Signature Team Transport

Taking them everywhere since The Sixties.

Some teams have their own outfits, others have a Team Pet, and then there's these guys and their (usually) Cool Car. This vehicle is the team's metallic pet: Most of the time, it will sport the team's or character's logo, have its own affectionate surname and be seen in almost every episode.

The transport is typically relative to the setting, and scope of the story. In a sea/space faring series it may be the teams main/mothership. A group of teenagers probably has a van they can all fit into. A solo adventurer probably has some type of one-seater.

For most characters, that one car is part of the team/family, and they don't care if it's a rusty old pile of scraps. In science fiction, if the vehicle has a sufficiently advanced AI/navigation system it can double as a Robot Buddy. In fantasy it may be a (named) horse, or mythological creature in which case it can double as a Team Pet or The Yoshi.

It's not unusual for The Lancer or otherwise the 'coolest' member of the team to get their own vehicle separate from the main vehicle the rest of the team drives around in. Expect it to be a motorcycle.

Sister Trope to Thememobile, where the vehicle sports the team colors but isn't iconic/emotionally linked to the character/team. See also Global Airship, which is usually a Signature Team Transport for a party of RPG heroes.

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Examples of Signature Team Transport include:

Anime & Manga

• Captain Harlock, his crew and his Arcadia
• Until Dragonball Z came along, the Magic Cloud was this to Goku.
  • Then there's Frieza's flying seat. He only left it when there was literally nobody else left to fight the heroes.
• Almost every single crew in One Piece has his own ship with their customized Jolly Roger, the most obvious example being the Strawhats' ship, the Going Merry and later, the Thousand Sunny.
  • There's also Aokiji and his bicycle. That he uses to cross the seas. Better not fall off...
• Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt has the angel's Hummer "See-Through" and the demon's limousine "G-string".
• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets): G-Force had the Phoenix, a ship which contained four smaller vehicles and could change into a fiery bird-shaped craft.
• Speed Racer and Racer X had the Mach 5 and the Shooting Star, respectively.
• Tenchi Muyo!: While not customized, Rhio-Oki blurs the line between this and Team Pet.
• The Dai-Gurren in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann serves both as this and as the team's headquarters.
• Zero no Tsukaima has Tabitha and her familiar, a dragon, Saito and the WWII plane...

Comic Books

• The Bat-vehicles for the Batman and the Bat Family, especially the Batmobile.
  • Robin is typically seen with a motorcycle.
• The Fantastic Four have a huge jet that can be separated into four smaller ones.
• Gaston Lagaffe's death car. That thing is responsible for at least half of global warming. AT LEAST.
• Silver Surfer's surfing board.
• Watchmen: Nite Owl II has "Archie", an owl-themed aircraft that recalls his old days as a vigilante.
• The Blackbird from X-Men
• Wonder Woman has the invisible airplane, which she continues to use even though she can fly on her own
• The Avengers have their Quinjets.

Film

• Back to The Future: Doc Brown's Delorean. And later, his train.
• The Ghostbusters' car with their logo on each side, "Ecto-1"
• K and J's black sport car in Men in Black.
• Star Wars features the Millenium Falcon
• Technically, at least in the movies, every single Transformers and his vehicle form: It's shown that they can choose their vehicle forms, they just like that one car better. Probably.
• Tallahassee's tendency in Zombieland to paint a 3 on any car he chose to drive.

Folklore

• Santa Claus' magic sled and his reindeer (they all have names, the most well-known being Rudolph).

