Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Though the Pixar catalogue and the big budget Avatar acquisition gave Imagineers license to play in the genre of “Living Lands,” there’s no question that they found their would-be “Potter swatter” in the 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm, adding Star Wars to the Disney IP library. Seven years later, the results of that acquisition made their debut as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. (In)famously set in the timeline of the Disney produced sequel trilogy that it was developed alongside, Galaxy’s Edge invites visitors to the planet Batuu (invented for the purposes of the theme park) and its village of Black Spire Outpost – an impoverished trader’s port on the edge of Wild Space.
As any fan of Star Wars will tell you, few things in the franchise are considered frivolous. Quite the contrary, Star Wars and its timeline are practically the subject of academic study. As a result, Galaxy’s Edge turned out to be the perfect space for Imagineering to show just how serious, academic, and “real” they could be in applying the “Wizarding World” formula. In fans’ eyes, the results of that commitment to realism are… well… mixed. It could be argued that Imagineers “were so concerned with whether they could that they never stopped to think if they should” have a land without a score, omit the franchise’s most enduring characters, have signage only in Aurebesh, etc.
But actually, on the retail side, it works beautifully! Black Spire Outpost contains an open air Marketplace with vendor stalls, all offering “in-universe” goods. One stall offers robes, jackets, and textiles so you can stylize yourself as a part of the universe; another offers bags, shirts, magnets and other theme park standards, but in the guise of memories of Black Spire Outpost rather than “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.”
There’s also a Creature Stall with adoptable plush of various creatures from the Star Wars universe. Even the toy stall (run by a “Toydarian toymaker”) is stocked mostly with plush of Star Wars characters stylized as if made by the residents of Batuu. It makes sense that there’s a plush of Princess Leia and Chewbacca and Kylo Ren because they’re legendary figures in this world, so of course the children of Batuu want to play with hand-made dolls of them.
Beyond the Marketplace, the land also includes a First Order supply shop and a similar, small Resistance supply cart (with collectible helmets, weapons, and loyalist apparel). In the center of the Outpost is Dok Ondar’s – a great stop for Star Wars aficionados, where the antiquities collector (present via Audio-Animatronic) oversees some of the more prestige souvenirs in the land, like Holocrons, Kyber Crystals, and limited edition Lightsaber hilts.
Taking stock of it, a lot of the vibrancy and energy of Galaxy’s Edge is centered on retail, and Disney clearly did an admirable job of making perusing shops a great experience that yields reward, discovery, and storytelling. (And they’re serious. The land’s entrances contain mobile carts of merch that’s technically forbidden from the land for reasons of branding or timeline, which is funny and laughable, but also kind of cool that they’re sticking to it when it would be easier to sell Grogu plush throughout the land!)
Of course, one of the criticisms of Galaxy’s Edge is that so many of the core Star Wars experiences it offers are behind a paywall, and that includes two really, really good “in-universe” souvenirs…
Custom Astromech Units
PRICE: $100
It’s fair to say that Disney over-promised when it came to Galaxy’s Edge, painting the picture of a land filled with stunt shows and Lightsaber battles, where ships would land and depart overhead, where your “reputation” would follow you from experience to experience, and where Droids would freely roam through the streets. Obviously, none of that really came to be. (Instead, it was mostly relegated to the $5,000 Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience… oops.) But even if Droids don’t roam the streets, you can make one…!
Actually, it’s hard to characterize the Droid Depot as anything but a major high point in the land. The shop invites guests to build-a-bot by selecting either an R-unit (the barrel-bodied variety a la R2-D2 or the R-5 units in Rise of the Resistance) or a rolling, ball-shaped BB-unit (like BB-8). Once paid, you collect a metal tray with blueprints serving as a checklist of parts you’ll need and head to a continuous conveyer belt where a continuous stream of parts of different colors, shapes, and styles meanders past. Sidled up to the belt, you can pick out whatever pieces you want! Mix and match, pick up and put down, and adjust until you find just the right mix to create the Droid of your dreams.
Once you have your parts, you bring them over to a centralized assembly station where you use real electric screwdrivers to snap and assemble your Droid’s components together. Once it’s built and you’re satisfied, a Depot worker will help you to move your Droid to an activation panel, where it’ll be synced to a wireless remote and spring to life for the first time, beeping, booping, and lighting up as it pairs with the remote (and with you).
The full experience takes less than a half hour, but it’s so much more memorable and spectacular than buying an off-the-shelf souvenir or even picking parts off shelves. And given the nature of Droids, it’s actually fun and surprisingly in-universe to see “what they’re made of” as you screw and snap decorative parts together around the robotic core that’s necessary to operate them – but would need to be hidden in just about any other setting. Better yet, the Droid actually does interact throughout Galaxy’s Edge, “alerting” when you approach key markers or participate in story moments. What’s more, the Droid isn’t some passive replica or a high-end display piece; it’s a member of the family! Just wait till you chase your cat with it, take it to work, or share it at show-and-tell!
