VIDEO - New A-1000 Audio-Animatronics to bring the characters of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge to life

Feb 28, 2019 in "Star Wars Galaxy's Edge"

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Posted: Thursday February 28, 2019 1:31pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge represents the pinnacle of Walt Disney Imagineering, and on the planet of Batuu, one of Imagineering's greatest achievements rises to a new level to help bring the stories of Star Wars to life.

At Walt Disney Word, we first saw a new generation of Audio-Animatronic figures emerge in Frozen Ever After at Epcot and Na'vi River Journey in Pandora - The World of Avatar. The old hydraulic motors that had powered animatronic figures including the A-100 class for decades made way for new electric motors that are far more precise, fluid and quicker moving than their predecessor. The Shaman of Songs in Pandora will perhaps remain the most complicated figure ever made by Disney, but the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge figures will be right up there.

With Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, the A-1000 class of animatronic powers all of the major Audio-Animatronic characters. In this clip below, you can see the more than 6ft tall Hondo Ohnaka, who is part the Smugglers Run Millennium Falcon ride. And at Rise of the Resistance, Nien Nunb is the pilot on your ride aboard a transport ship.

Animatronic figure won't just be part of the rides - you will also find them in Oga's canteen, where captain Rex from Star Tours is now the DJ.

At Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities, you will find Dok at his desk, checking his inventory, taking calls, and barking orders at his assistants.

And expect to see figures in more surprising places, like the droid shop and walk-around characters.

TechCrunch has a great article on 'How Disney Built Star Wars, in real life," and it is well worth a read for more details on the work that went into producing Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

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Jobacca22 days ago

Star Wars Weekends were 1000x more fun than Galaxys Edge

mickEblu22 days ago

I agree. I think a lot of people think not going with the OT was the main issue but I don't think that's the case.

HauntedPirate22 days ago

I didn't say they should have focused on the OT, just that their focus on the ST was a mistake. One of many.

999th Happy Haunt22 days ago

mickEblu22 days ago

I don’t think focusing on the OT would have brought more people to the land as much as I think more fun/whimsy throughout the land would have. The Falcon ride should have been a coaster. They missed the mark on Smugglers Run and thought it would make Star Tours obsolete. The OT would have just been a cherry on top of the land being more full of life and being more fun.

HauntedPirate22 days ago

Almost as if those in charge were so sure they'd be printing money with their sequels for decades that they'd have to ration access to their wondrous land dedicated to them because people would be coming in droves to see Kylo and other ST stuff. Just another misguided spending spree, this one resulting in another under-built Bob-land.

LSLS22 days ago

Personally, no, that's not what bums me about it. The lack of rides, and the narrow pathways is what I still don't really like about it. Give me some room and a lot more to do (and no, I don't consider shops things to do).

mickEblu22 days ago

Well good news is they don't have to do any swapping. Just get some OT characters walking around, have more of a "Force" presence, lightsaber duels at various times in the day, a AA Yoda walk through attraction, a Jabba's palace dinner theatre show and base the lands third attraction on the OT. Oh yea some more missions in the Smugglers Run with some of them being OT centric.

MagicHappens197122 days ago

Nothing about Galaxy’s Edge was built to be “swapped”. The land was built based on the directive from “up top” to make it based around the sequel trilogy. End of story

Purduevian22 days ago

Looks like we are in agreement that it is possible! I was just saying I don't think ROTR was specifically designed to be a quick swap to the OT based on the specific FO stuff that would be difficult to replace

𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗9722 days ago

Retheme of Big Thunder confirmed

mickEblu22 days ago

True just find some room for a Trench Run coaster somewhere.

999th Happy Haunt22 days ago

Not denying those would be decently big changes, but I refuse to believe the retheme is not possible because of them. Look at Splash Mountain. By relatively fast I mean like around a year to switch over.

Purduevian22 days ago

I think that is a rumor there quite a few large things that really can't super easily be swapped to the OT. Off the top of my head: BB8 animatronics in the preshow All of the storm troopers are First Order not empire and would need to be re-skinned The Tie wings in the hanger are First Order The AT-ATs are FO Sure anything is possible, but it's not as simple as changing Kylos outfit/helmet to a vader one and changin dialog.