UNBOXED with Doug Glanville

The Power of Tron: From Video Games to Household Boss

There are times when you are not exactly sure why something is considered memorabilia when it is relatively new, but I want to tell its story too. On a trip to Disney’s Magic Kingdom, I made a decision to ride the Tron roller coaster. I have never been a huge roller coaster fan, but Disney has a way of striking the perfect balance between thrill and not feeling impending doom.

I had heard that the Tron ride was extremely fast (nearly 60 mph), and since I was a huge fan of the movie and its accompanying Intellivision video games back in the 80s, I figured I had to try it despite my roller coaster trepidation.

After the ride, which was definitely fast, I discovered that Disney also has a Tron Identity experience where you can customize your own action figure. It is quite a production—from access key clearance to helmet style selection to video game machine packaging.

It helps that the action figure has a screen for a face, and through the Tron Identity personalization process, Disney can project your face and a few expressions into that window. It also lights up, capturing the glowing light bands from the Tron series.

They offered a few scripted voice lines that your new action figure will speak, but my first thought was that I wanted to create my own words of wisdom. I thought it would be a fun, yet ingenious, way to hound my kids about doing chores. Parents repeat themselves incessantly, so it makes sense to have a robot to drone on and on, repeating the same line in earshot of a teen looking at her phone. My new action figure would be just perfect for the mission.

So, I suggested a few lines of my own to the Disney cast member:

“Take out the trash!”

“Are you planning to leave that bowl there?”

“It’s bedtime! End transmission.”

Unfortunately, I was informed that I could not customize my lines, which immediately squashed my dream of hiding this avatar around the house to badger the kids to do their chores, but I continued on, thinking about other ways my new Tron could help me around the house.

I went with the stock boss movie lines that were on the board:

“End of Line!”

“Assemble the team!”

I was not sure how I could use those lines, but at least they might scare someone into moving a little faster.

The Tron movie had plenty of sport in it—from cool light cycle chases to identity discs that “derezz” opponents. It was cutting-edge technology for its time. As a kid, I always loved the good vs. evil dynamic, but more importantly, I loved the blue versus red, and Tron was all about that.

In my office, for my on-air background, I often have a smorgasbord of symbols behind me—Beaker the Muppet, a replica can of SPAM®, Wallace & Gromit, and more. But Tron deserves a place in the mix for pure background intimidation.

When it comes to the trinkets in my office, I lean into the happy times of my 80s childhood. In baseball, I was all about the Phillies, even though I grew up in Mets-Yankees country. So many of the iconic figures of that time take me back to baseball somehow, because no matter how much I liked the movie or the television show they came from, I would elect to watch a baseball game over anything else. So, my office shelves are filled with a lot of runners-up for my attention.

Tron lives on in so many ways, and I am glad to see the property still making an impact. It was a movie about someone getting sucked into a computer, so it had a lot of cool to it already. Now, as a Disney attraction, its stock only rises.

I became a master at the Tron Deadly Discs Intellivision game, topping one million points consistently, but the enemies never stop coming at you. It was a tough game, especially since you only get one life to play.

As the season progresses, I want to make sure Tron gets some air time whenever possible. And, when he’s not protecting my office, I will move him to the kitchen where he can help enforce household chore activity with his commanding words:

“Unidentified Users Detected!”

Maybe that will get those unnecessary glasses of water off of the counter and into the dishwasher.