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Merchandise Deep Dive! What Do Enthusiasts Love to Buy at Parks?
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This episode, we're once again joined by Allison's fiancé Mike (with the Mullet) to talk about merchandise at the parks. We asked listeners what they love to collect and what will most convince them to buy merchandise, and boy did you all have a lot to say! We also talk about some trip recaps, the new YouTube channel and Allison's vlogging, our own collections, and making fun of Mike for him saying he's "not a big merch person."
Subscribe to the Inverted Creative YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@InvertedCreative
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Transcript
Introduction & Theme Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Inverted Creative Podcast. I'm Allison. I'm Bryant. And I'm Jen.
00:00:17
Speaker
right, I'm going to start this episode. We are doing a merchandise deep dive today. i want to start this with a little story about why we have the guest on today that we do. a Spoiler alert, that guest is ah my fiance. Hi, Mike.
00:00:30
Speaker
i That's
Allison's Merchandise Story
00:00:31
Speaker
me. I think it's okay like that very much. So
00:00:38
Speaker
so um me and Mike went out to lunch over the weekend. We went to Kareem Barbecue. And he disappears to the bathroom for a while. And I had to text him and make sure he didn't fall in. But he comes back from the bathroom. And he says to me, I did some shopping. Because Cedar Fair was having a sale.
00:00:53
Speaker
This man bought $100 worth of coaster cutouts and hoodies on clearance while on the toilet. Hey, when nature calls, you got to buy coaster stuff.
00:01:07
Speaker
ah I also just want to point out that when we asked Mike to be our guest, he said, what? I
Financial Justifications & 'Girl Math'
00:01:16
Speaker
don't buy that much merch.
00:01:19
Speaker
but Yeah, about that. He was purchasing $100 worth of merch. Hey, there was a sale. And that's how they get you.
00:01:30
Speaker
That's called being fiscally responsible. Well, uh... Maybe. was gonna say, is this like my girl math for wanting to upgrade my laptop? Exactly. Girl math!
00:01:43
Speaker
I mean, I'm already paying a certain amount every month, and I can be paying either none by not getting a new laptop, or getting a new laptop and pay less than I do now, so in reality, I'd be saving like $40 a month?
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah. Hell yeah. I'm being smart. I'm not doing that yet, but... yet
Psychology of Merchandise Buying
00:02:02
Speaker
Girl math is I gotta pay for a wedding so I'm gonna prioritize that and then get a new laptop as a wedding present to myself.
00:02:09
Speaker
Wedding's funny.
00:02:14
Speaker
No. That's that girl girl math. Whatever.
Holiday Transition Debate
00:02:18
Speaker
don't know.
00:02:21
Speaker
Um, so yeah, we're gonna do a merchandise deep dive today, because ah there is actually a lot of creativity behind merchandise, and what, I guess it's more psychology than creativity, but what convinces people to buy stuff?
00:02:35
Speaker
But we'll get into that. um Also, side note, happy belated Halloween, because this is gonna drop after Halloween. Yeah, happy Halloween! the heck is it already Halloween?
00:02:46
Speaker
Happy end to haunt season. Happy Christmas season. Oh, she's thawing out. By the time this drops, she'll have thawed out. Yep, next episode. Wait, wait, wait, wait. We'll be talking about Christmassy things. Maybe. i don't know.
00:03:04
Speaker
I just like all the lights. No, thank you. They're so pretty. And it's cool. Scrooge. It's not Scrooge. I just like Halloween. going to mow wine. Yeah, and we're not even going to be at home for Halloween.
00:03:17
Speaker
Let Halloween die first before we start celebrating Christmas. Okay. We have Thanksgiving still to come. No. Okay, but then the Halloween people are are celebrating in August.
00:03:32
Speaker
So, what? The same thing doesn't apply to you guys? what other holidays start What other holidays are in August September? It's the whole end of summer. Halloween's in the fall. At least give it until September. fair we yeah I agree with that. it means So I have one month of Christmas while you guys take three months of Halloween.
00:03:51
Speaker
Get the
Travel Plans & Recent Trips
00:03:52
Speaker
heck out of here. Get out of here. Halloween supremacy. Your logic is dumb. I'm a firm believer in Christmas is fine after Halloween.
00:04:03
Speaker
Yeah, I do believe after Halloween. I like having Christmas decorations up for Thanksgiving. Halloween is September and October. Christmas is November and December. Yes. i sales before I still support our turkeys.
00:04:17
Speaker
Okay, well, like, that's the whole thing. Like, you have christmas you have Christmas that's happening most of November, and then you have, like, the day of Thanksgiving, and then back to Christmas. Like, it's fine.
00:04:30
Speaker
Agree to disagree. Agree to disagree. Oh, I need to plan Friendsgiving now that I think about it, too. Yeah. Anyway.
00:04:39
Speaker
ah We do have a couple of trip recaps to go over. um Jen, I believe you went somewhere fun. Yeah, not very far, but I did go to Hershey Park.
00:04:52
Speaker
It was my first time this year at Dark Nights. Probably my last time this year at Dark Nights. Yeah.
00:05:00
Speaker
It was very good. We tried. I've been trying to i but to do it since it opened. But the Spirits Bar... We went up there and got some drinks. It was very foggy, very spooky, very dark.
00:05:17
Speaker
Is that the one like at the Chocolatier Bar? Rooftop bar thing? And it's just very cute. like I liked it. um Lots of themed drinks. so I got a...
00:05:29
Speaker
um Bloody Mary that had like all of the works. And it was themed after... their new house this year is like a garage theme.
00:05:44
Speaker
um And it's it was named... it Like themed after the garage name. um And a lot of the stuff, the drinks and the food and stuff were themed after...
00:05:56
Speaker
things from that house that's cool yeah very cool way to um like draw attention to that house there's also um they unfortunately i didn't know that until this until i got there because there's this really cool like photo op at the front of the park there was this house i really loved for the first couple years of dark nights called descendants i think I don't know if you guys can hear Ahsoka. She's stuck in plain sight.
00:06:25
Speaker
Ahsoka does this really fun thing, guys, when she wants my attention. She will literally like go like under... will walk underneath a stool or the chair in my room and then act like she's stuck behind no barrier at the chair.
00:06:39
Speaker
So then I have to get up and help her. So she's currently stuck. But she'll live. Sorry. um But yeah, so they... i didn't know that they got rid of that house this year for the garage one, so that was a little sad for me. It was very witchy.
00:06:58
Speaker
um but other than that, fantastic. Their event is just forever great. um The scare actors are fantastic.
00:07:09
Speaker
The houses are great. I will say that like if you're going for Wildcats Revenge and the... um
00:07:19
Speaker
Something Brigade. the The sliders. Oh, the... I know who you're talking about. Fry Boy. Fry Boy. Fry Boy is one of them. that is probably one of the worst areas in any park ever.
00:07:32
Speaker
The way that that is laid out is like... It was literally like a can of biscuits busting coming out of that area because of how condensed it was. That is certainly a way to describe it. Yeah, it was crazy. It was literally like, it was insane.
00:07:53
Speaker
And I think they opened up the water park that you can come through that way, but I don't think people realized you could go that way. So I think that they were going down to the house and to Lightning um Racer and Wildcats Revenge and Fry Boy and all of them.
00:08:13
Speaker
But then they were coming back up the same exact way. Which was then just causing it to be so congested. i was like, this is the worst thing. Oh, it's Decade Brigade.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah, Decade Brigade, yeah. um But yeah, so other than that though, it's fantastic. It's a great event. I did not do the Shackalicious laugh track, unfortunately.
00:08:38
Speaker
um The line was crazy long for that. So we skipped out on it. but Speaking of Dark Nights, they bring those so a lot of those sliders come in from out of state just for that event.
00:08:54
Speaker
Oh, wow. Because they're based out of Southern California. Yeah, they travel from... Which it was interesting watching, looking to their Instagram and their like TikTok in the past.
00:09:07
Speaker
They do like training camps to teach people how to do all that. That's wild. it's actually Yeah, it's actually pretty... Pretty crazy. Yeah, because there's like... There has to be... like you're You're sliding close to people. There has to be safe ways to bail out.
00:09:25
Speaker
um Safe ways to avoid people. like The amount of teaching they do on that, it's crazy.
00:09:35
Speaker
She's out. she's made She made it. oh She survived. I'm so glad. Big shock. She wasn't stuck. um Yeah, it is really cool, the sliders.
00:09:49
Speaker
um And they really do a great job. i I try really hard, like, especially to scare actors, like, not to curse, not to anything.
00:10:00
Speaker
And one of them got me so good, and I literally turned to and was like, oh, man, like, so loud, like, in his face. I did not mean to do that.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:15
Speaker
I'm so sorry you got me. We actually had one at King's Island kind of get us out of nowhere which doesn't happen often.
00:10:26
Speaker
I didn't really get us but I definitely ah jumped a little bit. jumped a little bit yeah He was that was the well hidden. That was the the guy in the ghillie suit. yeah Blending him with a tree.
00:10:38
Speaker
Perfectly blended. yeah That was a good one. I heard the costume move before I heard him. Oh, that's cool. And then I just watched him get so many other people. Yeah.
00:10:50
Speaker
The, I don't know if it was new to this year, too, but there was also this witching scare zone, but in order to get to it, you had to go, like, behind cold No.
00:11:05
Speaker
Cocoa Cruiser? Their, like, kiddie coaster? You had to go, like, back there, and then behind this building? oh is it the the Path of Shadows? Yeah. I think so. Yeah. um I literally have.
