Prop Recycling / Live-Action TV

• The Cold War Day of the Jackboot mini-series Amerika has the Dirty Communists flying over the United States in helicopters reused from Blue Thunder. Except they're no longer blue.
• Babylon 5 re-used spacesuits from 2010. They didn't realize where the costumes were from at first, and did what they could to disguise them, but ultimately, they were what they were. Ironically, the second time Babylon 5 needed the 2010 spacesuits they weren't available, so they had to make new replicas anyway. They also, interestingly, used the blue suit, the only one left unused in the earlier films - 2001 and 2010 had used the red and yellow suits (the blue belonging to a dead crewmember).
  • Emperor Cartagia has a completely identical replica of his throneroom made on the Narn homeworld for the purpose of G'Kar's show trial. Justified in this case, as he is exactly the kind of raving egomaniac (to put it very mildly) who would do such a thing.
• The Ballad of Big Al: It's obvious that the Apatosaurus model was simply modified from the Diplodocus one from the "Time of the Titans" episode of Walking with Dinosaurs.
• A skit in The Basil Brush Show where Basil attempts to scale the Himalayas, is saved by a Yeti from an avalanche and then they all have a Dance Party Ending uses the Yeti suit from the Second Doctor Doctor Who serial "The Web of Fear". Because of this, it's available as a special feature on the DVD release of another Second Doctor serial, "The Mind Robber".
• The Ford Futura concept car was originally used in the 1959 film It Started with a Kiss. The car was subsequently transformed into the Batmobile for the 1966 Batman (1966) TV series and was seen as a normal car again in Viper.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003):
  • The CIC set for the Battlestar Pegasus in the 2000s Battlestar Galactica was originally built as the bridge of the Jupiter 2 for an unaired pilot of a Lost in Space remake directed by John Woo; the set was put in storage, and underwent only minor alteration for its use on BSG.
  • Galactica itself averted this trope by auctioning off a huge number of props, uniforms, set pieces, and curios to raise money for Caprica. Which was canceled after less than one season.
  • The 1970's series of Battlestar Galactica used the botanical ships from Silent Running as part of the rag-tag fleet fleeing the Cylon tyranny.
  • Scenes from the original Battlestar Galactica, including use of the ship, the shuttle, and Vipers were all re-used to make the movie Space Mutiny, which was then parodied by Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Although the MST3000 guys failed to realize this fact and don't comment on it when riffing.)
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century:
  • Uniforms belonging to Viper pilots on Battlestar Galactica are worn by guards in the episode, "Cosmic Whiz Kid".
  • The distinctive throttles from the Vipers themselves also turned up in Roger's enemy starfighters.
  • The Landram vehicle (a light armored personnel carrier) from Battlestar Galactica is used in the pilot movie.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • D'Hoffryn was originally dubbed "Mr. Hodgepodge" by the makeup artists because they used pieces from The Judge, a demon of Jhe, and the Rage Monster (Pete) to make him.
  • Alyson Hannigan has admitted that once the show ended, she and her husband took home many of the props and used them for Halloween decorations. Unfortunately, most of them have since deteriorated as it has been almost twenty years.
• At the end of the Charmed pilot episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes", Prue is seen holding the same newspaper from Mrs. Doubtfire, where Daniel Hillard gets his eponymous alias.
• Parodied by Conan O'Brien; some time after doing a sketch that involved the use of a large animatronic whale, Conan informed his viewers that NBC had instructed him to re-use the whale in order to make up their investment on it, and thus launched "Whale Week", wherein the whale was used repeatedly in several gags each night. There was also a running joke where they kept using a costume over and over again over one season. It started out as a Giant Grub costume, then turned into a Surrendering Croissant, a Victorious Connoli, a Liposuctioned Jabba the Hutt, a pissed off kreplach, and a Beach Rock. Conan kept asking for suggestions, and even gave out a button as a prize for it.
• Following the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, CTV's Vancouver station repurposed portions of CTV's Olympic set for its news studio.
• Doctor Who has several examples of this. The BBC has large amounts of props and costumes in storage, so the original series has quite a few examples of prop recycling, both in show, and across other BBC series.
  • The spacesuits worn by the astronauts in "The Tenth Planet" show up again in "The Wheel in Space" for no reason. They then got recycled in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • The robots in "The Mind Robber" are reused from a BBC adaptation of Isaac Asimov's short story "Reason".
  • Not all of them were BBC originals in the first place; for example the BBC bought a load of ex-Gerry Anderson props in the early '70s, so one sonic screwdriver prop was from the movie Thunderbirds Are Go, and various control panels from UFO (1970) turn up occasionally up to the mid '80s.
  • In the seventies and eighties, every UK sci-fi show would at some point (or more likely, at several points) use a distinctive triangular grid wall originally seen◊ in the Skybase from "The Mutants". The interesting thing about this one is that it wasn't necessarily the same wall, but would have been made from the same moulds, which were specially built for the Doctor Who serial. In Doctor Who itself, the wall reappeared in the hyperspace craft from "The Stones of Blood", the Skonnon transporter from "The Horns of Nimon" and the room on the TARDIS which served as sleeping quarters for first Adric, then Turlough. (Seen in "Earthshock" and "Terminus.")
  • "Revenge of the Cybermen":
    • A stylised insignia based on Celtic knotwork used by the Vogans in "Revenge of the Cybermen" appears again in "The Deadly Assassin" as a Gallifreyan symbol ... and in just about every Gallifrey-set story afterwards, since it becomes the Seal of Rassilon. The Doctor Who New Adventures explain that the Vogans borrowed the design from the Time Lords.
