EPCOT Figment, well, to be replaced by Figment

[Inspired Figment]

Knowing chapak it was probably going to be inside out

My understanding is Pete Docter (the director of Inside Out, mind you ‘and’ the current head of Pixar) was dead-set against this upon being brought to a meeting to pitch the idea to him. He himself even commissioned Park Ops to put out a survey to send directly to WDI, to show them how much people still really loved & cared about Figment to prevent that from happening. All I can say is, thank God for folks like Pete Docter who get how much the Park Original icons & attractions mean to us and how important they are to the park going experience

 

[Inspired Figment]

Wasn't there a period in between in which people had an inductor placed near a speaker to pick up 'the signal'?

For the area music. Most likely/probably. I wouldn’t 100% be sure though unless those that collected that audio shared exactly how they did those specific recordings.

 

[Haymarket2008]

Whoops.

On topic to Figment: I may or may not be in the minority here, but the orange/blue exterior colors of the 1999 ride are IMO far superior to the original exterior colors.

Heck, even the finale to the 2002 ride captures a lot of the spirit of the 1983 ride. That's the one truly imaginative part.

Very interesting. I think the purple hues were drop dead gorgeous in conjunction with the clean pyramid prisms reflecting a blue sky.

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

All they would have to do, is bring back the 1983 ride and just enhance it (as by 1998 many effects were starting to age). And make a new Imageworks, maybe upstairs, maybe not. That'd be gold. But again, I don't see them doing that; I have no clue ATP what they'll do, if they'll just sit and let it rot, or if they'll do something.

In 2010 when Kodak left, when I browsed what people said on Disney forums, they were thinking "woah this could mean a Figment rework!" And we kept getting rumors for the entirety of the 2010s and even today and it just seems like an eternity.

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

Very interesting. I think the purple hues were drop dead gorgeous in conjunction with the clean pyramid prisms reflecting a blue sky.

I guess i'm just so used to and tired of the minimalistic new buildings in EPCOT that are just "white and grey" that when I see something with color it makes it more appealing to me. Not much, but it's something.

Living With The Land is honestly the very last classic-style EPCOT ride left; everything else is essentially just inferior refurbs (Figment, SSE) or completely different (while Ellen's Energy Adventure was incredibly dated by 2017, GOTG just doesn't fit at all).

 

[Brer Panther]

I don't know if we're still talking about PBS Kids, but you know what would fit great in Animal Kingdom if Disney owned the rights to it? Zoboomafoo.

Zoboo reminds me a lot of Figment, honestly - they have the same sort of wide-eyed curiosity, good-hearted mischievous streak, and excitable nature.

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

I don't know if we're still talking about PBS Kids, but you know what would fit great in Animal Kingdom if Disney owned the rights to it? Zoboomafoo.

Zoboo reminds me a lot of Figment, honestly - they have the same sort of wide-eyed curiosity, good-hearted mischievous streak, and excitable nature.

Good lord I started something

I need to make a "what if there was a PBS theme park?" thread, as a theoretical question of what it'd be like.

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

My idea for a Figment rework.

The theater building is an afterthought. You can see all of those shorts at home on your TV. And no, some subpar effects are not going to make going to see the shorts worth it.

Replace Pixar's Short Film Festival with something. Anything. Magic Journeys, Captain EO, Honey I Shrunk The Audience. I dunno, even something that doesn't even fit the pavilion would be better, like Body Wars or Cranium Command. Anything other than what's there now. It is an utterly worthless show at this point. It's just so pointless. At the very least, they could at least rotate new shorts in there. It's literally the same 3 shorts 24/7/365.

Another idea: a 3D show adapting the story of Figment from the comic books! Dreamfinder, known here as "Blarion Mercurial", The Singular as the main villain, and of course, Figment! That would be great.

The main ride, JII. All I would do? Just bring back the original 1983 ride except with better effects/animatronics. That would be it. Everyone would be happy. The kids would love it, the adults would love it, you'd be looking at lines out past Living With The Land for months on end.

I'm not sure what I would do with ImageWorks honestly. I'd keep many of the existing activities but add in new ones, I just don't have many ideas here, actually. Definitely bring the rainbow tunnel back, maybe it could be a combination of 1982 ImageWorks and 2002 ImageWorks. Figment meet-and-greets too, sometimes even with Dreamfinder!

That's all I would do. That's all they would need to do.

I think they're just scared that there's no reason to spend the money on a rework of this scale, because Figment merch sells and the ride, while clearly not popular, is also not always a ghost town (I myself have had to wait in decent lines for it), so why spend all that money for Figment when it's doing alright as-is?

