomes the Knight Of Zero, siding with Lelouch, the Lancelot was promptly given a makeover.
      • Only the first Knightmare Frame Zero used was repainted from base colours, since it was a custom version of a generic model. Zero's Burai was given a dark purple, and fitted with a set of golden oni horns.
      • In a slightly closer example, the Shinkiro was in the correct colours, and it's model number was "Type-0". This is after the completion of Type-1 through to Type-5, so this is a clear attempt to reference this trope.
      • While the Lancelot was given a makeover, the Lancelot Albion was in the same colours as it always way. The rebuilt Lancelot, however, got a horrible pink colour scheme to go with it's new pilot, C.C. Just seeing it was enough to make viewers stare.
      • When Suzaku actually becomes Zero at the end of the series however, the Lancelot Albion is actually is repainted (technically rebuilt as the original was totaled but it's basically the exact same machine) in "Zero's" color scheme and renamed the Lancelot Albion Zero. Although Suzaku decides it's overkill in Zero's new role for peace and stores it away, he replaces with the Mahoroba which is similar to the Shinkiro in design (but equipped with swords and arm shields and more capable of Suzaku's style of close range combat) and still in the usual color scheme of Zero Knightmare Frames.
    • Zero's second Knightmare, the Gawain, fits him just about perfectly: it's painted his personal colors (black, maroon, and gold), has a sinister appearance, can be piloted by two people (allowing his partner C.C. to back up his weak piloting skills), and its flight pack and advanced computer system let it perform excellent recon. The thing is, it wasn't made for him at all, but was just a random Britannian test type. You'd think the researchers would realize that painting a Knightmare black and gold is pretty much a big sign that says "steal me".
    • In general, a lot of units are painted in a style fitting of their pilot. Kallen's Burai and Glasgow, for the short amount of time she had them, were painted in red. The only red units in the series, I should point out. C.C. went and painted an Akatsuki in pink, and went the extra mile in having a Lancelot painted in pink. Cornelia's Gloucester is painted the same colour as her hair, and has a cape to boot, and the Glaston Knight's wear visors that look like Gloucester masks. It wasn't quite a given, but any unusually painted unit could be narrowed down to one or two pilots.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman has many such vehicles that follow the bat theme. An interesting note about all of these is that Batman doesn't necessarily always call any of them by their "bat-names" in present-day comics, usually just saying "The Car". When he does call them by the Batnames, it's likely that the ridiculousness of this will be lampshaded by saying somebody like Robin, Alfred or a member of the Justice League came up with the name.
    • The Batmobile, in its many variations.
    • The Batplane or (for "flying wing" versions) Batwing: fixed-wing aircraft.
    • The Batcopter: rotary-wing aircraft.
    • The Whirly-Bat: also a rotary-wing aircraft, but unlike the Batcopter, a very small one-man (or maybe two) vehicle that can fit in the trunk of the Batmobile if necessary.
    • The Batboat.
    • The Bat-Submersible or Batsub.
    • The Batglider. Yes, there's a Batglider.
    • In some versions, there's even a Batmech.
    • Perhaps most damnably of all, the Silver Age Bat Train. And in the 90s, possibly intended as a more serious reimagining, the Batsubway Rocket, made to travel through Gotham's abandoned Underground railways.
  • Batman's villains frequently follow his example:
    • The Joker often has his own Jokermobile and even a Jokercopter.
    • The Penguin often has a customized limousine.
    • Catwoman had the Kitty Car and later the Catillac.
    • Killer Moth had the Mothmobile. Which actually makes more sense than you might think, as Killer Moth intentionally styled himself as Batman's Evil Counterpart - a "Batman for crooks."
    • In Whatever Happened to The Caped Crusader?, The Joker, Two-Face, AND Catwoman have these. Others probably do as well, given the slightly... odd... nature of the piece, however these are the only ones we're shown.
    • Catman has also acquired a Catmobile, as seen in Secret Six. He drives it while insisting any similarities between his name and costume and Batman are strictly coincidental. He also had a Catamaran in his Silver Age appearances.
  • The other half of the Dynamic Duo has had its own examples:
    • Dick Grayson's Robin had a motorbike which had his colours, and was emblazoned with Rs, but was never actually called the Robin-Cycle.
    • Tim Drake had a car in Robin colours (he had a provisional license because of his dad's disability) called the Redbird.
  • Ghost Rider's motorcycle, often with its own skull-shaped windshield.
  • "Archie" the Owlship, the conveyance of Nite Owl II from Watchmen. Which is of course the Ersatz Mobile for the Blue Beetle's "Bug".
  • Spider-Man:
    • The Spider-Mobile was introduced, both In-Universe and in Real Life, as part of a corporate deal (with a car company and a toy company, respectively.) In a lovely bit of Writer Revolt, Spidey, being like many lifelong New Yorkers an untrained driver, accidentally drives it into the East River almost as soon as he gets it. It's shown up once or twice since then, and Spidey is still embarrassed about the whole ordeal.
    • The Spider-Mobile concept was mocked relentlessly in-universe from its very first mention. It was proposed to Spidey by a sleazy pair of ad men who looked suspiciously like editors Stan Lee and Roy Thomas and his immediate reaction was to declare "the idea of a Spider-Mobile is first-class dumb."
    • Did manage to partially redeem itself when Tinkerer modified it so it could drive up walls.
    • In the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch of Amazing Spider-Man, Spidey gets a second Spider-Mobile and actual driving lessons. Also, Deadpool gained possession of the original Spider-Mobile. During an arc of Spider-Man/Deadpool, the duo is given a Spider/Dead mobile for a cross country ride.
    • During Dan Slott's run, where Peter had corporate money to burn, he had a whole fleet of spider themed vehicles much like Batman. The Spider-Mobile was brought back with a redesign that came with the feature of retractable legs to wall crawl with.
  • Green Arrow used to have an Arrow Car, an Arrow Plane, and versions of just about everything else that Batman had.
    Batman: Good lord man, did you ever have an original idea back then?
  • Fantastic Four had the Fantasticar, in several variants. In early adventures, the FF had the original "flying bathtub" model, then a second, more streamlined and versatile one that can split into four separate planes, and the Pogo Plane (based on a real aircraft) for longer trips than the Fantasticar could take. All have the team's big 4 logo. The "flying bathtub" is so iconic that it's still associated with the name despite having been retired back in issue #12! The "flying bathtub", like the Spider-Mobile, is in Deadpool's possession now.
