Instant Armor: Difference between revisions

[[Powered Armor]] is nice, but also kind of clunky - getting through narrow passages can be a pain, and getting out of it in a hurry 'cuz you need to go to the loo is quite troublesome as well. Wouldn't it be much nicer if you could just create a suit out of thin air - or, alternately, out of whatever raw-materials happen to be handy - whenever you need one? Well, if you've got [[Psychic Powers]] or [[Functional Magic]], or just some really nifty gadgets, you can!

 

 

[[Collapsible Helmet]] is a more specific [[Sub-Trope]] where only the helmet appears/ disappears.

 

{{examples}}

* Sensui from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' can use his Holy Light Energy to create two special sets of armor.

* The protagonist in ''[[S-Cry-ed]]'''s Alter power [[Evolving Weapon|develops like this]], initially covering just his arm, but later progressing to the right half of his torso, then full body armor.

** Not so much covering as converting - the arm is actually transformed. (When he undergoes the whole body conversion, his legs are actually thinner than when untransformed, and in the original [[Transformation Sequence]] we see his arm splitting into three segments.)

*** Hey you notice how he's always wearing a glove and long sleeves? On the few instances when he's not, you can see lines across his hand and arm. As the armor grows across him on varying levels, those lines appear where he's transformed. Turns out it's not just stylistic, [[Fridge Horror|those are scars]] left from where [[Body Horror|his own body was torn apart by his Altar power and reconstructed into armor.]] It's to the point that, after unlocking his second level, his one eye only opens when manifesting the armor... [[Eye Scream|It was heavily damaged right before the first manifestation,]] and now it appears to potentially be ''part'' of the manifestation.

* The Barrier Jackets from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' are conjured out of thin air and can take more beating than a main battle tank. Sure, they [[Stripperiffic|don't look that way]] in [[Dark Magical Girl|some cases]] but [[Lady of War|Signum]]'s, for example, both looks and functions just right. Presumably as a result of being able to be ready for battle in an instant, Bureau mages tend to wear their "dress" uniform virtually all the time outside combat when they're on duty.

** It is noted that the more [[Stripperiffic]] the Barrier Jackets are, the less protection is given. [[Dark Magical Girl|Fate's]] Sonic Form Barrier Jackets do precisely ''nothing'' in the way of protection, they just enhance her speed. As Signum comments, if Fate gets hit, she'll die.

* The Homonculus Greed from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' can use the carbon in his body to generate a [[Nigh Invulnerable]] second skin which he calls "The Ultimate Shield". Greed usually only armors up his arms (giving him claws in the process) and whatever specific body part is about to be hit, because [[The Fighting Narcissist|full-body armor makes his face ugly]].

* Saber and Gilgamesh/Archer in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' and ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' are both capable of this. Saber's is essentially made entirely of her magic energy. Gilgamesh presumably either does the same or simply pulls it through Gate of Babylon.

* The Mimetic Beasts of ''[[Godannar]]'', who are small, alien organisms who create huge bodies for themselves out of available materials - whether that is rocks, people, or a space-shuttle...

* Referred to as Ex-Quipping in ''[[Fairy Tail]].'' Instant Armor is Erza's particular specialty, and she sure has [[Unlimited Wardrobe|a hell of a lot of armors]].

** Noteably, only the [[Ace Custom|'personalized' IS-units]] have this function. The mass-produced [[Red Shirt]] models are just run-off-the-mill [[Powered Armor]].

* The Mushi of ''[[Mushi-Uta]]'' are mostly [[Mons]], but the one belonging to the main character Kakkouisa 'fusion' type. In the beginning, it just merges with his arm and [[Hand Cannon]] to form an [[Arm Cannon]], but with time, it grows bigger and covers more - at the end, it's basically a suit of Chitinous armor that he can call up at any time. (Unfortunately, it sort of looks - and acts - like [[Cthulhu Tech]]...)

* The Bio-Booster Armour from ''[[Guyver]]''. The live-action movies had them erupt from bumps on the protagonists neck from some form of [[Hammerspace]]. The anime and manga just directly summons it from [[Hammerspace]] with a mini [[Sphere of Destruction]] that vaporises any enemy foolish enough to get close to you while transforming.

