Shout out to the 2024 Disney squad: sister-in-law Stefanie, myself, Karli the Birthday Girl, and Karli's best friend John, who had never been before and made the experience new again for the rest of us! (And, of course, BB-8, who is just a joiner.)
- Sid
My previous posting told a slight lie. I did in fact purchase another souvenir item during our time at Disneyland - I finally succumbed to temptation and invested in the Black Spire outpost version of a Coke. Hmmm...I wonder how much it costs Disney to have the Coca-Cola Company manufacture a custom product which is presumably only for sale at two refreshment carts on opposite sides of the United States?
- Sid
No light sabers this trip, no helmets (although I noticed that there was now an alternate version of the X-Wing pilot's helmet that I purchased on our last Disneyland visit for sale) - my only souvenir shopping was the impulse buy of an Ahsoka t-shirt from a vendor located in one of the underpass tunnels that lead to Galaxy's Edge.
I hate to say it, but after watching the Ahsoka series on Disney+ that provided the graphics for the t-shirt, I found myself siding with Team Ashley regarding the casting for the titular character.
No offense to Rosario Dawson's performance, but after you've painted someone orange, stencilled marks on their face, and covered their hair with montrals and striped lekku*, their voice suddenly becomes a strong point in the character's presentation. In this case, Ashley Eckstein's extended run as Ahsoka's voice in the Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels series would have cemented the connection in the character's transition to live action, much as with Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy's move from the animated Batman series to video games.
And who knows, she might not have been so grim all the time - I know that Ahsoka's history weighs her down, but I also think of the adult version of the character in Rebels as having achieved some emotional balance, although perhaps through the Force rather than weekly counselling sessions.
- Sid
* In case you'd been wondering what the horns and fleshy head-tails were called. (Never forget, in the Star Wars Universe, EVERYTHING has a name.)
The first time that we visited Avengers CAMPUS at Disney's California Adventure in 2022, I found that it didn't quite meet with the expectations that had been established by Galaxy's Edge - or even its next door neighbour, Radiator Springs. Whereas both of those attractions had created consistently evocative environments that immersed the visitor in that world, Avengers CAMPUS somehow fell flat - it just didn't pull me in the same way.
However, this time I was fortunate enough to see more of the MCU Avengers-related character performances, which very much redeemed my opinion of the CAMPUS.
Disneyland has done some very effective casting, particularly in the case of characters like Loki, Thor, Doctor Strange and the Black Widow, who can't rely on masks to define their look. I was particularly impressed by the Peter Quill stand-in, who delivered a deadly accurate imitation of Chris Pratt in the Guardians of the Galaxy dance-off show, and also did an excellent job of interacting with the audience.
The Doctor Strange Mysteries of the Mystic Arts performance was equally impressive. The magic was simple but effective, there were some clever ad-libs by the Stephen Strange cast member during his conversations with the crowd, and the brief Captain Marvel cameo was a nice touch.
The dramatic Wakandan Dora Milaje Warrior Workout also captured the attention of the crowd, as did the Avengers Assemble encounter, which features members of the Avengers fighting off an array of thugs, including the Taskmaster.
In addition to the scripted performances, Marvel-costumed cast members roam the CAMPUS, chat with guests, and pose for photos, much as Mickey Mouse et al. in the Disneyland park.
In spite of the high quality of the tribute performances done by these Disney cast members, I'd like to encourage the original actors to step up and make some unscheduled personal appearances. After all, Johnny Depp used to show up at Pirates of the Caribbean in his full Jack Sparrow regalia - imagine how excited my wife would have been to have her picture taken with Tom Hiddleston's Loki?
- Sid
As you get older, it's harder to really play, or at least play
publicly in the way that children do. A lot of that desire gets sublimated into activities with a sort
of grown-up veneer of acceptability: cosplay, paintball, tabletop and video gaming, D&D,
LARPing, and all the other loopholes that allow us to say "let's pretend"
as adults.
For a lot of people, Disneyland is that urge to play writ large, and for me, Galaxy's Edge is the perfect venue to fully experience that. It's a testament to the detail and consistency that Disney's creative people have put into this little alien outpost so that, when I'm there, I feel like I'm actually on another planet, even when surrounded by people in mouse ears and sweat pants.
