Matrix Online

The Matrix Online
$29.99
This is a great game, and I had a lot of good times on it, but if Amazon still has this game listed after July 31st, 2009, be forewarned that you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY IT. SOE is pulling the plug on July 31st and the servers will be shut down for good, and since this game has no offline function, you will be stuck with a useless game. If you're just collecting Matrix memorabilia, go for it, but if you want to play, sorry, you're outta luck, go try another MMO or pick up one of the other Matrix licensed games like Enter the Matrix or Path of Neo.

The Matrix NEO Licensed Sunglasses
$9.99
These glasses are flimsy and the nose pads break easy. They also don't look like the glasses Neo wore in any of the Matrix movies.

Amerock BP2811I12-14 3/8-Inch Overlay 2-Way Adjustable Concealed Matrix Grass Hinge, Nickel
$8.83
2 Pack, Nickel Finish, Frame Concealed Cabinet Hinge, 3/8" Overlay, 2-1/2"L x 1-1/2"H.

Britax Marathon Click & Safe Convertible Car Seat - Matrix
$299.99
We have primarily used an Evenflo Aura carseat (Evenflo Aura Select Travel System - Georgia Stripe) for the first 10 months and are now transitioning to this new seat. This review will be a comparison between the two.

PRICE
In comparison shopping, it would be very difficult to pass up getting a nice stroller and car seat that swaps in between stroller, car, shopping cart for half the price of this one seat, so I will show below why this seat is worth it. This being said, I was given this to review and I probably wouldn't have justified the purchase, but would recommend it to another parent.

SIZE/APPEARANCE
The seat is quite intimidating compared to the much smaller Evenflo Aura. It looks like a baby throne. Its size also instills instant confidence in its safety. The downside is that its size makes it impractical to move from car to car, like the Aura with a seat plus base, which makes switching cars simple (with two bases).

INSTALLATION
With the attached manual (a nice touch making it always easy to reference), I found the tucked in latch clip belt under the cover, pulled them out and very easily connected them to the latch hooks in the car. You can tighten each side with this model as opposed to the Aura's one side tightening, which limited how snug you could get it. Plus the LATCH connectors look like they could hold on in a 100 MPH crash they are so robust.

On the Aura, there is just the two connections to the LATCH system below the backrest. With this seat, there also is another strap on the back called a versa-tether. You can either connect this over the head of the child in a rear-facing position and connect to the LATCH connector behind the back seat. I opted to use the loop accessory pulled through a bolted down object under the seat and back through the loop and then connected to the versa-tether strap. This really provides a great stabilizer keeping the seat from moving much at all, which should help a lot in a collision. Not all cars have something to hook it to on the floor, but our Jeep does. In a forward seating arrangement, this would connect behind the back seat to keep the seat from moving forward in a collision.

FIT
At 20+ pounds, my daughter fits in the seat fairly well, but it is hard to imagine a 5 pound baby not being overwhelmed by the large rubber chest protectors and big connectors, but I know others have done it.

The first thing to do is to put the baby in the seat and make sure that the strap is below their shoulder level. I had to move it down one notch, which was very easy compared to the Aura seat. The best feature of this seat is the harness adjuster strap. This is a strap at the front of the seat that gives you the ability to tighten and loosen the straps immediately and easily. This is SO much easier and better than the Aura seat. This makes it so that you can loosen the chest/body strap right before unclipping and clipping for a more comfortable experience. With the Aura, if you had it at a proper tightness, you have to squish the baby to clip and unclip the seat belt. Also, if you found the harness being loose, it was inconvenient to tighten it, so it was easy to not worry about it until later.

This Britax seat seems to promote a more ergonomic position for her when riding, also. The straps also have cushions that sit on top of each shoulder and big rubber pads on the chest to distribute forces in an impact.

PRACTICALITY
I guess there is a balance here for smaller babies - this is probably more safe, but rather impractical. With the Aura, we could set her in her car seat in the house, then carry it out to the car and set it in the base with a click. We could also leave her sleeping in the seat when we got home. Also, going to the grocery store, the Aura clips into the shopping carts, which is not an option with this seat.

NICE TOUCHES
The chest straps have velcro on them so that it attaches to the seat cover. This keeps you from placing the baby on top of the straps and needing to pull them from underneath the baby. This is a great little feature.

SUMMARY
All this being said, I am so glad we have this seat, it makes us feel like our baby is much safer in the car and make us not want to use any of our other seats again!