EPCOT Figment, well, to be replaced by Figment

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

I just bought this shirt in my size from DisneyStore with a very good discount before its gone.

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Fantastic design, love it, I’ll for sure consider purchasing one!

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

One thing I find odd, is that despite all the issues the current 2002 ride has, it rarely ever seems to break down/stop, at least in my experience.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

One thing I find odd, is that despite all the issues the current 2002 ride has, it rarely ever seems to break down/stop, at least in my experience.

Most likely because it really doesn’t have many parts. It’s a couple projections & audio queues basically along with 3 truly animated AA figures against static scenes.

I myself have had a couple stops on it before in the past, but yeah. Truth be told though, and I wanna say this about the original. Despite what rumors you’ve heard, through nearly ‘every’ video I’ve watched of the original Journey Into Imagination.. I have ‘never’ seen that ride break down or be evacced, ever. Never have heard any breakdown spiel for it either. Lol Only maybe once or twice have I seen the ride stop, but it was in the lead up to the opening scene, but basically to get a handicapped person on & off, and/or.. the ride stopping and then starting again after said delay to get back up to speed. As Tony once explained (forget where I read or heard this)… but he had said.. it wasn’t that the ride, let alone the turntable was breaking down. It was simply that after a ride stopped, it’d do its job too well, when the vehicles would get back up to speed to board the turntable, it’d immediately stop to get in the right sync position to board the turntable correctly/safely and then continue as usual. People thought the ride was breaking, when in actuality, the latter is what was happening.
The other thing to keep in mind, is unlike the current version, despite the cars and most of the track being the same outside of the turntable and film finale scenes being disabled/covered over w hollow flooring, for the current queue & load & unload/ImageWorks: What If Labs/Gift Shop, The original version’s ride cars were constantly running, similar to the way the Haunted Mansion & Spaceship Earth constantly runs

 

[jah4955]

but basically to get a handicapped person on & off

That's the only time I ever recalled any original EPCOT Omnimover ride stopping, and I liked it because it allowed me to "take in" more-deeply whatever scene I was in at that moment.

 

[JohnD]

Fantastic design, love it, I’ll for sure consider purchasing one!

I got in on it FAST with a Disney Visa discount of 30% off on 11/5 only. Order yours now before your size runs out. My experience is the larger sizes run out first being American.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

I wonder if simply renaming that to ‘Extra-TERROR-estrial Encounter’ would be the best solution for that attraction if ever considered to be brought back.
Anyway.. back to Journey Into Imagination. Regarding signage.. so, if you remember, back during it’s original incarnation days.. during the days they played Magic Journeys & Captain EO, it used to have the main ‘Journey Into Imagination’ presented by Kodak sign outside. And then have 2 signs to the left and right of it respectively. One to the left pointing to the Magic Eye Theatre, the other pointing to the Journey Into Imagination Ride. Both with a simple icon with a description representing what both experiences entailed. At some point though, I think around ‘95 or so they removed these signs and replaced them with one single sign, closer near the Magic Eye Theatre, kinda similar to the current pole guide map thing there now) that said ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ in big, red text on the top w an arrow pointing left and underneath it, Journey Into Imagination (in white almost translucent pink print I might add, with a black & white (lol, why?) photo of Figment underneath it, on a weirdly more faded looking white square, with an arrow pointing to the right. (I’ll share both here once I find the photos I saved of them).
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Edit: Found them! And they can be seen on (for the original era) Jeff Lange’s site: https://jefflangedvd.com/category/photo-memories/page/4/, and the other Cartarsauce Theatre’s EPCOT ‘96 trip video:

To add to this, here’s the infamous queue rope mentioned in David Koenig’s book Realityland, (besides the new awning, redone signage & monorail spiel to make ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience out to be the sole/main attraction in the pavilion) that dropped Journey Into Imagination’s attendance levels enough to get Disney to start looking into the idea of redoing it, as at that time, when looking for ways to try to lower maintenance spending.. that’s the way this pavilion got absolutely desecrated. Funnily enough.. look what they decided to redo the sign outside to and what graphic they put on the new cars. No joke, a diagram of.. ‘the turntable’.. they very conveniently disabled and put hollow flooring over to make way for the 99/02-current load. You just can’t make this stuff up.
PS: another funny story.. one time when I was getting ready to board the current ride a good few years back on another trip I took there.. I happened to meet somebody else heading inside who clearly saw I was a fan by what I was wearing (a bunch of Figment stuff of course) and pointed this detail out to me. Supposedly they’d tried to contact WDI and ask if that’s what it Infact was to confirm.. they got no response. But by golly, that sure as heck is what it looks like Sure is “interesting”, right??:

