DAK: Lucky the Dinosaur

[rwodonnell]

Not too much from the press release struck me as new information that hadn't already been posted here before, but the announcement about Lucky the Dinosaur was news to me:

At Disney's Animal Kingdom — from out of the secret labs of Walt Disney Imagineering — will come Lucky the dinosaur, the first-ever free-roaming Audio-Animatronics® figure. Later in the celebration year, Expedition EVEREST will take guests to thrilling new heights in a runaway mountain train.

Anyone have any details, or know anything about how it works, what "interaction" means, or when it debuts? From the "later in the year" comment about EE, I take it Lucky will be preceeding it at least. Also, isn't saying "later in the year" for EE a bit of a stretch? Even if the celebration lasts 18 months...

 

[daber]

Again, this was nothing new. Rumor had it he was coming to DAK last year. He made his debut at DCA. The dinosaur looks like something from the Dinotopia movie and walks with a cart behind him. His "trainer" walks alongside of him at a distance and he can do various things via remote control. You can probably find some pics somewhere. Not sure if you can look back into the archieves of this board.

 

[ShadowWind]

Old Lucky has been talked about for many years. He was created when Dinosaur was out and was to be featured in a parade. Then when Dinosaur bombed, he was going to be revamped into a dragon for Reign of Fire, but of course that bombed too. Now I guess he's gonna just stay a dinosaur. I would love to see him though. I have to wonder though, the CM in charge has to be pretty careful. Hydraulics like that are not very forgiving should it hit someone.

 

[dcentity2000]

I love these things

Talking tree anybody?



Rich::

 

[johare]

There was a show on the Travel Channel last night called Disney's Imagineers. At the end they showed a prototype of a huge free walking animatronic 'skeleton'/prototype. The talked about it's development for a while and finished by saying "Don't be surprised if you see a free walking Dinosaur walking around soon". This program has been on many times before, so I doubt the information was very current.

 

[Dznefreek]

Click <a href="http://www.mouseplanet.com/parkupdates/dlr/dlr030825.htm">here</a> and scroll down to see video of Lucky in action.