    • The phone hidden in a shoe brush used by Kellerman was the one used by Roger Moore on Live and Let Die. Apparently, Moore had offered it to the BBC props department, and the propmaster had not recognised him and offered him two shillings and sixpence for it. Considering that Live and Let Die was released two years after the pound decimalised, this seems slightly anachronous.
  • This is most prominent in the late '70s and early '80s between Doctor Who and Blake's 7, where the shows shared an excessive amount of props and costumes. Romana I and Servalan wore the same white feather cloak, the guards in "Frontios" wore the Federation guards' helmets from B7, and certain idiosyncratic wall panels show up all the time. Of course, the series shared writers and producers as well, and Terry Nation even planned a real crossover at one point. The most controversial example of this was the use of a Sea Devil costume for the monster in the Blake's 7 fourth season opening, "Rescue". The Doctor Who team at the time were reportedly extremely angry that no permission had been requested (and also wouldn't have granted it).
  • The King of Hearts outfit that the Fourth Doctor wears in his Costume-Test Montage in "Robot" originates from a 1972 musical version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, although he's wearing it with the hat worn by the Knave of Hearts (presumably because of his unusually large hat size).
  • Most of the Sontaran technology in "The Sontaran Experiment" is reused from the sets built for "The Time Warrior", although ironically not the Sontaran costumes that the serial was written to reuse.
  • The monster in "The Seeds of Doom" is just an Axon from "The Claws of Axos", but painted green.
  • In "The Androids of Tara", the faceless android is based on the robot head used for the Sarah Jane robot in "The Android Invasion", a story that was only a couple of years old at that point.
  • The vacuum-formed cryogenic pods used in "The Ark in Space" show up again in "The Horns of Nimon".
  • K9 in "School Reunion" is the same prop used in the original series.
  • The Sontaran cloning table on which Martha was held in "The Sontaran Stratagem" is obviously made from a Cyber Conversion Unit.
  • In "The Vampires of Venice", Amy is strapped into the Cyberking's throne from "The Next Doctor".
  • Although it's not likely to have real significance, some fans have made a to-do over the fact that part of the rocketship seat used by Jenny at the end of "The Doctor's Daughter" is reused for Oswin's escape pod in "Asylum of the Daleks".
  • The levers that seal the doors in the escape pod from the Alaska was first seen in "Utopia", when the Master shuts down the bunker's defences.
  • "Asylum of the Daleks" features the Special Weapons Dalek originally from "Remembrance of the Daleks" — the only Dalek reused between the Classic and New series. It makes a reappearance in "The Witch's Familiar", along with many other classic series Daleks.
  • "The Rings of Akhaten" features a large variety of alien creatures in a space market. Some of the aliens are made by combining costume pieces from many other species from the show — one in particular has the head of a Hoix, the breathing apparatus of a Hath, and the tentacle-beard of an Ood.
  • In the minisode "The Last Day", the P.O.V. Cam main character has a premonition of their impending disintegration by the Daleks, their face replaced by a skull. The normal Dalek disintegration effect used in the series is CGI, but the skull we see in the shot is the practical skull mask used to represent the Vashta Nerada-ised spacesuits from "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", with the helmet part altered to Gallifreyan colours.
  • Clara wears a badge in "Nightmare in Silver" which was originally a Space Corps Super Infinity Fleet badge from the Red Dwarf episode "Trojan".
  • Also from that episode, the soldiers are seen using the communicators from "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone".
  • Orson's space suit in "Listen" is one of the suits from "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", with even the logo intact. So are the space suits used by the Doctor and his crew in "Kill the Moon", though the logo has been removed by this point.
  • The miniaturized TARDIS's "siege mode" in "Flatline" looks suspiciously like the hypercube from "The Doctor's Wife".
  • The Beano Summer Special Graham suddenly finds himself reading in the 2018 World Cup teaser is the same one Eleven was reading in "The Rings of Akhaten".
  • Doctor Who Magazine constructed an elaborate tongue-in-cheek theory over the fact that Marco Polo's two costumes in "Marco Polo" would be reused in "The Crusade" and "The Celestial Toymaker". Clearly, the tunic was indeed the same one worn by King Richard, which someone in Jaffa had ended up with, and then passed down over the generations, until Polo bought it on his own visit to the Holy Land. And Polo must have been provided with his Chinese robe by Kublai Khan, who is known to enjoy gambling over a game of backgammon, and therefore could easily have subsequently lost it to the ultimate gamesman.
• Double Dare re-used several of its props, mostly from the obstacle course. Some obstacles from the original version continued to be used into Super Sloppy with a few from the kids-only versions surviving even into Family.
  • The climbing ramp and platform for the Sundae Slide were used for the Fireman's Flagpull obstacle from the first season. The first version of the Sewer Chute also shared the Sundae Slide's platform.
  • The "mushroom" steps contestants climb to jump into The Tank were also used for the Sewer Chute and Inside-Out.
  • The kernels for the Popcorn obstacle from 1989-90 were falling apart, so they were given a new coat of paint and used one last time for a Super Special physical challenge from 1992.
  • The waffles from the Squelch 'M Waffles obstacle were used for a Breakfast in Bed physical challenge, as was the Birdcage from Bye Bye Birdie.
  • The mailbox used for It's in the Mail from 1987-88 returned for 2000 with a new name: Special Delivery.
  • In One Ear from Super Sloppy and Family was brought back for 2000, but it was given new hair and eyes.
  • The Lube Job obstacle was later used for physical challenges and toss-ups on 2000.
  • Two props managed to survive from the very beginning through Double Dare 2000: the One-Ton Human Hamster Wheel (albeit with updated numbers) and the spiral slide from the Sundae Slide (renamed "Just Desserts" for 2000). Coincidentally, both props were used on Legends of the Hidden Temple.
  • The wheel part of the Hamster Wheel was detached for the Drum Roll obstacle. It was also used for the PAX revival of Beat the Clock.
• Eureka uses props from Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, especially in the realm of "futuristic" weaponry. Most noticable is a triple-barreled assault rifle first used by the Genii and Satedan against the Wraith, shows up in Eureka with Jo the police woman holding it.
• The Family Channel may take the cake for prop recycling for three game shows they aired in 1994; Boggle, Shuffle, and Jumble. All three of them used the exact same glass tiled walls, contestant podiums, and telephone keypad set piece, redressed each time in an attempt to make each show look unique. The props weren't all that got recycled; all three also shared the same music package, sound effects, host, and announcer.
• Farscape: All members of the Pilot species were portrayed by the same elaborate Starfish Alien puppet. It helps that none of them are ever in a scene together due to being permanently bonded inside their Leviathans.
• Firefly:
  • The Alliance armour in the episode "The Train Job" came from Starship Troopers.
  • There were three spacesuits in Serenity's inventory on Firefly. Two were recycled from a previous space series, but the big yellow one worn by Jayne was originally Dolph Lundgren's flight suit.
  • Jayne's gun Vera originally appeared in the 2002 movie Showtime.
  • Zoe's sawn-off Winchester rifle is the same one used by Bowler in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr..
• The Vogon spaceship interiors in the TV version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) are from Alien.
• The Submarine set in the JAG episode "Shadow" was the one built for the movie Crimson Tide.
• Kamen Rider and Super Sentai regularly recycle sets, costumes, props, CGI models and effects across the seasons because of budgetary and law restrictions. A typical example are the ever repeating sets of construction site full of concrete pipes, an abandoned quary or a city square with stone collums. As for costumes there's one in particular (yellowy brown with lots of spiky appendages sticking out) that seems to have been used at least once every couple of years since the early nineties.
  • The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel has appeared prominently a few times, including Kamen Rider Decade's high-speed battle with TheBee, the music video for the Kamen Rider Double movie's theme song, and as part of the spaceship XV-Two in the Kamen Rider Fourze movie.
  • The office set belonging to Kamen Rider OOO's Big Good Kousei Kougami has been redressed and reused in almost every subsequent series; it's also been used by government agents, politicians, and corporate CEOs. In short, if someone with any authority appears in modern-era Kamen Rider, they'll more than likely be in Kougami's office.
  • Additionally, movie-exclusive Villain Riders from the Heisei era (2000 onwards) tend to use modified versions of the hero Rider's costume and gear. It's easiest to spot with Kamen Rider Den-O, simply because it's had so many movies: Gaoh, Yu-Ki^note Technically Yu-Ki is a remodel of Gaoh; it seems Toei modified the last/only Gaoh costume they had, which is why he's never appeared since, and G Den-O all use modified Den-O suits, but the most obvious is Nega Den-O, whose suit is literally just Den-O's Sword Form with purple armor instead of red and blue, flame-like decals applied to it.
    • Special mention also goes to Kamen Rider Gaim; not only does the Summer movie feature a black Gaim, but it introduces Mars and Kamuro, whose apple-themed Golden and Silver Arms suits would later be repurposed for Jam's Darkness Arms in the final episode, Idunn's Ringo Arms and Saviour's Blood Zakuro in the Gaim Gaiden direct-to-video movies. On top of this, Darkness and Blood Zakuro Arms use repainted versions of Gaim's Daidaimaru sword while Ringo Arms wields Mars' sword and shield.
    • Ex-Aid features several special one-off costumes (based off of past Riders and Bandai Namco Entertainment video games) which ended up getting repainted and used in different contexts. The Big Bad Kamen Rider Chronus' costume was made from Gemn's Kamen Rider Wizard form (made obvious by the fact that it has Wizard's Badass Longcoat); likewise, Ex-Aid's movie-exclusive VR Gamer form was made from a spare Chronus suit. The Namco classic suits were repaints of the Riders' normal Level 3 forms^note for example, Ex-Aid's Pac-Man suit is made from Gekitotsu Robots, but with two of its gauntlets instead of one. On top of that, the gloves were repainted orange to match Pac-Man's current appearance.; the post-series Another Ending movies repainted the Pac-Man suit into the fighting game-based Knock-Out Fighter 2 suit for Ex-Aid, while his Maximum Mighty X suit was painted black and purple to become Genm's God Maximum X form.
  • Besides villains, movie-exclusive Rider suits are more often than not repaints/modifications to existing suits. Kamen Rider Wizard does this in spades, as all three of his movies feature forms that are modified from his standard All Dragon Style (two of them also being modifications of his ultimate form, Infinity Style).
  • The head of the Toad Beastman from Kamen Rider Amazon #17 was reused as a disguise for a prankster who falls victim to the Monster of the Week in Kamen Rider Stronger #17.
  • From Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion, the helmet of the villain Mad Gallant was modified and repurposed to serve as the head of the robot Brian in episode 31 of Tokkei Winspector.
  • The first episode of Chōjinki Metalder has recycled Waller monsters from Jikuu Senshi Spielban among the armies of the Neros Empire: Ivyara (#32) in the Monster Army and Walther (#36) in the Armament Army.
  • Tokusou Robo Janperson episode 37 has the robot Silent, which is a modification of Walter from Winspector. Ironically, the costume has been painted yellow, the color of Walter's partner Bikel.
  • B-Fighter Kabuto #20 features a kappa head recycled from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger #27.
  • In Kamen Rider Agito, the costume of pseudo-Rider V1 was a kitbash of suits from the defunct Metal Heroes franchise.
