A Toy Story

Kids often have better toys than us adults. For many years I've been wanting to model a drive-in theater. I'm not the only one; some entrepreneurs (such as Chris Miller of Miller Engineering) have offered up limited-run kits to tempt us. Unfortunately, such novelties (understandably) carry fairly steep price tags.

Some skilled modelers have built their own, taking advantage of compact LCD displays. But while undeniably fun and clever, making use of this sort of display technology has a cosmetic drawback: it requires a fairly substantial enclosure around the screen, which detracts from realism. My desire has always been to actually project the image, in the same manner as the real thing; this would allow the use of a realistically-designed screen that can even be curved like many real ones, as well as faithfully reproduce the visual effect of a projected image, which differs subtly from that of an LCD display.

The drawback to my approach is cost: video projectors—such as those used for business presentations, teleconferencing and such—while getting cheaper, are still seriously expensive. Not to mention bulky, with the typical projector being roughly the size of a toaster oven. More recently, a new generation of incredibly compact projectors has come onto the market; these devices are equivalent in size to a pack of cigarettes. The basic problem, however, remains the same: cost. It's hard to justify (at least for me) spending between four and five hundred dollars just for a cute modeling effect.

But as technology evolves ever more rapidly, it also shows up in unexpected places—in this case, the toy department of the local Target. Whilst Christmas shopping this year, I strayed into the toy section to see what potential modeling goodies might be found. There, on the discount rack, sat the "Eye-Clops," a miniature video projector for kids. At less than a hundred bucks, it practically leapt off the shelf and into my hands! (At the time of writing, it's available at Amazon for half-price.)



What's even more amazing is that, after I connected it to an old $30 CyberHome DVD player (one that was not only mind-bogglingly cheap, but also capable of playing practically anything loaded into it, including foreign PAL-format DVDs) and aimed it at a piece of paper, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the picture, while not particularly bright, was remarkably—indeed, impressively—crisp and clear. It took mere seconds for me to conclude that I'd just found the functional guts of my drive-in theater at last.

Despite working primarily in Z scale these days, my drive-in will be N scale, mostly because of the wonderful period vehicles offered by Classic Metal Works. (I'd always thought it would be fun to reproduce a scene captured by O. Winston Link.) It will also be built as a stand-alone diorama that could be incorporated into a layout, should that (slim) opportunity ever arise in the far-flung future. It will likely take some optical tinkering, such as some first-surface mirrors, to make the projection booth look convincing, but that will be the fun part of the project.