Well to clear up your misconceptions of the AA's for Disney, they do have in-house AA department, they build their own high-end characters. Disney uses what is called hydraulic analog compliant animatronics. These characters cost an obscene amount of money. Capt. Jack, Yeti, Stitch, Lucky, Muppets Mobile Lab are all examples of Disney creations.
The pirate and princess at Downtown Disney are from LifeFormations, which use pneumatic digital moves. The skin is also different, LifeFormations uses a type of silicon skin that gives a much more realistic look than the PVC that Disney uses. The characters in DD store are not down, the employees of the stores turn them off when they get sick of listening to the same scripts all day.
Sally, as to the best of my knowledge, did make any AA's. They have done some stuff for the Ice Capades, motorized stuff for parades, and minor fiberglass characters that don the parks. Sarcos was contracted to create the AA's in the late 80's and 90's for Disney, however it is true there was a breach of contract, and again, I don't know the outcome. I know that there is a character that comes out of their house every once and a while. Garner Holtz is another house that has done AAs in the past for Disney, Garner does some nice work but most recently has done some of the big characters for parades and shows.
There are other subcontracted houses that have done AA's, to make every character that Disney displays is not economical, it costs way to much for WDI to make all the AAs.
This information is to the best of my knowledge, being in the industry.
