The recent release of reproduction Tron handles has caused quite a stir in the collecting community. NOS handles are difficult to find and command a premium when they do pop up for sale. The fact that Randy over at GroovyGameGear is selling his “factory original” reproductions for a mere $24.95, with a trigger and top screw, is a big deal.

I ordered two handles on Sunday and received them today via USPS, pretty quick. Do the handles meet collectors exacting standards? How do they compare to an original or a previous reproduction handle? Let’s find out.

The handles arrived in a standard VHS type priority box without any packing material, just the handles and my receipt. They appeared to be undamaged, sealed in a plastic pack. I opened them up and gave them a quick inspection, they were crisp and clean. No messy mold lines, clean through holes for the screws and the brass insert for the top screw. Everything looked great so far.

I took the NoSheeples (RGVAC) hand molded reproduction (far left), an original NOS set (center) and the new GroovyGameGear reproduction (right), and laid them side by side. I used a completely dark room, with one 24″ black light tube approximately 1 foot above the parts. Without any other light in the room I think the difference is obvious.

The NoSheeples reproduction does not glow very well. The BL needs to be closer and direct to get anything at all. It is almost lost in the dark room against the black floor. It also has flash from the mold that needs to be cleaned off and there are slight fit issues between the two halves. The parts have a dull sound when dropped and seem to be made from a very soft plastic.

The NOS piece is at least half good under the BL. I bought this as NOS but only one half glows, not sure what’s up, but it appears to be original. The NOS is much brighter than the hand made repro, with clean mold lines and all the quality you’d expect from an NOS part. It would look good if both halves had the reactive plastic. When carefully dropped it has a dense, molded plastic sound, crisp and sharp.

The GGG piece glows brightly under the black light, as does the included trigger. The plastic has a lighter blue tint to begin with and is stunning when under the BL. Upon close inspection it appears to be identical to the NOS part. Same mold lines, same injection points, identical. I would say it came from the original mold or at least from one of the duplicates floating around as stated by GGG. The trigger also glows brightly and adds a nice touch. It has the same quality appearance with a brighter glow. When carefully dropped it has a sound somewhere between the repro and NOS stick; slightly softer than the NOS piece, but denser than the NoSheeples version.

Installing it was very easy and took just a few minutes. Be careful when attaching the leaf switch for the trigger as the screw post is not pre-threaded. Make sure you use a self tapping screw to cut the threads or you can bind a screw in the plastic. If it breaks off you’ll be screwed (ha!). A final note, the NOS half fit perfectly with the GGG part. The NoSheeples piece didn’t fit well with either. So there you have it. NOS is great, but at $24.95 with a brighter appearance, you can’t go wrong with the new repro.

Tags: joystick, reproduction, tron

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.