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35: You may be a newer model, but you can't defeat me in physical combat. [...] You can't outrun me.
42: Your use of absolute phrasing risks inaccuracy.

A philosophical and technological thought experiment: in a confrontation between two forces one side has the latest and most advanced technology at hand (upgrade) while the other side uses confirmed and verified designs that are nonetheless considered to be the last generation (prototype). The Upgrade will boast of weeding out design flaws of the last incarnation and might even have greater numbers due to standardizing the technology, while the Prototype may have older designs and limited numbers but their functionality is fully understood, their users have customized every feature to their liking and the team works with each other.

And then they meet each other. The two will inevitably be compared with each other for accomplishing their generally similar tasks, often (but not always) by fighting each other.

Which will come out on top? It depends: the "prototype" side will likely theoretically be at a disadvantage due to having flaws and/or plain quantitatively underperforming (because it was made earlier, with less advanced technology) compared to the "upgrade" side. In practice, the "prototype" side almost always wins, typically because the user's skill matters more (if the "prototype" user is more skillful and experienced compared to the "upgrade" user) or the "upgrade" being actually worse (perhaps due to being manufactured in a less-than-ideal way, or having had too-costly features removed for mass production). The prototype winning in almost all cases is a bizarre manifestation of the Older Is Better trope. Part of it is simply that by nature, the prototype is the underdog, and Underdogs Never Lose.

Related to Super Prototype, Flawed Prototype, David Versus Goliath. Compare Cain and Abel, Man Versus Machine and Rock Beats Laser.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In the original Battle Angel Alita, the titular cyborg heroine Alita spends 10 years working as an assassin for Zalem/Tiphares' G.I.B., who eventually decide to replace her with android replicas based on her combat data. When she finally faces off against one of these AR (Alita Replicate) units, her former boss describes them as superior to her. AR-2, the replica, turns out to be superior and Alita only survives thanks to a friend's intervention. Ironically, one of the copies, AR-6, decided that she (or rather HE) wanted to become someone entirely original by killing all but two of the other copies in order to show that he is better than them and Alita. When Sechs (as he named himself) later faces off against Alita, he loses. By the time he faced off against Alita, Alita had been given a midseason upgrade. In addition, Alita had learned and remembered new techniques that the G.I.B. didn't know about and couldn't copy. Sechs and the other remaining AR units, Elf (AR-11) and Zwölf (AR-12) eventually befriend their sister and became allies.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • Despite Natsu and Gajeel being 1st Generation Dragon Slayers, they show themselves capable of curb-stomping Sting and Rogue, who are 3rd Generation ones (Dragon Slayers who are not only taught by dragons, but have Dragon Lacrima implanted in them which should strengthen their magic further). In this case, it's because Natsu and Gajeel are just so much stronger than Sting and Rogue magic-wise.
    • Natsu and Gajeel in turn are outclassed by Laxus, who is a 2nd Generation Dragon Slayer (a Dragon Slayer that only has Dragon Lacrima implanted and often referred to as an "artificial" or "fake" Dragon Slayer). Again, the difference is in sheer magical power (Laxus was matching both of them with his normal lightning magic before he revealed his Dragon Slayer magic).
    • Cobra, another 2nd Generation Dragon Slayer, holds this over Natsu's head when they fight each other. Cobra actually does have the upper hand, but his defeat is actually due to the mechanics of his keen sense of hearing relating to his non-Dragon Slayer magic that Natsu is able to exploit.
    • Then there's Acnologia (a 1st Generation Dragon Slayer who completely transformed into a dragon) versus God Serena (a 2nd Generation Dragon Slayer with eight Dragon Lacrima implanted into his body that gives him eight different elements to work with). Acnologia tears a hole in God Serena's side while the latter is boasting and leaves him to die in a pool of his own blood without batting an eye.
  • In Shin Mazinger, Count Brocken hauls out Energer Z, the prototype of Mazinger Z, to fight Kouji and his robot. Energer Z proves to be the superior until Tsubaki reveals Zeus' hand and activates God Scrander.
  • Getter Robo:
    • In the Armageddon OVA, Professor Saotome creates an army of Getter-Gs, which results in Ryoma fighting them in a single Getter-1. Ordinarily, such a fight would be hilariously one-sided, but since Getters draw their power from their pilots and Saotome's army is made up of drones, Ryoma is able to take down a large number by himself despite being outnumbered and in an inferior machine.
    • In Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo, Shou and Gai end up piloting Neo Getter Robo against an army of Getter Prototypes piloted by members of the Dinosaur Empire. It's a massive curbstomp battle until Gou is able to reawaken Shin Getter Robo and has it absorb the prototypes' Getter Energy.
  • Gundam:
    • Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, with the GP-02A "Physalis" Gundam (prototype) versus the GP-01 "Zephyranthes" Gundam (upgrade). The former is a new prototype version Gundam designed to deploy a nuclear warhead at close range, the latter is a simple refinement of earlier Gundam designs. The Physalis is stolen in the first episode, and the Zephyranthes is deployed as part of the hunt to reclaim it.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack: the Nu Gundam's psychoframe was built using data Char intentionally leaked to the development team so that Amuro could fight him on equal terms - data he collected while building the Sazabi's own psychoframe. In the final battle, the Nu Gundam completely trashes the Sazabi.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn:
      • 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 Heel–Face Turn and fought alongside the Unicorn as BackToBackBadasses, so the point became moot.
      • Another instance Sinanju and the Unicorn. The Sinanju is a modified Sinanju Stein, the testbed of the Unicorn's psycoframe, that got stolen and remodeled to look like the Sazabi.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
      • The Tallgeese is an in-universe Super Prototype from which all other Mobile Suit designs originated, but was deemed too dangerous for the pilot and became nothing more than a museum exhibit and collector's curiosity. It is heavily armored and possesses incredible maneuverability, but to do this it was mounted with two very powerful vernier thruster jets. However, there was no consideration for its pilot and indeed, when it was piloted by someone other than Zechs, it killed him from the G-force alone. The derivative Leo suit was designed with much lighter armor and no jets. When the Gundams start raising hell of all kinds, the bad guys decide to Break Out the Museum Piece. The Tallgeese proves itself quite capable on the battlefield repeatedly afterwards with a good pilot inside it.
