Laser Cycle & Robot
Review by JoshB
You know I love TRON. I love the classic Light Cycles, but they only made the vintage TOMY Light Cycle in 2 colors. NECA brought the goods when they produced a blue Light Cycle but did you know more colors were produced?
Hong Kong toy company TOY CITY produced their own, unlicensed Light Cycles that were nearly identical to the original except for one small detail – they were about ¾ the size.
These Light Cyles were released in blue, yellow, grey, red and green, at first boxed, and then on cards. Each cycle came with a bootleg Machine Robo capsule figure.
These are actually really high quality. The material is exactly the same as used in the full size toys – right down to the hard rubber wheel and die-cast metal inner wheel. In fact, the only difference is scale, and the trademarks.
This too includes a ripcord, but the old plastic has become brittle and will break if you try to use it. The wheel is also much tighter than on the TOMY cycles.
The small plastic robot is a bootleg Machine Robo (Gobot) capsule toy. It’s all plastic and completely transforms. Different toys had different robots – in this case it’s Forklift Robo (Spoons) with a slight modification – a heart has been added to the front of the forks.
These are fun little curiosities to add to your TRON collection, but very hard to find. Keep an eye out!
Comments
4 comments postedJB,
Super cool review and freaky that they did it smaller! Then the heart on the forklift!
LOL
LF
Not that I'll ever get it, but can the Transformers Human Alliance tiny humans fit in the cycle?
I woulda been all over that back in the day.
Hard to find is right... This is probably one of the more difficult to find TRON vintage items.
Getting one boxed complete is pretty tough, I've been looking for a couple years now.
The other hard to find TRON merch - the Medicom TRON stuff (like the big vinyls or the Microman-Sized figure/bike sets) isn't as difficult- it's just finding the figures and vinyls at reasonable prices. And more recently, the NECA Blue lightcycle has jumped in price since the movie, I wish I had picked that up.
I've seen these only a few times online and in person once. I'm still kicking myself for passing on them. Had I known i would never see it again I would have jumped on it.