Rumor Figment, well, to be replaced by Figment

OptimusPrime

OptimusPrime

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
SplashJacket said:
Exactly, I don’t think a new interpretation of the original would satiate the hungry.

We’ve very closely if not passed the threshold for impossible to satisfy.

I don’t necessarily think a modern version of the original figment would satisfy our community, and by modern I don’t mean banal design.

With such a large gap and such a prolonged inferior product, I don’t think a nostalgic return to the original would work as well as people think it would.

A modern figment would need to be novel, creative, and technically impressive in the same way of the original one, and that’s not simply a plussing of the original.

Obviously that’s not impossible to achieve, but it is much more difficult than “make it better.”
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Nothing will ever satisfy the community.

There’s MFs in the Lion King thread crying about how it’s a bad idea as if they haven’t been crying for an attraction to reflect the park’s values while not replacing anything.

There is never any satisfying anyone.
 
Mickeynerd17

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
As much as I love the nods to the original park, adding more references is simply dressing up a dead corpse.

What we need are new pavilions and new characters designed with the same philosophy that created EPCOT in the first place. The only characters that should stick around in a major way are dreamfinder and figment. The others can make cameos in places, but nothing more.

Making the 21st century equivalent to impressive attractions like World of Motion or Horizons will go much farther than pictures of the sea monster or robot butler.

Unfortunately, that would also require taking creative risks akin to when EPCOT was being designed. The current company would not take such risks today.

Maybe one day, but it is not this day.
 
DCLcruiser

DCLcruiser

Well-Known Member
Moth said:
What separates Figment and Dreamfinder so much from the other EPCOT Center characters?

Ignoring they're the focal point of their attraction.
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He's a friendly dragon. Show an 8 year old a dragon and they are hooked. I'm still hooked at my age.

Also, Future World doesn't really have any other characters.

UoE - The tigers? Dinosaurs? Neither were characters.
Horizons - None, that I recall
M:S - None
WoL - Goofy playing sports? White blood cells?
WoM/TT - None
SE - None
Seas - Nemo is new and doesn't really matter for the pavilion.
Land - LK is not even the main attraction
 
V

V_L_Raptor

Well-Known Member
Moth said:
What separates Figment and Dreamfinder so much from the other EPCOT Center characters?

Ignoring they're the focal point of their attraction.
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The original attraction used them to speak to viewers in a much more germane way than any of the other attractions did. Not even Cranium Command, ostensibly telling people about how their own brains work, managed to draw in the audience the way the original JII did. It didn't talk down, it just shared, and it did so in a way that made people want to re-ride to catch more of what was on view, because so many scenes were jam-packed with elements that it was impossible to take the whole thing in over a single ridethrough.

They came to embody the tone of the attraction, and nothing since has matched it. Of course they're still beloved!
 
Moth

Moth

Well-Known Member
DCLcruiser said:
He's a friendly dragon. Show an 8 year old a dragon and they are hooked. I'm still hooked at my age.

Also, Future World doesn't really have any other characters.

UoE - The tigers? Dinosaurs? Neither were characters.
Horizons - None, that I recall
M:S - None
WoL - Goofy playing sports? White blood cells?
WoM/TT - None
SE - None
Seas - Nemo is new and doesn't really matter for the pavilion.
Land - LK is not even the main attraction
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UoE- Correct. That's never really had a mascot.
Horizons- Technically the family, but also the Butler has become a 'mascot', but the narrator/family is never given names and the Butler is the mascot after the ride closed.
M:S- Correct
WoL- Buzzy feels pretty clear cut here.
WoM- Test Dummies? Bird and Robot? Water Machine Freak? Grasping for straws. These feel more "marketable scrimblo" versus an actual character which brings me to...

For JII, you ride alongside Figment and Dreamfinder, even for 3.0 you ride alongside and get to know Figment. They feel like, actual characters that have a story and everything behind them, especially since JII is very much a "fantasyland" style ride in ways the others aren't.
 