      • The Wing Gundam Zero is a subversion in that in-universe its design is 15 years old, but the suit wasn't built until during the series because the engineers originally thought it was too dangerous to build. The plans instead were passed on to each of the scientists and each made modifications to form the 5 subsequent Gundams. Its first major battle pitted it against a pair of Mobile Suits built by the Gundam engineers to surpass the original five Gundams and it was ultimately used against the Epyon, which was built based on combat data of the original five.
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, Lowe Guele and his Astray Red Frame is pitted against Rondo Ginas Sahaku and a M1 Astray, a mass produced Mobile Suit based on the Red Frame. The battle is something of a tie - Ginas, being a Coordinator, defeat Lowe in combat. However, his method of his defeat — disarming the Astray of its katana and using it against him — damages the servos in the M1's arm, leaving Ginas humiliated.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam 00, twice over. In the final battle, Setsuna pilots the 00-Raiser, the 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  which is a much stronger upgrade from the 0 Gundam (plus 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.
    • To make matters even more muddied is the fact that when the two Meisters were forced to switch Mobile Suits; Ribbons managed to snag one of the GN Drives that was attached to the 00; namely it was the Exias' Reactor, while Setsuna plugs his remaining Reactor that belonged to the 0 Gundam into Exia.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans has the Gundam Bael: the very first of the Gundam Frames built during the Calamity War, a closely guarded relic in Gjallarhorn's home office, which McGillis takes in a ploy to claim control of Gjallarhorn as their ancient traditions say the one able to pilot Bael is the rightful heir. The Gundam Kimaris was the 66th Gundam Frame built and owned by The Bauduin Family; based off of the Baels' structure but possessing far more specialized upgrades over the many long years and is piloted by the Not Quite Dead Gaelio Bauduin, is from the same era but redesigned to use the Alaya Vijnana piloting interface with certain modifications (called Type E) to push it to its full capacity without the established downsides. Bael has the Alaya Vijnana too but just a traditional version, the pilots are just good enough that it's a shockingly close battle.
    • The finale of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury features the duel between the Aerial Rebuild, a twice-upgraded version of what was the most advanced GUND-ARM mech at the height of the technology's development, and the Calibarn, a Flawed Prototype that was nicknamed "the monster" due to its poorly-designed implementation of GUND-ARM tending to kill its own pilots.
  • One of the final battles of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS had Fate facing against the Numbers Cyborgs Tre and Sette. Fate was the first successful Artificial Mage, while the Numbers Cyborgs are enhanced versions of that, with Tre in particular being the most powerful of the cyborgs in combat.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Pokémon: The Original Series: 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 Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, 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.
    • Mewtwo vs. Mew in Pokémon: The First Movie played out like this. Ultimately they turned out to be just as powerful as each other (unlike the games, where Mewtwo has greater stats but Mew has a wider movepool...though in the movie Mewtwo is dividing his attention between fighting Mew, mind-controlling multiple other Pokemon and psychically maintaining a massive hurricane, so that could explain the discrepancy).
  • In Future GPX Cyber Formula 11, Hayato, lacking experience and being desperate, gets upstaged by Knight Shoemach even after a testing of his new Super Asurada AKF-11. Kaga teaches the kid a lesson by driving the old 01-C model into a duel. Kaga stays ahead most of the times until Hayato accidentally pulls an inertial drift.
  • Occurs several times in Tokyo Ghoul, with prototype Kaneki squaring off against the newer experimental Half-Human Hybrids. The battle with Creepy Twins Kuro and Shiro ends with the girls retreating, who are ultimately labeled as failures compared to him. In :Re, his battle with the newer "Owl" is a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle until he manages to get a Heroic Second Wind. Because he continues to prevail against the newer "models", he is considered an accidental "masterpiece".
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • 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 Curb-Stomp Battle - 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.
    • As for the original three Evas, Eva-00 is the Prototype and explicitly has more problems with it than Eva-01 or Eva-02 - it was just cheaper than building an entirely new Eva from scratch. Eva-01, meanwhile, actually is a special prototype not like the others (a clone of the alien god-being Lilith, not of Adam like the others), and near the end of the series it managed to consume and incorporate the S2 Power Engine from an Angel. It probably could have fought the Mass Production Evas, but by that point the controls got overridden, and the countdown to the apocalypse began.
  • The Rising of the Shield Hero has the Cardinal Weapons: Four potent artifacts that select their Wielders from various worlds across The Multiverse to use them to combat against the Waves of Calamity and that the Cardinal Weapons can grow stronger based on the materials the Cardinal Heroes feed into them. Then there's the Holy Replica; an artifact designed long ago that is basically a Morph Weapon capable of assuming the shape of all four Cardinal Weapons but is only 1/4th as strong as the actual Weapons along with requiring a much-higher Mana Cost in order to utilize its' immense powers in the first place. Pope Balmus wields the Holy Replica in battle against the Cardinal Heroes: viewing the current Three Heroes that their religion worships (The Spear, Sword, and Bow Heroes) as "False Heroes" because they think the world around them is just their favorite Videogame and not at all real, all the while Naofumi Iwatani: the titular Shield Hero whom the Church regards as "The Devil Of The Shield" has proven himself competent time and again as an actual Hero in cleaning up the messes that the other Three Heroes left in their wake that it threatens the image and reputation of The Three Heroes Church. Pope Balmus is killed by Naofumi using one of his Shields' abilities Blood Sacrifice, which also destroyed the Holy Replica.note 
  • One episode of Gigantor has a criminal gang steal the plans of Gigantor from Bob Brilliant. They build their own version of the robot — and in a chromatic reversal, the copy is identical, but white (or close to it in B&W) as opposed to Gigantor's dark tones. It also has a higher-pitched sound effect when it flexes its muscles. The story naturally ends up in a fight between the two which the original wins, seemingly because it's better made. Guess crooks aren't as good as scientists at robot manufacture. A semi-subversion of this trope is that the crooks repeatedly refer to their robot as "phoney Gigantor", exhorting it to "beat the real Gigantor."

