"Views of the hand seen from the roller coaster and at several other points in the movie were shot on an elaborate model - one of several built by M5 Industries (...) M5 principal and engineer Jamie Hyneman and production supervisor Jonathan Searles, together with a team of forty artisans, labored for the better part of four months to create the enourmous mechanical structure. Spread open, the hand measured twenty feet from the tip of the thumb, and despite being fashioned out of light weight aluminum and wood planking, weighted in at 3000 pounds. "It had 30 computer-controlled stepper motors,"said Hyneman who, with Chip Flynn, devised the hand's complex mechanics. "I designed a special linkage that allowed us to have a single actuator on each finger operate a number of joints so that you could push on one actuator, and the whole thing would curl up, one finger after another. Then, the fingers were designed to pivot and recess into the structure - kind of like a big pop-up book."

     Springing from the plan of the giant hand was the richly detailed Downtown Miniature, complete with fully articulated Ferris wheel, merry-go-rounds and assorted other rides, and an array of architecturally distinct buildings and booths- all designedto match a full-scale set. Four thousand tiny lights provided practucal illumination. "We had people working on this thing who will remember fondly for the rest of their lives,"observed Hyneman."It was the epitome of a sweet-heart model-building job.