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

To add to this, here’s the infamous queue rope mentioned in David Koenig’s book Realityland, (besides the new awning, redone signage & monorail spiel to make ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience out to be the sole/main attraction in the pavilion) that dropped Journey Into Imagination’s attendance levels enough to get Disney to start looking into the idea of redoing it, as at that time, when looking for ways to try to lower maintenance spending.. that’s the way this pavilion got absolutely desecrated. Funnily enough.. look what they decided to redo the sign outside to and what graphic they put on the new cars. No joke, a diagram of.. ‘the turntable’.. they very conveniently disabled and put hollow flooring over to make way for the 99/02-current load. You just can’t make this stuff up.
PS: another funny story.. one time when I was getting ready to board the current ride a good few years back on another trip I took there.. I happened to meet somebody else heading inside who clearly saw I was a fan by what I was wearing (a bunch of Figment stuff of course) and pointed this detail out to me. Supposedly they’d tried to contact WDI and ask if that’s what it Infact was to confirm.. they got no response. But by golly, that sure as heck is what it looks like Sure is “interesting”, right??:
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Now that you mention it. That is very ironic..

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

There was some other fascinating signage changes aswell. There was once a sign upstairs in the glass atrium area that used to have a “Follow Figment To” sign, with the name of the film playing at that time beneath that, with lit showtime counters (I think, in regards to the showtimes element, might be wrong on that, will have to check again). They later changed this to a simple rectangular ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ sign simply with an arrow pointing towards it going down the escalator to head over to the Magic Eye Theatre, which, again, at the time, was not called this anymore once it got changed to HISTA

TADA!

Btw: one of these escalators now is behind a cage and the Magic Eye Theater link has been walled off now ever since that ‘99 revamp

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Now that you mention it. That is very ironic..

Indeed it is.. makes you wonder what else is lurking behind this sham of a pavilion… as I said before, I’d really love to know the reasons why they spent the budget and made the creative decisions in the baffling fashions they did.
Btw, something else I always thought about. So we all know how popular the upstairs ImageWorks was at the time, right? Ever notice how ‘99-01’s JIYI began with the line “Well, as you can see there’s not much going on upstairs imagination wise. That’s just perfect for our experiments.” Yeeeah.. “not much going on ‘upstairs’ imagination wise” and yeah, sure it showed us guests being scanned and apparently having no imagination (really nice way to start a ride right?), but to think.. very ironically, this was the case too. Always wondered why as opposed to renovating the upstairs ImageWorks , they’d instead put a dumbed down lousy version downstairs covering the former Film Finale & OG load/unload. And again, they kept this the way they did when they “Brought Figment Back” in June 2002, despite it being the most thematically appropriate thing for Figment there currently (just look at the current Blast finale), simply roped off. It sure hasn’t stopped Disney from putting a DVC lounge up in the atrium area with the entry way to that blocked off though…. when they could’ve put the very same thing in the Kodak VIP lounge instead…

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Indeed it is.. makes you wonder what else is lurking behind this sham of a pavilion… as I said before, I’d really love to know the reasons why they spent the budget and made the creative decisions in the baffling fashions they did.
Btw, something else I always thought about. So we all know how popular the upstairs ImageWorks was at the time, right? Ever notice how JIYI began with the line “Well, as you can see there’s not much going on upstairs imagination wise. That’s just perfect for our experiments.” Yeeeah.. “not much going on ‘upstairs’ imagination wise” and yeah, sure it showed us guests being scanned and apparently having no imagination (really nice way to start a ride right?), but to think.. very ironically, this was the case too. Always wondered why as opposed to renovating the upstairs ImageWorks , they’d instead put a dumbed down lousy version downstairs covering the former Film Finale & OG load/unload. And again, they kept this the way they did when they “Brought Figment Back” in June 2002, despite it being the most thematically appropriate thing for Figment there currently (just look at the current Blast finale), simply roped off. It sure hasn’t stopped Disney from putting a DVC lounge up in the atrium area with the entry way to that blocked off…. when they could’ve put the very same thing in the Kodak VIP lounge instead…

I swear that there is an Epcot Souvenir book that I saw at World of Disney and within the book the segment for Journey Into YOUR imagination comes up. The book states that Wayne Zalinski invented the ride vehicles that we are riding for the attraction..I want to say it was in this book..But, I can't confirm...As I do not have this book..

