ABANDONED DISNEY Series
UPDATED 1-10-10 (with additional photos and text)
Announcing: A new ongoing series featuring the parts of Disney theme parks we grew up loving, left to rot and decay.
We already featured ABANDONED DISNEY: River Country [Part 1] and [Part 2] and look forward to Part 3.
We welcome any photos you may have that fall into this category. We are looking for photos of abandoned rides, ride vehicles props, animatronics, etc.
Don't worry- there will always be a never-ending supply of the 'abandoned'. We all know about the ever more powerful attractions chopping block with a line-up of classic, world-changing, fantastic rides just waiting their turn on this theme park death row. It really warms the heart.
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To officially get this series going, we present to you some abandoned animatronic figures from our favorite futuristic adventure, Horizons (a ride abandoned only long enough to pull up the wrecking ball).
Where are they now? These naked animatronics are piled up under The Carousel of Progress. Yep, in the basement of the C.O.P building directly under one of the stages. The Carousel of Progress in it's round building is divided into 6 pie-shaped pieces- one for each of the 4 acts plus 2 small stages for load and unload. Under these stages are pie-shaped maintenance and storage rooms. Remember, the center portion of the building is stationary. Only the outer portion with seating rotates.
One (somewhat) redeeming part of this story is the fact that these figures are not completely abandoned. Their parts are used for the C.O.P family. I imagine some of these pieces are from other attractions. If you think you recognize any of the parts, let us know!
Photo of Horizons dad decorating cake courtesy of Mesa Verde Times. Thank you Hoot and Massimo for identifying some of the above animatronics!
Look for more 'Abandoned Disney' post coming soon.
Reader Comments (15)
I love you forever for posting these pics!
Here are my guesses as to which figures are pictured here.
The big picture on the left looks like it's probably the Dad in the kitchen scene. His left hand decorating the cake and his right didn't move so it was attached to the table. http://mesaverdetimes.blogspot.com/2009/04/james-mason.html
Lower right appears to be Jules Verne. His legs are bent just like the "floating" Mr Verne.
I'm working on the upper right pic with the sitting figure.
Thank you for these!
I AGREE WITH ALL HOOT GIBSON'S GUESSES...THE DAD, AND JULES VERNE!GREAT OBSERVER!PLEASE KEEP ON POSTING PICS LIKE THESE!!!WE MUST KEEP HORIZONS MEMORY ALIVE SOMEHOW!
MAYBE THE "WOMAN'S BODY" UNDER JULE VERNE'S ANIMATRONIC, COULD BE THE FLOATING BLONDE LADY INTO BRAVA CENTAURI'S SPACE STATION...
Right on!
I believe you are right. If you compare the hand in the large photo to the one at http://mesaverdetimes.blogspot.com/2009/04/james-mason.html both hands have identical marks. Look at the knuckles. Seeing how each hand is individually painted, no two are exactly alike. I believe it's confirmed. The other guesses appear to be correct too!
MAYBE THE "WOMAN'S BODY" UNDER JULE VERNE'S ANIMATRONIC, COULD BE THE FLOATING BLONDE LADY INTO BRAVA CENTAURI SPACE STATION...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qqA2FMhXpwM/SlitUSK5L7I/AAAAAAAAANc/if6j9hFUQ44/s1600-h/hor81.jpg
Very ironic that these characters would go "Back to the Future" and be used for parts in the show that they were the sequel to!
You should include the upstairs ImageWorks in Journey into Imagination in this new series. It's still up there, rotting!
Hi, its a so nice and good site ever. Its a really great and fantastic post here in this site about the information of a human robot. So, thank you for the sharing of your ideas and thoughts to all of us. Its a truly informative post.
I actually work at COP now and unfortunately, these figures are no longer stored under the attraction. I asked my trainer about it after reading about them here. They have been removed but their memory lives on.
Celeste thanks for the informations!Maybe those pictures have been taken 10 years ago when Horizons has been dismantled!
I believe they were there as late as '05 if not later.
I've found some pics of the 2nd floor ImageWorks,I don't know if these are recent though,why would they keep a power supply to something so long after it has been shut down.....or these could be recent pictures of some sort of refurbishment project,also looking around the internet i found that there may have been a glitch that leaked info about a refurb. project
Pictures > http://s726.photobucket.com/albums/ww264/wdwfanatic1/
Forum that says something about the glitch > http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=432658
It's a thread from '09 so don't bother looking at the official attraction page as shown in the thread.
In a sense, this kind of reminds me of what's happening to the once-accessible-rides in the Wonders of Life pavillion right now after closure.
Hey maybe the sitting figure in the top right is the guy that sat in a chair next to a dog. The guy that talked about how is daughter is some kind of farmer in Mesa Verde.
Great site!! I wonder what they do with the clothes that go on the animatronics. If I worked at Disney and they were going to throw it all out, I would gladly take some of the clothes!! What if I was wearing that purple jacket at WDW and someone recognized it and was like, "Is that jacket from Horizons?" He he, that would be funny : ) Saying goodbye to rides really makes me sad : ( It is like, forever. You can't ever see it again. *snif* Bahhhhhahhhaaaa!!