The robot dog at Space Mountain in Magic Kingdom, a.k.a. Nipper the RCA dog, is moving again for the first time in several years.
Nipper the RCA Dog Wags His Tail Again at Space Mountain
Guests exiting Space Mountain will once again see the robot dog shaking slightly as it wags its tail, excited to see all of its new friends. The head and ears also used to move but have not been fixed.
The dog sits in a rocky vignette next to a screen billboard advertising Crater Caverns, one of the fictional space destinations in the exit queue. He’s not far from a spaceship, implying that’s how he arrived at the caverns.
See our video of Nipper moving below:
The animatronic dog has a history going back to the 1880s. He’s based on a real mixed breed dog named Nipper first owned by Mark Henry Barraud. After Barraud passed, his brother Francis Barraud took in the dog. Francis immortalized Nipper three years after the dog passed in the 1898 painting “His Master’s Voice,” which depicts Nipper listening intently to a gramophone.
The painting was adopted as the logo of RCA Records. RCA was the original sponsor of Space Mountain when the coaster opened in 1975. As such, Disney created an Audio-Animatronic of Nipper listening to his gramophone, which appeared inside a UFO at the entrance of the ride.
In the ’80s, Disney removed the exterior of the animatronic that made it look like a real dog and relocated it to a scene in the Space Mountain exit. Now depicted as a robot dog, Nipper sat at the feet of a robot tourist. In 2009, Disney relocated Nipper again to his current home. As far as we know, he has not moved since that time.
The effect was repaired shortly after the attraction celebrated its 50th anniversary at Walt Disney World, which was on January 15, 2025. Walt Disney World commemorated the milestone by selling anniversary pins, lighting up the attraction in gold, and holding a private ceremony and fireworks launch.
WDWNT also celebrated 50 years of Space Mountain and 30 years of “New” Tomorrowland during the “Promising Tomorrows” event. You can catch everything you missed by visiting SpaceMountain50.com.
See photos and video of Nipper over the years in Martin Smith’s tribute to Space Mountain:
Are you glad to see the RCA dog wagging his tail once again? Let us know in the comments and on social media.
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