Fictional Starship comparison

[MichaelC]

Stumbled on this comparison of fictional starships which also includes some real world objects for reference, like the ISS and Dragon X and Earth among other things.

https://youtu.be/aTPwbVqU6lc

I never heard of some of these, because I never payed the games or have not seen a movie or series (Transformers for example). Some of the exclusions are interesting. Firefly is not in there but the Tohoku class ship is included. That's the big one used by the Alliance. The Enterprise NCC1701 and NCC1701-D are included but not the NX-01. Galactica from the 2004 series is included. I was curious how far he was going to go with this... and he did not disappoint.

I didn't realize how large some of these ships were. Atlantis is smaller than I thought. Titan AE and the Borg cube are far larger than I realized, same with the Apophis mothership. I did not realize Red Dward and Lexx were that large either.

The music throughout the video is a mix from various movies and games... it's actually pretty good the way they integrate different pieces.

 

[swiftdraw]

Yeah, there is a few size comparison charts floating around. Most are scaled around fighters to super star destroyer sizes amongst popular sci-fi/space opera settings. I did see one on Deviant Art that did planetary scale constructs, like the HALO ring worlds and Starkiller Base. They’re interesting if just to see the various IP’s vessels next to each other.

 

[MichaelC]

I've seen some charts in the past... but the way this one is presented is pretty good and it's extensive.

 

[papadage]

I've seen this guy's work before. The nice thing about him is that he adds ships as new movies/shows/games are released.

 

[Ragashingo]

No Serenity?

 

[whoisit]

Click to embiggen and see how many you recognize.

 

[Sulimo]

It made me happy to see the Hammerhead from Space: Above and Beyond and the Space Battleship Yamato in that video.

 

[LordFrith]

I very much appreciated that they included Lexx as well.

 

[thekaj]

I was surprised at the size of the Bebop. I know it can contain 3 other personal vehicles, but it always seemed smaller.

 

[molo]

No Culture GSVs?

Those average about 30km long. The biggest one is 200km.

And, of course, a single Culture GSV could probably destroy all of those other ships all by itself. At the same time. Within milliseconds.


/I miss Iain M. Banks

 

[LordFrith]

For the record, I would also like to say that I'm a fan of the Lexx series and their approach to biological ships: fast to build in large quantities, but pretty light on defense. Basically the full concept of a "disposable fighter", and very apropos of a civilization that very much devalues life.

Also, Lexx is a great example of a Fleet "Planet Killer", in that it has one major weapon, but pretty much zero defenses. That means that you don't have to worry about the captain of the ship suddenly deciding he's in charge of the empire.

 

[LordFrith]

No Culture GSVs?

Those average about 30km long. The biggest one is 200km.

And, of course, a single Culture GSV could probably destroy all of those other ships all by itself. At the same time. Within milliseconds.


/I miss Iain M. Banks

I think all of the other ships were present in a visual media already, unlike the Culture series.

 

[Semi On]

I was surprised at the size of the Bebop. I know it can contain 3 other personal vehicles, but it always seemed smaller.

Yeah, that one surprised me too.

 

[jbode]

No Serenity?

Star Fury, but no B5 or Agamemnon. BSG, but no Vipers or Raptors. Still cool, though.

 

[Jonathon]

No Serenity?

Star Fury, but no B5 or Agamemnon. BSG, but no Vipers or Raptors. Still cool, though.

The selection seems completely arbitrary-- the big Alliance cruisers from Firefly made it in, but Serenity itself didn't.

Seems like the artist was more interested in big capital ships and larger than in smaller craft (which, TBH, is probably the right call for something like this; the smaller ships are shown to scale with people all the time, so it's not unclear how big they are).

 

[Shavano]

I'm perplexed by the Millenium Falcon only being 35 m. It seemed like it should be bigger than that because they could stand up in it.

 

[StarSeeker]

I was surprised at the size of the Bebop. I know it can contain 3 other personal vehicles, but it always seemed smaller.

It's about the same size, length, as a modern US missile frigate. 145 m or so. But much wider. 60 m wide compared to 15 or so.

 

[Tom Foolery]

No Serenity?

