He mentioned he doesn't have the ToTD, and it sounds like because of that, the techs aren't there. But he wants to disable the upgrades for people that have the ToTD who are playing the game, If I understand.
I have the ToTD, and the techs are indeed there for me. It may (and I mean may) be possible to code it into the trigger, without the ToTD, but it's not something I would encourage. I suggest just buying the ToTD. The whole point of buying it is to give you access to these kinds of things. It's only 10 bucks.