Is remy replacing Figment?

ppete1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looking over the festival merchandise for wine and dine, and the soon to be RAT ride opening soon, I am starting to get worried. Heck beauty and the beast has more merch than figment.
Hear me out. They have a character with a brand new ride that they are trying to push. Remy is honestly perfect for food and wine and all of the other festivals since they center around eating.
Figment is beloved by all the nostalgic Epcot fans, yet his attraction is a shadow of itself. There have been rumors for years of a retheme.
Could this be the start to using figment as a merch seller to the nostalgic fans, but no longer epcots mascot.
They tried in small spurts the little bee, and even orange bird. Now it feels its Remy and maybe Belle. I think for a brief second they thought it could be Duffy.

I just get a feeling that they would like to get rid of his ride, and just sell his merch.
 

Disney4family

Well-Known Member
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JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Spike appeared to bring some fun into the park, not to be a huge figure representing the festivals. I was thinking Remy might be utilized more with the addition and opening of the new attraction but I dont see him taking over EP and replacing Figment. Duffy failure to stay as the EP character was more due to him never gaining the popularity or recognition as park representative figure as Figment. Remy may do better than Duffy or Spike and be merchandised more since hes a more recognizable and fun character guests can relate to.
 

Gillyanne

Well-Known Member
I did a lil search b/c I thought there was a decent amount of merch for Figment this year. It seems he and Remy have about the same amount, but for Figment all but 1 set of pins and the H&S prize are for Passholders. The B&B has a little less options. Fig and Remy each have about 14 items, B&B 10

Figment: Cutting Board, Glass Canister, Mystery Pin set (11 different Pins), Limited Release Passholder Pin, Hoodie, Coasters, Tervis, Mug, Bowl (Hide & Squeak prize), Magic Band, Magnet, 2 shirts, Limited Release Pin.

Remy: Tervis (AP), Bowl (H&S prize), Stainless Steel Tumbler, Ornament, 2 Shirt, Magic Band, Trash Can Shaker, Hoodie, Leggings, Pandora Charm, Drinking Glass, Limited Release Pin, Tank.

B&B: Chip Measuring Cups, Tervis (AP), Lumiere Tray, Cogsworth Timer, 3 different Dooney bags, Limited Edition Pin, Spatula & Kids shirt.
 

Epct82

Active Member
There have been many different characters used throughout the years during these festivals as mascots, but that never means Figment is being replaced as the official mascot of the park itself. Figment is timeless, and I can't imagine Epcot ever using a different character to represent the park in general.

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DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
While every festival having its own character it promotes, Figment still gets a decent amount of merchandise. Festival of the Arts is all his.

But those festivals don't sell plush or the other regular Figment merch. The ride does. Lesson was learned when the ride was turned into the abomination of Journey Into YOUR Imagination - the merchandise department was furious because their best-seller character for the park was taken from them. That's what's funny about the whole ordeal, both the fans and the pencil pushers were angry. I imagine that helped get the revamp fast-tracked as soon as WDI could come up with a new design.

So no, I wouldn't worry.
 

Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
Looking over the festival merchandise for wine and dine, and the soon to be RAT ride opening soon, I am starting to get worried. Heck beauty and the beast has more merch than figment.
Hear me out. They have a character with a brand new ride that they are trying to push. Remy is honestly perfect for food and wine and all of the other festivals since they center around eating.
Figment is beloved by all the nostalgic Epcot fans, yet his attraction is a shadow of itself. There have been rumors for years of a retheme.
Could this be the start to using figment as a merch seller to the nostalgic fans, but no longer epcots mascot.
They tried in small spurts the little bee, and even orange bird. Now it feels its Remy and maybe Belle. I think for a brief second they thought it could be Duffy.

