History Main / BreakOutTheMuseumPiece

* In one issue of ''The Amazing ComicBook/SpiderMan'', Spidey and Iron Man are being overwhelmed by the supervillain Regent when Mary Jane, watching from the ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentAvengers' base, remembers Tony keeps a lot of his stuff, digs into one of the boxes nearby and hauls out the Iron Spider costume, which she dons to aid the two heroes.
* In the ''ComicBook/AtariForce'' second series, the ''Scanner One'' spaceship was actually a museum piece, and it was still functional and fully stocked!
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** The ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' {{Elseworld}} story ''Dark Knight Dynasty'' showcased Brenna "Batwoman" Wayne's incredibly advanced 25th-century power armour, before destroying its power cells so she had to swap it for a bat-costume that was just a costume.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Batman 66}}'', a villain breaks into Wayne Manor and steals the William Shakespeare bust that hides the button to the Batcave's entrance. Since Bruce and Dick have no way to get into the Batcave, Alfred brings out a chest containing their prototype costumes. As a MythologyGag, the prototype costumes are the ones used during the initial screen tests for ''Series/Batman1966'', right down to the awkward oval-less Bat Ensigna.

* Narrowly averted in "Lady d'Olphine", an episode of the French-Belgian comic ''ComicBook/BenoitBrisefer'': mobsters engaged in a turf war with a rival gang in the fictional country of Monte San Sone vainly try to talk a museum curator into selling them a UsefulNotes/WW2-vintage howitzer.
* The entire origin of ''ComicBook/BoosterGold''. All the devices he uses to be a superhero were stolen from a 25th Century museum, and he uses a time machine stored in the museum to get to the 20th Century where they would then be beyond state of the art. (Though at least originally, they were actually from his future too: 30th Century Legion of Super-Heroes devices that had gone back to the 20th century with Superman, and thus wound up in the museum.)

* In a ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}'' story titled "Charlie's Tank" a group of plucky British soldiers trapped in occupied France liberate a World War I tank from a museum and use it to escape the Nazis.
* In the {{Elseworld}} story ''ComicBook/{{Conjurors}}'', Ted Kord has State Secretary Felix Faust open up the Smithsonian to break out a crude nuke.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfCaptainAmerica''. ComicBook/BuckyBarnes goes to the Smithsonian, intending to steal Captain America's shield from there, but the exhibit is so sparsely guarded that he realizes the shield displayed can't be the real one. Sure enough, Tony Stark has the real shield under study.
* In one ''[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Duck Avenger]]'' comic, the Avenger is fighting the Analogue Knight, an EvilLuddite who's armed with a weapon that disables all technology more advanced than the 40s. The Avenger beats him by breaking out the weaponry of his predecessor, Fantomius, who had cutting edge tech in the ''20s''.

* An early ''ComicBook/IronMan'' comic has a thief stealing the new (red/gold) armor, so Tony has to put on the old (grey) armor to face him. The new armor is superior in almost every way, but Tony has two advantages. He's more experienced in using ''his'' armor (and thus knows the weaknesses of it), and the old suit is said to be stronger.

* In an issue of ''ComicBook/JLA1997'', Connor Hawk (ComicBook/GreenArrow) discovers that the rest of the team has been put in a LotusEaterMachine by The Key. The Key also destroys Connor's bow and arrows, so he has to use some of Oliver Queen's equipment from the Justice League museum. Unfortunately, it's all {{trick arrow}}s, which Connor had never gotten the hang of using.