    • There are multiple "bathtub" model Fantasticars out there that have survived the Fantastic Four's post-Secret Wars sabbatical. One key perk Maria Hill used to get Ben Grimm to sign on with SHIELD in 2016 was a classic "bathtub" Fantasticar as his "company" ride.
  • Moon Knight has a Mooncopter that resembles a crescent moon.
  • The "Jet Pack Pets" comics in Disney Adventures magazine once introduced a vehicle for them. Not only are they Talking Animals, but they have jetpacks. They manage to find a use for it, however... the drive-thru.
  • Although Captain America's comics vehicles aren't usually visually distinctive (but see Film, below), his also patriotic-themed foe-turned-ally Battlestar has a red-white-and-blue Star Car. In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, he uses a Captain America Tank for about three panels before the Hulk tears it apart. It is also stated that he has his own toyline of similarly themed vehicles.
    • Sometimes when Cap is riding his motorcycle, he will place his shield at the front which slightly invokes this trope.
  • Unusually for a "cosmic" villain, Thanos once had a helicopter — with his name on it!'note  (Granted, it was the "Easy Reader" kids' comic made in conjunction with The Electric Company (1971) and not in continuity, but still....)
  • The Avengers have the Quinjets:
    • The Quinjets were introduced as small, fast passenger jets that take the heroes where they need to be. The name is an Artifact Title; they were introduced when the team had only five members. The Quinjets not only have since gotten larger to account for the Avengers' expanded roster, they're no longer even jets and in fact are equipped for short-range space travel. For a while, their teammate Hawkeye had his own Sky-Cycle which was soon manufactured into multiple cycles for all non-flying members.
    • The Great Lakes Avengers, with a significantly lower budget, had "Quin-Jetta" — a Volkswagen Jetta with "GLA" painted on the doors. Later, after getting the benefits of government sanction, a garage was shown with all sorts of things, like Big Bertha's Bouncing Buggy and Flatman's Flatamaran. Squirrel Girl ends up in the Squirrel-a-Gig, an autogyro with a definite squirrel motif that's based on the Bat-Whirlygig.
  • Nemesis the Warlock has a spacecraft called a Blitzspear that looks just like his head... or rather, a head that looks like his vehicle. Yes, the artist had already designed the vehicle when he got down to thinking what the Warlock's face should look like. A later issue informs us that it's actually a Living Ship, a species of Giant Flyers that young males of his race must capture and forcibly domesticate as a Rite of Passage before they're given extensive Bio-Augmentation to make them spaceworthy. Nemesis is that sort of comic.
  • Iron Man has had a few of these over the years, despite having several suits of Powered Armour catering for any and all environments. Although spending ridiculous amounts of money on something that would be more use for showing off than actual crimefighting in practice would be wholly in-character for Tony Stark.
  • A unique variant of this trope is Superman's Supermobile. Unlike most of these entries, the Supermobile is usually powered by Superman's abilities, not an engine or other technology. He usually uses it when there is something in the environment (red sun rays, Kryptonite, or what have you) that he needs protection from. His Justice Jogger is admittedly a bit more difficult to justify.
  • The Forever People had a Super-Cycle that could fly and turn intangible, but in the pages of Young Justice it fell into possession of Superboy, who admittedly fit the name better. They later used the Whiz Wagon, a flying five-person car, but that wound up property of the Newsboy Legion.
  • In Asterix and the Chariot Race, all the chariots are themed to the drivers, mostly by being shaped like National Animal Stereotypes (Asterix and Obelix have the Gaulish rooster, the Roman champion has the Imperial eagle, the Britons have a pair of lions, etc.) The pirates have a chariot that's vaguely boat-shaped, with a skull and crossbones.
  • Vigilante (the Gregory Sanders cowboy version) has had a couple of motorcycles named the Vig-Cycle.
  • Most superheroes in the Disney Mouse and Duck Comics have their themed vehicles (the exception is Super Goof, who is a Flying Brick), though they rarely use such names:
    • Paperinik has the 313-X, his car in his secret identity as Donald Duck with gadgets made by Gyro that include, among other things, a device for flying and one to change the color to black. Given that Donald built the car himself starting from a (fictional) 1934 Belchfire Runabout how he actually gets away with it remained unknown (and in one early Paperinik story the police actually confiscated the car to check for Paperinik's gadgets)-up until Donald used a chance occasion to claim he and Paperinik just have nearly identical-looking cars and sometimes switch them around to install non-superhero gadgets.
      • In Paperinik New Adventures the 313-X gets wrecked, so Paperinik, who has moved his hideout in the Ducklair Tower with permission from Ducklair's artificial intelligence's One, starts borrowing some of Ducklair's inventions after repainting them red and adding a stylized "Pk", resulting in the Pkar, the Pk-Jet, and even a one-shot Pk-Power Armor.
    • Paperinika (AKA Daisy) uses an unnamed motorbike, itself equipped with various gadgets.
    • Spoofed with the Red Bat, who, befitting his real identity as Fethry Duck, include a Batcar, a Batplane with actual flapping wings, a Batbike (that he has trouble riding due the batwing-like decorations near the saddle hitting him every time he tries to jump on it), a Batscooter (an actual kick scooter with bat decorations and no gadgets), and a Batpogo (stick)-and he seems to favor the pogo stick.
    • Fantomallard the Gentleman Thief, active in the 1920s, had a number of "phantom" vehicles more advanced than then-current technology. They include the "Mysterious Fantomallard", a high-powered car with James Bond-like gadgets bearing a notable resemblance with the Duesenberg Model J (though it was first seen in 1920, eight years before the Duesenberg car hit the market), its prototype, an armored car that Donald would nickname "mobile tank" after seeing a drawing on Fantomallard's journal, and the Fantomarine, a submersible vehicle capable of unlimited submerged operations (for perspective, the first submarine with a similar ability would be the U-58, fitted with an experimental snorkel to use the diesel engines underwater in 1943).
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Wonder Woman vol 1: The Emperor's Saturnian Slavers have a flagship spaceship shaped like Saturn itself, rings and all. Steve Trevor steals it.
    • While the invisble plane is usually not an example, as an experimental bit of Amazonian space traveling and stealth tech, in The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016) it's instead a B-17 that's been painted with Wonder Woman Nose Art and undergone stealth experimentation that allows it to turn invisible at the push of a button.

