Mr. Potato Head

[9Lanterns]

I'm sure you've all seen it by now, but...

Regardless of what I might think of the Toy Story Mania concept, I
have to admit this is undeniably cool. Hard to believe that an
animatronic potato is one of the most fluid, lifelike AA figures I
have ever seen. And watching him take the ear off is incredible.
Amazing just how good Disney animatronics are. I know these suckers
are expensive, but why do they not build more rides around this
technology?? It seems like the limit is one AA per attraction. At
least when they do it, they make it supercool (MPH, Yeti, Buzz...)

-Shane

[Brian C.]

Post by 9Lanterns
Regardless of what I might think of the Toy Story Mania concept, I
have to admit this is undeniably cool. Hard to believe that an
animatronic potato is one of the most fluid, lifelike AA figures I
have ever seen. And watching him take the ear off is incredible.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with another Disney fan (I'm pretty
sure it wasn't you, Shane). His idea was to make animatronic hands that
could mimic those of the muppeteers and then plunk real muppet puppets over
them. So instead of an animatronic Kermit, you'd have an animatronic set of
hands running a Kermit puppet. It kind of made sense to me at the time.

-- BC

[t***@aol.com]

I have to admit the taking the ear off thing got me and the generally
fluidity of his arm movements is damn strong.
It is a shame that most people will just sort of walk by and not
realize the marvel this thing really is. There is seriously more
artistry in this than in most other entire theme parks.

I still don't like the concept of Midway Mania but I do think this
gives a glimpse of the quality of the attraction, it will likely be
quite high.

[9Lanterns]

I agree, the concept is still very weak. Mr. Potato Head may very
well be the coolest thing about the attraction!

It's a shame, because the building, especially the DCA one, is very
nice looking. Hard to visualize the WDW version since it's been
behind walls for so long. It is obviously an homage to the Pixar
studios in California (google for pics and you will see the
similarities right away). They've recently added a LOT of palms and
other trees behind the walls. That will be way better than the
shadeless, boring soundstages that Mickey avenue used to be back when
it was Millionaire.

I did read an article about the testing of TSM which mentioned that a
non-video-game generation may be overwhelmed because of the frantic
games and the cars "careening around the track". I really hope this
is not the case. If the cars are swiveling at breakneck speed, like
Cat in the Hat at IOA, I will be extremely disappointed. I know a lot
of people that have motion sickness issues (including my wife). It
would suck if an attraction that has the potential to be a truly
family-oriented affair veers off into IOA spinning.

-Shane

[t***@aol.com]

I doubt that it will spin that much or that roughly at least, but I
can EASILY see it just being an overwhelming experience where you go
flying up to a screen, have some quick explanation tossed at you and
then spend 20 seconds randomly shooting balloons or whatever before
quickly being whisked away to the dart toss. You know, just a lot
coming at you at once.

I would expect it to be very smooth and surprisingly quick.