I've always been fascinated by the production models made in the designing of Disney attractions. I remember learning long ago that most are destroyed after the attraction is built which is pretty sad. Sometimes the little figures show up on display leaving me to wonder how many exist from Horizons. Any? I personally have never seen a model or figure from Horizons in person.
This was one of my favorites, of course, from the classic Making of EPCOT book.
Though the scene is different from the final version (that was torn to the ground with no respect or remorse) I think it's cool that the female figure is pretty close to the AA figure that ultimately inhabited the scene.
Yellow-ish jump suit, hair color and style. Do you think anybody saved her from the WED Enterprises dumpster? Probably not so.....I made my own.
8 inches tall which may be taller than most WED figures. I have no idea.
I modeled mine after the final version.
I also made her holding the Flavor Grapes like the tiny figure used in the Nova Cite Hologram table.
I made a mold and I'm hand painting each one. I'm selling 25 of these figures, each one signed and numbered.
Ever since I was in high school I've wanted to build a Disney Enchanted Tiki bird from scratch. Even though I've built a few animatronic birds over the years, I never made a "Dead on the Money" replica. I've decided to do it and share the experience.
I'm going to build a Toucan. The Tropical Serenade Barker Bird (WDW) to be exact. Complete with perch. I have no photos or blue prints of the inner workings of this bird. I have photos of other tiki bird parts and a set of 1966 patent drawings. I want this figure to be air powered and I want to use the same air cylinders as the 1963 version so I get the exact same motion. I'm going to sculpt this a close to the original shape as I can but I have no official measurements.
Background:
It all started when a few friends and I were goofing around in the school library cutting gym class. We were looking at old National Geographic Magazines when my pal Kevin said "I didn't know they had Minnie Mouse in Malaysia! He showed me the article and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the single greatest spark of imagination I ever got. It was my introduction to the inner workings of Walt Disney's Audio Animatronic technology. (National Geographic August 1963 was the date for those of you who want to find one.)
My friend Schell and I started to build a parrot right away. We were both poor so fancy equipment was out of the question. I would find out over the years that hat we built was surprisingly close to some of the different systems involved in an early AA figure. Out birds mouth ran on a tape recorder with a headphone jack plugged in. One wire was the audio and went to a little speaker and the other wire was wound with fine copper wire around a small iron rod creating an electromagnet. The birds beak was hinged and the back had a small piece of steel glued to it. The pulses from audio track coming through that wire charged the magnet, which attracted the steal, and opened the birds mouth! The damn thing would chatter in sync with the audio track! A few days later we borrowed and amplifier from Schells mom and it worked even better.
The next thing to do was animate the other parts. We got an electronic surplus store to donate some solenoids, which sort of act like an air cylinder, a car battery, a record player etc. Schell made a wooden disk that fit the record player and could be screwed to the turntable. we started it and drew lines a half inch apart around the disk. Like a little race track. we had a wooden rod that hung over the record and over each little "track" we hung a rectangle of thin sheet metal just above the wooden surface. Those were our tracks. We needed 4. Along each little track we screwed in a metal screw where we wanted a motion to happen. The underside of the wooden record had all the screws connects by copper wire which was fed by the positive side of the battery. As the wooden record turned the screws would hit their metal triangle and activate a motion of the bird! We had head up and down, head left and right, body rocking back and forth, and a breathing effect. For that we used a roll on deodorant ball. It was pretty awesome to watch. Sparks would fly out of it when the screws hit the contacts. It was like Frankenstein coming to life. But we did it!
We had plans to show our bird, Poncho the Parrot, at the Seniors art show but it never happened. We weren't well liked by the 3 art teachers and they decided Pancho was unsafe. They even went as far as to say "If you ever showed that thing to Disney they'd NEVER hire you." The night of the show we were sitting in Schells front yard drinking beer with Poncho in front of us. Schell flew into a rage and threw Pancho into the street like a football. 15 seconds later a truck ran over him and completely destroyed him. The controls were thrown in the junk pile behind Schells house.
Everybody likes a good mystery. Everybody but me. I like Tex Avery cartoons and meat.
Long ago I was a Disney theme park adventurer! Jumping out of ride vehicles and sneaking in back doors in parks such as Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center, and Disney MGM Studios. Not anymore. They pretty much closed or changed all of the rides I liked so now I like to sit around, drink beer, watch old Walt Disney videos, and look through thousands of old Disney pictures.
I like to look at WED Imagineering material because I like to see what's in the background of each shot. Artists working on classic attractions, models, drawings etc.Some it was staged for TV but I don't care. There's so much to pick through! Sometimes I come across something that tickles the living shit out of me! Like this!
I've watched the TV show "Walt Disney Goes to the World's Fair" about 47,934,330 times and I thought I caught just about everything 'til one night, something caught my eye. I was always sad that they didn't show the finished Abe Lincoln Audio-Animatronic figure. They only show a couple seconds of someone stretching a Plastisol skin over the animatronic head. OR DID THEY?
Watch the video again. At 27:18 Walt tells us "we might not believe it" and turns to walk away from the model.
LOOK AT THIS! At 27:21 a dude in a checkered shirt comes into view on the left......
IT'S THE ABE LINCOLN FIGURE!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"But he doesn't look that much like the Abe Lincoln figure we know today, Hoot Gibson, you fool". Of course not! He looked like a perfect 1964 model of Abe.
AND without air or hydraulic pressure being pumped into his actuators he would natural slump forward like he was looking at his desk. Walt must have thought that was hilarious to have him there in the background. Notice too that he's the only "Imagineer" NOT moving or doing anything.
Here's a nice comparison. This is the Lincoln figure from the fair. Look at the hair, the brow ridge, the ear size. Same same same.
Walt Disney once said "The era we live in is a dream come true and Hoot Gibson is the smartest man in the world". Here are some other pictures I stole for you to do your own research into why I'm right.. Enjoy!
Watch this again while you're at it.It was a wonderful time and place.
Back in the day there was no internet. The only way to catch up on the latest WDW news was to go to EPCOT Outreach and collect the free handouts. I saved 'em not even realizing how cool they'd be 30 years later.
Dear Volcano Bay,
Let's not forget that Typhoon Lagoon is still a better water park.
Horizons, at Epcot Center, opened on October 1st 1983 to mixed reviews believe it or not. Years ago I photocopied hundreds of opening day transcripts from news stations across the county because I'm a dork.
With every year that passes the predictions become more silly. Trust me though, folks, on that day in 1983 they seemed very real and certainly possible. More importantly these vision were of a POSITIVE future.
If you know me you know how much I loved that ride. It inspired that 15 year old kid and even lead ME TO THIS.
As I work on my new project Westward HO!e in One, I can't help but to daydream........maybe I could build a positive vision of the future.......
The original post show of Walt Disney World's Space Mountain was The Home of Future Living. A delicious 1970's view of Tomorrow presented by RCA. HOFL ran for 10 years and was replaced by RYCA One- Dream of A New World. If you remember it, you're in for a treat tonight!