Part of me wants to explore Galaxy's Edge all on my own, because it would leave me free to enjoy it as if I were part of that world, to quote Ariel. As it is, Karli sometimes worries that I’m not having fun when I'm there, whereas the joke is that I couldn't be enjoying myself more. However, being a dangerous rebel who could be in a life-or-death confrontation with storm troopers at any moment tends to make me look a bit grim - after all, we're not playing around here, this is serious stuff.
Smuggler's Run is another good example. I tolerate the lines and waiting and so on in order to get to where I want to be, but when I sit down at the controls of the Millennium Falcon, I'm not having a simulated experience, I'm flying a starship. As such, when the controls prompt me to perform an action such as take off, go to hyperspace, or steer the ship through an asteroid field, I do it with a certitude, confidence, and gravitas that's appropriate to what I'm doing.
And, hopefully, with a certain degree of style - after all, even if you're just playing at being the Falcon's pilot, you're still playing in the big leagues.
- Sid
P.S. Welcome to the future - the boots and background alien heads in the above photo were created by the Photoshop AI. However, the AI won't accept certain prompts, so I had to do the gun belt and weapon the old-fashioned way.
For Karli's 50th birthday this year, she decided that there was no place she would rather go than Disneyland. Planning was simple - Karli has become a seasoned veteran in terms of Disney visits - and we invited Karli's best friend John and her sister Stefanie to join us. John had never been to Disneyland, so he was eager to take advantage of our collective experience to introduce him to the park.
We had all been checking the forecasts for the weather during our upcoming visit, but it was only when I took a look at CNN the day before we left that I discovered that California was currently in the midst of the most serious storm that it had experienced for quite a long time. Record-breaking rains closed airports and caused flooding and mudslides, there had been four fatalities, and a state of emergency had been declared in Los Angeles and seven of the surrounded counties. Even more ominously, Disneyland had experienced closures due to the emergency. Obviously not an ideal time for travel, but it was too late to cancel, so we decided to carry on and hope for the best.
Surprisingly, we experienced no delays as a result of the chaotic weather conditions. Our flight left on time and landed without any problems, our Uber seamlessly delivered us to our Disney-adjacent hotel, and Disneyland was scheduled to be open over the course of our three-day passes (although rain was on the forecast for the first day and part of the second day).
Fortunately, Karli had the foresight to purchase rain ponchos for the group just in case, which turned out to be the ideal garment for the weather.
As forecast, rain was definitely the theme for our first day at the park - not quite torrential, but certainly a steady solid downpour.
The result? Limited attendance at the park, and far shorter lines than the norm.
We all got a bit wet - even the best rain gear will only keep you so dry over the course of a full day - and we obviously couldn't go on any outdoor rides, but we were generally comfortable, and the lack of crowds allowed us to visit favourite rides like Smuggler's Run and Indian Jones multiple times.
It was one of those rare occasions when clouds actually had a silver lining.
- Sid
With just over a month to go until the release of the new Barbie film starring Margot Robbie in the titular role - the role that she was so obviously born to play* - it occurs to me that if Barbie Land exists, that posits the existence of a larger shared universe of Mattel toys - the Mattelverse**, as it were.
With that on the table, if there's a moon in the skies of Barbie Land - and we know that there is - then what would we find there? Obviously, there would be a thriving lunar colony commanded by none other than the Mattel's Man in Space himself, Major Matt Mason.
Tom Hanks has mentioned his eagerness to star in a movie version of the Major's adventures, but given what we've seen in terms of how Barbie will address the dichotomy between the perfection of Barbie Land and feminism in the real world, how would a Major Matt Mason movie define itself in comparison to character studies like Disney's Lightyear? Hopefully in the same way that Barbie will, by showing that imaginary characters can have their own worth in terms of the values that they offer to real people - and vice versa.
- Sid
* She does a pretty good job as Harley Quinn as well, actually - and if you want to discuss whether or not someone has range as an actor, these are the roles that you want to use as a yardstick.
** As opposed to, say, the Hasbroverse - Transformers and GI Joe - which already has a motion picture presence.
"Does that thing get smaller?"
TSA officer, LAX
It's Friday morning. We're packing up for our post-Disney flight back to Canada, and I'm facing the consequences of my actions: I have to get a light saber and an X-Wing flight helmet past airport security, onto an airplane, and through Canadian customs.
