Post #744725 by AceExplorer on Fri, Jun 12, 2015 1:02 PM

Good news - I was able to speak to a Disney cast member who is intimately involved with the animation. I asked a lot of questions, and this is what I learned:

• Uh-Oa was built for the "Under New Management" version of the Tiki Room show at a cost of over two million dollars. "Animation is very expensive" were his words.
• Uh-Oa has been moved and decommissioned intentionally as a purely static figure.
• Uh-Oa's animation components have been re-purposed in other figures and also as spare parts due to the cost of these.
• Uh-Oa is very unlikely to become animated in the future due to the cost AND the fact that the resorts do not maintain onsite animation technical folks. As a result, any problems which arise cannot be responded to in a quick and timely fashion, therefore animated figures are not used in the resorts. (I wonder - are there any exceptions?)
• Due to cost, there is a trend towards less costly air-based actuators instead of fluid-based actuators. Air allows for "on-off" actions while fluid-based figures can perform a wide range of speeds and motions, therefore the higher complexity and cost.

So I hope that is helpful information. I will now quit my whining, heh...

I hope everyone enjoys Trader Sams as it was built. It really is a fun place.

Cheers!