  • Kamen Rider Ryuki borrows the masks of the Kinclons / Skugs.
  • Kamen Rider 555's Riotroopers had their Swiss Army Weapons repainted for use by Kamen Rider Ghost's Ganma, and then they were repainted again to be wielded by Ex-Aid's Ride-Players.
  • The Zectrooper uniforms from Kamen Rider Kabuto have been reused in bulk, likely because Toei just has so many of them. Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider Double, and Kamen Rider Gaim used them as the Mooks for the Leo Imagin, Commander Dopant, and Megahex respectively.
  • An odd example comes from the Kamen Rider Den-O movie The Onigashima Warship, where the villains' Mooks are Gelnewts from Kamen Rider Ryuki. The costume design book "Detail of Heroes" explains that this happened because Toei had lots of Gelnewt suits left over from the American series Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (which had turned them into generic Mooks for the Riders to fight, as opposed to Ryuki where it was simply a monster).
  • Kamen Rider Decade has this built right in naturally. Decade can turn into past Riders, Diend can summon copies of them, and visiting Alternate Universe versions of past series allowed the re-use of Rider and Monster of the Week costumes and props. In a smaller example, Diend's card holder originally belonged to Kamen Rider Zeronos, the only change being a small disc with Diend's logo being put on the front.
  • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger #10, the Gosei Blue suit was digitally recolored green and used to represent the one-off Gosei Green. Gosei Green was later given a unique helmet design for the Ranger Key release.
  • In Movie War Mega Max, the future monsters fought by Kamen Rider Aqua are obscured to hide the fact that they are in fact recycled Undead from Kamen Rider Blade.
  • In Kamen Rider Gaim, the Man of the Beginning costume worn by Kouta at the end of the series combines Gaim's Kiwami Arms suit (minus the helmet and sporting a new cape) with the chestplate from Kurokage (painted silver). This actually makes for a weird irony, since Kiwami Arms is by far the strongest character in the series and Kurokage is by far the weakest.
    • Another example from Gaim comes from its stage show, where the rider exclusive to said show, Maja, uses a recolored version of the suit and weapons worn by Kamen Rider Fifteen.
  • The Shift Car Holder strap on the belt of Kamen Rider Drive was modified to become the Fullbottle Holder for Kamen Rider Build. This is somewhat awkward as the holder only carries three though the Fullbottles are typically used in pairs.
  • In Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, the rusted sword that becomes Kamen Rider Brave's Gashacon Sword is a modified version of Kuuga's Titan Sword. Kamen Rider True Brave's sword in the summer movie was originally used by the Fire Ganmizer in Ghost. The SFX of Alhambra Bugster's spells have Wizard's sign edited out.
  • In Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, the Monster of the Week Southern King, as in the constellation Southern Cross, is a repaint of the Black Cross King, the revived incarnation of original Big Bad Black Cross Fuhrer from Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle. Though no explicit connection is made, the constellation Cassiopeia was the weakness of the Black Cross Fuhrer in Goranger.
  • In the first episode of Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger, a number of background Gangler Monsters are kitbashes of past Super Sentai and Kamen Rider monsters.
    • The Lupin Collection which the heroes collect every episode is composed of modified props from past Super Sentai, with a number of unmodified props being visible as extras in shots of the assembled Collection.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O has the four Future Riders, who all reuse parts from previous series to represent entirely new Riders. They also reuse Zi-O's Ziku Driver for their Drivers, with a unique faceplate for each of them to distinguish them as different drivers. This actually foreshadows that Sougo created their timeline from his dreams and subconsciously based their Drivers on his own.
    • In the Agito arc, costumes of past insectoid monsters are used to bolster the Another Agito horde.
  • The unadapted Four Week Continuous Super Sentai Strongest Battle mini-series features Ultimate Great Satan, a new incarnation of the Big Bad from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, whose costume would be modified to become the Satan Minosaur in Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger. Come Power Rangers Dino Fury, and the Satan Minosaur becomes Lothorn, nephew of Lothor, the counterpart of Great Satan in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One has more than it's fair share, including but not limited to;
    • Ikazuchi, Naki, and Proto Zero One's undersuits are reused from Kamen Rider Build's Night Rogue and Blood Stalk.
    • Orthros Vulcan is a white and blue repaint of his Assault Wolf form.
    • Ichigata from the series' first movie, whose suit body is repainted and retooled twice for Horobi's and Vulcan's final forms, Ark Scorpion and Lone Wolf.
    • Lucifer is a monochromatic repaint of Eden with the gauntlets from Metal Cluster Hopper.
    • ZAIA from the direct-to-video spin off movies is a black and white repaint of Thouser using the undersuit of the main series' Big Bad, while the titular Rider is a retool of Horobi's base form suit with new gauntlets, calfs, shoulder pads, chest and head. Notably because of this the one time Thouser was used after this prior to being upgraded to Thousand Ark it remained in ZAIA's coloring and the script had to come up with a justification for this (which was that Kuroto attempting to take over Gai through the game virus had corrupted it into his usual black coloring)
    • Valkyrie's Justice Serval from the succeeding film is an orange repaint and retool of her Lightning Hornet form with a new head and arm-mounted blades.
    • The Thousand Ark form from Kamen Rider Zero-One: Kamen Rider Genms -Smart Brain and the 1000% Crisis- is an amalgamation of Thouser's parts with Ark One, while Genm Musou naturally reuses parts from the Hyper Muteki suit.
  • This is taken to its logical extreme with Kamen Rider Solomon from Kamen Rider Saber, whose entire suit has zero new parts and is composed of Palette Swap parts from different suits stitched together.
