I gotta say, this one kicks the shit out of the ill fated Dragonbane dragon. Mind you, Its immobile and wasn't made for LRP, but hey at least someone is raising the bar!!

^{There is no way you can disprove to me that all reality we percieve, was concieved in the mind of a plastic troll. Now hand me my pills.}

SINergy: Denton Mandell, Captain Drake Alexandrovich Musaveni

SGUK: Maj Richard Calvin (RN)

To me, and many of my generation, Dutch LRP started here:

http://www.wonderwoud.nl/index.php?pagina=/foto.php&attr=dl&muziek=draaklichtgeraakt

http://www.wonderlijkewcweb.org/

Situated in ‘Het Sprookjesbos’, The Fairy Tale Forest - with the kindergarten the oldest part of attrraktiepark ‘de Efteling’ - introduced in 1979, replacing the Chinese Nightingale which had been there since 1952 (the wall, and even the branch the mechanical bird used to sit on in front of it, are from that earlier attraction), it measures 7m in length, has a 4m wingspan and weighs 1000kg. At the time, it was the biggest animated dragon ever build.

The routine is relatively short and of single purpose, but it ‘works’ because of the way in which the audience is goaded into participating:

The park has won many international theme park awards, and one of the main reasons for this is that, despite of its continuous growth over the last half-century, it has retained its character of a park, with attractions, as opposed to being a parcel of land with lots of rides cramped into it. ‘Draak Lightgeraakt’, Dragon Touchy-Toes (also known as ‘the flying dragon’ or simply ‘the green dragon’), has a piece of the park all to himself. The path bends in such a way, that it hides what happens there from other visitors to the forest, and it leads all the way up to the treasure chest, which, as can be seen on the photos, contains a crown lying loose on all the coins and jewelry, which can just be reached by a child hanging over - or through - the fence, while the dragon high above, appears to be asleep when you first approach.

It`s all there: the danger, the reward and the opportunity.

The crown isn`t loose, of course, it`s a switch. Millions of children (and a lot of grownups) have tried to make away with it and failed. It`s my favourite attraction ever. There`s even a bench somewhat to the side where people can sit and pretend not to be watching.

The smoke from the nostrils was a recent addition (winter of 2000-2001). The sound was always there. (It`s a mix from the roar of an angry gorilla and the hissing of a snake.)

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IRL: Edwin Hofstra

- mostly crewing at the moment

EDIT: speaking of sleeping animatronic things, does anyone else have fond childhood memories of the sleeping baby dinosaur in the London Natural History Museum?  It doesn't do anything but sleep, but it looks incredibly realistic because of the way its ribs move when it breathes.  It would be awesome if someone could achieve a similar effect with a larp prop- even if it couldn't wake up, you could build an event around the premise of a hibernating dragon, or one trapped in a magical sleep.