    Fan Fiction 

    Films — Animation 
  • The Incredibles: As the first film shows, pre-retirement Mr. Incredible had a fairly civilian-looking (from the outside, at least) car that could drive itself and change him into his costume, among other things. In Incredibles 2, it's retrieved from a collector and revealed to have been named "the Incredibile". The second movie also gives Elastigirl a custom motorcycle that can split apart in the middle to take advantage of her stretchy powers.
  • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, the human version of Vinyl Scratch owns a sweet ride very much following her color scheme, with musical notes decorations and a hood ornament shaped like DJ Pon-3's unicorn counterpart. (The toy version even has a detachable windshield that can be used as Cool Shades.) To top it all, it is a Transforming Vehicle that can become a DJ booth with several big speakers and a laser light show.
  • According to the toyline for Cars 2, the Pope is, of course, a car (who is driven around by a popemobile). This raises a lot of questions about Car Jesus and whether he was crucified by the Car Romans.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The original Batman movies had many of these, as expected.
    • Batman (1989) had the Batmobile and Bat-Wing, the latter being so bat-themed that its entire body is (when viewed from above or below) in the shape of Batman's insignia. This conveniently allowed for a Full Moon Silhouette that resembled the Bat Signal.
    • Batman Returns had a slightly different Batmobile and the unusual Bat Jetsleigh. The Penguin rode in a car/boat combo that was a giant yellow duck, presumably to reflect his Psychopathic Manchild personality.
    • Batman Forever saw yet another Batmobile, the return of the Bat-Wing, and the new Batboat. The Bat-Wing could also disengage its wings and become the Batsub.
    • Batman & Robin had the most thus far: Batman had a more streamlined, single-seat Batmobile while Robin had his own cycle. Mr. Freeze, meanwhile, had his own tank complete with ice-canon. Batgirl also had her own bat-themed motorcycle. Oh, also, Batman has a Bat-Credit Card. No, really. With an expiration date of "Forever."
  • The Dark Knight Trilogy follows suit with its own Bat vehicles.
    • Batman Begins introduces The Tumbler as the Batmobile. In this case, it is only referred to as The Tumbler.
    • The Dark Knight: Incidentally, the Lamborghini that Bruce drives in the middle of the day is a subtle in-joke. The particular model of Lamborghini is the Murcielago. Guess what "murcielago" translates to in English? the bat
    • The Dark Knight also has the Batpod, which is actually the front part of the Tumbler, ejected from the main body when its critically damaged.
    • The Dark Knight Rises sees a flying version of the Tumbler, similar to the Bat-Wing. This one is simply called 'The Bat'.
  • Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo has a "pimp boat" complete with hydraulics and spinnaz. Yes. You heard that right. A boat with hydraulics and spinnaz.
  • The TV Movie adaptation of Captain America gave him a stars-and-stripes motorcycle, with the clear shield forming the windscreen. It fit conveniently in the white van his civilian identity drove.
  • The Blues Brothers mention the former Bluesmobile, which was a Cadillac that Elwood traded in for a microphone (a fair trade, we're told). The replacement Bluesmobile seen in the movie was a former police car that at first appears to be The Alleged Car, but endures more abuse than any automobile reasonably should. It also proves to be tire-shreddingly fast, in spite of its appearance. In the sequel, it's revealed that it can go underwater.
  • Blade Trilogy: Blade has his own car that is decked out with a few tricks. It was affectionately referred to by the crew as "the Blademobile". The name is never actually used in the films.
  • In Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, when Cal's wormy sidekick runs off to confront him after his strange rescue, Crow quips out "Into the Weeniemobile! Weenie Man away!" when he takes off in an army jeep.
  • Black Scorpion features a Scorpion Mobile which, in addition to various weapons, can transform into the title character's mundane car and back.
  • National Lampoon's Animal House gives us the Deathmobile during the climactic city parade.
  • Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird gives Count von Count the Countmobile.
  • The Creeper from Jeepers Creepers has his own truck, termed the "Creepermobile" by fans. It looks like The Alleged Car with an unusual vanity plate (BEATNGU), but it's fast, and the third movie confirms that it's a Weaponized Car full of booby traps. He mostly uses it to run people off the road, using the smell of their fear to track them later at his leisure.