  • Kamen Rider Geats uses nothing but recycled props for the Armed Raise Buckles, the Immoral Reality Show's equivalent of Vendor Trash. Every single weapon prop is recycled from a previous series and repainted into a single flat color.
• The producers of UHF struck a deal with KOED-11, the PBS station (part of a statewide network) in Tulsa to build a news set in their studio. The Tulsa station used the set for their own broadcasts for a couple years afterward.
• The Love Boat literally will not "be taking another run". It was scrapped (recycled!) in March of 2012.
• A particular prop newspaper has been used for decades. It is made by a company called the Earl Hays Press that specializes in prop documents for film and television. In film, it has appeared in Back to the Future, After Dark, My Sweet, No Country for Old Men, 10 Things I Hate About You, and others. In television, Ed O'Neill was reading it in Married... with Children and is still reading it in Modern Family 13 years later. Headlines in the fake paper include: "Compromise Housing Bill Sent to President for OK", and "She's 3rd Brightest But Hard 'Gal' To See" (this one also includes the same stock photo).
• The BBC's 1980s adaptation of Miss Marple, in "4.50 From Paddington", has one of the main characters dressed in the distinctive red polka-dot velvet smoking jacket that the Fourth Doctor wore in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang".
• A episode of The Monkees featured Davy Jones wearing one of the distinctive Happy Fingers beanies from The 5000 Fingersof Dr T.
• Moonlight and Heroes shared a set involving a large sign and associated metalwork on top of a building.
• Mork & Mindy reused Robby as "Chuck" the Robot, voiced by Roddy McDowall, when Mork brought him to life.
• The Munsters episode "If a Martian Answers, Hang Up" features a gag at the end of the episode in which one of the alien suits from the original The Outer Limits makes a cameo appearance.
• The Outer Limits, an anthology series, does this with their own props so much you can practically make a drinking game of it.
• Power Rangers tends to use costumes from other Saban works to fit the need of the story.
  • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, multiple monsters wholly original to MMPR were made out of already existing suits from previously adapted monsters. While there were numerous examples, the three most noteworthy ones were:
    • Turkey Jerk from Season 2, who was made out of a heavily altered (though still recognizable) suit of Chunky Chicken from early Season 1. They stripped off all the suit's feathers, painted it a more fleshy color, and added a bunch of robotic-looking armor and a helmet.
    • Repellator from Season 3, who was quite possibly the least retouched of these three examples. He was almost completely identical to Silver Horns from Season 2, but his skin was painted green (whereas Silver Horns' was blue). Also, they added a long tongue hanging from the closest thing Silver Horns had to a mouth.
    • Incisorator, also from Season 3, was created out of three different monsters: His head came from an unused Kakuranger monster, his body came from Merrick the Barbaric (whose debut episode hadn't even aired yet), and his cape came from an unused Dairanger monster.
  • In VR Troopers, the Troopers' Battle Grid costumes use recycled helmets from the original Red Ranger.
  • Ecliptor's second sword turns up a few times. Darkonda's becomes Villamax's the very next season, completely unaltered, and retaining it's dagger-to-sword transformation ability (not directly witnessed, but it's a small dagger except when he needs it to be a sword).
  • In Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, the Sixth Ranger's Transformation Trinket was actually the Trinket from Gosei Sentai Dairanger, a series that didn't get a Power Rangers equivalent (though its Humongous Mecha and Sixth Ranger were used in the second season of Mighty Morphin').
  • The soldiers' armor in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy also came from Starship Troopers.
  • Ghouligan, the first Monster of the Week in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is not from the Sentai footage but is in fact a repaint of the monster form of Psycho Red / NeziRed.
  • The Mobile Command Center in Power Rangers Ninja Storm was an 18-wheeler truck that was re-used in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder as the Triceramax Command Center Truck.
  • Also, a jeep first used in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder as Dr. Oliver's car reappeared in Power Rangers S.P.D. as a squad car, Power Rangers Jungle Fury as the Jungle Karma pizza truck; and Power Rangers RPM as a military vehicle.
  • Power Rangers Wild Force: Master Org's costume was used in Gosei Sentai Dairanger before, for Emperor Gohma XV.
    • Speaking of Wild Force, the Mut-org suits used in the Time Force crossover were created using a combination of parts from suits of previous PR monsters (as well as one Beetleborgs monster and an unused monster from GoGoV). The crossover originally intended to use the suits from the Gaoranger summer movie, but the suits were lost in a fire, and it was too expensive to recreate the suits for the crossover, resulting in the Mut-orgs being created.
  • Though it only showed up in Sentai footage, there's this big neon orb thing styled after an atom that kept showing up. It first appeared in Jetman in the villain's lair- it returned for Zyuranger and therefore MMPR, installed in the base of the Repulsascope. It showed up again in Dairanger, as a part of the Dairenoh cockpit- this wasn't seen in Power Rangers, as they didn't use the Dairanger costumes. It next showed up in Ohranger and/or Zeo, again at the back of a cockpit, albeit this time it was the cockpit of King Pyramider/Pyramidas. It then popped up in Megaranger/In Space, but only in one episode, as part of Gurail/Darkonda's lab (it appeared in the final episode of Megaranger in the cockpit of the Grand Nejiros, but this footage was cut from PR). It's final regular appearance was in GoGoV/Lightspeed Rescue, in a corner of the demon's lair. Kakuranger, Gingaman and Hurricaneger had minor uses for it as well. The ball has appeared since then in Japan, though not powered on and with one of the tubes loose. Some fans were quite nostalgic to see it return.
  • Power Rangers S.P.D. had several of these leading many fans to form Epileptic Trees.
    • The A-Squad suits used repaints of the Power Rangers in Space helmets. Unrelated to the A-Squad, Boom's Imagine Spot of him being the Orange S.P.D. Ranger has him don an orange recolored in Space helmet.