Fortunately, the flight helmet fits in my carry on bag, although it's a tight fit. (I considered wearing it if it didn't fit in my bag - I can only wonder how that would have been received by the good people of the TSA.) I'm more concerned about the light saber, which I have to carry loose. Logically, I should be fine. People travel with canes all the time, it's about the same scale, it really shouldn't matter that it lights up and makes whooshing noises*, but somehow, somehow, I'm just not as confident as I'd like to be.
The TSA agent at the airport doesn't love the fact that I want to run this thing through her scanner, but I wedge it into my bag at an angle that satisfies her concerns, and away it goes.
It comes out the other side, and nothing happens. I'm more than surprised - I expected that someone would at least want to look at the helmet just to see what the hell that thing was that they were just looking at.
Ironically, Karli’s bag is hand checked and run through the scanner twice - is Disney popcorn is more suspicious than a flight helmet and a light saber? It turns out that she's left her iPad in her shoulder bag, which you don’t have to pull out at YVR security. No blood no foul, they scan her bag again and we're both through.
The next hurdle is boarding - as with so many flights, Westjet is cracking down on oversized carry-on luggage, and I’m extremely aware that my flight helmet makes my bag too wide to fit in the bag measuring device - and I can’t check it, I’m completely certain that the massed weight of the other luggage would crack the helmet like an egg. Again, I suppose I could wear it if I had to, but there would probably be some questions. That sort of thing is charming if you’re ten, less so at 61.
To my astonished relief, the gate crew never even glances at my bag in their rush to board the flight, which is only about ten minutes behind schedule (it may help that we’re in the exit row, hard to say.) Regardless, there are times when you take the money and run, no need to question good luck.
The flight attendant waiting at our seats for the emergency exit orientation cheerfully comments, “Ah, a light saber!” To which I reply, “I hope the Force is with me and it doesn’t get broken up here!” as I put the hilt on top on Karli’s bag, with the blade over my bag. That still leaves about eight inches exposed, but the flight attendant promises to keep an eye on it, lord knows how. Fingers crossed, I settle into my seat and buckle up. At this point, I’ve done well - security and boarding are out of the way, all we need is a bit of luck and no serious turbulence on the flight.
195 uneventful minutes later, we touch down on the tarmac at YVR. The landing is a bit rough, which worrries me. The seat belt light goes off, I stand up, carefully open the bin, and all appears good. I can’t test functionality just yet, but at least nothing has shifted and broken the plastic blade. I’m actually a bit relieved that this isn’t a full length creation from Savi's Workshop at Galaxy's Edge, it must be nerve-racking to consign a $249 USD light saber to the whims of the luggage bin gods.
Canadian Customs shows no interest in our luggage - NEXUS was probably one of our best purchasing decisions in recent years. Karli's mother and stepfather pick us up and drop us off, we unlock the front door, Jaq the Cat suggests that it is dinnertime NOW, and we're home. I release the light saber from the improvised elastic bindings on my shoulder bag, switch it on, and success, everything is in working order, and the helmet is also undamaged by its experience - apparently the Force is with me after all.
- Sid
* I used to know someone who used the word "VON" to emulate the sound of the light saber swinging through the air. Try this at home if you'd like.
There are times during our Disneyland visit when I'm depressed by the high cost of doing business with Disney. The assault on your wallet is relentless: very little is free at Disneyland - and all the souvenir pricing is at the low end of wincing.
- Sid
Karli and I both enjoyed and appreciated our Disney experience, but there were times when it was more of an exercise in patience than usual.
Disneyland always requires patience - guests queue up for security, line up to get into the parks, wait in crowds for the ropes to drop, stand in line for refreshments, and wait times for rides can last hours - but that's expected, it's very much the price of doing business when you visit the Magic Kingdom.
However, we were surprised by the number of times we were forced to wait even longer due to breakdowns and delays on rides at every level of sophistication.
Over the course of our three day visit, we completed a total of 29 ride experiences, which may not sound like a lot, but it's actually a pretty good performance, given the number of people vying for seats. Out of that number, we experienced ride problems to a greater or lesser extent ten times - over a third of our total, not a very good average.
We accepted the possibility that the shorter delays might have been caused by pausing the rides in order to accommodate the transfer of mobility challenged riders into their seats or something similar, but in most cases it was obviously hardware failure - or perhaps software, in the case of the more sophisticated experiences.
