The mysterious disappearance of a shipment of “thermal detonator” co*ke bottles from the Star Wars planet of Batuu has left Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland without one of its most sought-after souvenir collectibles.
The other-worldly, orb-shaped Coca-Cola, Diet co*ke and Sprite bottles with distinctive Aurebesh logos found in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge have been replaced during the phased reopening of Disneyland with the distinctive yet commonplace contoured soda bottles familiar to most earthlings.
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Before the coronavirus closure of Disneyland, the souvenir collectible co*ke bottles were sold exclusively in the Black Spire Outpost village on the Star Wars planet of Batuu, the setting for the 14-acre Galaxy’s Edge themed land. Disneyland reopened on April 30 following a 412-day closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Walt Disney Imagineering has gone to extraordinary lengths to create an immersive Star Wars world in Galaxy’s Edge — with the distinctive co*ke orbs just one of the land’s thematic “in story” elements. The “thermal detonator” co*ke bottles were created exclusively for Galaxy’s Edge as a way to help reinforce the storytelling conceit of theme park visitors playing the role of intergalactic travelers on the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy.
The sudden disappearance of the Coca-Cola orb bottles from Galaxy’s Edge raises several questions.
Have pandemic-related product shortages reached Batuu? Is space pirate Hondo Ohnaka to blame? Has Disneyland stripped a layer of Star Wars theming from Galaxy’s Edge? Has the TSA banned the “thermal detonator” bottles from interstellar travel? Has Disneyland’s shipment been misrouted to Alabama? And most importantly: Will the souvenir collectibles ever return?
The Coca-Cola orb bottles are temporarily unavailable and expected to return to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in the future, according to Disneyland officials.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced beverage makers to suspend output of low-selling products to focus on bestsellers as soda consumption shifted from restaurants to homes. Demand for the exclusive Galaxy’s Edge co*ke orb bottles was non-existent during the pandemic closures of Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The Batuu East version of Galaxy’s Edge in Florida — which reopened last summer — is selling the co*ke, Diet co*ke and Sprite “thermal detonator” bottles, according to MiceChat.
“During the shutdown, the Galaxy’s Edge bottles were spotted at various stores nationwide,” according to MiceChat. “We assume that either Disney or the bottler didn’t want the product to go bad while waiting for the parks to reopen.”
The unavailability of the Coca-Cola orbs has been an unexpected boon for Batuuans used to paying exorbitant prices for soda shipments to the outer rim of the galaxy. Prices for the precious fluids have dropped an astounding 39% with the arrival of the Earthly contoured bottles of co*ke, Diet co*ke and Sprite.
The 13.5 ounce Coca-Cola orbs typically sell in Galaxy’s Edge for $6 — or 44 cents an ounce. The 16.9 ounce contoured bottles sell for $4.50 — or 27 cents per ounce.
Travelers to Black Spire Outpost report that paying $4.50 or $6 for a bottle of co*ke on Earth would only occur at a sports stadium, festival concert or theme park. Earthlings typically pay 3 cents per ounce for co*ke products at Wal-Mart.
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The Coca-Cola orb bottles sold in Galaxy’s Edge look like palm-sized thermal detonator grenades emblazoned with logos rendered in the Aurebesh language used throughout the Star Wars galaxy.
The Aurebesh designs mimic the look of the corporate brands, with the Galaxy’s Edge co*ke bottle retaining the curve and swoop of the twin C’s in the distinctive Coca-Cola logo. The thermal detonator bottles retain their trademark color schemes — red for co*ke, silver for Diet co*ke and green for Sprite.
The co*ke orbs were designed to look like the spherical explosive weapons used by bounty hunters and stormtroopers in the Star War universe.
“The design of this thing just looks cool,” Walt Disney Imagineering portfolio creative executive Scott Trowbridge said when the bottles were unveiled in 2019. “Kind of thermal detonator-ish. It’s kind of awesome.”
The thermal detonator co*ke bottles had a brief brush with infamy in 2019 when they were the subject of a short-lived ban by the Transportation Security Administration.
The Galaxy’s Edge co*ke bottles were prohibited on U.S. flights because “replica and inert explosives aren’t allowed in either carry-on or checked bags,” according to TSA officials.
“It could create concern that it’s the real thing,” TSA spokesperson Jim Gregory said in 2019.
In April 2020, the thermal detonator co*ke bottles popped up in an unauthorized remote outpost in Alabama during the coronavirus closures of Disney theme parks around the globe.
A pallet of the Galaxy’s Edge-exclusive Coca-Cola products were spotted at the small, family-owned Tate’s Supermarket in Hartford, Alabama. The local grocery store is located in a small town near the border of the Florida panhandle nearly 400 miles from Walt Disney World.
The local Alabama grocery store apparently was unaware of the value of the rogue shipment it received from the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy. Tate’s Supermarket was selling 12-packs of the Galaxy’s Edge collectible bottles for just $6.99 — about the cost of a single bottle in Batuu.
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Coca-Cola worked closely with Imagineering and Lucasfilm on the look of the Galaxy’s Edge soda bottles to create a familiar yet different design that authentically fit into the Star Wars universe. Coca-Cola and Disney are both listed on the patent of the distinctive Galaxy’s Edge bottle cap.
Disney theme parks have a long corporate relationship with Coca-Cola dating back to the 1955 opening of Disneyland’s Refreshment Corner on Main Street, U.S.A.
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How long will it take before co*ke, Diet co*ke and Sprite “thermal detonator” bottles return to Batuu West?
You’ll have to ask Hondo Ohnaka — the dreadlocked space pirate with six tusk-like chin protrusions who handles the delivery of contraband cargo into Black Spire Outpost.
Disneyland employees playing the role of Batuu residents in Galaxy Edge often blame any mishaps in the Star Wars themed land on Hondo, who runs a shady shipping operation that doubles as the home for the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run attraction.
