What triggers your submechanophobia?
Is it swimming next to an actual animatronic?
Or just watching a submerged animatronic move?
Is it the size and closeness?
Or watching an abandoned animatronic deteriorate?
This fear is probably different for each and every one of us, but whatever the reason most
of us here today have a love/hate relationship with this phobia and so, we bring to you Submechanophobia
animatronics!
This video is sponsored by Ye Olde Prop Shoppe, stay until the end for an awesome giveaway!
6 Efteling Monstro
We have been pretty vocal lately about our love for the Efteling lately here in Fastpass
Facts.
And one of the things that we love most about that park is that they take a lot of risks
in their attractions and they don’t mind being on the more scary side of things.
In our Efteling video, which you should definitely go check out, we talked about how it went
from a simple nature park into the amazing theme park it is today, and the thing that
began this whole evolution was the famous Fairytale Forest.
To sum up the history of this awesome attraction in 1951, filmmaker Peter Reijnders contacted
famous Illustrator Anton Pieck to ask if he would like to design a fairytale forest for
the park.
Pieck initially said no, but after some convincing, he designed ten fairy tales for the forest,
thinking that this project would fail.
But nothing proved further from the truth.
The Fairytale forest was a huge success, and so, the years passed, and Pieck continued
designing and adding fairy tales for the forest.
Nowadays you can find 30 different fairytale depictions from famous fairytale writers such
as The Brothers Grimm (CINDERELLA - RED RIDING HOOD)
and Hans Christian Andersen (EMPEROR?S NEW CLOTHES) as well as more unknown stories and
even original fairytales created by the Efteling!
One of these fairytales is Pinocchio.
The Pinocchio fairytale opened on March 24, 2016, as the twenty-ninth fairytale in the
forest.
And it has three different scenes.
The first scene is Geppetto’s Workshop Through the windows you can see the interior of the
workshop, where dozens of mice, squirrels, and birds play on and with Geppetto's toys
and other carvings.
In the next scene near the workshop, we find some barrels where the fox and the cat, or
Honest John and Gideon are hiding, waiting for their next victim.
And then there’s the harbor and in the harbor, you will find nightmare fuel!
Inside a pond, you can find the huge orange-red fish that swallowed Geppetto and Pinocchio.
The animal appears to be a cross between a warty whale and a deep-sea angler, with luminous
tentacles and a mouth full of dangerous teeth.
Around the beast, there is a cloud of fishy air and from time to time the beast spouts
a strong burst of water from its blowhole.
This huge animal is half-submerged and it has an interactive feature.
There is a rod with a feather that visitors can use to tickle the monster awake.
Whenever someone turns the reel of the rod the animal wakes up, opening its eyes and
mouth.
At the back of its throat, we see Pinocchio, together with his father Geppetto.
Geppetto is standing behind a table with a lit candle and Pinocchio looks startled, his
arms raised in the air.
The fish's mouth closes and opens again a little later.
This time Pinocchio is much more visible in the front of the mouth; Geppetto is still
behind the table.
Pinocchio tries to get out of the fish and calls for help.
The water bubbles around this huge fish while we can hear it growling.
So you can definitely imagine how amazing and creepy this is at the same time.
Not only is this beast pretty big, but we can also get very close to it.
And the whole “Pinocchio asking for help while inside the fish” thing doesn’t help
it be less terrifying.
Still, this is not very far up the list, because the fish’s design is not that creepy while
compared to the other ones we’ll be talking about, and also, the animatronic is in perfect
condition.
5 Lucy Lock Ness
The year was 2005 and more than 600 tourists were completely surprised to be watching for
the first time the lock ness monster, emerging from the lock’s surface.
Could it be that they were experiencing the first real evidence of this mythical monster’s
existence?
Sadly for them, no.
So what was it?
Well, as a part of a television stunt and the Loch Ness Monster: The Ultimate Experiment
documentary, Channel 5 spent over 100,000 pounds to create a 440-pound plesiosaur animatronic
named Lucy.
This animatronic was created so it could swim in the dark waters of Loch Ness and surprise
tourists in order to get their reactions on tape.
Lucy was made by animatronic experts from the Crawley Creatures special effects company
whose owner, Jez Harris, helped create the model of Jabba the Hutt in the Star Wars film
Return of the Jedi.
Lucy was made from fiber-glass and polyurethane rubber She took 14 weeks to build and had
to be aided in the water by divers a job none of us would want to have.
Just imagine having to swim in the darl waters of the lake, helping this huge and heavy animatronic
move!
This terrifying but very impressive animatronic was fitted with air mechanisms to allow different
movements of her head, neck, and jaw.
Lucy appeared in the water near a campsite, at the ruins of picturesque Urquhart Castle
and in front of the Royal Scot cruise ship which runs tours of the loch.
The documentary was recorded over the course of two weeks and many of the tourists who
were able to experience it really believed that what they had seen was the real Loch
Ness Monster and they continued doing so until a week before the documentary came out when
Channel 5 broke the silence and revealed the truth about the animatronic.