Toad's Wild Ride broke down literally as we were taking our seats in the ride carriage. During the first of our three visits to Star Tours*, they announced that they were experiencing delays, and on the second, we sat in our StarSpeeder 3000 for close to fifteen minutes, without a word of explanation, until the ride finally began.
The new Web Slingers ride at Avenger's Campus stuttered without stopping, cutting short our time at the first scene, Midway Mania stopped working just as we were in the final leg of the queue, and not only did Indiana Jones have delays, but there seemed to be dead areas on the ride, places where there should have been some kind of effect but where we just bounced around in the dark. For our final trip through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, the iconic stone globe effect completely failed to work, which rather ruined the climactic conclusion of the ride. The Haunted Mansion both stopped in its tracks and slowed to a crawl, and The Little Mermaid ride left me uncomfortably face to face with a glassy-eyed Ariel animatronic figure for a little too long.
On our last day, Smuggler's Run announced that they were experiencing delays and that they would resume service as soon as possible. Ironically, at that moment Garr, one of Ohnaka Transport's less perceptive employees, decided to publicly inform Hondo over the PA system that there was a maintenance problem with one of his ships, the kind of a problem that results from crashing into buildings - either boldly on brand or an astonishing coincidence.
Sadly, there's a very simple bottom line to all of this, and it's just that, the bottom line. Disneyland is a big machine for making money, and as such the people running the machine are probably unwilling to turn it off for maintenance if they can help it at all.
- Sid
* Star Tours has a mix-and-match system that adds up to 54 versions of the tour, which makes it a popular choice for repeat trips.
I'm sorry to say that I was a bit underwhelmed by the new Avengers Campus in the California Adventure park at Disneyland Anaheim. I was hoping that the Campus* would have the same kind of immersive feeling that Galaxy's Edge offers, an opportunity to step into another world. To my disappointment, it's an interesting addition to the park, but it doesn't achieve the same kind of comprehensive atmosphere that Black Spire Outpost offers to its visitors.
There's actually Marvel canon backstory for the new area: the campus is located in an alternate universe to the main MCU timeline, a universe in which the Blip never took place. As such, the Campus is home to the full roster of Avengers, including those who are no longer part of the team in the MCU: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk**, and the Black Widow, along with associated characters such as Captain Marvel, Ant Man, the Wasp, Doctor Strange, and the Black Panther. Loki can also be seen on the site, whether as friend or foe is difficult to say.
The location was originally home to a temple of the Vishanti, the mystical god-like trio who act as patrons to the Sorcerer Supreme. The temple has fallen into ruins, but retains its connection with the magical realm.
Centuries later, Tony Stark's father Howard decides to build his experimental flying car facility on the site, and the US Government's Strategic Scientific Reserve constructs a lab on site to study the abandoned temple and the strange temporal effects that it causes.
Tony Stark eventually repurposes the site - he builds Avengers Headquarters, and converts the vintage car factory space into the home of the Worldwide Engineering Brigade , or WEB*, where Peter Parker and other young scientific minds from around the globe develop new technologies. Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne decide to set up a cafeteria to support all of this (no, seriously, that's the storyline, and weirdly, I can sort of imagine Paul Rudd doing this in a movie) and open the Pym Test Kitchen and Tasting Lab, where they use Pym particles to resize the menu offerings as needed.
All that being established, what does the Avengers Campus have to offer?
As with Galaxy's Edge and Cars Land, the Campus relies on a couple of major rides. The WEB facility is home to the Web Slingers Spider-Man Adventure, a VR ride in which riders help Spider-Man defeat runaway replicating Spider-Bots that are on the verge of disassembling and destroying the WEB facility and then the world.
The ride relies on sophisticated motion tracking systems to allow the riders to shoot virtual webs that destroy the Spider-Bots and manipulate the virtual environment. Riders can also purchase add-on accessories that give them different abilities in the game, such as Iron Man's repulsor rays.
It's an impressive experience with an entertaining introduction by Tom Holland as Peter Parker, but the ride action itself is perhaps a little too busy - Karli received the highest score in our WEB transport by destroying a giant Spider-Bot, but had no idea that she'd done such a thing, or how she'd done it. That's not as strange as it sounds - the ride's frenetic pace makes it challenging to determine exactly what's happening and which webs are yours as you shoot wildly at the hordes of Spider-Bots in front of you. I felt that I'd need to do the ride a few times to really understand how it worked, which would have involved a lot of time standing in line, it's a popular attraction.