* In DC Comics' ''ComicBook/{{TheKingdom|DCComics}}'', Booster Gold's Planet Krypton restaurant in the present-day world (of 1998) is purposely stocked with items from various timelines by the four Titans from the future. Present-day Batman realizes this when he and his colleagues, plus their ''Kingdom Come'' counterparts, are transported to Planet Krypton by Hunter to fight Gog with the various items collected, with Batman saying something like "this isn't a museum...it's an arsenal". Where they become museum pieces of a sort is that these items have appeared during the Silver and Bronze Age period DC Universe.
* Following ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'', when Thor was rendered unworthy to wield Mjolnir, he adopted his old battle-axe, Jarnbjorn, as an alternate weapon.
* In the first arc of Creator/JamesRobinson 's ''Comicbook/{{Starman}}'' series, "Sins of the Father", Jack Knight loses the cosmic rod that his father gave him and has to rely on his father's much older gravity rod.
* In one [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Star Wars comic]] starring Boba Fett, a rival bounty hunter raids Fett's hideout and steals his armor so he can leech off Boba's reputation. Fett is having none of this and breaks out his father Jango Fett's old armor.
* Parodied in one ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comic when Orion Pax, unarmed and under fire from a gang of {{Mooks}}, grabs an ancient gun mounted on a nearby wall and turns to shoot his attackers... [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome only for the gun to click uselessly because it hasn’t been loaded for decades]]. Orion’s only response is [[OhCrap a quick "dammit"]] before running for cover.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': In [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie Sandsmark]]'s first outing she "borrows" some ancient magical artifacts which grant her strength and flight from an exhibit her mother is overseeing in order to help Franchise/WonderWoman.

-->-- '''ComicBook/{{Batman}}''' taking out the Bat-Tank in ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' after ten years

* ''Court Martial'' by Creator/SvenHassel. Tiny and Porta find an ancient 104mm field piece hidden in a Russian barn and decide to shoot it off for a laugh. At that moment the [[StateSec NKVD]] attack in motorised sledges, so they briefly use the gun to defend themselves until the barn burns down around them.

* In Creator/FrederickForsyth's novel ''The Fist of God'', Saddam Hussein's government deliberately uses an outmoded method of refining uranium in order to avoid notice until shortly before the Persian Gulf War. A British Arabist, consulting a retired American nuclear physicist, analogizes:

* In ''Ghost Fleet'' by Creator/ChristopherAnvil, an old museum ship is used as the flagship of a sacrificial deception fleet. As things turn out, it includes a shield against a long-obsolete weapons system -- and the enemy's new secret weapon is ''also'' an example of this trope.

* The eponymous corps of Joel Rosenberg's ''[[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/joel-rosenberg/not-for-glory.htm Metsada Mercenary Corps]]'' series are forbidden by convention from using military technology more advanced than the enemies they've been hired to fight (thus, they use spears and shields against a Bronze Age culture, muskets against a 17th-century level culture, etc.). The protagonist's uncle in ''Not For Glory'', the third book in the series, is renowned for his skill at using the limited equipment he sneaks past the shrewd inspectors to the maximum advantage. Against the Bronze Age opponents mentioned, [[spoiler:he jury-rigs hang-gliders out of the tents he is permitted to bring, giving his forces a bit of air mobility]].

* Stewart Cowley's ''Terran Trade Authority'' universe features this trope in the Laguna Wars in ''Great Space Battles''. The centrally controlled human battlefleet is vulnerable to the Lagunans' control-systems disorientation weapon and the manual backup systems are grossly suboptimal, so the mothball fleet of a previous era -- actually ''designed'' for independent manual control -- is hauled out of retirement. In the last-ditch defence of Earth against a powerful enemy fleet, the disorientation device is destroyed and the modern ships win the day, but when they push into enemy territory they find that the ultimate strategic victory has already been won by the museum fleet.

* In Valentin Pikul's novel ''Wealth'', set during the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar, the protagonist, governor of remote Kamchatka, faces a Japanese landing with only a handful of Cossacks under his command. What does he do? Breaks out some old [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRifles 1860s Berdan rifles]] from an abandoned army depot and arms a militia with these guns.

** In the [[Film/IndependenceDayResurgence sequel]], the Earth's entire satellite network was destroyed, so when they're anticipating a full-scale attack on Area 51, they use an antique radar that was going to be sent to the Smithsonian for display in order to detect the incoming fleet.

* Played with in ''Film/GodzillaMinusOne'' where a demilitarized Japan has to restore military equipment that's been decommissioned as part of the terms of surrender, including the heavy cruiser ''Takao'', and a prototype fighter that's been left to rust after being hidden in preparation for a mainland invasion that never occurred.