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Btw, as a side comment, it’ll never fail to make me laugh just how hard Disney tries to pass this off as the original returned. Like, they ‘really’ want to convince you it’s the same thing, with a ‘totally’ straight face. I swear, just look at the entrance sign they have right outside the door. “A whimsical slow moving ride into the realms of imagination”. Yeah.. ‘THAT’. What “whimsical realms of imagination”? I could’ve sworn I rode a fast-moving ridiculous tour through a bunch of sensory labs & offices. Like, did I make a wrong turn to the Disney Medical Care Services? Is it an elaborate prank, is that why I’m having my senses checked to supposedly inspire or use my creativity? The gaslighting surrounding this “Imagination pavilion” currently truly is both insane and genuinely ‘the’ most “hilarious” thing to witness. And I’m not laughing with them here, I’m laughing ‘at’ them. How ‘any’ executive can sit there, knowing full well what this originally was and saying with a grin that they’re “happy/proud” to “have Figment back” in ‘THIS’, despite the outcry & good merch sales for literal DECADES now, Still happening to THIS DAY (Rightfully so I might add), and Documented Proof that it indeed was the 2nd most popular attraction behind Spaceship Earth until the HISTA Queue Rope & Signage BS that I’ve just clearly evidenced here happened is absolutely hysterical. Like OMG, how dense & obtuse could you possibly be?!

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

And it gets even better.. when you realize, at the same time they had this “return to form” in the planning & ready to open in 02. This was literally ‘still operating’ in the Wonders of Life pavilion since 1989. No joke. They legit could’ve walked here and saw that this was in there. Like.. what the?! If they were so insistent on having a Sensory Lab themed around the 5 senses, why didn’t they just update ‘this’ in the Wonders of Life? (PS: it (very ironically) already was lightly themed to Film Based IP)

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Oh, and yes.. I know I’ve heard before that one of the big reasons the ride was shortened was “for more merchandising space”. Well it’s funny.. cause all that “merchandising space” they’re referencing is, Infact, space allocated for the lousy downgraded “ImageWorks” while (again) the original one is closed upstairs, and the actual 99-current day merchandise spot is roughly (pretty sure) practically in the very same spot it was during its original incarnation, nearly the same amount of merch offered inside and heck, more merch stands/shelves could’ve been added to the original .. ‘and’ get this! The Kodak Camera & Film Shop that sold extra merchandise is now (I believe) a Disney Visa Card Holder exclusive Character Meet & Greet Spot for Mickey & Goofy (lol, really??) , ‘that’ spot once had extra merchandise offered in there (will post photos I’ve saved here as soon as I find them). So yeah.. makes me wonder if that argument was made at the time to deceptively change it the way they did further too, when it’s so obviously not true upon doing the research. (“Hey, it provides bigger merchandising space!” ). And how that horribly (and I mean horribly), ‘the’ worst “upgrade” to a classic ride you could ever see in your life, with total seriousness, provides “more merchandising potential” over the Original, in their minds, is beyond me.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

To add to this, here’s the infamous queue rope mentioned in David Koenig’s book Realityland, (besides the new awning, redone signage & monorail spiel to make ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience out to be the sole/main attraction in the pavilion) that dropped Journey Into Imagination’s attendance levels enough to get Disney to start looking into the idea of redoing it, as at that time, when looking for ways to try to lower maintenance spending.. that’s the way this pavilion got absolutely desecrated. Funnily enough.. look what they decided to redo the sign outside to and what graphic they put on the new cars. No joke, a diagram of.. ‘the turntable’.. they very conveniently disabled and put hollow flooring over to make way for the 99/02-current load. You just can’t make this stuff up.
PS: another funny story.. one time when I was getting ready to board the current ride a good few years back on another trip I took there.. I happened to meet somebody else heading inside who clearly saw I was a fan by what I was wearing (a bunch of Figment stuff of course) and pointed this detail out to me. Supposedly they’d tried to contact WDI and ask if that’s what it Infact was to confirm.. they got no response. But by golly, that sure as heck is what it looks like Sure is “interesting”, right??:
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1:24… in ‘plain sight & sound’ :


The ‘only’ part of the monorail spiel that does this.. “The glass pyramids are your gateway to Journey Into Imagination. Inside you’ll find the 3-D adventure, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’. Join Prof. Wayne Salinski as he recieves the inventor of the year award for his incredible shrinking machine”. Yeah, “real slick” wording right there… “Inside”. But sure Disney, it was all Kodak. That Kodak sponsorship contract Ya know, the one they were able to honor for all those years with updates to the Magic Eye Theatre like Captain EO (which for those who don’t know, yeah, that starred Michael Jackson, ‘the’ biggest pop star ever.. and who knew.. they didn’t need that awning & queue rope for that show when it was around.. and they sure as heck didn’t need to change the ride during those years) and the updates done to ImageWorks that I mentioned previously in the early 90s, until “suddenly” they weren’t able to anymore… and the laughs just keep on coming ladies & gentlemen. Apparently, they had gotten pushback even ‘before’ this had happened when word got out that Figment, Dreamfinder and the original ride was being removed entirely.. and it was due to pushback he was even utilized as a cameo for the ‘99 renovation and even then.. as of course we all know (and what should’ve been known even then), that kind of nonsense wasn’t gonna end well. LOL


