Celebrate TRON’s 30th Anniversary With The Best In TRON-Inspired Tech


TRON was released to over 1000 screens in the US on this day 30 years ago. Now on TRON‘s 30th birthday and with a successful sequel under its belt, it’s time to take a look at some of the best real world creations the TRON franchise has inspired over three decades.

Admittedly, most of these are forms of transport with just a few gadgets thrown in, but riding around bathed in soft blue light sure beats taking a Solar Sailer home.

Lightcycle


The Evolve Xenon is the production name for the world’s first, road-legal electric Lightcycle. It’s decked out in the style of Tron: Legacy’s Lightcycles, save for the blue streak of glass-like light trailing the rider. Oh, sorry. Did I say road-legal? I meant road-legal in the US. You see the bike doesn’t comply with Australian vehicle design laws, meaning it can never be registered and therefore never ridden legally in this country. That sounds like the MCP’s work to me.

Segway


It had to happen eventually. The nerd’s favourite mode of transport (in the US anyway) is the Segway, and what better way to geek-out your two-wheeled nerd-mobile than to deck it out with TRON-like light designs.

Light Surfing

OK, so it’s not TRON-related, but it’s in the same oeuvre, and it’s still amazing. It’s actually an ad for Strongbow that sees surfers riding on light-emblazoned boards to celebrate the arrival of summer. Tres’ cool, surfing drunks.

Tron Light Disk Audio Dock

Monster know how to appease geeks like me. It’ll look great on your desk and sound even better when blasting out a bit of Daft Punk, and if you absolutely need it in your life, it’s down from the original price of $US349.95 to $US97.94 from Amazon.

Tron Guy

Of course TRON inspired some pretty amazing cosplay. Tron Guy, real name Jay Maynard, is an example of how not to do cosplay and made a name for himself after stuffing his paunch inside one of the film’s iconic full-body lightsuits. Maynard was actually forbidden to wear his iconic costume at a screening of Tron: Legacy, as he was told it would be “too distracting“.

Tron: Collector’s Edtion:

But in reality the best piece of TRON tech is the Blu-ray collector’s edition that some thought would never see the light of day. Disney flat-out refused to release the 1982 original film before the long-awaited sequel hit screens — most likely out of sheer embarrassment. Personally I think it’s a tad insulting that Disney doesn’t think we can forgive a film for looking like it was made in 1982. I’m sure Avatar will look incredibly stupid in 30 years too. You can score it from JB Hi-Fi right now for $33.99.

Stay tuned for some more TRON goodness this evening.

Image: Disney


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