00:11:19
Speaker
map. Yeah. I have the page pulled up. it Literally had these like witchy projections and a whole bunch of fog. And there were witches going around the scare zone. And then every like half hour or like hour or so, they would do each of the witches had a color. And there was like a light show at the cauldron and that witch would like go up and do things.
00:11:42
Speaker
um But we saw them. it was really fun. They gave me an eyeball and they sent me on a quest My quest was to give the eyeball to one-eyed something or another in the fallout scare zone.
00:11:59
Speaker
So that I did. i went down and i found him. I gave him the eyeball. And at first it was just like, okay, cool, thanks. And they walked away. But then they came back and they're like, look, I have this radioactive um ingredient for their potion. like They need it. You have to send it.
00:12:15
Speaker
like you yeah You have to get it back to them by the end of the night. So we were like, alright, we're going back up. But then after we gave that, it was fun. like We had a lot of fun, but after we gave that, it was just like, okay, cool.
00:12:27
Speaker
And that was it. Cute little interactive idea, though. It wasn't interactive idea, but feel like, I don't know. They should give me at least a skip the line or something. Yeah, even if it was just like a send it on a quest and it was just like a silly little like interaction. Like it was just like, okay, thank you.
00:12:51
Speaker
So it was like a cute idea. But feel like sending me back and forth between
Theme Park Merchandise Collections
00:12:56
Speaker
scare zones. Yeah, i should get like like maybe some kind of reward. But The quest itself was so fun. I just wish like I get to Fallout and it like just something other than just like, oh, thanks.
00:13:12
Speaker
like Good idea. It just needs to be fleshed out a little more, maybe. Yeah. Like even like a little card. Like, hey, you completed my quest. It's like a trading card or something. Yeah. That would have been neat. her pin Hopefully, if they hear this, that idea, because it's such a cute idea.
00:13:29
Speaker
I just like, yeah, you're doing a quest and I was so happy I completed it and I have nothing to show that I completed my quest. Except the pride of a job well done. Yeah, yeah I'm looking at that, the new scar the new haunted house you mentioned, the garage one. That actually sounds kind of cool.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, it it was really, like, I think it was a really good one. It kind of makes me think of like Kill Mart that King's Island always does, but with like a gas station garage.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah. and I don't remember that one from King's Island. It's like haunted Walmart. Okay. Yeah. I really liked it. I thought it was good. i do I loved the theme of Descendants, but I do think that overall the scare zone was a little bit...
00:14:22
Speaker
better but but the sentence was like one of their first years and where it was absolutely incredible like you could tell in this one they have learned like they're learning a little bit more like what works for them what they do well um and I think they're starting to change the original houses to reflect that
00:14:43
Speaker
so but yeah that is it for my trip recap fun fun Mike, do you want to talk about our Holiday World trip?
00:14:55
Speaker
So we got off work on Friday. Had our friend's show. He came into town for the weekend. Yeah, surprised by the way. Yeah.
00:15:06
Speaker
Surprised me since my birthday was last week. um And we drove three hours down to Holiday World. Met up with a bunch of other friends from Buzz Bars and just had a good old time.
00:15:24
Speaker
I can't even remember what we wrote. We did Voyage a good few times. Yeah, we wrote Voyage a few times. You guys made made it up to Thunderbird. Yeah, we did Thunderbird.
00:15:35
Speaker
ah Good Gravy had too long of a line. We didn't do that. Nate and I did Legend a couple times to finish up the night. I went to that park twice this year, and I have not been past the bar in Thanksgiving.
00:15:51
Speaker
yeah And I am not mad about it. love Thunderbird. Yeah, but it's such a climb to get up to that ride. Just gotta to work.
00:16:05
Speaker
don't know. Yeah, it's true. You wouldn't know. so There were a shocking amount of people in our group who would do like a voyage ride and then get a beer because it was half price at the bar and then do a voyage ride and then get a beer.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yeah, they're like seven bucks, I think. Yeah, I had a couple things. Not terrible. Not bad for theme park. Yeah, I got like a white claw and then Javi got me a ah Moscato, something like that.
00:16:34
Speaker
I had no choice in that matter. He just grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bar. that That event has become such a good thing for that park. Yeah. As John Mike likes to say, it's kind of they've they've come out with that and kind of put their hair down.
00:16:51
Speaker
Or let their hair down and just kind of showed, hey, we can we can have fun too.
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah. Did write Deep Gravy? I did not. Did you write it, Allison? No, the line was too long. we We started to go into the queue and they were like, nope, never mind.
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah. a big Vekoma fan. You would love Deep Gravy. i rode voyage I rode Raven once. I rode Legend once.
00:17:24
Speaker
I rode Gobbler Getaway once. Gobbler Getaway? I didn't even know that existed. It's their Sally Dark Ride. Wait, what? They have Dark Ride?
00:17:35
Speaker
Yeah, they have a shooting Dark Ride. And it makes like the turkey noise. had no idea. Yeah, when you pull the the trigger on the the little blaster, your turkey collar, it makes a little turkey noise.
00:17:46
Speaker
I just need everyone to know, I really hope Nathaniel's listening to this, I'm more motivated to go to Holiday World knowing that they have a gobblelin gobbler, a turkey dark ride, than anything else in that park.
00:18:04
Speaker
And then we just spent the rest of the night at Voyage. Yeah. Like said, me and Nate ended the night on Legend because we have our stupid inside joke that there's a Raising Cane's in the ah Legend Helix. So we had to go get our canes.
00:18:17
Speaker
And then there was nobody on our row, so we just wrote it again.
00:18:22
Speaker
Well, it was a good time, and it is a good segue, because I actually ended up doing my first vlog that night. And by that, I mean I'm really, really bad at narrating, so I just kind of filmed all of our friends and put it together in a video.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yay! And made a vlog out of it. a I love that. um So yeah, quick plug that um the Inverted Creative YouTube channel is now live.
00:18:46
Speaker
And I have the Holiday World vlog up. All the podcast episodes are up already. And they should start linking pretty immediately. I think when this goes up, it should be on YouTube as well.
00:18:57
Speaker
If I did it right. I guess we'll see. Um, but I'm having a lot of fun with that. Um, I have a Switzerland vlog from last year from our very stupid Europa trip that we did. i'm doing a couple later vlogs about that because I took so much footage then.
00:19:15
Speaker
Um, so Switzerland one, when we record it, I think it's going up tomorrow, but it'll be out by the time this drops. Um, and then I'll do a Europa one. Well, I've done the Europa one. I just got to figure out when I'm going to release it.
00:19:29
Speaker
um And i have a lot of fun things planned. um For anybody who watches Jetlag the game, working on something kind of similar to that with Nate, aka Coaster Focus, who's been on this podcast a few times.
00:19:41
Speaker
um And very, very excited about that. We have some really fun ideas. yeah, go subscribe. YouTube.com slash inverted creative or at inverted creative, I think is the handle.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah, go subscribe! Woo! I have a lot of ideas for the channel and I'm excited. And I'm putting a lot more time into that than I expected I would. I love that. ah we have Me and Mike are doing another stupid trip in a couple days.
00:20:09
Speaker
And I'll be vlogging that. Attempting to. It'll mostly be video of the park in mike and Mike. A couple days or... Oh, I guess a couple days from the release of this podcast, right? No, we're going in a couple days.
00:20:22
Speaker
it's It's separate from the other trip. oh okay. We have two stupid trips planned. Okay. As we do. I'm not really expecting anything different from you guys. Yeah, we'll have a ah fun sleeping arrangement this weekend, so.
00:20:37
Speaker
Perfect. um mean I'm intrigued. I don't remember this one. yeah Oh, we can tell you after. Yeah, tell me after. I want to know. I want to know. i don't remember. oh But yeah.
00:20:51
Speaker
I think that's all of our start of show stuff. Y'all ready to talk about merchandise? Yay, merchandise!
00:21:01
Speaker
um I will say this has been like the most responses that we've ever gotten to a call for comments from our listeners. Yeah, I was kind of shocked. We got so many good ones. i was like I kept getting notifications on my phone that day, and I'm like, oh my god, guys.
00:21:18
Speaker
Pop off. um Yeah, like we have our ah notes for the episode, and it is a solid two and a half pages of responses. So if we do not...
00:21:29
Speaker
respond to your response i'm sorry we are not doing a three-hour podcast today as far as i know yeah we we need to keep it we also got started late because uh mike and jen were doing for planning talk for like an hour before we actually started recording yeah hey you could have stopped that at any time I was enjoying playing games on my phone.
00:21:53
Speaker
Yeah. She's got games on your phone. So, like, don't act like ah you're over here, like, waiting for us to
Nano Coasters & Display Challenges
00:22:01
Speaker
start the podcast. Girl, you're playing games on your phone.
00:22:04
Speaker
I was letting y'all do your trip planning stuff and figure things out.
00:22:10
Speaker
Anyway. um So, I...
00:22:15
Speaker
Don't buy as much merchandise now as I used to, but I still love looking at park merch and seeing what they offer. and um Side note, I have like my favorite hoodie on from Helix that I got at Lisaburg over the summer, and I've worn it basically every day since then.
00:22:32
Speaker
But last night, the cat decided to chew a giant hole in it, and I literally texted Mike. I'm like, is this a viable reason to go back to Sweden so I can buy a new hoodie? It is a viable reason to go back to Sweden.