    Literature 

  • Most of the entries in The Great Balloon Race reflect their country of origin. For example, the Greek entry has an envelope that looks like Greek columns, and a gondola that looks like a bathtub with prop modelled as a Archimedes screw.
  • The Perfect Run: The Pandamobile: a Dynamis-made copy of a second-gen Fiat Panda covered in white and black fur to mimic an actual panda. Made for superhero The Panda, naturally.
  • One of Stephanie Plum's first cars (that the reader is shown) is a beat-up deal with "pussy" sprayed on the side. The pussymobile, as she called it, set the trend for her various vehicles of questionable quality.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Super Sentai / Power Rangers
    • Besides their mecha / Zords, many teams have motorcycles and the occasional car / flying transport / ATV / mack truck (most of these were added in the PR versions).
    • For specific examples: Turbo and SPD had relatively normal vehicles, but they visually matched their other equipment and had team logos on them. Ninja Storm's Tsunami Cycles had lightning bolt designs to go with the "storm" theme. Lost Galaxy's Jet Jammers and Time Force's Vector Cycles sported their teams' signature zigzag and arrowhead designs, respectively. Animal-themed teams (of which there are many) often get bikes with what look like heads of the relevant animals mounted on the front. And so on, and so forth.
    • The anniversary show Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has a team wide example with their moving base being a flying and space capable Gokai Galleon which, is a spaceship shaped like a galleon
  • Doctor Who
  • Torchwood has cars with their logo on the side, especially notable as they're supposed to be a secret organisation. The organization itself is not secret, more or less the entire population of Cardiff knows they exist, but only the highest-ranking government officials actually know what they do. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
  • Incidentally, Spike himself, as well as Giles, are other Buffyverse characters with highly distinctive vehicles that seem descriptive of their personalities. They follow the trope, although they don't get that much screentime.
  • Most notable is Gunn's truck, which has stakes and other vampire slaying weapons attached to it.
  • Giles' convertible, too. Spike describes it as "A mid-life crisis vehicle — something long, red, and shaped like a penis."
  • In their "Demolition Derby Special", they had the Mythbus. Which was destroyed when it tipped over at the end of testing a bus-related myth.
  • They had Earl the Cadillac for a while. Then they dropped it from a crane, because they had promised to destroy it when it was donated to them.
  • Knight Rider plays with this, as one of the main characters is a car, and is one of the most distinctive icons of the series. Unless you're in Germany, of course.
  • Automan had Cursor create all manner of Auto-whatever vehicles, covered with Tron Lines of the same blue-glowy effect as the man himself.
  • The Young Ones: Vyvyan's Ford Anglia with flames down the side and a leg stuck on the bonnet.
  • Played with on Frasier. Frasier wants to be Corkmaster at his wine club (basically the president). Roz pokes fun at this absurd title by treating it like a superhero alias, saying that "If you win, I'd love a ride in the Cork-mobile."
  • Kamen Riders, as the second part of their name implies, have some sort of mount, most often a motorcycle. The Heisei era went to greater lengths to make the bikes more visually similar to the Riders, with some even having various forms to correspond.
    • Taken to the extreme with Kamen Rider Accel, Kamen Rider Lazer and Kamen Rider Vice, who can actually turn into bikes! (Hoverbike in Vice's case) Incidentally, Accel also owns a "normal" motorcycle that could easily serve as a Thememobile, but is disqualified due to the fact that he only uses it when he's in civilian form.
    • Kamen Rider Drive is a particularly noteworthy example because he's the only Rider to use a car instead of a motorcyclenote . His car, the Tridoron, fits the trope well by being able to change forms in order to mimic Drive's three primary modes: the race car-inspired Type Speed (its primary form), the truck-like Type Wild, and the power loader-esque Type Technic. Drive's Super Mode, Type Tridoron, actually has the car transform into armor and merge onto his body.
  • In Michael Moore's show, The Awful Truth, there was the SODOMobile, a bus decked out with dozens of signs alluding to its passengers: a group of gay activists who Moore was driving around to troll the protests being carried out by the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church.
  • The Monkees rode around in a radically customized Pontiac GTO called, naturally, the Monkeemobile.
  • The Middleman has fun with this, referring to nearly every piece of equipment they own this way.
    Dubby: There's no way I can get there in time!
    Ida: Easy, just take the Middlejet.
    Dubby: We have a Middlejet?
    Ida: What kind of outfit do you think we're running here? Of course! It's parked right next to the Middleboat!

