For Father’s Day weekend, I took a road trip with my son, his wife, and their baby boy to visit my father, mother, and sister. Being as my son and I are both nerds, I pitched this article idea to him. We started to think about what vehicles from the various nerd universes that we would like to travel in.

This list is what we came up with:

Avengers Quinjet

The Avenger’s Quinjet first appeared in Avengers #61 in February 1969 and was designed by the Wakanda Design Group under the guidance of Black Panther. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Quinjet was created by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Mystery Machine

The origin story behind the van that Scooby, Shaggy, and the rest of the Mystery Inc gang solved mysteries in is quite simple. The previous owners were a band called the Mystery Kids and the van was painted by the keyboardist Flash Flannigan. After the band broke up, they sold the van to Fred Jones.

Light Cycle

Who would not want to ride around in one of these from the Tron franchise? Whether it be the 1st generation cycles from the first Tron designed by Syd Mead or the 5th generation cycles from Tron Legacy designed by Daniel Simon.

Magic Carpet

I was an adult when I first saw the Aladdin animated film and even then, I was like a kid that wanted a magic carpet. The carpet was created thousands of years ago along with 99 other carpets by a sorcerer and carpet weaver named Khuriya. When he died, he sent his carpets out into the world where our Carpet that would befriend Aladdin got trapped in the Cave of Wonders.

Fantastic Car

The first appearance of the Fantastic Four’s Fantasi-Car was in Fantastic Four #4 in 1962. Throughout the years there would be many different versions of the first superhero family’s mode of transportation, but each version would be a dream to fly through the air in as most of the versions of this vehicle are in four different sections that can come apart and fly on their own. 

Doc Brown’s DeLorean DMC-12 Time Machine

How cool would it have been in the 80’s to own a DeLorean? Now, how cool it that DeLorean had also been a time machine? Well, that is what you got in the 1985 movie Back To The Future. I guess if they made that movie today, they would use a Hummer. All in all, at least they scrapped the original idea for a time machine which was a refrigerator.

Mach Five

As a kid who did not even have a driver’s license, I wanted the Mach Five. Watching Speed Racer let my imagination go on what it must be like to drive. As I grew into adulthood, my one question is why did Pop Racer build a race car with so many contraptions. In the real world, you cannot race with all that extra weight plus a trunk with a kid and chimpanzee.

Batmobile

It would stand to reason that an iconic superhero such as Batman would have an iconic car. The first appearance of the Batmobile was in Detective Comic #27 in 1939 and there have been many models since. The Batmobile is so popular that in all live-action or animated movies or shows with Batman the design of that shows specific Batmobile is up there with the costume of Batman himself.

K.I.T.T.

K.I.T.T. is an acronym that means Knight Industries Two Thousand and was driven by Michael Knight. Voiced by William Daniels, K.I.T.T. was the first smart car which was beyond anything we even have in 2021. What made the thought of having this car more realistic was that it was a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am which was something anyone could buy. You just would not have a self-thinking talking computer feature, but you could still drive it.

Nimbus 2000

Up until this point, we were used to seeing old witches ride brooms but when we saw Harry Potter ride his Nimbus 2000 that changed everything. Not only were fanboys and fangirls buying wands to cast spells, but the real collectors were buying copies of the Nimbus 2000 to have in their homes. However, I doubt these brooms could really fly but I can see myself buying one and jumping from the steps just to make sure I did not get lucky.

1987 Ford Crown Victoria – Men In Black

In the movie Men In Black, you needed a vehicle that does not stick out and that vehicle was a 1987 Ford Crown Victoria. But as Agent J quickly learned in his first time in the vehicle DO NOT TOUCH THE RED BUTTON. Of course, by the end of the movie they had to touch the button and you saw this car turn into almost a spaceship. Who would not want that?

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Out of all the Star Trek starships we could use we choose the original Starship from the series that started it all. The USS Enterprise was the first place on television where you would see all types of people working together as one. Being a show about space travel in the future you even had humans working side by side with aliens. In a show that came about during the height of the Civil Rights movement, this was the dream. Incidentally, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was a Trekkie.

Nebuchadnezzar

In the movie The Matrix, there was nothing romantic about The Nebuchadnezzer and maybe that was the appeal. This was a vehicle made for survival in a future where machines have taken over mankind and used humans as batteries. That was the cool thing about the Nebuchadnezzar it had apocalyptic defenses. Who does not want a ship like that?

Millennium Falcon

Throughout the franchise, the Millennium Falcon is thought of as a piece of junk at first sight. However, its owner Han Solo likes to brag how his ship was able to make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, which, apparently in this universe is a big deal. I will never fly in or own a real spaceship, but I think my bucket list is owning a big replica of the Millennium Falcon. I need to show this article to my kids as a hint for a Father’s Day, Birthday, or Christmas gift.

Now of course we did not name every fictional sci-fi mode of transportation, but we have a rather good list. Please, in the comments let us know what vehicles we missed that should have made our list.

Kenny Walker Jr

Leave a Reply