The only footage that we could find of this animatronic was in the Crawley Creatures demo
reel because the documentary is impossible to find, so if anyone happens to know where
we can watch it let us know in the comments!
The animatronic can currently be found in perfect condition at the Oxford University
Museum of Natural History.
This animatronic fits perfectly on this list because it is terrifying.
It is huge and it moved underwater, and the creepiest thing is that it could be found
in a natural environment.
However, we placed it in number 5 because it was only used for a short time.
Not only that but it was never abandoned or even deteriorated.
And it is no longer submerged.
Seeing it in the museum is certainly very imposing, but it doesn’t give us the submechanophobia
chills that it caused when seeing it submerged in the dark waters.
4 Billabong Bunyip
The city of Coffs Harbor, Australia is known all around the world for having the largest
banana in Australia.
This banana was built in 1964 as an attraction around a banana plantation.
Over time, the park began evolving and adding new attractions like water slides, an ice
skating rink, and more.
One of the most beloved attractions was the Baldwin Express Monorail.
This attraction took guests through several scenes where they were taught about the history
of agriculture.
Kind of what we see at Epcot in The Land.
In one of the scenes of the attraction the monorail passed by a billabong and without
notice, a terrifying creature could be seen swimming by.
This creature emerged and stuck its head out of the water.
It was a Bunyip.
For those of you who are not familiar with the term, a Bunyip is a large mythical creature
from Australian mythology. said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and
waterholes.
The bunyip had at least three different mechanisms that gave the illusion that this monster was
pretty big.
Sadly the attraction closed in 2005 mostly because the operating costs were very high
and the park couldn’t afford to keep it in the best condition.
So what happened to the bunyip?
Well, no one knows for sure but the most heard rumor is that it was abandoned and eventually
sank into the billabong which makes it even more terrifying.
People have been asking about it for a while, but the answers have been very ambiguous,
which is what makes us think that it probably was abandoned.
In 2015 on the official Big Banana Park Facebook page, a survey appeared in which they asked
if people wanted to see the bunyip come back!
So that gives people all over the hope that it may be restored and returned to the park
one day!
This terrifying creature is number 4 on our list since it was nightmare fuel for many
people!
Seeing such a creepy animatronic swimming and then emerging from the dark waters was
such a scary experience.
And thinking about it being abandoned now and lying at the bottom of the billabong makes
it even worse.
3 Crocodile lake placid
Last time we talked about this animatronic we made the mistake of saying that Lake Placid
is not a good movie.
We heard you loud and clear… aaaand… we won’t be mentioning that again.
What we will be mentioning again of course is the amazing and terrifying animatronic
that was created for this movie.
This animatronic was also created by the super famous and talented team at Stan Winston Studios
solely for the purpose of using it for this movie.
The biggest challenge with this animatronic is what brings all of you here today: The
animatronic had to be submerged in the water ALL THE TIME.
But, being as talented as the team in the studio is, they made it work and created a
full-size animatronic puppet — complete with moving head and tail and snapping jaws
— that would function underwater.
The stuff of nightmares.
To give you an idea of how big and terrifying this thing was, the largest crocodile in captivity
back in 2013 measured a little more than 20 feet.
The Lake Placid crocodile was over twice as long as that!
To create it, the time first made a small scale model that would serve as the guideline
for the full-size build.
The crocodile was mechanized through hydraulics, which, as had been learned on previous projects,
worked fairly well in a water environment, as long as they were protected in waterproof
housings and surrounded by a water-resistant skin.
Now, before finishing the animatronic and doing a whole paint job, the crew took it
to Castaic Lake in Los Angeles National Forest to test it.
Imagine running into that thing when they were testing it!
The team dropped it in the lake to confirm that the animatronic worked well underwater
and it swam as they needed it to.
And of course, it moved perfectly and even propelled itself!
As soon as they knew this nightmare fuel worked, they took it back to the studio, finished
adding lots of paint details, and textured so the animatronic would look as real as humanly
possible, they fixed some small problems and the crocodile was ready to go.
While they were filming, the crew attached the crocodile to a boat using a wire so it
could gain greater speed and the animatronic was a success.
It must have been terrifying for the actors to be swimming in the lake, being chased and
attacked by this thing.
A huge animatronic crocodile swimming in a real lake attacking us?
No thank you!
This is ranked in number 3 because, while this crocodile is the stuff on nightmares,
it was only used for these movies and we will never get to experience the fear first hand.
It was also never abandoned or deteriorated, but if you see it from certain angles, you
could see some exposed mechanisms which is an added creepy factor.
We asked the experts from Stan Winston Studios what happened to the animatronic after they
were done with it and they said that sadly, was eventually dismantled as it was just too
large to store and no longer operational.
But at least we can see it in action!
2 Bruce Jaws
It was so hard not to place Bruce as number one since he was the animatronic that completely
changed the film and the special effects industry.
Not only that but it terrified a whole generation to such a degree that they could not even
go into a pool without thinking about him!
Spielberg was able to create a classic that people would never forget, but the film almost
cost him his career.
