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The Original Kongfrontation Ride, which is now gone, is still missed by legions of fans. The original ride opened June 7, 1990 and closed September 8, 2002. There were actually 2 Kongs, and each one was 39 feet tall. Kong's arms stretched out to 54 feet across. The Kong used in the street scene weighed a bit more at 13,000 lbs. and the Kong by the bridge was a light weight at 8,000 lbs. Each robotic Kong could do 62 different functions and actually had breath that smelled like bananas!
  The entire ride covered about 35,000 sq  feet and featured the fronts of 50 different buildings from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as they looked in 1976 when that version of the movie King Kong was released. The helicopters were life sized to make everything more realistic.
  Konfrontation was originally planned to be the crown jewel of Universal Studios in Orlando, but it was plagued with behind the scenes mechanical problems. Designers had to limit some of Kong's movements and change the background effects to try to make Kongfrontation operate better. Although there was no official explanation, some feel that Konfrontation was closed because of these mechanical problems and high staffing and maintenance costs.
  Kongfrontation is a ride that is still missed by many Universal Studios Orlando Florida fans today!

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