History Main / DoomedUpgrade

* Used as a joke with a FiveSecondForeshadowing in Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens. When Finn and Rey (thus far, the new and only heroes encountered) are fleeing from [[DeathFromAbove 1st Order fighters]], they dismiss an offscreen "garbage" ship and try to get to a shiny Quad Jumper. It's quickly destroyed, and Rey admits that "the garbage will do". The "garbage" being, [[WhatAPieceOfJunk of course]], the [[SignatureTeamTransport Millenium Falcon]].

** The USS ''Excelsior'' did go on to be Sulu's own {{cool ship}} in ''Film/{{Star Trek VI|The Undiscovered Country}}'' (it often being suggested that the "Great Experiment"'s attempt at transwarp never worked, and that when Sulu got command, it had been refitted with conventional warp engine technology), and the briefly seen Enterprise-B in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' was an Excelsior-class vessel.
** By the time ''Generations'' was made, the Excelsior-class had become depicted as the venerable workhorse of Starfleet in the 24th century, due to [[PropRecycling numerous appearances of the ship model]] throughout ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]''. The ''Enterprise-B'' modifications would even be reused on ''[=DS9=]'' for the Lakota (which managed to hold its own against the ''Defiant'', if even for a short while). So even if it didn't become the new CoolShip of the franchise, Starfleet (and more importantly, [[Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic the guys who went to the trouble of making the big expensive model]] [[RealLifeWritesThePlot only to get hit with]] ExecutiveMeddling) really got major mileage out of the design.
** Another ''Star Trek'' example was the computer which would have allowed the Enterprise to drop 90% of its crew, if it hadn't been psychotic, that is.

** The USS ''Excelsior'', which was originally created with the intent of moving the crew from the ''Enterprise'' to the new fancy ship, until Gene Roddenberry vetoed it. So instead of that, the ''Excelsior'' was amusingly sabotaged from Scotty and otherwise looked really wimpy compared to the already pretty-busted-up ''Enterprise'' in ''Film/{{Star Trek III|The Search for Spock}}''.

* The Grungust Type-3 from ''Franchise/SuperRobotWars'' is such an odd deal. In the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' continuity, the main character and his/her love interest were meant to get the Grungust Type-3 partway through the first game, but the villains are able to find and destroy it and its parts go into [=RyuOhKi=] and [=KouOhKi=], the machines who become [=RyuKouOh=] and its alternate form [=KouRyuOh=]. In ''Alpha 2'', the second Type-3 goes into fixing [=RyuOhKi=], turning it into [=RyuJinKi=] while the third is given to Sangar Zombolt, which only makes it through half his game before he swaps it for the [=DyGenGar=]. In the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration=] continuity, while Sangar's history with the Type-3 is the same, the previous ones isn't - the two love interests, Bullet and Kusuha, start out with a double seater Type-3, but it is damaged and absorbed into the two god machines. While Kusuha goes back to the previous Type-2 afterwards, Bullet gets and keeps the last Type-3.

* Subverted in ''Videogame/SuperRobotWars'': in the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' continuity, the protagonist and love interest are supposed to receive the Grungust Type-3 to upgrade from their Type-2, but the villains find the Type-3 first and destroy it. The parts used to repair a pair of ancient, semi-sentient god-robots that become the REAL upgrade are far more impressive than the Type-3. In the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' series, the two receive the Type-3, but it's immediately crippled by an enemy attack, until it's absorbed by the awakening god-machines to form the upgrade as in Alpha.

** The Evas themselves played this trope straight, the only exception being that every Eva was better than 00. But seriously, all three Production Model Eva (02 through 04) are destroyed, one before ever seeing combat, and the Mass Production Model Evangelions (05 through 13) are nearly torn apart by a Production Model in a nine on one fight, and ultimately only beat it with a weapon that can basically kill anything. Meanwhile, Evangelion Unit-01 is basically amazing.

