By popular demand, Submechanophobia is back, and this time we're not alone; please welcome
our special guest, HoweverMan, from the channel However to explore another ten submechanophobia
animatronics!
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links in the description and in the comments
Loch Ness Monster Prop
We don't know about you, but it has always been a fantasy of ours to discover some long-lost
treasure.
The very thought of it sounds exciting, doesn't it?
Well, that is precisely what happened to a lucky crew operating an underwater robot in
a famous Scotland lake rumored to be the home of the mythical Loch Ness Monster.
The crew stumbled upon a piece of forgotten movie history - the long-lost Loch Ness Monster
prop used in the filming of the 1970 movie, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, directed
by Billy Wilder.
Even though this is not an animatronic, we thought this 30-foot model that made film
history deserved a spot on this list.
This 9-meter long model was just a giant head attached to a long neck.
The two bumps that are usually associated with the Loch Ness Monster were noticeably
absent because the director did not like them.
However, the humps had hidden buoyancy aids, and as a result, Nessie disappeared under
the waves while being towed to its destination and was thought to be lost forever till this
crew found it again.
This 4-tonne model was discovered at a depth of 180 meters.
With eyes bulging out of its head, the model is made to look as if it is angry with its
giant teeth and flared nostrils.
It honestly does look scary.
The crew said that the prop was too heavy to drag to the surface, and maybe it is for
the best, for the structure is nightmare-inducing.
Promotional Installation for The Haunting of Bly Manor
You have probably heard of The haunting of Bly Manor, right?
The famous drama-gothic romance on Netflix?
Well, did you know about this promotional installation at the Bryant Park Fountain in
New York City?
That's right, folks!
There was something in the water in Bryant Park, as the billboards near the fountain
specified.
Imagine just strolling casually near the fountain when suddenly you come across a billboard
announcing that there is something in the water.
Now you are torn between wanting to go check it out and running the hell out of dodge.
Your curiosity wins out, and you slowly walk towards the fountain, only to see a ghost
emerging out of the water.
Spooky, right?
That is exactly what the production team wanted.
We must say, this is some brilliant advertising!
The ghost looks as if it has been lurking around in the fountain, waiting for its perfect
victim.
Although we could not find any information about the specifics of the installation, with
its jet black hair framing its face, and the steam billowing all around it, it certainly
makes a terrifying sight!
Kappa Animatronics
Far away in the town of Fukusaki in Japan.. okay, not that far away- there is a pond in
the Tsujikawayama Park.
A pond with scary monsters just waiting to grab you and pull you under!
If you stare into the murky pond long enough, you will see the water begin to bubble, and
suddenly there are three huge frog-like monsters appearing out of the water.
This frog is known as a "Kappa" and is a supernatural monster - one of the "Yokai."
It dwells in the water, waiting and watching, for the perfect moment to jump out and scare
you.
The town of Fukusaki was the birthplace of Kunio Yanagita, who is known as the father
of Japanese folklore studies.
To honor Yanagita, this town has been using realistic monsters - yokai - as their town
mascots.
This strategy has generated a buzz around this town and has, apparently, attracted 1.7
times more tourists and visitors to the town, developing the economy.
Seems like no one can resist the lure of supernatural entities.
There are three Kappa- one big Kappa and two little ones.
The big Kappa is called Gajiro.
These animatronics were masterminded by Tomoo Ogawa, These monsters are humanoid, with a
beaked mouth and sporting reptilian skin.
Their hair is coarse, and their hands are outstretched in the universal gesture of "I
am about to get you."
Combine this with their webbed fingers, open mouths, and their huge eyes, and it is truly
a scary sight.
The Kappa have a special "plate" on their heads that give them their power while they
are on land and must be filled with water at all times.
The kappas surface only once every thirty minutes, for a few seconds at a time.
The kappas are cleaned by employees who take inflatable rafts to the middle of the pond.
Can you imagine being that close to the scary monsters for long periods of time?
Well, This town is definitely worth a visit!
Jumanji Crocodile
If you have watched the original 1995 Jumanji film, then you already know that crocodiles
are one of the biggest dangers in the movie.
This animatronic crocodile was created by Amalgamated Dynamics Inc., which is an American
special effects company.
One of their specialties is animatronics, and they have become one of Hollywood's go-to
studios for animatronics, thus bringing many creatures to life!
The Jumanji crocodile has got to be one of their most famous works- a true accomplishment!
This is one of the most realistic animatronics we have ever come across.
At 750 pounds, this thing was a beast!
It is 15 feet long, and you will never believe this, but it can swim!
