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Three Weeks After Imagineering Showed Off a Tiny Dreamfinder at EPCOT's Germany Train Village, He and Dr. Seeker Are Both Gone
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Three Weeks After Imagineering Showed Off a Tiny Dreamfinder at EPCOT's Germany Train Village, He and Dr. Seeker Are Both Gone

Michael Travels
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Published

Dreamfinder came back to EPCOT in August, in miniature. By September 11, he was gone again.

The tiny Dreamfinder figure that turned up in the Germany pavilion's train village in August has been removed, WDW News Today reported on Friday, September 11. So has the other attraction cameo that arrived with him, Dr. Grant Seeker from DINOSAUR at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Dreamfinder's corner is empty

Walt Disney Imagineering shared photos of a refreshed train garden on Instagram on August 21, and one of them showed a figure in a blue suit and top hat outside a dark, half timbered building. It was Dreamfinder, the host of the original Journey Into Imagination, who created Figment with his Dream Mobile.

A close up of the miniature Dreamfinder figure in a blue tailcoat and trousers, a dark top hat, a purple patterned vest and a white cravat, with a red orange beard and one hand in his pocket, standing on mulch beside a brown building wall with grey stone corner blocks
How it looked before: the miniature Dreamfinder in his blue suit, purple vest and top hat, beside the corner of the building. Image: Disney, via WDW News Today

That building is still there. Dreamfinder is not, and according to WDW News Today, no other figurine has replaced him.

A dark miniature half timbered building with a steep grey scalloped roof, a small tower, a balcony and a shop sign above its lower window, standing alone in a planted bed of shrubs and mulch in front of a green railing, with no figure beside it
The same miniature building now, with no one standing beside it. Image: WDW News Today

Dr. Seeker is gone, and a policeman is on his platform

Dr. Seeker, the Dino Institute scientist from DINOSAUR, had been placed on one of the village's paved platforms in his white lab coat, running with a dinosaur egg in his hands. WDW News Today reports a police officer figurine has been added to the platform where he stood.

A miniature figure of a dark haired man in a white lab coat and tan trousers, holding a round egg against his chest as he runs across a paved platform, with a boy in a yellow shirt behind him and a man in a flat cap and waistcoat at right
Before: Dr. Grant Seeker, egg in hand, on the paved platform. Image via WDW News Today
An overhead view of the miniature German village showing a paved platform with small figures walking and sitting, a police officer figure whose uniform reads POLIZEI on the back, a thatched booth signed HAWAI'I in the foreground, Food and Wine banners on the lamp posts at left and a half timbered building with a Brezel bakery sign at right
The same platform now, with a police officer figure on it (his uniform reads POLIZEI). The miniature Food and Wine banners and a Hawai'i booth are visible in the same shot. Image: WDW News Today

DINOSAUR is a ride that no longer exists, so the figure doubled as a nod to a closed attraction. WDW News Today notes that Wallace Langham, the actor behind Dr. Seeker, turned up in costume at a Cast Member event held after DINOSAUR closed and was among the ride's final riders.

Why the Dreamfinder cameo stood out

The timing. The figure surfaced less than a week after D23, where Neil Patrick Harris walked out dressed as Dreamfinder, Figment plush in hand, for Disney's announcement that Dreamfinder will return in a reimagining of Journey Into Imagination With Figment.

The figure was never the ride announcement itself, though. As we noted when we covered the figure's arrival, Disney Tourist Blog reported that the train garden team had likely been working on the refresh for months without knowing the D23 announcement was coming. Disney Tourist Blog called it purely coincidental, and it is a very good coincidence.

What we do not know

Disney has not said why either figure was removed, whether they are coming back, or exactly when they came out. WDW News Today's report is the only published story on the removal we could find, and it does not give a removal date. Both figures still appeared in photos Mousesteps took on August 30 and published the next day, so the safest way to put it is that both were removed sometime between August 30 and September 11.

The bigger Dreamfinder news is a separate project. When Disney announced it at D23, the reimagined Journey Into Imagination came without a name, concept art, a timeline or a closure date for the version of the ride running now.

Sources

Image credits: Current photos of the train village by WDW News Today. Dreamfinder close up by Disney, via WDW News Today. Dr. Seeker photo via WDW News Today.

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EPCOT Journey Into Imagination With Figment

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