You sure about that? It'd make Disney so much money and it'd genuinely be incredible. I'm sure every massive Figment fanatic has said this. Like, someone please show this to some people that have power, cause i'm 100% certain Disney could capitalize on this nostalgia.

I'm not going to say "bring back Horizons, bring back EVERY old EPCOT ride!" To me, the only ride i'd bring back is the original Figment.

 

[Figments Friend]

I have always wondered how the source audio for the first two got out there.

When the show audio tapes were updated to a digital format some years ago, the tapes that were being used were then tossed in the dumpster.
Those tapes were salvaged….by individuals who happened to be working there at the time, and cared about saving that valuable material.

Or so I have been told…



-

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Good lord I started something

I need to make a "what if there was a PBS theme park?" thread, as a theoretical question of what it'd be like.

 

[Jayspency]

My Idea for a figment rework:

-OG JII with reimagined effects
-extended queue similar to HM DL updated queue
-new imageworks
-Inside Out Cranium Command inspired show

Boom

 

[Figments Friend]

I saw a comment earlier citing Tony baxter saying Disney would only invest in a new attraction if they NEEDED to. However the release of the golden book, international merchandise, and other things, seem to hint that Disney is at the very least interested in doing something with figment; and perhaps maybe the ride. Disney can only put it off for so long before they need to replace a pre existing Epcot attraction for expansion.

There is a difference between Park Management feeling a real need to invest in changing / upgrading an Attraction and the Merchandising Department rolling out the next Figment collectible.
The two are unrelated.

The Attraction will never see serious investment until WDW Management feels that it needs it.
That need is just not there, as frustrating as it is.

It doesn’t matter how many Figment popcorn buckets and limited edition Figment shirts and pins sell….nothing will change until Management is convinced that there is a real public need to invest in this Pavillion again.
Thus far, in their opinion it does not need serious investment.

The meet n’ greet addition that was added last year was an inexpensive band aid on a wound that has been bleeding badly for more then two decades.
In their mind, it’s good enough to appease the Figment fans and give them an excuse to once again pass over the Pavillion and focus funds instead on creating more outdoor drinking spots.
That instant return of investment is the enticement.

Now, how do we get them to view the Pavilion and the Attraction with the same urgency of need to refresh?
Like I said earlier….follow the money.

-

 

[Moth]

That concept art posted last page?

Blame COVID for killing that.

 

[Nobody nobody]

That concept art posted last page?

Blame COVID for killing that.

What would it have been like? Good?

It was chapek era, so I don’t know how confident I feel about its quality
I wonder how better or worse the Disney parks would be if covid never happened.

 

[Moth]

What would it have been like? Good?

It was chapek era, so I don’t know how confident I feel about its quality.

Existed. It would've existed.

Just another one of the EPCOT casualties caused by COVID. That, SSE, PLAY! and UK.


Brazil also depending who you ask.

 

[Agent H]

Existed. It would've existed.

Just another one of the EPCOT casualties caused by COVID. That, SSE, PLAY! and UK.


Brazil also depending who you ask.

It was inside out wasn’t it?

 

[Moth]

It was inside out wasn’t it?

lol no: look at the date of when this thread was made, the last few "tries" was to improve Figment in the Figment pavilion and has stayed relatively consistent outside of short ideas that got thrown away almost immediately (in imagineering length of times)

 

[Figments Friend]

Very interesting. I think the purple hues were drop dead gorgeous in conjunction with the clean pyramid prisms reflecting a blue sky.

It was.

The color was known as ‘John Hench Purple’, and together with the bright light blue paint and pastel blue, it was a dreamy yet stunning complement to the glass pyramids.

Just repainting the Pavillion would be a huge improvement…
I look forward to the day the awful ‘Kodak Stripes’ go away….

-

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

What would it have been like? Good?

It was chapek era, so I don’t know how confident I feel about its quality.

There was actually apparently a Figment "redesign" posted. I have no clue what it was supposed to be for.

You probably have seen it; here's what it looked like:

It's from September 2020; i'm not entirely sure what the project was. Maybe (and I use that word with caution) they planned to actually refurb the ride kind of like what the concept art implied, but eventually they cancelled that along with some other stuff planned (SSE refurb, Play Pavilion, Mary Poppins)

 

[Nobody nobody]

Existed. It would've existed.

Just another one of the EPCOT casualties caused by COVID. That, SSE, PLAY! and UK.


Brazil also depending who you ask.

Poor Epcot suffered one of the WORST hands management and timing wise. Some of this was for the best imo. Mary poppins indoor teacups? Emoji focused play pavilion? That “storylight” concept made for sse? Ehhh….doesnt strike me as imagineering’s finest work. Maybe the sun will shine again on Epcot and our purple friend someday.