    Comic Books 
  • Ant-Man (2022): Issue #2, set during the days of Irredeemable Ant-Man, has Skrull infiltrator Criti Noll attacking Eric O'Grady in the prototype G.I.Ant Man suit, while Eric's in the finalized version, which he stole and has absolutely no idea how to really work. Criti wins, and has no intention of actually letting Eric living, thinking (incorrectly) that He Knows Too Much. Eric's only saved by being dragged off by a time machine.
  • The Boys: Black Noir was created by Vought as a clone of the Homelander but better in every way, in case the latter went off the rails and needed to be taken out. Unfortunately, what Vought didn't plan on was Black Noir chafing at not being able to fulfill his life's literal goal, and so he started committing atrocities like rape and murder and recording himself, gaslighting the Homelander into thinking he was an amnesiac monster, triggering an entire Then Let Me Be Evil breakdown that led to supers attacking the White House with the Homelander at their head, giving Black Noir what he'd always wanted.
  • The Starcraft: Frontline comics features a dogfight between a Viking, the Dominion's new experimental transforming gunship, and the Wyrm, the Viking's vastly inferior prototype.
  • In the Iron Man 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 his own armor gone Yandere in the Sentient Armor arc, and later facing off against Norman Osborn, who was using his Dark Avengers "Iron Patriot" suit, with a suit (literally) 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 Matt Fraction'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.
  • The newer Carnage symbiote is less weak to attacks that affect 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 Anti-Hero (and pretty often there's other heroes like Spider-Man 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.
  • Spider-Man: The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) 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 Incredible Hulk: The Hulk and Red Hulk (and Ultimates Hulk vs. Ultimate Abomination): Red Hulk and Ultimate Abomination are supposed to be 'improved' versions of The Hulk (among other things because they retain their full personality while Hulk is his typical "Hulk Smash!" self). Unfortunately, all of those improvements cannot really factor in that Hulk is just going to get madder and more dogged to win such a situation... and eventually he's gonna get mad enough to be able to smash them flat, superior intelligence, battle tactics and powers be damned.
    Ultimate Hulk, as he rips Ultimate Abomination's head off: You think too much!
And the Hulk who ultimately beat Red Hulk was the Green Scar, the angry and cunning version of good ol' jade-jaws.
  • Scud the Disposable Assassin: The titular Scud at one point has the newer and tougher Scud Sol sicced on him. It's a close fight that he only wins due to ingenuity and circumstances.
  • Transformers: The War Within: The Dark Ages has Devastator versus Defensor, who in this continuity is the second Autobot combiner made (Superior being a flawed first attempt). Unfortunately, Defensor loses control and starts going all "SMASH!", and no-one smashes like Devastator. The Protectobots retreat to try and figure out what went wrong.
  • Transformers: Optimus Prime: Towards the end, Devastator, the Decepticon's flawed first attempt at making a combiner, squares up against Victorion, who is the most psychologically stable combiner and has superpowers. And yet Devastator wins. Then it turns out this is because there's a nearby piece of Ore-4 messing with Victorion's powers. Once Arcee deals with that, Victorion annihilates Devastator in an instant.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), one issue had E-123 Omega hunting down his predecessor E-102 Gamma. Omega disparages Gamma as obsolete and weak but Gamma instead counters that Omega is nothing but a loud, clanky engine of destruction and nothing else while he's built like an assassin. Omega ends up destroying Gamma, but not before Gamma transfers the code containing his free will into Omega.
  • In Fear State Simon Saint sends Peacemaker-X, the Super Prototype of the Peacemaker series, after Peacemaker-01, who has gone MIA. Though X is supposedly stronger on paper, 01 is amped up on the Scarecrow's Fear Gas, which drives 01 to beat — and possibly kill — X.
  • Agents of Atlas: The first time M-11 goes up against Jade Claw's M-21, he's torn to shreds. This repeats itself a few more times, despite M getting some upgrades. Third time around, however, M-11 wins decisively.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Kirk Langstrom (this universe's Batman), who has gained enhanced strength and speed by an experimental treatment, goes up against Will Magnus, who has enhanced himself with a more developed version of the treatment.
  • Toy Story 2 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 Space Ranger by opening his helmet, causing him to panic and start choking.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: In the previous film, the U.S.S. Enterprise had just completed a massive refit using updated technology. The ship was entirely rebuilt, meaning it's not the same ship from before. The Reliant is effectively an upgrade, using the same technology without the bugs of the old design. And it has more guns, including a twin rear mounted photon torpedo, and a pair of oversized phaser cannons.
  • Terminator:
    • Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a classic example. With the good guys, you have the T-800: powerful, sturdy, and good with weapons. But for the bad guys there is the T-1000: just as strong, just as smart, and able to morph its body into almost anything thanks to its liquid metal form. The two face each other directly at the end of the film, and the T-1000 utterly dominates in close combat and successfully disables the T-800, who is unable to leave any lasting damage due to its enemy's liquid metal body regenerating it all. The T-800 is only able to win by activating its backup power supply, grabbing a grenade launcher, and blasting the T-1000 into molten steel where it's unable to escape and melts into nothing.
