Splash Mountain falling apart (literally?)

Tom

Tom

Beta Return
Yert3 said:
You're probably right with him just being turned off, but it's also possible he's already not working right. I've heard over the years he is a very complicated AA.
Click to expand...

I see a lot of people say this, but I'd like to see the apparatus sometime, because I just find it hard to believe that a stuffed rabbit on a visible stick that bobs up and down behind a fence could be even remotely complicated.

I mean, over 50 years ago WED built a lifelike Abe Lincoln and debuted him to a world of people who swore it was a live actor. In 2013, that would be the equivalent to teleporting someone (as in, it's so beyond what we think can really be done, it's mind-boggling when it happens). The fact that they designed and built Abe back then, but today they can't make a figure on a stick work all the time is just embarrassing.
 
Yert3

Yert3

Well-Known Member
edwardtc said:
I see a lot of people say this, but I'd like to see the apparatus sometime, because I just find it hard to believe that a stuffed rabbit on a visible stick that bobs up and down behind a fence could be even remotely complicated.

I mean, over 50 years ago WED built a lifelike Abe Lincoln and debuted him to a world of people who swore it was a live actor. In 2013, that would be the equivalent to teleporting someone (as in, it's so beyond what we think can really be done, it's mind-boggling when it happens). The fact that they designed and built Abe back then, but today they can't make a figure on a stick work all the time is just embarrassing.
Click to expand...
You would think that. But he doesn't simply go back and forth like you think the AA would would.
You can see in this video that he actually rotates back into position:
Go to 5:57


I made a kind of diagram to show what I'm talking about ( Sorry for the bad drawing of arrows, but I have a trackball mouse.)
883995_10200146433756719_86844961_o.jpg
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Yert3 said:
You would think that. But he doesn't simply go back and forth like you think the AA would would.
You can see in this video that he actually rotates back into position:
Go to 5:57
Click to expand...

So we think it's inherently difficult to make a track in a circle?? The fact he goes in a circle actually makes the device SIMPLER than if they had to reverse to reset. Just change the elevation.. and/or use stop/start sensors for the rotating cam that makes him go up and down.

I mean the whole thing is done 'out of sight' with plenty of area for hardware. It's not like they need to do it on some sled that needs to be invisible or anything.
 
Yert3

Yert3

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
So we think it's inherently difficult to make a track in a circle?? The fact he goes in a circle actually makes the device SIMPLER than if they had to reverse to reset. Just change the elevation.. and/or use stop/start sensors for the rotating cam that makes him go up and down.

I mean the whole thing is done 'out of sight' with plenty of area for hardware. It's not like they need to do it on some sled that needs to be invisible or anything.
Click to expand...
At the force and speed that thing is rotating hours upon hours a day, I can see how it would wear out very quickly.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Yert3 said:
No. At the force and speed that thing is rotating hours upon hours a day, I can see how it would wear out very quickly.
Click to expand...

Well the thing is.. this thing is built SPECIFICALLY to do so. So if you have something intended to run for hours a day, 365 days a year.. and it breaks fatally in less than 5 days... it's a design or construction flaw.. not 'wearing out'.

Agree it's a heavy duty cycle.. but again all the hard stuff is out of view. You could put a honkin big carriage, motor, cam, etc all down below the sight lines of the logs passing by. The only thing 'small' is the arm to the figure itself.. we know that isn't breaking.
 
Yert3

Yert3

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
Well the thing is.. this thing is built SPECIFICALLY to do so. So if you have something intended to run for hours a day, 365 days a year.. and it breaks fatally in less than 5 days... it's a design or construction flaw.. not 'wearing out'.

Agree it's a heavy duty cycle.. but again all the hard stuff is out of view. You could put a honkin big carriage, motor, cam, etc all down below the sight lines of the logs passing by. The only thing 'small' is the arm to the figure itself.. we know that isn't breaking.
Click to expand...
You're probably right, but it does have that reputation with being the most expensive AA on property when it comes to repairs. Giving it the nickname "The million dollar rabbit." I don't know if I should believe that over the years that only one AA has had more than a million dollars in repairs, but that nickname came from somewhere.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Spideyfreak110 said:
What I want to know is this... Why is the evacuation pathway on the approach to B Lift walled off? It's been like that for a few years now.
Click to expand...

My assumption is that too many people were hopping out at that point to avoid the splash from the logs coming down the main drop. Presumably this was minimized with the addition of the lapbars, but once they add something like the wall, I'm sure the lawyers would make it very hard to remove.