    Music 
  • The Christian metal band Stryper has the Battle Van, as featured in the album Soldiers Under Command.
  • Information Society had Vector, the heavily customized 1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring featured on the cover of their 1990 album Hack and the video for "Think".

    Pro Wrestling 
  • WWE's resident Superhero, The Hurricane, has his Hurri-cycle.
    • Over time, many other WWE stars would have a trademark vehicle that they'd drive down to the arena. From Eddie Guerrero's low riders up until Alberto Del Rio coming out in a random extremely expensive car, not to mention the dozen or so wrestlers who had ridden a motorcycle down to the ring. The ones that were consistent each time included JBL's white limo, complete with Texas longhorns on the hood and a license plate that had JBL's logo on it, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's ATV that he rode around as Sheriff of RAW, adorned with cute little "3:16" flags, and Chavo Guerrero Jr. as Kerwin White had what was nicknamed by fans as "The Whitemobile", a plain white golf cart with his initials on the front.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Roland Rat's Ratmobile (also seen in his superhero identity of Ratman). Although it actually more fits the design ethos of his sidekick Kevin the Gerbil, being a bright pink Ford Anglia with "RATMOBILE" written across the sides. The comic strip version of Roland's Ratman persona has a Ratmobile that better fits the trope, being a drag racer shaped like his own head.
  • Sesame Street: Zoe has a rideable toy car called the Zoemobile.
  • Lady Penelope's Rolls Royce, FAB 1, in Thunderbirds — a bright pink limousine, heavily customised and upgraded, featuring bullet-proof armour, machine guns, smokescreen, oil slick and hydrofoils. For a secret agent, Penelope isn't exactly discreet in her choice of transport.

    Theme Parks 

    Toys 
  • Any superhero action figure eventually acquires a vehicle of some sort, whether or not he has one in the source material. So, even though Spider-Man has trouble making his rent, he can still afford his own spider-themed VTOL fighter jet. What?
    • Rather infamously, a Justice League action figure of The Flash, who can run faster than light, came with a motorcycle.
      • There was also a Daredevil figure with a motorcycle at some point. Although he has been shown to be capable of driving in emergencies, Daredevil is blind.
      • There was even a knockoff Naruto figure that came with a motorcycle. Note that no vehicles (outside of the Thunder Rail) appeared in the series.
      • Jada Toys in 2023 also released figures of Naruto and Kakashi that come with toy cars designed to look like the characters outfits.
    • Hot Wheels' Character Cars assortment of vehicles gives us cars designed to evoke the characters of whatever franchise Mattel has managed to grab. Examples include DC and Marvel, Star Wars, Power Rangers, Super Mario... even SpongeBob SquarePants gets in on the fun!
  • Some of the Transformers action figures- a franchise whose main schtick was robots that turn into vehicles- came with a larger vehicle that they could ride in. This included Decepticon Roadgrabber, and, as an extreme example, the Autobot Skyhammer, who was a robot that could turn into a winged car that had a Pretender shell that was a robot that turned into a spaceship, that had another Pretender shell that was a bigger spaceship. Yeah.
  • The Human Alliance subline introduced for the Transformers Film Series toyline. In this case, the vehicles were normal Transformers and the riders were humans (and Frenzy) who could either sit inside the larger figure's vehicle modes or man weapons on their robot modes. The Dark Of The Moon toyline introduced smaller Human Alliance figures that can also accommodate human riders or become weapons for larger Transformers figures.
  • The Toa Terrain Crawler from the BIONICLE series. A living being captured by Axonn, then turned into a Cyborg, all years before the events in the series. Despite this, it looks like one of the current Toa's masks. It's a combination of Centipede, Train, APC, and Sea monster that somehow has a giant Cordak blaster attached to the top. Note that it's stuck to the ocean floor while the whole cast can swim. And have no real need for long-distance transporation anyhow.
  • A tie-in toy to Batman Forever was a base piece with included attachments that allowed you to turn it into the Batmobile, Batboat, or Bat-Wing. Probably unintentionally, the base piece allowed you to more or less recreate the Batsub from the same film.

