Force Friday was a night to be remembered, especially if you were lucky enough to attend the event at the Disney Store Oxford Street in London. With a tonne of product available and very special guests on hand to join in with the excitement, it was a night I’ll never forget.
From the moment me and my partner arrived at outside the Disney Store you could see the excitement on everybody’s faces. With members of the 501st legion and an electronically controlled R2-D2 also there interacting with the excited fans. If you were following Team Jedi News on Instagram you would of seen the buzz from me and the hundreds of other fans alike, truly a wonderful feeling.
When the clocks struck 12.01am and the doors to the Disney Store opened, there were loud cheers from everyone in line. Me and my partner were about 70th in line, and in the first wave of fans that got inside the store. As the queue moved around from the side of the store to the front, me and a fellow fan shared our excitement for the experience.
On entering the Disney Store you were overwhelmed by the amount of Star Wars product, I’d truly never seen anything like it, amazing. The first thing you were greeted by was the electronic voice changer helmets of Captain Phasma, Kylo Ren and First Order Stormtrooper, great product but not what I was hunting for. As we passed kids Kylo Ren costumes, Disney’s new 6-inch Elite figure line and larger talking figures of Finn and the Stormtrooper I finally found my target, the new “build-a-weapon” line of 3.75-inch figures by Hasbro. I urgently grabbed a basket from a member of the Disney Store team and started picking of the figures I wanted, I was very lucky to pick up most of the first wave bar my two most sought after figures, Phasma and Ren. I waited amongst packs of fans for the next case to arrive from upstairs, when it finally came most of the product didn’t even reach the pegs, fans were being handed them out of the boxes, a very high demand for Phasma and Ren. I did eventually get my Kylo Ren figure, a kind member of the store team answered my request and handed me Kylo Ren, I was a happy man.
After gaining what I wanted I moved on around the store, hunting for more. We came across the Funko PoP bobble head figures, I hadn’t planned on buying any of these but they looked great on the shelf so I grabbed a Kylo Ren and put him in my basket. Moving on we came across a shelf full of mugs and glasses, to specific mugs were screaming out at me to buy them(I do love my tea).
My girlfriend really likes R2, so I bought her the glass in the middle in the photo above. The Kylo Ren mug on the left is my favourite though, such a great design! There was also a large section dedicated to the LEGO Star Wars line from The Force Awakens. I didn’t pick any of these up as they weren’t with my budget unfortunately, they did look great though.
Not only was it great to see all this amazing product on shelves, it was amazing to see John Boyega and Daisy Ridley getting involved. They were moving around the store interacting with fans and signing merchandise, you could see how much they were enjoying the experience and that only adds to the excitement of seeing them on screen as Finn and Rey. I was lucky enough to meet John outside the store when I was in line, he seems like such a great guy, when you see them getting so involved and picking up their own merchandise it made me truly happy!
After 30 minutes my shopping spree came to an end, me and my partner moved to the tills to purchase our loot. I left the store average, very happy Star Wars fan. Along with the merchandise I purchased this great 3D graphic bag from The Force Awakens.
(The dark side, and the light) Force Friday at the Disney Store Oxford Street was such a great experience, I have to give a shout out to the marketing team and store employees for putting on such a great show. Not only that, for having plenty of merchandise for all the fans to purchase, well done!
(My Force Friday haul)
For more Jedi News event coverage visit our Events page here.