    • In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the T-850 faces the T-X, which has a much more powerful, tough and better-equipped (and fully armed) endoskeleton with a liquid metal cover for better infiltration and the ability to hack and reprogram other machines. The T-850 notes that it is an obsolete model compared to it, so tries to avoid direct confrontation. And the one time they do have a direct confrontation, the T-X absolutely dominates before almost totally tearing the T-850's head off with a stomp and only choosing not to destroy it then and there in favor of reprogramming it to kill the heroes (which it only barely prevents itself from doing with a forced shutdown and reboot). It eventually has to sacrifice itself to beat it.
    • In Terminator Genisys introduced the fully nanotech T-3000, requiring Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese to help the T-800 take it down.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Iron Man:
      • Iron Man has a sort-of example: The Iron Monger suit is based off research from the original Mark I armor, and is certainly larger and more powerful than Tony's. The latter's Mark III is also an upgrade, but is weaker because it's using the Mark I's old arc reactor. Tony managed to temporarily win against it because he tested his jets beforehand and knew that there was an icing issue at a certain altitude, which was why the Mark III was made out of a gold alloy rather than the steel one used in the Mark II, which Stane did not account for.
      • Iron Man 2: Rhodey puts on the Mark II (which off-screen Tony had given an independent power source and fixed its design flaws, because he was planning on giving it to Rhodey already) and faces off against a drunken Tony in his Mark IV, but doesn't do too well initially because it's his first time using it and Tony's more experienced. However, he improves, while Tony is still drunk, and they end up battling each other into a stalemate. They have a second face-off during the climax, as a result of Vanko remote-hijacking Rhodey's suit and setting it to kill, resulting in War Machine note  no longer holding back and almost cleaving Tony's head off with its gatling gun.
    • Captain America:
      • Captain America: The First Avenger: The Red Skull is a superhuman who stole an imperfect augmentation formula, which disfigured him, turned him more evil than before, and gave him super-strength. Captain America is a Nice Guy who was given the completed formula, which made him stronger, even more heroic, and made ladies really take notice of him. The two of them clash at the climax but, being of equal strength, it's a difficult fight.
      • Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The titular Winter Soldier is based on Captain America's formula, but fitted with an artificial arm that is considerably stronger than even their augmented flesh ones. He also tends to be more heavily armed, while the good Captain rarely uses more than his trusty shield.
      • Subverted in Captain America: Civil War. Cap is warned that there are five more Winter Soldiers in storage, possibly even more powerful than the current one save for being too unstable and violent to control. Cap and Bucky expect to have to face off against all of them by themselves, though when they get there, the Big Bad's already shot them all in their sleep.
    • The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk is meek scientist Bruce Banner after being injected with an imperfect copy of Captain America's formula and then exposed to gamma radiation. The Abomination is former Marine Emil Blonsky, having undergone an imperfect copy of the entire procedure that created Captain America (the formula and weaker irradiation) before being injected with samples of Banner's blood. As a consequence, Abomination is bigger and stronger than Hulk and retains Blonsky's mind, but that's not as big an advantage as it might seem since he starts deteriorating and doesn't care about anything but killing the Hulk regardless of the damage it causes. Things certainly aren't made any easier for Blonsky when Hulk's anger towards his threatening Betty Ross causes his power to increase, allowing him to fight back and overpower Blonsky as the fight goes on.
    • Ant-Man: Scott fights in the original Ant-Man suit that was first built and used during the Cold War. Darren Cross fights in his own version, the Yellowjacket, which is more heavily armored, armed with shoulder-mounted laser cannons, and can fly, while Scott has mostly only his fists and his ants to help him.
  • Played with in I, Robot: U.S. Robotics releases a new NS-5 robot model. Of course, the robots inevitably rebel against their masters. The old NS-4 model robots try to protect the humans, to no avail. Then Sonny, one of the NS-5s, is revealed to have a special prototype brain, which prevents VIKI from controlling him. Sonny helps detective Del Spooner to defeat the other NS-5s.
  • RoboCop
    • RoboCop 2: The OCP corporation 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 wins.
    • The 2014 RoboCop remake has RoboCop beta-tested against the established line of battle robots. The trope gets played both ways, as Robo's "upgrade" (a human personality) causes him to lose despite his mechanical superiority, then a further upgrade (basically undoing the first) allows him to win.
  • Solo (1996) involves the titular character being a prototype android built as a perfect fighting machine. When his programming develops flaws (i.e. conscience and compassion), he is ordered to be reprogrammed. Solo escapes into the Central American jungle and befriends the locals. After beating the vengeful Colonel Madden's soldiers sent after him, he faces off against Solo MkII, a more advanced android with Madden's face and a multi-barreled gun instead of one hand. Solo manages to beat the MkII having learned to bluff from a local boy and convinces the military that he died along with the MkII in the resulting explosion.
  • In Soldier Todd, the eponymous solder, is the leader of the first generation of soldiers trained from youth. In the first act he is put up against a new genetically engineered soldier and soundly defeated. In the climax he takes on all the genetically engineered soldiers and, due to his experience, kills them all.
  • Jurassic World features the battle between Indominus rex and Tyrannosaurus rex. The T. rex is the original specimen from the first park, the I. rex is a brand-new creature designed to surpass her in every way. The fight is closely fought, but T. rex manages to win with some help from Blue and the Mosasaurus.
  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: 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: 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.
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction: KSI and Cemetery Wind design their own man-made Transformers made from dead Autobots and Decepticons, continually boasting their superiority over actual Transformers. For the record, when in battle, two Autobots alone were able to survive an army, taking out at least a dozen. When the other three arrive, with the four Dinobots, they destroy almost the entire army with relative ease. Not a single real Transformer is destroyed. Bumblebee in-particular takes immense delight in destroying the KSI Stinger: designed to be "Like Bumblebee, But Better in Every Way."
    Bumblebee: I hate cheap knockoffs.
  • Alien: Covenant has an all-out brawl between two models of android: Walter (upgrade) and David (prototype). Despite Walter being immune to at least one method of killing David, David manages to win and take his place.