To our thinking, Droids are fairly priced for the product. After all, when The Force Awakens debuted in theaters, folks raced out to buy licensed BB-8s by tech company Sphero for $150 or more! For Disney’s lower cost, you not only get a larger figure (albeit, a less-technological, remote-control-based model), the 8(!) total batteries needed to power it, and a carrying box, but you also get the experience… The delight of choosing your own pieces and parts, assembling them with tools, and seeing your new Droid brought to life!
The only reasons to downgrade the Droid’s value are Disney’s inevitable (but admittedly clever!) add-on opportunities… Yes, $100 will get you a living, beeping Droid. But if you’re like us, you’re likely to get suckered into add-on fixtures for the R-series (like decals, stickers, and accessories), or a “Custom Astromech Unit” backpack in which to carry your new friend – “just” $49.99. The most “sucker punch” upcharge of all, though, must be personality chips which, for just $12.99, will align your Droid to the Resistance or First Order and change its sounds, attitude, and interactions with the land’s Bluetooth-ready interactives. (Trust us… your Droid will be plenty chatty without one.)
Lightsabers
PRICE: $250 – $275
The other signature retail experience in Galaxy’s Edge was the most inevitable… the hallowed Lightsaber. An obvious counterpart to the Wands of the Wizarding World, there was zero chance that a Star Wars land without Lightsabers would or could exist. The trick was what form they’d take. Gift shops at the exit of Star Tours have long offered “build-your-own-Lightsaber” displays where guests can make the collapsible “flick-out” Lightsabers, even mixing and matching parts of their choosing by digging through wells of plastic options, resulting in glow-toys that range from $35 to $60.
Surely, that wouldn’t do in a true, serious, cinematic Star Wars land. But few industry observers would’ve been bullish enough to accurately predict that a Lightsaber would debut at $200 – an jaw-dropping sum equivalent at that time to equipping every member of your four-person family with a Wizarding World wand. (The price has since risen to $250 at Disneyland and $275 at Disney World.) Thus was born the ubiquitous Internet think-piece titled some equivalent to “Is the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Lightsaber Worth It?”
Almost unbelievably, the fairly continuous answer tends to be, “Yes – if you’re into Star Wars and / or themed entertainment and have $200+ to spend without substantial impact on your finances, then building a Lightsaber is something you should probably do.”
The reasons why are plentiful. First of all, what the Droid Depot and Ollivanders merely touch on when it comes to fusing a “shop” and an “attraction,” the Build-Your-Own-Lightsaber experience dials up to an eleven. Once they’ve paid, guests gather in an understated courtyard outside of Savi’s Workshop, where with a wink and a nod, they’re invited in to build with “scrap metal” collected from around the galaxy (a clever ruse to keep the operation concealed from the First Order Stormtroopers who surveil the village).
Only a dozen “Builders” (each allowed to bring up to one non-building companion) are admitted to the Workshop’s inner sanctum. After an emotional welcome from a lead Gatherer waxing poetic on your choice to keep the ways of the Force alive, a flurry of activity overtakes the room. Gatherers bring metal lightsaber pieces to each Builder, selecting from styles like “Peace & Justice” (Jedi); “Power & Control” (Sith); “Elemental Nature” (drawn from naturalistic practices); and “Protection & Defense” (The Old Republic).
Guests then get to work assembling the metallic pieces, mixing-and-matching pommel caps, hilts, sleeves, activation plates, and emitters, creating an entirely personalized, weighty, metallic base. Then, Gatherers come around with a selection of Kyber crystals – in Star Wars canon, the heart of a Lightsaber, whose power is amplified through the base to emit the colorful laser sword.
(The color you choose for your crystal that gets placed in the hilt will thus become the color of your Lightsaber. A la carte Kyber crystals can then be purchased at Dok Ondar’s, and swapping them into your hilt will change the color your Lightsaber emits!)
The experience ends in a genuinely emotional crescendo when guests’ Lightsabers are all lit for the first time in a grand ceremony known to leave even the most stoic Builders (and frankly, even those without much allegiance to Star Wars as a franchise) a little misty. The experience is maybe 30 minutes from start to finish, but it is easily one of the most captivating experiences available in theme parks today. It is highly personal and highly rewarding.
Unlike Wands, there’s no benefit to having a Lightsaber in the land aside from photo-ops, spontaneous character interactions, adding to the land’s nighttime glow, and becoming a part of the original mythology that surrounds and permeates Galaxy’s Edge. Disney will quickly quell any attempt at a battle, even among family. Though supposedly they can be battled with at home (and in fact, they produce a white impact flash when crossed), the price should imply what differentiates this from a Droid: it’s really not meant to be a toy, but an impressive, interactive collector’s item. And the whole experience results in what Lightsaber collectors seem to agree is actually a high quality product for the price point.
