Coheteboy's A Very Star Wars Trip Report (Jabba the Photos!)

[Coheteboy]

WARNING: The trip report you are about to read is more nerdy than you can possibly imagine. You must be cautious.


Introduction: Mousercise and I at the very last minute decided to head to the California Science Center in Downtown Los Angeles to check out the Star Wars exhibit. Following the day at the museum, we felt that it didn't quite satisfy our (my) thirst for Star Wars and decided that a ride on Star Tours was the ONLY way to properly end the day. The following report along with photos is an account of what happened on Saturday, February the 24 in the year 2007.

For more info about the FREE Star Wars exhibit, go here:
http://californiasciencecenter.org/Exhibits/Weingart/starwars/starwars.php

Four other mice chatters have also shared their experiences and photos about the exhibit also if you'd like to check those out as well.

Pezz Lightyear and his Pezzlings.

TikiRoomLiz.

Frogberto (and SusieP.).

It was a beautiful Saturday. Probably the most perfect weather to enrich ourselves with a museum. (it was by pure coincidence that there was a bunch of Star Wars stuff on display).



Parking at the California Science Center is $6, but it's worth it just for this scale!



^That truck weighs 5,400 pounds! And you can try and see if you can lift it up. I didn't even try because I was afraid I'd break the thing.


You're in nerd territory when you see cars in the parking lot with stickers that say "I'm a Jedi" or "My other car is an X-Wing Fighter". But THIS one takes the cake. His license plate reads HANCHWY (han solo & chewbacca).




This glass window in the lobby of the science center reveals just a taste of what's in store for us.


A closer Look




But since it was past noon and Mousercise and I were both pretty hungry, we decided we needed some food. The lobby of the science center has McDonald's or TacoBell. None of which appealed to us since E Coli Gordita Crunch didn't sound too good.

Out we go.. wandering down Figueroa. Chipotle, which serves McBurritos wasn't fully operational yet so we hiked further down past USC to Fatburger! I had a chili cheese dog. Mousercise had...


^well it USED to be chili fries!


Back to the museum... and quick.. FOLLOW THAT STORMTROOPER!




Caught up! Outside of the entire exhibit is a Millenium Falcon Audio & Visual presentation, narrated by Anthony Daniels (voice of C-3PO). For $2, you sit in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon to experience the real life galaxy in our own world. Projected imagery shows actual footage of what scientists have so far discovered.




I wasn't able to get any good images in the cockpit but I blew out the level balance on this to give you an idea of what to expect.




Part of the fun of this museum experience are all the volunteer fans that walk around taking pictures with visitors. These AREN'T professional walk-around extras. These fans buy, build, construct their own costumes and wear them proudly.


^although why would I want to be a Tantive IV rebel trooper (on the right)? Those guys gets shot down in the first 5 minutes of the original movie!



"I'm gonna be just like my dad when I'm 5 years old -- a huge nerd!"
(kidding! it was really cute)




This R2-D2 was rolling around greeting kids, posing for photos. It's really darn cool to see it rolling around out in the open. It would be cool if Disneyland would have a droid (not r2-d2) roll around Tomorrowland too.




Darth Vader




Without having gone in the actual exhibit yet, we thought we should see an IMAX movie while we were there. We chose Deep Sea in 3D! It's narrated by Jack Sparrow and Kate Winslet, so we knew it would be kinda cool right?




Mmmmm ok it was just so-so. The 3D and footage was all really neat but the narrations were poorly written and delivered just the same. Definitely a phoned-in project from Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.

"This fish is swimming under the kelp. (cuts to shot of more of the same fish). It looks like he brought his whole family with him." (the timing of it was set up like it was meant to be a joke... but it was read in the deadpan monotone voice where it just ends up awkward sounding).

But still.. it was fun to watch 3D IMAX and I recommend it to anyone who comes here.

And at least there's music by Danny Elfman in it!


^That piece above had its world premiere performance with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl last summer.


The exit to the IMAX theater takes you all the way up to the top floor where the Star Wars exhibit takes place.



Up, up, up...







Hello down there!

To be continued with exhibit and Disneyland!! (I promise!!)