    • The A-Squad's duty uniforms are the jumpsuits worn by the Dekarangers, which presents an odd contrast with the much fancier uniforms worn by the rest of SPD.
    • Also from in Space, Andros' Spiral Saber and cloak were used in a scene were a Mysterious Protector saves Z leading many fans to believe it was Andros at first, it wasn't. It was Doggie.
    • The orange Krybots trade in their snowflake-shaped swords for what looks a lot like the Chrono Sabers from Power Rangers Time Force.
    • A number of alien extras have been seen using parts of previous monster costumes. One of the most noticeable was in "Dogged", where a guy on Gruumm's ship had Deviot's head.
    • The Time Force Red Ranger suit was used in a flashback as the suit worn by Sky's father, leading many fans to think he was Wes's son. Nothing in the series ever contradict this, but it is still just WMG.
  • The Machine Generals in "Forever Red" were gutted from various outfits from Beetleborgs.
  • One of the Beetleborgs blasters used in "Forever Red" returned in Power Rangers RPM as a creation of Dr. K's, getting used several times.
  • The Red Ranger's helmet from Operation Overdrive was used as set dressing in one episode of RPM.
  • A futuristic car (based on a Dodge Stealth, but styled after the Pontiac "Banshee" concept car) originally built for the Knight Rider revival Knight Rider 2000 was later painted in police car colors and given police lights to appear in the TV series Timecop. In this form, it would appear years later as Alex's futuristic police car in the first episode of Power Rangers Time Force.
  • In Power Rangers Dino Charge, several recycled monsters are visible in Sledge's prison. One of the most obvious being Necrolai/Vancuria (difference unclear) in 'Wishing For Hero'.
  • Ninja Steel brings back past monsters as alien audience members. Necrolai, Behemoth, and Beevil are especially recognizable, as they were also frequently seen as Sledge's prisoners. We also get completely unaltered costumes of major past villains used in the first episode, one getting to be the first Monster of the Week.
  • Ninja Steel also has two Monsters of the Week that reused of the same suit as older ones. Ripperrat doubled as his brother Trapsaw, while Cat-o-Clock was reused for his sister Cleocatra.
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is another Toku example in that one set of Mooks is togged out in long robes and hoods over some very familiar masks: the Golem Hei/Putty Patrollers from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger/Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Queen Serenity's crown was another Zyuranger holdover, having been worn by Princess Yui in flashbacks.
• In The Prisoner (1967) several different side characters in various episodes are seen wearing the same number badges. This was due to a simple budgetary reason as they reused the same limited pool of printed badges throughout the series. At the same time, it is perfectly in line with the spirit of the series that people would come and go and the numbers be reassigned.
• In Queer as Folk (UK), Stuart buys Vince a replica of the Doctor Who Robot Buddy K-9 in an attempt to buy his affection, and it plays a prominent MacGuffin role in the last couple of episodes. The replica is the BBC's actual K-9 prop.
• Red Dwarf:
  • The badge seen on all of Arnold Rimmer's uniforms is a Golgafrinchum hat badge from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) turned upside-down.
  • The Tank guard helmets seen throughout Series 8 are exact replicas of Hudzen-10's helmet from Series III's "The Last Day".
  • The machinery walls the crew run past in Series V's "Quarantine" are also run by during "The Inquisitor" and Series IV's "Justice".
  • The GELF ships from Series 7's "Ouroboros" are made of parts from Ace Rimmer's gun and motorcycle from "Stoke Me A Clipper".
  • The tank Kryten uses to blow up the gazebo in "Beyond A Joke" is the same one from Film/Goldeneye.
• Remote Control used game stage props from earlier seasons as decorations in the Studio Audience section in later seasons; the show also used props from Finders Keepers on the set.
• The duck lamp seen in Newman's apartment in some episodes of Seinfeld comes from the little-known 1980s sitcom The Duck Factory.
• The Sentinel uses some prop cars from Viper like the Dodge Intrepid police cars. Both series were filmed in Vancouver.
• A somewhat literal example, Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell has a Micallef Tonight sign hanging in the background from Shaun's early 2000s show of the same name, apparently recovered from a dumpster during the clean out at the GTV-9 studios in Willoughby prior to it closing.
• A phone from the failed Global Frequency pilot was recycled in Smallville.
  • For a Smallville scene showing Lex Luthor in the future as the President of the United States, rather than building a whole new set for a short scene they flew Lex's actor from Vancouver to Los Angeles and shot it on The West Wing's standing Oval Office set.
• Stargate-verse:
  • An episode of Stargate SG-1 reused the cockpit from the execrable live-action Gundam movie G-Saviour.
  • Stargate Atlantis got most of the set from Blade: Trinity. The most prominent example is a curved bridge that shows up several times, such as in the hurricane episode.
  • The long, thin energy weapons with the ridged undersides on their grips, that taper to a point instead of having a barrel and look vaguely like emaciated vacuum cleaners, initially appeared in an early episode where SG-1 encounter a planet where two religious factions are at war over beliefs concerning their planet's Stargate. Since then, these weapons have become "that one prop", appearing in different, totally unrelated episodes over, and over, and over... until finally from mid-season 3 onwards they completely replaced the Wraith stunner rifles in Stargate Atlantis, which to begin with had original, completely different looking props.
  • The Ancient space suits from Stargate Universe originally appeared as power armor used by the rogue Asgard in one episode of Stargate Atlantis.
• Star Trek:
  • The Federation transporter pads in the various series all use parts of the original one from Star Trek: The Original Series, usually flipping it or swapping out decals. This sort of thing was done fairly often, using parts of one show's sets for the ones that follow.
