Disney wants more 'Star Wars' in its theme parks

I really don't mind. A full-scale AT-AT would probably overwhelm the place. Theme parks are normally a bunch of scaled-down stuff so you can get around & enjoy it all. A full size walker would be like 5 stories tall. It would put big portions of the park below in shadow for hours each day.

Going 1:1 scale would pose structural problems too. It's basically a 2-story house perched up on 40ft high legs. Those legs are all nearly straight vertical. The shape isn't rigid enough. The body would be swaying in any decent wind (like visibly, enough to scare people) unless it had 3 or 4 big stabilizing cables running diagonally up from the ground to the body. It's either that or else they start changing the shape of the whole item to make it more stable.
 
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I found this old-looking pic of the Star Tours AT-AT. You can get an idea of the size based on that worker down near the feet (standing next to the ladder in a helmet).

It does look like a forced-perspective job. The proportions seem to get a little smaller as it goes up. IMO the head & torso look about 1/3rd-scale and it's a bit bigger down at the feet. The knee joint is obviously higher up on the leg too.

I think this is enough for a mainstream theme park. Sure, bigger would be cooler, but whatever. Gotta draw the line somewhere. The resources & engineering needed to build the thing would probably go up exponentially as the size gets bigger.

2012-01-12-starwarsatat.jpg
 
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Looks like they will be located inside the building. Probably meant to be the inside of some kind of imperial base. These things will be walk-by props to help the atmosphere.

These are definitely not copies of the Star Tours AT-AT. These look proportionately correct and pretty big. Maybe 40-50% scale.

The better proportions may indicate that we will be seeing them from the second story of the building. If they were only to be viewed from ground level then it would seem logical to retain the Star Tours forced perspective.
 
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The problem with Tomorrowland is that our concept of the future is constantly changing and what looked or seemed futuristic at one point is cheesey and old a moment later and it's a near impossible goal for Disney to be able to keep Tomorrowland always looking futuristic and never outdated. The only way possible is if Disney remodels/revamps Tomorrowland every 5 - 10 years but that would cost a lot of money and it would most likely end up pissing off a lot more people than it would please because of the disruptions that it would cause.

Disney could have spaces for colleges to work on / demonstrate new technologies. Or even make a robot wars show!


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Disney could have spaces for colleges to work on / demonstrate new technologies. Or even make a robot wars show!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They did sort of do this kind of thing back when Tomorrowland first opened with Monsanto's House of Tomorrow and they brought it back for a while with Innoventions but now that space is being used for the Marvel and Star Wars HQ exhibits, meet & greets, and shops. I suspect that these future tech showcases were never that popular, by the time they got rid of Innoventions I remember that it was never all that crowded inside. Mind you, I did like the sort of successor to The House of Tomorrow that they had in Innoventions but I think that most guests were more interested in the XBox games and the Marvel stuff than anything else.
 
Those legs are ramrod straight, too. I guess no bent legs. Maybe bent a LITTLE, as far as the facades can go around a straight center.
 
Those legs are ramrod straight, too. I guess no bent legs. Maybe bent a LITTLE, as far as the facades can go around a straight center.

I think that is just for support of the weight. The skins of the legs can still look like the leg(s) are bent.
 
That's what I was saying, but they couldn't be bent very much and still cover the support.

Why would 2 imperial AT-AT walkers stationary in a base / hanger have bent knees anyway? If they were there for "storage" or mission prep, they would be standing upright, with straight legs, right?
 
I found this old-looking pic of the Star Tours AT-AT. You can get an idea of the size based on that worker down near the feet (standing next to the ladder in a helmet).

It does look like a forced-perspective job. The proportions seem to get a little smaller as it goes up. IMO the head & torso look about 1/3rd-scale and it's a bit bigger down at the feet. The knee joint is obviously higher up on the leg too.

I think this is enough for a mainstream theme park. Sure, bigger would be cooler, but whatever. Gotta draw the line somewhere. The resources & engineering needed to build the thing would probably go up exponentially as the size gets bigger.

View attachment 714338


The original "theme" of the Disney MGM Studios / Star Tours attraction was different from the Disneyland version. It was supposed to replicate a live movie set; the the AT-AT was a movie prop / facade, and the posterior/ backside metal supports and struts are clearly visible when you walk underneath. The back is unfinished, on purpose. When you first walked into (the original) Star Tours, there were plywood type set consrtuction pieces and directors chairs, to look like you were entering a studio "set" of the Star Wars film.

This fit in with the overall park theme in the 1990s, that the theme park was an actual functioning film and TV studio, with real sets and shows to visit. While some TV production, post-production, and animation was done at (then) Disney/MGM studios, that time has long gone. The animation and backstage tours are now a thing of the past. Live production (for the most part) and animation are long gone.

Since then, the story to the Star Tours attraction has changed, and the "hot set" story line has been removed. However, the AT-AT was never "finished" or updated. It has been refurbished / the outer skin removed, but it was never completed to look like an "actual" walker.
And the Endor Ewok village trees were false fronts as well, again pushing the "this is a movie set" theme.

Still impressive. But about 50% the size of a "real" AT-AT.

Here are some pics that show the "live set" theme to the attraction.

6a00e54ee7b642883301538e814d5c970b-500wi.jpg


disney-s-hollywood-studios.jpg


Also, the walker guns used to "fire" (water/vapor burst). See Video below:

 
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