Quote Originally Posted by Tigerlilly
They removed Rusty Blade? Oh No! We were totally looking forward to seeing him. I am glad the barker bird is back but what did they do with Rusty? Will he be appearing elsewhere?
I was surprised to find that as well, but recent Guest reports have indeed indicated he is gone.

While it seems a bit nonsequitur to replace him with a much smaller animatronic, it could deal with the fact that he was a 3rd party Audio-Animatronic that (at least appeared to be) below Disney's typical standards.

No word on if or where he might re-appear.