In the fall of 2001 there were some unusual visitors hanging out in Apple lobby. It was none other than Scully and Mike, big as life. They took time out from their busy schedule of lurking in closets to promote their forthcoming movie, Monsters Inc.
They looked great; the detail was amazing. Later I had a chance to ask Steve about them. In particular I was curious about what incredible models like that cost. He surprised me by saying he ‘didn’t know; it was something Disney had organized.’ He went on to say that ‘Disney was really good at coming up with promotional things like that.’
Boy would I love to have a set of these. Talk about the ultimate collector’s item.
Here’s a clip (4MB in QuickTime MPEG-4 format; iPod and iTunes compatible.) I mirrored it on three different servers; pick one:
Aside from your flick being a tad silent/creepy, those are way cool figures!
Mike, did having such things around affect morale at all in your estimation?
Rick – I probably shot it after hours, hence the minimal background commotion.
Cool video, Mike. I’d forgotten about that. That was kind of cool. I wish I had the presence of mind to take more pictures of things that are significant like that.
Aloha
Those are really nice models. I like the fact that the eye is so detailed. I don’t quite remember the tables off to the right with umbrellas when I made my visit this year. I guess you wouldn’t know either way.
I love the campus, I really would like to see more imagery from inside.
Very nice, Mike.
I’m with Michael, I’d like to see all inside the campus.
Mike, I was seeing NBA All Star last night and seeing the famous I love this game.
So I love much more this site!!!! Each day I enter here expecting to see with what thing you surprise me.
Michael & Diego – I found much more video from inside Infinite Loop that I’ll be posting as I get time to edit it.
I wouldn’t have expected Steve to know the costs, after all even if it was Pixar that organized that he wouldn’t know – he’s a CEO, not the marketing guy, he never sees the figures – only if he wants to.
Joshua – Steve pays attention to many details, so I would not have been surprised if he knew all about it.
I know that you are planning to publish your writings as a book, but what do you plan for these video clips? Perhaps a supplemental DVD?
Anonymous – Yes, definitely a ‘bonus’ DVD with photos and video clips.
Cool – what were those figures made of? The eye looks almost like glass.
Also was the Apple Campus lobby a “busy” place usually. Were there lots of people milling about in it or was it just used a a “corridor” to get from A to B. I read somewhere that at Pixar Steve had wanted to make sure that the huge lobby would always be busy by building only 1 set of toilets in the whole campus, which would come off the lobby therefore people would have to go to the lobby. Anyway, the story said that he finally relented.
P.S. Just wondering did Steve have much input into the design of the Apple campus. To me it does not look nearly as elegant as the Apple Stores for example but that may just be the way it comes out in photos. Also his design tastes have obviously developed. I was looking back at some pictures of the original iMac and they looked so old fashioned with the grey pinstripes!
P.P.S. I thought some of you might be interested to see Mike presenting at a Keynote. I found a 2002 keynote that includes him. If you go to “apfelwiki.de/wiki/Main/SteveNotes”, scroll down to 2002 and select the first keynote of 2002 (MacWorld San Francisco). Click “real-stream” to watch it (unfortunately in real player). Mike is in it fairly near the beginning – it is one of the last apps that steve invites someone (in this case mike) to demonstrate running on OS X. BTW I was impressed Mike!
Hey folks! I apologize in advance for this waste of your bandwidth, but something just dawned on me when I read this page:
These characters’ names are “Mike” and “Scully”. Given that Steve Jobs — cofounder of Apple — is the CEO of Pixar, could these names have been chosen as a tacit reference to Mike Markkula and John Scully??
Coincidence??