Here we have Fonz and myself entering the Space Shuttle scene. You may remember the floating luggage in the lower right corner. 

Anyone would be proud of getting their picture taken in this scene. Just like arriving from Earth on a Space Shuttle. 

Hard to believe that this is all long gone.

 

X-Rated Motels of the Future

 I love to read articles like this one. It's funny how different reporters perceived EPCOT Center, it's attractions, it's impact etc. This article's fun because it mentions X-rated Motels as well as Horizons. 

 It's no surprise to me because the few times we stayed overnight in the Disney area we stayed at horrible roach motels on 192. You see folks, my mom's a very interesting person. She didn't (and still doesn't) give a shit about "a nice Hotel". She wants the cheapest and that's that. 

 Mom: I'm going in to check the rates. You kids hide on the floor so they don't see you.

 Me: There's a man laying in the bushes.

 Mom: Well that's none of our God damned business!

 Dad: If he messes with us he'll be running around without an ass.

Mom: Yes, sir, what are your room rates?

Clerk: $3 an hour, baby.

Mom: Wonderful! I'll take 6 hours please.

Mom: Hoot take that bucket down and get some ice.

Me: I'm afraid, Mom. I heard gun shots.

Mom: THOSE ARE THE GOD DAMNED DISNEY FIREWORKS!

Me: But we saw the fireworks.

Mom: They shoot 'em off all night. Everybody knows that.

Me: Can't you send sis? She's older than me.

Mom: Hell no! She'll get raped or something. Get going.

Me: They have a juice machine by the ice. Can I have some change for an orange juice?

Mom: How much are they?

Me: 25 cents

Mom: YOU CAN BUY A WHOLE GOD DAMNED ORANGE TREE FOR 25 CENTS!!

The good 'ol days:)

NEW HORIZONS DISCOVERY! Hold on TIGHT!

Just when you think it's all over and it's all been said....POW! Something amazing about Horizons hits you right in the face!

Folks, I'm sitting here going through old pictures trying to find suitable reference for issue #2 of the comic book. I happened upon some classic shots from 2004 when, as you may recall, Chief and I found ourselves working in a Magic Kingdom art department. Briefly. Very briefly but that's another story.

One of the first things I did was to explore the several storage containers that sat in the parking lot. That's when I discovered a rack full of Horizons character heads! That in itself is amazingly cool. There was so much cool shit in there I lost track but over the next few months I took plenty of photographs. Like This:

In the middle is the woman from the Space scene. She was piloting that robot armed craft. To the right is the dad who was trying to get the shoe in the Space Shuttle dock.

Below that there where shelves of Haunted Mansion stuff. You can see Gus, Little Leotta, and Ezra. The guy in charge of the mansion figures would come in here and pretend he was working. He primed Little Leotta there and got primer all over the place. 

ANYWAY as I sit here in December 2013 I find this picture and I wonder "why is little Leotta not in the Haunted Mansion and where is her head?" 

POW! BECAUSE THAT ISN'T LITTLE LEOTTA IN THE HAUNTED MANSION THAT'S THE MINI HOLOGRAM GIRL FROM HORIZONS!!!!!!! THEY WERE THE SAME FIGURE! The Horizons Hologram Girl is standing at the exit to the WDW Haunted Mansion! Flesh colored hands and all. 

AND that's why Hologram Girl's costume was on Ebay years ago!

AND that's why the non moving Leotta figure is laid to rest right under the Horizons heads!

AND why was her head in the black light paint room and cast in clear resin? I DON"T KNOW!

AND now General Electric and Hoot Gibson present "Brian Removing His False Teeth and Gumming Hoot's Big White Ass!". Ain't THAT a hoot?

Long live Mesa Verde Times.

Fresh Audio

Oh boy audio fans! I have two lovely clips for you in honor of it being Wednesday! It's also national Fiji Merman Day in, where else, Norway!

These two clips were obtained using a process developed by Concourse Six Laboratories in which one leaves an audio recording device in a Disney ride and returns later to retrieve it. You therefore get several looping full segments and one hell of an idea of the atmosphere in that portion of the ride. The proper term used to describe this maneuver is "Drop Off".

STAR ROOM

This is when we did a drop off in the "Choose your Tomorrow" star field room.

SPACE

Of course in the Space scene with all of the different sounds.

More to come. Enjoy!

Excellent graphics

Mesa Verde Times pal Evan Alporque came up with these kick ass graphics in Photoshop. If you use them in your projects, for texture maps etc, please give him credit and $400 in Thai currency. Enjoy!

Space Crystal Lab panel.

Lab Patch.

Shuttle Port Santa Maria seating chart.

Easy Living wallpaper.

Sea Castle improvised Menu.

All fine examples of someone using our pics to better the world. Thanks, Evan!

Happy Birthday Davey...again

Back to the hardest scene to sneak into. The famous "Birthday Scene".

In the future babies can levitate or maybe the gravity's out of whack. In any case this was a cool little scene to behold. Most riders (we included) only paid attention to the holograms. It was only when we made it in that we realized the awesome attention to detail.

The UFO cake was almost impossible to see from your ride vehicle let alone the cool little alien....

.....with the rocket strapped to his back:)

It just dawned on me that we never told just how we got into this scene. I believe another Hoot and Chief Adventure Comic is in order!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow

What a horrible month!

My dear Sunnycide Gibson was diagnosed/treated/beat a life threatening illness all in that short span of time. Things have been nutz at the Gibson Estate as you can imagine. Sunnycide is well and on the road to recovery and all I really want is to blog about Horizons and get back to normal.

Thanks for hanging in there during this horrible dry spell.


