Located at the Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas, the Avengers interactive exhibit was perfectly jenky -- and utterly transfixing.
Welcome to the Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. Yes, it was CES week, but even quirky gadgets can get boring. So CNET's Eric Franklin and I headed over to become members of Marvel's Avengers.
S.T.A.T.I.O.N. visitors traverse through various rooms learning about each of the heroes, villains and weapons of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With your commemorative ticket (we chose Black Panther, obvs), you're now ready to head into the training exhibit.
The exhibit features a multitude of interactive components where you can "train" to be an Avenger or simply see how your strength stacks up against the current Avengers.
Nearly every area has at least one screen for you to explore and watch some clips on.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) provides your entry briefing, warning you not to break anything or Tony Stark will be mad.
The exhibit opened years ago, hence the appearance of many pre-Snappening cast members and heroes.
Materials and costumes behind glass are from various films, which unfortunately makes it harder to photograph some of them.
...and they're all informative screens. As you can sort of see here, each hero has dedicated sections so you can learn all about the various Avengers.
Some of the content is outdated (there's a whole section on Bucky Barnes that says the Winter Soldier doesn't remember his past), but it's all interesting nonetheless and fans are still learning new things from it.
Everything can be perused at your own speed, which means some lazy meandering sometimes.
The leather jacket, shirt and helmet Cap wears in the movies. And we get to see the classic trading cards Agent Phil Coulson comes to love.
All about Cap's beginnings.
I definitely expected some of Agent Coulson's blood on there.
He went in as Steve Rogers and came out the super-serum'd Captain America.
Filled with all of Banner's experiments and interactive Hulk exhibits.
A normal hand doesn't even come close to Hulk's palm.
From Banner to Hulk and back again.
You can interact with the displays to see what happens to Banner's and Hulk's brain chemistry when transitioning.
Squeeze the handles to see how your strength compares to various Avengers'.
CNET's Eric Franklin might actually be the new Black Panther. Well, either that or the next Iron Man.
AI research at the level Banner and Stark were looking into it probably wasn't the best idea, with hindsight.
At least, I hope it's once Ultron has been disassembled.
Contains his "coffin" and screens full of info on the creation of Vision.
OK, it's actually an employee door, I know.
Each housing unit features a see-through glass pane of information, with costumes behind. From left to right you can see Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), Agent Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner).
Life-size!
In person, you can see Falcon's (Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie) full spread wingspan.
As you can see in the next photo, the glass panes in front of the costumes are actually screens which display different images of the characters.
The next room had really hard-to-see blue light, but I still tried to capture the "hazards."
The sign in front of the Dark Elf says, "Warning: Alien Substances. Proper safety attire required. Exercise extreme caution. Security clearance required. Authorized personnel only."
A beautiful mess of screens and a Mjolnir "test" plaque for those who think they're worthy.
With a Norse inscription below.
It reads: "To our brethren of the order of S.T.A.T.I.O.N., herewith stands the warrior garments of Thor Odinson, a commemorative symbol of the alliance between Asgard and the heroes of Midgard."
Thor's room has the most screens of any other room, and each is filled with info on related topics, like Loki. (But no mention of that recent retcon of his role in 2012's Avengers.)
In all of its gigantic glory.
In the final "room" you and your companions "battle" Ultron. First you choose a hero to play as and you're handed an iPod Touch configured as whomever you chose.
By tapping, or using gestures on your device you all combine "powers" to damage Ultron and blow him up.
The exhibit is a bit old and out of date, overall. One worker told us that there are plans to update it over the summer with new characters and movies, and that it's taken a long time due to franchise negotiations. Hopefully come CES 2020 we'll get a look at Black Panther, Thanos and newer content.
In the meantime, check out our predications and theories for the upcoming Avengers: Endgame and all things MCU-related.