    Video Games 
  • ANNO: Mutationem: At Skopp City, Ann can trade Cyber Nekos for an optional vehicle called the Macaron Cat Mobile, an Alleged Car that's based on a fish beggar statue in the southern region.
  • Batman: Arkham Series naturally supplies various Batman examples.
    • Batman: Arkham Asylum begins with Batman taking the Joker to Arkham in the Batmobile. Foreseeing Bane continuing to attack him, Batman has the car ram Bane off the island. The Bat-Wing later appears to drop off the the Line Launcher, and in the end Batman uses it for a The Adventure Continues ending.
    • Batman: Arkham City: The Bat-Wing briefly returns to once again do an equipment drop, in this case the Grapnel Boost.
    • Batman: Arkham Origins features an early version of the Bat-Wing. The Batmobile meanwhile apparently hasn't been built yet, but a few pieces of are in the cave, indicating that they've started construction on it.
    • Batman: Arkham Knight finally allows players to actually drive the Batmobile, which now has a tank mode. The Bat-Wing returns one final time, and can now dock with the Batmobile to provide upgrades. It spends a large portion of the game flying circles around the city (and can be seen doing so) scanning for the Cloudburst.
    • Played for laughs later on, to add a little levity to a dramatic event. After Batman's secret identity is exposed to the population of Gotham, three thugs had much snark about it.
    Thug 1: [jokingly] Oh no! He's coming to get us in the Waynemobile!
    Thug 2: [joining in] Look out boys! Wayne-a-rangs!
    Thug 3: Quick! Quick! Run away! He's gonna beat us into a bloody pulp while wearing his heavily armored Waynesuit! [quiets down, frightened] Actually. Yeah. Keep out of his way.
    • The Riddler also boasts as to having the "Riddlermobile". It's bigger, faster, more aesthetically pleasing...it's in the shop. One of the skins for the Batmobile actually is the Riddlermobile, which turns out to just be the Batmobile with a bunch a green question marks on it.
  • Professor Layton's Laytonmobile is specifically designed to accommodate him and his hat. It also shares the same rust red color scheme of the Professor's outfit.
  • Exclusive to Rocket League's Nintendo Switch version are three cars based on Nintendo characters: one based on Samus Aran (with some inspiration coming from her Gunship), and two for Super Mario Bros. (one for each team; the Mario-themed one is exclusive to orange team players, while the Luigi one is exclusive to the blue team).
  • Duke Nukem Forever laughs at every other character's cars. Pussy cars. Duke has a monster truck Thememobile, painted in appropriate (read: the title screen of Duke Nukem 3D and "Mighty Foot" in the same typeface as the DNF logo) livery. The truck, much like the man himself, is big, loud, brute-force, and more bark than bite.
  • Everyone in the Twisted Metal franchise has one. The one that's most recognizable, however, is Sweet Tooth, a souped-up ice cream truck with a big flaming clown-head-on-a-spring perched on top, driven by Monster Clown Needles Kane. It even can transform into a mecha called Sweet Bot in some games.
  • For the Spyro & Friends Grand Prix, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled added in a pair of karts themed after two characters: the Spyromobile for Spyro and the Gnasty Ride for Gnasty Gnorc. The Gasmoxia GP also makes the Velo Choppernote  into this for Emperor Velo, complete with a "V" insignia on the bonnet.

    Web Comics 
  • Mr. Mighty from Everyday Heroes parodies this with the Mighty-Mobile... which, being a minor-league hero, he can only dream of.
  • The Vespavenger from Questionable Content is a rare example of a character named for their mode of transportation, rather than the other way around.
  • Over the course of The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, Wonderella adopts a number of themed vehicles, even though her powers render them pointless. Usually, she adopts them at the behest of her agent in an attempt to score merchandising deals with toy companies.

    Web Original 
  • Englishman has the Bentmobile (a Bentley whose name is purely Innocent Innuendo, as Englishman is unaware of the negative connotations) and in an earlier episode the "Helicoptermobile".
  • Stick Figures On Crack: To the Idiotmobile! *Batman theme* "Damn!"
  • Atop the Fourth Wall: Before Linkara took it as the spoils of his victory, Comicron One belonged to Lord Vyce. As such, its external color scheme is black and green, like Vyce's armor, and its front is built in the shape of the letter V. There are plenty of Vs decorating the inside as well.