We are pretty sure that if we ever came across this animatronic in a lake, we would run for
our life.
Better not to take any chances, right?
The best feature, though, of this animatronic is that it was made to ride!
There is, in fact, a lot of footage of people doing just that!
A mini scary ride.
Apart from this, this animatronic crocodile has eyes that move.
It has a body that was made to mimic actual crocodiles.
This is one scary crocodile.
It probably won't eat you, although we make no promises.
Monster Mansion
Next up, we have a submechanophobia inducing ride - the monster mansion at Six Flags over
Georgia.
This attraction takes you on a boat ride through a flooded mansion.
The story behind it goes like this- humans have been invited to a 'Monster Picnic.'
All along the ride, you encounter monster animatronics of various shapes and sizes.
There is even a huge banner welcoming humans, but the monsters are anything but.
The humans are given a warning, in the beginning, to "stay off the marsh," but of course, that
does not end up happening, for where is the fun in that?
The boat purposefully veers off course into dark and swampy waters, where the monsters
are especially unfriendly to humans.
The animatronics have scary-looking faces, and some of them keep moving their heads back
and forth in an eerie way.
The state-of-the-art lighting, as well as the monster sounds, are enough to send a chill
down your spine!
As a special treat, you also get to hear the screams of your fellow passengers.
The humans eventually make it out safely, but they are unlikely to ever forget this
experience.
Anaconda
Next up, we have yet another animatronic from a famous film- the giant snake from Anaconda.
Whether you remember the plot and the characters or not, you are sure to remember the giant
snake.
At 40 feet, this snake animatronic developed by Walter Conti and his Edge Innovations team
is a technical marvel.
This movie was inspired by recent discoveries of snakes that were up to 35 feet long, capable
of swallowing entire humans.
But of course, unlike animals like dogs and cats, the crew could not use a real snake
unless they wanted to be snake food.
So they decided to use an animatronic instead.
But creating a snake animatronic - especially such a huge one - was no easy feat.
They had to replicate the curved gliding movement of the snake to make it look natural.
A large number of individually controlled joints had to be manufactured and linked together
in a very slender and sleek form.
Not only that, but the joints also had to be controlled together so that it would look
like the snake was moving on its own in the film.
In the end, it took 60 dual-axis hydraulically powered joints with a total of 120 degrees
of freedom (DOF) to achieve this.
Apart from having so many joints, one of the greatest accomplishments of this animatronic
is that all these joints are linked to one another for synchronous movement!
So, each joint is affected by all the joints upstream!
Since the movie would be shot underwater, all elements that went into making the animatronic
had to be waterproof.
However, during filming, the controls of the animatronic suddenly shorted out, and the
movie star Jennifer Lopez was in the line of fire when this happened.
She was almost struck by more than one ton of metal and wires, which could have ended
up electrocuting her.
Fortunately, nothing of that sort happened.
The only result was some erratic movements of the snake, which they even included in
the movie to make it more realistic!
The snake is one of the most complex serially linked robots to exist in the world!
The eyes, tongue, and lips of the snake were all made to move independently.
The snake's outer skin was made of rubber and looked pretty real.
It was truly a marvelous feat of engineering.
And it was developed by a team of 80 people in only seven months!
Gengu Animatronics
All of us have, at some point in life, have wondered what it would have been like if dinosaurs
and dragons had roamed the earth even today.
Well, this company gives you the next best thing- animatronics of these creatures!
In China, there is a company known as Gengu Tech that specializes in making very scary,
life-size animatronics of animals, marine life, insects, and even ancient creatures
such as dinosaurs and mythical creatures like dragons.
Many of their animatronics have found a home in Sea World, on the Gold Coast of Australia.
They have a wide array of animatronics known as Creatures of The Deep.
But unlike what you would expect from such a name, these creatures are not underwater.
But they do indeed provoke submechanophobia and megalophobia owing to their sheer size
alone.
Creatures of the Deep features many marine animals, including ancient ones such as aquatic
dinosaurs, as well as mythical creatures such as the Kraken.
Some other attractions include the Loch Ness Monster, sharks, and other Jurassic animals.
Sounds exciting, right?
Sea World opened this exhibition to the public in 2016.
There are over 30 animal exhibits, and you can enjoy them both indoors and outdoors!
There is a pathway for tourists to stroll through with the exhibits on either side.
These exhibits are made of soft silicone, and to add an extra touch of realism to them,
they are made to move their limbs and head, rotate their eyes, sway their tails, and blink.
The animatronics are even made to look like they are breathing.
Combine this with the sounds they make, and you can almost believe they are real!
Their sizes vary from 0.5 meters to an incredible 30 m in height!
