Animatronics Destroyed?

Smiley/OCD

Well-Known Member
Plenty have. Theme Park Connection/Mouse Surplus sold many of the Food Rocks characters when that closed if I remember correctly. You can see some in this video -> Admittedly that's a stretch to call those a full blown AA, but there have been others. Kevin Kidney posted a page here about restoring some Tiki Birds (https://miehana.blogspot.com/2016/08/fancy-feathers-restoring-tiki-room-birds.html) both for Disney directly, as well as some in private collections. And I never forget my favorite, back when Imagination closed, Disney Auctions (when they sold stuff direct) auctioned off one of the Dreammobiles (took a semi truck to deliver).



There was an episode of Pawn Stars a year ago that had a remote control boat of JC that was set up in Disneyland which sold for quite a bit of money...I'm sure you can look it up on You Tube.
 

Dragonman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wasn't the head skin also genuine as well? I saw video posted by someone who got a chance to look at it on its way back from the show, and he pointed out the zipper in the back that keeps it in place.
Yes both the clothes and the head skin were the real deal
 

Driver

Well-Known Member
An imagineer I know and I once had a discussion about that.. he's involved in the ride end of it (making them work in the ride, replacing, etc) and he said "it depends". If they are older base figures they might be stored for replacement of similar ones if something fails critically, or, if they have enough spare parts, scrapped. If they are an older one off, they might be archived or just scrapped, depending on how unique they are.

The AAs have gone through continuous development and improvement over the years, as have their actuarial systems and control systems. So it's not really as easy as say, plunking a dinosaur from Energy (almost 40 year old tech) into Dinosaur (20 year old tech) or some new ride (different computer and control systems due to the newest AAs).

Disney is weird about old stuff. Some things they seem to hold onto like gold for no apparent reason, and other things that you'd think they'd keep around or sell get bulldozed into a pit somewhere in Florida. I'm sure it makes sense to them, but it sure doesn't to me.
Certain items are purposely destroyed to protect intellectual knowledge or because they just don't want it out there. Comes down to protecting the magic.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
What about old ride sets

Once again, bits and pieces definitely survive. For quite a while Theme Park Connection/Mouse Surplus was selling off portholes and bits of seaweed from 20k. And if you watch the video I linked, you can see other bits and pieces from rides in their warehouse. Phil Sears often posts stuff for sale (despite having a terrible website), and the recent Van Eaton Gallery Disney auctions often have a few pieces. But it's usually smaller things that are easily removed. The flats in the dark rides are usually not going to come out easily or in one piece, so are most likely just demoed. Maybe a chunk would get saved to do another Pieces of History pin (are they still making those?) or for personal collections.
 

emmieloveswdw

New Member
I can understand scrapping and reusing the components of the dinosaurs from Ellen's, but the stitch animatronic was a bit impressive to me in how smoothly it moved and it's range of motion. It seems odd that they'd have ripped that one apart.
That’s why they ripped it apart, so they could use the pieces for other animatronics
 

note2001

Well-Known Member
That’s why they ripped it apart, so they could use the pieces for other animatronics
Not so sure you understand how difficult and time consuming it is to make one animatronic. you don't just rip them apart to use on others. You can modify the skins, but the joints are a whole other world of complexity. (I dabble in the tech on a small scale, and even then, when one works you don't want to take it apart to build another.)
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member

some other guy

Well-Known Member
I recall a legend that one of the 20k subs was used in a swimming area at an island for the Disney Cruise Line, until a storm washed it away into the greater ocean. So somewhere there's a Nautilus lurking in the depths of the Atlantic.
 

danlb_2000

Premium Member
I recall a legend that one of the 20k subs was used in a swimming area at an island for the Disney Cruise Line, until a storm washed it away into the greater ocean. So somewhere there's a Nautilus lurking in the depths of the Atlantic.

According to this site, https://maps.roadtrippers.com/stories/disneys-most-epic-ride, two were sent to Castaway Cay. Photo seems to confirm that.

1542019542518.png
 

GlacierGlacier

Well-Known Member
I recall a legend that one of the 20k subs was used in a swimming area at an island for the Disney Cruise Line, until a storm washed it away into the greater ocean. So somewhere there's a Nautilus lurking in the depths of the Atlantic.
Except there is a sunken boat/sub submerged in the snorkleing area of Castaway Kay. I don't know if it was a 20K leagues boat or a Submarine Voyage boat, but it sure looks like one.

I always swim out to it every time I visit the island.
 

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