That's not the real Swamp Boy. It may be a mock up to see how a new costume would look on the animatronic, but that's not the real one
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
MK Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
That's not the real Swamp Boy. It may be a mock up to see how a new costume would look on the animatronic, but that's not the real one
zipadee999
Well-Known Member
This is a post from May 30th of what appears to be this guy working on the real swamp boy. I’m gonna guess that this is the WDW version since Swamp Boy #3 had been missing for a year prior to the Florida closure.
If I had to guess, the black-light version is a dummy that’s used for set dressing and costume design. This is so they can easily move him around and try new things because the actual animatronic is so heavy.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Might have been the new skin on a dummy frame yeah. Either way, evidence they're being reused for Tiana.
MagicHappens1971
Well-Known Member
Interesting that they’d take one figure out early to start work on it.
zipadee999
Well-Known Member
Now that you put the two pictures side by side, I think you might be right. You can kind of tell by the posture of both gators. This just worries me for WDW because we have three AS animatronics being worked on for DL that were never present in WDW and I doubt that they’d duplicate them at this point
PizzaPlanet
Well-Known Member
Strange that they couldn’t wait until the ride closed before taking that gator. Reminds me of how they took some of the America Sings geese out before it closed to put them in the Star Tours queue.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
It looks like a static recreation of the Gator rather than a redressed version of the old one. There are no joints in the jaw area. We also know that this talented individual likes to recreate classic Disney figures based on his social media posts. In short, this is nothing more than a recreation for personal enjoyment rather than a reused animatronic from the previous attraction.
The only type of “evidence” we have is the one Gator in WDW disappearing a year prior to close, and that is circumstantial at best.
yensidtlaw1969
Well-Known Member
Don't get too excited, most of that creator's works are Replicas.
Check out the lower half of the figure - compare to any photo of the actual Swamp Boys and you can see both the legs and the lower half of the torso are too small. That's not a Disney prop, it's his replica.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I'm aware of this person's personal work. But he was also a real imagineer up until February, he worked as a dresser for Disney's animatronics. And he has already confirmed outright that at least one figure (the stork from Disneyland) is being reused for Tiana. Though he has since edited it, possibly because he wasn't supposed to give it away. Also indicating that the others he posted will be as well. If he was just replicating the Swamp Boys for personal use, he would use the classic hat design and not a festive Mardi Gras style one.
I was also told well before any of these posts were made that they would in fact be reusing the America Sings figures. Something that makes sense given the anthropomorphic animal designs seen in several pieces of artwork. I already trusted my source, and am now quite confident that this is the case. The only questions are how many of them will be reused (I was told all of the America Sings ones, but we'll see if that rings true). And how they will approach WDW's given that version never got copies of all the Disneyland characters (we got additional and better designed SOTS characters instead).
Take it from a fellow cynic, there is such a thing as being too skeptical of things. Whatever concerns I may still have about this attraction, the animatronics (whether quality, quantity etc) are no longer one of them.
Last edited:
yensidtlaw1969
Well-Known Member
Listen, I get all that - but I'm telling you, that particular Swamp Boy in that photo is neither from nor going into the ride.
Compare - the legs on his figure:
And the legs on the Swamp Boys in Splash Mountain. Sculpturally they are completely dissimilar:
Also, that's not a "Mardi Gras Hat", it's a felt replica of Clopin's Hat. Perhaps he made it for something else and stuck it on his Swamp Boy for pictures:
It's a well made replica, but it's a replica. With come creative liberties.
Also, notice he edited the caption on that Stork photo to remove the allusion to him "entering the Bayou". I'm not saying figures won't be reused, just that we're reading a little too much into this guy's Instagram photos when some more discernment is necessary to be fully accurate. He has worked for Disney but he's also a fan who's excited for the new ride, and some of his enthusiasm is being confused for gospel.
Brer Oswald
Well-Known Member
I’m not trying to be cynical, but I think people are reading too far into his posts.
The costuming on the replica Gator could in fact be one he designed for the real thing, but that is most certainly not one of the official swamp boy figures used at WDW. The most we can do is speculate.
As we know from his previous posts, it is implied that he was tasked with redressing these figures during a refurb. That explains the close up pictures. As for his odd caption on the stork post, I think he was just trying to be funny. As soon as he saw people in the comments interpreting it as confirmation of it being reused, he changed the description.
I am hopeful that some of these figures reused, but all we can do right now is speculate. There’s been no confirmation of it in any of the press releases or concept art of the current direction of the project. The fact that they keep stating “new animatronics” would imply they aren’t, but we won’t know for sure until they announce something or when the ride opens.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Nothing about there being new animatronics implies a lack of returning ones. Of course there will be new ones (I was also previously told there would be over 15 new characters for the ride, which turned out true), and that they would focus on that in the marketing. And to be fair, very little of the actual ride has been revealed at all. Like at least 90% of the marketing has been focused on establishing the ride's setting and backstory, the details of what will happen in the actual ride has been very vague. Even that first piece of artwork showcasing the interior was extremely vague and had a lot of the background detail somewhat obscured (you could only make out silhouettes of animal figures).
In recent interviews with the team leaders, they were very careful to evade questions about whether elements/references from Splash will remain when asked. They said they wanted to keep things a "surprise". That to me implies more that there WILL be elements, otherwise they could just put an end to speculation and say the ride wouldn't have any references.
Even disregarding what this Royce imagineer has posted, I was still told last year that the America Sings figures were being kept. So believe what you like. So far the info provided to me has been very spot on.
Last edited:
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
Or this particular former CM wasn't working on the WDW AAs.
DisneyHead123
Well-Known Member
Looking back at Sharika Mahdi’s art (which is great, although translating art to ride can be tricky.) I’m definitely thinking black light scenes. I have mixed feelings as it’s not my favorite look (I just associate it too much with college parties, and I’m old now, lol) but I agree that it can be done well by the right artist. I also think it appeals to kids, which I like as a parent. I’ve been showing my son YouTube videos of the rides to try and get him interested (his heart belongs to vehicles so I haven’t been able to get him into Disney characters.) Some clearly bore him (sorry Figment and Jungle Cruise) but he likes Peter Pan and Pooh despite not particularly knowing those characters. I think the really sharp, “pop” factor of the visuals draws kids in.
Brer Panther
Well-Known Member
I figured this photo was of him working on one of the animatronics while Splash Mountain was under construction.