00:22:45
Speaker
Because it is a giant hole in the sleeve and I'm very sad about it. um I forgot where I was going with that. But I do love merch. I know I posed a question to followers. One of the big things was like, what park merch do you collect? Because I feel like a lot of people in the hobby are kind of collectors by nature.
00:23:05
Speaker
i mean, we collect like creds. May as well collect physical things too. Yeah. yeah I used to collect a lot more than I do now. Like I had a huge postcard collection at one point.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah. um I collected like park maps to the point of um like sending physical letters to parks back in the day. Like, hi can you send me a park map?
00:23:28
Speaker
I got a lot actually got a lot of responses from parks for that too. This is back when I was like middle school. It was like geez first half of the 2000s basically. Look at this Alice and Laura we're getting.
00:23:42
Speaker
i like would even keep a bunch of like all the cool park bags that I got. I would keep those. oh my god i had a whole scrapbook. It was ridiculous.
00:23:52
Speaker
I wish I still had some of that. I got rid of it all at one point.
00:23:58
Speaker
Yeah. i yeah I feel like i was like that too. When I was younger, I collected a whole lot more than I do now. At this point, I don't know if we I can say that I collect anything.
00:24:11
Speaker
um I do you really like to keep my physical park tickets. um Especially for like international parks, if they give me a physical park ticket.
00:24:23
Speaker
um But outside of that, like...
00:24:28
Speaker
I don't think that I... I think that I've really... like I don't want to say I grew out of it because that's not what it was. But I think that I just... like You became an adult and you have other things to spend your money on. Yeah, like I think that I really just got older and I was like, I don't have the space or the finances to like continue to buy every single aristocats piece of merchandise that drops including dooney and burke bags like i like i don't have the finances for that yeah i know like that's valid you don't have to buy things from parks
00:25:05
Speaker
Sometimes the experience is all you need. do have some stuff. And when I like something enough, I will buy. oh you know what? I do have one. i don't have that many anymore because I grew out of a lot of it. But I will collect shirts.
00:25:20
Speaker
I really like my theme park shirts. Like if you see me out.
00:25:26
Speaker
Sorry, I had to sneeze. Bless you. If you see me out, I'm almost always in like a very chill or nonchalant theme park shirt if I'm in a theme park shirt at all.
00:25:37
Speaker
But I will say that there's a side of me that like the tackier the shirt, the better. like i have... The most tacky talon shirts and the most... I have this um Jersey Devil shirt that is like the ugliest shirt I've ever seen in my life. It's so tacky.
00:25:59
Speaker
But however, actually... Yeah, they were so bad. So I like, i need the shirt to be like very good. Like the Voltron shirts, where it's just the logo.
00:26:10
Speaker
Unless they're so tacky that they reach this level of bad that I'm like, I need this shirt so bad. um Another good one is I have this like talon shirt that has this like, it's like this big eagle swooping down and his talons are all like...
00:26:29
Speaker
It's so bad. It makes me think of like the new ones that they have at like Cedar Point that I've seen. and i can't remember what it was exactly that's on them. I think it's like the mascot cartoon riding the coaster or something. Oh, they had they had the first one I think was Wild Mouse.
00:26:46
Speaker
Yeah. i know They've done it much more. It was like the cheese car with the mouse in it all cartoon drawn with like flames behind it on the track. i know that I think they did a Maverick one or Steel Vengeance one or something like that.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like I've seen that in a few places. Yeah, I know it's grown. like We first saw Cedar Point. Maybe Kings Island had one? could be wrong.
00:27:13
Speaker
I don't remember. and Keep an eye out for them. Yeah, I have to look. That sounds amazing. Yeah, I love a good shirt, but I'm very specific.
00:27:25
Speaker
I don't know. Other than that, I don't collect. I do kind of collect all Ahsoka Tano merch that I can find. I guess that counts, but... I cannot imagine why.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah. The one thing that I always look for, but I never actually buy, even though i keep saying I'm going to buy them, is... They're what I call typo shirts because I love typos, but they're not like true typos. But these are ones that like it's a coaster shirt that has a different manufacturer's track style on it from what the actual ride is.
00:27:58
Speaker
Like I know I've seen one for Thunderbird and it has like a Vekoma boomerang on it. yeah Yeah, I remember seeing that one a bunch. Yeah, my favorite one I've seen is a Wildfire at Silver Dollar City.
00:28:09
Speaker
and it's a really cool hoodie. It was like totally something I would have bought. And then you look like in the flames in it and it's a Gerstlauer Infinity coaster. That's right. I do remember i do remember that one.
00:28:21
Speaker
I should have gotten it. I kind of regret not getting it because it's so bad that it's good. Yeah. I love finding typo coaster shirts like that.
00:28:33
Speaker
I take pictures every time I see them. Yeah, I love seeing shirts like that, but that would be such a good one because they're so funny. Like, they're so funny. Or like the one meme shirt from a Kentucky Kingdom.
00:28:49
Speaker
Like, there was a meme shirt where it was like, what, T3 had a picture of Thunder Run and called it a steel coaster or something. Something like that. It was something i'm like horrible combination of things.
00:29:01
Speaker
But that and that reminds me of, i guess, on a local news channel up near where Geauga Lake was, one of the buildings that's been built where the park used to be has a picture, has like a drawing with some roller coasters and like the old front entrance building.
00:29:20
Speaker
And somebody pointed out it looks like they did, it's got Dragon Con and Shambhala as the picture. And somebody even commented there, it's like, this is when you can tell they hired a graphic designer and not somebody that actually knows what they're doing with coasters.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah. but Which is usually the case. Yeah, they also, like, I've noticed the last two seasons in some of the parks have started to rely very heavily on AI.
00:29:54
Speaker
yeah um So there are very noticeable issues in it, um unfortunately. um not my Not my biggest, not the biggest fan of it. There were some really like There was one or two Talon shirts I almost bought that were AI. i It was really hard for me to ref refrain from buying them because they were so good.
00:30:18
Speaker
But there were like little things in it where I was like, this is for sure generated by AI. Yeah. so Was it the hands?
00:30:28
Speaker
Was it the hands? It's always the hands. Yeah, AI apparently cannot do hands at all. Yeah, I don't remember what it was.
00:30:40
Speaker
But, yeah.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know.
00:30:51
Speaker
So, I do still collect things. To some degree. I ah have changed what I collect. My main thing is snow globes that specifically have coasters in them.
00:31:03
Speaker
Like... I don't like just like generic park ones that really don't have anything cool. But Coaster Track in a snow globe is really cool. And it started with a um time traveler one from Silver Dollar City.
00:31:16
Speaker
This is the other end where they have good merch. um Actually, we got a lot of comments about Silver Dollar City. But we'll get to those. um But it has a really cool snow globe of time traveler. And it has the car like on the track in it.
00:31:28
Speaker
And I'm obsessed with it. And it's like gigantic. And it's really pretty. And I paid way too much money for it. But... That started my. um Coaster snow globe collection. ah i think my favorite one. Is the one I got from a.
00:31:42
Speaker
top It's a TT2 one. And it has like the top hat. It's like two snow globes and one. on One snow globe on each side. And one hat side has the top hat. The other side has the spike. And has a train between them.
00:31:53
Speaker
I honestly didn't even know that parks still did snow globes. Because I know Disney. like really They're really hard to find at Disney now. And they used to be like the leader for snow globes. I feel like.
00:32:05
Speaker
um So I just assumed that everywhere kind of stops snow globes. I love that they're not stopped. I don't feel like they're as popular anymore. So Thorpe Park had a lot of good ones and I was really wanting to buy them.
00:32:19
Speaker
But that goes into my other point about why snow globes are not a thing I'd recommend collecting as a coaster enthusiast because those do not travel well. If you're like us and all you have is a carry on.
00:32:30
Speaker
They also, like, I don't and don't know if any of yours are old enough to have this, but they do at some point reach an age where there's chemical reaction and have to get them, like, professionally repaired. I have two of them that I- I've never heard that before. um Yeah, I have two of them that I got from a family member who passed away that are both, like, yellow.
00:32:50
Speaker
um And I have to find someone to professionally take the liquid out and put new liquid in. Hmm. um But yeah, they do end up having some kind of, I don't know if it's a chemical reaction or the sun or whatever it is. It's something to do with its age and just like, I don't know, general rare. But you can only fix it by getting it refilled.
00:33:14
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, so. There's only one in my collection that's particularly old and that was one that I inherited from Mike's mom in a way.
00:33:26
Speaker
Cinderella Castle. Yeah. Yeah, my... um My grandfather used to give my grandmother snow globes every single year for their anniversary.
00:33:40
Speaker
that's cute. Disney ones. So they had, like, ah walls and walls and walls of snow globes. Oh, wow. um And when he passed away, my grandmother did not want to keep them. She kept, like, one or two, but she didn't want to keep them because, like, she didn't want to look at this collection of snow globes.
00:33:57
Speaker
So I kept a few of my favorite ones. Um... And my sister kept, like, grandkids all kept a few of their favorites. That's cute.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yeah, it was like a cute, they always had a giant wall of snow globes.
00:34:19
Speaker
Next on my list, I have um stuffed animals from international parks. And i will 100% blame Javi for this one. Because Javi's a madman. And once he found out that I'd started doing that collection, he went on a giant Europe trip.
00:34:33
Speaker
And came back with just a tub full of stuffed animals for me. I don't know how he got them all, but they were... I don't know how he fit them in here his luggage.
00:34:45
Speaker
Because there were not so many, though. None of them are like particularly huge. They're just like little ones. but i mean i I still keep it going. um Even when we were at Europa, he just like handed me one of the ah little snorry octopus things at one point. I forgot about that one.
