Galaxy’s Edge merch: Yoda Illuminator

Disney decided to market this item as Yoda’s illuminator, but it would be more accurately called ‘Luke’s flashlight’, and we can assume that Luke brought his to Dagobah as part of standard-issue Rebel survival gear. While maybe not recognizable to the casual fan, once you know the scene, the item springs to mind pretty easily.

It’s not surprising that Disney went to the trouble of producing this lamp, but for $30, is it worth buying?

Based on the reviews I’ve seen, the major drawback of the Yoda lamp is that–for our purposes–it doesn’t seem to be meant for real use… As a quality prop to display on a shelf, or to pad out your pack for an interpretive talk with schoolkids, it’s fine. But to use it as a flashlight in the field, or even to illuminate a campsite as a proper lantern, the light is far too weak and unfocused.

Even though it’s apparently made of metal and not plastic, the quality of the light really reminds me of something you’d find in a Happy Meal…actually, scratch that; it reminds me of this Men in Black ‘Neuralyzer’ from Burger King c.1997.

Another downside is that the Yoda lamp runs on R41 watch batteries — four of them, in fact. Both the Earth and yours truly have no time for anything without a rechargeable power cell. I suppose it could be possible to tinker with it, add a more powerful LED (Maglite makes a nice drop-in upgrade kit) and make it accept a Li-ion powercell of the right voltage…but that’s currently outside my own capabilities.

While we’re on the subject of functional Rebel field gear seen on Dagobah, I personally would much rather have a well-made, (solar?) rechargeable version of Luke’s camp lantern:
To take up less space in a pack (or your starfighter’s cargo area*), it’d be doubly good if it could be made collapsible, like this L.L. Bean lamp I weathered up some years ago (this runs on 3x AAs, which are rechargeable!) :

*I know, I know, ‘It’s just a movie’…but in the interest of discussing functionality in a realistic setting, are we supposed to believe that Luke fit all this gear in his X-wing’s cargo bay??

Is the ‘Yoda illuminator’ worth the $30 (way more on eBay)? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

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