New Tron Legacy toys - Kevin Flynn's Light Cycle and Diecast Recognizer

On a whim the other night I thought to check the toy section of one of our local Target stores. To my surprise they already had a good selection of Tron Legacy toys to choose from. My favorites were Flynn's Light Cycle and the Recognizer.  They had the best design and really jumped out at me.  Only seeing one Recognizer and a few of Flynn's Light Cycle I quickly grabbed one of each.

They were completely out of the 3" Tron figures but I'm sure I'll fall victim to buying a few of those in the future. They Had Sam's Light Cycle, Clu's Light Cycle and a bunch of the bigger deluxe figures. They just didn't call out to me as much as the vehicles I chose.

From what I've seen of the other toys so far, Kevin Flynn's Light Cycle has impressed me the most.  I love the simple classic Tron inspired style and the white LED light is a nice addition. The Recognizer is nearly perfect in every way. For $3.99 I simply couldn't pass it up.  The only thing I would've liked is if the Light Cycle had sound. For the Recognizer there's really nothing to complain about for such a simple toy.

The main color scheme for Tron Legacy consists of  black, silver, white, blue and red.  I like how sleek everything looks but at the same time I'd love to see some solid bright colors.  Maybe some oranges and deep blues to kind of liven things up. All in all though this is a very promising line for an even more promising movie. I can't wait to see some of the series 2 toys.

TOMY really did a good job with the old Tron toys and I still own a handful of them loose.  The colors are great and the use of colored translucent plastic was really resourceful at the time of release.  Luckily for fans of the old line, the company Neca released the old line for promotion of the Tron 20th anniversary.  I was like a kid in a candy store with these and I purchased all of the figures and two of the light cycle sets. 

Excuse the grainy pic but I couldn't help but line these up together.  I was even able to snap a shot with the white LED going on the Light Cycle.  They don't have any problems getting along on my toy shelf and blend together nicely.  Well that end's my nerdy Tron toy post. I can't wait to see the Movie on Dec. 17th!

The Burning (1981) movie review

I watched this movie not expecting much more than a little nostalgia fix. It ended up being better than I expected and quite scary. The special effects provided by Tom Savini were pretty grizzly.  

It was great to see Jason Alexander in his first major film role as David, a witty kid who was trying eagerly to fit in. Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens also show up in this 80's horror classic.

The glue that holds the film together is the back story that it outlines early in the film. About 10 years have passed after the universally hated camp janitor, nicknamed "Cropsy", was burned severely in a prank gone wrong.  

He's out for revenge and doesn't have a problem taking it out on the same camp that nearly killed him years earlier. This creates an eerie build up to a new unsuspecting group of kids. They learn to know the story of Cropsy to only be legend and nothing more.

 The story progresses well and there doesn't seem to be any dry spots where the film lurches to a hault. Fisher Stevens is hilarious to see as "Woodstock".  He really looks as if he's only about 12 or 13 in this flick.  The character I related to the most was the camp nerd, Alfred, played by Brian Backer. He did a great job acting the part and you really had sympathy for the kid.

It follows a pretty standard camp horror film formula for most of the film but that's okay with me. Also since it's one of the earlier ones, it has some credibility. For me the early performances of some great actors to come gave me the real drive to watch this again.  If you're a horror fan, or even love films in a camp setting, check this one out. It won't let you down.  

*** 1/2 out of ***** for me.

Haha.  I've never seen Jason Alexander with so much hair.