DCLcruiser

DCLcruiser

Well-Known Member
Moth said:
UoE- Correct. That's never really had a mascot.
Horizons- Technically the family, but also the Butler has become a 'mascot', but the narrator/family is never given names and the Butler is the mascot after the ride closed.
M:S- Correct
WoL- Buzzy feels pretty clear cut here.
WoM- Test Dummies? Bird and Robot? Water Machine Freak? Grasping for straws. These feel more "marketable scrimblo" versus an actual character which brings me to...

For JII, you ride alongside Figment and Dreamfinder, even for 3.0 you ride alongside and get to know Figment. They feel like, actual characters that have a story and everything behind them, especially since JII is very much a "fantasyland" style ride in ways the others aren't.
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I would say Figment is the only character. The only one you want to take home, and buy merch. He is the unofficial mascot. EPCOT is the realization of an imagination.

To me, pastel-purple lighting = EPCOT, and that directly ties to Figment.
 
Mickeynerd17

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
Moth said:
What separates Figment and Dreamfinder so much from the other EPCOT Center characters?

Ignoring they're the focal point of their attraction.
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Dreamfinder and figment were the only official characters outside of the fab five back in the day. All the others were given character status after their respective rides closed to sell merch as "representatives" for their respective pavilion.

also dreamfinder and figment are much more timeless than the others.

Making a new horizons ride centered around the robot butler would be odd at best imho.
 
FigmentJedi

FigmentJedi

Well-Known Member
Mickeynerd17 said:
Dreamfinder and figment were the only official characters outside of the fab five back in the day. All the others were given character status after their respective rides closed to sell merch as "representatives" for their respective pavilion.
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Kitchen Kabaret had a pretty strong merchandising presence from Day One though. Helps that it was actually there on opening day versus Imagination being pushed back to March '83.
 
Mickeynerd17

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
FigmentJedi said:
Kitchen Kabaret had a pretty strong merchandising presence from Day One though. Helps that it was actually there on opening day versus Imagination being pushed back to March '83.
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Oh yes, that is correct. I would bring them back to more prominence as well, maybe even with a revived Kitchen Kabaret show in the current Awesome Planet theater.

But for the other pavilions, I would say no. Maybe with Buzzy, but even then Cranium Command did not encompass the entire Wonders of Life.
 
Mickeynerd17

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
EPCOT should not be redesigned as a castle park. It never will be. As long as it attempts to copy Disneyland, it will always look like a terrible knock-off. Just like the Disney parks should stop trying to be like Universal. Nobody can be better at Universal Parks than Universal. EPCOT will never be as good a Disneyland as Disneyland.

EPCOT is EPCOT. The park should reflect the same ideas and concepts it was created with. Even the IP integration should follow that to a T, which is why I believe Rat works in France but Cosmic Rewind does not work in Future World. Attempting to make it into another castle park will never work in the long run.
 
OptimusPrime

OptimusPrime

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Moth said:
What separates Figment and Dreamfinder so much from the other EPCOT Center characters?

Ignoring they're the focal point of their attraction.
Click to expand...
I think a big part is that they had walk around characters that got people more connected because they got to actually play with them.

So outside of the attraction, people will remember the time Figment took their hat and played with it, as opposed to just remembering singing foods.
 
OptimusPrime

OptimusPrime

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
FigmentJedi said:
Kitchen Kabaret had a pretty strong merchandising presence from Day One though. Helps that it was actually there on opening day versus Imagination being pushed back to March '83.
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There was also concept art for walk around M&G’s for some characters from KK.

Also, the foods would absolutely be considered the stars of the show in Disney’s book, as they were all the merch that was pushed.

Bonnie Appetite had one coloring page. That was her only merch. They did a Vinylmation of her years down the road, but when it was running, she was essentially ignored lmao.
 
MerlinTheGoat

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
DCLcruiser said:
WoM/TT - None
Click to expand...
Moth said:
WoM- Test Dummies? Bird and Robot? Water Machine Freak? Grasping for straws. These feel more "marketable scrimblo" versus an actual character which brings me to...
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While WoM didn't really any a mascot, my mind always goes to this when I try to think of one-

1721769086949.png
 

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