i took Truckapillar from the movie "Big," but i'm not sure if it was a real toy or made for the movie.

i struggled a bit with how to have the internet work in Dranac, given the city's sometimes arbitrary-seeming but deliberately-haphazard combination of high and low tech. but i ended up not really getting into the internet at all because it seemed boring, like who cares how Scout logs in or whatever to look this stuff up about Truckapillar, i thought it would just bog things down. i think if i could go back and re-do it i might have her computer connected to some giant old-school 28.8 baud modem, though. my idea was that the internet in Dranac is limited and almost only informational or commercial, there wouldn't be a personal aspect to it like we have, no blogs or personal websites or social networking other than basic email like in the early days of the internet (remember Juno??) and dial-up online services (Prodigy??). it would also have news (both regular news, like Sparkle was watching earlier, and entertainment news, etc.), information resources, and in the case of Scout checking out this stuff about Truckapillar, there would be a Truck Kill bulletin board you'd dial into. i wanted the web to be no-frills and not occupy a big cultural space like it does today in many countries.

i also thought about how online would be different because at least within the immediate story, Dranac seems to be the only place, or at least technological place, left on a wasteland planet, so it's not linked up to any other cities or countries.