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Prop Recycling: Difference between revisions
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This is utterly ubiquitous in live theatre, so a section for this would be hopelessly long, and utterly pointless. Just take it as a given that live theatre companies save and re-use everything.
{{examples
== Films -- Animation ==
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Robby the Robot. Originally created for the 1956 film ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'', Robby continued to be reused in many movie and TV productions up to the present day (although since the 1960s a lightweight replica has been used). Its two appearances in ''[[Lost in Space (TV)|Lost in Space]]'' are particularly ironic in that Robby and Robot B-9 were both designed by Robert Kinoshita. Robby is so memorable that it is less a prop and more of an actual character. Along with all the sci-fi shows he turns up in, Robby also appears in of all things one of the NBC era ''[[Columbo (TV)|Columbo]]'' episodes as a robot built by a child genius at a think tank. He's even listed on IMDB as an actual ''actor''.
* The uniforms from ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' were used in the sci-fi [[B
* ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]'' used several sets from ''[[Dark City]]'' (filmed at the same Sydney studio a few months before, and exploring some similar themes), most notably the roof-case from the teaser chase scene and the spiral staircase in the Lafayette Hotel.
* ''[[Airplane! (Film)|Airplane 2]]'' had the thing with lights that go back and forth. Seen in the background in some Sci-Fi series. Was also in an episode of ''[[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Star Trek Enterprise]]''. There is a site detailing its [http://starringthecomputer.com/computer.php?c=73 numerous appearances].
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** The sets to Axis chemical factory in ''[[Batman (Film)|Batman]]'' were from ''[[Alien (Film)|AlienS]]''.
** Another reused prop from ''[[Alien (Film)|Alien]]'' is a console in the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode "Earthshock".
** The griddle-like corridor panels have shown up in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (TV)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', ''[[
* Old Tucson Studios. Built initially for the movie ''Arizona'' in 1939, its buildings were used as the sets of countless [[Western]] television shows and movies, including episodes of ''[[Gunsmoke (Radio)|Gunsmoke]]'', ''[[Little House On the Prairie (TV)|Little House On the Prairie]]'', ''[[Bonanza]]'', and ''[[Have Gun Will Travel (TV)|Have Gun Will Travel]]''. It is also a tourist attraction, though most of the original sets were lost in a fire.
* Defied by ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'': all the original props were unavailable for the sequel ''[[Two Thousand Ten the Year We Make Contact (Film)|Two Thousand Ten the Year We Make Contact]]'' because Stanley Kubrick deliberately destroyed them all, along with any design notes, after filming was completed, specifically to avert this trope. The prop department for ''2010'' had no choice but to make replicas of everything from scratch based on examining what was visible in the film.
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* ''[[Just Imagine]]'', a sci-fi musical from the 1930s, had a lavish set costing a quarter million Depression-era dollars, but flopped in the theaters. Producers recouped some of their money by reusing [[Stock Footage]] of the cityscape in the Universal film serials ''[[Flash Gordon Serial (Film)|Flash Gordon Serial]]'' and ''[[Buck Rogers (Comic Strip)|Buck Rogers]]'', while Z-4's Rocket Plane was recycled as Zarkov's rocketship.
* The colored "Michelin Man" spacesuits from ''[[Destination Moon]]'' were later used in cheaper sci-fi efforts like ''Flight to Mars'', the TV series ''[[Space Patrol]]'', and the spoof ''[[Amazon Women On the Moon]]''.
* ''[[The
* Miho's swords from ''[[Sin City]]'' were the Crazy 88's from ''[[Kill Bill (Film)|Kill Bill]]''.
* The PKE meters from ''[[Ghostbusters (Film)|Ghostbusters]]''...
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* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' has several examples of this. [[The BBC]] has large amounts of props and costumes in storage, so the original series has quite a few examples of prop recycling, both in show, and across other BBC series.
** Not all of them were BBC originals in the first place; for example the BBC bought a load of ex-Gerry Anderson props in the early '70s, so one sonic screwdriver prop was from the movie ''[[Thunderbirds]] Are Go'', and various control panels from ''[[UFO]]'' turn up occasionally up to the mid '80s.
** This is most prominent in the late 70s and early 80s between ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' and ''[[
** Several sets constructed in Italy for [[HBO]]'s ''Rome'' were reused for the episode "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S4 E2 The Fires of Pompeii|The Fires of Pompeii]]" in the new series.
** Also, the {{spoiler|Sontaran cloning table on which Martha was held}} in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S4 E4 The Sontaran Stratagem|The Sontaran Stratagem]]" is obviously made from a Cyber Conversion Unit.
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** The Federation transporter pads in the various series all use parts of the original one from ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'', usually flipping it or swapping out decals. This sort of thing was done fairly often, using parts of one show's sets for the ones that follow.
** The propmasters of all incarnations of ''Trek'' were rather quite, well, masterful at prop recycling; most props were recycled either from other shows or movies or even recycled from other episodes of any given preceding ''Trek'' incarnation including itself. Starship models, even in the CGI era, were particularly prone to this, the end result being several different alien races, separated by the entire length of the galaxy or even by centuries in some cases (or even both) used variations of the same ship design in various scales (or their medical scanner or communications relay would bear an odd resemblance to a certain race's ship).