Is it worth the price for you? That’s for you to decide. But it’s certainly a new high water mark for what souvenirs can look like in the increasing pressure cooker of “in-universe” retail spaces and the complex inner workings of 21st century Living Lands…
4. Mouse Ears
PRICE: $16.99 – $24.99
Perhaps the most classic must-have merchandise at any Disney Park, your age-old Mouse Ears are more than just a photo-op; they’re a long-standing historic favorite made famous by the original Mickey Mouse Club (1955 – 1956). Over the decades, thousands of different designs have graced the heads of Disneyland and Walt Disney World visitors, including a sought-after golden set released for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary in 2005, and the auspicious debut of Oswald Rabbit Ears alongside the reborn Disney California Adventure in 2012.
EXPERIENCE: Mouse Ears are mainstays of each park’s “Main Street” equivalent gift shops. Because so many styles are available (from head bands to ball caps to the classic elastic-strapped hat), everyone can find one they love. Whether worn proudly by locals at Disneyland or by first-time families giving into their childlike whims at Walt Disney World, purchasing and donning Ear Hats is a rite of passage.
VALUE: For as low as $16.99 for the classic set, there may be no better “signature souvenir” in Disney Parks. The legendary embroidering of names on the back costs just $3.00 (or $7.00 for a fancy font), making these a personalized souvenir and gift for a relatively low cost.
5. Spider-Bots
PRICE: $79.99 (plus accessories)
BACKSTORY: While Star Wars and its Droids moved into Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland, a similarly-epic intellectual property was assembling just a few hundred feet away in Disney California Adventure. There, the Marvel hero-themed Avengers Campus was crafted around a mythology all its own, inviting guests into a newly-commissioned Californian hero headquarters repurposing old Stark Automotive warehouses into a training center for the next generation of heroes – us.
The land’s family-friendly favorite will be WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, equipping guests with 3-D web-slinging abilities of their own. Their mission? To capture the rogue (but friendly!) sidekick Spider-Bots who’ve been accidentally replicated and released throughout the Worldwide Engineering Brigade facility. But as we might’ve expected from one of the first rides greenlit during Bob Chapek’s era as head of Parks, Experiences, and Products, your on-ride introduction to these robotic hero sidekicks is merely meant to whet your whistle… and send you straight into the gift shop.
EXPERIENCE: Just across from Spider-Man’s tech headquarters will be the W.E.B. Suppliers – a one-stop-shop for all manner of hero paraphernalia, stylized weaponry, (intriguing) Spider-Man LED goggles, web-shooting gauntlets, and more. And among its collection of buyables? Yep… Spider-Bots. After stopping the little eight-legged multipliers in their tracks, you can take these delightful arachnoid androids home with you…!
Like Batuu’s Droids, some level of customization will be available, but rather than a build-your-own experience, these ‘bots are limited to base models with color schemes echoing heroes like Black Panther and Iron Man (above). Their remotes indeed control their eight articulating arms, allowing them to move.
But predictably – in the new “add-on-and-upgrade” model – the fun doesn’t end there… Instead, personalizing takes place via add-on “tactical devices,” plug-in chips, and exoskeleton pieces that raise the mini-bot’s battle stats – like speed and strength – allowing two Spider-Bots to battle! It’s even expected that mini battle stadiums throughout the land will let guests test their interactive arachnids in remote-controlled “blast attack” clashes until a losing bot’s exoskeleton pops off, signalling defeat.
Each Spider-Bot also comes with a surprisingly hefty controller with two keypads (left-right movement and forward-backward movement), buttons to “crouch” and project the SHIELD logo, and two “attacks” to be used in battle mode (both indicated merely by sound and light), with each bot’s remaining attacks indicated by controller lights.
VALUE: Right now, it’s difficult to say what the cumulative Spider-Bot experience will be, or how “worth it” they are. After all, COVID-19 quickly killed any hopes of the Avengers Campus’ planned July 2020 opening. In fact, the two theme parks of the Disneyland Resort look likely to remain closed well into 2021… a once-unthinkable notion. However, with scores of Spider-Bots sitting on warehouse shelves, Disney made the unorthodox decision to sell them a la carte at the California resort’s single point of sale – Downtown Disney – beginning in December 2020.
Given what we’ve seen of these bots out of their Avengers Campus context, it’s fair that they’re priced lower than Batuu’s Droids. It’s not just that WEB Suppliers is currently unavailable; it’s that even once the shop is open, Spider-Bots will be… well… toys. That come in a box. That kind of leaves them looking and feeling like high-cost Christmas gifts from the Target toy aisle rather than breathtaking, must-have souvenirs that’ll be played with long after vacation. So if you ask us, Droid Depot is probably worth the $20 more. Of course, Disney’s marketing team might ask, “Why not both?!”