i never knew that they were going to take it down, i thought they were going to leave it because it holds the Epcot sign on top of spaceship earth...hmm
I really do not mind the hand and wand. I think it is a pretty clever segway to connect MK with Epcot. It is obvious that the focus of Epcot has changed since opening and this is a quick way to tell people, hey, this is Disney too.
I could do without the sparkles on Spaceship Earth itself. It doesn't add anything and only serves to downgrade the majesty of the building.
After all they could have put a giant set of Mickey Ears on it.
I had my dates wrong. It is rumored to come down in 2007 for the Epcot 25th Anniversary. They want to do something "different." Although it is just a rumor so don't necessarily get saddened by it as WDW hasn't announced any plans by this.
However, the rumor does seem to be true. There are several signs of this possible action. Look at the latest planning video. The wand is cut out of several shots, although the first scene has it.. And if you look some of the clips, its not there. This MAY not be intentional though because a lot of the time, shots are taken from years and years ago, some of those particular shots were from before 1999!