** Most of the sets from the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' era of ''Trek'' owe their existence to ''[[Star Trek:
** [http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies.htm This site] has a massive list of re-used ''Trek'' props, sets, [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|make-up]], etc. Just scroll down and click on anything that starts with "Re-Used". [http://www.modernprops.com/Details1b.asp?dept=195&category=290&item=1 These bad boys] (a.k.a. the Blinky double tube that serve no purpose) have to be the ''patron saint'' of recycled props.
** This also occurs with special effects and models. A [[Retcon]] was made to justify why both Klingons and Romulans had the same D-7 Battle Cruiser, just so they could reuse the model. The ''Voyager'' episode "Dragon's Teeth" has a series of subspace corridors that was simply a different color and miscellaneous debris thrown into the quantum slipstream drive effect. In the ''Voyager'' episode "Warlord", they reused a ship model from the ''Next Generation'' episode "Unification". And especially as the series tilted towards CG ships, many different ships were recolored, resized and/or slightly modified from prior CG models to save time and money.
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* In season 25, ''[[Wheel of Fortune (TV)|Wheel of Fortune]]'' introduced a special electronic wedge called the Big Money Wedge, which featured neon and a video screen that alternated among dollar amounts. When it was retired at the end of the season, the wedge was recycled for a redesign of the Jackpot Wedge.
* ''[[The Love Boat]]'' literally ''will not'' "be taking another run". [http://now.msn.com/entertainment/0309-love-boat-ship-scrapped.aspx It was scrapped (recycled!) in March of 2012].
* At the end of the ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' pilot episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes", Prue is seen holding the same newspaper from ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire (Film)|Mrs. Doubtfire]]'', [[Line
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* [[Valve Software (Creator)|Valve Software]]
** Valve in general reuses props, textures, and [[Stock Sound Effect|sound effects]] across franchises whenever they can; this is due in a large part to the fact that nearly all of their games started out as mods of the others. Since every game except ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' has essentially the same visual style, and the engine itself does not support significantly higher-detail graphics than it did when it was first created, it still looks natural. Open up Hammer's prop browser for either of the ''[[Left 4 Dead (Video Game)|Left 4 Dead]]'' games or ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'' if you're so inclined; many of the props that were lifted from ''[[Counter-Strike (Video Game)|Counter-Strike]] Source'' are still in folders named for their respective maps.
** The "Aperture Science High-Energy Pellet" in ''[[Portal (Video Game)|Portal]]'' uses the same sprite and sounds as the Combine orbs in ''[[Half-Life (Video Game)|Half-Life]] 2''. The orbs used to fuel the security systems, at least, appear to be completely harmless, so they can't be the same as the [[One
** ''Portal 2'' seems to even have an in-universe example: In the informative looping videos that display in the elevator areas, the "animal king" the voiceover describes is a turret made giant-size and painted over with a leopard skin.
** Incidentally inverted whenever a Valve Game crosses over into ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]''. When they included Bill's Hat, the Frying pan and Ellis's cap, you'd expect them to just cut the relevant parts off of the character in question and recycle them into the game. Nope, the Bill hat, cap and frying pan are all unique models to fit with the theme of the story.
* When it comes to Bethesda, some props are the gift that keeps on giving. Props from ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion]]'' were later used in ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'', and props from ''Fallout 3'' (including ones from ''The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'') appear in ''[[Fallout New Vegas (Video Game)|Fallout New Vegas]]''.
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]''
** In ''[[Super Robot Wars W]]'', a sprite of the (broken) [[Tokyo Tower]] used on a ''[[
** ''W'' in general reused a lot of sprites from series' it shared with ''[[[[Super Robot Wars Judgment]] Super Robot Wars J''. ''[[Super Robot Wars K|K]]'' and ''[[Super Robot Wars L (Video Game)|L]]'' also did the same. Most of the games did however add to or improved the animations and effects for many attacks.
* In the ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]: Arrival'' DLC, the animation and prop seen when Dr. Amanda Kenson breaks out of her restraints after being rescued by Shepard uses the same motions (she uses both hands to rip the neck collar off, and grimaces while doing so, before staggering to her feet) as Jack does during her recruitment mission in the same game.
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Doctor
** The good doctor's freeze/death ray is an Alliance stun gun from ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' held upside-down. The gun later appeared on an episode of ''[[The Middleman (TV)|The Middleman]]''.
** And his lab coat was from the ''Firefly'' episode "Ariel".
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** The commentary for the episode "Splicers" of noted that the gun design was reused for some ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' episodes.
** And the other way around: robot drones from ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' had the same design as the "V-headed" [[The Zeta Project|Zeta]] model that first appeared in ''Batman Beyond''.
** ''Batman Beyond'' also reused the Batmobile from ''[[Batman:
* [[Scenery Porn|The Prop Room]] from ''[[House of Mouse]]'', which consists of props from every single animated Disney film up to 2001's ''[[Atlantis the Lost Empire (Disney)|Atlantis the Lost Empire]]''.
* Utilized to rather impressive extent in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy (Animation)|Ed, Edd n Eddy]]''. For Example, the "Ed's Hive Bee Gone" jumpsuits as seen in "Pop Goes the Ed" later make a reapearance in "To Sir with Ed" this time with the aformentioned inscription scribbled out in Favor of "Snake be Gone". The "En-O-Gee Drinks" stand from "Over Your Ed" was reused similarly as 'Ed Mart' in "A Glass of Warm Ed".
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[[Category:Show Business]]
[[Category:Prop Recycling]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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