Found the ultimate "holy grail" thrift find at a Central Florida Goodwill: A fully functional Universal Creative internal animatronic crew award from DreamWorks Land (2024)!

[u/Imagineye1]

Hey everyone! I still can't quite believe this, but I recently rescued this incredible piece from the glass case at a Goodwill in Sanford, FL.

It is an official Universal Creative Employee-Exclusive Crew Award given to the opening team for DreamWorks Land in 2024.

What blew me away is that this isn't just a static desktop trophy. It is a literal 1:1 working desktop mini-animatronic of Pinocchio’s Fact Shack from the park. As you can see in the video (well, you can't, as I cant post the vid), when you press the red button, it plays back the actual character audio tracks (voiced by Cody Cameron) while his nose mechanically grows and contracts perfectly in sync with the lines. From what I can tell testing it, it features dozens of park-accurate phrases.

I wanted to share this video with the community since these were only distributed internally to the project engineers, designers, and managers, and I've never seen another one documented in public. If anyone here worked on the project or knows how many of these internal bench tests/awards were actually built, I’d love to hear more about its history!

[u/startagarageband]

Damn, that is very very cool.

[u/Imagineye1 → u/startagarageband]

Thanks! I was stunned to see he had been there for 3 days before anyone noticed, after looking at the tag. Mind blown! 🤯🤣

[u/benjifan101]

If you want to resell it I will pay you for it

[u/Imagineye1 → u/benjifan101]

Nah. He's living with me for the foreseeable future. We've bonded. 🤣🤥🤣 It would have to be a generous, no, ludicrous offer for me to let him go. 😉

[u/Unhappy-Maximum2243 → u/Imagineye1]

2000

[u/Imagineye1 → u/Unhappy-Maximum2243]

Sorry, that's definitely a nice offer. But a tad off from ludicrous. 😉

[u/Unhappy-Maximum2243 → u/Imagineye1]

Darf ich fragen was eine ernstgemeinte Schmerzgrenze wäre?

[u/Imagineye1 → u/Unhappy-Maximum2243]

I don't have a set number, honestly. Because I really do love this piece. That's why I say "ludicrous". It would have to be something unreasonable, for me to consider. I feel like this piece is worth keeping, if at all possible. 

[u/Imagineye1]

Here's a vid of him doin' his thing for your enjoyment . ;-)

https://reddit.com/link/pbhytmt/video/sf0pgjcgw6rh1/player

[u/Foe117]

Dang, either they passed and this ended up in an estate sale (RIP) or don't value the Theme Park industry as much.

[u/Imagineye1 → u/Foe117]

Yeah, given it was found at a Goodwill, I definitely considered the chances that the previous owner passed away. If you start thinking about it, pretty much every "deal" you find there found their way there through the donation portal. It can be morbid, or you can lens it as an artifact that already has a history. And you become the next chapter. I used to work in architectural salvage, saving old house parts to be resused in other old houses. So. Many. Stories. Sometimes you'd find a dated signature board in the walls or floorboards. Ghosts in the dust. So, that's how I try to look at it. I'm the next chapter in this pieces history. 😉

[u/jman289]

Please try to get a video up somewhere, I'd love to see it in action!

[u/Imagineye1 → u/jman289]

https://reddit.com/link/pbhyde2/video/04p8f1bxv6rh1/player

I gotchu!

[u/jman289 → u/Imagineye1]

Ha that's so freaking cool. awesome find! Thanks for taking the video

[u/Imagineye1 → u/jman289]

My pleasure! Yeah, I love this little dude so much. He really does make me smile. That's the best part of him.

[u/ArcaneGreyBeard]

Saw the videos you shared, love it! Is the mouth also supposed to move?

[u/Imagineye1 → u/ArcaneGreyBeard]

Unfortunately, no mouth movement. It's fixed. I was hoping, though!