The Ice Cream Maker and Star Wars...Yes, Star Wars

We were down in the parks in late June and had a great time checking out the Star Wars Launch Bay.  There were so many things to see in there.  Movie props and costumes and awesome artwork.  The detail was out of this world...literally.  Look at what they use for the legs of the Video Game tables.  Yep, that's a Power Droid.

 

 

As you walk through to the store area on your left is a screened in "closet" that holds a lot of Knick Knacks from the Star Wars Universe.

 

As you let your eyes wander over this area you see the head of one of the robots on Star Tours.  Boba Fett's Rocket pack.  A thermal Detonator, C3PO's arm and more.  What I could not make sense of was the white item on the top right shelf.  Tough to see from the above pictures, but look below.

 

 



 

For those children of the 60's and 70's, that item is none other than a handy dandy electric ice cream maker.  I showed the kids and we had a chuckle about the Imagineers trying to slip one past us.  Well, Quinn just sent me a text that shows that the DHS Imagineers are wiser and greater than we can possibly imagine.  I can keep talking, but watch the video below, it explains how great this prop is.

 

 

Holy S#*T that is beyond cool.  As you saw, that was Willrow Hood running to get that Ice Cream maker to safety.  Hats off to the Imagineers at DHS and to the story writers at Lucasfilms for creating such a complete backstory for a guy we saw for just 2 seconds in a run-by scen.  Well Done.. 

New Technology in Epcot's American Experience

One of the things that impresses me the most about Walt Disney World is their sense of technology.  It seems that while some other amusement parks find something that works and sticks with it for years and years, Disney never waits until something is obsolete to replace or upgrade it.  Some of the biggest complaints from WDW world fans is when a ride is replaced or updated.  This idea of updating technology and staying in the fore-front has been part of Walt Disney's ideals from long ago.  Here are some really great quotes from Walt Disney about this:

"I believe in being an modivator."

"Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always thinking of what's wrong with the thing and how it can be improved."

"It's something that will never be finished. Something that I can keep developing...and adding to."

"Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world."

"EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."

And one of my favorite Walt quotes:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Well one of the "new paths" is now found at the American Experience in Epcot and we were happy to see this the last time we were there.  The American Experience pavilion has three main areas.  The first is the Main Lobby, where there are great paintings and where the Voices of Liberty perform.  The second area is the gallery exhibit called National Treasures and the third is the main show area. 

Inside the National Treasures area the WDW Imagineers have introduced of of those new technologies in the form of a 3d imaging lamp, to tell the story of the items on display.  I wish I had taken more video.  Here is what it looked like:

 

 

This is such a great way to grab the interest of the park guests as they walk through the exhibit.  Let me know what you think.  Have you seen these new lanterns?  Post your thoughts below.