Tron
Released in 1982, Disney's Sci-Fi film Tron was an instant hit and blew people away with it's fantastic special effects. Basically, the majority of the movie took place within a crazy light spectacle, the Master Control Program (MCP). Tron, Flynn, and Yuri are "scientists" (basically big time computer dorks) who try and free the system from the MCP control. The movie was a huge hit at the box office for Disney. In addition, they hit gold with the stand-up arcade game that took the country by storm as well as a great line of action figures discussed herein.
The Japanese toy company TOMY acquired the toy license from Disney in 1981. Prior to this point, TOMY was mainly manufactured early robots and other mechanical toys. Disney contacted several companies looking for bids to carry the line but TOMY was anxious to test the action figure market to try and capture some of the success of Kenner's Star Wars line. In 1982 TOMY released their Tron toy line which consisted of only four figures and two light cycles. The four figures were: Tron, Flynn, Sark and a Warrior. All of the figures were molded from a really great transparent plastic and came with glow in the dark accessories. Tron and Flynn are actually not the same mold, but are quite close. All figures came packaged on the same generic gray card, identical for all four except for the tiny name stamp on the lower right in black ink, very hard to spot. The two lightcycles are also identical with the exception of color.
Neca re-released these action figures in 2002, all with identical molds and accessories. You can find them relatively cheap today.
Quick Links:
Tron
Flynn
Sark Warrior
TOMY made two light cycles. Ok, they made one that they made in different colors - red and yellow.
Disney probably dropped the ball by making the plot a bit too
deep. In typical Disney fashion, there are several underlying
"themes" to the movie. One major one is the spiritual relation
to Christianity. The MCP's arch-rival is the talented computer programmer
Flynn, `a god' who descends in the guise of a `mortal' (program) into the mortal
world of his creation (the computer). Flynn is a figure of Christ. Like Christ,
Flynn has special powers and once brings a friendly program back from the
dead. Note the combats, including an early gladiatorial contest (for where
else is a fight to the death called `a game' except in the Roman arena? and the
final contest's similarity to an early Biblical combat between a gargantuan
epitome of evil and a diminutive hero. According to this view, the episode at
the tower is a paradigm of prayer, an explicit attempt to communicate with the
other world. There, Tron submits a disc which ascends upward (toward the
spiritual domain). It is data, surely, but also words in a figurative sense, or,
one might say, thoughts. Dumont, the tower guardian, or rather, the `temple'
guardian acting as priest speaks this oracle which summarizes the meaning of
Tron: `All that is visible must grow beyond itself and extend into the realm of
the invisible.' He says this in the supposed center, the core of the highly
material and technological world in which we now live, the computer. Deep,
huh? Yeah. Just dont pay attention to the plot if you go watch the
movie again.
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