The Force is With Us...

Imagine our excitement when we discovered that there was a Star Wars exhibit at Scienceworks in the city, a mere 45 minutes drive from here. Imagine that you were a young child when the original Star Wars movie came out in 1977 and that you have seen all the Star Wars movies since then and now that you are just a teeny bit older than that, you still love the movies, as does your 7 year old daughter. You would go check out the exhibit! And that is exactly what we did. Everything in the exhibit was used in the movies - Luke's landspeeder from the first movie, many lightsabers, costumes and other bits. It was really interesting, although I must admit that finding out how they did some of the stunts and scenes was like finding out what all your Christmas presents are before you open them.



X wing fighter. It measures about 1m x 1m. Guess it had to be that small to make all those turns.
















Chewbacca and Han Solo. Harrison Ford was obviously not that big because the costume is quite small.

This looks like some sort of homemade plumbing thingy.

I had no idea that there were so many different types of lightsabers in the movie.

Darth Vader. This one was Alex's favorite. She loves Darth Vader. Although when she asked Santa for a lightsaber she wanted a blue one like Luke's.

Storm Trooper.

Yoda this is. Cute he is.

A Jawa. They were the ones that sold C3PO and R2D2 to Luke's uncle. If you google "Jawa" it describes a Jawa as a small rodent like native of Tatooine. Doesn't really help...

Snow Trooper from when Luke got lost in the blizzard on Hoth.

Wampa from Hoth.

Alex with Darth Vader and Padme Amidala. Or for those not in the know - Alex with Darth Vader and his Mom.

Kennedy with C3PO and R2D2. Hard to imagine there were people in those costumes.

Luke's landspeeder from the first movie. It was built over the frame of a 3 wheeled British Car and then the tires were movie magicked out of the scenes. Unfortunately that info sort of ruined things for me...

The Millenium Falcon. It measures about 1.5 metres in diameter and weighs enough that it took 3 men to lift it. It was manouvered in the scenes by wires that were attached to it's frame.

For a group of Star Wars fan we left the exhibit quite excited. It was really cool to be able to see all the stuff from the movies and to get an idea of how it all worked. Items like Darth Vaders helmet look like George Lucas paid a visit to his local Home Depot to put the costumes together. It was really odd to see regular things like tubing and duct tape on something that looked so spectacular on the big screen. As an adult you it's like finding out a magicians secret and may make me look at the movie differently I'm not so sure that a 7 year old will care.