Shoe Phone: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot]] / [[Giant Robo]]'' had a neat little gadget with Unicorn: a little and ''very'' powerful emergency communicator hidden in the heel of their standard uniform boot. All the agents has to do is flip open the heel, pull out the device and use it.

* ''L/R'' is notable for having just about every one of the titular spies' gadgets built into ''cigarettes''.

* Tatsunoko hero Gold Lightan is called such because it's a giant robot whose [[Sleep Mode Size]] is a gold cigarette lighter.

* Not a [[Spy Drama]] example, but Conan from [[Case Closed]] does a lot of this. Pretty much the only part of his uniform that ''isn't'' some kind of gadget is the suit he wears. (And even that had a tracking device disguised as a button.)

 

== Comic Books ==

* The series ''[[Mortadelo Y Filemon|Mortadelo y Filemón, agencia de información]]'' (German: Clever & Smart, French: Mortadel et Filemón or Futt et Fil, Dutch: Paling & Ko) by Spanish artist Francisco Ibáñez, which started in 1958 provides an early example, and heavily parodies the [[James Bond]] spy genre. The series is a bizarre slapstick comedy with even more bizarre gadgets in which the two titular agents are constantly surrounded by idiots, explosions and mad scientists and plagued by bad luck and their own semi-competence, not to mention their choleric superior. The series was never translated into English, though.

* The first issue of the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comic books had Cobra operatives disguise cameras as gun parts.

 

== Film ==

* Was subverted in ''[[Austin Powers]]: International Man of Mystery''. When the government supplies Austin with a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss, he figures the paste is a plastic explosive, the brush its detonator, and the floss is garrote wire. Actually, they just want him to do something about his [[British Teeth|woeful teeth]].

** [[Double Subversion]]—Austin actually manages to use all three items in a spy-gadget-like fashion in the course of the film.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Doc Savage]]'', the pulp hero of the 1930's and 40's, was famous for his gadgets (which he usually invented himself).

* Late in the ''[[Dark Tower]]'' series by [[Stephen King]], a town full of people under watch develop plate weapons. They look like dinner plates, can be stored in the cabinet, but thrown just right they can take someone's head right off. Don't grab the wrong side.

* Subverted in the ''Game, Set & Match'' trilogy by Len Deighton. A [[Double Agent]]'s house is searched and found to have various spy gadgets disguised as household items. The protagonist says that the KGB gives these gadgets to their agents simply to give their treachery a glamorous [[James Bond]] aura, rather than because they're useful.

 

* [[Mock the Week|Now watch carefully, 007, this may look like an ordinary suitcase, but if you push this button a handle comes out and you can wheel it...]]

** It's not just a baseball bat, Bond, It's a baseball bat with a nail through it!

* The game song styles on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' gives us the aptly titled [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpVd_IRTRug&t=2m51s My Shoe Is A Phone].

 

 

* The Bond-esque ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' gives Cate Archer a wide array of girly themed destructive items (Mascara laser, hairspray flamethrower, and the like) one could conceal in one's purse.

* The Spy in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' has, fittingly enough, a disguise kit built into his cigarette case and a cloaking device for a wristwatch.

* These compose [[Ratchet and Clank|Clank's]] armaments in ''[[Secret Agent Clank]]'', including shuriken bowties, an umbrella that shoots electricity, and a briefcase/flamethrower, to name a few.

 

* The [[Gender Bender|T-Girls]] of ''[[Jet Dream (webcomic)|Jet Dream]]'', the [[Remix Comic]], play this trope even harder than [[Jet Dream (Comic Book)|their original comic book counterparts]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has a number of recurring devices, notably her [[Grappling Hook Pistol]]/hair dryer. There are briefing scenes in many episodes, but not all. In her case, it's a stylistic thing; she isn't really trying to [[Secret Identity|hide anything]].

* ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' has a briefing scene in every episode, and all the gadgets look like they came out of the Barbie doll aisle at the toy store or the contents of a Teenage Girl's purse.

 

== Real Life ==

* [[Truth in Television]]: Several gadgets used by [[World War II]] spies. A camera hidden in a match box, playing cards that had hidden maps, an actual pen gun (good for one shot), and shoes that looked like feet (when landing on beaches, foot prints with toes were less conspicuous than combat boots, which would draw attention). When in the business of being a spy, you don't want to draw attention to yourself, and these toys did just that. All saw action with a moderate reported success rate.

** This technique was also used to smuggle supplies to POWs to aid in escapes, with things like hacksaw blades hidden in pencils, radio components in chess pieces, and [http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/monopoly-game.htm Monopoly sets with secret maps, compasses, files, and (real) money].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Espionage Tropes]]

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]

[[Category:Phone Tropes]]