** Although not mentioned in the first game, the novel ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' goes into detail about how the UNSC ''Pillar of Autumn'' was an old Halcyon-class cruiser that was originally scheduled for scrapping but then brought back into service when war broke out against the Covenant. She was also heavily modified near the end of the Covenant War in order to help the [[SuperSoldier Spartan-II Supersoldiers]] conduct Operation: Red Flag. [[note]] A plan to capture a Covenant ship and use it to travel to the Covenant homeworld and take one of their leaders captive in the hopes of using said leader as a hostage to try and forcibly negotiate a ceasefire.[[/note]] Unfortunately, the plan had to be prematurely cancelled when the Covenant attacked the main UNSC base on the planet Reach, and the ''Pillar of Autumn'' had to be recalled to help defend the colony. The ''Autumn'' barely managed to escape when the battle was lost. and during her escape, she ended up discovering the titular Halo ring at the beginning of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Zaeed tells Shepard about his favorite rifle, [[ICallItVera Jessie]], which he used until it finally jammed and would no longer fire. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Shepard can learn that Zaeed has custom-ordered the parts and equipment necessary to restore Jessie to functionality, in order to be able to carry the rifle into the battle against the Reapers.
** In the third game's ''Citadel'' DLC, you can acquire an old First Contact War-era M7 Lancer (which the memory-retentive fans may recall is the model of assault rifle available at the start of the first game). It has the old-style pre-thermal-clip cooldown mechanic and has been "upgraded with modern small arms tech" to be relevantly powerful compared to modern small arms.

** Although not mentioned in the first game, the novel ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' goes into detail about how the UNSC ''Pillar of Autumn'' is an old Halcyon-class cruiser that was originally scheduled for scrapping but then brought back into service when war broke out against the Covenant. She was also heavily modified near the end of the Covenant War in order to help the [[SuperSoldier Spartan-II Supersoldiers]] conduct the bold Operation: Red Flag. [[note]] A plan to capture a Covenant ship and use it to travel to the Covenant homeworld and take one of their leaders captive in the hopes of using said leader as a hostage to try and forcibly negotiate a ceasefire.[[/note]] Unfortunately, the plan had to be prematurely cancelled when the Covenant attacked the main UNSC base on the planet Reach, and the ''Pillar of Autumn'' had to be recalled to help defend the colony. The ''Autumn'' barely managed to escape when the battle was lost. and during her escape, she ended up discovering the titular Halo ring at the beginning of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''.

** ''VideoGame/HaloWars'': The in-game encyclopedia and other background material state that the UNSC ''Spirit of Fire'' is an old Phoenix-class colony ship that was purchased by the UNSC Navy after she had reached the end of her civilian service. She was then modified to act as a hybrid warship, carrier, and troopship for combat operations during the [[CivilWar Insurrection]] before participating in the early years of the Human-Covenant War.

** Although not mentioned in the first game, the novel ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' goes into detail about how the UNSC ''Pillar of Autumn'' is an old Halcyon-class cruiser that was originally scheduled for scrapping but then brought back into service when war broke out against the Covenant. She was also heavily modified near the end of the Covenant war in order to help the [[SuperSoldier Spartan-II Supersoldiers]] conduct the bold Operation: Red Flag, a plan to capture a Covenant ship and use it to travel to the Covenant homeworld and capture one of their leaders to take hostage. Unfortunately, the plan had to be prematurely cancelled when the Covenant attacked the main UNSC base on the planet Reach, and the ''Pillar of Autumn'' was recalled to help defend the colony before going on to escape once the battle was lost and discovering the titular Halo ring at the beginning of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''.