The second option is the Guardians of the Galaxy-themed Mission: BREAKOUT! at the looming 60 meter tower fortress of Tivan the Collector, located at the edge of the Campus. It's a free fall vertical shaft ride which was rebranded from the Tower of Terror to the Guardians version in 2017 as the first stage of integrating the Avengers into the park. Karli and I had previously experienced Breakout on our last trip to the park - it's an adrenaline-driven experience that's undeniably exciting, but not really to our taste, so we don't make a repeat visit to the Collector's dungeons.
A third ride was planned for the Campus, an Avengers Quinjet flight simulator adventure, but Disney announced that development of the ride was put on hold due to cash flow issues caused by the pandemic shutdown. As such, the Avengers Headquarter building that would have housed the ride is being used as a temporary stage for superhero appearances.
The superheroes also wander the Campus grounds and interact with the visitors for photo opportunities. Spider-Man does regular scheduled shows on the WEB building that involve gymnastics and web-swinging***, and Doctor Strange performs feats of magic on the grounds of the ruined temple.
It's an extensive entertainment offering, so why was I disappointed?
One of the things that makes Galaxy's Edge work so well is its consistent, connected design. Every part of Black Spire Outpost is carefully planned out, and it all works together: guests wander along side streets and past alcoves, through arcades and down staircases, with the central plaza and the Millennium Falcon providing an impressively unifying centerpiece for the entire artfully composed creation, a creation that makes you feel like you're actually part of the story.
Avengers Campus lacks the same degree of cohesion - all the parts are there, but it's more of a disconnected collection of structures and rides than a coordinated set piece. Admittedly, Black Spire has the advantage of being enclosed by walls and mountainous cliffs, but Avengers Campus could easily have wrapped itself in protective barriers and security gates to achieve the same effect, and the Quinjet located on top of Avengers Headquarters would be a great photo opportunity if it were at ground level instead.
Overall, the new Campus area is detailed, has good art direction, and offers a wide range of things to see and do - I just wish it had made me feel more like an Avenger.
- Sid
* It's actually CAMPUS: Centralized Assembly Mobilized to Prepare, Unite, and Safeguard, which, as with the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (WEB), could not be a more obvious example of retconning an acronym into a name.
** In his public appearances, the Hulk is wearing his protective time travel suit, which would not exist on this timeline if there was no Blip - just saying.
*** The web swinging portion involves a mannequin, which is probably a good thing, there are some embarrassing YouTube™ videos that show the stand-in Spider-Man bouncing off the walls and tumbling off the building.
If there is one thing that most represents the global might of the Disney Empire, it is...The Ears.
The original Mickey Mouse ears were created as an accessory for Mickey Mouse Club cast members by Disney artist/writer and adult Mouseketeer Roy Williams in 1955, and quickly became a top-selling souvenir at Disney World in Florida following its 1971 opening.
At the consumer level, the Mickey ears have been eclipsed by the Minnie headband. Originally just featuring Minnie’s iconic bow, the headband has since become an asexual branding platform, as likely to be worn by Disney Dad as Disney Mom.
The headband is a universal currency of franchise display, supporting every possible iconography: glamourized, astrocized, glitterized, robotized, Avengercized, Rebellionized, there is nothing that can't be attached to a headband in symbolic form.
Surprisingly, there's one place in Disneyland where you can't buy either the ears or the headband: Galaxy's Edge - for the simple reason that Disney has decided to make Black Spire Outpost as close to an alien spaceport as possible, including restricting the kinds of merchandise that are up for sale.
The good news is, that means that we can hopefully avoid this scenario ever happening in Black Spire Outpost:
It's one thing to have Kylo Ren stalking the streets, but I draw the line at Darth Goofy.
- Sid
Rise of the Resistance - Kylo Ren will never force us to submit to the First Order!
- Sid
Rise of the Resistance - captured by the First Order en route to Pacara!
- Sid
And then we fell in love, okay?Donald J. Trump
It's our first day in Disneyland, and I fall in love - well, a little bit in love, at least.
Disney has strategically placed a small sales kiosk just at the exit from Rise of the Resistance. It offers a limited selection of miscellaneous Star Wars merchandise: t-shirts, fans, toys, costumes, and flight helmets.