Live Action TV

• General: Almost every single Super Sentai show will have a team Mecha made of each character's own vehicle.
• The A-Team has its signature van.
• Chuck: The compact cars driven by Chuck and others are technically owned by the Buy More and have the "Nerd Herd" logo on them.
• Doctor Who's TARDIS, and the Third Doctor's "Bessie", a 1910's vintage car that he hyped up with a few (awesome) gadgets.
• The Dukes of Hazzard have the General Lee
• Knight Rider had KITT
• The red Ferrari in Magnum, P.I. Robin Masters actually owns it, and there's often plot complications when Higgins takes away the keys, but it's still effectively Thomas Magnum's car.
• Mr. Bean's apple green compact car, which gets trashed in almost every episode.
• The Munsters Grampa has Dragula.
• Starsky and Hutch had Starsky's red Gran Torino, which Hutch nicknamed "the striped tomato".
• Supernatural has the Impala, which is almost a member of the family
• In FX the Series, the crew has their "Fx" van.

Video Games

• Rush from Mega Man fulfills all three roles by being Mega's one seater transport, Team Pet and Robot Buddy. Though in a series where all the main characters are androids the last bit is debatable.
• The Blue Falcon for Captain Falcon in F-Zero. (Most characters' vehicles would count, but we see Falcon using it in other games such as Super Smash Bros.)
• Corki's plane in League of Legends.
• Samus' spaceship in Metroid,.
• Wario's custom yellow-and-purple bike.
  • Also the Mario Karts, the Koopa Clown Car, the Comet Observatory, and the Starship Mario.
• The Gold Saucer Buggy and later the Highwind airship for AVALANCHE/Team Cloud in Final Fantasy VII.
• The Corvega Motors Highwayman (the only working car in the wasteland!) for The Chosen One's team in Fallout 2.
• The Great Fox from the Star Fox series, had several emotional moments such as when it was in disrepair in Star Fox Adventures, and how they had to destroy it after it was upgraded in Star Fox Assault
• The Gummi Ship in Kingdom Hearts, but specifically the Highwind models.
• Link is typically associated with Epona, or other unnamed red furred, white maned horses. Though some Link's get their own transports depending on the game such as The King of Red Lions or The Crimson Loftwing
  • Ganondorf also has The Black Gerudo Stallion.

Web Original

• Since the Amazing Three of the Whateley Universe are an Expy of the Fantastic Four, they have their own building and their own transport, the famous Techno-Trike.

Western Animation

• The Trio from The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin have the Airship.
• Aladdin's magic carpet.
• Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The Planeteers are most often seen in the Geo-Cruiser.
• Inspector Gadget has the Gadgetmobile.
• Kidd Video had that cool car-vehicle thing in which they rolled around the Flipside, that served s a mobile home.
• The titular vehicle in The Magic School Bus
• The Dethcycle from Metalocalypse.
• The Simpsons have two cars, the pink one being Homer's and the orange one Marge's.
  • Also, Otto is almost always seen with the School Bus.
• The Scooby Doo gang and their Mystery Machine
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have the Turtle Van and the Turtle Blimp, both with their logo on it.
  • The 2003 series renvisioned it as The Battle Shell, and gave them a host of other vehicles such as the Sewer Slider (hovercraft) and Turtle Tunneler (drill). As the series went on they kept acquiring and building more vehicles including a submarine, helicopter, and a train.
    • All of the 2003 turtles vehicles were destroyed halfway through season 4, probably because they had way too many to keep track of. It was eventually limited to another new version of the turtle van/battle shell and the helicopter.
  • One of the few things kept from The Next Mutation series was giving Raphael a personal motorcycle, official named the Shellcycle in the 2003. He also had a bike in the 2007 movie.
• Each racing team from Wacky Races has its own car with a unique design and gadgets.
  • Each car had a distinctive name, too.
• The Thundertank from Thundercats
• The Team from Young Justice typically flies around in Ms. Martian's ship. Eventually Superboy get's his own vehicle when Sphere transforms into a flying motorcycle.

Real Life

• The Popemobile.
• That's probably true for many pilots, bikers and cavaliers, who considers their plane/car/bike/horse a part of themselves.
  • The Richthofen brothers' red fighter planes are one of the examples (the less well-known Lothar von Richthofen had his planes painted red with yellow, and after his brother's death black, tail).