Sandbox / They Don't Make Them Like They Used To

Definitions

This Trope: A form of nostalgia, that prefers the more durable aspects of older designs over the more complex and fragile newer designs.

• Older Is Better: The idea, especially in Fantasy settings, that older things generally are better.
• Good Old Ways: A character adhering to old-fashioned or traditional ideas and behaviors is used as a short-hand to indicate their goodness / goodnaturedness.
• Nostalgia Filter: The nostalgia filter is the tendency to view media created in your younger years as better than anything created after.
• The Workhorse: A Workhorse is a type of vehicle, weapon or other type of equipment, that is so reliable or cost-effective that it's kept in service for decades, outlasting other more flashy and advanced types.

Wicks: 51

• Correct - 10 (20%)
• Partial - 3 (6%)
• Confused w/ Other Trope - 14 (27%)
  • Good Old Ways - 2
  • Nostalgia Filter - 4
  • Older Is Better - 5
  • The Workhorse - 3
• Other Misuse - 16 (31%)
  • effectiveness, not just durability - 3
  • Older Is Better but for ways of life - 2
  • current form of a thing is worse than past - 4
  • a job / position has declined in quality - 4
  • unclassifiable - 3
• ZCE - 8 (16%)

---

Correct

• Back to the Future Part II: This is absolutely Truth in Television: DeLoreans feature a fiberglass body overlaid with relatively thin sheet metal (which would sometimes crack during manufacturing). Some of the crash tests show an unbelievable amount of crumpling when hitting a solid wall, so Doc is quite accurate with his observation.
  Marty: Let's land on him, we'll cripple his car.
  Doc: Marty, he's in a '46 Ford; we're in a DeLorean. He'd rip through us like we were tinfoil.
• Pump Six and Other Stories: Played for some very, very dark laughs in Pump Six. The world doesn't have actual Ragnarök Proofing and the technology in it was predominately built in 2020s (which was 20 Minutes into the Future when the story was published), yet everyone treats it with semi-sacred admiration for how durable it is.
• Batman: The Animated Series E9 "Be a Clown": Batman escapes from the Joker's complicated deathtrap, prompting this comment from the Joker: "They don't make straitjackets like they used to. I should know!"
• Chucklevision S 10 E 6 Flat Broke: This has become a Running Gag during much of the episode, Paul and Barry sometimes say this "They don't build them like they used to" whenever they accidentally cause damage to Mr. Traphobic's flat and when the flat falls apart.
• M*A*S*H S1 E2: To Market, to Market: Parodically inverted, when Hawkeye and Trapper are struggling to move Henry's antique desk:
  Trapper: These things were really built to last.
  Hawkeye: It's that lousy good craftsmanship. Why didn't they make things like they do today?
• Odd Squad S 1 E 4 Blob On The Job Party Of 54321: Olive says this in response to her kiddie car needing repairs. — borderline partial example though
• BeTrapped!: When Parker opens Masterwood's briefcase, the key snaps and he complains about shoddy workmanship these days and must find a pair of pliers.
• Defenders of the Earth: Ming the Merciless once created robot duplicates of the heroes to frame them. When one of the heroes noticed an arm falling off his robot double, he commented they don't make him like they used to.
• Jungle Drums: Parodied in a Gilligan's Island episode. The castaways hear drums, implying an impending attack from the natives. Then the drums stop, at which point the Professor assures them that the attack has been called off. Cut to the natives with a broken drum, and a chief lamenting (via subtitle) that They Don't Make Them Like They Used To.
• Tropes T to Z: In this one, he broke a ming vase and said "Ming, schming. They don't make'm like they used to." — borderline partial example

