A guide to the shops of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Dok-Ondar's antiques, Savi's lightsabers, and Mobu's droid depot
When you’re not waiting to board the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, or getting swept up in galactic battle in the Rise of the Resistance ride, you’re going to be exploring the streets, alleys, and marketplaces of Black Spire Outpost.
Here’s a rundown of the top destinations when you visit Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland this summer and Walt Disney World in the fall. Along the way, you’ll also meet a handful of new galactic denizens — some helpful, some shady.
Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities
“Have you been attentive to Dok-Ondar?” Qui’ra asks a servant in Solo: A Star Wars Story. That’s an alien art and archaeology dealer who obviously meant a lot to the criminal collector Dryden Vos, and he looms large over Galaxy’s Edge — not just because of his towering height.
Dok-Ondar is an Ithorian (better known as “Hammerheads,” after the nickname given to the one who first turned up in the cantina in 1977’s original Star Wars. This one is older, with a wisp of white hair, and an elegant cloak swirling around him as he presides over his shop of artifacts. He’s also the central figure in writer Ethan Sack’s upcoming Galaxy’s Edge comic book.
“He is the gatekeeper of the black market,” says Margaret Kerrison, managing story editor with Walt Disney Imagineering. “If you are from somewhere in the galaxy and you have a one of a kind, valuable, rare item that you want to sell, you know to come to Batuu to look for Black Spire Outpost and look for an infamous Ithorian.”
You can see some of the collectibles in his shop. In one large glass aquarium, there is a pustule of a creature that looks like a baby dianoga — the eyeball-on-a-stalk creature our heroes once encountered in the Death Star trash compactor.
Against the far wall is a taxidermized Wampa, similar to the abominable Hoth snowbeast who hung Luke Skywalker up as a snack in The Empire Strikes Back. In fact … maybe it’s the same one?
“We wanted to match him exactly to the film,” says Imagineering propmaster Eric Baker. “We went as far as taking our vendors who were helping with the fur, and matching all the colors on the fur exactly to the Wampa in the film. There were about three different Wampas. It was kind of a process of matching all three and turning it into one big creature.”
You’ll have to study its arm for lightsaber burns to know for sure if Dok-Ondar collected the one we encountered before.
Some of the Ithorian’s valuables are not for sale, but a great many statues of Sith and Jedi, as well as holocron cubes containing the wisdom of the the light and dark side, and assorted historic lightsabers will be for sale to Earth visitors to take home.
Here’s an EW gallery of the merchandise you’ll find in Galaxy’s Edge.
Savi’s Lightsabers
The sign, which you can translate with the Play Disney Parks app, doesn’t say anything about laser swords. It says: “Savi & Son Salvage.”
That’s just a front.
Building lightsabers is not something The First Order occupiers in Black Spire Outpost would tolerate, so Savi is actually keeping it low-key, helping to equip Force-sensitive warriors who seeking a more elegant weapon.
Guests will sign up for a build session, and can choose from assorted parts to assemble a lightsaber that is unique to their personalities. This isn’t the plastic Hasbro Bladebuilder you can buy in any terrestrial store.
These are a bit more detailed and advanced, with the finished hilt costing about $109.00 and the blade itself running $49.99 — just for starters.
They’ll also encounter shop employees known as The Gatherers. “They have dedicated their life to balancing the Force through sharing their knowledge of it,” says Brian Loo, an Imagineering creative director focused on merchandise. “In this experience, our guests will go on a guided tour with the Gatherers to build their lightsaber.”
There are several styles you can chose to build: Peace and Justice, which includes designs you’d see on Jedi from the Republic era; Power and Control, which includes more Dark Side styles; Elements and Nature, which features more raw, natural materials in the hilt, like a Rancor tooth of sacred wood; and Protection and Defense, which is a more ancient and archaic version of the weapon (think Star Wars goes medieval.) “Some have little engravings on them that we can’t read,” says Cody Hampton, a senior merchandiser.
The colors of the lightsabers run from Sith red, to Jedi blue and green, and Mace Windu purple. It all depends on the type of kyber crystal you purchase to power your sword, and each colorful gem has readable tech inside that can also be removed and added to a holocron cube, to hear lessons from long-gone heroes and villains.
Mubo’s Droid Depot
Outside this shop, the tech-savvy proprietor Mubo has set up four droids as display items — just like the Jawas set up for Uncle Owen and Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars. They’ll be beeping, squawking and swiveling, but generally stay put (in case you want a picture).
You won’t be able to walk out with one that’s as large and elaborate as those, but you can purchase a smaller droid (about the size of a coffee machine) that can remote-control around Black Spire Outpost. They also use beaconing technology to receive signals from other robots in the vicinity.
As with the lightsabers, each one is built to your specifications. You can choose two basic models: an R (like R2-D2 or R5-D4) or a BB unit (the ball-droid style similar to BB-8 and the evil BB-9E).
The store is set up almost like a cafeteria. There’s a conveyor belt where you walk along and choose the pieces to build your droid, an assembly area where you put it together, a chip station, where you select a personality circuit, and finally an activation center where your personal robot first comes to life.
Larger-scale droids circulate around the shop while you work, and parts of protocol robots dangle from conveyor hooks above like clean clothes in a dry cleaner’s shop.
As you depart, there’s even a jacuzzi for droids outside — an oil bath, just like C-3PO got in the first Star Wars — for when your robot needs to unwind and refresh.
Bina’s Creature Stall
Remember, everything in Galaxy’s Edge is in-character, so you may not be buying a stuffed porg doll in this shop — you’re buying a pet.
The baby tauntaun squawks and coos when you pet it; the miniature tentacle-beast rathtars shudders savagely; the worrt frog lashes out its tongue, and the pufferpig growls sweetly. Larger, animatronic versions of these creatures will populate some of the cages and aquariums around the shop – but those aren’t for sale.
Toydarian Toyshop
Star Wars loves puns, so of course this plaything stall is overseen by Zabaka, one of the winged, blue creatures similar to Watto from The Phantom Menace.
Again, this isn’t Earth, it’s a galaxy far, far away, so they wouldn’t be selling our action figures. The toys here are more like the kind of handmade stormtrooper young Jyn Erso used to play with, or the X-wing pilot doll that Rey grew up idolizing.
The premise is that galactic kids like toys made out of their heroes, too, so Zabaka listens closely to stories she hears from travelers and has crafted felt dolls that look like Chewbacca, Rey, Finn, Yoda, and even Kylo Ren (for the bad kids.)
To help guests cool off, there will also be misting fans that look like “moisture vaporators,” and for the musically inclined, the shop will carry the fanfar clarinet the Figgerin D’an’s band played in the Mos Eisley cantina and the drums banged by the Ewoks in their victory celebrations.
Yub nub!