00:35:01
Speaker
yeah Oh, that's so cute. um And I know one of our comments from SolarCoaster, if I can find it in this giant list, he said, ah when there is a cute stuffed animal I'm in. And I'm like, yeah I feel this on a personal level.
00:35:16
Speaker
Did you guys? Sorry, we can get right back to it. Did you guys see the post that I put on my story when I was at Europa of the Snorri stuffed animal? So they have a new little Snorri stuffed animal. Like, I think it's like one of those shoulder pals.
00:35:34
Speaker
I don't know who approved it. It's scary. We're gonna post it on our story. Noted. Yeah, send it to me. I'll post it. We're gonna post it when this airs. Yeah. guys can see this scary.
00:35:45
Speaker
i don't know who approved it.
00:35:48
Speaker
Snorri's so cute. They did him dirty. Her? I don't know if he's a her or him. Picture of Snorri for Insta stories. Oh my god, Mike just sent me the Wild Mouse shirt. That is the most awful shirt ever. I would love it.
00:36:01
Speaker
i think they- I feel like they did one like that for Gatekeeper. Yeah, I think it was... And for Maverick. Yeah. That shirt is so wild.
00:36:14
Speaker
Also, like, why the mouse kind of buff?
00:36:19
Speaker
Oh, wait. We have breaking news. Breaking news. So sorry, guys. We gotta... We gotta pause for a second. Chicken Coaster has a new home announced.
00:36:32
Speaker
Oh, they actually announced where it's going now? They did not, but the park that bought it just announced it four hours ago. What park? Is it one that anybody's heard of? Geiselwind?
00:36:45
Speaker
Geiselwind?
00:36:49
Speaker
Oh, it looks like a cute little family park. Oh my gosh, it looks like a really cute little family park. Look at the steaming. Wow, they have seven cruds there.
00:37:00
Speaker
Oh, God. Guys, this is so exciting. I hope it looks like based on the theming of their other rides, they might keep the theming. Or at least maybe do it differently, but... umm like and They have a coaster called Doggy Dog. Oh, they have a Wild Wind.
00:37:18
Speaker
Oh, do they? Yeah.
00:37:22
Speaker
wo They have a lot more coasters than I expected from a park like that. They have like a little penguin walking around that's dressed like a pirate.
00:37:32
Speaker
Also, I like that instead of Tikiwaka, they have Takawaka. I don't know what Tierwalt means, but there's a picture of a cat.
00:37:42
Speaker
Where is this? I know, that's what, I'm like, I... Besides Bavaria. I know it said Bavaria. I do know it was staying in Germany. Yeah. Okay, more importantly... Okay, that's...
00:37:56
Speaker
In the middle of nowhere, but cool.
00:38:01
Speaker
yes near It's between Frankfurt and Nuremberg.
00:38:07
Speaker
So it's really not moving super far away.
00:38:12
Speaker
Oh my gosh, but it's not even like on the way to Köln.
00:38:18
Speaker
Guess you'll have to make a special visit if they announce that it's still going to be Vildehilde. Yeah, I will be the first guest. I'll be there opening day.
00:38:29
Speaker
ah wonder if they'll buy the rights to use that song. I really hope it was sold with the rights to the song. I would hope. Because I feel like that song is just too iconic.
00:38:42
Speaker
Because what Schwaben going to do with that song, with the ride being gone? Really. Really.
00:38:55
Speaker
um I don't know. ah like I really hope... like I feel like they wouldn't... There's no reason... like I don't think there's any reason to sell just the coaster. like I feel like they have to sell the whole thing. like i agree. ah Especially because the trains on the coaster have chickens on them. like the The chickens on the track can be removed, but... like The coaster is painted to chickens. Like there's chickens on the trains.
00:39:29
Speaker
I don't know. I do hope that they get that song. um As well. Because if not then I won't make the three hour drive. Probably.
00:39:38
Speaker
But okay. Sorry. Back to merch. Thanks guys for my breaking um news announcement. um That's like the first news that we've ever shared on the podcast. I know, but it was really important news, guys.
00:39:50
Speaker
The chicken coaster is getting a new home. I'm glad it has a new home, and it seems like it'll be a good fit for it. Yeah, it belongs in like a little itty-bitty. Yeah, that looks that looks like a a cute little park.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think it it seems like it's a good fit for it.
00:40:09
Speaker
You'll appreciate this, Jen. So the former name of that park was Vogelpony Martian Park. hu Which, in German, Bird Pony Fairytale Park.
00:40:23
Speaker
The Bird bone right bird Pony Fairytale Park. That's a bird?
00:40:33
Speaker
Thank you, RCDB. Oh my god.
00:40:41
Speaker
If you guys didn't know, bird is Ahsoka's favorite word. ah ruin You ruined everything, Mike. Ope. We're a big fan. she Every morning she runs outside and she chases them
00:40:58
Speaker
through my whole entire house. And then she screams at my deck all day to go chase the ones that have a nest above my deck. Jeez. Oh, we're getting a lot of Ahsoka lore tonight. Sorry, guys. we're We're sidetracked. Back to merch.
00:41:11
Speaker
Ahsoka has favorite merch. It is the talon stuffed animal that I bought once upon a time at Dorney Park that she did not eat. She just carried it around for a really long time and then used it as a pillow and then the other dog ate it.
00:41:27
Speaker
And it's a bird. and it It's a plane. It's her little talon. It's gone now, but I do have a really cute picture of her just like laying her head on it. It's so cute.
00:41:41
Speaker
Okay. Continue, Allison. I'm sorry. have so much stuff that I still collect, even though I say I don't collect much anymore. um Okay. Last couple things on my list.
00:41:52
Speaker
I love spirit jerseys, especially like roller coaster ones. Holiday World has a really, really cool one that has like the whole skyline, and I really wanted to get it, but they didn't have my size. So I'm lucky that they didn't have my size because I would have spent $70 on it.
00:42:04
Speaker
Which
00:42:08
Speaker
one was that? Huh? Which one was that? The one with the skyline on the back.
00:42:16
Speaker
I think I remember that. I sent you a picture, I think. I also probably showed you in person. Maybe. Um, there was an Alpenfury one that, like, Mike was really excited that I was going to get, but I looked at it close and I'm like, this is just boring text.
00:42:31
Speaker
So I was not excited. Um, I have an Epic Universe one that I love. Um,
00:42:41
Speaker
Uh, Merlin Parks does these, like, medals for coasters, and I have this weird thing with awards, so I like buying the medals. So I have, like, three of those. I have one for Kraka, Krake, whatever it is.
00:42:54
Speaker
Hansa, Heidi, which I confuse this all the time. But I have one of those, and then I got a Nemesis one, and then an Alton Towers one that was really cute. Oh, cute. Um, I don't have them up here.
00:43:08
Speaker
I did just look over and see a little, like, Fury shoulder thing that I saw and that I got when we were there. I can see your medals from here. Oh, yeah. now They are downstairs.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, so those medals are cool. I really wanted the Wicker Man one until I, like, held it and it was, like, fake wood and felt like nothing. um And then I have a thing with mugs, which ah Laurel will be very happy about.
00:43:31
Speaker
Yeah. Laurel, who said... um
00:43:35
Speaker
Mugs because how else would I have an entire burner account for voting Magnum and Coaster Madness from year to year. Love coffee and drinking coffee from mugs that remind me of places I love. I have a very like small collection or like place to store my mugs so I try to keep my mugs limited to what fits on that which is like 13 or something like that yeah um and i have a problem with buying mugs as evidenced when i went to europa park and for you know two days and somehow bought three mugs and i didn't realize i bought three mugs until i was packing all my crap up to go home and i'm like why do i have three mugs and how do i fit all these in my bag yeah i you were very confused
00:44:16
Speaker
yeah I didn't remember getting the it was a Silver Star one I think I got for like 5 euros. because Yeah, I think it was on clearance. I remember that. well Did you also get one of the deposit cups?
00:44:27
Speaker
I have one of the small red ones. Yeah, one of the cute little small red ones. on That has like Silver Star on it and all that. Yeah, yours is the Silver Star one. I think I got hot chocolate in it.
00:44:38
Speaker
Yeah, over near Blue Fire. I got a whole friggin' mug. Yeah, that I loved it. They're like two euros, I think, for the coffee mugs. They're so cute. um but I got the Silver Star one. i got a really cool Hotel Kronis R1.
00:44:55
Speaker
Okay. um That has like a curved... Curved handle. whole thing Yeah. It's currently up here because Nemi kept playing with the little... I was keeping my coffee stirrer sticks in there and Nemi kept playing with it and I didn't trust him. So I brought that mug up here.
00:45:11
Speaker
that's the last one that I got? i don't even know. Voltron.
00:45:16
Speaker
Where is that mug? That's a good question. It's right behind me. it's It keeps my like extra money. It was keeping my euros for a while. I forgot about that. I should you know use that for coffee and not storage.
00:45:30
Speaker
That'd probably be smart. I used to collect mugs for a really long time. and Then i I just realized like they take up so much space, which is hard. And my mom collects specifically Starbucks in their mugs.
00:45:51
Speaker
Or like they they used to be called something else. Now they have a new name, but they were called... like the The You Are Here mugs? Yeah, You Are Here, Been There. I think there's three names. So each one's like a different art type. yeah My mom collects specifically those mugs.
00:46:07
Speaker
So my collection of bugs has now turned into whenever I travel to somewhere, I try to get her at least one mug. um But currently, for anyone who doesn't know my living situation, I currently do live with my parents.