Star Fury, but no B5 or Agamemnon. BSG, but no Vipers or Raptors. Still cool, though.

The selection seems completely arbitrary-- the big Alliance cruisers from Firefly made it in, but Serenity itself didn't.

Seems like the artist was more interested in big capital ships and larger than in smaller craft (which, TBH, is probably the right call for something like this; the smaller ships are shown to scale with people all the time, so it's not unclear how big they are).

FWIW they did include the White Star class ship from B5. Which is kinda cool. And I really dug the star furies back when B5 was on the air, I thought it was neat how they maneuvered, rotating while still in their initial trajectory.

 

[Scifigod]

The star furies are about the only ships I can readily think of that don't just operate as "fighter jets, but in space". Actually taking the physics into account was pretty damn cool.

The harvester from independence day 2 really makes me wish that movie had done better so we'd get a third. Something that size would pretty well fuck up the earth's entire balance of everything.

/Side topic, The ball deciding humans could finally take the fight back to the aliens could have been really cool to explore. Having humanity go from war of the worlds to XCOM to leading the rebel alliance would have had a ton of potential stories. Heck I'd probably watch a season of "the continuing adventures of warlord and accountant man" as some kind of sg1 like guerrilla unit.

 

[Coleman]

No Serenity?

I swear I remember seeing it in some of the older ones. Huh.

 

[MichaelC]

The BSG Vipers are something of a hybrid. They kinda move like jets but use thrusters to turn and spin.

And of course the ships in Firefly though we don't see dogfights, it's shown.

And the Expanse. The fights and general movement have been fantastic.

 

[Technarch]

No Serenity?

I swear I remember seeing it in some of the older ones. Huh.

The graphic has gotten so huge it's almost impossible to find specific ships that aren't at least Star Destroyer sized.

 

[Tom Foolery]

The BSG Vipers are something of a hybrid. They kinda move like jets but use thrusters to turn and spin.

And of course the ships in Firefly though we don't see dogfights, it's shown.

And the Expanse. The fights and general movement have been fantastic.

I got one of the original BSG Viper toys Christmas 1978. It was awesome, with a piece of red plastic that shot out of the front in a spring-loaded mechanism. At the time, when I grew up I wanted to be Starbuck...

 

[whoisit]

The BSG Vipers are something of a hybrid. They kinda move like jets but use thrusters to turn and spin.

And of course the ships in Firefly though we don't see dogfights, it's shown.

And the Expanse. The fights and general movement have been fantastic.

I got one of the original BSG Viper toys Christmas 1978. It was awesome, with a piece of red plastic that shot out of the front in a spring-loaded mechanism. At the time, when I grew up I wanted to be Starbuck...

Wasn't that one of the toys that kicked off the whole choking hazard thing?

 

[papadage]

Along with the Shogun Warriors and Micronauts.

 

[Tom Foolery]

The BSG Vipers are something of a hybrid. They kinda move like jets but use thrusters to turn and spin.

And of course the ships in Firefly though we don't see dogfights, it's shown.

And the Expanse. The fights and general movement have been fantastic.

I got one of the original BSG Viper toys Christmas 1978. It was awesome, with a piece of red plastic that shot out of the front in a spring-loaded mechanism. At the time, when I grew up I wanted to be Starbuck...

Wasn't that one of the toys that kicked off the whole choking hazard thing?

Yes, unfortunately. My MIL was brainwashed by that she would freak out if my kids would put something larger than their own elbow. OMG THEY'LL CHOKE!!!!

It was cool, but I remember being a little disappointed at the time. You see the projectile fired out of the nose of the Viper, whereas on the show the laser bolts clearly came from the little doohickey on the "wings."

Not too disappointed, though, and I lost the little red projectile approximately 3 hours after I opened it Christmas morning. We found it four years later when we were doing spring cleaning, along with a $1.57 in change in the sofa cushions.

 

[Visigoth]

The BSG Vipers are something of a hybrid. They kinda move like jets but use thrusters to turn and spin.

And of course the ships in Firefly though we don't see dogfights, it's shown.

And the Expanse. The fights and general movement have been fantastic.

I got one of the original BSG Viper toys Christmas 1978. It was awesome, with a piece of red plastic that shot out of the front in a spring-loaded mechanism. At the time, when I grew up I wanted to be Starbuck...

