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SDCC '15 – A Star Wars: The Force Trainer II Hologram Experience Review

Published Thu, 16 Jul 2015 08:45:56 -0500

DO DO DOOO DO DOO DOO DOO DOO DO

That's me humming the music from Empire Strikes Back from when Yoda levitated the x-wing out from the swamps of Dagobah. Why am I not embedding the music in this article? Two reasons. 1) This isn't MySpace circa 1999 and 2) I don't want Lucasfilms/Disney's lawyers firing an X-wing up my exhaust port.

It is, however, the same tune I was humming as I tried out the Star Wars: The Force Trainer II Hologram Experience. The kind folks at Uncle Milton (yes, the ant farm people) were kind enough to let me into their booth on preview night to give this a whirl. The Force Trainer II is an upgrade to their 2009 best seller, The Force Trainer, which uses a science/magic that I don't quite understand to allow the user to manipulate objects through mental concentration. The old model allowed you to levitate a ball. This new version allows you, via your tablet, to move various holograms, including Luke's x-wing, through a head-strap apparatus that somehow measures your mental concentration.

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical that this would work. I was expecting, at best, a reaction only loosely correlated with how hard I furrowed my brow. To my astonishment, the X-wing reacted perfectly with my mental command to raise and lower it. When I broke all concentration, the X-wing fell. Whether this is because of science, magic, or a placebic effect, I'll never know. Glad that the package says "8 and up", because I'm getting one of these bad boys for myself.