I'm inclined to think that these AT-ATs will be more involved than what meets the eye. While clearly the legs are stationary, the head could actually be remarkably complex. An AT-AT head has four weapons mounted to it. Two under the cockpit and two on either side of the pilot. AT-AT's weapons are extremely powerful, and as a result recoil. That quick pulse after each firing is a quintisential part of their look and feel. Additionally the side mounted weapons are equipped with a greater freedom of movement, being built onto a rotating joint that moves vertically to the ground. This gives AT-ATs greater flexibility for both close range ground targets and aerial targets.In my professional life, I'm more on the civil/transit side, but my education background is almost entirely structural engineering, taught within the framework of California's seismic requirements. I'm even sitting about 6' from a real live structural engineer at this very moment!
That said, I agree with everything @flynnibus has said: the legs should be steel to deal with the tall unbraced load (essentially creating a moment frame out of the 4 legs/columns), but there's really no clear reason that the body/head structures should be so solidly built. It would be fine to construct it out of wood or smaller steel members, and this would help reduce the loads that need to be supported so high up in the air.
From the joints and connections we've seen in construction photos and videos, these look like they will be entirely stationary (which is in line with Disney's policy of removing overhead moving set pieces, following DLP's Big Thunder incident), meaning they could essentially be made from paper mache and would be just fine. If there's no live load being applied to them from movement, and minimal dead loads from the structure itself, the structure can be surprisingly lightweight. it's a small world used this very approach for a fast & cheap build before the World's Fair, but those set pieces and props are doing fine 50+ years later.
The only potential logic I can think of is that WDI has been under fire recently for having too much overhead cost. By over-designing elements of projects with massive budgets like this, it helps them hide their high costs as being relatively smaller in comparison to the construction cost, even if that construction is unnecessary. When vertical construction began, I commented that the cross-bracing was massive for a warehouse-type building, which would seem to follow the general idea of this whole thing being incredibly over-designed (for whatever reason). Obviously I'm not running any calculations, nor have I even seen the structure in person, but from my position there seems to be something going on that we don't know about
EDIT: I know that "value engineering" gets a (mistakenly) bad reputation around these parts as being an excuse to cut show elements, but that's typically something that comes in the budgeting phase of a project. In fact, this is a perfect example of where value engineering could and should be applied, reducing the construction costs and structural loads, while still providing the exact same end product to guests, which in turn frees up more money to be spent elsewhere. It really makes me wonder what's going on with this project...
This may be the first time I'm able to understand what I'm looking at besides the trees being added to ROA!
Which is probably why I'm going to end up being wrong. Watch it end up being some kind of fancy churro cart or something.
Back at it again!
The 6 point mark of that video where we're seeing the village, are we seeing the back of it, and the river/boats will be traveling in front of it on the other side we can't see?
That must be right because I imagine we'd be able to see the track for the river boats if it traveled on the side we are viewing.Yes, I think so. I'm actually finding harder to get my bearings now that there are so many trees. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking at the Fantasmic storage building. It's all changed rather suddenly.
Not necessarily bad, just expensive. It would be sort of like buying an industrial dish washer for your home kitchen. Sure, it will get the job done, but it's really not the most effective use of your moneyA good something or a bad something?
I'm inclined to think that these AT-ATs will be more involved than what meets the eye. While clearly the legs are stationary, the head could actually be remarkably complex. An AT-AT head has four weapons mounted to it. Two under the cockpit and two on either side of the pilot. AT-AT's weapons are extremely powerful, and as a result recoil. That quick pulse after each firing is a quintisential part of their look and feel. Additionally the side mounted weapons are equipped with a greater freedom of movement, being built onto a rotating joint that moves vertically to the ground. This gives AT-ATs greater flexibility for both close range ground targets and aerial targets.
These particular features (recoil and rotating joint) can be seen clearly in this quick compilation of AT-ATs from Hoth:
I suspect in Disney's obsessive focus to detail, these characteristics won't go unnoticed. I'm guessing many Star Wars nerds who know Episode 5 by heart are working on this!
So considering the idea these heads will be supporting 4 constantly recoiling and possibly pivoting canons with electrical for lights and simulated lasers the overbuilt head becomes more reasonable.
Now obviously this is conjecture, but with this attraction I'm betting on more realism. Static AT-ATs wouldn't fit the bill.
I read somewhere recently that the building will have the highest rockwork in DLR, so presumably part of it will be taller than the Matterhorn. Similar to the Cadillac Range in Carsland, I expect that it will mostly be mid-height with occasional spires going higher, but it will be quite large regardless. At least from what we can see so far, it looks like the 3rd level won't be incorporated into the ride space, so it is likely all for the façadeWell, the AT-AT building just leaped up another 20+ feet taller. This building is going to be the biggest at Disneyland by leaps and bounds; height, width, depth, scale, etc.
It looks like that area will be 'outside' the railroad and roughly the same elevation as the tracks. Considering that anything up there wouldn't be visible from the canoes, the lower deck(s?) of the Twain, or any of the inward-facing railroad carriages, I doubt it is any sort of significant show elementAlso, at the 6:00 mark we get really good shots of the Indian Village. Am I wrong in thinking the "room" being built into the rockwork might be for the re-staged scene where the Indian Shaman tells his stories to the tribe? Or as the guys who guide the Canoes tell you, he's telling "The story of how the churro came to his people".
A new wall going up by the Pooh ride.
Good idea. I was thinking it would be hiding Star Wars land in Critter County, but forgot there is an equal need for hiding Critter Country from Star Wars areas.I saw that in one of the videos posted earlier and wondered what it's for. There'll be a passage nearby so could it be for theming purposes to hide the backside of Pooh?
Train trestle on the right. I couldn't be more confused about the placement of everything. The train seems really high to me.
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