  • In Morgan, it turns out that Lee is actually an L4 model of artificial human (Morgan is an L9).
  • Logan has two battles between Logan and X-24, a younger clone created only to kill. This one's a rare example of the upgrade winning: Logan is completely outmatched and both times X-24 is defeated by someone else taking it by surprise. Logan succumbs to the wounds X-24 inflicted upon him shortly after the second battle.
  • Real Steel's climax has Zeus, a state-of-the-art boxing robot with artificial intelligence facing off against Atom, an old scrapped boxing robot/training dummy, mimicking the protagonist's moves. However, said protagonist was a professional boxer allowing Atom to mimick his skills and exploit Zeus' weakness of relying on power rather than endurance. Zeus nominally wins after a long fight (where he normally wins on a KO in the first round), but Atom gains the moral victory and tarnishes the reputation of Zeus' company.
  • The climactic battle of Eliminators pits the titular team (and their Mandroid) against Big Bad Mad Scientist Dr. Reeves, who has turned himself into an upgraded Mandroid. Reeves' advanced implants prove too powerful for the team, ending in a Curb-Stomp Battle in Reeves' favor and a Near-Villain Victory.

    Literature 
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The entire Slytherin Quidditch team gets top-of-the-line Nimbus 2001 broomsticks thanks to Lucius Malfoy's money, outclassing everything the other teams have, including Harry's Nimbus 2000. In the book, Harry wins somewhat anti-climactically by catching the Golden Snitch while Malfoy is too busy bragging to notice it. The movie version at least makes the point of showing off Harry and Draco going head to head with their broomsticks, and the Nimbus 2001's greater speed is turned against it when the snitch flies under the stadium where the many wooden support beams cause Draco to crash.
  • Journey to Chaos: Mr.15 wants to invoke this trope by making Basilard's first and second team of students battle each other. Basilard had more time to train Haru (his first battle mage) but he had become a better teacher by the time he started training Eric, who has other advantages that are uncommon to battle mages.

    Live-Action TV 
  • On Knight Rider, KITT (upgrade) vs. KARR (prototype). The new series also includes a battle between the two, but this KARR is actually a Transforming Mecha (making Peter Cullen's voice all the more appropriate), while KITT can only transform into different cars.
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: At one point, Tommy Oliver/White Ranger has to use the White Tigerzord to fight his old Dragonzord back when he was the Green Ranger, now under the control of a clone of himself. Dragonzord wins, pretty handily at that.
  • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: General McKnight commissions a group of rather smug scientists to build the "Cyborg Rangers" (actually pure robots) to replace the human rangers, built to be more efficient in every way. However, the Monster of the Week uses a lightning attack that short circuits them, causing them to perceive everyone around them, including their human inventors, as enemies. The five human rangers get their morphers back and defeat their supposed superior replacements.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim: Late in the series, Takatora Kureshima pulls his original Sengoku Driver out of storage to face off against his brother Mitsuzane, who betrayed him and stole his upgraded Genesis Driver to further his own goals. Zangetsu Shin is more powerful than the original Zangetsu, but Takatora's greater skill and experience actually gives him the edge for most of the fight...but he pulls his punches as it's still his little brother in the suit, a sentiment Mitsuzane does not share as he lands a blow that shatters Takatora's helmet and launches his unconscious body into the ocean, leaving him ambiguously dead for almost the rest of the series.
  • Comes up a bit in Almost Human, a near-future cyber-punk crime noir in the mode of Blade Runner. Police detectives are assigned android partners, who are also used as shock troops in SWAT teams. The original, prototype models were a massive failure, several of them having psychotic breakdowns, and the whole line was recalled. The main character gets a reactivated prototype as his partner because his superiors refused to give him a new one (both due to budgetary reasons and because he personally demolished it). The problem is that the newer models were intentionally dumbed-down, to not have any emotions, making them very predictable, naïve, and incapable of intuitive leaps of creative thinking. Thus the prototype actually is a better investigative detective than the "upgraded" models. As they explain, however, the reason some of the prototypes had psychotic breakdowns was a case of Gone Horribly Right: police work is emotionally stressful, making life or death decisions, and if a human officer was in a situation where a child got shot dead or something, they'd have had a psychotic break too.
  • In Legends of Tomorrow, Ray Palmer invents the Atom suit of Powered Armor, which allows him to be a superhero. When the Legends travel into the future, he learns that the Kasnia Conglomerate is a corporate state that uses flying robots as a police force. The robots are clearly derived from the Atom technology. Later in the episode, he has to fight an army of said robots, proving himself superior to them.
  • One episode of Airwolf had the eponymous chopper go up against Redwolf, an improved version complete with a laser mounted in the nose-piece.
  • Data (upgrade) and Lore (prototype) have this sort of relationship on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Atypically for this trope, Data is the heroic character, whereas Lore is a Robotic Psychopath. As they are Ridiculously Human Robots, it's explicitly depicted as Sibling Rivalry. Also unusually for this trope, they're actually functionally identical, with exactly equal physical and mental capabilities (and appearance), but Data was technically made as a deliberate downgrade over Lore, who became evil because his uncontrolled emotions made him too human.
  • LazyTown: In one episode, Robbie orders Roboticus, a robot who can do everything Sportacus can do but better. In their rematch race Sportacus wins, even though he stopped to save all the kids from trouble along the way.
  • The Boys (2019): 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.
    Homelander: You were my hero growing up. I watched all your movies, hundreds of times. You were the only one who was nearly strong as me.
    Soldier Boy: Buddy, you think you look strong? You're wearing a cape, you're just a cheap fucking knock-off.
    Homelander: No, no, no. I'm the upgrade.

    Tabletop Games 
  • BattleTech: Even discounting the vast number of variants a given 'Mech might have, some of which will use more advanced technology than other variants, this trope is not uncommon in the setting.
