My appointment was scheduled for 8:25AM on Saturday to have
the Carbonite Freeze done on my pretty face. I was fairly optimistic about it
all. I would sit for what I was hoping would be some kind of high-tech laser
scan of my face. Then a few weeks later I would have myself all fixed up like
Han Solo and all I would need is someone to try to rescue me from Jabba and
life would be complete.
When I arrived at the park the day prior to my appointment,
I went over to the former “Sounds Dangerous” to see what was outside as far as samples
of the product were concerned. I was somewhat unimpressed by the models they
had on display but that was in direct sunlight and I was moving on to meet
people so it wouldn’t be until in the morning that I would see these again.
The "freeze" chamber |
When I met the Imagineer, we talked for a few minutes about
the materials used, overall cost involved, the unique printing process involved
(yes I said printing process) and just the general coolness of the idea. Still
I wasn’t feeling impressed, the money didn’t bother me. At 100.00 dollars it
isn’t small change but considering the total cost of a trip to Disney World you
can spend 100.00 bucks before breakfast. Back to the matter at hand… the Imagineer
and I were soon joined by another and they invited me inside to see the process
and told me to take all the pictures I wanted. Now we’ve gotten this far and I
haven’t even told you my criticism so here it goes as I told the Imagineers.
Likes:
·
Price, 100.00 dollars to have my face on some
merch… not bad.
·
The size of the statue is good at around 9
inches. Perfect to see detail.
Dislike:
·
The finish. The finish wasn’t smooth and you
could clearly see the lines from the resin gypsum printing. (it is printed on a
3D printer and built one layer at a time, awesome process but generally not
used for finished products but for prototypes)
·
Materials: I understand that the cost is driving
the material but for my money getting my face on something I want it to look nice.
The movie props are smooth and finished. I suggested a lacquer finish and even
some painting would make them look better to smooth out some of the details.
Even better would be a cast model. Yes, again I understand keep costs down.
·
The process wasn’t actually a scan but a series
of pictures that were then composited together. This is a cheap way of getting
a result but nothing as accurate as a laser image scan.
products with packaging |
packaging |
the "freeze" chamber |
Overall I agree it is an impressive
product and there were tons of happy people having their pictures taken for the
memories. The reason I was given for the some of what I called “short comings”
was this was a new product that had never been tested on this scale and, if it
did well, improvements would be made and it would be back next year. So I will
definitely be back next year to scope out the improvements.
For the official news Check the Disney Parks Blog for their description of the experience.
For the official news Check the Disney Parks Blog for their description of the experience.
Thanks for the review!
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