** ''VideoGame/HaloWars'': The in-game encyclopedia and other background material state that the UNSC ''Spirit of Fire'' is an old Phoenix-class colony ship that was purchased by the UNSC Navy after she had reached the end of her civilian service and then modified to act as a hybrid warship, carrier, and troopship for combat operations during the [[CivilWar Insurrection]] before participating in the early years of the Human-Covenant War.
** Although not mentioned in the first game, the novel ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' goes into detail about how the UNSC ''Pillar of Autumn'' is an old Halcyon-class cruiser that was originally scheduled for scrapping but then brought back into service when war broke out against the Covenant. She was also heavily modified near the end of the Covenant war in order to help the [[SuperSoldier Spartan-II Supersoldiers]] conduct the bold Operation: Red Flag, a plan to capture a covenant ship and use it to travel to the Covenant homeworld and capture one of their leaders to take hostage. Unfortunately, the plan had to be prematurely cancelled when the Covenant attacked the main UNSC base on the planet Reach, and the ''Pillar of Autumn'' was recalled to help defend the colony before going on to escape once the battle was lost and discovering the titular Halo ring at the ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'', several museum-pieces pop up as 'Secret' HumongousMecha, rewards for fulfilling more-or-less insane requirements. In almost every case, they're extremely powerful, often Hand Waved as being a SuperPrototype, or having been retired originally due to being too powerful to handle. Perhaps the crown of it is the Gespenst 001 -- the very first prototype of the very-first HumongousMecha designed in the world. For comparison, by the time of the first OG game, the basic RedShirt mecha is the mass-produced Gespenst MK-II -- the weakest machine you'll ever lay your hands on. And yet, the 001 is capable of keeping up with state-of-the-art Super Robots...
** The 001 you use is a rebuilt version courtesy of the local HumanAliens. And considering that the entire Gespenst series are inferior copies of Gilliam Yeager's SuperRobot / EldritchAbomination XN Giest from HeroSenki, the closest copy should be a top-tier Super Robot.
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsX'': Pretty much every faction from the [[Anime/GundamReconguistaInG Reguild Century]] recreates old Mobile Suits from Universal Century-era blueprints in place of developing any new suits of their own (only the Capital Army's Catsith and Mass-Produced [=MacKnife=], as well as Towasanga's Moran, make it in as grunts in the game). They are distributed as follows:
** Capital Army: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Jegan]] (Kerbes of the Capital Guard also has one as his default unit when he shows up)
** Towasanga and the G-IT Corps: [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Gaza-C]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Gaza-D, Zssa, Dreissen, and Doven Wolf]]
** Towasanga: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Geara Doga]] (some [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Musaka-class ships]] are also seen in a cutscene)
** G-IT Corps: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Dwadge and Zaku III]]. Also, Kun uses the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Alpha Azieru]] (with a special system to let her use its Funnels without her needing Newtype powers) instead of anything she piloted in the show.
** Ameria: Klim and Mick initially pilot identical replicas of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Gyunei and Quess's Jagd Dogas]] (though, since they're not Newtypes, they can't use their Funnels).

** Prior to the start of hostilities, the British Royal Navy had a large number of warships, ranging from Pre-Dreadnought Battleships to Armored Cruisers, that had been decommissioned and/or placed in reserve. Most of these ships were built in the late 1890s and early 1900s and were so old and outdated that many of them were already scheduled to be scrapped. The start of the war, however, changed all of that, as the need to protect Allied supply lines at sea, as well as the need to protect the British Isles from the Imperial German Navy, which at the time was the second largest and most powerful in the world after Britain, meant that the Royal Navy was forced to reactivate several of these ships and place them back into service, barely functioning and crewed mostly by inexperienced reservists.

* ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'':
** The 20-year-old (actually 40-years-old)[[note]]The reason for the age discrepancy: “The Search for Spock” was about twenty years after the premiere of the original show and the film notes the MilestoneCelebration by announcing that to be Enterprise’s age. However, there were {{Time Skip}}s between Pike’s era in the Cage\The Menagerie and the show’s main era, and more years InUniverse than out-of-universe between the show and the first movie, ''and'' the first and second movies, AND the ship was not said to be new in The Cage! Even before WordOfGod and AllThereInTheManual weighed in on the ship’s age years later, it was obvious even at the time that the Enterprise had to be MUCH older than the age the franchise happened to be at the time.[[/note]] ''Enterprise'' outruns the Young Whippersnapper ''Excelsior'', thanks to Scotty disabling the ''Excelsior'''s engines.
--->'''Scotty:''' The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.
** The 20 (or even 40) years does look quite a bit less impressive when later television shows reveals that the ''Excelsior''s were still in common use nearly a ''century'' after their introduction (''then again'', a piece of wreckage shown after a major battle hints that there were still ''Constitution''-class ships (that's the TOS ''Enterprise'''s class) available for use as late as 2367, more than a century after the first confirmed use in the original reality). Starfleet gets a lot of mileage out of its designs. (The reason we don’t consider the ''Excelsior''-class a case of this: there’s no sign that they were ''ever'' out of service!)
* In ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', the crew of the late ''Enterprise'' discovers the U.S.S. ''Franklin'', an over 100-year ship that was the first Warp 4-capable starship (which means this was around before the [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise NX-01]]). It was repaired and modified to save the day. Keep in mind, back in those days ships were armored with, well, ''armor.'' Meaning that the ''Franklin'' could take a ton of abuse without shields online and still keep on a tickin'. Comes in real handy when you don't really have enough power for good shields anyway even if you had any. Even old and worn, a FlyingBrick in ship form can still shine with the best.

* In one of the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries ST:TOS]]'' ''Literature/LostYears'' novels, ''A Flag Full Of Stars'' desk-bound post-series/pre-TMP Kirk uses the refitted Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'' (taken out of mothballs and refitted to participate in the 300th anniversary celebration of the Apollo Moon Landings) to aid new 1701 CO Will Decker, commanding the in-the-midst-of-refit starship ''Enterprise''.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel "Crossover" Scotty steals a century-old ''Constitution''-class starship to rescue Spock from the Romulans. It's nonetheless a better choice than any other Federation ship because it still has the cloaking device that Kirk's crew stole from the Romulans in ''The Enterprise Incident''. Bonus points for having the ''Yorktown'' refit with the bridge of the original ''Enterprise'' for the museum. Also, Scotty made sure not to make the same mistake as in the third film. This time, he routed all the controls through a 24th-century shuttle computer, which worked just fine. Unfortunately, the Romulans have upgraded their sensors within the last century and spot him pretty quickly. At least, after they realize what type of cloaking device is being used and calibrate their sensors accordingly; the old 23rd-century cloaking device apparently has completely different operating principles than the 24th-century versions.
* The ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Before Dishonor'' states that TheFederation has an entire planet known as "The Museum World". Picard takes the Enterprise E there (against Starfleet's orders) to reactivate The Doomsday Machine, from the TOS episode of the same name, in order to use it against a Sentient Borg Super Cube which is threatening Earth (and has already '''eaten''' {{Pluto|IsExpendable}}).