    • The Inner Sphere Thunderbolt 'Mech shares a similar sihlouette and multi-function role as the Clan Summoner, making the T-bolt the Prototype to the Upgraded Summoner.
    • Similarly, the Inner Sphere Warhammer inspired a great deal about the Clan Hellbringer. However, the Warhammer actually comes off slightly better in this analysis, having slightly thicker armor and slightly better heat management in contrast to the electronic tricks and superior raw firepower of the Hellbringer.
    • The Clan Timber Wolf is known in the Inner Sphere as the Mad Cat, because it literally looks like a mashup of the Marauder (MAD) and Catapult (CAT) 'Mechs. The Timber Wolf is one of the most fearsome combat machines available in the BattleTech universe, laughably outgunning either of its two namesakes.

    Theatre 
  • The climax of Pokémon Live! has Mewtwo facing off against MechaMew2, a robot Giovanni created that can learn every Pokemon move, similar to Mew. Unique in that Mewtwo itself is a clone of Mew.

    Toys 

    Video Games 
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic Adventure: Gamma the robot is made to fight his "brother" Beta, who is the more advanced of the two. To Dr. Eggman's surprise, Gamma wins, so he is charged with carrying out the doctor's missions. Later, Beta is rebuilt and battles Gamma again. Gamma just barely manages to win again, but unlike the previous battle it results in his death.
    • This also happens in Sonic Adventure 2 in the final story where the two Ultimate Life Forms fight. Shadow, the perfected one, vs. the Biolizard, the failed prototype. Though the prototype puts up a damn good fight, it loses in the end.
  • Metal Gear:
    • A variation in Metal Gear Solid: Solid Snake and Liquid Snake are both born from an experiment to create clones of Big Boss, one clone superior and the other inferior. Solid, the supposedly inferior clone, wins when they fight. However, Liquid believed he was the inferior clone, so probably had confidence issues.
    • Later in Metal Gear Solid 4, the two face off inside Metal Gears, Snake in the original REX mecha, and Liquid Ocelotnote  in the Metal Gear RAY designed by the United States with the express purpose to hunt down cheap knockoff REXs designed by other countries. Once again, the "inferior" prototype REX wins the fight.
  • A non-mechanical example happen in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten with the biological weapons Desco and Des-X. Although the latter is supposed to be the more advanced of the two, they actually have near-identical stats and skills. The former actually gains her ultimate skill while the latter doesn't.
  • Halo:
    • Halo 3's Terminals reveal that the Forerunners built an AI called Mendicant Bias to defeat the Flood, but it went rogue. To counter it, they built Offensive Bias, a successor AI designed to be less creative and independent, but more loyal and methodical. In the final fleet battle of the war, Offensive wins, but only because it was stalling to allow the Forerunners to enact their real plan; firing the Halos to destroy every organic being left in the galaxy, including those already infected by the Flood, thus robbing Mendicant's fleet of its crew. Offensive Bias lost all its crew as well, but anticipating this moment easily switched to direct control of its warships, and utterly dismantled Mendicant Bias’s far larger fleet within three minutes.
    • Played with in Halo 5: Guardians: SPARTAN-IV Jameson Locke has superior Powered Armor to his older SPARTAN-II counterpart, the Master Chief. However, the Chief is not only more experienced, but has superior augmentations. When they finally duke it out, Locke manages to put up a good fight, but is defeated when the Chief uses his own armor-locking device against him.
  • At the end of Hitman: Codename 47, the genetically engineered clone Agent 47 faces not one, but an entire army of the new-and-upgraded "48" clones. He manages to defeat them, of course… (though it helps that he finds a minigun lying around.) To be fair, he has to kill one of the 48s to get said minigun.
  • In First Encounter Assault Recon, the Point Man, who is the first attempt by Armacham to create a psychic commander, manages to overcome Paxton Fettel, the second and successful attempt, despite lacking psychic powers and thus being considered a failure.
  • BioShock 2: Whenever the player characters Subject Delta or Subject Sigma battle with production model Big Daddies.
  • Mega Man 3 has Mega Man face off against his "older brother" Proto Man (a.k.a. Break Man) a few times. Mega Man 7 repeats this as an Optional Boss.
  • In Mega Man 11, 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.
  • In the [PROTOTYPE] series this trope turns up several times: Alex Mercer (upgrade) vs. Elizabeth Greene (prototype) and Alex Mercer (prototype) vs. Supreme Hunter (upgrade) in the original game, and Alex Mercer (prototype) vs. James Heller (upgrade) in [PROTOTYPE 2].
  • Knights of the Old Republic:
  • Can be invoked by the player in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. After beating the game once, the ADFX-01 superplane is unlocked, and able to field either a Tactical Laser System, Multi-Purpose Burst Missile, or an Electronic Warfare Pod. Then they can take that plane into battle against the final boss, which uses an ADFX-02 that has all the aforementioned weapon systems. However, if you're fielding the laser, he goes down in three hits when it took dozens of normal missiles to do the same.
    • You can also do this with its technical descendent, the FALKEN.
    • Also invokable in Ace Combat Infinity, this time with the Block1 Morgan versus the prototype Morgan.
  • Xenogears has a few. The most obvious is Maria's Siebzehn (prototype) vs his father Nikolai's Achtzehn (upgrade). We also have Fei's Weltall vs Grahf's Alpha/True Weltall, but although Alpha Weltall is a Super Prototype using Lost Technology, Fei's Weltall is more an Ace Custom inspired from the former and can't really be considered an "upgrade".
  • Splinter Cell: Conviction has this. While storming his former HQ, Sam Fisher battles several newer Splinter Cell agents. Of course, being the first Splinter Cell ever created and the man who trained a good few of them personally, he easily trashes all of the Upgrades despite being outnumbered.
