Yeti Update

[pumpkin7]

if you watch part 5, it has a pretty good shot of the yeti doing a full range of motion. plus, he's lit up from behind. i don't know whether this was just for the tv or what, but at least you could see him. when you ride now, blink and you'll miss him.
it's a shame because obviously a lot of hard work and time went into making him the worlds most awesome animatronic. i'm suprised the guy with the funky earring hasn't had something to say about getting him fixed. he was sooo passionate about him when they were animating him.
such a shame. such a waste.

 

[G00fyDad]

"Okay" is fine for Universal Studios. This is Disney. we expect more than "okay"

True. But look at it like this, if you never knew that the Yeti even moved as much as he originally did, how would you miss it? Would you still think that the ride was missing something? Imagineering's original idea for the Yeti, even with full range of motion, was for you to really only get the briefest of glimpses of the Yeti to keep with the whole "mystery" of the Yeti lore. Most folks I talk to think I am making crap up when I tell them about how he originally jumped out and swung his paw at you. They think the ride is great as is. Personally I wish Imagineering woyuldn't have tried such a huge feat as making the Yeti the way they did and would have just made him the was his is now from the beginning. Maybe one swooping arm, opening jaws, and a head tilt.

 

[muse1983]

True. But look at it like this, if you never knew that the Yeti even moved as much as he originally did, how would you miss it? Would you still think that the ride was missing something? Imagineering's original idea for the Yeti, even with full range of motion, was for you to really only get the briefest of glimpses of the Yeti to keep with the whole "mystery" of the Yeti lore. Most folks I talk to think I am making crap up when I tell them about how he originally jumped out and swung his paw at you. They think the ride is great as is. Personally I wish Imagineering woyuldn't have tried such a huge feat as making the Yeti the way they did and would have just made him the was his is now from the beginning. Maybe one swooping arm, opening jaws, and a head tilt.

Which makes me wonder why they simply can't reprogram it to do that now...Cut out the lunging motion, program the arm move and have his jaws open. It just seems like they could do something more than a strobe and still solve the initial problem.

Go to the following link and flood CBS with a suggestion to have a segment on 60 Minutes about WDW showing the lack of maintenance and care they have exhibited over the last decade! It's worth a shot... http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml?tag=ftr

 

[NoChesterHester]

True. But look at it like this, if you never knew that the Yeti even moved as much as he originally did, how would you miss it? Would you still think that the ride was missing something? Imagineering's original idea for the Yeti, even with full range of motion, was for you to really only get the briefest of glimpses of the Yeti to keep with the whole "mystery" of the Yeti lore. Most folks I talk to think I am making crap up when I tell them about how he originally jumped out and swung his paw at you. They think the ride is great as is. Personally I wish Imagineering woyuldn't have tried such a huge feat as making the Yeti the way they did and would have just made him the was his is now from the beginning. Maybe one swooping arm, opening jaws, and a head tilt.

Ok... If you had never tried prime tuna sushi, but had had plenty of the other stuff, would you miss it? Of course not, but you would be missing out on a beautiful experience.

 

[mikeb1967]

Principle Mechanical Engineer

Hello all. So while watching the discovery video linked in a previous post i thought to myself... lets try to contact the principle mechanical engineer featured in the video- John Van Oort- surely someone can find out how to contact him... well unfortunately he passed away in 2010. Let the conspiracies continue...

John Joseph Van Oort entered eternal rest on March 20, 2010 in Whittier California at the age of 63.

 

[jjharvpro]

I sometimes forget how awesome this ride is as a whole. From seeing the mountain in the distance to theming of the queue to waiting for the trains to come, to the lift hill, the thrills, the list goes on and on..

I love this ride, even without the Yeti.. But it needs to come back. It's kinda funny how the announcer on that Discovery channel video said "there'd be no attraction without it..the Yeti" :ROFLOL:

It still is a fantastic ride.. my guess is that it'll go down for refurb when Avatar opens up, but that's a while away

 

[TalkingHead]

It's tough to say how much you would really appreciate the yeti figure in full A mode. So few people actually saw it in A mode and it's been years since anyone's seen him move at all. Previews started almost exactly six years ago, and how long has it been since he's been consistently in A mode?

I was there during CM previews and rode half a dozen times. I went back and rode a couple of times before the Yeti stopped functioning.

I can tell you that the short glimpse didn't allow me to appreciate how much movement the thing was capable of. Almost like the designers were scared if you looked at him too long you'd see the seams in the costume.

The idea behind allowing you only a glimpse of Yeti is interesting, but the execution of the idea is questionable.

 

[TalkingHead]

"Okay" is fine for Universal Studios. This is Disney. we expect more than "okay"

Yeah, actually, "okay" isn't fine for Universal, but is fine for WDW now apparently. Funny how that works.

 

[TalkingHead]

Hello all. So while watching the discovery video linked in a previous post i thought to myself... lets try to contact the principle mechanical engineer featured in the video- John Van Oort- surely someone can find out how to contact him... well unfortunately he passed away in 2010. Let the conspiracies continue...
John Joseph Van Oort entered eternal rest on March 20, 2010 in Whittier California at the age of 63.

I never did trust that hyperactive weirdo with the handlebar mustache and tribal earrings.

 

[TalkingHead]

I sometimes forget how awesome this ride is as a whole. From seeing the mountain in the distance to theming of the queue to waiting for the trains to come, to the lift hill, the thrills, the list goes on and on..

I love this ride, even without the Yeti.. But it needs to come back. It's kinda funny how the announcer on that Discovery channel video said "there'd be no attraction without it..the Yeti" :ROFLOL:

It still is a fantastic ride.. my guess is that it'll go down for refurb when Avatar opens up, but that's a while away

My guess is Disney management realizes you see so little of the figure that it isn't worth the cost to repair it.