The rains are a comin', Granny!

Did you say ice cream?

Let's take another look at the voice activated refrigerator. Here again we find "annoying boy of tomorrow" bothering his poor father just like they do back here in the past.

We know that when the brat says a food word the fridge responds by opening the correct drawer. If he were to say "human head" one would hope that nothing would happen. If so...Dad would be going away for long time, Johnny.

Let's take a behind the scenes look at this food drawer.

WHOA! All of this just to open a drawer? No, my friends. There was much more to it than that even if you never noticed it from your ride vehicle. Remember that Horizons was all about the details. I've come up with this handy diagram for you:

1. This little air cylinder would push the drawer out.

2. The light would come on just like refrigerators here in the past.

3. This high tech looking device would shoot a blast of fog out of the drawer.

4. The duct tape would keep this rig working by providing an ultra strong hinge for the red fog hose. (Universal probably uses Scotch Tape)

It's as simple (and cool) as that and that's pic #195 from my collection! There's plenty more trust me.

As for future parenting, why do you suppose that kid is so rotten? They certainly don't spank their kids but I did find something out.

As a disciplinary measure they tie their children to a tri-apple tree. And at night.........

The Road Runners come.......meep.......meeep.....

More Water Damage

Some of you have asked just how bad the water damage was over the "space" area. The answer is pretty clear in this shot. I was seated in my vehicle when I took this so it was plainly visible to all passengers.




I was trying to get a pic of the airlock door and it wasn't until I got home that I noticed this. Of course, we had to see for ourselves so we made a trip to the catwalk. That's when we discovered the rotten ceiling.

These "skid marks"........ah never mind. I just wanted to say skid marks.

If Disney wasn't willing to fix the show side we new they'd never keep that ride running even with updates.

E82

E82 is quickly becoming an amazing blog! I'm lovin' it mostly because of the kick ass original merchandise designs. Give it a look.

The Holiday Season

Good LORD! I ate too much, I drank too much.......

Chief and his lovely wife came over yesterday for some kick ass food prepared by Sunnycide Gibson herself. Hoot Jr loved his gift from Chief and all was well.

We hope you all had a good one too!

We talked about the blog and where it's going. We're going to make it more of a community (of tomorrow) so you fellow fans can get involved. You're not fans of Hoot and Chief but fans of the greatest future vision ever created, Horizons. Just like we are.

I'm excited!

Close enough!

I realize it wasn't the best idea to ask folks to "enhance" this piece of Disney property. Martin Smith did the next best thing so I hereby declare him the WINNER!

Don't worry though. Chief and I are coming up with more fun ways to win free Horizons stuff! Stay tuned!

Back to Brava

On with the kick ass panels.

Directly behind me was the seating chart for the shuttle. You now see that the shuttle had a name!!!! The Santa Maria! You tell me just HOW this attraction held this much detail!

Nova Cite Backdrops

A shot from just the garden.

Chief navigates his way back after exploring the Nova Cite set.

Birthday Background

The birthday scene actually had a background painting behind it. It was almost impossible to see because of the Holograms and show lighting inside of the room but it was there. Another fine example of the detail in Horizons. In order to see it you would have had to climb on top of the Birthday set, as we did. You can see the window frames of the room as they come up and simply end.

Another shot. You can see a little bit of the Birthday room in the lower right corner.

Sweet detail....sweet sweet detail! Look at the little houses! The farm! The red thingys! I'm starting to change my opinion on where in Horizons I would live. This Space Colony painting looks very inviting.

"Hoot and Chief Foundation" Achievement Award

This year's "Hoot and Chief Foundation" Achievement Award goes to none other than long time MVT fan Kyle!
In a daring act of Horizons passion, Kyle and his lovely partner Jenn of Tomorrow, were able to sweet talk the nice people at Mouse Surplus into making this incredible shot happen.
Kyle, who has displayed an unfailing love for Horizons through such ventures as "Hadley's Hope", is seen here "looking toward tomorrow" atop the famous $14,000 ride vehicle.

If Kyle can dream it, he can do it.

Video Clip Explained

^

When we shot this clip we were under the empty Harvester seen here in the lower center. It was a hollow fiberglass prop with most of the back end missing. Of course, one could go under the groves if one were so inclined to walk like an ape through the metal supports and plywood. Chief and I, being two and not one, did it anyway and we liked it under there. The Harvester on the right is one in the video clip.

Here's a shot looking up at the Harvester. There was just enough room to place a camera as you see in the video posted by Chief. This happened totally by chance because I was peeking out through the hole and saw how fucking cool it looked.

This was one of those random times when we happened upon something that was too good for words. It had to be filmed right then and there.

I can't tell you how many times I watched this footage and I even made a six hour VHS loop of it that played over and over again.

Kyle's right...

That man is going to EAT that baby! Look at him! This guy's suffering from "Space Madness"! He looks like he'd cry tears of sorrow as he caves your head in with an end table!

"Davey, daddy is going away for awhile......"

Happy Birthday Dear Davey Pt 1

The Space Colony Birthday scene! One of the coolest in Horizons but almost impossible to photograph! The slanted windows (used to achieve the Peppers Ghost effect) completely enclosed the room leaving no visible way "in". We tried to get pics with a flash, without a flash etc but all we ever got were crummy pics like this one. It looks like a grenade just went off behind the couch! One way or another we were going to get in there. We did:)

The actual figures that made up the Hologram effect were located directly above your ride vehicle. If you held your camera way out and pointed it upward you could get some pretty good shots of these half body animatronic figures. Still it was random and you never knew what you were going to get. We made up our minds to get up there. We did:)

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