TRON themed Bday party ... need help

[Tondi G]

Of course my DS2 has decided he is back in love with the whole idea of TRON and wants a Tron themed 7th birthday party. And of course once he made his decision I came to find there really isn't that much in the way of decorations and Tron themed party supplies available. We have the place (Tae Kwon Do school) and it is cool for us to get in there and really decorate ... use some glow in the dark stuff and maybe even some black lights if we want to go crazy. I have been searching for inspiration on what to do during the party

I was thinking an obstacle course would be fun ... found this glow party blog and thought we could incorporate some glow necklaces hop scotch like this into the obstacle course http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/01/glow-stick-party.html

and I was thinking we could have the kids each make an "Identity disk" ... my thought was black foam ring maybe use glow in the dark tape or paint.... or even glue glow sticks to them.... but I can't even find frisbees or foam disk/rings at this point. this is what the identity disks looked like in the movie

http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Disc

I've found a few sites/blogs with ideas for favor bags and invitations and cupcakes etc.

http://www.livinglocurto.com/2011/02/tron-party-free-printables/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonalley/5267043237/lightbox/

I'm trying to figure out the best place to buy glow necklaces .... anyone have a good source for these? I can usually get glow bracelets in the dollar aisle at Target..... reminder to self, pick up a bunch if I see them on the next trip to Target!

Anyone wanna jump in and get creative with ideas??? I have time ... party is not for a couple of months but I want to get started early so I am not left scrambling trying to get things in order (like I usually end up doing!!!!)

[MamaMolly]

What about using old CDs or DVDs for the disks? You could spray paint them matte black and then the kids could put glow tape or even neon paint on them. I don't know about you, but we have 90 bazillion of those old out of date software disks hanging around. I bet if you don't have enough your friends would donate. Or even nice BBB mamas would stick some in the mail for you...;)


eta:
there were a lot of spike-y circle things labeled under Tron on Etsy. These might do: http://www.orientaltrading.com/spike-bracelets-a2-25_5629-12-1.fltr?Ntt=motorcycles

and these little motorcycles are cute too: http://www.orientaltrading.com/wind-up-motorcycles-a2-12_3574-12-1.fltr?Ntt=motorcycles

[sariana]

That's so cool! I was trying to convince my son to do TRON for his 8th birthday this summer.

Can we come?

I think you already have some great ideas. I was joking we should do a TRON party at a laser tag place, but I like your idea better.

I wish I could think of some great ideas to share with you, but I'm drawing a blank. We watched the movie just last weekend, too, so I have no excuses!

If you find the Target glow bracelets, just get extras and match them up by color. If you put a few of the same color together, you can make them into necklaces.

The problem with using CDs for the discs is that you can't throw them to play the grid game. Those red flexible flying discs came to my mind, but I imagine that would be too expensive. What about plain old cardboard? Just save up cereal boxes or something for the next couple of months and cut out discs from those. You can spray paint them or whatever and let the guests decorate them.

Old CDs might make great decorations though, hanging on vertical threads. They would catch and reflect the light in interesting ways.

Have fun!

ETA: There are a couple of ideas here:

http://diybirthdayparty.blogspot.com/2011/01/tron-legacy-party.html

I couldn't find much.

[Uno-Mom]

wow, wow, wow. How cool is a 7-year-old that wants a Tron party??? :jammin:

[lorien_ca]

Sam's party last May was tron. We did a lego theme - the kids made Lego cars/light cycle like things as an activity and then we did a "battle on the grid" and lauched them down a long ramp in our basement. Building and launching the lego was a HUGE hit We did glow bracelets and necklaces (oriental trading had the best prices last year) at cake time in a dark room. I decorated a round cake as an identity disc using a bracelet and a necklace to outline the edges (because when your baby says "mom, wouldn't it be SO COOL if my cake GLOWED?!?!!!" you find a way to make it happen ;). I cut Sam's name/age out in a tron font from the same marshmallow fondant I covered the cake in. Google for tron font and you'll find a free one to download. I used it on the invites as well - Disney had some high quality jpegs up that I used as a background and then I text edited in the font with his party info. If you pm me, I will send you a copy once I'm home and can get on the laptop. We wrapped up with a piñata in the back yard - found one that was a H shape, cut off the two upper upright pieces, filled it and covered the holes with duct tape and painted it to look like a recognizer with craft paints.

[Tondi G]

Lori I sent you a PM

We initially were considering laser tag but then we realized that it is quite expensive for the birthday party packages. YIKES!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far!

[s7714]

DH suggested surrounding an entry way door with a Tron Recognizer (just google for an image of one if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Layout blue or white duct tape (or glow in the dark if available) into a grid pattern on the floor.

Could you maybe find a arcade rental company that you could rent Tron from to have available for the kids to play? Or do arcade rental places even still exist, LOL?

[Tondi G]

DH suggested surrounding an entry way door with a Tron Recognizer (just google for an image of one if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Layout blue or white duct tape (or glow in the dark if available) into a grid pattern on the floor.

