STARSPEEDER 1000- Sneak Preview Vehicle

“Now THIS is pod-racing.”

I was personally very excited to get my hands on the limited edition preview vehicle at Disneyland , especially since they were supposed to be a Star Wars Celebration V exclusive item, and were only sold at the event in Orlando. I was able to buy it at the Star Trader store in Tomorrowland, where it retails for $24.95.

Upon first look, it's nothing special, the packaging is almost exactly the same as the Starspeeder 3000 toy, which has been sold at the parks for years in conjunction with the original Star Tours ride. The only noticeable difference is the color scheme on the vehicle; the 3000 has the blue and white colors, while this "new" concept vehicle is ivory and orange.

I usually don’t open limited edition toys, so I opened the

package VERY carefully, to give you a full and fair review. I did have to remove the tab on the battery pack to take it out of "try-me" mode. The buttons on the back of the vehicle operate exactly the same way as the 3000, with 2 for opening doors, one for R2-D2, and another for light speed. The difference here is that you have no captain Rex dialogue, instead you have the voice of Allison Janney, who is a character called "Aly San San", your new announcer for Star Tours 2. All in all, it is a basic toy... nothing special.

I wish they would have given it some more "sneak preview" goodies, like maybe a little bit of dialogue. The only clue to the actual operation of the updated ride was a little sticker on the windshield of the vehicle depicting a pod-racing scene from Episode One: The Phantom Menace. However, in the press releases for the ride, Disney talks about multiple destinations; so hopefully for all you fellow original trilogy junkies out there, we’ll see something from Hoth or Yavin when the new ride debuts sometime in Spring 2011!

This is Lacey, your own personal geek girl, signing off for today. May the force be with you, always…

(Unless you think Episode One was a decent film, then may you live long and prosper.)