    Western Animation 
  • The Batman briefly shows Green Arrow flying his Arrow Plane across Gotham. Good thing because he and Batman needed to split up to save the day.
  • Steven Universe: In "Dewey Wins", Dewey mentions taking blame for includes termites eating the boardwalk, alien abductions, and crashing his Mayor-mobile into the town's only cellular tower.
  • Teen Titans (2003): Cyborg and the T-Car, the giant T-shaped Titans Tower and the T-Sub which doubles as a spaceship. Also, in an episode, there was a road race of all the villians plus Robin, where they all had theme vehicles, such as Mad Mod driving a car shaped like Big Ben's clocktower.
  • Family Guy
    • Parodied in an episode where Peter shouts "Quick! To the Petercopter!" and rushes to his Peter-shaped helicopter, which crashes on Joe's lawn. He does the same thing later with his zeppelin, the Hinden-Peter.
      "How can you afford these things?"
    • This trope is used again with even more ridiculous vehicles in subsequent episodes, where Peter rides the Peterdactyl (which crashes into wires and is electrocuted, having Peter to take care of the babies), the Peterang (a giant boomerang that flies around the city and briefly passes by its destination before getting slammed into Peter's house), and even the Megcopter, along with Meg (which works surprisingly well).
    • An earlier episode had "To the Popemobile", complete with cheesy Adam West music.
  • In one episode of Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz had a monster truck shaped like his own head and regularly uses a Cool Airship with his name on the side.
    • Also appears by name in another episode. Professor Poofinplotz travels in a ten-foot replica of her own head mounted on mechanical spider legs, aptly dubbed her "Me Mobile".
    • The episode "Bee Story" reveals that Poofinplotz has a similar vehicle, the "Myself-icopter". Now it's only a matter of time before she gets a third vehicle that starts with "I"...
  • Parodied in The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special, where David S. Pumpkins has the Pumpkinmobile, which is a giant wheeled... strawberry. Because "you can't drive pumpkins, man."
  • Parodied in Freakazoid! with the Freakmobile. Freakazoid stated outright that it only existed for merchandising, despite the fact that he had superspeed and clearly did not need it. One episode even had toy executives insisting that he use the Freakmobile for a car chase when he was keeping up just fine on foot.
  • Darkwing Duck has his plane, the Thunderquack, and his bike (with sidecar), the Ratcatcher, both very duck-themed and keeping with his overall color scheme. Note that the Thunderquack is in-universe Ascended Fanon; Launchpad built it for his favorite hero before even meeting him. After all of these get scavenged for recycling materials by Gosalyn, Darkwing proclaims "To the Quackcycle!", which turns out to be a regular tricycle with a goofy name.
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had the Turtlevan (called the Party Wagon in the toy line), Turtle Blimp, and probably more.
    • The noughties series featured the Battle Shell, which was basically the Turtlevan with a Darker and Edgier name and appearance.
    • In the futuristic Fast Forward season the Hover Shell was a Battle Shell that could fly as well as eject the cockpit as its own ground vehicle.
    • Also the Cheapskates, basically motorized skateboards built by Donatello.
  • Wacky Races is entirely about improbably-themed vehicles, each fitting with their owners to a T.
  • Arguably, Optimus Prime (or any other sufficiently well-known Transformer), but instead of driving his signature vehicle, he transforms into it.
    • However, the Action Master toyline had non-transforming figures with transformation-capable accessories. Optimus Prime's was a giant, cannon-laden truck called Armored Convoy. What street you're supposed to drive that thing on remains unknown, though it'd be just the right size for Gigantion.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
  • Justice League features The Flashmobile, which is actually just a pimped-out van he bought with endorsement money he made appearing in commercials. As Green Lantern points out, it's completely ridiculous. Somewhat justified, though, considering its real purpose isn't getting around... at least not in that sense...
    Green Lantern: Why do you need a van... wait, don't answer that. I don't wanna know.
  • SWAT Kats: The Turbokat is at least as well known as the flight suits for the Swat Kats. The other bigger vehicles (the Turbomole, the Hoverkat, and the unnamed amphibious sub/tank used for a short time in one episode) all had the same basic paint scheme, as did the jet skis. The other smaller vehicles (The Cyclotron and Sandkat) had the same color scheme as their flight suits. All of them qualify.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold has all the usual Bat-vehicles (including a Transforming Mecha Batmobile), as well as Green Arrow's Arrow-Car and Arrow Plane, and the Robin-Cycle. And, in the Wacky Racing episode, the Jokermobile, Kitty-Car, Huntress-Cycle, Gentleman Ghost's hearse, and so on.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) infamously gave Spider-Man a Spider-Cycle, despite the hero being able to crawl up walls and swing by using his webbing. In-universe, Nick Fury justifies the vehicle's existence by claiming that it's faster and more efficient than web-swinging, and saves tons of valuable web fluid.
  • Inspector Gadget has the Gadgetmobile, complete with Catchphrase (and lever) activation of its own gadgets. Doctor Claw, naturally, drove/flew/sailed the Madmobile, liberally decked with the MAD logo.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Homer suggests the family get "to the Simpsonmobile!" to rescue Selma from Sideshow Bob. It is actually their car.
    • There is also the episode where Homer salvaged the remains of a sugar truck and the massive pile of sugar attracts every bee in Springfield. When the beekeepers notice this, one proclaims, "To the beemobile!" to which his colleague asks, "You mean your Chevy?". After a beat, he responds "yes" in deadpan.
  • In Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf, all of the Halloween monsters hanging out with Dracula have a race car themed after themselves, with the weird exception of the Werewolf Wagon, which bears no similarity to anything werewolf-related (though one could argue that as a light yellow Beetle, it vaguely resembles a full moon).
    "And here comes the Mummy, in his Mummy-Mobile!"
  • In one episode of Challenge of the Superfriends, Batman had a bat rocket. Which he flew to the moon. In under one minute.
  • In the debut episode of The Flintstones, Barney invents a flying device that catches Fred's attention. Barney wants to call it "the Barney-Copter," but Fred christens it the episode's title, "The Flintstone Flyer."
  • The four guardian mummies in Mummies Alive! have multiple vehicles with Egyptian motifs, all of them reverse-engineered from modern vehicles by Rath. They include a dragster called the Hot-Ra, Nefer-Tina's Jetcycle, a speedboat called the Nileator, and a flying Skycophagus.
  • A special mention for the Duomobile, the vehicle of Ace and Gary from The Ambigously Gay Duo, as it is shaped like a... penis and scrotum. With a laser firing from the tip. It sure is "an extension of the concept behind the characters"....
  • Cool McCool had, naturally, the Coolmobile. One episode had him equipped with a "Coolmoboat."
  • According to an episode of The Critic, Dr. Karvorkian has one of his own. It's not as impressive as he thinks it is.
    Karvorkian: To the Deathmobile!
  • On Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, Bat-Bat (being a Batman spoof) has the Manmobile. It has arms and legs instead of wheels.
  • PJ Masks: All three young heroes have their own vehicle; the Cat-car (a blue automobile), the Owl-glider (a red flying machine with owl wings) and the Gekko-Mobile (a green amphibian vehicle with a lizard tail).
  • Batfink had the Batillac which served no other purpose than transportation to and from the scene of a crime.
  • Bibleman embraced the freedom of its new medium by tossing a bunch of toyetic vehicles at Bibleman like the Biblevan, Biblecopter, Biblejet, Bibleboat...
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Mermaid Man who is a combined parody of both Batman and Aquaman has the Invisible Boatmobile. Which itself is also a combined parody of the Batmobile and Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet from The Superfriends.
  • Parodied on one occasion in The Fairly Oddparents, when the Sandman (played by Jackie Mason!) declares "Quick, to the Mattress-mobile!" Cut to a rickety-looking delivery truck. "This is the Mattress-mobile?" "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. And your truck is where?"
  • Ben 10: Alien Force: Kevin Levin's car, the Signature Team Transport of the series, is a weird example. The car belongs to Kevin, yet seemingly by coincidence, matches the colors of Ben's outfit exactly.