Could you maybe find a arcade rental company that you could rent Tron from to have available for the kids to play? Or do arcade rental places even still exist, LOL?

I was thinking about tape on the floor but I'm not sure if we should put it all over the mat of the Martial arts studio (don't want sticky adhesive all over the place)

I would love to try to find the classic Tron arcade game to rent.... my husband would be on that thing all day though. He played one recently at Disney's California Adventure and had all these teenagers around watching him play (cause he was kickin butt)..... it was his FAVORITE arcade game when he was little! We were laughing while standing there watching all the kids try to play the old game and having a hard time cause it isn't like holding an xbox controller in your hands! :)

Edited to say I found a rental place and it would be $200 to rent a Tron game for the day!

[Tondi G]

Sariana ... you guys can totally come!!!!

[mjs64]

I would love to try to find the classic Tron arcade game to rent.... my husband would be on that thing all day though. He played one recently at Disney's California Adventure and had all these teenagers around watching him play (cause he was kickin butt)..... it was his FAVORITE arcade game when he was little! We were laughing while standing there watching all the kids try to play the old game and having a hard time cause it isn't like holding an xbox controller in your hands! :)

Edited to say I found a rental place and it would be $200 to rent a Tron game for the day!

If you or someone you know has an Xbox 360 you could borrow for the day, Xbox Live marketplace has the classic Tron arcade game. You can buy it for 400 points on the "marketplace" (you download it to the console). 400 points=about $5. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/TRON/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841088e You don't have to have a paid membership to Live to buy the game (the Silver membership is free). For 7 year olds, I'd bet even the free demo version would suffice.

If you can't borrow an Xbox, you can buy one used from GameStop for about $140, then immediately sell it back to GameStop for $100, so your net cost is about $40. But I bet someone in your neighborhood has an Xbox. If you lived near me, I'd lend you my DH's. But didn't you say your DH is familiar with the Xbox controller...? I bet he has one or knows someone who does.

[Jai]

http://go.tipjunkie.com/pa/657/www.livinglocurto.com/2011/02/tron-party-free-printables/

[s7714]

If you or someone you know has an Xbox 360 you could borrow for the day, Xbox Live marketplace has the classic Tron arcade game. You can buy it for 400 points on the "marketplace" (you download it to the console). 400 points=about $5. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/TRON/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841088e You don't have to have a paid membership to Live to buy the game (the Silver membership is free). For 7 year olds, I'd bet even the free demo version would suffice.

If you can't borrow an Xbox, you can buy one used from GameStop for about $140, then immediately sell it back to GameStop for $100, so your net cost is about $40. But I bet someone in your neighborhood has an Xbox. If you lived near me, I'd lend you my DH's. But didn't you say your DH is familiar with the Xbox controller...? I bet he has one or knows someone who does.

The actual arcade unit is such a big part of the storyline that the pure novelty of it would make it a huge hit. But you are right, a DIY set up would more cost effective!

[artvandalay]

wow, wow, wow. How cool is a 7-year-old that wants a Tron party??? :jammin:

:yeahthat: No kidding! This sounds super cool! Hope it all comes together.

[Tondi G]

If you or someone you know has an Xbox 360 you could borrow for the day, Xbox Live marketplace has the classic Tron arcade game. You can buy it for 400 points on the "marketplace" (you download it to the console). 400 points=about $5. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/TRON/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841088e You don't have to have a paid membership to Live to buy the game (the Silver membership is free). For 7 year olds, I'd bet even the free demo version would suffice.

If you can't borrow an Xbox, you can buy one used from GameStop for about $140, then immediately sell it back to GameStop for $100, so your net cost is about $40. But I bet someone in your neighborhood has an Xbox. If you lived near me, I'd lend you my DH's. But didn't you say your DH is familiar with the Xbox controller...? I bet he has one or knows someone who does.

We are an Xbox loving family so we do have it and could bring it for the party but since the party isn't going to be at home we are thinking of keeping video games out of the equation and just putting the movie on at the studio so it's in the background but not a main focus. The actual standing arcade game would be so cool to have there but $200 bucks is a lot to have just as an "extra" for the party. My DH refused to buy the xbox live download of the classic cause he said it's not the same without the joystick and the spinning knob.... such a geek! :) Love him for keepin it real though!

I think we can make it fun and exciting and keep the kids engaged and moving with other stuff. We'll see how it all comes together. My hubby is getting into it now and is thinking of trying to make some nunchuks for the instructor that are clear pvc and wants to fill them with glow sticks so he can do a cool "glow" routine for the kids. Not exactly "TRON" but the kids always seem to get a kick out of seeing nunchuks in action. :)

[lorien_ca]

We are an Xbox loving family so we do have it and could bring it for the party but since the party isn't going to be at home we are thinking of keeping video games out of the equation and just putting the movie on at the studio so it's in the background but not a main focus.


sent you an email with the invite and photos.

my experience with having movies around kids at parties is that all they want to do is watch the movie ;). the soundtrack to TRON is awesome and well worth picking up - it's all done by the group Daft Punk and would be a great 'mood' setter if you wanted to have it on in the bkgrd.