Shark Night
We have yet another masterpiece by Walt Conti and his Edge Innovations- the shark animatronics
from Shark Night 3D!
While most of the sharks used in the movie were the result of visual effects, the director
wanted animatronic sharks for the major attack sequences.
The sharks in question were a Hammerhead and a Great White.
Like every other animatronic they have created, Walt Conti and his team blew this one out
of the park, too!
In fact, he called these animatronics "a marriage of art and technology."
And we must say, we agree!
Conti made two different versions of each shark- a swimmer and an attacker.
The former was used to film scenes where the sharks are silently lurking, while the latter
was used for the scenes that require intense bursts of power from the sharks.
Both of these versions required very different internal mechanisms and different horsepowers.
The sharks were 10 to 12 feet long.
The swimmer weighed around 700 pounds, while the attacker was a whopping 1100 pound beast!
Conti says that they began work on the shark by taking inspiration from thousands of photos.
Apparently, they started with a real set of jaws for each shark so as to get the anatomy
right.
They also worked very closely with biologists while making the molds out of clay and painting
the skin, and building the various body parts.
They are certainly dedicated to their craft!
Since the sharks had to be neutrally buoyant and look like real sharks, the team had to
take care to use incredibly light materials like aluminum and titanium.
The attack shark could not be naturally buoyant, so it was attached by wire to a crane.
Then it was mounted on rigs so that it could be launched forward at 30 mph.
The animatronics were truly a remarkable feat of engineering!
Sea Monster / I Corsari
Located in Gardaland, one of the most iconic theme parks in Italy is the Sea Monster of
the I Corsari ride.
It is a boat ride that takes place in the dark and is known as the Italian version of
the Pirates of the Caribbean!
The story goes like this: guests embark on a journey underground where they are chased
by the ghost of the "corsairs."
They come across dueling pirates and sunken shipwrecks along this journey, complete with
the occasional sea monster.
Although this ride has many scary animatronics of supernatural creatures, the main attraction
is the sea monster or the pirate ghost.
Amidst flashing red and green lights, he rises out of the water.
You first see a serpent-like tail, which then ascends to reveal his humanoid face attached
to a very long neck.
His eyes flash terrifyingly, creating a terrifying sight.
The sea monster can move his face and his jaw up and down, much like he would if he
were to grab you and eat you.
Not only that, his eyeballs are completely white without any pupils, adding to the scary
sight.
This ride took as many as 30 partners to be completed and was opened to the public way
back in 1992.
Recently, in 2018, the ride underwent some renovations, including a 3D video projection
mapping technology and an entirely new - and much scarier - soundtrack.
Don't miss this one, folks!
You will probably have nightmares after the ride, but it will totally be worth it!
Moby Dick
In Wakefield, Massachusetts, there is an amusement park called the "Pleasure Island," also known
as the Disneyland of the Northeast.
But don't let the name fool you!
This park had an attraction called the Moby Dick Hunt - modeled after the whale that brought
about the end of Captain Ahab - which is said to be one of the scariest underwater animatronics
ever!
In this attraction, guests had to take a boat ride to "hunt" the whale.
Guests would embark on a 30-foot long whaling boat and take a ride around a human-made lagoon
in search of the great white whale.
During the ride, they would come across several obstacles such as rhinoceros, cannibals!
And even some plastic dolphins that jumped out of the water.
After escaping the cannibals, guests would watch the whale rise out of the water as if
on cue.
This ride was the mastermind of Marco Engineering, created three years after the Gregory Peck
version of the Moby Dick movie had been released in 1956.
At 70 feet long, the whale was massive and weighed around 3 tonnes!
This was quite a feat to be achieved in the 1950s if you think about it.
As if the sheer size of it was not intimidating enough, it would bare its teeth after rising
out of the water.
It also had water spewing out of its head.
Unfortunately, a whale this size when technology had not advanced as much - meant a lot of
maintenance issues.
The park closed down after a decade of being in business.
The land is now occupied by Edgewater Office Park.
The pond in which the great white whale resided is still part of the property.
As for the whale?
Well, we cannot tell you for sure, but rumor has it that Moby Dick still remains in the
pond.
Waiting...
Watching…
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It is time for us to wrap up this video, everybody!
But we know you can’t get enough of Submechanophobia videos, and Theme Park Crazy is the place
you want to go a see more of these attractions!
They’re covering many more underwater animatronics that will send chills down your spine!
And even if you don’t want to watch more Submechanophobia videos, you will find some
of the most amazing theme park-related content on their channel!
So go check out their channel and subscribe and we’ll see
you next week!