Most iconic spaceships?

[Zardnaar]

Enterprise either TOS or TNG.

Star Wars probably the Falcon, X-Wing or ISD. Hell probably throw in a TIE fighter.

Then everything else.

 

[Ryujin]

Even in the genre of anime, Yamato is pretty far from the top. While it's often cited as influential, other sci-fi series like the Gundam universes and the Macross franchise are orders of magnitude bigger in terms of number of shows, movies, sales, spin-offs, and overall popularity. To give you an idea of the disparity in popularity we're talking about, Neon Genesis Evangelion has more sales in pachinko machines than the last internationally released movie from the Yamato series made worldwide.

Don't get me wrong, Star Blazers is on my list of top anime series, and it's one I have shared with my kids. But realistically, SDF-1, Gundam RX-78, and EVA 01 are all more iconic spaceships than the Yamato.

Now, it's worth noting that the Spaceship Yamato is (in the anime) literally the real battleship Yamato, raised from the ocean and refitted for space. So obviously there's a lot of iconic-ness due to it's real life history in WWII. It's probably fair to say that there's an entirely different population that would recognize the Yamato in that context. I think it got mentioned in one of my high school history classes. But that fame really shouldn't be transferred to it's recognizability as a spaceship.

"Influential" was sort of my go-to for something being iconic. That's why I mentioned Valley Forge. It was the first ship I can remember that had geodesic domes as pods, but many came after it.

 

[Corinnguard]

1. The B-Wing Fighter from Star Wars.
2. The USS Titan from the Star Trek: Titan series. One of the most racially diverse ships in Starfleet.
3. The White Star class from Babylon 5.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Ah, now Flash Gordon is iconic! His ship… that I don’t even remember!

Yeah, kinda feel the same. Also would say that about the Nostromo as well - sure I know Alien, but what the ship looked like? Couldn't tell you, and having just googled it - nope, I wouldn't recognize it as Nostromo.
I'd identify a ship like that Eagle (?) Shuttle from Moon Base Alpha, but probably only because I owned a model that was accomponied by a magazine that retold the story with pictures from the show. But I never saw the show.

I would probably also identify the Battleship Yamato (or is it Yamanato, I might actually be "wrong" about what I identify), just because I've heard of the anime without watching it and seeing such a WW2 naval vessel looking ship in space limits the options of what it could be.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I see some of the conflict in this thread over including both named ships and generic ships that are well-known designs. A named ship like the Enterprise or Millennium Falcon will always be more iconic than some random X-Wing or Tie Fighter. Iconic named ships will always win out over iconic ship designs.

I guess that depends on what you understand with iconic, but I think the way I interpret it:
If you see an image, you either know the name or the franchise it belongs to.

Another "test" idea (which might yield different results, who knows):
If you see a bunch of images from spaceships, each from a different franchise, you could tell me which of them belongs to Franchise X or is called [Starship Name/Class]

Another, more difficult "test" idea would be:
Question 1: Do you know a ship from Franchise X or Do you know the starship X
Question 2: If yes, try to describe or draw it (crude is okay, not everyone is an artist!)

 

[briggart]

The Yamamoto was the main ship in Star Blazers which was probably the first wildly popular anime outside of Japan. (I remember seeing it in the US in the 1970s.) While it's probably in the top 10 most recognizable ships, it's a big drop off from the top four or five.

In Italy, at least, I think the first hugely popular mecha/sci-anime were Goldrake (Grendzinger, I think in the US) and related series (Mazinger, The Great Mazinger, …) in late ‘70s. These things were shown in movie theaters back then. Captain Harlock with the Arcadia and Star Blazers came a bit later, or at least they grew in popularity later. Then we had Gundam, but by that time sci-fi anime were already a thing.

Anyway, for the OP, it’s too difficult for me to select just three, so I’ll break it down in 3 categories:

Live action Movies/TV
1) Millenium Falcon
2) Imperial SD
3) Enterprise 1701

I’d really wanted to put the Nostromo or the Galactica in there, but these 3 are in a league of their own.

Anime:
1) Yamato (exp. given its real world history)
2) Arcadia (blue, not green)
3) Macross SDF1

Videogames
1) SR Normandy
2) Pillar of Autumn
3) Citadel Station (System Shock)

Books, there’s just too many. Probably something like Clarke’s Rama, although I’m partial to the Banks’ Culture ships.

 

[Kannik]

Even in the genre of anime, Yamato is pretty far from the top. While it's often cited as influential, other sci-fi series like the Gundam universes and the Macross franchise are orders of magnitude bigger in terms of number of shows, movies, sales, spin-offs, and overall popularity. To give you an idea of the disparity in popularity we're talking about, Neon Genesis Evangelion has more sales in pachinko machines than the last internationally released movie from the Yamato series made worldwide.

Don't get me wrong, Star Blazers is on my list of top anime series, and it's one I have shared with my kids. But realistically, SDF-1, Gundam RX-78, and EVA 01 are all more iconic spaceships than the Yamato.

Now, it's worth noting that the Spaceship Yamato is (in the anime) literally the real battleship Yamato, raised from the ocean and refitted for space. So obviously there's a lot of iconic-ness due to it's real life history in WWII. It's probably fair to say that there's an entirely different population that would recognize the Yamato in that context. I think it got mentioned in one of my high school history classes. But that fame really shouldn't be transferred to it's recognizability as a spaceship.

I would put/guess the SDF-1 as well high on the list of recognition. Macross is/was quite the powerhouse.

That said, I would equally guess that the various NCC- Enterprises alongside various SW ships (with the Falcon, Star Destroyers, and X-Wings at the top) as being the most globally and generationally recognizable ships by far, both being from long and continual franchises that manage to re-re-reintroduce them to new audiences over generations. Everything else beyond those would drop off rapidly in recognition.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I guess that depends on what you understand with iconic, but I think the way I interpret it:
If you see an image, you either know the name or the franchise it belongs to.

Another "test" idea (which might yield different results, who knows):
If you see a bunch of images from spaceships, each from a different franchise, you could tell me which of them belongs to Franchise X or is called [Starship Name/Class]

Another, more difficult "test" idea would be:
Question 1: Do you know a ship from Franchise X or Do you know the starship X
Question 2: If yes, try to describe or draw it (crude is okay, not everyone is an artist!)

If a ship does not have a name, it cannot be as iconic as a ship with a name. Even the Enterprise can fall into this problem, as it is one ship of a specific class of ship, where there are many others that look just like it. This is why the Millennium Falcon ends up at the top of almost every list of iconic ships. Sure, they are other ships out there in the Star Wars universe that are the same class/type, but we never see them. So as far as people know, it is unique. And sure, people know X-Wings and Ties on sight, but when you have 50 of each in a space battle, no one cares when the ships get destroyed, so not that iconic and special. Give something a name and it becomes special, don't name it and it is just there.

 

[Zardnaar]

Here's an odd one perhaps.

Normandy from Mass Effect. More people have played those games than watch several popular shows.

Normandy (Mass Effect) - Wikipedia

A few million watch TV show (less than a million for some)

That trilogy sold tens of millions and got a re-release in 2021 as complete trilogy with all dlc.

 

[Thourne]

Here's an odd one perhaps.

Normandy from Mass Effect. More people have played those games than watch several popular shows.

Normandy (Mass Effect) - Wikipedia

Always makes me wonder which Normandy people think of when they think of it, 1 or 2?