The heroes are in town! Brewing in the depths of the Singapore Art Science Museum is an entire awesome collection of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Called the Marvel Studios Ten Years of Heroes. The exhibition showcases 10 years of Marvel movies. The show runs from 9 June till 30 September 2018.
In addition to my write-up about the exhibition, check out the video of the event here.
Marvel Studios 10 Years of Heroes exhibition Video Highlights
Moreover, the event aims to bring unique and fun thematic events to Singapore. It is the brainchild and part of a three year collaboration with Singapore Tourism Board and The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia. Also, the event organised by SPACElogic and supported by Singapore Tourism Board, Art Science Museum and Victory Hill Exhibitions.
The exhibition is located at the basement of the art science museum by the Marina Bay Sands shops and convention center. It takes up one of three galleries in the museum’s basement. Also, like the Esplanade pet name “durian”, you may also recognize the Art Science Museum as the “lotus hand” building.
10 years of Movie Marvel
Marvel Studios: Ten Years of Heroes brings you through a series of ten themed galleries. Content comprises of those across ten years of past Marvel movies. Looking back, I still have fond memories of Marvel’s first movie with Ironman 1 back in 2008. It is not until you think about it when you realize it had been (oh my) 10 years since the first Marvel movie.
Moreover, the gallery displays are all laid out in a linear fashion in a logical sequence. Each section or what I would call “chambers” are dedicated to a particular super hero or marble hero franchise. The first gallery and exhibition entry point delivers short synopsis of all the Marvel movies released on the big screen to date. This is followed by an introductory video presentation.
Iron Man’s Stark Tower
Thereafter you enter the inner sanctums of Iron Man’s Stark Tower. You are presented a looping widescreen video presentation of Stark’s showcase of all his Ironman suits. This includes suits seen in the comics and particularly those not featured in the movies.
Moreover, as the evolution of armors suits are introduced as they are correspondingly “brought to life” through video projection mapping on a live-sized mannequin model. This model sits in front of the screen where the different suits and colours are centrally showcased.
In addition to the video showcase is Tony Stark’s workshop, with scenes of the suits in each of the three Ironman movies. Here we have the Mark 1 and Mark 2 suits for instance, ones which started it all. The most iconic and recognizable sit fans greatly adore will be the Mark 3 suit. It is also the first suit to be clad in the “ostentatious” gold and red colour scheme.
Concluding the Stark Ironman chamber is the center piece display of this section.It is a larger than life Ironman sculpture. It sits behind a stark industries slogan in a super hero pose. It is an excellent photo opportunity.
Hey Captain!
The galleries leads onto Captain America and Avengers Chambers. Here, you be greeted with a showcase of the various shields used by our bio-engineered Captain.His shields are displayed via 3D holograms in this third zone chamber. You can learn about their origins and use in the movies.
Moving on, you can find a scale model of the first generation S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. Additionally,this variant is the one with counter rotating propellers in place of replusor tech, which we first saw in the first Avenger’s movie. The scale model comes detailed with surround protection cannons, as well as the under bay aircraft storage hanger. Just like in the movie.
Travel to the Thor Universe
Travel through a portal into a new world via the Bifrost in the fourth exhibition chamber of Thor. Here, you enter the world of the Thor Marvel franchise with a life scale figures of the God of Thunder Thor himself and the Hulk in arena battle gear.
Furthermore, you can be part of and relieve the Iconic battle between Thor and Hulk from Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok. It is staged with a backdrop right in Sakaar’s magnificent gladiator arena. If you feel inclined, you can even have a go at raising Thor hammer from a nearby stand.
Marvel Studios: Ten Years of Heroes brings you through a series of ten themed galleries. Content comprises of those across ten years of past Marvel movies.
The Best of Beast Kingdom models
Moreover, these models, including the earlier Ironman showcased were developed by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia and Beast Kingdom. The Taiwan-based Beast Kingdom develops and provides for the unique exhibit models, installations and interactive content here like in the Thor gallery.
Also, you may recognize the company as a provider of high-end toys and action figures previously seen at toy conventions such as the Singapore Toy Games and Comic Convention.
Furthermore, Beast Kingdom prides itself as a leading exhibition developer and producer of European/U.S. comic and movie peripheral products. With their deep experience in exhibitions, exhibits, events and merchandise is reflected in the exhibits here.
Dance to Awesome Mix Vol 2
The chambers follows into the Guardians of the Galaxy Universe.Henceforth, you proceed into the dark industrial confines of Yondu’s spaceship from the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. Also, here, you can find a live-sized Rocket raccoon here blasting away with his buddy Groot.
Moreover, here you find plastered on the walls a couple of the interactive exhibits. Interactivity is the name of the game here.You can find two interactive screens here where you can dance with baby Groot. You have to keep an on-screen dance meter up with your dances moves, as well as avoiding Yondu’s flying arrow. This tracking is achieved through a suite of Kinect sensors per station which maps your body and arm movements to that of the virtual character. It is a neat touch indeed.