00:46:21
Speaker
So I do get to use the bugs all the time. Like I've been drinking, i drink out of um Hamburg and Amsterdam almost every single day.
00:46:33
Speaker
i like alternate. My favorite mug is and actually not a coaster one, but it's Disney. It's an Emperor's New Groove mug. And it has a little like vial on it that you can like spin, like the Poison for Cusco. Cusco's Poison.
00:46:47
Speaker
Oh, cute. um And that's spinnable, and it has like concept art on it. It's really cool. But that's my most used mug. Yeah. I did also my most used mug right now. is that Joey's parents for my birthday got me...
00:47:03
Speaker
a um Symbolica mug from this Dutch artist. um laro actually has the danse macabre one i wanted the danse macabre one so bad looked all over for it and it was sold out um but it's from this dutch artist um and they have them for each of the attractions that's cool enough delay and they're very cute um but i have the symbolica one which was also fitting because symbolica was actually my first evac credit ever guys yes evac credit equals mug
00:47:38
Speaker
yeah exactly so it's such a good memory i look at the mug and i say this is such a cute like this is such a good birthday gift i love it and also my first evac credit i'm hoping italy parks have some good mugs yeah you know they even they don't have good mugs you have a cup with a gay cat on it i'm gonna get you a plushie i promise We need the gay cat.
00:48:05
Speaker
We love him. It is literally on my honeymoon planning list. Yeah, doesn't it say something about merch for Jen specifically from... it doesn't.
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah, under a Magic Land, Jen wants a gay cat souvenir. Straight up on the list. I'm looking it right now. yeah That's amazing. So you were being thought about. Don't worry.
00:48:32
Speaker
Hell yeah. I love that farts mascot. It's so good. feel like I need to look that up now. Oh yeah. Yeah, go look the gay cat. I love him.
00:48:46
Speaker
While he's looking that up, Jen, I literally have one bullet point under your name on here because it's the only thing I can think of that I know for sure that you have. In terms of merch? So I have random things. Like, I feel like there were points in times where I collected things, but now I don't really collect a single type of thing, but I do buy merch or in this case, I was gifted this piece of merch, which was very kind.
00:49:12
Speaker
um I do have, so the my one bullet point is my Talon lamp. i have this giant Talon lamp. um that has a piece of the coaster like a bolt from talon on it which it's fitting that i would have that it was gifted to me it was very very kind i love my talon lamp um i think it's heavy too yeah it it's like 25 pounds it's really crazy ah heavy um and then i also like i do have some bigger souvenirs like that like i've The original replicas of Ahsoka Tano's new-gen lightsaber help.
00:49:51
Speaker
Um... Like, I have that. i have a Um...
00:49:59
Speaker
Like, art replica display of like, the Nautilus submarines. Like, little things like that. Nothing, um Just like random things. I wouldn't say they fit in any one category.
00:50:16
Speaker
Unfortunately. but We do have some art. I know. um think Mike has a few made to throw posters. We have a some of Gabby's artwork. um I commissioned her to do a wildfire piece for me from Silver Dollar City. Which is cool.
00:50:32
Speaker
And then we got... um Arrow Suspended Coaster Blueprint. Yeah, Blueprints directly that SNS were selling. Yeah. They were selling their... Basically, they're doing scans of the original Blueprints that they had.
00:50:47
Speaker
Like, you can even you can even see, like, when you look at it close, you can see, like, where there was tape on the Blueprint, and they just photocopied it. so you can see where, like, there used to be tape sitting there.
00:51:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's framed in our dining room. Yeah, it's sitting in our dining room. That one's cool. Yeah. that's Looking for their store again. I think it's just Mine Train.
00:51:11
Speaker
I was looking at it the other day. Yeah, Runaway Train, chassis, stub assembly. And they still have wheels on there too. Yeah, but it's cool that a manufacturer that bought out the company like that still kind of recognizes that they have fans of their products.
00:51:29
Speaker
former products yeah and we'll sell those blueprints. Yeah. It worked for us. Yeah, that was cool. That's smart. It was, I think, like $75 for ah they like a maybe? sizes there is $35. 22x34 is $65.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's the one we got. Yeah. cool little piece.
00:51:50
Speaker
yeah that's the one we yeah yeah
00:51:56
Speaker
pairs it's so cool little piece Yeah, that seems like a really cool one. I don't... Yeah, I'm still trying to think. Like, I really don't... I do really love that the European parks have books.
00:52:11
Speaker
It's really, like... It's really a shame that like they're not available in more languages. like That would be really nice, but I totally understand why they aren't like at all. But I love that the European parks have Snorri books.
00:52:29
Speaker
That was kind of something I thought about at Europa. Because I had thought about they had a couple different like kids' books with Snorri. Like, oh, that would be perfect to bring back for my sister and nephew. Except for, oh, it's all in German.
00:52:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's the only... And some of them are... Some of them do release, like, other languages. Like, even some of them at Europa are available in German, English, and French.
00:52:57
Speaker
But some of them are only available in German. A lot of, a lot of like, the actual, like, ah more, like, documentary-style books, like, about the history of the park and stuff like that, they had those in English.
00:53:11
Speaker
Yeah. but I noticed that in a lot of the parks, but I love that books are an option. Yeah, it is cool. Loading off of those IPs. Efteling does it so well. like I bought a Danse Macabre book, um but they also had... There's a book... it's It's not based off of the rides, but obviously uses the same like concept and idea.
00:53:35
Speaker
um But they have like a Baron book, and... ah um I can't remember what other attractions but then like back to Europa Park they have Madame Froderich like they have books with her in them um I love the idea and the concept of like children's books and I just think that's a cute souvenir idea it it's different yeah it's something you really won't find here unless you're at like disney
00:54:07
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And even there, it's like a lot of it... I don't know. i i feel like it's not the same because it's not like expanding upon the idea.
00:54:18
Speaker
um They're like, the stories are already told. So like for Disney, like I would love for Disney to do like A Living with the Land book or like a Maelstrom book when that existed. like But instead we just get the same Frozen book you could get in a ah regular store. It's not really like Park. I do miss Living with the Land. or I miss going on Living with the Land.
00:54:44
Speaker
have not been to that park five years now, I think. I love Living with the Land. It's such a good ride. Maelstrom was still the best ride in that park.
00:54:56
Speaker
yeah I have not been on Guardian so I can't determine about that yet. Yeah, they're all good, honestly.
00:55:07
Speaker
um But yeah, I do love the book idea. yeah I love that the European parks, at least the European parks that I have been to, do like books for their parks.
00:55:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:28
Speaker
Mike, you want to talk about your quote-unquote, I don't really collect much collections? I mean, so my two my two main collections, I'm a sucker nano coasters and coaster cutouts.
00:55:44
Speaker
have like 60 of them already, and I think I have 20 of them still to build, including the Millennium Lift Hill.
00:55:57
Speaker
And this is exactly why I didn't get you a nano coaster for your birthday, because I knew it would just get added to the pile. Yeah. That pile is going to dwindle in the next few months as the parks close.
00:56:09
Speaker
Hopefully. i think some of those were still left over from last season. Yeah, I think so. That didn't build last year. Because we didn't go anywhere near Kennywood this year, and I have Kennywood ones in there.
00:56:24
Speaker
Yeah, you got those when we were there for golden tickets, I think. Yeah. yeah i really I really enjoy the nano coasters. I have a rule that I will not buy any of them if I haven't been on it.
00:56:40
Speaker
and Unless it's a defunct coaster.
00:56:46
Speaker
but But I emailed and bought the Iron Gwazi full train before I even rode it. And i had i sat there waiting to put it together until I wrote it for like three months.
00:57:02
Speaker
But it was worth it. Yeah, you need more shelves for all your all your things. Yeah.
00:57:11
Speaker
Yeah, I also have... Now, it's not an actual like park merch item. But there's some people on Etsy that make these...
00:57:21
Speaker
ah Lego calls them MOCs, but they're, uh... Basically, they build their own Lego sets for different ride vehicles. I've got a Terran one that's pretty cool.
00:57:34
Speaker
It's like the lead car with the the first... The zero car and the lead... The first car. I remember helping you, like, pick out some of the, uh... the set The guides or whatever. can buy the guides themselves for cheap on Etsy. Yeah, they're like $2-$3.
00:57:51
Speaker
Yeah, the bricks. I think the Taryn one, I ended up spending like $80. eighty dollars Oh. what I like. I feel like just... oh They hurt my soul. I love them, but like... Yeah.
00:58:07
Speaker
oh but I love the just how the nano coasters, they started off kind of small. And then they expanded and did the cutouts. Yeah. And like, I know the original Nano Coasters, they started off where the all the tracks were just silver.
00:58:24
Speaker
And slowly they started painting them or printing color on them. And now they're even doing the... I don't even... I don't know what they call them. They might be like Nano Coaster XLs or something.
00:58:39
Speaker
But I know they have one for like Millennium Force... and Voyage, yeah where they actually have... They have actual, like... The acrylic bases are actually printed with the surroundings on them, and they just add to the look of them.
00:58:57
Speaker
Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. But then my second collection started back in... I guess it would have been 2021 when I first really started traveling for coasters.
00:59:13
Speaker
I went on a trip and I brought my mom home a magnet. And we had just gotten a new fridge. She's like, why did you bring me magnets?
00:59:25
Speaker
You're going to ruin our new fridge. So then it became a goal just on every trip I went on, I was finding more and more and more magnets just to bring home, just to continue to fill up the fridge.
00:59:41
Speaker
So I have all those magnets now and our fridge is probably half full. The entire freezer door is covered. That's all coaster magnets too.
00:59:55
Speaker
There's a few other non-coaster magnets, but... But mostly, we put, yeah, mostly the coaster magnets on that door and moved all the other, like, country and city magnets further down.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, I've started joining in on the magnet collections, and I usually go for, like, the... Anytime we go to a new city or just somewhere cool, I'll look for a magnet. Went to the Christmas market at Strasburg, and I got a magnet there, kind of thing.
01:00:21
Speaker
Or the, you know, all the ones that they sell at the airports. Yeah, yeah. yeah i've really I wish more parks did them, and I don't even know if Six Flags still does them.
01:00:33
Speaker
ah Have you ever seen the little like ceramic magnets that they used to do? They're like 3D. I've got a Kingda Ka, El Toro. They stick out, and they're like... Yeah. They were made out of an actual... Yeah.
01:00:49
Speaker
yeah yeah they're like actual like ceram They feel like they're out of like actual Yeah. And they're hand they look like they're all hand-painted. Yeah.
01:01:00
Speaker
and no one the think i got yeah anymore I think i have like four of them. i got I know I got one for Raging Bull, Goliath. I think there's there's like more than four on there, I'm pretty sure. Maybe I have more.
01:01:13
Speaker
know I've got Raging Bull, El Toro. think I have a Goliath one.
01:01:22
Speaker
I think so. all Magic Mountain. Maybe as well. Might have gotten an X2.
01:01:28
Speaker
I think I did get an X2 one. Maybe Tatsu? Yeah, that sounds right. I'd have to go look. I might have a picture on my phone. I feel like Tatsu did have a
01:01:44
Speaker
cool i don't know. Um...
01:01:53
Speaker
As I literally like search my phone for like magnet it and fridge just to see if it comes up. yeah there one I think I like sent one to my sister at some point or something. Maybe. oh don't know.
01:02:06
Speaker
We'll figure out. Maybe that's something else that we'll post on socials. Yeah, that would be. yeah Yeah. But I mean, I like even now, which I haven't bought one yet, but with Siren's Curse up at Cedar Point,
01:02:23
Speaker
They've started doing like magnets and keychains where you actually have moving pieces on the magnet. So you can actually tilt the track itself. Or Top Thrill 2, they did one where the little train moves.
01:02:38
Speaker
So you know like move the train along the track. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. It's just a little different things. I did find a semi-recent photo.
01:02:49
Speaker
So those ceramic ones you were talking about, I think you got them all. Kingda Kawhi. Iron Rattler. Tatsu. I forgot about Iron Rattler. Goliath at Great America. Nitro X2 El Toro.
01:03:00
Speaker
Okay. I forgot about Nitro and Nitro. And then a Ride to Happiness one that I'm pretty sure we spent like 20 euro on. Oof. Yeah, that that was not cheap. How?
01:03:13
Speaker
also have a Texas State Capital one that's that same style of the like the ceramic. Oh, yeah, yeah. see it.
01:03:27
Speaker
this not This is not a super recent picture. Like, i don't even think the one that I got at Indiana Beach is on here.
01:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, there's so many. Yeah. And just now I'm contributing to it as well. Yeah. I love that, though. Because it is kind of nice to, like, look at the fridge and see everything that you've ridden or...
01:03:47
Speaker
Just all the places we've been together. Yeah. It's so fun. it was just funny. i it kind of became a running joke that I was just going to bring my mom a magnet every trip I went on just to continue to put it on her brand new fridge.
01:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's funny. it's a good That's a good one. Yeah. is the Picture you just sent the snorry thing you were talking about, Jen. Yeah, had the easiest face.
01:04:17
Speaker
that's Yeah, that's weird looking. He's so scared looking. That is terrifying. Yeah. It was so bad. i was like, what happened to Snorri?
01:04:28
Speaker
Who approved this merch?
01:04:32
Speaker
I literally got off the Snorri ride and it was the first thing I saw. And I was like, I'm scared. Like, can't come back here. ah That kind of looks like Snorri did some partying. Yeah, like, it's so bad.
01:04:47
Speaker
Who approved it? And the other Snorries are so well done. He's soky's so cute. Yeah, I think I have one of the cute ones. Yeah, this is the first time I saw this one.
01:04:57
Speaker
So I think it's new. It's like a shoulder pal. But, because I do, like, i spend I spend a lot of time at Europa Park. No. so i I do browse, especially, like, Snorri merch and stuff, because I think Snorri is so adorable.
01:05:13
Speaker
Story is adorable. Yeah, he's so cute. I love him.
01:05:19
Speaker
Alright, so I think that gets us to our... Not the end of the episode yet. Not the end of the episode. Our, not really questions, but... um listener Listener comments and responses. are ah The answers to our questions... What I'd said is... um What park merch do you collect? And what is the most important factor in merch that will convince you to buy it?
01:05:48
Speaker
um For anybody wondering, ah for we usually, well, we, I usually post these on a Instagram to get ah responses. I'll post it on Twitter if I remember to, but don't know how many people actually use Twitter now.
01:06:01
Speaker
So I don't really post it as much there. So if you want to give us your responses, look up our, I almost said our Twitter, our Instagram account. I'll usually post it in our stories and on our feed. Yeah. oh And What's up?
01:06:16
Speaker
I said and respond. Yeah. We love the responses even though we can't talk about them all. Um. And I. Because I think I got like responses through like the story question response.
01:06:30
Speaker
The um. Longer winded actual messages. And then comments on the post. So it took a while to get all these on here. But anyway. Um. first two on here both said pins. Overlook Coasters and our friend Show both said pins.
01:06:47
Speaker
Overlook said, I love pins that are interactive and unique, like spinning pins and stuff. Yeah. Pins are a good one because I feel like they're easy to store. um They don't cost a ton of money. Unless you're at Disney.
01:07:01
Speaker
at least sure it does Or at least you're at Disney. Unless you're at Disney. They're so expensive now. They get pretty pricey. But still, like, Next to a shirt or like even mugs like relatively cheap.
01:07:16
Speaker
Yeah. it's And again, those are something that travel very well because they're so small and compact. Yeah. You won't even notice adding a pin to your suitcase.
01:07:28
Speaker
Yeah. I used to be hardcore into Disney pins, but I don't go to Disney as much anymore. yeah. Yeah, I was at one point in my life as well. um Yeah. And I just, I decided that the pin life was just really not for me. Yeah, I collected like anything Rapunzel or Tangled related. I had a huge collection of that. And then I would get one for every um resort that I stayed at for a while.
01:07:52
Speaker
and But then I kept staying at resorts and then but i ran out of pins to get. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what I did too. I used to have one for every single resort I stayed at and then extra for Saratoga and Polynesian because they were my home DVC resorts.
01:08:07
Speaker
And with him mentioning or with them mentioning the interactive and unique pins, that again goes back to Cedar Point with like the Tilt Coaster and ah Top Thrill 2.
01:08:19
Speaker
They have pins that have moving pieces and Hershey does that really well too. They put moving pieces. A lot of pieces and there a lot of people and a lot of parks have started doing that.
01:08:30
Speaker
Yeah. i always liked that about Hershey's. Oh, love a good park hat. Extra. I just remembered it. I love a good park hat, but it can't be really tacky. Just like minimalistic.
01:08:44
Speaker
Like, I don't know. Like, I would be happy with just, like, the Millennium Lift Hill on a little hat. Like, very simplified. That would actually go extremely hard.
01:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, right? Like, ah so I wear, like, when I wear a hat, and I do wear hats fairly often, they tend to be, like, just a really earthy color, like, a neutral color with just, like, a small something. Like, I have one that's, like, a small...
01:09:16
Speaker
Mandalorian helmet with like not a ton of detail, but you could still tell it's an embroidered Mandalorian helmet. I have one with a, like a corgi butt on it. Like just like one little thing in the middle of the hat. Like it goes so hard.
01:09:33
Speaker
Like one of my favorite hats that I've bought. It's from Knott's Berry Farm. It's just a black hat. And on the front, it's got, you know, the Knott's K.
01:09:45
Speaker
But it's in black, so it's kind of just low-key. And on the back, in black ah embroidery as well, it says Knott's Berry Farm. Yeah.
01:09:55
Speaker
But it's very just low-key, doesn't just scream theme park. Yeah, you don't need my hat doing too much. Like, I really like a good minimalistic hat.
01:10:06
Speaker
Which same goes for, I think you kind of mentioned earlier, t-shirts. Yeah. Like a very, a shirt that could be theme park could be non theme park.
01:10:18
Speaker
ah Was it? Jeff said something like that too. I said, I just like shirts that are not obviously park shirts or that have some sort of inside joke. Ones that you have to be somewhat of a fan or an enthusiast to even understand.
01:10:31
Speaker
Yeah. i He also brings up retro logo stuff, um which I also feel like is a very... Because I feel like when the retro logos logos are done, it's done very tasteful, like the whole not super obvious.
01:10:48
Speaker
I think that the issue is that like you either get these like not very obviousululate obvious, like very nice shirts, or you just get the tackiest shirts ever. There is no in-between. Yeah.
01:11:01
Speaker
um And with the retro stuff, that's something that Cedar Point and Kings Island have done well with ah the homage shirts.
01:11:12
Speaker
Yeah, I wear my Demon Drop shirt like almost like every other time the door. They come up with such great designs and they're so comfortable too.
01:11:23
Speaker
Those are like some of the softest shirts and they have taken lots of my money because of that. Yeah, they're incredible shirts. So I haven't gotten, I really, really want the disaster transport one because I almost rode disaster transport once upon a time.
01:11:41
Speaker
I've been on that. I have not. I was next in line to get on it. Great blackout happened and it was my first ride of the day and we did nothing at Cedar Point. Oh no.
01:11:53
Speaker
But also with shirts that don't necessarily scream coasters. Yeah. So, Allison, I'm sure Jen's probably seen it. You know the the Top Thrill 2 shirt.
01:12:05
Speaker
On the back, it's got all the ride layouts, but they look like track. Like, they look like racetracks. Oh, I've seen that one. So, Kyrie told me he wore it to work the other day.
01:12:18
Speaker
And one of the guys was like, oh, I didn't know you were an F1 fan.
01:12:23
Speaker
Yeah, because that's a good piece it. Yeah, it's very, very...
01:12:28
Speaker
If you don't know it's coasters, it doesn't look like coasters. And I... am Top Thrill 2 took so much of my money.
01:12:39
Speaker
Because I am a... I love cars, racing, all that. So... yeah That whole theme took all my money. Here's the question, though. Which of the years did it take all your money? The year that it opened for like a day and then closed? Or the year that it actually opened?
01:12:58
Speaker
Last year. yeah i don't think i I don't think I bought any Top Thrill 2 merch this year. This year it's been all Siren's Curse. And to my beautiful, beautiful Millennium Force lift kill.
01:13:11
Speaker
And he says he's not a merch person. Bro, you bought merch for a closed coaster.
01:13:20
Speaker
The box falling apart. What he pulling out of a bag right now? The box is falling apart because it's... I know that this is about to be something crazy. This is... you said you bought that. Yeah. It's a huge box. Yeah. yeah Like, this is my only big purchase of this year.
01:13:40
Speaker
Last year, I bought like a $150 Thrill 2 jacket. Crazy. But hey, march I wore it. I wrote it last year, though.
01:13:51
Speaker
i at least bought merch for a ride that I rode. It wasn't open for most the year. and just I laugh at how much Siren's Curse stuff that you've bought. You say it's not a lot. I will say, though, that the Siren's Apparently, that is my entire personality now.
01:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. Siren's Curse merch kind of went hard. I really liked... I bought it once... Like I said, I don't like to buy merch for rides that I haven't been on. Opening day this year, because of the... Because of the rain, I actually bought a Siren's Curse hoodie.
01:14:26
Speaker
That I don't think I've really worn yet. I bought it because we were soaking wet. I'm like, I need to get another hoodie just in case when I throw this stuff in the dryer, it doesn't have time to dry. Yeah, that was me in that Cedar Point hoodie that I bought that trip. I wore it for like two weeks afterwards and then I got something else.
01:14:45
Speaker
I'm sure. um love hoodies. Yeah, like three weeks later you got the Epic Universe Spirit jersey spirit jersey that you wear every day.
01:14:56
Speaker
And then I got the Helix hoodie and now I just wear that every day.
01:15:02
Speaker
I'm sensing a trend. Buys new hoodie, wears every day. Until buys new hoodie. Then wears that every day. Cat eats giant hole and elbow of hoodie.
01:15:14
Speaker
Oh no. Womp womp. all right I think we need to get back to these. ah um I'm going to pop to Barbara. Barbara says she does park magnets as well.
01:15:27
Speaker
That's her thing. so Mike, you and Barbara. um Another person who mentioned magnets is Tim. Straight up just said magnets.
01:15:37
Speaker
and then If I'm going to get a shirt, I look for minimalism. The UK does this much better. Yeah, I could see that. I didn't buy a lot of merch in the UK.
01:15:49
Speaker
I didn't buy as much as I expected. I thought I was going to buy a lot more. I had to hold out because I knew i didn't have much space in my bag. I think I got like I got a Hyperia shirt.
01:16:01
Speaker
I got a Tiger shirt. Nemesis mug.
01:16:07
Speaker
And then a hoodie. I feel like maybe I got another shirt, but I don't remember. i was kind of I went into it fully expecting to buy a Nemesis shirt. and You bought a hat.
01:16:18
Speaker
I did buy a hat, but I was kind of disappointed by the some of the merch for Nemesis.
01:16:25
Speaker
I ended up buying a Smiler shirt instead. Yeah, that's true. um Stephen Banks might give you a run for your money. How many Nanocoosters did you say you have? 66, I think.
01:16:37
Speaker
oh one and once the the The bathroom ones come in. I'll have 20 more to build. um The bathroom one. Steven Banks says he has 64 nano coasters built. Three more still need to be built.
01:16:54
Speaker
see Oh my goodness. I need to know where these are displayed. Can you please DM them to us? DM us a picture of how you display them. I'm so curious.
01:17:05
Speaker
how much like Is that all of the ones that you have? There's no way. That's all of them assembled. Yeah, but you have how many assembled? 40? 60 something. Oh, I thought you said you have 60 altogether. and No, I have like 66 of them assembled, 20 more to build, including the lift hill.
01:17:24
Speaker
they're The Nano Coasters like two or three deep on those shelves. Yeah, the Nano Coasters don't take up a ton of space. It's the cutouts that take up a lot of space. Yeah. He's like
01:17:37
Speaker
These guys. yeah Yeah. that's like, they're, they don't take up a ton of space, but when you have 60 of them, I still want to see how our friends. I'll get better pictures for you. Yeah. i slash our instagram And Stephen Banks, send us yours too. We really, I want to see how, I want to see how you display them. Cause I feel like I don't buy them because I feel like I would have to pick one or two that I love and then have them displayed somewhere. But then like, don't know. The only downside to the nano coasters is,
01:18:06
Speaker
which I just kind of say I don't care and leave them. They do, like, because it's that acrylic base and it's very it gets staticky, they do build up a lot of dust.
01:18:19
Speaker
Yeah. like I did notice that before. Yeah. I mean... Dusty.
01:18:30
Speaker
They're also, like, I feel like anything that you display is going to build dust. Yeah. It's just, they're very... With the material that
Collecting Shot Glasses
01:18:38
Speaker
they use for the base, it's just naturally you' going to build static because it's essentially a plastic.
01:18:44
Speaker
Yeah. So.
01:18:49
Speaker
All right. What else we got on here since we have so many? Yeah, we have Thomas XL 100 with shot glasses. That's really good one. ah i have a and ah friend who like was hardcore into collecting shot glasses. I don't know how many he has now.
01:19:05
Speaker
But I would contribute to that collection a lot anytime I went somewhere he hadn't been. I would get him some shot glasses. Yeah. because like cool one That's another really good one where it's like economically...
01:19:17
Speaker
Makes a ton of sense. um And then you can easily display them. They don't take up a lot of space. um Amusement Insider has a really nice, like in his kitchen, he has a really nice display cupboard for shot glasses and he collects shot glasses. He has some really cool ones.
01:19:36
Speaker
um I feel like every time I go to his house, I fight over using one.
01:19:44
Speaker
And I'm always like, I want to pick a good one from the collection and it yeah but shot glasses are a good one so fun fact with thomas i actually first started talking to him because of shot glasses he was in one of the other facebook groups i'm in one of the facebook groups i'm in and he had been at cedar point couldn't find a magnum shot glass and i just happened to find one so i bought it and messaged him and ended up mailing it to him
01:20:19
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. How sweet. So
Theme Park T-Shirt Quality & Pricing
01:20:22
Speaker
it's funny it's funny that he put he answers that with shot glasses because that's actually how I first started talking to him. That's a very sweet story.
01:20:32
Speaker
and There's another one for ah magnets from Kim and Dex. and ah They're easy to keep up with and almost everyone has them. I have a magnet board with every park we visited. We also do shirts for our favorite parks and coasters if they are well done.
01:20:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It seems like the common theme with the shirts are if they're well done slash minimalistic and if they're good quality. yeah So we still we'll still like run over um the other responses we got, but it seems like that's a very common.
01:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Brambo said, who looks for quality? If a shirt looks awesome, but ends up being poorly made, I'll usually pass. Yeah, very valid. Another thing is um price, because I remember I had a tweet that I posted one time for a shirt at Busch Gardens.
01:21:21
Speaker
Oh, I've got that one on my list as well. Oh, you do? Where they had the price tag on there, and I think it was like, wasn't it like $60? It was something absurd. And we go up there. Oh, it gets worse, Jen.
01:21:36
Speaker
We go up there, they scan it, and they give Allison, oh, that'll be $75. way. like, uh, actually, there's there's a price tag on here, because we noticed almost all of them had the price cut off of the tag.
01:21:53
Speaker
And we found the one that was her size with the price still on it. And we take it up there, she's like... Oh, actually, that's she's like, that's not the right that's not the right price. And we watched her take a pair of scissors and cut the price off while we were there. That not the shirt that thinking of.
01:22:09
Speaker
Funny enough, that was a different shirt. it was a That was a Gwazi one. yeah I'm thinking of um this one. where they were thats the That's the one we were talking about. No, I think there was a different shirt that... It was like an Iron Gwazi one that they did the ah cut tag thing.
01:22:25
Speaker
See, that's so wild. like This is a whole different... thought for a whole different podcast, but, like, it's so wild to see how that park has changed. yeah I used to love buying merch at that park, because as a pass holder, I would get, like, I have 1,500 Gwazi shirts, because I spent, like, 15, 20 bucks on them, and...
01:22:46
Speaker
i and like I bought a million of them. They used to be the best. like ah That park... i I miss that park in its prime almost every waking day. still have my pass that I bought like back in 2021.