I just get a feeling that they would like to get rid of his ride, and just sell his merch.
Your worries are not completely unfounded tbh... those worries bring to mind the tactics they pulled back in the late 90s. Except there they used Honey I Shrunk the Audience to get the attention away from the original, beloved, popular ride & interactive area in order to manipulate attendance levels to get them to change the ride the way they did. The contract between Kodak stated the pavilion had to have updates funded for it every 10 or so years.. but it was ‘that’ (the artificially dropped attendance levels for the ride through intentional lessening of promotion in favor of the 3D movie) that got the higher-ups convinced in changing the entire theme to the Honey, I Shrunk/connected Medfield College universe.
When rumors first started going around of the ride’s closure… people were like “Nah, that would never happen. Too many people love Dreamfinder & Figment and the ride & ImageWorks. Not to mention it makes them tons of revenue in merchandise. “Don’t you worry. It won’t be going anywhere anytime soon”.) or “If it’s getting a refurbishment. They’re just gonna improve the sound system, tech running the ride, minor show scene enhancements/improvements (Oh, if only that happened, right??)
Well, after that.. more rumors starting coming up around 97-98. This time with details that they were gonna change the ride’s theme to a Honey I Shrunk IP tie in and that Figment could possibly be completely redesigned and have a new voice.. those rumors got enough traction & protest I believe to the point they were essentially forced to keep Figment mostly as-is (in regards to the characters’ appearance & voice.), to have some extent of representation in the ride, and that he’d be repurposed as simply “the mascot of EPCOT Center” (Yeeah, cause that certainly makes sense when essentially you take away the main thing he’s mainly represented & introduced in. What the heck??) Not to mention, merchandising people were concerned as that was their most marketable character in the park at the time. So merchandise still continued to be sold in the gift shop.

However, once the “new & improved” Honey, I Shrunk themed ride opened… nearly everyone was upset, whether it be fans of the original ride, people who rode the ride for the first time and thought the experience was terrible, or the merchandising people who were ed sales of Figment merchandise dropped ever since the change. Along with other forms of protest being that there were efforts to intentionally stop buying Kodak products to show their displeasure. Kodak sales dropped enough to the point that both Disney & Kodak were concerned. (If any of you are curious about any of the stuff I posted, atleast regarding the fan discourse going around at the time.. use the WayBack Machine internet archive and take a look at the old Figment’s Imagination & Friends of Figment fansites in the fan mail section that discusses all these things…)

Thus eventually the greenlight for the ‘With Figment’ version we’ve had since ‘02. A version that’s mostly the same as the previous redo, just with Figment cast in a larger role to have the fan complaints by making him (and his “upside down thinking”, “blasting chorus” friends in the end) a constant nuisance to the Institute by constantly proving Channing’s thought process wrong along with making a “big stink” & showing their “upside down thinking” to show that “Imagination Works Best When It’s Set Free”. Then it ends with Figment saying “You said it doc, Imagination is a blast!) and quite literally we’re subjected to a blast from the Figment Chorus (uh huh.. so that’s what the ride is concluded/intended to be. Smh… Essentially a giant “screw you” towards Figment & the people who support him as interferences rather than catalysts who are essential to & make the creative process more enjoyable aswell as showcase the importance of creativity in relation to making our future a better one.)

So yeah.. now that the ride is in the horrendous state as it currently stands. It’s made it a lot larger of a target to pull the very same if not very similar tactics the original had done to it. Remember the Inside Out proposal that had been going around… how Figment was going to be a cameo, the mascot of EPCOT, but that the ride would be focused on Inside Out & emotions mainly (SOUND FAMILIAR??) Yeah, it’s not a coincidence whatsoever… thankfully Pete Docter shut that down and reenforced that Figment was indeed still a popular character atleast and that indeed, people want what the ride used to be with the improvements/enhancements it should’ve received rather than another film IP retheme. But the higher ups genuinely believe they already fixed the thing in ‘02 when they very clearly didn’t. So it’s stayed in that state for as long as it has.

Now in regards to this particular argument about the recent Food & Wine Figment merchandising . My guess is that the main reason there’s more merchandise featuring Remy & Belle atm this year is simply because of the new ride opening along with the fact they want to promote the new Ratatouille ride opening up in October and the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along attraction. I’m not much a fan of both for a multitude of reasons, but I know my opinion regarding those doesn’t necessarily apply to or change what’s going on with the merchandising atm. Lol
 
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Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
Now granted, I personally have ALOT more faith that there’ll be a LOT more pushback from the guests & fans then the last time this all happened if they ever decide to go the same route all over again. To the point Disney will essentially need to forced to bring back/improve Imagination the way it should’ve been way back in late ‘98/‘99. But yeah, only time & circumstances will tell.
 

DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
Now in regards to this particular argument about the recent Food & Wine Figment merchandising . My guess is that the main reason there’s more merchandise featuring Remy & Belle atm this year is simply because of the new ride opening along with the fact they want to promote the new Ratatouille ride opening up in October and the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along attraction.

This
 

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