That doesn't excuse the poor show, but the problems with Everest extend to its basic design: lavish queue, lots of build up and suspense on the ride, puny payoff.

 

[PlaneJane]

Hello all. So while watching the discovery video linked in a previous post i thought to myself... lets try to contact the principle mechanical engineer featured in the video- John Van Oort- surely someone can find out how to contact him... well unfortunately he passed away in 2010. Let the conspiracies continue...

John Joseph Van Oort entered eternal rest on March 20, 2010 in Whittier California at the age of 63.

That could explain part of the delay in attempting a fix, although there were probably many other people who were working on creating the Yeti, he was probably the main brains behind the machine and him passing away took away a big chunk of creative troubleshooting that they could have harnessed.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

Watch this video then come back and try telling me that he isn't on a sled or slide.

Pay close attention to the 6:12 mark. :wave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BS2r2osks

Guess what? That's his internal structure and the "sled" that moves is his torso.

The movement of the sled in that video is EXACTLY the way his upper body would move during the ride.

Watch how he moves at the end of that same video. That is the same way he moved on the ride. The "sled" was just his internal mechanism that gave movement to his upper body. The lower portion was always stationary and never moved.

 

[SJN1279]

I think now would be the perfect time to not only fix the Yeti, but plus the whole attraction as well. They could add some extra animatronics for ambience, tighten up the storyline, add an actual showscene where the broken trackswitch occurs, and perhaps add an onboard sound system(memorable music is something this attraction sorely lacks).

Everest 2.0 would be a welcome addition to Animal Kingdom.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

I think now would be the perfect time to not only fix the Yeti, but plus the whole attraction as well. They could add some extra animatronics for ambience, tighten up the storyline, add an actual showscene where the broken trackswitch occurs, and perhaps add an onboard sound system(memorable music is something this attraction sorely lacks).

Everest 2.0 would be a welcome addition to Animal Kingdom.

I like your line of thinking, but TDO would never approve something of this magnitude for the foreseeable future unless there was a big shake-up at the executive level.

 

[PlaneJane]

Well correct me if I'm wrong but I made a little diagram thinking on how the yeti moves and works, and before you see it.. I know he isn't controlled by an elevator.. its just the best way I could describe it.

From what everyone is saying its the foundation underneath the "movement base" that is cracked right?

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Watch this video then come back and try telling me that he isn't on a sled or slide.

Pay close attention to the 6:12 mark. :wave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BS2r2osks

Guess what? That's his internal structure and the "sled" that moves is his torso.

The movement of the sled in that video is EXACTLY the way his upper body would move during the ride.

Watch how he moves at the end of that same video. That is the same way he moved on the ride. The "sled" was just his internal mechanism that gave movement to his upper body. The lower portion was always stationary and never moved.

Yeah, no. Watch that same video at 6:20. You see the yeti on the right hand side of the screen with the rig coming out of his back. No way in heck would that all fit inside. In fact, this is what the engineer says: "...so what the engineers did is we designed a horizontal slide and a vertical slide and this long boom. And the boom actually goes into the yeti's back. So he is suspended from that boom, goes in and out five feet, up and down eighteen inches." Of course when they show him from the front like you would see on the ride, the movement appears to come from within the yeti's body. That was kinda the whole point... to make it look like there was a real yeti really there. The yeti looks almost exactly like the very nice diagram below:

I hate to say it, but after watching the video, the yeti design doesn't seem all that complicated. Clever? Absolutely. Complicated? Not really... the figure is almost like a marionette. The boom from his back is like the strings that support the figure, the feet are pinned down and the knees are free to swivel to match the movement of the boom. Only the swiping arm and the face movement comes from within the figure. It seems to match the semi-confirmed idea that the yeti is fine, but the support structure just couldn't handle the stress.

 

[MKCP 1985]

just for purposes of your ongoing discussion, has everyone seen this photo from the "Everest Effects Status" thread, taken all the way back in 2009?

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showpost.php?p=3806983&postcount=619

Someone later commented the support cables had been in place since as early as 2006, so :shrug:

This photo also makes me scratch my head when people say they didn't even see the yeti, back when it was working properly. How do you miss that, if you have your eyes open? :lol:

 

[pumpkin7]

wow, that's not where i thought the yeti was positioned at all. it's hard to tell when you're zooming past. i thought there was a large cavern to the right, and he was right back in that. i didn't realise that he actually physically hanging over the track.
he's not lit up like that anymore is he? i mean, even with a camera flash, it would be pretty hard to get a picture like that of him in his current state.

 

[Lee]

Nah, they don't usually light him with full show lighting these days.

If you click the little "1" next to blogs at the top of this post, and then click to read the whole thing you can see a shot of the poor thing as he is usually seen nowadays.

Sad.

 

[Rob562]

just for purposes of your ongoing discussion, has everyone seen this photo from the "Everest Effects Status" thread, taken all the way back in 2009?

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showpost.php?p=3806983&postcount=619

Someone later commented the support cables had been in place since as early as 2006, so :shrug:

This photo also makes me scratch my head when people say they didn't even see the yeti, back when it was working properly. How do you miss that, if you have your eyes open? :lol:

The cable that you see above him is most likely a safety cable, and is not providing constant support for the figure. It's there just as a failsafe to keep the figure from falling onto the tracks should the main support fail.

It's similar to the safety cables used on theater lights. The main support is from a solid metal C-clamp used to clamp the light onto the bar and hold it in place. But if the tightening bolt should loosen *and* the clamp jar loose from the bar it's hanging from, the cable would catch the light before it fell.

Coaster cars also have similar cables. Look between the cars on Big Thunder or Space Mountain. There's a solid bar linking the cars together, but also cables on either side for redundant safety.

-Rob