In the fall of 1973, art director Joe Alves designed the shark for Jaws.
Three full-size pneumatically-powered units were constructed at the cost of $ 150,000
each.
They were collectively named Bruce, after Spielberg's lawyer., They each measured about
25 feet long and weighed hundreds of pounds.
One shark, known as a sea-sled, was a full-bodied prop with its stomach carved out.
The other two, known as platform sharks, were each one-sided.
One platform shark moved from camera-left to -right with the side facing away from the
camera completely exposed, the other moved in the opposite direction.
Once completed, the three sharks were trucked to Martha's Vineyard.
The sharks were built by a legendary team overseen by mechanical effects supervisor
Robert A. Mattey, also known for creating other terrifying creatures like the 20k leagues
under the sea squid.
But despite the huge expertise of this team, the shark animatronics were a headache for
the film’s production.
there are other reports that the sharks would sometimes slip off of the platform and get
tangled in a bed of seaweed.
At other times, the pneumatic hoses that controlled the sharks' movement took on saltwater, the
foam used as the skin on the sharks became bloated, and parts even corroded.
Not only that but the shark even sank once when it was placed in the sea and divers had
to go and fish it out.
That must have been such an awful experience.
But, as incredible as this may seem, this helped the movie be a greater success since
many of the scenes had to be changed so that they wouldn’t have to use the shark so much
and this created greater suspense for the final scenes.
Even Spielberg thinks that the movie would have made half the money had the shark worked.
As we all know, the film when on to be a huge success, but at the time when the film was
finished and before it came out, Spielberg thought that his career was over, the studio
was reluctant to make the movie because they had no confidence in it.
So keeping sharks in good condition was not a priority and they just dumped the sharks
in the back lot, and they rotted away.
Thankfully, the shark’s molds were saved and a fourth shark was created.
This shark could be seen by guests visiting Universal Studios Hollywood from 1976 to 1990
until it was again abandoned in a junkyard.
Fortunately, it was then saved and restored by the legendary Greg Nicotero who later donated
it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum where it can now be found.
Bruce is so far up this list because it is basically the father of submechanophobia causing
animatronics.
And seeing all the different Bruce animatronic with their exposed mechanisms in the ocean
is a nightmare.
Not only that but the fact that they were abandoned make it a very compelling reason
for being number 2.
1 Bert, Bertha and Baby Bunyip
If you want to talk about submechanophobia it’s impossible to do it without mentioning
The Murray Bridge Bunyip.
This animatronic has become an icon among this vast community but what are the origins
of this character and why is it so terrifying?
Well, its name is Bert and it was created by Dennis Newel.
The animatronic debuted in 1972 at Murray Bridge Australia and just like the Big Banana
Park one, it is based on the Bunyip legends.
When he first debuted, guests could pay 20 cents to make the Bunyip emerge from his cave.
When it emerged, it made a sound so loud that it could be heard a whole kilometer away.
The first incarnation of Bert was terrifying and as time went by it only got worse due
to the fact that it started wearing down because it was submerged.
If this whole scene was not scary enough, in 182, Bert was turned into Bertha and given
a little baby Bunyip.
That same year, someone vandalized the bunyip’s soundbox so it would never stop roaring.
They sadly also vandalized Bertha and her baby and in 2000 they were
removed.
A more friendly and less noisy version of the bunyip was brought back, but sadly, it’s
the baby was nowhere to be found.
The bunyip continues terrifying whoever dares to visit it but nothing compares to what guests
could find back in October 2017.
During this time, there was an oil leak in the bunyip’s cave which turned this animatronic
into it’s most terrifying version.
It emerged from the water completely dark and covered in oil.
Thanks to this leak, most of the animatronic’s mechanisms were damaged and the smell was
terrible.
In 2019 the bunyip was completely renovated and the repairs were estimated to cost around
$100,000 Australian dollars.
With its return, the bunyip’s show is now completely free and the Murray Bridge Bunyip
can be found lurking in his cave today on the banks of the Murray River at Sturt Reserve
Murray Bridge.
Bert is definitely number one on our lists because he is not only terrifying in each
and every one of its incarnations.
But he is also the symbol of submechanophobia everywhere!
All of these animatronics are so interesting and creepy at the same time, but there are
so many more out there!
If you want to keep this submechanophobia high going go check out Theme Park Crazy’s
Underwater Animatronics video where he talks about many other terrifying animatronics.
He has an awesome channel and that video is great!
We’ll leave a link in the description!
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for the giveaway!
Hey guys!
So we partnered up again with Ye Old Prop Shoppe to bring you an awesome giveaway!
They have released these new Light-up LED Coasters that light up whenever you place
your drink on them!
And to the get your very own coaster all you have to do it follow us on instagram @fastpassfacts
then like and comment on this post which of the animatronics we talked about is the scariest
to you… and that’s it!
We’ll be announcing the winner next week!
You should definitely check out all the awesome things Ye olde props shoppe has to offer!
Check the link in the description!
We also want to thank all of you for sending your fan art!
We loved every piece!
Let’s check it out and see you next week!