History Main / UpgradeVsPrototypeFight

* Data (upgrade) and Lore (prototype) have this sort of relationship on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration.'' Atypically for this trope, Data is the heroic character, whereas Lore is a RoboticPsychopath. As they are RidiculouslyHumanRobots, it's explicitly depicted as SiblingRivalry.

* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'':
** An early episode has Ash's Pikachu face off against Lt. Surge's Raichu, its evolved form. In the first battle, the older and more powerful Pokemon wipes the floor with Pikachu. Ash expects that the only way to for Pikachu to defeat it is to evolve as well, but his Pikachu doesn't want to evolve. Eventually they discover a solution: Since Raichu was evolved too quickly to learn speed attacks it was slower. So in a rematch Pikachu defeats it by dodging it over and over, until the Raichu gets impatient, attacks but uses its electricity supply too fast, and thus becomes an easy target for Pikachu to fell.
** This gets revisited in an episode of the Diamond and Pearl saga, where the Raichu in question is much stronger than Pikachu and is capable of keeping up with his speed. They lose the first round, and Pikachu once again refuses to evolve just to beat his evolved form. So, they work on using Pikachu's unique dodge techniques to the absolute limit, effectively turning Raichu's greater power and equal speed against it to win.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' has Andy's Buzz vs Utility Belt Buzz. UB Buzz initially wins, still remembering his combat training, but later on Andy's Buzz takes advantage of UB Buzz still thinking he's a real astronaut by opening his helmet, causing him to panic and start choking.

* ''Series/TheBoys'': Homelander frames the fight against Soldier Boy in these terms. The actual fight justifies his attitude, as while Soldier Boy is a better fighter, Homelander is the stronger of the two, if only marginally, and Soldier Boy's skill only does so much against an equally invulnerable opponent.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* The newer Carnage symbiote is less weak to attacks that affect Comicbook/{{Venom}}, plus it (and its user) are a veritable Swiss Army Knife of violence next to Eddie Brock's simple brawling style-but since Carnage is a villain next to Brock's AntiHero (and pretty often there's other heroes like Franchise/SpiderMan there to help 'soften up' Carnage), Venom comes out on top. This is played with during the ''Minimum Carnage'' arc, where Flash is forced to emulate Carnage in order to defeat him.
* One ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' storyline saw Doctor Octopus fighting Luke Carlyle, who had managed to copy Octavius's tentacles and improve on them, such as giving himself an extra pair of limbs and additional weapons on each tentacle. The fight between them was comparatively evenly matched, Carlyle's superior technology countered by Octavius's greater experience, and it is suggested that they could have kept up the bout indefinitely if Spider-Man hadn't intervened to aid Octavius.

*** The Unicorn versus its improved version, the Banshee. The two battle several times but a decisive outcome is never reached, although it is explicitly stated that Banagher is actively holding back the Unicorn to avoid hurting his opponent. In the end, [[spoiler:the Banshee pulled a HeelFaceTurn and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome fought alongside the Unicorn]] as BackToBackBadasses]], so the point became moot.
*** Another instance of this trope is the Sinanju Stein and the Unicorn, the Sinanju Stein being the testbed of the Unicorn's psycoframe that got [[GrandTheftPrototype stolen]] and remodeled to look like the Sazabi.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' has the Unicorn and its improved version, the Banshee. The two battle several times but a decisive outcome is never reached, although it is explicitly stated that Banagher is actively holding back the Unicorn to avoid hurting his opponent. In the end, [[spoiler:the Banshee pulled a HeelFaceTurn and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome fought alongside the Unicorn]] as BackToBackBadasses]], so the point became moot.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'', twice over. In the final battle, Setsuna pilots the 00-Raiser, the [[SuperPrototype prototype]] for the Twin Drive System, against Ribbons' Reborns Gundam, which was built from its data and improved upon. The two machines wreck each other, with the Reborns Gundam barely coming out on top. Thus, Ribbons switches over to the 0 Gundam, the prototype to all of the Gundams in the show, while Setsuna switches to a rebuilt Gundam Exia "Repair II,"[[note]]A completely overhauled, and now properly repaired version of the Exia which had been damaged since the end of Season 1, with upgrades to put it on par with current generation mobile suits[[/note]] which is a much stronger upgrade from the 0 Gundam (not to mention having equipped Exia with a new GN Sword Kai, an upgrade of its original GN Sword, but with the GN Sword III's GN Condensor blade material from the 00). The 0 Gundam, by comparison, has had no significant upgrades, besides getting the bugs worked out with its GN Drive. Between Setsuna having become a fully awakened Innovator and improved Exia, he's able to destroy Ribbons and the 0 Gundam.

