Two Perspectives on May the Fourth at the Disney Store

To celebrate Star Wars Day, Disney Stores held a special celebration. We have two reports sharing their perspectives of the festivities. First we have our resident Star Wars expert Patrick Hurd sharing the event held in Oklahoma City from a Star Wars fan perspective. Then “The Moseleys” share what the experience was like attending as a family. Look for more Star Wars content from Patrick and for Gideon’s report on the event during the next LaughingPlace Podcast.

Episode I: The Phantom Patrick Hurd

If you visited Laughing Place on May 4th, you no doubt saw the Star Wars Day Live Blog that covered any and all Star Wars activities and sales that were going on, as well as featuring a handful of videos that were uploaded in honor of May fourth. What was I personally doing on May 4th? I got up bright and early, and headed for Oklahoma Cities Disney Store. For a while now, The Disney Store has offered a small amount of Star Wars merchandise, however, they decided to unveil some awesome new merchandise at a special in-store event on May 4th. To sweeten the deal, the first 100 guests in the store received a special commemorative pin.

I arrived at the store an hour before opening, and discovered that I was the first in line.

Slowly, fellow Star Wars fans began to arrive filling the area outside of the store.

A few minutes before opening, two cast members came out and entertained the building crowd with Star Wars trivia and jokes. You know where Storm Troopers like to shop? At the Darth Mall! Once opened, the store filled up quickly.

Inside, there was a large wall dedicated to Star Wars merchandise.

And several other areas had Star Wars items mixed with Disney, Muppets, and Marvel items.

The commemorative pin, limited to 100 per store, was handed out as guests entered. The pin featured a cool looking Star Wars poster design with “May the 4th be with you” written on a banner below the image. The large pin was attached to a Disney Store card with the 2014 Pin Trading logo on the back.

A table set up in the back of the store was filled with coloring pages…

Trading cards…

And inflatable lightsabers…

At 12:30 all the “younglings” in the store were invited back to the video wall to learn the ways of the Force.

The cast member running things interacted with a pre-recorded video featuring R2-D2 and a couple of Stormtroopers. After the kids successfully confused the Stormtroopers with their Force skills, they were taught how to properly handle a Light Saber.

And everyone received a medal to commemorate the completion of their training.

If you’re organizing a Star Wars event in Oklahoma City, there’s only one group to call…JediOKC!

Costumed members of the group were on hand for several hours taking pictures with guests and helping to entertain the crowd.

Of course, I couldn’t leave without picking up one of the 13.5 inch tall Stormtroopers.

If you like to display your collectibles “mint in box” this large figure comes in a nice looking package, with some very cool Darth Vader artwork on the side.

The figure is beautifully sculpted, and the paint application was very clean.

The figure is articulated at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. While a bit stiff, you can get the figure into some pretty cool poses.

The Stormtrooper features two buttons. One fires his light up blaster, the other makes him talk. He includes twenty-two different phrases sampled right out of Star Wars – Episode IV. I do however have one small complaint. Thirteen of the phrases are in fact spoken by various Stormtroopers. The remaining nine lines of dialogue come from a handful of Sandtroopers…not Stormtroopers. Nit-picky…I know. On the kids side, the figure is very well built, and should hold up to some pretty rough play. On the collectors side, the figure is nicely detailed, and at 13 and a half inches tall is at a scale not previously seen in a Star Wars figure. At $29.95, I’d say that he’s well worth the price.

This is the first of these large scale action figures that the Disney Store is set to release. Future figures will include Han, Luke, Chewbacca, and of course Darth Vader. According to the store manager that I spoke with, new figures will release weekly. If that wasn’t reason enough to head back to the Disney Store once a week, the collector cards they were giving out on the 4th were just the first three of a nine card set that…you guessed it, will be released gradually. Disney certainly knows how to keep the collectors coming back!

This is just the first of a bunch of cool merchandise that Disney will be rolling out, and you better believe I’ll be picking up various items and reviewing them here on Laughing Place.

Until next time, may the Force be with you!

Episode II: Attack of the Moseleys

Just a little bit of construction in front of the San Francisco Disney Store

On Star Wars my family and I headed to The City (ie: San Francisco) to see how the Disney Store celebrated the day. It was my son Gideon’s first official assignment for LaughingPlace.com and you can hear his first-hand report on the next Laughing Place Podcast. At 12:30p there was to be Jedi training for the kids. We arrived quite early so after looking around the store a bit we got our free light saber (given to all) and pin (given to the first 100 guests) and left for a bit.

Star Wars display in the front of the store

Gideon shows off his light saber (pre-inflation) and pin in front of the store

Gideon's light saber is now ready

When we returned, we still had a few minutes so Gideon busied himself coloring in the provided Star Wars coloring pages

Finally, time to begin. First, the Cast Members read the famous Star Wars opening scroll then told the story of the first part of the film as clips played on the screen.

Then it was time for training. First up, teaching the young Parawons how to perform the Jedi mind trick. After a few test runs a couple of Stormtroopers were brought on the scene and the group of kids successfully sent them on their way.

Then it was time to bring out the Lightsabers. The Cast Members led them through learning how to use them for both offense and defense. Then a training droid was brought in to give them a tougher test.

But that test was interrupted by a transmission from the Rebel base. It was time to attack the Death Star and the new recruits needed to help guide the fighters. So the little put their arms out and leaned left and right as the attack commenced.

With the destruction of the Death Star, the kids had certainly earned their Jedi status. Each was given a “medal” and finally lined up for a final picture. All in all, a really cute little event for the youngest Star Wars fans (or future fans) in the family.

Use the Jedi Mind Trick on them!