[EagleWings]

This should probably be in another section but it's a very nice report. I went there last weekend and despite waiting 2 hours in line to see it I very much enjoyed it!

[Coheteboy]

This should probably be in another section but it's a very nice report. I went there last weekend and despite waiting 2 hours in line to see it I very much enjoyed it!

Disneyland section of the report is coming, don't you worry!


But moderators, feel free to move if you feel necessary!

[ragrobyn]

Your comments are funny! Thanks for posting the pics. The Men in my family love this kind of stuff!

[barfownz]

Awesome! Where in L.A. is this at?

[RobotMirror]

Barfownz: this is at the California Science Center, in Exposition Park, near Downtown Los Angeles. Cohoteboy, I can't wait for more - great job so far!

[Coheteboy]

Finally on the top floor of the museum is the entrance to the Star Wars Exhibit. But there are few other things to do as well. For $2 you can ride this bicycle...



This was about as far as she was brave enough to go...




Then finally!!

Kaboom.


Luke's Landspeeder with wheels. It's just not in demand anymore.



Queen's Naboo Royal Starship from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.



Y-Wing. The slowest of all starfighters, used for heavy bombing.



Falcon. May not look like much but it's got it where it counts.



The Trade Federation AAT (armored assault tank). One of the more awesome designs from the prequel trilogy.




Stormtrooper.



See the tiny clone (episode 2) alongside him? Here's a closer look.




Here's Hayden Christensen and a MANNEQUIN of Ewan McGregor (haw haw!)




Choose your weapon!




TIE (twin ion engine) Fighter.



X-Wing Fighter. Not on display were A-Wings, B-Wings, Naboo Fighters, Jedi Starfighters, Rebel Snowspeeders, and many others.




HanChwy. hehe



Chewbacca is TALL.




This sand person wanted to hit the boy.





Princess Leia, Artoo, See-Threepio.




Droideka aka Destroyer Droids. Another great design from Ep1.




"If I can't touch my toes, that means three more weeks of winter!"




FX-7 and 2-1B (medical droids).




Lord Vader.






Then it was time for ROBOT OBJECT THEATER!




No, it isn't as interesting as it sounds. But the theater is inside a Sandcrawler.




Here, 3PO tells us how he REALLY thinks of his counterpart R2-D2 (doesn't like him). But through 15 minutes of comparisons of our modern day robot technology, he realizes that R2-D2 is friggin rad!

Here, only 3PO's eyes light up and his head moves left and right as he talks.




More on the exhibit, Star Wars kid tries out a hovercraft!



The end of the exhibit, like any good Disneyland ride is through a gift shop. I quickly find the item I'm taking home...




And I'm eyeing the pink tshirts too.




Leaving the store, I find this Darth Vader. But something isn't right about him. A) he's shorter than I am. B) Look at his shoes...

^6" lifts!



Time to go, but first I wanted to test out my force powers and lift this fighter plane out of the trenches.

LAST EPISODE COMING UP NEXT @ DISNEYLAND!!

[RobotMirror]

Awesome!

[SusieP.]

We're definitely gonna have to go back for the Milennium Falcon thing! The robot theater looks interesting, too. We had to skip it because it was so crowded.

Cohete, you might consider putting your DL trip report in a separate thread and having this one moved to Entertainment.

[Coheteboy]

Cohete, you might consider putting your DL trip report in a separate thread and having this one moved to Entertainment.

If you all want it moved, feel free to do so. Though I'll keep the Disneyland portion right in this thread as it's certainly not enough for its own threaded trip report!

[chadb14]

Pretty cool pics, thanks for sharing them with us.

[Coheteboy]

EPISODE III

In recap, the museum was pretty cool to check out, though they certainly held back a lot of costumes and props. I went to another exhibit in San Diego in 2000 and another one in Brooklyn NY that had so much more. But again, this exhibit is absolutely FREE so you can't really complain about that!

Wouldn't it be cool if some of this was displayed on the top floor of the Starcade? I think that would be quite popular and at least the X-Wing hanging overhead would fit right in.

