Melbourne - Star Wars Expo etcAuthor: jawapro
Date: Mon 19/10/2009 09:47 PM
Well - I’m back!
I was in Melbourne for a couple of days last week for work - and decided to stay for Saturday. There was a Star Wars exhibition at the Scienceworks museum in Melbourne - and Mike and I had been planning to go for a while (although Mike had already been once).
So after a couple of rather hectic days with work, I left most of my gear at the office, repacked into my little backpack, and caught the train to Traralgon (about 2 hours out of Melbourne - where Mike lives) on Friday night.
As those who know me would agree - I’ve never really got the hang of packing light. This was a pretty good effort on my part I think - but I must admit, it got jolly heavy by the end of Saturday.
After our trip around Europe, the thing I most wished I’d had with me was a tripod. So this time I decided I’d take it. Unfortunately the museum wouldn’t let me take it in, in case I used it to break the glass and try and steal Han Solo’s boots (I think Aunty Bec tried). That was a drag - and my photos weren’t as good as they should have been.
The exhibit was a mix of props and costumes from the movie and other sciency things that sort of related.
For example - after looking at Luke’s Landspeeder, you got to play with Mag-Lev trains.
You built models out of Lego (with strong magnets glued in) and had to create a design that would work on their Mag Lev setup. It sort of fits with the Landspeeder as they both hover (Landspeeders use repulsorlifts - not Magnetic Levitation), but it was fun - and hey, it was Lego!
Hanging out with some other hairy dudes.
Some rather famous droids.
The Tantive IV - one of my favorite ships ever. I love the design. Correllian craftsmanship - awesome!
Tantive IV. I suppose it’s really the Tantive 4, but I’ve always thought of it as the Tantive Eye-Vee.
They hired a wookie to guard Solo’s boots. I think they took Bec’s threats pretty seriously. According to her, they are the best boots ever!
It was quite fun - and worth the early trip back into Melbourne.
It turns out that there was a comic/scifi convention in Melbourne - but I didn’t have time to get there. Really sad - as it would have been a great way to wrap off the day. There were even some Atlantis stars in town - darn, if only I’d known in advance, I’d have worked out a way to do both.
Still - I had a heap of fun and can’t complain. Mike and I wandered around Melbourne for a while instead. I spent a heap of money at Minotaur (geek heaven), he spent his at EB (also a great shop), and we had a poke around in some other shops.
Meyers in Melbourne has a great Lego area. They have a better rang than most shops down here, but they also have some impressive Lego sculptures. This guy looks familiar - I think I’ve seen him somewhere before.
And this model is VERY Melbourne.
Talking about trains and trams and things - we got Mike back to the station in time to catch the Traralgon train - but we’d miss-read the timetable and it was in time to catch the train FROM Traralgon, not TO Traralgon. He had to catch the next train - which unfortunately put him in the middle of all the people leaving the Caufield Cup (horse racing). Thankfully he was early enough that it wasn’t too crowded, and the crowd wasn’t too drunk. He made it home safely.
I made it back to the boat, and arrived home on Sunday morning.
So that was my weekend. How was yours?
Comments: 4
Maelstrom Fansite
