Walt Disney World has revealed a sneak peek at the new Figment popcorn bucket, which is sure to heat up the freezing opening weekend of the 2026 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. Here’s a first look at the cool design, how you can pick one up for yourself, and fresh Journey into Imagination hot takes.
EPCOT’s International Festival of the Arts runs from January 16 through February 23, 2026, making it about on par with Festival of the Holidays and significantly shorter than the Flower & Garden or Food & Wine Festivals. See our Guide to the 2026 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts for everything you need to know about the event, including when you can meet Disney Legend Tony Baxter, the Father of Figment, at the event.
As intimated in the title and intro (a bit nonsensical, but I thought it sounded cool), it is going to be a cold opening weekend of the 2026 EPCOT Festival of the Arts. The National Weather Service has issued a Freeze Warning for the Walt Disney World area, with temperatures expected to drop as low as 27°F and wind chills reaching 23°F on Friday, the first day of FARTs.
Along with the Freeze Warning, a Cold Weather Advisory has also been issued for Friday due to dangerous wind chill values. Expect lows in the upper 20s to low 30s in the early morning hours, with highs in the upper 50s later in the day.
Perhaps not coincidentally, temperatures are expected to rise right as sales of the Figment popcorn bucket start! Weekend temperatures will increase before another cold front arrives Sunday. Cold mornings and cool afternoons are expected to continue through at least Tuesday.
If you ask me, these are the perfect conditions for an EPCOT festival. I love visiting Walt Disney World when it’s colder out, and I’ll take more layers over fewer any day. (If this were the regular weather in Central Florida, we might still live there!)
Ironically, there aren’t all that many cold-weather foods on Food Studio Menus for the 2026 EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Walt Disney World is saving all of the heavy soups and stuff for when they make the most sense: August and September. Naturally. (You might think I’m joking; I’m not joking.)
We’re veering off-topic, but if you’re visiting over the weekend, prepare for the ‘feels like’ temperatures to drop sharply when the sun goes down. Most guests do not do this, and since these first days of the festival are powered by locals, that could result in the park clearing out for the last few hours of the day. It’ll be great!
Anyway, here’s a look at the Figment popcorn bucket for the 2026 EPCOT Festival of the Arts:
After a couple years of completely original designs, the Figment popcorn bucket for the 2026 EPCOT Festival of the Arts is a throwback to the designs originally released in 2022 and 2023. The big difference is that Figment is dressed as an artist, with a paint brush and beret.
This is a nod to what some (me) might argue was the second-best scene in the original Journey Into Imagination attraction. It included one of the best lines: “Mix red and gold, from autumn flowers; purple and blue, from twilight hours. Green summer hills, and rainbows play a part. A painter’s brush, a work of art!”
The ‘Realm of Art’ was the second act of Journey into Imagination, as the first scene after flying alongside the Dreamcatcher and taking a brief tour of the Dreamport. It was the first of five realms of Imagination, where guests encountered Dreamfinder on the right side of the ride vehicles to begin the scene.
The ‘Realm of Art’ ended with Figment in a garden above a pond, holding a bucket out of which a rainbow appears, bringing color to the crisp white background behind him. This is the iconic image of the Art Realm, and one of the iconic moments of the attraction, but Figment actually did not use a paintbrush in this realm! Suffice to say, I’m a big fan of the ‘Realm of Art,’ and covered it in excruciating detail back in FigmentFriday: Journey into Imagination’s Art Realm.
The first year of this Figment popcorn bucket, Festival of the Arts was dominated by headlines that EPCOT’s Longest Line Is For Figment Popcorn Buckets. It took a while, but Walt Disney World eventually solved that problem by streamlining the process with Mobile Order.
On a totally unrelated note, the release of the highly-anticipated 2026 Figment Popcorn Bucket comes mere days before the Walt Disney Company’s Q1FY2026 earnings call on February 2, 2026 at 8:30 am. We hope to hear from executives about Figment single-handedly driving record revenue in the current quarter, sufficient for them to greenlight a new version of the Journey into Imagination attraction.
Here’s the step by step process for purchasing the popcorn bucket via Mobile Order:
Once the Festival of the Arts starts on Friday, you should spot “EPCOT Souvenir Release” as the first option in the Mobile Order list for EPCOT. It even has a Figment Popcorn Bucket icon, so it should be easy enough to find.
From there, it’s pretty straightforward. Walt Disney World has clearly just repurposed the counter service meal template for this, so it’s a bit redundant, but we are not complaining.
From there, you can add 1 or 2 to your cart. You’ll get an “Item Not Added – Only 2 of this item per order allowed” error message if attempting to purchase more. This is good to see, but it’s unclear whether you could circumvent this by placing multiple, separate orders–hopefully not.
After that, you complete the checkout as normal. Even though this is merchandise, no Annual Passholder or Disney Vacation Club discounts are available. At least, this is how the process worked for past popcorn buckets. There’s every reason to believe it’ll be the same for the 2026 EPCOT Festival of the Arts.
I’ve used Mobile Order for this over the last few years, and it has been incredibly smooth (granted, I don’t think I’ve ever done opening day). The process has taken less than 60 seconds every time, making it the shortest wait I’ve experienced at Festival of the Arts during that time, as opposed to far and away the longest back in 2022.
I’ll be honest: I’m not the biggest fan of popcorn buckets. You might’ve gathered as much by various comments over the years. But I’m a diehard Figment fan and always love seeing the character get love, so I was really happy with the success of the first bucket. And that Figment merchandise continues to sell so well that they offer more of it at each festival.
I also love the ‘Realm of Art’ from the original Journey into Imagination. Not only was it an incredible scene, but it’s obviously on-theme for the EPCOT Festival of the Arts. So this instantly moves up my Figment Popcorn Power Rankings to claim the #2 spot. My biggest quibble is that the oversized head and undersized body is slightly creepy–but it’s still awesome.
My #1 is the Imagination Pavilion Popcorn Bucket from 2024, which featured the iconic glass pyramids with Figment inside amidst a sea of rainbow popcorn, like a small child in the ball pit at McDonald’s. It was a really top-notch through and through, with creativity truly befitting Figment. In the future, it would be awesome to see the merchandising team merge these two designs–have the ‘Realm of Arts’ scene inside the Imagination Pavilion Popcorn Bucket!
Of course, what would be really awesome is if Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro would see the success of all this Figment stuff and be convinced that it’s time to finally reimagine Journey into Imagination. A great legacy project for the former to go out on a high note with fans, and for the latter to start off on the right foot during his tenure as CEO. If they think Figment merchandise sells well to old school fans right now, think about how well it’d do with everyone if the ride were actually good again!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be buying the 2026 Figment Popcorn Bucket? Do you already have the Figment Premium Popcorn Bucket(s) from the last 4 years? Which look do you prefer? What are you looking forward to trying at the Food Studio booths? Agree or disagree with our Figment Popcorn Power Rankings? Any questions? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your thoughts in the comments!