* An early episode of ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' has Ash's Pikachu face off against Lt. Surge's Raichu, its evolved form. In the first battle, the older and more powerful Pokemon wipes the floor with Pikachu. Ash expects that the only way to for Pikachu to defeat it is to evolve as well, but his Pikachu doesn't want to evolve. Eventually they discover a solution: Since Raichu was evolved too quickly to learn speed attacks it was slower. So in a rematch Pikachu defeats it by dodging it over and over, until the Raichu gets impatient, attacks but uses its electricity supply too fast, and thus becomes an easy target for Pikachu to fell.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', it turns out that the three main Evangelion units featured throughout the TV series were essentially prototypes for the nine Mass Production Model Evangelions. The Mass Production Models have autopilot systems (instead of being piloted by unstable teenagers) and thus have no fear of pain or death, can ''fly'' with retractable wings, and worst of all, have their own reverse-engineered S2 Power Engines - meaning they don't need bulky external power cables and are not limited by the normal 5 minute battery power supply. Asuka engages them while piloting Eva Unit 02 in the finale movie in an epic one versus nine battle, with less than 5 minutes of battery power left. She promptly wipes the floor with them in a CurbStompBattle - one on one they were "persistent" but nothing she couldn't handle, the only real difficulty was that they outnumbered her. They couldn't match her combat experience or creativity. Then it turns out that S2 Power Engines also allow them to ''regenerate'', or keep fighting despite receiving crippling injuries (impaling one through the head, cutting another's legs off, they keep coming). They're also equipped with outright cheat codes - copies of the Lance of Longinus that can pierce right through an Eva's defensive shields.

* In the ''ComicBook/IronMan'' comics, Tony Stark has had to face off occasionally against advanced versions of his armor using older models; the earliest example of this was when small-time crook Weasel Willis stole the first red-and-gold suit and Tony had to fight him in the original gold armor, using its greater endurance and his superior knowledge against Willis's superior firepower. Some of the more famous examples include when he battled [[AIIsACrapshoot his own armor]] gone {{Yandere}} in the ''Sentient Armor'' arc, and later facing off against ComicBook/NormanOsborn, who was using his ''ComicBook/DarkAvengers'' "Iron Patriot" suit, with a suit (literally) [[MemeticMutation made in a cave, with a box of scraps]] (although in this last fight Tony was suffering from brain damage and deliberately put himself in a position where he'd lose to ruin Osborn's public image).
** This idea was played with in Creator/MattFraction's "Five Nightmares of Tony Stark" storyline. In that story, a villain got his hands on some of Stark's tech, and used it to create armies of cheap, expendable Iron Men suicide bombers. Though Tony never fought the knock-offs directly, the situation was one of his titular nightmares: not a ''better'' version of his suit but a ''cheaper'' one, something that could be mass-produced.

** And the Hulk who ultimately beat Red Hulk was the Green Scar, the angry and cunning version of good ol' jade-jaws.

** The OCP corporation in ''Film/RoboCop2'' decides to replace [=RoboCop with RoboCop=] 2, another robot with a human brain controlling it. At the climax of the movie, [=RoboCop battles RoboCop=] 2 to the death, and [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin wins.]]

** ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'': The ''Indoraptor'' is a ''Velociraptor'' mixed with traits of the ''I. rex'', three times the size of the remaining raptor Blue. Blue is overpowered by its sheer size and might, but the Indoraptor has one weakness: [[spoiler:it's programmed to respond to a laser sight, and with one of them and Blue's help, the heroes are able to lure it into a fatal fall.]]

** It is worth noting that this film's message was not about how OlderIsBetter, but rather about Logan is FeelingTheirAge. As a result, if the Prototype usually wins because of the first, it makes sense for the Upgrade to win here.
** Another interpretation is that Laura, Logan's daughter, is the real Protoype who wins against the Upgrade X-24.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'', our hero is outfitted with Dr. Wily's old prototype for the Double Gear system, which will overheat after lengthy usage. While the Robot Masters he faces are armed with incomplete versions of the system, the Wily Machine 11 you face has an improved version on it, which allows Wily to use the system indefinitely.

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', [[PlayerCharacter JC Denton]] has to fight [[spoiler:[[TheSociopath Walton Simons]], one of the heads of the Majestic-12 conspiracy. JC Denton was a field testbed of [[{{Nanotechnology}} nanotech augmentations]] (the ''second'' one, in fact), and was written off as [[PhlebotinumRebel going rogue]] by the conspiracy (just like the ''first'' one, JC's "brother" Paul). Walton Simons claims to have a more refined nanotech aug architecture when the two clash.]]
** Of course, depending on how you've upgraded JC over the course of the game, the battle can easily be of the [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp variety.]]
** If you took some time to poke around in the [=MJ12=] facility near the middle of the game you can find a data file that even tells you ahead of time what some of his abilities are.