* For a while Sentai shows would often destroy the Midseason Upgrade mecha during the final battle causing the team to have fall back on their original mecha to finish the job and/or for the team up special with the next years team where they would often fight alongside that teams Midseason Upgrade thus forshadowing its destruction as well. This has stopped in recent years however.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]

* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', the Grapearls were designed to replace the Gunmen, and were touted as being much more advanced, to the point where every HumongousMecha except Gurren Lagann itself was decommissioned. Too bad that it turned out that [[spoiler:the Gunmen were designed specifically to fight the anti-Spirals, and the Grapearls are pretty much worthless for that purpose (unless they're properly upgraded. Luckily, the Gunmen were not scrapped as planned]].

* AldnoahZero: Inaho doesn't have a beef against the season 2 standard models. It's just that he already mastered the orange kataphrakt and needs to focus on strategy rather than firepower.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* There were, like, three of these that got blown up in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico''.
** The ''Shakuyaku'' was a partial subversion of the NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup corollary, as the crew of the ''Nadesico'' ''did'' scavenge its upgraded WaveMotionGun for their own upgrade.

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* In a storyline of ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' ("Soul of a New Machine"), Robotman gets his brain placed into a much more advanced body that enables him to feel and has advanced. Sadly the body is sufficiently intelligent to decide that it doesn't like being controlled and sets itself to self-destruct if a brain gets put in. Then a villainous {{brain in a jar}} hijacks it and, after kissing an intelligent gorilla, it explodes.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* The USS ''Excelsior'' from ''Franchise/StarTrek'', which was originally created with the intent of moving the crew from the Enterprise to the new fancy ship, until Gene Roddenberry vetoed it. So instead of that, the Excelsior was amusingly sabotaged from Scotty and otherwise looked really wimpy compared to the already pretty-busted-up Enterprise in ''Film/{{Star Trek III|The Search for Spock}}''.
** The USS Excelsior did go on to be Sulu's own {{cool ship}} in ''Film/{{Star Trek VI|The Undiscovered Country}}'' (it often being suggested that the "Great Experiment"'s attempt at transwarp never worked, and that when Sulu got command, it had been refitted with conventional warp engine technology), and the briefly seen Enterprise-B in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' was an Excelsior-class vessel.
*** By the time ''Generations'' was made, the Excelsior-class had become depicted as the venerable workhorse of Starfleet in the 24th century, due to [[PropRecycling numerous appearances of the ship model]] throughout ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]''. The Enterprise-B modifications would even be reused on ''[=DS9=]'' for the Lakota (which managed to hold its own against the Defiant, if even for a short while). So even if it didn't become the new CoolShip of the franchise, Starfleet (and more importantly, [[Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic the guys who went to the trouble of making the big expensive model]] [[RealLifeWritesThePlot only to get hit with]] ExecutiveMeddling) really got major mileage out of the design.

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' had one with Dexter's first giant robot and a new one he built to replace it. The problem was that he gave it artificial intelligence, and [[AIIsACrapshoot well, we know where that leads]]

* Various installments of the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse have tried to replace the New Republic's fighters with something more modern as the timeline progresses, most notably the E-Wing, which was a direct successor to the "venerable" X-Wing. The Empire has also tried with a notable lack of success to get rid of the [[MookMobile TIE Fighter]] and [[EliteMook TIE Interceptor]], with both new TIE designs (like the [[BossInMooksClothing Defender]]) and outside help (like the Preybirds they use in the Literature/HandOfThrawn duology) failing to gain real traction. In both cases, it's mostly real-life attachment to the iconic movie fighters that keeps them around.
** And in-universe, the symbolism factor applies as well. It's occasionally touched on that it's actually very hard to replace fighter designs for craft simply due to the scale of the empires involved; expensive models like the TIE Defender become more expensive still when you need to get shipments of spare parts to them from anywhere in the Empire's reach to keep their pilots flying. The New Republic has it ''slightly'' easier up until the Literature/NewJediOrder era, but shiny new military hardware is less of a priority than rebuilding the infrastructure and economy that's been thoroughly wrecked by a couple of generations of civil war.
** One change which has pretty much stuck is the use of the [=StealthX=] (late-model X-Wing derivative) by Jedi pilots. The fighter builds on the original's "every expensive feature you can jam into it, and aiming for carrier-independence" tradition, upgrading further in directions only - but very - useful to a pilot who doesn't need active sensors or guided weapons to fight. Being able to share the common X-Wing chassis is probably the only way something this exotic could have been designed, much less in production and service.