* One of the contractors in the second season of ''[[Darker than Black]]'' can instantly assemble improvised mecha around himself out of whatever materials happen to be nearby.

* Lots of characters can do this in ''[[Zatch Bell]]''. The strongest armour spell seen in the manga can even [[Adaptive Armor|shapeshift]] and grants ''[[Jet Pack|jets]]''.

* In ''[[Heroic Age]]'', the Silver Tribe can assemble their Full Hedron spaceships out of apparently nothing in under a minute. Couple this with their ability to survive at least a few minutes in vacuum and their ability to teleport, it means that blowing up a Hedron is a minor setback at most unless you manage to kill the Silver Tribesman himself (and considering the power of their personal Hedron Shields, this is easier said than done). All of this is accomplished through [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|extremely advanced technology]] and [[Psychic Powers]] rather than anything explicitly supernatural, though.

** [[Smug Snake|Mr. 3]] can create a suit of wax armor for himself that's harder than steel but melts when exposed to fire.

** [[Chef of Iron|Wanze's]] ''Mens Formal Suit'' (a suit of armor made of '''ramen noodles''') borders on parodying this trope.

* Believe it or not this trope is invoked a few times in the ''[[Metroid]]'' manga, that's right Samus actually could hide her [[Power Armor]] in very small place and summon it whenever she wanted.

* The mysterious [[Henshin Hero]], Brave, of ''[[Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou]]'', is empowered by a rather sleek suit of [[Magitek]] [[Powered Armor]], which he can summon from another dimension with his [[Transformation Trinket]] wristband.

 

* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Magneto]] of the Marvel Universe has been known to do this, from time to time, using his metal-control. Ranging from reconstructing his own broken armor from nearby junk, to forging himself into a gigantic steel titan! At one point, he disassembled his suit, sitting on a chair nearby, into sand-sized grains and re-formed it around himself, in seconds.

* Another ''X-Men'' example: Armor can create magic armour around her body. (Well, DUH...) She would mockingly acknowledge the "duh" factor by wondering what if she called Wolverine, well, "Claw"... or "Stench"...

* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', Kyon's watch has a skin-suit armor function added, which also can be activated automatically to act as an emergency compress.

* In Jeconais' ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fic ''[https://jeconais.fanficauthors.net/Blue_Steel/index/ Blue Steel]'', Harry forges himself several suits of armor which he can summon; they seem to grow out of the ground around his feet, flowing or slamming into place to assemble themselves on his body.

 

* In the 1989 ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'' a push of a button on the [[Thememobile|Batmobile]] covers it in armor.

* ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'': In the second film, Tony Stark has a suitcase that turns into a suit of armor, as a nod to the comics. However, it's more of an [[Emergency Weapon]], as it is significantly less powerful than the regular armour, and apparently only mounts the palm repulsors for weaponry. Still comes in very handy in a pinch.

** There's also Mage Armor, Shadow Shield, Ghostly Visage, and so on.

** The Fourth Edition supplement ''Adventurer's Vault'' provides "summoned" armor, which can be of any type, is basically put on the hard way ''once'', and then can be dismissed to and recalled from a "secure extradimensional location" at will, reappearing on the caller's person as though he or she had just put it on. It otherwise functions as plain old magical armor of its given type and bonus (minimum +2).

* The ''[[Pathfinder]]'' ''Advanced Player's Guide'' contains a spell for Clerics and Paladins called "Instant Armor". The spell does [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

 

 

== Web Original ==

* Alloy from ''[[The Descendants]]'' does this using whatever metal happens to be available. He actually discovered his powers this way.

* In the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', Loophole and Jericho can both teleport their armor into place as long as they are pretty close to the armor and teleportation system. They both end up armorless when they're attacked in Boston in "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl". Then there's Iron Star, who can manifest a metal carapace armor around himself whenever he wants. Britomart can do the same with a Guyver-like armor, she just has real trouble getting it off: as a side effect she doesn't have a hair left on her body.

[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]

[[Category:Tropes in Shining Armor]]