PS: Gotta love this shirt sold at the time too btw, all things considered… yeah, they “Shrunk Figment” alright. GEEZ :

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

1:24… in ‘plain sight & sound’ :


The ‘only’ part of the monorail spiel that does this.. “The glass pyramids are your gateway to Journey Into Imagination. Inside you’ll find the 3-D adventure, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’. Join Prof. Wayne Salinski as he recieves the inventor of the year award for his incredible shrinking machine”. Yeah, “real slick” wording right there… “Inside”. But sure Disney, it was all Kodak. That Kodak sponsorship contract Ya know, the one they were able to honor for all those years with updates to the Magic Eye Theatre like Captain EO (which for those who don’t know, yeah, that starred Michael Jackson, ‘the’ biggest pop star ever.. and who knew.. they didn’t need that awning & queue rope for that show when it was around.. and they sure as heck didn’t need to change the ride during those years) and the updates done to ImageWorks that I mentioned previously in the early 90s, until “suddenly” they weren’t able to anymore… and the laughs just keep on coming ladies & gentlemen. Apparently, they had gotten pushback even ‘before’ this had happened when word got out that Figment was being removed entirely.. and it was due to pushback he was even utilized as a cameo for the ‘99 renovation and even then.. as of course we all know (and what should’ve been known even then), that kind of nonsense wasn’t gonna end well. LOL
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PS: Gotta love this shirt sold at the time too btw, all things considered… yeah, they “Shrunk Figment” alright. GEEZ :

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There is a clearer version of this from 1996..I timestamped where it's at.

 

[jah4955]

1:24… in ‘plain sight & sound’ :


The ‘only’ part of the monorail spiel that does this.. “The glass pyramids are your gateway to Journey Into Imagination. Inside you’ll find the 3-D adventure, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’. Join Prof. Wayne Salinski as he recieves the inventor of the year award for his incredible shrinking machine”. Yeah, “real slick” wording right there… “Inside”. But sure Disney, it was all Kodak. That Kodak sponsorship contract Ya know, the one they were able to honor for all those years with updates to the Magic Eye Theatre like Captain EO (which for those who don’t know, yeah, that starred Michael Jackson, ‘the’ biggest pop star ever.. and who knew.. they didn’t need that awning & queue rope for that show when it was around.. and they sure as heck didn’t need to change the ride during those years) and the updates done to ImageWorks that I mentioned previously in the early 90s, until “suddenly” they weren’t able to anymore… and the laughs just keep on coming ladies & gentlemen. Apparently, they had gotten pushback even ‘before’ this had happened when word got out that Figment, Dreamfinder and the original ride was being removed entirely.. and it was due to pushback he was even utilized as a cameo for the ‘99 renovation and even then.. as of course we all know (and what should’ve been known even then), that kind of nonsense wasn’t gonna end well. LOL
View attachment 892200

PS: Gotta love this shirt sold at the time too btw, all things considered… yeah, they “Shrunk Figment” alright. GEEZ :

Again...just wow. It's like they had this irrational vitriolic hatred for the little guy....It's like they had this irrational vitriolic hatred for the visitors. How did they expect anyone not to be insulted, on at least one of many different levels, by what they did (at least up to 2.0...3.0 was a relatively feeble attempt to put out the fire they caused all by themselves) or, more-so, how they did it.

On a happier note, I can't see how that monorail loop can ever get tiresome (but it peaked w/Horizons building).

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Again...just wow. It's like they had this irrational vitriolic hatred for the little guy....It's like they had this irrational vitriolic hatred for the visitors. How did they expect anyone not to be insulted, on at least one of many different levels, by what they did (at least up to 2.0...3.0 was a relatively feeble attempt to put out the fire they caused all by themselves) or, more-so, how they did it.

On a happier note, I can't see how that monorail loop can ever get tiresome (but it peaked w/Horizons building).

I agree, of course with the exception of what’s going on with Journey Into Imagination right there. Lol! But yeah.. granted, I’d argue the 3.0 version is just as insulting if not worse ‘but’ we’ll have to see what creatives behind it interviewed will possibly say about it, actually involved in making the thing and what happened.

