New Lincoln Animatronic Lookin' Good
Admin 
Can't wait to see more of this figure. The facial movements look pretty good. According to this YouTube post, "The old Lincoln figure had 6 functions in the face, but this new one includes 10. Lincoln's mouth is now able to form vowels such as "O"."
I remember learning about the "F" lip movement when I first started to work on animatronic heads and always thought that was cool.
While we are on the topic of this historic and iconic AA figure, I'll share one of my personal experiences with ol' Abe. Back in high school I occasionally worked at the Mad Hatter shop on Main Street. There was a stock closet to the right of the stage. For some reason we thought it was funny to put silly hats on the former president and take pictures. Hilarious, I know. We'd sit on his lap and stuff. Aside from goofing around, I'd stand next to the thing in awe.
Sometimes I'd sneak in and sit in the back of the dark theater as Imagineers worked on Mr. Lincoln. One time I watched them program the figure with an electric piano keyboard. I felt like I was watching some Disney Channel behind-the-scenes special where they show animatronics without headskins or clothes.
Reader Comments (6)
Lincoln with the hats! That's great.
That, however, is the worst figure finishing I've ever seen. He looks crazy! HAHA
Haha. Yes, that is aweful figure finishing. I think that was the first human animatronic I ever saw up close and I was terrified! His bug eyes didn't help. His arms were all stiff and his butt didn't touch the chair when he was in the 'off position'. His hair was always pretty messy. All in all it those were some of the best moments- me and Mr. Lincoln chillin' in the Opera House after hours. I used to pretend Walt and I were hanging out at the Worlds Fair together.
My great grandfather saw 'Great Moments' in the 60's and refused to believe he wasn't a real actor. I always liked hearing that story because it shows how remarkable people's first experiences with Audio Animatronics were- back when they were not so common.
The mouth formations look pretty good but the eyes seem totally unexpressive, just half lidded the whole time, but still darting all over the place. Perhaps when it's on a mobile figure it will look better. Still, for all the things it can do, let's hope they remember the addage, less is more.
Mad Hatter Lincoln looks great!
Was those Abe in the hat photos from Abe Lincoln used from 1975 to 1984? That version of Abe seems to be missing from photos. I know the 1966 to 1973 was the Disneyland version after the World's Fair. Then after an absence of two years, I heard a new model for Abe was built and lasted until 1984 when a more mobile Abe was used with the notes in his hand.
Sincerely hope to track down the 70's to early 80's version of Abe in photos or information if anyone has any suggestions.
Sincerely,
Bill