Science fiction is fun because physics and lack of technology aren’t constraints. You can create any building or vehicle you can imagine, no matter how big or fast. Just as important, though is that you don’t have to worry about tedious things like budgets or having enough building materials. And when you’re free to make anything you want, no matter how ludicrous, you can get really, really outrageous. But as this new starships size comparison video shows, even when you think you’ve dreamed up something so enormous it defies belief, someone else has made something even more ridiculous.
And that something is Ringworld.
The fantastic YouTube channel MetaBallStudios from Álvaro Gracia Montoya is back with another size comparison video, and this time we’re looking at more starships than we can count. Previously he’s shown us the difference in scope between fictional creatures and planets. But this latest size comparison video is an extra-long, updated version of different fictional starships. It might also be his most incredible video yet.
Starting with the tiny Hocotate ship from Pikmin, which stands less than a foot tall at 30 centimeters, this video takes us through some of the most famous star crafts in pop culture. Of which there are a lot. And every time you think, “Wow, that’s bigger than I realized,” like with an Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer from Star Wars, you realize how small a lot of these other starships are in the world of sci-fi.
It’s when you get to the Borg’s Cube that you first come to appreciate how gigantic some of these starships really are, we guess that’s where the size comparison comes in. Then they get bigger. And bigger. And bigger. Until you’re no longer talking about anything the human mind can even comprehend. Because it’s impossible to truly understand the enormity of our Sun. So how can anyone process the scope of Star Trek‘s Dyson Sphere?
And Ringworld easily surrounds that.
How big would a galaxy have to be to even have enough materials to build something that big? Forget defying physics; the coolest thing about fictional starships is defying resource limits. We wonder if, in a future iteration of this starships size comparison video, a ship will ever top Ringworld.
Originally published September 30, 2020.