SpectroMen

The SpectroMen are characters from the former SpectroMagic parade at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
==Background==
Serving as keepers of lights, the SpectroMen (portrayed by cast members) hold magical lights during nighttime parades throughout nighttime hours. They live in a distant land called "LightSpriation", a location filled with colorful rays and light. When they were afraid of sharing their light, Mickey Mouse arrived and asked them if they would join him for a nighttime festival at the Magic Kingdom so that they would bring in the light for everyone to see. To this, they agreed with Mickey's request, bringing magical objects known as SpectroBalls and Light Trumpets, making them join Mickey's parade.
===Development===
The SpectroMen debuted in the former long-running Magic Kingdom parade SpectroMagic, which debuted on October 1, 1991 as part of the Walt Disney World's 20th anniversary. In the original run, the SpectroMen were fiber optic, alongside King Triton's beard and Ursula who were also fiber optic. The trumpeters also used to have a fanfare completely different from the ones in the second run of the parade. The parade went on a hiatus when the Main Street Electrical Parade returned to Florida for its final run until the SpectroMagic parade returned on Spring 2001, where the SpectroMen received new head designs. Originally presented as non-meetable atmosphere characters, they were redesigned in 2008 to make them face characters, a case similar to the Mad Hatter who was originally designed as an atmosphere character and was later changed to a meetable face character in the Disney parks.
SpectroMagic had its final run on June 4, 2010. In 2013, following reports that the SpectroMagic floats had been destroyed due to deteriorating in storage conditions that were unable to protect them from the harsh Florida weather, Disney confirmed that the parade had been permanently retired, resulting the SpectroMen to be completely retired from the park.
==Appearances==
===SpectroMagic===
The parade began with the opening unit depicting SpectroMen blowing trumpets with Mickey Mouse icon banners just before bowing to the crowd at the parade. Later, more SpectroMen on life-sized remote-controlled balls interacted with guests while the balls began to spin, while another parade float with the SpectroMagic logo passed by with more SpectroMen on the float entertaining guests. As more SpectroMen passed by, Mickey Mouse on his own parade float then passed by entertaining guests during the parade. Further characters from other Disney franchises then passed by during the parade throughout the night.
==Trivia==
*The SpectroMen's backstory was never revealed in the script for the SpectroMagic parade nor in the soundtrack's album booklet and was only revealed behind the scenes. The backstory for the SpectroMen was provided by Walt Disney Imagineering as well as Creative Entertainment, known for their contributions in developing parades for the Disney Parks.
==References==
category:Magic Kingdom
Category:Disney characters
Category:Theme park characters
Category:Adults
Category:Males
Category:Silent characters