The museum closed at 5pm and we saw all there was to see. It was time to head back to Anaheim to part our separate ways. Or was it? Disneyland was just down the 5 freeway so what better way to end a Star Wars day than with Star Tours -- the ultimate Star Wars adventure?

Yay Disneyland!

My TRON shoes' first trip to Disneyland.




Last time, the cove bar was closed! But not tonite! That made Mousercise happy.




This Harp beer made me happy.




We had an order of Crab Cakes and the BBQ Chicken Pizza. The crab cakes were yummy but not the best I've had, but for $11, they're a pretty decent size! The BBQ Chicken Pizza description notes only Chicken and BBQ sauce. Well, maybe we should have asked anyway because it was filled with red onions too!


^yuck!


After some food and drink, we headed to CA' Screamin for the single rider line. Only waited about 5 minutes, while standby was 30 minutes.

A view of the sunwheel from the cove bar.




Then it was back to Disneyland! Well, Star Tours was absolutely packed. As was Buzz Lightyear and of course Space Mountain. So what did we do?

sigh...









The theater was suprisingly packed! So maybe that's why this show remains perfectly in tact. But was it as good as the first time I saw this back at EPCOT?



No, it was pretty bad. I miss Captain Eo even more after watching this borefest. And the rats air tube didn't work on my seat and neither did the dog slobber. Maybe that's a good thing.


Then it was off to the Matterhorn that only had a 20 minute wait! Left side was the way to go! Sorry, didn't take any pictures but I snapped a few of Innoventions!







After the thrilling ride down the slopes of the Matterhorn, we noticed that Fantasyland was now roped off for the fireworks. Hmmm... maybe they shouldn't have fireworks on the castle if this meant rides would be closed off like this? Off to Big Thunder, which looked like a long wait but was actually just 15-20 minutes standby.

Mousercise tried the goat-trick for the first time but somehow it didn't work too well. Maybe we're doing it wrong?

Indiana Jones Adventure standby had a 30 minute wait but it was actually only 15-20 minutes. It's good to go on rides during the fireworks!





Indiana Jones Adventure was still fun... but what's up with Sallah's voice in the queue film? Did they redo it? It's almost... cartoon-like. Anybody have the answer to that?

Other than that, the rats screen effect was working just fine! Yay!


And finally... time for what we set out to do from the beginning. Star Tours! 25 minute wait? No problem.



The alternate queue was packed earlier in the evening, is now starting to empty out.



Maybe the lights keep this boy's face warm?




Lost Minnie Mouse balloon!




Ah, I just love this queue. It really brings me into the world of Star Wars with these familiar droids.



The screen at least has been updated since the late 80s.




Starspeeder 3000








Another angle.




How it would be great to go on these other adventures wouldn't it?




40 per cabin!




Riding the ride, Captain Rex had all of his working lights on, audio was good, movement was still great... even the screen and movement of the ride was still a-ok. It's no wonder why Star Tours hasn't changed a bit since its opening 20 years ago...it's still popular just the same.

But let's hope that something new is in its future!

And with that, it's time to go home. Thanks for reading!





BRRRR THE END!

[SplashMoun10]

One of the best trip reoprts by far. Thanks for sharing the amazing pics of the star wars convetion.

[RobotMirror]

Great job. I was going to ask how this compared to the other exhibit you mentioned, but it looks like this is a pale comparison, based on your comments. That's too bad.

[Coheteboy]

Everyone, thanks so very much for the comments! Glad you guys liked the report and hope you guys check it out too sometime.

Great job. I was going to ask how this compared to the other exhibit you mentioned, but it looks like this is a pale comparison, based on your comments. That's too bad.

Thanks, Frogberto, and yah... it was rather small exhibit compared to the previous tour that went around. I think the previous one was called Magic of Myth and though it only had props and costumes from the Original Trilogy and Episode 1, they had two to three times the costumes, props, and models that this one had.

Of course... the difference was that one required an entrance fee and this one in LA doesn't. Oh and there was also James Earl Jones audio narration on that one too.

California Sciencenter is still really cool though and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the films. I certainly don't regret taking a look, as I didn't have a digital camera during the previous tour.