As for the hopping Brer Rabbit AA, it was made a little more reliable when they removed the hedge wall that he used to hop along. The support was *behind* the hedge, and it reached up and over to the rabbit figure. The vertical support only moved back and forth in a straight line. At the far end, the arm with the rabbit would spin 180 degrees and drop down below the top of the hedge and zoom back to the other end where it would rotate 180 again to place it back on the show side of the hedge. It had to reset to its start position very quickly.

The problem would come when the figure would start to rotate before reaching the end of the hedge, causing it to swivel into the hedge, or if the vertical support dropped too early and it came down against the top of the hedge.

-Rob
 
S

Spideyfreak110

Member
Rob562 said:
My assumption is that too many people were hopping out at that point to avoid the splash from the logs coming down the main drop. Presumably this was minimized with the addition of the lapbars, but once they add something like the wall, I'm sure the lawyers would make it very hard to remove.

-Rob
Click to expand...
Leaving it there doesn't make sense at all. It's an evacuation point. That walkway is just long enough to hold all the logs that would be in that zone.

How the heck do you evac with that wall there?
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Spideyfreak110 said:
What I want to know is this... Why is the evacuation pathway on the approach to B Lift walled off? It's been like that for a few years now.
Click to expand...
If I recall, to keep the walkway as dry as possible from the splashes of the main drop. I *think* they are removable in an emergency.
 
Mista C

Mista C

Well-Known Member
edwardtc said:
I mean, over 50 years ago WED built a lifelike Abe Lincoln and debuted him to a world of people who swore it was a live actor. In 2013, that would be the equivalent to teleporting someone (as in, it's so beyond what we think can really be done, it's mind-boggling when it happens). The fact that they designed and built Abe back then, but today they can't make a figure on a stick work all the time is just embarrassing.
Click to expand...

I have been wondering this same thing myself for YEARS! The Magic Kingdom opened over 40 YEARS ago! You're telling me that AA technology hasn't grown by leaps and bounds in the past 40 years! My god, just look at how fast computer technology grows each year! With the way that WDW built the original AA's back in the 70's I would have thought for sure that by the 21st Century the AA's would be a million more times advanced then back then, but it seems the oposite! I mean, they built the Jungle Cruise back in 1971 with fully-submerged AA's poping out of the water all over the place, and seemingly working just fine since the darn ride opened. If WDW were to build a new ride today with fully-submerged AA's I would have zero confidence in them that they would last at all. How is this the case in 2013?
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
To be fair.. the stuff in the Jungle Cruise are not even in the same class of things. They are just articulated shells being pushed around. Nothing like the control level, precision, detail, etc you get in an actual AA animated figure like B rabbit.
 
Mista C

Mista C

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
To be fair.. the stuff in the Jungle Cruise are not even in the same class of things. They are just articulated shells being pushed around. Nothing like the control level, precision, detail, etc you get in an actual AA animated figure like B rabbit.
Click to expand...

I do hear what you're saying, and it may not have been the best example, but my point was just that it seems like over the course of 40 years of working with a certain technology, the end product would just keep getting better and better. And some certainly have (I thought the Ursula AA was outstanding), but others just baffle me.
 
n2hifi

n2hifi

Active Member
Mista C said:
it seems like over the course of 40 years of working with a certain technology, the end product would just keep getting better and better.
Click to expand...
I don't know, I have a 40 year old refrigerator that is still working but I can't seem to buy any mechanical appliances these days that will last 10 years. Every dishwasher I buy seems to last half as long as the previous one even though I try to get the premium models.
 
PurpleDragon

PurpleDragon

Well-Known Member
Wow you guys seem to think that better technology equals simpler and better functioning AA's, but in fact the opposite is true. The original AA's were nothing more than a collection of hydraulic pistons and motors controlled by a simple analog computer. The current AA's have tons of circuits, cameras, actuators, software, etc...

When an older AA failed one of the hydraulics sprang a leak and the character just stopped moving. With these newer ones if something failed it may start to perform unwanted movements, generate various software errors, etc...

The more sophisticated the technology, the more things can go wrong with them.

Here are some Murphy's Laws that fit here:

  • A failure will not appear till a unit has passed final inspection.
  • Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development.
  • Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
  • If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Mista C said:
I do hear what you're saying, and it may not have been the best example, but my point was just that it seems like over the course of 40 years of working with a certain technology, the end product would just keep getting better and better. And some certainly have (I thought the Ursula AA was outstanding), but others just baffle me.
Click to expand...

well they have.. but we also demand so much more from them now vs then. Improvements in reliability are often outpaced by increased demands in functionality.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom