Open winged stanchions as seen in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.
The Bat Stanchions are a series of moulds found around the Haunted Mansion. They only notably appear within the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World and the mansion of Tokyo Disneyland. They can be found albeit less notably and not originally at Disneyland's incarnation of the Haunted Mansion.
Description[]
The bat stanchions are sculpted figures which mount the metal poles lining the queue of the Load Area. Each of the stanchions has an intricate mould aimed to make it resemble a bat. Three variants of the bats were created for the Magic Kingdom as a means of accommodating the different turns that the line would require. As such, these three variants are: folded right-wing with open left-wing, folded left-wing with open right-wing, and both wings open.
In Disneyland's mansion, they would be integrated most predominately within the Portrait Corridor as a means of keeping guests from getting to close to the windows.
Concept art for the stanchions showed them them as being birds, likely as ravens or parrots.[1]
Appearances[]
The Haunted Mansion[]
As described, the bat stanchions line the queue of the Haunted Mansion. According to Jason Surrell's book The Haunted Mansion: From The Magic Kingdom to the Movies, the final open winged bat has been touched by millions of people from around the globe since Liberty Square's mansion's opening in in 1971. Surrell further suggests in the same text that if the bats were to be replaced, this final bat would likely be left as a piece of Disney history.
During the 2015 integration of the Hatbox Ghost, the balcony landing which would come to hold the spirit had a window where a bat-stanchion was visible on the other side.
Other appearances[]
2023 film[]
One of the bat stanchions appears in Alistair Crump's mansion near the fireplace.