Flynn's Arcade - Nerd "D"

Well it's that time of the week again; time to get your "Nerd" senses rolling!  I figure what better way than to talk about a video game arcade!  And I'm not talking about just any kind of arcade either, but an arcade that epitomizes and could easily define the atmosphere of everyone's favorite decade, The 80's!  That's right, since this is a Nerd "D" article, I'm talking about Flynn's!

Summary: Flynn's Arcade was founded by video game designer Kevin Flynn and made its first appearance (how cool is that?  An arcade making an appearance!) in the 1982 Disney classic film, TRON.  It was shown early in the film as a raging hot spot, with some fantastic tunes, for anyone who loved video games.  Flynn's resurfaces and reappears later, in TRON: Legacy of course.  Kevin's son, Sam, following up on a beeper page from the arcade, wanders in and powers everything up again one last time, complete with Journey's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" blaring in the background.  Oh, and we also learn that it was home to a super-secret lab that Kevin Flynn used to enter and exit the high-tech world of the Grid.  Super-secret lab?  Sold!

Yeah, we know it's 80s cheese, but it's Journey and Steve Perry. Color us nerDs!

Why Flynn's was a GREAT addition at Disneyland: Recently, it's hard to find a good video arcade around.  Because of the home video game market and its soaring over the past couple of decades, and the way video games have evolved, no-one even needs to leave their house anymore to get their video game fix.  But for hardcore nerDs like us, there will always be that key factor we'll forever miss about going into arcades; the atmosphere.  And Disney did a great job bringing that into Flynn's.  What could be better than a group of people coming together, milling about, and playing old-school video games?  Think it can't get any better?  Well it can!  They've also done a fantastic job of matching up Flynn's with it's big-screen counterpart by giving it a kickin' playlist of great music.  We've heard Journey, Boston, Foreigner, Michael Jackson, and many more while hanging around inside Flynn's.  Heck, even a-ha's "Take On Me" sounds awesome while you're eating power pellets and chomping on ghosts!  The awesome tunes just make me want to hang around and stay inside as long as I can, whether I'm playing video games or not!

What games do they have?: Tons, and they're all classics!  Punch-Out and Galaga.  Donkey Kong and Centipede.  Dig Dug and Red Baron.  Pac Man and the Missus... need more?  Okay.  How about the big bad game itself, TRON?  Not enough?  They even have a copy of Kevin Flynn's Space Paranoids from the flipping movie!  NerDing out is not even an option at this point.  And that's barely scratching the surface; not even half way done!  In fact, how about I keep the rest a secret so you can go check it out for yourself?

If you're a nerD like us, and love video games and The 80's, there's simply no way you can say "no" to Flynn's.  It has everything that made The 80's awesome inside it's walls, and it's bar-none one of our favorite hangout spots at The Disneyland Resort.  It comes with our highest Nerd "D" recommendation.  Be sure and check it out on your next trip if you haven't already.  And if you have already been, it's about time to head on back, don't you think?

Adventures in Vinyl: Muppets Series #2 And More!

We realized quite recently that it's been a while since we wrote about our "Vinylmation Madness"which, if it hasn't already been deemed an actual disorder, surely will be in the very near future. We have, however, been collecting all along, though not quite as avidly as we might like due to petty roadblocks in our way, such as money.

One of the cool things about going to The Park with someone who's a close friend and digs many of the same things as you is that when you start collecting things, like Vinylmation, you often do it in tandem. And it's worked out really well for us in the past because when we suffer the horror of buying dupes (see our past article on our "Quasimodo Nightmare") we can often trade it immediately to each other for something we don't have yet. It's worked out well for us.

There are two primary sets we've been working on collecting for some time now that we can share with you today. We've both been collecting the TRON: Legacy series as well as the Muppet Series #2 which came out about a month or so ago.

Mark is substantially ahead of Chad in terms of his TRON collection. Two things are really great about this set though: you don't have to collect 12 of the little guys (as there are only eight in the set), and you can buy the ones you know you need because they aren't sold in blind-boxes, but rather in transparent packaging so you always know what you're going to get and can set your sights on just what you need each time you go out to The Park. The only negative is that now they've been out for a while so they are slowly but surely becoming a little less readily available. If you're going to collect a full set of these, now might be a good time to start!

Chad's been pretty undecided on whether he wants a full set or not, but he did buy two of this favorites very early on as they were two of his favorite characters from the movie: "Rinzler" and "Quorra".

Mark also has these two, but an additional four more and is well on his way to a full set. He needs to get a move on and fill it out! He also has: "TRON", "Kevin Flynn", "CLU", and "x"

We're also each about halfway through our Muppets Series #2 sets as we each have six of them, and almost identical sets save a couple of exceptions. It's been a little slow going as of late due to some issues with some dupes (we keep getting the "Penguin" and there have been some "Janice" issues), but thanks to collecting at the same time (as we mentioned before) we've been able to help each other along a bit.

As it stands now, Chad is in possession of: "Dr. Teeth", "Sgt. Floyd Pepper", "Janice", "Link Hogthrob", "Penguin", and "Lew Zealand".

Mark has four of the same, but rather than Link and Floyd he has: "Piggy In Space" and "Scooter". So between us, we're only four away from a complete set! Not that that means much.

Chad has also dabbled a bit with the new Park Series #6, primarily because he liked the combo topper for the set which was based on a cartoon with Mickey Mouse called "Runaway Brain Mickey", and the only way to get it was to buy the topper. If you're not familiar with the combo-toppers, they're basically little two-packs of Vinylmation; one is sold in a blind-box, and one is a more limited edition Vinylmation sold on top of the blind-box (hence the name "topper") that can only be bought as part of the combo. He figured since he had already started collecting them (sort of) by buying the topper, he might as well make a collection out of it. It's pretty slow going though with the other two sets having come out, so unfortuatenly this one is looking more and more as though it might fall by the wayside; it happens sometimes. As it stands now though, he currently has: "Lifeboat, Disney Cruise Lines", "Wet Paint Donald", "Disney's Hollywood Studios", and "Runaway Brain Mickey". We'll have to see how this one goes in the future.

And there you have it, you're now officially up to speed on where we are. There was a lot to cover in this one (since we haven't written about our collections in a while), but if you're like us and you love Vinylmation, the more the merrier, right?

Be sure and check back later today for another Vinylmation article/segment we'll be debuting. We can't wait to have you check it out, so be sure and pop back in for a bit. We know you won't be disappointed.

Until next time, Vinyl lovers...

"Almost" Wordless Wednesday: Flynn's

Do we really need to say anything?

"Almost" Wordless Wednesday: TRON Is Almost Here!

We liked the look of the poster, with Chad taking the photo, and the Muppet*Vision 3D theater in the background.  Kinda cheesy, but we thought it turned out pretty cool.

One day to go!

Darn my reflection!