Furthermore, throughout the various exhibition chambers, you can relate fan fiction to science and reality through small information panels. Examples linking movies with science includes Starlord’s Awesome cassette mix to the early magnetic tape recording technologies.
However, these displays can easily go unnoticed which makes you wonder if anyone actually reads these signs. But these are probably one of the few notable learning areas you can encounter here as a museum.
Seeing Portals with Dr Strange
The next chamber transports you to the inner New York Sanctum and the world of Dr Strange. The sixth gallery here is recreated as seen in the film with the mystical environment of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange. Moreover, you enter this section via a maze of inter dimensional mirrors. It depicts travel through the portals with localised scenes of the Singapore Marina Bay and Central Business district.
The chambers here are clad in a mystical dark environment with ambient lighting effects from the Time stone. Sitting center stage is a Life-Size Statue of Doctor Strange Stephen Strange by Beast Kingdom. A quick check on Beast Kingdom pricing states that you can bring home that exact 1:1 scale model for about $9,000 US dollars.
Moreover, you can interact in the Sanctorum via interactive digital screens which will allow them to bend reality or create portals. These “Mirror simulators” have a go at bending time with the time stone or create an inter-dimensional portal by repeated swirling your arms.
Wakanda forever
You walk past a visual force field shroud before being welcomed into the Land of Wakanda. Specifically, Black Panther the newest Marvel movie franchise. The Panther cave welcomes you into the seventh exhibition chamber. It is set to the futurist utopia of the ‎Vibranium-rich land of Wakanda.
Here, you can find a 1:1 scale model of Black Panther himself for photo opportunities. Moreover, there are minor displays with focus African culture and fashion. Much to share the cultural references used in the movie.
Getting tiny with Antman and the Wasp
Furthermore, the eighth section is a small one, literally. It introduces the ant-sized and microscopic world of Scott Lang. You may recognize him by his other name, the Ant-Man. Additionally, you also get to meet The Wasp who will be featured in the yet to be released Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and The Wasp.
Moreover, here, you can step into the tiny world of both minuscule superheroes. This exhibits are probably the smallest of the lot. You might need a magnifying glass or two! Also, it features oversized props amidst lab equipment in an area inspired by Hank Pym’s lab from the new film. Kinect sensors above head react to your feet movement if when you stomp on the Ant-shaped logos on the floor in this chamber.
Infinity war conclusion
The tour galleries ends in the ninth gallery and final static display gallery. This chamber pays tribute to Infinity Wars the last movie to date in the Marvel and Avengers franchise. Thanos’ infinity gauntlet sits center stage here, with the hand piece laid out with all the infinity stones via touch info-displays.
Moreover, each of the known Infinity Stones are introduced via a user-interactive display. Upon activation, you can find out more about the infinity stones through small cut scene videos from each of the touch display screens. Additionally, invoking them altogether will start an infomatic video sequence which plays in the video screen overhead.
Closing gallery and gift shop
Lastly, the exhibition culminates in the tenth gallery with a cinematic video showcase. Here, you enter a large dark rectangular room with animated Avengers emblems on the floor which you can “step on”. Each icon corresponds to a Marvel Super Hero you can choose and appears on-screen. The closing video starts when all emblems are activated. It employs use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology as specially created animation appears on the screen.
After the video, the tour ends into a gift shop selling marvel officially licenses products. Here you get an assortment of toys, models beats kingdom as well as apparel. You can also find a specially curated selection of Marvel related Beast Kingdom toys which you can purchase. This includes regular and limited edition collectible toy models.
Furthermore, overlooking the entire store front is the entire working cast and crew of Marvel Studios involved in the last 10 years. A class leading production company with over a billion dollars in box office takings.
The exhibition ends with great optimism of the Marvel movie franchise and the success to date. After all, from the exhibits we learnt that Disney took a large risk venturing into the unknown Superhero franchise with Ironman One in 2008. Henceforth, it’s eventual resounding success lead to a shrew of additional movies leading up to Ironman 3 and spawning a variety of separate Marvel franchises.
Since then, Disney was able to amass a large enough capital to buy back superhero franchises previously sold by the financially strapped marvel movie studies. Henceforth, we see heroes and villains such as Spiderman and Venom coming back under the wing and under the avengers.
Ticket Pricing
Tickets are now available at all Marina Bay Sands box offices and their website. Entry tickets are priced at $19 Singapore dollars for adults with Singapore residents and PR tickets costing $16 per entry. Regular Senior and discounted local tickets costs $14 and $12 respectively. A family package comprising of 2 adults and 2 kid tickets costs $54 and $45 too.
Marvel Studios: Ten Years of Heroes exhibition will run from 9 June till 30 September 2018. All in all, you are good for the exhibition for about 1-2 hours. The galleries are small and could get crowded when packed. As they are closely packed, you could also run between them pretty quickly and backtrack if need be. There are many photo opportunities, allowing you to relive key moments from all 19 Marvel movies. So do bring a camera.
If you are a Marvel Fan in the downtown area, it is an exhibition you definitely must not miss.
View more photos of the exhibition here.
