Category: Movies
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 364 – Tron Meon
Disney really missed a merchandise opportunity with this one. For Christmas, “Santa” got me a Meon picture maker, which is similar to a Light Brite but instead of illuminated pegs, this has glowing colored wires that can be bent and shaped over a picture. And while Disney has licensed their Cars and Princess franchises for Meon kits, they didn’t come out with a Tron one, which seems like an obvious choice for this new toy, and certainly the first thing I thought of when discovering it.
So despite the fact that my kit came with Star Wars backgrounds, I was determined to make it a Tron Meon. I found online a perfect light cycle promotional image for Tron: Legacy, printed it to the correct size, cut it out, and spent a couple hours outlining the red/orange and blue areas with Meon wire. The result is a purely awesome light-up Tron display that I will surely change out for more Tron pictures in the future. But for a while, I’ll enjoy this one.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 363 – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
After Michelle had enjoyed both the book and Swedish movie, we saw new American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” directed by David Fincher. It was a good movie, though the characters were far more interesting than the story itself, which was a bit too predictable. I did enjoy Rooney Mara’s portrayal of the title character and will gladly watch the upcoming two sequels with her, if they are made. Though I will likely watch the two Swedish versions long before that.
I was surprised to see a giant version of the somewhat revealing poster for the film in such an obvious spot outside the AMC Altamonte Springs theater though. It doesn’t offend me in the slightest and I applaud AMC for ignoring the ultra-conservatives and displaying this poster so prominently. It’s not the most revealing version of the poster, but that version would never fly in public in the United States, as it actually has (gasp!) partial nudity on it.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 362 – The Pumpkin King
Christmas may be over, but while enjoying our Christmas tree I spotted one particularly well-lit ornament hanging out on the side. It’s none other than the Pumpkin King himself, Jack Skellington, offering a few season’s screamings. This ornament is part of a 6-piece set from the Disney Store, new this year. And they look great when illuminated by the tree lights.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 360 – LEGO Darth Vader
My favorite present of the year was a surprise from Michelle: an oversized LEGO Darth Vader store display from Target. There were only 200 of these produced and they were not for sale, intended only as displays to be destroyed/discarded after a certain amount of time. But some weren’t destroyed and ended up on eBay instead, where Michelle nabbed one for me after I had told her repeatedly that I wish I could have one, every time we saw one in the store. And now I do!
It arrived with two red/black pairs of wires hanging out of the back. In the store, it was part of a larger display with lots of LED lights, a plexiglass front, and a battery pack holding 16 D batteries. So I had to figure out on my own how to power this thing. After wire cutting, splicing, electrical taping, and testing, I determined only 4 D batteries were truly needed to make it work.
So off to Radio Shack I went, the day after Christmas, in search of a solution. I came home with a project enclosure box, battery pack designed to hold 4 D batteries, and a toggle switch. After a couple hours of cutting, drilling, twisting, splicing, twisting (and scraping my hand with a drill bit meant for concrete), I assembled a perfect little battery box with a handy switch on top that turns on both the red light saber as well as the head/arm movement. But that wasn’t enough.
I also grabbed a Darth Vader breathing sound effect box I had previously purchased at Party City a couple months earlier, rewired its switch to allow it to toggle the sound loop on and off, and placed the whole thing in the back of the display. And in the end, it moves, it breaths, it lights up, and it’s awesome.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 356 – Projector Mounted
It took a few hours but I finally got the new 3D projector mounted, aligned, and calibrated in our home theater… and it looks great! Not only is the 3D aspect fun, but it’s also a step up from the previous projector in general, as it’s 1080p instead of just 720p. The other projector looked wonderful, but this one is even better. I look forward to watching many movies on it in the new year.
(Anyone want to buy the old one? Still for sale, if the price is right.)
