Kongfrontation - Construction and Design

Construction and Design

The attraction was based on the 1976 film remake of King Kong and was designed by Totally Fun Company and MCA Planning and Development. Two King Kong animatronic figures were built for the attraction and were scaled to be 39 feet (12 m) tall with an arm span of 54 feet (16 m). The one used for the "street sequence" weighed approximately 13,000 pounds (5,900 kg), while a lighter figure, that weighed approximately 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg), was used for the "bridge sequence" of the ride. The Kongs were built to be both analog and digital, giving them the ability to perform sixty two separate functions. A smeltzer device was constructed to give the Kong figures "Banana Breath," which was emitted during roars at the riders.

The soundstage show building covered an area of 62,000 square feet (5,800 m2) and a height of 6 floors. The slabs used to construct the exterior walls of the building are the largest of its kind ever used for construction. To make the city setting appear as realistic as possible, fifty facades were modeled after Manhattan's Lower East Side circa 1976. News reports from the TV station WWOR-TV were integrated into the ride and queue line as MCA/Universal owned the station at the time the attraction was designed. The helicopters that were used in the ride were molded from actual helicopters and were true to size, which is why they looked as realistic as they did.