Disney Parks / Haunted Mansion

Imagineering Shares Haunted Mansion’s Unused Sheet-Ghost Hitchhiker Close-Up

The Oct. 23 carousel also shows a proposed witch, Pickwick, Gus and an unrealized graveyard tea guest among Jack Ferges’ early maquettes.

By CrowdLevels News Desk | Published October 25, 2026 at 8:16 a.m. CDT
An unused sheet-ghost Hitchhiking Ghost maquette by Imagineer Jack Ferges
Image Credit: Walt Disney Imagineering / Instagram

Walt Disney Imagineering released a new set of close-ups October 23 showing Jack Ferges’ early Haunted Mansion maquettes, led by a sheet-draped character once considered for the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

The pale ghost raises a top hat with one hand and holds out a hitchhiking thumb with the other. Imagineering says the character did not make the cut for the finished attraction.

Ferges worked in the WED model shop during the 1960s, translating concepts into three-dimensional maquettes for the unrealized Museum of the Weird. The new carousel moves from a group of six character busts to individual figures, including both abandoned ideas and familiar residents of the Mansion.

Five more Jack Ferges sculpts in the carousel

Six character bust maquettes sculpted by Jack Ferges
Six Jack Ferges character busts appear together in the opening photograph.
A witch maquette from an early Haunted Mansion concept
This witch came from a proposed scene with three witches around a cauldron.
Pickwick maquette from the Haunted Mansion
Pickwick hangs from the chandelier in the Grand Hall.
Gus the Hitchhiking Ghost maquette
Gus is the Hitchhiking Ghost in this set who reached the finished attraction.
A grinning graveyard tea guest maquette
The last figure holds a teacup and was intended for a graveyard gathering around a hearse.

See the complete Haunted Mansion carousel

Source: Walt Disney Imagineering’s October 23 Jack Ferges sculpt carousel.

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