  • The propmasters of all incarnations of Trek were rather quite, well, masterful at prop recycling; most props were recycled either from other shows or movies or even recycled from other episodes of any given preceding Trek incarnation including itself. Starship models, even in the CGI era, were particularly prone to this, the end result being several different alien races, separated by the entire length of the galaxy or even by centuries in some cases (or even both) used variations of the same ship design in various scales (or their medical scanner or communications relay would bear an odd resemblance to a certain race's ship). In addition, one gets the impression that Starfleet never throws anything out, with starship designs introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country shown still being widely used by Starfleet a century later in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: First Contact.
  • Most of the sets from the Star Trek: The Next Generation era of Trek owe their existence to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Almost every single subsequent starship interior, including those of Picard's USS Enterprise, USS Voyager and so on, and even Klingon ship interiors, were redresses of the Enterprise interior from that film (namely, all eponymous ships [but not stations] shared the same hallway interiors, and Klingon bridges were actually the redress of the engineering room from the film). These 30+ year old sets survived until shortly after Star Trek: Voyager wrapped up, in which they were destroyed by having accidentally been left out in the rain; some were painstakingly recreated for the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.
  • This site has a massive list of re-used Trek props, sets, make-up, etc. Just scroll down and click on anything that starts with "Re-Used". These bad boys (a.k.a. the Blinky double tube that serve no purpose) have to be the patron saint of recycled props.
  • This also occurs with special effects and models. A Retcon was made to justify why both Klingons and Romulans had the same D-7 Battle Cruiser, just so they could reuse the model. The Voyager episode "Dragon's Teeth" has a series of subspace corridors that was simply a different color and miscellaneous debris thrown into the quantum slipstream drive effect. In the Voyager episode "Warlord", they reused a ship model from the Next Generation episode "Unification". And especially as the series tilted towards CG ships, many different ships were recolored, resized and/or slightly modified from prior CG models to save time and money.
  • One case of this being inverted was that the Romulan Warbird model from "Balance of Terror" ended up being lost. This was a factor in the aforementioned D-7 exchange, as well as the Romulans in general taking a backseat to the Klingons.
  • In Star Trek: The Original Series they sent out some people to go get unusual salt and pepper shakers for the mess hall scenes, so to look "futuristic". The ones they got were rejected because it was decided this would just confuse the viewers and they wound up using normal looking ones. The weird ones were moved to the sick bay and became advanced tech medical instruments.
  • The bombardier-like window of a spacecraft in one episode of Star Trek: Enterprise was reused as a portal to the Xindi aquarians the following season.
  • A piece of Borg debris in the episode "Regeneration" was a spare Enterprise-E saucer section left over from Star Trek: Nemesis.
  • An example that has gone unnoticed for decades: Paramount altered Col. Philip Green's jumpsuit from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Savage Curtain" into Mork's spacesuit. Ya rly. And that's not the only thing they recycled... This is also a bit of hilarious irony to Star Trek fans, since Col. Philip Green is, in the Star Trek universe, the 21st century answer to Hitler, who organized the extermination of 30 million radiation-mutated people and was a symbol of xenophobic sentiment for centuries.
  • Another bit from Star Trek: The Original Series to show up on Mork & Mindy was the spacesuit from "The Tholian Web". Mindy's dad showed up wearing it in one episode.
  • In the Next Generation episode "Pen Pals", the spectral analyzer used by a survey team in one scene is in fact the Oscillation Overthruster from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. This may have been a shout-out, as prop-master Michael Okuda was a huge BB fan.
  • The Enterprise-D Engineering Master Systems Display table AKA the "pool table" was the Starfleet Command Center console from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
  • In the TNG episode "Haven", the Tarellian command chair◊ would become part of Worf's quarters◊ in subsequent episodes. It even made it into the Friends episode "The One That Could Have Been: Part 2", when Rachel sees some of the things Joey bought with his acting money.
• In the episode "Hollywood Babylon" of Supernatural, the set of of the horror movie Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning has items from other Supernatural episodes including the water tower from "Crossroad Blues" (S02, Ep08) and the cabin from "Roadkill" (S02, Ep16).
• The Twilight Zone (1959) is famous for recycling pieces of the set. Some examples:
  • The staircase can be seen in " The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine", "The Purple Testament" and "Elegy".
  • The fireplace, and big wooden doors are seen in numerous episodes.
  • The soda fountain seen in the pilot episode ("Where Is Everybody?") is also seen in "Walking Distance".
  • The series made also multiple use of props from Forbidden Planet including the uniforms, the spaceship and Robby the Robot. One of the VFX models of the ship even turned up in "The Invaders" as a miniature spaceship that threatens a woman. well, actually a full-size spaceship from Earth that a giant woman mistakes for a threat, but that's the Twist Ending.
• Ultra Series:
  • One of Ultraman's earliest monster battles was against Jirass, a monster that was very clearly an old Godzilla costume painted green and a neck frill added. Said frill is ripped off very early in the fight, presumably because the special effects crew knew how obvious it looked, so they just decided to roll with the idea of "Ultraman vs. Godzilla". In fact, Jirass has a lot of fans, because he looks like Godzilla.
  • Prior to Jirass was Gomess from Ultra Q (the very first Ultra kaiju), another repurposed Godzilla. Unlike Jirass, they did a better job of disguising the suit with horns, tusks, fur, and the spines removed. And in the same episode as Gomess was a giant bird named Litra, a repurposed Rodan flight puppet given feathers. In fact, a large number of Ultra Q creatures were modified from Toho suits as Eiji Tsuburaya owned the suits, not the studio, so he was free to borrow them if suit-making costs needed to be cut.