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''
** In "The Siege", the runabouts are being used to evacuate Deep Space Nine, so Kira and Dax have to get working an abandoned Bajoran Resistance spacecraft from the Cardassian Occupation that's been sitting in a cave for over a year. The thrusters barely work, there's no emergency gear, no sensors, no impulse engines, and no leg room. Worse, the resistance engineers just cobbled such craft together out of whatever was at hand, so they're not very reliable even when they were new.
** During the Dominion War, we routinely see parts of the Federation fleet are made up of ''Miranda''- and ''Excelsior''-class vessels, which initially debuted ''over a hundred years ago'' and are ''still'' in active service. It's implied that some of these vessels were even taken out of mothball to replace lost ships and still manage to hold their own.
** The ''Miranda'' and ''Excelsior'' classes were actually in constant use for over 100 years, but the early models were usually mothballed after a while. But Starfleet kept building new ones with updated electronics and engines (they turned out to be far more economical than the massive ''Galaxy'' and ''Sovereign'' classes), so pulling the old ships out of retirement and bringing them up to modern standards was easy.
** In-universe, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers were considered to be at the MemeticBadass level. A Vorta (one of the enemy races in ''Deep Space Nine'') once stated that a Starfleet engineer could turn "rocks into replicators". Bringing old mothballed ships up to modern spec would be easy for such people.
* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', Vulcan soldiers in the Forge (an area where advanced technology doesn't work) carry lirpas, a traditional Vulcan polearm weapon with a circular guillotine on the end, most commonly used in ritual combat.
** Meta example in "In A Mirror, Darkly" in which the mirror crew take over the USS ''Defiant'' from the primary universe. From their perspective it's advanced futuristic technology, but to the viewer it's about seeing an original TOS-era Constitution-class starship powering up in all its glory.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E04AbsoluteCandor Absolute Candor]]", the Qiris sector warlord Kar Kantar has a ''TOS''-era Romulan Bird-of-Prey. It's not particularly dangerous on its own, as Rios notes it has an outdated targeting system and is less maneuverable than ''La Sirena''. However, fighting it is complicated by the fact that they also have to avoid Vashti's [[DeadlyForceField planetary defense system]] at the same time, and the Bird-of-Prey is fast enough that they can't simply warp away without disabling it. When a much smaller but modern fast-attack craft joins the fray, the Bird of Prey is crippled in short order.
** In the backstory leading to this, it's revealed that Picard tried to convince Starfleet to pull out mothballed ships for the evacuation of Romulus when the synth attack on Mars destroyed the dedicated fleet for it. Because of the sheer scale of the mission, as well as quickly changing attitudes, it was denied.
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS3E09Vox Vox]]", we find out that Commodore Geordi La Forge has been working on a major project at the Fleet Museum: [[spoiler:a completely refurbished and repaired USS ''Enterprise'' NCC-1701-D, using the saucer section of the D salvaged from ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' and various parts from other ''Galaxy''-class ships. Picard and the old crew of the D have to haul it out to battle a resurgent Borg threat when they take over the entire fleet, as the D isn't networked to the rest of the fleet and can't be remotely hijacked. The old horse still shows herself to be quite capable, taking on a giant Borg cube (much larger than a standard cube), although it helps that the cube is only 36% functional thanks to Janeway's actions in the ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' finale. Still Data manages to navigate the massive vessel as she dives inside the cube in order to reach the center, while dodging protrusions and evading weapons fire]].
** Earlier, Jack has a bright idea to [[spoiler:steal the cloaking device from the mothballed HMS ''Bounty'', the Klingon bird-of-prey Kirk used to go back in time to get some whales. Despite being over a century old, the cloak still works]].

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'':
** Despite the fact that there are rare, futuristic, and powerful laser and plasma weapons, often the best weapons around are still a good old-fashioned revolver, hunting rifle, or assault rifle, which have plenty of ammo lying around.
** UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln's personal rifle (along with his hat) can be taken in the National History Museum. [[LethalJokeItem It's one of the best weapons in the game.]]
** At one point the transmitter dish from a '''literal''' museum-piece spacecraft has to be used to restore Galaxy News Radio's broadcast range.
** The T-51b Power Armor in Fort Constantine, which the player helps Mr. Crowley gain access to in the quest "Shoot 'Em in the Head".
** Completing ''Operation: Anchorage'' grants access to a treasure trove of unique pre-War gear, including a Chinese [[InvisibilityCloak stealth suit]], a [[MagneticWeapons Gauss rifle]], and a non-degrading version of the aforementioned T-51b.
** All the laser rifles in the game are the [=AER9=] model, which was considered obsolete before the war. The [=AER12=] was used by most of the military at the time, with the remaining [=AER9=]'s being phased out and put in reserve. However, the [=AER9=] was considerably more durable than the other lasers replacing it, allowing its widespread use in the post-apocalyptic world.
* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', you help the Boomers raise a sunken B-29 bomber from Lake Mead, which is then repaired with parts from a literal museum-piece B-29 and used during the final battle at Hoover Dam. On a lesser time scale, the player can reunite the Enclave Remnants for further support at Hoover Dam, for which they break out their old ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''-era Advanced PowerArmor suits(the ones with the [[RageHelm insectoid helmets]]), and the Courier gets a suit as well. Another literal example is Vikki & Vance's 9mm submachine gun that was stolen from the death car exhibit, which the player can track down in an unmarked sidequest. Yet another unmarked quest earns you an [[AKA47 M1 Garand lookalike]] named [[ICallItVera This Machine]]. Expansions to the game can have you geting BAR automatic rifles, old police magnums, Tommy guns and .45 pistols.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekJudgmentRites'': This trope is the driving force behind an entire episode titled "Museum Piece". In this episode, Kirk, Scotty and Chekov are trapped inside a museum of technology when it gets overrun by terrorists trying to steal one of the exhibits. Thanks to Scotty, the team gradually disassembles pretty much every single ancient exhibit they can get to in order to [[LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard construct makeshift devices]] to help them get through the locked doors and eventually defeat the terrorists.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' is an interesting take on this concerning both the Federation and the Romulan Republic ships. The Tier-1 through Tier-4 ships (basically, the ships you use leveling up) are said to be ships pulled out of storage either because of the casualties caused by the Dominion War and the Federation-Klingon War that starts the game (Federation) and that these are all they really have and need time to make newer ships (Romulan Republic). Many of the ships used as end game ships are basically modern counterparts with the ability to use the old ship as skins.

In ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' a quest chain allows you to find the ship from the [[Videogame/XBeyondTheFrontier first X-Universe game]], the ''X-perimental Shuttle''. Despite being over twenty years old and rather banged up, it's one of the best M3s in the game, but also [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup irreplaceable]] and [[BlackBox impossible to reverse-engineer]].

** Prior to the start of hostilities, the British Royal Navy had a large number of warships, ranging from Pre-Dreadnought Battleships to Armored Cruisers, that had been decommissioned and/or placed in reserve. Most of the ships were very old and outdated, having been built in the 1890s, with many of them already scheduled to be scrapped. The start of the war, however, changed all of that, as the need to protect Allied supply lines at sea, as well as the need to protect the British Isles from the Imperial German Navy, which at the time was the second largest and most powerful in the world after Britain, meant that the Royal Navy was forced to reactivate several of these ships and place them back into service, barely functioning and crewed mostly by inexperienced reservists.

* In the James Garner film ''Film/{{Tank}}'', he plays an Army post's Command Sergeant Major (''the'' highest ranking enlisted man) who owns a WWII era Sherman tank. When his son is framed and then threatened on the local sheriff's "work farm," he resigns from the Army and uses his tank to bring his son across the state line, where an extradition hearing would expose the sheriff's corruption. The sheriff gets a local retired Army man to break out ''his'' anti-tank rocket launcher to stop him. (The sheriff spins the story so the CSM looks like ''he's'' breaking out a criminal from a legitimate jail.) [[spoiler:They make it, with some help.]]

* ''Anime/SteinsGate'': [[FiveManBand The gang]] has to find an [[BlandNameProduct IBN]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100 5100]] to run some legacy machine code to unravel the plot.

* The entire premise of ''Anime/UchuuSenkanYamato'', although the ''Yamato'' has been extensively retrofitted with state-of-the-art weaponry (including the WaveMotionGun) and the engines have been replaced so it can complete its mission [[InSpace IN SPACE!]] Although the hull had some changes done during all the series, the Wave Motion Gun's place at the bow doesn't change appearances a lot. Meanwhile, the bridge is an all-new Space-age and even has pointy glass protectors, as well as a set of wings on the very top. And the funnel [[spoiler:is now housing ''several'' missiles]], and the entire stern was sort of just cut off and instead you have a massive rocket booster powered by the almighty Wave Motion Engine. [[spoiler: Fun fact, the Wave Motion Engine actually works with vacuum as explained in the original series and the 2013 remake, making it seem like a glorified "Space vacuum cleaner"]]

** In ''ComicBook/{{Batman 66}}'', a villain breaks into Wayne Manor and steals the William Shakespeare bust that hides the button to the Batcave's entrance. Since Bruce and Dick have no way to get into the Batcave, Alfred brings out a chest containing their prototype costumes. As a MythologyGag, the prototype costumes are the ones used during the initial screen tests for the ''Series/{{Batman}}'' live-action series, right down to the awkward oval-less Bat Ensigna.

* In the ''Literature/{{Nameless War}}'' with an alien battle fleet bearing down on Earth, the outnumbered defenders reactivate a collection of obsolete cruisers left over from the last war. The less than enthusiastic crews immediately dub this collection of antiques The Geriatrics.