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)
- DONE - 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
- 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)
- Oh, don’t forget the “Game Poy” in the Boo arc.
- 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)
- Oh, Col. Silver had a Ford F100, I believe (Even says FORD)