Well at one point the original JII 1.0 was alive and running and HISTA was being shown as just an IP Based 3d film in the Magic Eye theater for five years prior to the re-de-imagining and had no connection to the pavilion.
Exactly.. and that’s kind of my point. For years the Magic Eye Theater and Journey Into Imagination & ImageWorks were able to operate the way they did perfectly fine as they did before that happened. It just begs the question why they absolutley insisted on doing that to the ride. I mean, I get the maintenance cost reasons but then again, I don’t.. it’s like, the ride was incredibly popular & sold merchandise. That easily makes up for maintenance costs, not to mention, it seemed in pretty darn good condition too before it closed… It’s genuinely ‘the’ most baffling decision they’ve ever made in Parks history. Of course I know Figments Friend has elaborated more on why it happened, but still, it’s truly baffling how and why that was able to happen. Genuinely shocking. And even more of a shock it hasn’t been restored/fixed properly since. Despite the large (and I mean large) clamoring & merch sale data for decades now. It was ‘clearly’ a mistake to retheme it to IP, and it should’ve been genuinely corrected (not the lousy, what should’ve been temporary band-aid fix we got in ‘02) years ago. Like.. cmon now. Genuinely insane. Taking what was very clearly ‘the’ most popular EPCOT ride right behind Spaceship Earth and making it one of the least after the ill-conceived, deceiving IP retheme. What in the world?? That is quite a feat to accomplish. At this point, who wouldn’t want to fix it/restore it back to what it was with the enhancements we expected to see? It’d only sell ‘more’ merch and provide a ton of goodwill and possibly provide more entertainment opportunities it could expand to after. And what fan wouldn’t want to come back to EPCOT to experience that again, not to mention, what visitor wouldn’t want to experience a classic perennial fan favorite w tons of good word of mouth like that? I mean, cmon
...and imo that's primarily b/c Spaceship Earth is the first thing everyone sees (and the curiosity of seeing "what's inside the big golf ball?")
Second to UoE at 45 mins with that A/C.......If it didn't change to a 3 min coaster...
yeah...Imagination 1.0 was a "chef's kiss"....made you feel Disney genuinely loved and appreciated you (and not so much your dollars). That being said, when's the last time anyone heard someone say "Disney please take my money" because of something that really impressed someone?
Are we sure this isn't one of the ones from the Dreamships in the start of the ride?
Yeah, he did, check out Martin’s Vids tribute videos of the ride. His mouth opens in surprise while his head moves left and right, just like the current “B-Mode” Detour figure does atm.
Thanks for clarifying! Hope we can get a longer clip of this guy in action soon.
Yeah, because those had a different body & feet sculpt, also a much larger range of head/neck movement, on top of wings that’d flap.
I honestly think it was a bit of an oversight is all.. the idea I think was fine, have a temporary figure there in the meantime while they work on the regular figure, but mainly because of his wonkily painted eye pupils, he’s had a negative reaction. I genuinely believe the simple repaint (correct size & position of his eye pupils) & making a new shirt that’s the correct size w short sleeves to callback to the original ride would do wonders, truthfully. All of that can be reused in the future for when the time comes. That figure put back into the Literature scene with the blocks & mech to make the left block spin from a C to a B, where he belongs, and the classic shirt put back on the Detour/OG Film Finale Figment figure when he’s all fixed/ready.