Disney Imagineering Reveals Early Haunted Mansion Sculpts, Including a Hitchhiking Ghost That Never Made It
Disney Imagineering shared early Haunted Mansion maquettes, including an unused Hitchhiking Ghost and other pre-opening character concepts.
Walt Disney Imagineering has shared a fresh batch of early Haunted Mansion character models, and one of the biggest surprises is a Hitchhiking Ghost concept that never reached the ride. The Instagram update gives Haunted Mansion fans and Disney Parks history followers a closer look at how several familiar spirits, plus a few abandoned ideas, were first shaped in miniature.
A new peek inside the Mansion’s model-shop past
The newly shared images spotlight the work of Imagineer Jack Ferges, who worked in the WED model shop during the 1960s. His job included turning early attraction concepts into maquettes, small sculpted models that helped bring ideas off the page and into three-dimensional form.
Among the images is a group shot of six busts with highly exaggerated expressions, from wide grins to harsher scowls. Imagineering also connected Ferges’ work to the never-built Museum of the Weird, a project built around Rolly Crump’s offbeat designs. That museum was planned as a collection of unusual objects guests would encounter after leaving the Haunted Mansion, but it was never constructed. Even so, Imagineering said some ideas from that concept still found their way into the Mansion that exists today.
For fans, the change is simple but notable: these development photos are now being shown publicly through Imagineering’s Instagram post, offering a closer view of characters that either evolved into ride mainstays or stopped at the sculpt stage.
The figures range from famous ghosts to concepts that vanished
One of the most curious pieces is a draped “sheet ghost” that Imagineering identified as an early take on one of the Hitchhiking Ghosts. The figure has dark eye holes, a big smile, and thin arms extending from the sheet-like body. In one hand it lifts a small top hat, while the other gives a thumbs-up style gesture. That character did not appear in the finished attraction.
Another unused idea came from a planned scene with three witches around a cauldron. The sculpt shown in the post focuses on one of them, wearing a tall bent hat, yellow hair, and leaning forward while gripping a set of bellows.
Other models are much closer to the Haunted Mansion guests know. A sculpt of Pickwick shows the Grand Hall ghost with a rounded belly, top hat, scarf, and short coat, posed with a raised glass. An early version of Gus, one of the Hitchhiking Ghosts, appears with an oversized beard, long nose, tattered clothing, and a ball and chain across his front. Gus has been part of the attraction since the Haunted Mansion opened at Disneyland in 1969.
The final highlighted sculpt shows a smiling ghost with a teacup, meant to be part of a tea gathering around a hearse in the graveyard scene. Seated with crossed legs, the character wears a dark hat, a green top, knee-length trousers, and shoes with buckles.