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* Various installments of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse have tried to replace the New Republic's fighters with something more modern as the timeline progresses, most notably the E-Wing, which was a direct successor to the "venerable" X-Wing. The Empire has also tried with a notable lack of success to get rid of the [[MookMobile TIE Fighter]] and [[EliteMook TIE Interceptor]], with both new TIE designs (like the [[BossInMooksClothing Defender]]) and outside help (like the Preybirds they use in the HandOfThrawn duology) failing to gain real traction. In both cases, it's mostly real-life attachment to the iconic movie fighters that keeps them around.

** And in-universe, the symbolism factor applies as well. It's occasionally touched on that it's actually very hard to replace fighter designs for craft simply due to the scale of the empires involved; expensive models like the TIE Defender become more expensive still when you need to get shipments of spare parts to them from anywhere in the Empire's reach to keep their pilots flying.

** Also in ''{{Patlabor}}'', 2nd movie, the AV-2 Valiant (Type 2) was the upgrade for Team 2, replacing the Type 98 Ingram, where the Ingrams were already transported back to the Factory as testing machines, the Type-2s where destroyed very early in the movie, and team 2 had to sneak into the factory to get back the 3 Ingrams.

* In ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Battlestar Galactica]]'', the Battlestar ''Pegasus'' was shiny, new, twice as large as ''Galactica'' with half the crew, Viper construction facilities, and some monstrously big guns. [[RammingAlwaysWorks Taken from us far too soon.]]

* In ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined BattlestarGalactica]]'', the Battlestar ''Pegasus'' was shiny, new, twice as large as ''Galactica'' with half the crew, Viper construction facilities, and some monstrously big guns. [[RammingAlwaysWorks Taken from us far too soon.]]

[[folder: Video games]]

*** By the time ''Generations'' was made, the Excelsior-class had become depicted as the venerable workhorse of Starfleet in the 24th century, due to [[PropRecycling numerous appearances of the ship model]] throughout ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]''. The Enterprise-B modifications would even be reused on ''[=DS9=]'' for the Lakota (which managed to hold its own against the Defiant, if even for a short while). So even if it didn't become the new CoolShip of the franchise, Starfleet (and more importantly, [[IndustrialLightAndMagic the guys who went to the trouble of making the big expensive model]] [[RealLifeWritesThePlot only to get hit with]] ExecutiveMeddling) really got major mileage out of the design.

* In a storyline of ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' ("Soul of a New Machine"), Robotman gets his brain placed into a much more advanced body that enables him to feel and has advanced. Sadly the body is sufficiently intelligent to decide that it doesn't like being controlled and sets itself to self-destruct if a brain gets put in. Then a villainouse {{brain in a jar}} hijacks it and, after kissing an intelligent gorilla, it explodes.

WeWantOurJerkBack is a similar effect applied to characters. Contrast SoLastSeason and ShonenUpgrade, which is what happens when this actually sticks. See also SuckSessor.

* Subverted in ''Videogame/SuperRobotWars'': in the ''SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' continuity, the protagonist and love interest are supposed to receive the Grungust Type-3 to upgrade from their Type-2, but the villains find the Type-3 first and destroy it. The parts used to repair a pair of ancient, semi-sentient god-robots that become the REAL upgrade are far more impressive than the Type-3. In the ''SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' series, the two receive the Type-3, but it's immediately crippled by an enemy attack, until it's absorbed by the awakening god-machines to form the upgrade as in Alpha.