Partial Examples

• Madeline: The solid oak door in the Old House, which Lord Covington seems to be quite proud of. The door was later unhinged during the Indian Ambassador's tour of the house, so when it falls, one of them replies, "That's probably a good thing". doesnt indicate whether lord covington actually used this in his justification for liking the door
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S4 E19 "Trade Ya!": Applejack is willing to pay quite highly for an antique pie pan for this reason. Even in bad shape it cooks pies a whole five seconds faster. — very close, but it doesn't say that it's more efficient because of the durability of the pan
• Star Wars Rebels S2E07 "Stealth Strike": Rex repeatedly grumbles about how much Stormtrooper armor sucks compared to good old-fashioned clone armor. — doesn't specify it's because of durability

confused w/ other existing tropes

Good Old Ways

• Wandaba Style: Susumu does his calculations on a slide rule and uses ancient measurements (shoku and kan, for example). — would be a partial example for GOW though
• Dimension 20 The Unsleeping City: He doesn't demean or criticise JJ's choice of a laptop as a spellbook, but he states that he prefers the old musk of an actual grimoire. — would be a partial example for GOW though

Nostalgia Filter

• Magical Girl Raising Project Recurring - Chie: Dislikes many modern magical girl anime because of being starred by fighters, who, according to her, are not real magical girls.
• The (Not So) Cynical Creators Guild - Pro Monarchy Genius: Despite his hatred of modern Disney, he does like classic Disney, most notably Fantasia 1940.
• Tropes Q to Z: Frank's attitude towards jazz records. He greatly prefers vinyl over CDs, something which baffles Ray greatly in "Jazz Records".
• The Chicks: "Long Time Gone" compares the current sound of country radio to a few country music legends, which is a bit of a Take That! to the former and a Shout-Out to the latter:
  They sound tired, but they don't sound Haggard
  They've got money, but they don't have Cash
  They've got Junior, but they don't have Hank...

Older Is Better

• Ubik: When Joe Chip is shunted back to 1939, he finds that the technology there feels sturdier and more dependable than that of his own time. Although, given that "1939" may just be an illusion generated by cold-pac, there's no telling how much of it is just in his head.
• Tropes N to Z: The Galaxy-class is a 60 year old design by the game's timeframe, yet you'll be hard-pressed to find a tougher nut to crack. Many other top level cruisers are more offensively capable, but "The Big G" is one of the few ships that can survive the special One-Hit Kill attack from an elite Borg tactical cube that would turn any other ship into a rapidly expanding vapor.
• Rainbow Six Siege Operators - Base Game - Tachanka: The reason he uses a machine gun based off of a design first introduced in the 1920s is that he is a firm believer that the older Soviet weaponry is more reliable than the more high-tech weaponry used today.
• Corner Gas S 3 E 09 Picture Perfect: Brent prefers his bulky old camera to a fancy new digital one.
• F-Zero X: Is very adamant on this. Often deriding newer models of racers as inferior to older designs.

The Workhorse

• Love, Death & Robots: "Ice Age": Rob talks about how the old freezer's design, with the compressor on top, is actually a lot more efficient than modern designs with the compressor at the bottom, since it doesn't have to work against itself when cooling food.
• A Final Unity: Remnants of Chodak technology are said to be nearly a million years old, yet work like they are brand new after eons of disuse. Only some minor data corruption is seen. Geordi even comments on how improbable this is.
• Day of the Tentacle: The Edisons' dryer is capable of running non-stop for 200 years without suffering a malfunction.

other misuse

If the trope were expanded to include effectiveness and not just durability

• Practical Currency: In Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, the primary form of currency is pre-apocalyptic, military-grade bullets. When fired from a normal rifle^note read: "anything but the Bastard", the damage they deal is enormous compared to the "dirty" recycled ammo the Metro produces - though the skills and tools remain to make ammunition, They Don't Make Them Like They Used To. After the final shop of each game, you're free to use those rounds as they were meant to.
• Technology Connections:
  • "Closed Captioning: More Ingenious Than You Know" talks about how line 21 captions on analog television could let the broadcaster or tape master decide where to place the captions. It could move up and down so as not to obscure text on screen, and move left and right to show who is talking. Meanwhile, YouTube's captions have no such functionality.
  • Alec posits that one reason for the declining popularity of automatic record changers in the 1970s was that they lost advanced features in changers from the '50s and '60s.