  • Several examples of forces co-opting one another's equipment show up in Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. For instance, the second multiplayer DLC pack introduces Project Phoenix, ex-Cerberus agents who use new biotic lash technology in close-quarters fighting. In the fourth pack, Cerberus finally fields their own version, the Dragoon. True to the trope, the enemy version is tougher and more numerous, but the player's customization ability gives them a decisive edge. The N7 forces, released in the Earth pack, show a few examples of this with Cerberus's own troops as the "prototypes" (making this more of a Mook vs. Ace Custom match). For instance, the Demolisher Engineer shares many similarities with a Cerberus Combat Engineer, as does the N7 Paladin with the Cerberus Guardian. The N7 Shadow and N7 Slayer are unusual examples in that they're both upgrades of the same unit, the Cerberus Phantom, albeit focusing on different abilities of the original.
  • In the finale of Einhänder, it's revealed that your mission was to fight Earth forces in a Suicide Mission to get battle data for the latest unmanned EOS fighters' AI. Your superior Hyperion then tries to off you after that, so you end up fighting two entire squadrons of them (and another one after that after you off Hyperion). You win.
  • In Tekken, JACK (and subsequent versions) vs Prototype JACK. It's even in his name.
  • Guilty Gear has a battle between Justice, the very first "complete" Gear, and the main protagonist Sol Badguy, the very first Gear end of. Although Justice is technically more powerful, Sol Badguy has real-world combat experience under his belt, and he's no slouch in the power department either, which is why Justice doesn't win.
  • Deus Ex:
    • Near the end of the game, JC Denton has to fight Walton Simons, one of the heads of the Majestic-12 conspiracy. JC Denton was a field testbed of nanotech augmentations (the second one, in fact), and was written off as 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. 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.
    • Earlier in the game, JC Denton is the "upgrade" when he fights Anna Navarre and Gunther Hermann, who had older augmentations.
  • Final Fantasy IX does this twice. The first time involves Vivi's fights with the Black Waltzes - Vivi's the prototype for all black mages, and they're the latest production model. The second is a major plot point that's hidden for about half of the game - both Zidane and Kuja are Genomes, artificially created by Garland, and Kuja was the prototype for Garland's creation of Zidane, Both cases, involving artificially created sapient beings, cross this trope with Cain and Abel.
  • Both BlazBlue games that have included both Lambda-11 and Nu-13 (Chronophantasma Extend and Centralfiction) have incorporated this into Lambda's arcade mode. Lambda was a rejected and defunct Murakumo Unit that was salvaged and given some adjustments by Kokonoe, while Nu is the first truly-successful Murakumo and superior to Lambda in terms of their joint intended function. As a result, she doesn't take losing to Lambda very well at all. Even more potent is either of the above against Mu-12, an upgraded Murakumo so powerful it's known as Kusanagi, the Sword of the Godslayer, due to her "unique" nature. The third game also has Mu face the prototype of all of the Murakumo Units: The Zero-Type Izayoi.
  • Fate/Grand Order
    • There's a very bizarre non-mech example - during the Orleans singularity, Carmilla (one of the antagonists) faces off against Elisabeth Bathory, who is the person that Carmilla is based on explanation .
    • The third Halloween event has this happening again in relation to Elisabeth. Specifically, Mecha Eli-chan Mk. I (a prototype version of a robot Elisabeth designed with the purpose of acting like a proper ruler complete with Elisabeth's color scheme) faces off against a bunch of mass-produced Mecha Eli-chan Mk. II drones before fighting the actual Mk. II (the "proper" robot Elisabeth who has a full gunmetal-grey color scheme). It should be noted, however, that the "prototype" and "upgrade" both have the exact same combat capabilities under normal circumstances. Mk. II was only made because their creator didn't like how Mk. I's personality turned out, and it turns out Mk. II's wasn't much better with the utter irony being if Osakabehime had bothered to install the heart circuits before activating them, the whole debacle and betrayal by both of them wouldn't have happened. The drones are easily dealt with due to their simplistic AI, while Mk. I and Mk. II have fully fleshed intelligence and personalities (if still clashing due to their personal ideals) to maximize their effectiveness.
  • Mega Man X:
    • Happens in every game since X is the Super Prototype every single Reploid is based upon.
    • Also true for Axl in Mega Man X8, since he was a prototype for the Copy Chip technology used by the Reploids here.
    • Mega Man X6 provides a rare example with Zero in this position versus High Max, a Reploid created by Gate using Zero's scavenged DNA who proudly boasts all his specs are superior to Zero (and X). He goes full-on This Cannot Be! when he's defeated by either of them once they collect the boss weapons to help damage him.
  • Horace: The Disc-One Final Boss fight is between Horace and his Psycho Prototype, the Ether Boss, who is a giant Brain Monster in contrast to Horace being a humanoid robot. Horace wins, though the Ether Boss puts up a good fight.
  • Blaster Master:
    • Blaster Master Zero gives us the SOPHIA Zero vs the Invem Sophia, the latter being SOPHIA III parasitized by the Mutant Core. Upgrade wins, but it's not a cakewalk. In Boss Battle mode, you get the ordinary SOPHIA III against the Invem Sophia; you're gonna have a bad time.
    • Blaster Master Zero III has two. The G-SOPHIA vs the Metal Attacker is first; the odds are stacked in the Metal Attacker's favor, but it's not a Hopeless Boss Fight, and the story carries on whether you win or lose. The True Final Boss is a player-chosen showdown between the SOPHIA-J1 and the Metal Attacker, and the SOPHIA-J1 is superior. Should you choose to play the Metal Attacker...
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the artificial Blades Poppi (upgrade) and Lila (prototype) face off in an abandoned factory on Mor Ardain, the latter having been enthralled to Chairman Bana. Poppi wins out through Heroic Resolve, despite the fact that her ether furnace not being fully activated at the time (which Lila confirmed).