    Real Life 
  • The Popemobile. The name was actually coined by news media to refer to the specially modified vehicles used to transport The Pope during his public appearances; the late John Paul II wasn't too keen on the moniker however, calling it "undignified".
    • Pope Francis, in keeping with his more spartan lifestyle and simple public image, uses a Ford Focus as well as a 1984 Renault 4 presented to him by Italian Father Renzo Zocca.
  • Air Force One.
    • It helps that it has "United States of America" written down the sides.
    • Similarly, Marine One and "Cadillac One" (The Presidential Limo).
    • Technically, Air Force One, Marine One etc are simply the radio callsigns for any vehicle that the President happens to be travelling in at the time. Air Force One can be any US Air-Force aircraft the president happens to be travelling in. Marine One is any US Marine Corps aircraft. Cadillac One is any ground vehicle, and so on. The ACTUAL vehicles with the real name (not callsign) of "Air Force One" or "Marine One" are also valid, and refer to the vehicles specially modified for the President, but are never called that over the radio unless the president is actually travelling in them. (Air traffic control takes this rule to ridiculous extremes: when Richard Nixon resigned, the call sign of his Boeing actually changed from "Air Force One" to "SAM 27000" in mid-flight, something that never happens ordinarily because it would be an administrative nightmare.)
    • Executive One is used for any civilian aircraft the President is flying in, which has happened once (Richard Nixon took a United flight to LA in 1973). Executive Two was used regularly during the Ford Administration, as Vice President Nelson Rockefeller owned a Gulfstream airplane that he preferred to the McDonnell Douglas C-9 Skytrain II airplanes the Air Force was using at the time.
    • Because the Boeing 747-based VC-25A commonly known as Air Force One is extremely expensive to run, the last three Presidents have more frequently flown in the less-expensive and smaller C-32, based on the twinjet Boeing 757-200 airframe.
    • Iron Maiden travels in a a modified Boeing 757-200 flown by lead singer Bruce Dickinson, named Ed Force One.
    • Cadillac One AKA "The Beast". Unlike the previous limo, it is not a stretched and armoured DTS, or even an production vehicle at all. It uses a Chevy Kodiak commercial truck chassis, engine and driveline, Cadillac Escalade body panels, headlights, door mirrors and door handles, and STS tail and reverse lights. "The Beast" is so heavily armored and equipped with security and safety featuresnote  that the curator of The Henry Ford referred to them as "a tank with a Cadillac badge."
  • The Pikachu mobile. Basically an official Rice Burner Toyota ist (Scion xA) with parts modelled after Pikachu.
    • There's a New Beetle version of that, as well as a Lugia-themed PT Cruiser.
  • Red Bull uses special Red Bull cars (complete with giant imitation can on top/on the trunk) in numerous countries, including but not limited to the US, Australia, Slovakia, Hungary and the Netherlands. Their purpose is usually to hand out free samples.
  • The Wheelmobile.
  • Google's fleet of Street View cars.
  • The Pimpmobile
  • The Who Bus.
  • There are the Best Buy Geek Squad beetles (the "Geekmobiles").
  • Richard Feynman's van.
  • To celebrate the success of The Muppet Show, Lew Grade gave Jim Henson a green Lotus Eclat with Kermit-eye headlights.
  • The Big Banana Car, a car shaped like a banana built on a Ford pickup chassis.

Alternative Title(s): Matching Vehicle, Tropemobile, Character Themed Vehicle

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