If Older Is Better focused on lifestyles and not just things

• Ah Boys to Men: The film also explores the common comparisons to a cosy, privileged modern army life to the comparatively more hellish and cruel treatments faced by the first generation SAF veterans.
• Supernatural S 09 E 02 Devil May Care: Abaddon is nostalgic for the Hell and demons of the 1950s.
  Abaddon: So, maybe you can tell me what the hell happened to Hell. And demons. I mean, you call that a meatsuit?

Commenting that the current version of a thing is worse than a past version

• The Great Beauty: Invoked by Jep and Stefano.
  Jep: The catering's gone downhill.
  Stefano: Rome's gone downhill.
• Billions: This is Bobby's primary argument during the fight for control of Yum Time. Yum Time Snacks used to be an iconic brand but the current CEO changed the formula to cut down on costs. Now the snacks taste like crap and the company is losing market share.
• Steve 1989 MRE Info: Steve expresses this regarding some of the older menu items such as vintage coffees, particularly US Coffee, Instant, Type 1. Regarding crackers, he says:
  Steve: The old crackers, they always held together. I mean look at that. They were just better back then.
  • The entire video about the 1992 Meal, Ready to Eat, Individual Menu #8 Ham Slice is particularly nostalgia-laced.

The quality of a person / occupation has gone downhill

• Ultraman Orb - Commander Black: Is of this opinion about Kaiju, feeling monsters today are 'too busy' and prefers Simple, yet Awesome kaiju like Nova.
• Ultraman R/B - Ultraman Orb Dark: Makoto/Orb Dark is not satisfied with recent Ultras Rosso and Blu, ranging from their flashy colors and how they keep talking during combat. This is ignoring the fact that his idol Ultraman Orb does some of the exact same things he complains about Rosso and Blu doing.
• Assassin Outclassin': Played for Laughs in Speed Racer: When Speed puts up more of a fight than expected, the noise wakes Pops, who gets the Ninja into an armlock. That ninja discovers moments too late that Pops is a champion Greco-Roman wrestler.
  Trixie: Oh my god, was that a ninja?
  Pops Racer: More like a NON-ja. (They Don't Make Them Like They Used To potholed here) Terrible what passes for a ninja these days.
• My Knight And Me S 1 E 01 How To Save A Princess: After easily thrashing Henri, Bad Jack observes that "They don't make knights like they used to."

Non-Classifiable

• Space Ace: It's possible to die by blowing up the station you're on with a single errant blast. — genuinely not sure what the writer was going for. maybe a meta example about how the modern ship isn't durable???
• Tropes T to Z: In this comic strip, Garfield tried to climb a tree but it fell through. His comment: "They don't make trees like they used to."
• Irresponsible Captain Tylor: And perhaps Made of Indestructium too, the Soyokaze went through an entire space base to reach the maiden departing dock of the Aso, without a scratch!

ZCE

• Sentinels Of The Multiverse Heroes H To P - Mr.Fixer: From Pipe Wrench:
  Mr. Fixer': Good forged steel! Not like those modern cast-aluminum ones.
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: Scotty says of Enterprise-A.
• Seveneves: The micro-chips and the wireless tech of the Spacers.
• One Life Remaining: video games, according to Anthony. Probably Jon, too...
• Stargate SG-1 S3 E1 "Into the Fire":
  Teal'c: There is an old Jaffa saying, General: "They do not build them as they once did."
• The Day the World Broke: Manifold, the body shop owner, says this while reminiscing about his old buddies at the Ironworks.
• Beast Wars: Optimus and Rattrap conclude this when they try to enter the Ark.
• Distant Worlds: Especially in the early game, the galaxy is full of artifacts that prove this trope definitely true.