Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster transformation to SHIELD

[Asa]

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster is set to close tomorrow (31st August). Have you completed your final mission?

Buzz Lightyear will continue to meet guests in Toy Story Land, so he is not going away.

If anyone finds/shoots any construction photos during the transformation from BLAB to SHIELD, then please post it on this thread, thank you!

[Asa]

A few photos from today's closing ceremony.

[Jim in Merced CA]

What is SHIELD?

[Asa]

Photo: HKMSG

Buzz lightyear is now with Woody and the rest of the toys at Toy Story Land. "We belong together!"

[Asa]

What is SHIELD?

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division)







Some of the concept arts that are missed by the majority. The re-themed ride is clearly themed to Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. The Ant-Man concept art that everyone falls for fail to state that Dr Hank Pym was a SHIELD agent before he decided to do his own thing. (Thank you HKMSG for the pictures.)

[Jim in Merced CA]

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division)







Some of the concept arts that are missed by the majority. The re-themed ride is clearly themed to Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. The Ant-Man concept art that everyone falls for fail to state that Dr Hank Pym was a SHIELD agent before he decided to do his own thing. (Thank you HKMSG for the pictures.)

Oh that SHEILD. Thanks.

[Asa]

The ride has closed. Photo: Disney Magic Kingdom blog

[manifest]

Good riddance.

[Asa]

The SHIELD logo is up. Photo thanks to HK Main Street Gazette.



This picture is by Disney Magic Kingdom blog.

[ree523]

(Off topic)
Hoardings are put arround the Tahitian Terrence and waiting zone of the Wild Theatre. The former is believed to be transformation works for Moana's show theatre.

[hakjie11]

(Off topic)
Hoardings are put arround the Tahitian Terrence and waiting zone of the Wild Theatre. The former is believed to be transformation works for Moana's show theatre.

I really hate how HKDL communicates with its visitors or fans about improvement/renovation/expansion works in its parks and hotels.
I think the manager responsible for these communications over the years should really be sacked. Starting with the almost unknown closure of Autopia ride. Compared to the Buzz Lightyear closure which was handled how it should, the Autopia one was a shame, almost like they don't want you to know.
In other parks they put up a big painting or banner of what would be build behind the hoardings for example, this helps to get fans excited about and also get their understanding why the hoardings are needed.
HKDL seems to like to ignore everyone and just do their own stuff. It would be so much better if they somehow "leak" some info from a so called insider to respectable Disney bloggers so that the info gets out through non-official channels and get the fans to start the hype or spread the news a bit. Some bloggers/vloggers for the US parks have really accurate info and they are really helping to hype up stuff for their parks. HKDL please take note of it will you.
We know you are working on something, if you cant tell us officially yet, then please leak it out a bit.

A recent example of failed communication would be this :
http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/2017...00822_001.html

This is not professional at all, if you renovate and put up hoardings, just let people know a few months in advance (it is not like the people suddenly showed up out of nowhere and put up the hoardings overnight right? I guess that was planned for months) , don't start to inform people 4 days!!! in advance, please HKDL sack that manager immediately, reimburse the bride and hire our MiceChatter Asa instead or everyone frequently in these chatrooms who are happy to chat about their beloved park after working a whole day.

[Asa]

please HKDL sack that manager immediately, reimburse the bride and hire our MiceChatter Asa instead or everyone frequently in these chatrooms who are happy to chat about their beloved park after working a whole day.

No way not me. Just hire someone who is willing to talk more to the people at HKMSG or Disney Magic Kingdom Blog or Magic Post 米通. They are very popular and will get the messages out.

[hakjie11]

No way not me. Just hire someone who is willing to talk more to the people at HKMSG or Disney Magic Kingdom Blog or Magic Post 米通. They are very popular and will get the messages out.

HKMSG is getting really lazy, 1 post per 4 day (others are doing like 4 post per day) and you can only find positive news on their blogs. Its almost like an official HKDL blog now, I stopped following them coz its so one sided.

[Asa]

http://www.tourism.gov.hk/popup/file...dustry_Chi.pdf

In this blue print for Hong Kong tourism development, it is revealed that the SHIELD re-imagining will not open until 2019. The new castle will open in 2020, along with Frozen themed area.



The work to remove BLAB continues. It looks like the removal work alone will take quite a while. (Photo: HKMSG)

[hakjie11]

I think it does make sense to have Shield ready by 2019 since the biggest Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War part 2 will be concluded in the same year. The attraction could include the most updated story line with the new and old characters from the movies and the HK ride could benefit from the 2019 Marvel Hype

Castle extension and Frozen land in the same year also seems logic to me with the movie Frozen 2 to be released in November 2019, also benefits from the hype combined with a new Castle day and night show.

[Asa]

New concept arts revealed at D23 Expo in Tokyo. Pics courtesy of HKMSG!

The SHIELD ride will feature not just Ant-Man but also the Wasp!

[hakjie11]

I like it. It's not too much, perfect clean design. (Another building similar to Iron Man Experience screaming for attention would be too much for me)
Not sure about the queuing interior. Disney likes to show off movie props nowadays. I hope they kept at least 1 Animatronic (like previous Buzz one) in the queuing area. A pre-show similar to Rocket from Galaxy of the Guardians ride / or Albert pre-show of Mystic Manor would make it a much more interesting experience. (If they did, I bet it would be just a hologram video playing in loop of shrunken mini version of the Wasp or Ant Man...save on costs you know...please impress me with a full size Michael Douglas animatronic Disney...)

Still not sure why they selected Ant Man and Wasp for Hong Kong. Maybe because Asians like heroes wrapped in metal armor and they could sell all these toy armor/weapons to kids? I can imagine that the add-on toy sale for the Hulk is quite difficult and they need to keep Captain America for America first.
I guess we could see it as a positive feature because other Disney parks probably won't prefer to build another Ant-Man ride with so many heroes to choose from after the Fox purchase, so we might enjoy a few years of exclusivity out of this.

Now that I think of it. I think it also has to do with the difficulty to cast the right Caucasian male and females to play these heroes in the Asian Disney Parks.
You practically have to fly over the right CM from other Disney parks.
With masked heroes, you can still cast an Asian under the mask.So this might explain a tiny bit why Thor, Hawkeye, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Captain America won't be a permanent hero appearance in HKDL. (Ok, ignore this comment I know we have several Caucasian cm for the princesses in HKDL)

Another thing..why does our rides always have to fight robots? We have big ones in the Iron Man Experience and now tiny ones in Ant Man...can we have 1 super villain please? Spiderman in Universal Osaka had been fighting a dozen of villains in 1 single ride. I hope Yellowjacket and/or Ghost makes a special appearance in the ride. (OK, again ignore my comment, there is a villain in this ride called Arnim Zola)
This guy :


(Clever choice Disney, an animated looped video projected to his chest would do the job already......)

[Asa]

https://news.marvel.com/theme-parks-events/86425/avengers-and-other-super-heroes-to-assemble-in-new-themed-areas-at-disneyland-resort-disneyland-paris-and-hong-kong-disneyland/

Multi-year expansion plans are also underway at Hong Kong Disneyland, including a new themed area that will include an exciting attraction where guests team up with Ant-Man and The Wasp. This new attraction will join the Iron Man Experience, which opened in 2017 and is already the most popular attraction at the resort.

Something official from Marvel.com

[Asa]

The building is beginning to take shape. Photo by HKMSG.

[Asa]

This is the best video of the ride thus far.

You can see loads of negative remarks in the comments section.