Hello everyone and welcome back. It's been a few days since my first visit of the season to Six Flags Great Adventure. The day was a ton of fun and I am certainly excited for the new things making their way to the park between this season and next. One of those things is a new gift shop called Six Flags Universe. Now I know chances are very high that this shop is going to be nothing special and will basically be selling the same stuff that you can find in any of the other gift shops in the park. That's got me thinking though.... What if that wasn't the case. What if Six Flags Universe ended up being something really neat?
Six Flags has theme parks all over the country and have a ton of different and unique rides. Many of the parks have a history that extends even further back than Six Flags (in Great Adventure's case the park opened in 1974, but wasn't acquired by Six Flags until 1977). What if that history was celebrated more? The thought came to me as I was in the Main Street Market. Along the wall you can see pictures of attractions both current and past as well as a small timeline that shows the year that certain rides debuted. What if that theme was expanded on and celebrated? The building in which Six Flags Universe will be situated in is plenty big for a hybrid gift shop/museum. No there wouldn't be any exhibits (you can't jam a roller coaster train in the building), but to have more photos and details on highlighted rides would be neat. Six Flags Great Adventure is one of the most well known parks in the world for the amount of world records the rides have broken.
What if there was a section celebrating Kingda Ka? Have some information on the wall and sell the merchandise for the ride. What if we took a small step back and celebrated the failed Batman and Robin: The Chiller for being the first of its kind and have some merchandise for the defunct ride? What if there was a section that celebrated the rides that have been there from the beginning in Runaway Train, Sawmill Log Flume, Big Wheel, and the Carousel? I find it incredible hard to believe that people wouldn't gobble up those nostalgia items in a heartbeat. I mean pretty much anyone I talk to still references Bizarro as Medusa. How cool would it be to see Medusa shirts for sale or even The Great American Scream Machine whose loss is still lamented and it's replacement is still despised (Green Lantern). What if the merchandise expanded beyond Great Adventure and featured merchandise from the more popular rides at other parks, say X2 from Six Flags Magic Mountain for example? One final neat little touch could be that there is a television in the store that runs through the years of Great Adventure advertisements. It'd be really neat to see them all from past to present as the park opened new rides and debuted big events like Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park.
Do I think that will happen. Absolutely not. I fully expect to see another generic Six Flags gift shop selling the same random "I'm with her" shirts, DC Comics stuff, not Six Flags related plush toys, and basically anything else you could find in any gift shop. Which honestly would be kind of a shame considering all of the Looney Tunes and Hannah Barbara merchandise in the old store was a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the park. So my dream of Six Flags Great Adventure paying homage to its past and present will probably never happen, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be celebrated right?
You may have noticed a hint popped up a few days ago that something was coming to this blog (the background perhaps?). Starting very soon I will be kicking off a new series called Then and Now: A Great Adventure. This will be a lengthy multi blog series celebrating the history of Six Flags Great Adventure. This will not be a blog marathon and I will continue to blog about all things Disney as well, but for a while Six Flags Great Adventure (which is my home park) will be getting a little extra loving. Stay tuned for that series kickoff coming soon, but first there is more to blog about! Today marked the reopening of The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. I've been reading all kinds of reports and watching all kinds of videos that have me all kinds of hyped to blog about it. So thanks for reading and stay tuned cause the next blog will be coming real soon!
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