Tron Legacy Costume - Abandonware Grid Defense Program

Tron Legacy – Abandoneware Grid Defense Program – AGD

Designed, Created by: Michael Bielaczyc
Article Written by: Michael Bielaczyc

Jan 16 2011

My plan with this costume is not only to make a cool Tron Legacy costume, but also end up wit ha jacket that can be used in everyday life that glows. I mean, who doesn’t want that? So first It started with finding a suitable leather jacket. I found this on ebay for a decent price of $39. I also for these boots and pants for a pretty good price as well.

I wanted to go with an evil type program, not only because I think everyone will go for blue and white characters, but also because the interior of my car has all orange and red lights. Yep, I am that big of a dork.

So my first plan was to add some subtle lights to the jacket, by hiding some ultra bright leds along the edge of the netting in the center of the jacket. After spending 2 hours at the LED shop lights retailer sewing and wiring, I realized it was not working as well as I wanted. It did have a subtle but bright rim of light along the edge, but it was uneven and the led strip just could not bend to match the curve of the jacket. So at the moment, I have scrapped the leds and have orders some EL wire and EL tape.

For the disk, I lucked out and found a Rinzler deluxe disk, which seems to be pretty rare. I took the plastic shell that it was packed in and modded it a bit, and am currently molding it in Smooth on Rebound 25 silicone so i can cast a thicker black plastic piece to mount the disk to my back. I mounted strong magnets on the inside of the disk and will do the same on the mount so that I can attach and detach the disk at will. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow. end of line.

Jan 18 2011

So the past two days I have been working on the jacket more and the mount for the disk. I fixed the lighting problem on the jacket, but today I want to focus on the light disk mount. The mold turned out pretty well and the first cast came out great.

Above is the Sculpt, the first cast, and the disk mounted on it. Inside it has 10 magnets mounted to hold the disk in place. You can also see the small tab I added that is at the top, so that it has a back up in case the magnets fail.

Action shot of me cutting the bolts to fit the jacket.

The finished mount on the back of my jacket. You can purchase this mount at our store by clicking here.

More pictures to come tomorrow after I finish the wiring on the jacket. end of line.

Return from Chattacon 2011 and the first run of Programs Version 1.0.

photo by Derek Spraker

A.G.D Program 1.5 February 1st 2011

Idea – In the late 80’s as more threats to the grid occurred, all defense programs were upgraded. Everything was streamlined, and more power was needed to keep defense programs at the top of their game.

So I got rid of my bulky motorcycle armored pants and went with compression pants for this new version. I am adding armor to the jacket (sculpted from craft foam), and redoing all my lighting, including my disk. The above picture is my concept design.

Here is my chest armor piece cut out:

This is the engineering grade reflective tape I bought. I am going to fill in the holes with this tape, and then line the outer edge with 2.5mm EL Wire.

A.G.D Program 1.5 February 7th 2011

So I finished designing and making my armor for the jacket. I have not attached the el wire yet, but that will be next.

I attached the foam to the jacket with snaps, so I can easily remove the armor to repair or add things.

It is a 2 layer design, on the top layer I painted on a layer of black latex to make it look closer to the movie.

Here are the layers cemented together, with the reflective tape in between.

A.G.D Program 1.5 February 15th 2011

I have been working on the disk holders and modding the disks the past week. After a long time experimenting and way too many purchased (and unsatisfactory) lights, I got my disk in better shape for the upcoming con. It has a 5mm EL Red Wire in the inner C Ring and the outer ring has 2 feet of high intensity LED lights. It has two switches so I can have the c ring and outer ring light up separately.