Talk:Real-world References in Dragon Ball

Notes from the Discord:

The car Yamcha gives the others after destroying their aircar is a Fiat-Abarth 695, a custom version of the Fiat 500.
(Abarth and its distinctive scorpion logo show up a lot in Dr. Slump)
Kame-Sen’nin is noted by Daizenshuu 7 as driving a “Cadillac” to the airport when they set out for the 21st Budōkai, although no model is specified and it kind of looks like an amalgam of a couple different models / model years from the late 1950s to early 1960s.
That van from the end of the same arc is a Fiat model if memory serves (but it doesn’t so someone should confirm)
The Pilaf Gang are seen driving a Mercedes-Benz SL560 at the end of the Red Ribbon arc. (Guidebooks get the brand right but the model wrong, calling it an “SE550”, which doesn’t exist)
That plane that takes them to the 21st Budōkai is specifically a Junkers Ju 52, a Weimar–Nazi-era aircraft produced in Germany.
Here’s a model kit of that plane by Airfix: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-72-AIRFIX-JUNKERS-Ju-52-MODEL-KIT-1507-150-/283098677709
eBay
1/72 AIRFIX JUNKERS Ju-52 MODEL KIT # 1507-150
The decals are very yellowed and may not work, instructions included. Box is not perfect but nice. TO GOD GO ALL THE GLORY! | eBay!

I don’t know if it counts as a “brand”, but Bulma’s nightgown in chapters 2–4 has a patch for the First Armored Division of the U.S. Army.
And Kaiō’s sportscar, while identified only as such in guidebooks, is clearly a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, with an aftermarket hoodscoop
The Red Ribbon plane that takes Goku to Jingle Village is a Horten Ho-IX (aka Gotha Go-229), an experimental Nazi aircraft produced in late WWII.
I have a faint recollection of one guidebook or another referring to it with the latter name.
I have searched in vain for a real-life version of Col. Yellow’s biplane, but have thus far come up empty-handed.
Oh, and there’s someone walking around the 21st Budōkai site with a “LUMA” shirt, Luma being the author’s favored brand for color ink. (He used ordinary Pilot document ink for black)
As you can probably tell, Toriyama was big on what TVTropes calls a “line-of-sight name”
Anything that happened to be around him, he tended to work into his comic. Brands, names, designs…
Oh, don’t forget the “Game Poy” in the Boo arc.
From here, if you start including title pages, the list just keeps getting longer.
DONE - Oh, Kame-Sen’nin’s video shelf at Kame House in chapter 24, including (from memory) a copy of “The Goonies”. Someone with the chapter handy can put up a screenshot to identify. 
(I also seem to remember him also having a shelf of Jump somewhere in his house)