I’m a child of the Nineties, which means I won’t hear a bad word said about the Star Wars prequels. So you can imagine my glee when I happened upon an Instagram Reel from the excellent Blue Moon Camera, which had come across a sealed Star Wars: Episode I Picture Plus Image 35mm Point and Shoot Film Camera by Tiger Electronics.
Star Wars nerds – like myself – will instantly recognize that the camera is modeled after the electrobinoculars that the battle droid commander, OOM-9, is seen using at the beginning of the climactic Battle for Naboo in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. But that’s not the only nod to the films.
Six individual characters can be cycled through and overlaid onto the image. This means you can take a photo next to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala, Darth Maul, Anakin Skywalker or Jar Jar Binks.
Blue Moon Camera's Reel illustrates how this toy prioritizes the Star Wars subject matter over usability. The rewind mechanism and advancement wheel are on the bottom of the camera, and you have to flip up a rather cumbersome viewfinder mirror to use the viewfinder on the back of the camera. The Picture Plus Image features a flash, fixed aperture and fixed shutter, so it’s a true point-and-shoot camera.
The entire front portion of the electrobinoculars opens up, so you can load in your 35mm film. Make sure you check out the Reel (above) to find out how the characters are superimposed onto each image and to see the photographs this thing takes with a roll of Kodak Gold Ultra 400.
Few franchises (if any) can boast more crazy merch than Star Wars, so it should come as no surprise that you’ll find other Star Wars cameras throughout the galaxy, such as the Mandalorian Polaroid Now and a rather neat Star Wars Instax camera.
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