Walt Disney World has played host to hundreds of character meet and greets over the years, and even though we’ve lost some notable ones along the way, most character meet and greets lastlong enough to make an impression. However, the following six character experiences were so brief that they only lasted a few weeks or in the case of a few, just a single day. If you met one of these characters you can count yourself as very lucky, as these are some of the most rare Disney characters in history!
1. Ping
Image: Disney
Though Mulan meets guests every day at the China Pavilion inside Epcot’s World Showcase, for a very limited time her warrior counterpart was meeting guests at Walt Disney World. Back in June of 1998, Ping met guests at Walt Disney World to help drum up support for the film’s theatrical release. However, this version of the character only appeared for a few weeks, before being replaced by the “matchmaker” look that continues to this day.
While this character only appeared regularly for a few weeks in the late 1990’s, Ping did make one appearance this decade, appearing for one day only as part of the “Long Lost Friends Week” event that took place during 2013’s year of Limited Time Magic events. However, since then, Ping hasn’t been seen or heard from at Walt Disney World.
2. Lucky the Dinosaur
Though Lucky the Dinosaur first appeared at The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles on August 28, 2003 and then made an appearance at the Disneyland Resort, this 8ft-tall green biped dinosaur (which pulls a flower-covered cart and was led by “Chandler the Dinosaur Handler”) came to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for regular meet and greets in 2005. For eight weeks from June through August of that year guests were able to approach this character and interact with it as it roamed DinoLand USA. Though this character left Disney’s Animal Kingdom in August, it was later transplanted to Hong Kong Disneyland for the park’s grand opening in September 2005 before being retired. You can see him in action during a brief stop at Disneyland Resort above.
3. Val the Velociraptor
In 2014 Disney tried to introduce yet another walk-around dinosaur character at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This time, a Velociraptor named Val started roaming around the park, meeting people with the help of human character Professor Woodson. Unfortunately this character experience was cancelled after less than a month, reportedly because some children were frightened of the towering dinosaur. You can check out a video above to get a feel for the truly unique nature of this character meet and greet experience, which was actually one of only a few based on an original character and not a film property.
4. Muppet Mobile Lab
From August 22 through September 6, 2007 guests at Epcot’s Future World were able to experience the roaming Muppet Mobile Lab, which included the characters of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his unfortunately loyal assistant, Beaker. This expeirence was part of Disney’s “Living Characters” initiative, which aimed to bring true interactivity to Disney Characters (and eventually spawned Turtle Talk with Crush).
However, unlike Turtle Talk with Crush, the Muppet Mobile Lab was a free-roaming animatronic that was built on top of a Segway that concealed eight cameras which allowed one controller (who was stationed off-site) to see around the vehicle and interact with guests in real time, responding to questions, calling guests by name and more. Imagineers wrote 53 scripted comedy bits and routines and also included 12 traveling songs that could be performed on demand and to encourage reactions from guests. Though this experience proved popular, like Lucky the Dinosaur it was shipped off to Hong Kong Disneyland, and never heard from at Walt Disney World ever again. You can see a video demonstration of this short-lived character experience above.
5. Star Lord and Gamora
Though the previous four character experiences all lasted for several weeks, our final two entries are extreme cases are characters that literally met guests for one day only. Our first one-day only entry is Star Lord and Gamroa, who met guests during 2014’s Unleash the Villains event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios during an “Awesome Mix” dance party held in the Animation Courtyard of the park. During this event-within-an-event, Star Lord and Gamora would roam around the dance floor, pausing to take photos and hand out autograph cards.
This character experience was especially noteworthy as it was the first Marvel-themed meet and greet to debut inside Walt Disney World (characters from Guardians of the Galaxy are exempt from the deal with Universal), and the experience proved to be quite popular at the park. Unfortunately, Unleash the Villains was cancelled after 2014, and while rumors were swirling that the Guardians of the Galaxy could show up at Epcot, nothing ever materialized and as of November 2015, these characters haven’t been heard from.
Though losing character meet and greets is a pretty normal occurance at Walt Disney World, these extremely limited-time events were so short-lived that many guests never even knew about them. What’s the most obscure character you’ve ever met at Walt Disney World?