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: The Seized Construct was the Construct originally meant to house Mineru's soul so she could aid Link in the present, but it has since been taken over by Gloom and made to fight for the Demon King. It's technically more advanced than the new Construct you assemble and control: it has more limbs, it can fire more of the weapons attached to those limbs at one time, and it can fly and hover more easily. Nevertheless, your Construct can take it down.
  • Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex pits Crash, who was stated to be Cortex's first attempt at a bandicoot super solider, against Crunch Bandicoot, Cortex's newest attempt at a bandicoot superweapon who was designed to be a perfect killing machine and then further stacks the deck against Crash by giving Crunch the four Elementals. In spite of all this, the prototype comes out victorious every time.

    Visual Novels 
  • Fate/stay night:
    • Gilgamesh vs any other Servant's Noble Phantasm ends up like this. The ancient Sumerian king who possessed all the treasures of the world, and therefore every myth and every mythical object is a descendant of the original prototypes possessed by him (this excludes objects whose origins are otherworldly, such as Excalibur). Because Older Is Better in the Nasuverse, this places him on a tier unreachable by other Heroes. "The King of Heroes" is titled such for a reason. Of course, his shortcoming comes from his inability to properly wield these weapons, instead simply possessing them; in the Unlimited Blade Works route, Shirou defeats him in close combat by copying each of his Noble Phantasms and calling on the history of the heroes who wielded them, allowing even the weakened copies to defeat Gilgamesh's unskilled use of their originals.
    • This also works with magical concepts in the same manner. A weapon with the same concept as an older weapon will always lose to the elder one (i.e. Caliburn will always lose to Gram).
  • In Phantom of Inferno, the Mad Scientist Scythe Master is trying to create the perfect assassin. His first attempt and base prototype, "Ein", is a completely ordinary girl he brainwashes and turns into an emotionless killing machine. When he obtains a young man who shows an uncanny natural talent for fighting and killing, he attempts to use the same brainwashing techniques on him as well and has him train under Ein, turning him into the prodigious assassin "Zwei", the first upgrade. Zwei eventually regains his memories and emotions and escapes Scythe Master's control, but his deadliness even after shaking off the brainwashing convinces Scythe Master to try again with another naturally talented killer, a young girl who was personally connected with Zwei before he unintentionally betrayed her, who he trains without brainwashing or memory-erasing, instead using The Power of Hate to turn her into the berserk killing machine "Drei", the second upgrade. After this, he settles for using his original technique to mass-produce Ein-style assassins, creating the Amazon Brigade known as the "Zahlen Schwestern". The three assassins fight each other and the Zahlen Schwestern in different combinations at various points in the game depending on which route you're playing through, with varying results: Ein is always the most reliably efficient killer, but Zwei's sheer talent gives him the edge over her if they come to blows; Drei, while deadly, is too unstable and inexperienced to defeat either of the other two assassins. The Zahlen Schwestern, despite being given the same training as Ein, universally end up as Mooks, with Ein even being unimpressed at how little advancement has been made in their training compared to her own, and they can't match her experience or Drei's sheer lethality, although in one route they do manage to fatally wound Ein before she kills them all.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • The fight between Klik and Evil Klik in Goblins is this trope to a T; with an older model facing off against a stronger, more violent, evil model. The underdog doesn't win in this one, though.
  • Kiwi Blitz: Page 225: As 35 says to 42, in Japanese:
    "You may be a newer model, but you can't defeat me in physical combat."

    Western Animation 
  • Dexter's Laboratory:
    • In the Dynomutt, Dog Wonder crossover "Dyno-Might," the original Dynomutt confronts the out-of-control Dynomutt X-90 Dexter created to replace him, but X-90 dismisses him, declaring that the "Dynomutt prototype" is no threat. Dynomutt quickly proves him wrong.
    • The episode "Robo-Dexo 3000" has Dexter replace his Humongous Mecha Robo-Dexo 2000 with the new-and-improved Robo-Dexo 3000. However, when the RD 3000 dismisses Dexter's plan to deal with an alien energy thief and ejects him, Dexter takes back the RD 2000. It's ultimately a Subverted Trope, however: by the time Dexter arrives on the scene, the energy thief has sucked the Robo-Dexo 3000 dry.
  • Near the end of Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben (Transformed into Humungousaur) fights against Albedo, who thanks to an upgraded version of the Omnitrix, turns into "Ultimate Humungousaur". Ultimate Humungousaur wins with minimal effort.
  • In the Defenders of the Earth episode "The Time Freezer", a rogue alien named Brutan steals the titular Time Freezer (which causes time to stand still for everyone in the immediate vicinity except its operator and anyone touching him or her) and uses it to commit a series of robberies. The Time Freezer's inventor (another alien named Akimbo) joins forces with the Defenders and eventually manages to stop Brutan by using an earlier version of the Time Freezer to neutralize Brutan's device.
  • The main character of Robotboy frequently battled his Psycho Prototype "brother" Protoboy.
  • In Titan Maximum, the titular Titan Maximum robot (a parody of Voltron) versus the upgraded, state-of-the-art Titan Megamum (yes, "Megamum" isn't a real word). Maximum is co-piloted by five people in airplane-like cockpits, while Megamum is piloted by one person using a Nintendo Wii controller. Megamum wipes the floor with Maximum...though this is because it also had the military access codes that allowed it to remotely shut down Maximum. Some quick reprogramming removed this edge during their subsequent fights. Even so it was still overall better-equipped than the aging, poorly-repaired Titan Maximum — knowing that the er, groin, of humanoid robots is an armor weak spot, and that a favored tactic of the Maximum crew was to take advantage of this, Megamum had force-fields installed to shield its, er, weak point. The battle is grueling, though the greater experience of the Maximum crew gradually turns the tide of the fight.
  • The Spongebob Squarepants episode "Karen 2.0" involves Plankton's wife Karen being replaced with the titular upgraded model, resulting in some arguing and a little violence from the former.

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