Wasn't that one of the toys that kicked off the whole choking hazard thing?

I have one of the safe non-firing Cylon raider toys. Guess they came in two versions, firing and safe and my mom got the safe one. Still in decent shape after all this time though the Cylon pilot has been MIA since around 1979 or so.

 

[Tom Foolery]

Oooooo, Star Fury plans on Thingiverse!!! I know what I'm doing this weekend!

 

[Visigoth]

Oooooo, Star Fury plans on Thingiverse!!! I know what I'm doing this weekend!

A word of caution, check to see how well it slices for your printer. I looked at that model a couple years ago but when I slice it (I tried Cura and Slic3r) and look at the layer visualizations there are bits that don't print. The biggest would be the tips of the fins around the engine along with some other detail bits on both the front and back parts of the print. I'm guessing that those details are too fine for the 0.4mm nozzle I have so the slicer is leaving those bits out. But maybe you'll have better luck with your printer/slicer.

 

[MichaelC]

The BSG Vipers are something of a hybrid. They kinda move like jets but use thrusters to turn and spin.

And of course the ships in Firefly though we don't see dogfights, it's shown.

And the Expanse. The fights and general movement have been fantastic.

I got one of the original BSG Viper toys Christmas 1978. It was awesome, with a piece of red plastic that shot out of the front in a spring-loaded mechanism. At the time, when I grew up I wanted to be Starbuck...

I remember seeing ads for those. I don't think anyone I knew had one. One guy had a bunch of star wars toys... ships. I remember him showing me the y bomber and thinking "that was in the movie?" and then, how do you know what it's called? Are you sure it isn't a u bomber*? The x-wings were easy enough to figure out. of course this would all be on the packaging but I never saw any of that.



* not a pun, though he began in 1978, this was decades before that guy was known to the general public.

 

[Scifigod]

Oooooo, Star Fury plans on Thingiverse!!! I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Sekrit Santa if you're listening...

 

[Louis XVI]

Along with the Shogun Warriors and Micronauts.

I had the toy viper, several Shogun warriors, and a bunch of Micronauts as a kid. It’s a wonder I survived.

 

[rain shadow]

My spaceship is an eight and 3/17.π dimensional Dyson hypertoroidagon encompassing several googleplexes worth of big bang universes much larger than your universe.

it is however, somewhat smaller than your mom.

 

[Diabolical]

Two ships I would have liked to see:
Gunstar. (Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League...)

And!

The Arcadia, ship of Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Because it is an old OLD anime I remember watching with my Mom when I was quite small.

Otherwise, very very cool.

 

[Technarch]

Two ships I would have liked to see:
Gunstar. (Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League...)

And!

The Arcadia, ship of Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Because it is an old OLD anime I remember watching with my Mom when I was quite small.

Otherwise, very very cool.

The Arcadia kicks ass! One other ship I'd have liked to see, though it would hardly be visible, is the Milano from GotG. But maybe it's on there and I just couldn't find it.

 

[MichaelC]

it's in the second row

https://youtu.be/aTPwbVqU6lc?t=138

 

[Louis XVI]

Is the Aniara on there anywhere?

 

[Ragashingo]

Oh! It's the wrong Heart of Gold! That's what's been bugging me about that video for the past few days. I've read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and listened to the radio drama, but I don't think I've ever seen that older version of the ship.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

Two ships I would have liked to see:
Gunstar. (Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League...)

And!

The Arcadia, ship of Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Because it is an old OLD anime I remember watching with my Mom when I was quite small.

Otherwise, very very cool.

RE: The Arcadia

One thing I started to hope against all rationality would show up was the alien spaceship from Project A-Ko, which satirizes the Arcadia and Harlock among a multitude of other things.

 

[MichaelC]

Oh! It's the wrong Heart of Gold! That's what's been bugging me about that video for the past few days. I've read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and listened to the radio drama, but I don't think I've ever seen that older version of the ship.

That's the correct Heart of Gold.

Ok, the movie was not terrible, but a lot of the humour fell flat for me. The 1981 mini-series is fantastic however, and I still like to re-watch it today.