Can tell you though, I can’t imagine they’re too great of stories. I’ve always found it odd how shrouded in mystery the creation behind these versions are. And again.. like.. who thinks “Aw yeah, remember when we had the scent of rose in that realm of Art scene? What if we referenced it in our new smell lab scene, but instead of letting folks smell that again. Let’s have Figment come in on a slot machine, dress as a skunk and fart in their face, while singing That’s how you tell a skunk is not a rose”. I swear.. We have ‘got’ to find out the reason they decided that was a good idea. Isn’t Figment supposed to be the guy we’re rooting for here? And again, how does the smell of skunk improve your ability to come up with new ideas or create things? It just doesn’t make any sense.. this ‘was’ supposed to be a return of the original ride’s spirit, wasn’t it?? Well, hate to say it, but I sure as heck don’t see it there, do you?

 

[jah4955]

I agree, of course with the exception of what’s going on with Journey Into Imagination right there. Lol! But yeah.. granted, I’d argue the 3.0 version is just as insulting if not worse ‘but’ we’ll have to see what creatives behind it interviewed will possibly say about it, actually involved in making the thing and what happened.

Can tell you though, I can’t imagine they’re too great of stories. I’ve always found it odd how shrouded in mystery the creation behind these versions are. And again.. like.. who thinks “Aw yeah, remember when we had the scent of rose in that realm of Art scene? What if we referenced it in our new smell lab scene, but instead of letting folks smell that again. Let’s have Figment come in on a slot machine, dress as a skunk and fart in their face, while singing That’s how you tell a skunk is not a rose”. I swear.. We have ‘got’ to find out the reason they decided that was a good idea. Isn’t Figment supposed to be the guy we’re rooting for here? And again, how does the smell of skunk improve your ability to come up with new ideas or create things? It just doesn’t make any sense.. this ‘was’ supposed to be a return of the original ride’s spirit, wasn’t it?? Well, hate to say it, but I sure as heck don’t see it there, do you?

Oh I agree. I've been referring to 1983's as 1.0, 1999's as 2.0 (abomination), and 2002's as 3.0. I don't like 3.0 for so very many reasons ...all encapsulated by "Skunk Figment".... but I always really try to be as charitable as possible by comparing it to what I consider 2.0 lol. From the first time I rode it in 2002 (& every time since) I could almost hear Disney sing:

Oh pleeeeeeeeeease don't hate us!
Oh pleeeeeeeeeasee don't hate us!
Figment
Now crammed
Right down your throats!
So please don't stop
giving us cash!

Disney can "win" the 2026 Expo simply by restoring Imagination to 1.0 glory (but admit there's much else that also needs attention...and they have been giving me so glimmers of hope since Destination 2025).

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

The self awareness rooted in the pavilion’s decline on Disney’s part is painfully obvious.

One could speculate, that it almost seems as if Disney themselves knew this was the only “timeless” FW attraction, and they absolutely hated that. By their standards of what made FW timeless, almost nothing was safe, except for this attraction. The only way this would be considered “dated”, was if it wasn’t “hip” enough. Classic excuse for a non issue based on a bizarre personal agenda.

Every pavilion received updates around this time, and they likely viewed Imagination as an anomaly compared to the rest. Even for the most beloved attractions like Horizons, I bet you there were members of the GP commenting on how “corny” or “unrealistic” some of the depictions of the future were in that attraction. With the trigger happy attitude they had with Epcot in the late 90s, there was zero hesitation when it came to redoing much of FW. Everything was getting redone in some fashion, simply for the sake of making things current.

Can’t really argue the same for Imagination. By the same argument they used to shutter this attraction, they may as well pave over Fantasyland.

They’re still ashamed of their 1990s smear campaign they did so little to disguise. That is why JIIWF is still seen as “good enough”, they dug their hole way too deep and instead of working with fans to properly dig themselves out, they’d rather continue this toxic relationship.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Oh I agree. I've been referring to 1983's as 1.0, 1999's as 2.0 (abomination), and 2002's as 3.0. I don't like 3.0 for so very many reasons ...all encapsulated by "Skunk Figment".... but I always really try to be as charitable as possible by comparing it to what I consider 2.0 lol. From the first time I rode it in 2002 (& every time since) I could almost hear Disney sing:

Oh pleeeeeeeeeease don't hate us!
Oh pleeeeeeeeeasee don't hate us!
Figment
Now crammed
Right down your throats!
So please don't stop
giving us cash!

Disney can "win" the 2026 Expo simply by restoring Imagination to 1.0 glory (but admit there's much else that also needs attention...and they have been giving me so glimmers of hope since Destination 2025).

And get some real decent merchandise instead of looking like your wearing a Turd of him on your head....