The Free-Han-Solo game is a must for any serious Star Wars Party, so we had to include it in ours. A dozen or so Star Wars figures were duly frozen in carbonite for our intrepid freedom-fighters to thaw out. Game on!
How to play the Free-Han-Solo Game
The kids were divided into two teams and handed blasters loaded up with white vinegar. We also gave strict instructions on where and where NOT to fire them… Nobody wants vinegar in the eye.
As the kids squirted the frozen blocks, the baking soda and vinegar reacted together. Foaming eruptions eventually freed the figures from their carbonite-y prison. Admittedly with a little bit of help poking and bashing with forks – that carbonite was frozen good!
But oh no! Not all of the figures were goodies. Snuck in amongst the frozen heroes were an assortment of stormtroopers. And the evil emperor Palpatine himself!
Defrosting a baddy got each team minus points, tallied up once all the heroes had been rescued.
The winning team got first pick from a bag of Star Wars chocolates and sweets. Then both teams got to destroy a frozen Death Star to finish off the activity.
Making carbonite and freezing heroes
I recommend reading Fun-A-Day’s excellent ‘Rescue Han Solo Lego science experiment’. This will give you full instructions on how to mix up baking soda and water.
I added a little more water than she suggests in an effort to make the baking soda go further. We did find later that the vinegar couldn’t completely free all of the figures. Sticking to her 3:1 baking soda/water ratio might get better results . Though we still got a good fizz and had just as much fun chipping and hammering the remaining carbonite away.
Mixing in some kid-safe silver poster paint was a great way to get a convincingly carbonite-esque colour. I also added glitter to the first couple of batches. But it didn’t really show up as the mix is so dense, so I didn’t bother with later batches.
As I was using chunky galactic hero figures, I couldn’t fit these guys into any of our ice cube trays, so instead used some disposable foil trays. These worked fine, though it was hard to break the blocks up into individual figures later. A quick rinse under hot water sorted that out and was enough to soften the blocks to break them without activating the baking soda.
Preparation, Preparation Preparation…
This activity definitely got messy! But we managed to contain it with a little pre-party planning, and deliberately did this one on the kitchen table. The table was covered with a cheap and cheerful starry black tablecloth which took care of most of the mess.
The blasters were all pre-loaded and stored in a large plastic bowl that captured any leaks, and each team had a large plant tray (over a metre in size – the kind that are like mini tuff spots!) in which their carbonite victims were placed.
The trays were big enough that four kids could gather around each one and squirt at/poke/prod their subjects without getting in each others way. A quick rinse after the game and these were good as new.
I would recommend protective eyewear if you are using blasters rather than syringes or pipettes to apply the vinegar (otherwise you will get spray in someone’s eyes!), and some kids may find the smell of the vinegar too strong.
We had planned for this and had a load of our existing Star Wars toys available for play next door in the sitting room, which kept the only three kids who didn’t want to do the activity happy until we were done.
Want more Star Wars Stuff?
The free-Han-Solo game wasn’t the only Star Wars game we came up with. Check out the rest of our Star Wars party activities!