  • One of the most famous examples among fans from the franchise's early days was the frequent usage of Toho's Baragon suit. The suit was used by Tsuburaya to play four different monsters: the uranium-eating Pagos from Ultra Q, as well as three Ultraman opponents, the electricity-eating Neronga, the mole-like Magular, and the cone-headed Gabora. Every time, the suit was given a different head, and sometimes the body received minor modifications like spikes or different colours. Unfortunately, Tsuburaya's usage of the Baragon suit ended up damaging it beyond use, so when Toho recalled the suit for Destroy All Monsters, Baragon was relegated to a few quick cameos. In the 2000s, Tsuburaya Productions brought back the tradition when they created the Baragon-like Geronga for Ultraman Max and modified the suit for Neronga and Magular's reappearances in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle. This time, the suits have stayed in good condition for a longer period.
  • Many other monster costumes were also recycled, most often for modification into newer monsters (the list is very long). But since 2005, Tsuburaya has dropped the constant churn-out of new monsters in favour of bringing back iconic, popular, and classic monsters from all the dozen or so previous main entries (some of which hadn't reappeared in decades) and reusing the suits for multiple movies and TV series (occasionally with minor artistic adjustments). Popular monsters like Gomora, Red King, and Zetton have been seen in every entry since their returns. Saves on budget and entertains older fans while introducing the younger ones to iconics that hadn't been seen since their debuts. The same also applies with the Ultramen suits.
• This thing which looks like some kind of energy device with two clear tubes with cathode style lighting inside, connected to mechanical looking holders, all on top of a large table. With wheels. Known officially as Modern Props Catalog #195-290-1 and unofficially as "The Most Important Device in the Universe", it only once been given an in-universe name^note Star Trek: Lower Decks named them "Tucker Tubes" and never given a function in any of its appearances; it's simply there, always as part of the background equipment in some laboratory. Originally built in 1977 for the Incredible Hulk TV series, it has since appeared in over a hundred Hollywood movies and TV episodes, including every Star Trek series since TNG, V (1983), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Knight Rider, Austin Powers, Airplane II: The Sequel^note Where it is explicitly noted that it appears to have no function except to make beams of light go back and forth, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Last Starfighter, and Alien Nation — just to name a few. It even appeared in an episode of the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks. Once you see it, you can never stop seeing it in the background. It's like the Wilhelm scream of props.
• Most of the set from the failed 2001 revival of Card Sharks was reused for Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, as was announcer Gary Kroeger.
• In season 25, Wheel of Fortune introduced a special electronic wedge called the Big Money Wedge, which featured neon and a video screen that alternated among dollar amounts. When it was retired at the end of the season, the wedge was recycled for a redesign of the Jackpot Wedge.
  • At least one Hollywood-themed week in 1998 used neon palm trees and a giant 'HOLLYWOOD' sign taken from the short-lived 1992 CBS game show The Hollywood Game
  • For a few casino-themed weeks in the mid-2000s, they replaced the usual video wall behind the contestants with a giant replica of a slot machine that featured three video walls for tumblers. This prop was recycled in 2006 when a pilot was shot for a revival of The Joker's Wild, but said pilot was not picked up for series.
• A few times, the Eubanks/Rafferty Card Sharks used trip skins from The Price Is Right whenever a vacation was offered in the Bonus Round in lieu of a car (normally during Young People's Week).
  • Price, meanwhile, has reused a few props over the years. For instance, the spotlights used around the Big Doors on the 1986 primetime specials were used in the same role for the 1993 New Price Is Right pilots, then appeared in an October 1998 Showcase where Kathleen played a studio tour guide.
• After the short-lived NBC game All-Star Secrets got canned in 1979, most of the set was reused for a revival of You Bet Your Life the following year.
• In the Ripper Street episode "The Strangers' Home", the character of Eleonora Freeman appears to be wearing Mina Harker's triangular jacket thing◊ from the 1968 ITV adaptation of Dracula.
• The Golden Pontiac from Lost was used in four episodes and everytime involved in car crashes. It became so famous that Lostpedia even gave the car its own page. Fans started to speculate about this car and going by the mysterious approach of the series the believed that this car was also exactly the same in terms of story. However as the accidents happened in three different US states (Iowa, California and New York) it was deemed to be either supernatural or just prop recycling. It was confirmed in an interview with Damon Lindelof on September 21, 2005 that the same prop car was used for all four accidents.
• Vikings has recycled plenty of costumes from other productions filmed in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
  • The Wessex-mooks uses armour lifted from Braveheart. The anglo-saxon helmets are also from the 2004 King Arthur film, were they were fashioned by the Saxons.
  • Alot of costumes are recycled from 2006's Tristan and Isolde. Some helmets and costumes where used for extras in season 1 to 3, but from season 4 the amount of costumes reused where on the level of fans of the show being able to have games spotting a costume in Tristan + Isolde reused in Vikings.
  • In season 5 Björn starts fashioning the same leather gambeson Michaal Fassbender used in 2015's Macbeth.
  • Kjetill Flatnose's belt is a Dothraki-belt from Game of Thrones.
• The Big Red Chair on The Graham Norton Show is a redressed prop chair that was used in an homage to Ronnie Corbett from The Two Ronnies. Making the chair in the first place turned out to be so expensive that it became a recurring segment to justify the cost.
• Mea Culpa: One particular orange sweater popped up in multiple episodes worn by different actors, and even returned in the first episode of the Un-Canceled season. This being a True Crime show, watchers quickly came to call it the "death/cursed sweater."
• In Neverland, Captain Hook's ship is the Neptune, the 17th-century Spanish galleon replica built for Roman Polański's Pirates in 1986.

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