When we leave the ride after our early morning Lightning Lane booking, we stop for a moment to take a look at what's available. Most of the flight helmets are child-sized versions of gear from the third trilogy, but for some reason Disney decided to offer an adult option as well - it's the Luke Skywalker X-Wing pilot's helmet from A New Hope.
I take one off the shelf. It feels quite solid and well-made, and it's definitely sized for adults, not children - it's very much a fan purchase (or a cosplay accessory) rather than a toy.
I try on the helmet. It’s uncomfortable, it sits crookedly on my head, the padding isn’t well placed, the chin strap ends up someplace behind my head, and the visor pinches on one side of my nose. It doesn’t matter - I fall in love with it. For whatever reason, it fills a gap in my fanboy heart that I didn't even know existed, and I'm very tempted to buy it.
However, I don't want to make any rash decisions - entertaining though it would be to wear a Star Wars themed helmet around Black Spire Outpost, it would probably lose its appeal after an hour or so, and it's inconveniently large as a casual accessory, rather like carrying a motorcycle helmet around all day. I also feel a need to compare the helmet's $79.99 USD price point to the cost of buying online, my impression is that items sold at Disneyland may be marked up somewhat in order to reflect the prestige of having purchased them in the park.
Back at the hotel that night, I do some research online, and it turns out that it's not as unreasonable a purchase as it could be.
The gold standard for Star Wars merchandise is Hasbro Toy's The Black Series, a line of Star Wars collectables with more detail and quality (and higher prices) than the standard play-grade toys. I'm confident that the helmet that I'm in love with isn't Black Series - that version lists on Amazon.com for $300 USD and $60 for shipping, or almost $500 Canadian at the current exchange rate.
However, I do find the Disneyland version* for sale on Amazon as well, cheerfully marked up to $144.97 USD - not to mention shipping to Canada for $46. On that basis, eighty bucks doesn't seem at all out of the question.
The moment of decision comes the next day at the Star Wars Trading Post in Downtown Disney, the commercial shopping and dining adjunct to the park. They stock a full storefront selection of Star Wars souvenirs and collectibles, and oddly, it’s the only spot I’ve seen the helmets other than the Rise of the Resistance kiosk.
I decide to make the leap and buy the helmet - what the hell, life is short, I won’t miss paying November’s rent if I do this, and everyone deserves a moment of whimsy now and then.
I’m fortunate enough to catch someone restocking the helmets: she isn’t allowed to leave one in the plastic bag it ships in, lord knows why, but at least I’m able to get a helmet that no one else has worn, which I view as a bit of a sign from God that I have permission to do this.
I also decide to get a toy grade light saber for $39.99 - my sense of whimsy doesn’t extend to the $249 build-it-yourself version from Savi’s Workshop at Galaxy's Edge, although I’m sure they’re very nice. Maybe if we win the lottery, as people like to say when they have no intention of ever buying something.
We make a quick trip back to our hotel, drop off the helmet and light saber, and we're back to making Lightning Lane bookings in less than 30 minutes.
Finished for the day and back at the hotel again, I take some time to scrutinize my purchases. The light saber has a three position switch: OFF, TRY ME and ON. The TRY ME position only allows for ten seconds of activation, which I wish I noticed at the store, I couldn't figure out why some of them only worked for a short period of time and we tried several of them to find one that stayed on.
I take a closer look at the X-wing helmet, and to be honest, I suspect that the greater part of my purchase is exactly the same as the Black Series version. There are some obvious minor differences between the Disneyland and the Black Series models: the Disneyland helmet has been given an repetitive and uninspired distressed finish compared to the more realistic feel of the Black Series helmet; the Black Series has LEDs inside the visor to simulate laser fire, which my purchase doesn't have; and it plays audio clips from either the Battle of Yavin or the Battle of Hoth, whereas mine only plays audio from Yavin.
However, I suspect that the majority of the molding and casting is identical, as supported by the fact that my helmet actually has a three-position switch for the sound effects, it just plays the same clips regardless of which way you push the switch. As such, I'm pleased with my new headgear, and have no regrets regarding the purchase.
The real challenge? In two days, I have to see if I can successfully take a mid-sized light saber and a large Star Wars pilot's helmet through United States airport security and onto an airplane - how hard could that be?
- Sid
* The listing I found literally said that it's the Disneyland version, they're not trying to convince anyone that it's the more expensive collectible. I suppose if you lived in Anaheim and had an annual pass to the park, you could create a side hustle by buying park merch and marking it up for resale online.