01:23:03
Speaker
Because it's cheap enough to just keep it going. As long as you use it twice a year. Once or twice year. so this is And you use the parking... Yeah.
01:23:14
Speaker
This is the year that I finally ditched it because I waited an hour in line for Gwazi when it was a switchback and a half full. I still... I also keep it because I still have that 40 or 50% discount.
01:23:28
Speaker
I still have the grandfathered-in discount. Yeah. i I just... I can't justify it. I don't have any... I don't really have any desire to go... Williamsburg's a little different and sometimes SeaWorld.
01:23:40
Speaker
But also, everyone has free tickets. So, like... that's fair i have like a collection of people that i i just beg for their friend ticket like yeah like bush gardens and sea world like they've gotten to the point where it is hard to buy merch yeah because of the price gouging like all of their so all of their nano coasters You go to any of the Cedar Fair Six Flags parks, if they're the non-color cutouts or the regular nano coasters, they're like $35. You go to any of the Seas parks and they're wanting like $50.
01:24:22
Speaker
fifty bucks Yeah, that's crazy. So basically to the point where your discount brings it back down to what the other parks are normally charging.
01:24:33
Speaker
Yeah. and Yeah, it's just, it's it's sad. It's very sad. That park is... It's very unfortunate. We're getting off. We're getting so... Jen's about to fall asleep.
01:24:44
Speaker
yes Guys, I'm laying in bed right now.
01:24:50
Speaker
It's fine. Everything's fine. um
01:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, we're getting and we just get very sidetracked. Yeah, I'm just going to go
Unique Park Collectibles
01:24:59
Speaker
through and pick random comments. Hoppaman said I've been collecting cups and magnets. Another call for magnets and shirts from time to time. Also totally digging the color changing cups they're selling at Kings Island. Got Mystic Tempers and Orion last night.
01:25:10
Speaker
We have all of those in our house and we use them very regularly. Those are go to cups for us. They sound very nice. They're very nice. They're cute. They're color changing with temperature.
01:25:24
Speaker
Oh, I love that. It's always just a random draw of what coaster somebody gets whenever they're here. i usually end up doing the Mystic one because it's my favorite at the park. Yeah, that would make sense.
01:25:37
Speaker
um Another one with um reference to magnets. Thrilledography says my go-to merch purchases are t-shirts and magnets. Probably 90% of my wardrobe consists of park coaster shirts.
01:25:51
Speaker
The product must mention the park and or the ride in the park and at least be obviously or at least be obviously from there. I will never understand why people buy generic crap at the park.
01:26:02
Speaker
that they can get everywhere else like yeah less money so i know i thought it was hilarious one time and i was at six flags over georgia and i found a six flags fiesta texas shirt for sale that's incredible of course i bought it i had never been to fiesta texas at the time yeah but you bought it at i did i thought it was funny i thought it was funny last year one of the top there's the top thrill to uh keychain i bought They must use the same factory as planet Hollywood. Cause it had a planet Hollywood tag on it.
01:26:32
Speaker
but Oh, that's amazing. remember that. Yeah. think that's part of the main reason I actually bought that one too. yeah It kind of goes with like the typo shirts that I find. yeah Just, you know, random little silly things like that.
01:26:46
Speaker
Limited edition. Yeah. um guinness and scotch said why is it so hard to find cute women's tank tops or women's shirts for roller coasters uh pleasantly surprised to find good ones for time traveler so i bought two um this is why i do have a red bubble store and i have like specifically i try to make cute little heart designs for different coasters um and you can get them in tank tops for what it's worth i made one i know it says talent at dorney park specifically for jen Oh my god, I forgot about it. I was supposed to order it.
01:27:16
Speaker
yeah just Just a little cute font and then like hearts and colors themed to the coaster. So if that's something you're interested in, maybe I should link that at some point more. um And i need to do more of those too.
01:27:29
Speaker
Guinness and Scotch also said, i also love getting Christmas ornaments from parks and favorite coasters, but sometimes have to resort to buying a keychain and turning it into an ornament. I've done the same. I have like Terran like amulet kind of thing.
01:27:41
Speaker
I don't know what it was supposed to be, but I turned it into an ornament.
01:27:48
Speaker
don't even remember. I just thought it was cool. I got it. Well, yeah, because I don't put Christmas decorations up because of you. No, it's yeah because apparently we're not allowed to have Christmas before a Thanksgiving, loser.
01:28:01
Speaker
It's actually because of Nemi. Yeah. no ah like That a little terror would destroy that tree. I i have a little two-foot tree that I got for um coaster ornaments. um I'll find a place to put that up or something where Nemi can't get to it.
01:28:15
Speaker
Yeah, you gotta tape it to the table. Not even that. Invert it from the ceiling. Invert it from the ceiling for the Inverted Creative Podcast. I think inverted.
01:28:27
Speaker
Exactly. Um... Okay, we have another, i feel like a lot of t-shirt ones. So we have Brayden saying, I always look for well-designed t-shirts. I think most ride shirts are terribly designed.
01:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, a little tacky. That's okay. Yeah, like I can't do ones that have like just giant friggin graphics on it. It just like, it's a sensory thing. I don't like feeling that on my back.
01:28:52
Speaker
Yeah. will definitely stray away from those. And they're also just not great designs a lot of the time. Yeah, there are some that are good qualities. Like, have a twisted timber one that has a big graphic on the back, but the quality of the graphic is so good that I don't feel it when I'm wearing it. It's probably one of my favorite coaster shirts.
01:29:15
Speaker
I know. So, Sarah, we'll get to the rest of Sarah's comment. She left some novels for us, um but said, I mostly collect park shirts. I like when they aren't so flashy. Like, the Voltron shirts are cool. Yeah, the Voltron shirts.
01:29:27
Speaker
There's like two main Voltron shirts. And i don't have either of them. Because the one of them is. That's actually good quality. Is like a white tan shirt. That I think you have Jen.
01:29:38
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't like white shirts like that. And then there's a dark shirt. Which I would totally get. But the graphic on that one is just like crappy. Yeah, that's actually why I chose the white one. Yeah, it's like that iron-on kind of... Yeah, really like cheaply made graphic. Yeah, I'm like, I can't justify buying this.
01:29:55
Speaker
I will say that my Voltron shirt... like And this is... I think Taylor Bybee's held up even worse, but um the Voltron shirts did not hold up very well. Mine is starting to peel, and Taylor said... like Taylor had Joey buy him a new one, I believe, because...
01:30:12
Speaker
it was like completely peeled um which is really unfortunate but they are really good graphic shirts yeah like design wise they're fantastic but you gotta to have the the quality i will say the 50th anniversary shirt that i bought that thing's up really well oh my god you wear that all the time you you have the do you have the dark blue one yeah with like you want me to tell you something that might make you really mad what's that I guess because the 50th anniversary is almost over. They put all of those on sale. Like the last day I was at Yoruba Park.
01:30:48
Speaker
Ask how much I paid for it. How much? $8. 8 euros. I might need to have Joey grab me one of those and you bring it back next time. Maybe two.
01:31:01
Speaker
Because that is like one of my favorite shirts. Yeah. it It was either 8 12. I'm going to say 12 just to be safe. But I'm pretty sure we paid 8. It was like...
01:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, we paid like nothing. But I agree, that shirt is ah a really good shirt. yeah He wore that when he proposed. I did. We'll we'll chat later. i might have to have Joey get me one or two of those.
01:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, Joey has ah has an assignment of things to bring back for me. Strope waffles, books from the Netherlands, frickin' Del Broachas.
01:31:40
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:31:43
Speaker
um But yeah, those ones are very good. We have another... I'm going to go into Sarah's next one too. um Because we just talked about ornaments.
01:31:54
Speaker
I love the roller coaster ornaments they sold at the parks last year. Specifically the Glass Sphere ones. I bought two of them. Iron Radler and
Sentimental & Tacky Merchandise
01:32:02
Speaker
New Texas Giant. I also randomly starting collect started collecting CDs from parks in Europe. I think if parks are really proud of their soundtracks, they should start making more CDs and vinyls. I also think the books that they have at some of the European parks are cool.
01:32:15
Speaker
Oh, I'm excited about this comment. um the ah The merch for Dance Macabre is top tier. Ride Squishmallows will always be my fave. I wish they would bring back the original ones sold at like Legacy Cedar Fair parks that had the ride names on them because the new ones are kind of generic.
01:32:33
Speaker
I am also way too obsessed with Disney ears and lounge flies.
01:32:38
Speaker
Yeah. I agree on the Squishmallows. I definitely have some ah coaster specific Squishmallows. I have two different Fury ones. Yeah, I had the Talon one, but R.I.P.
01:32:53
Speaker
have the Yeti ball from Expedition Everest. That thing's cute. Yeah. had that one since college.
01:33:00
Speaker
I love this. Sorry, go ahead. Disney ears. Anytime I go to Disney, I make a point to get ears. I know, ah Mike, when we went to Disneyland, you saw me on a mission to find the perfect pair of ears to wear that day.
01:33:12
Speaker
Yeah. like you remember that I was so particular. I had like three in my hands. I'm like, I don't know which one to get.
01:33:20
Speaker
Yeah, Disney ears are a good one. i They hurt my head so bad. But I did lounge flies for a while. I had a lot of lounge flies at one point. I never got into lounge flies. They're just so small. Oh, I think they're like the perfect park bag. Like, that's my go-to park bag size.
01:33:37
Speaker
But...
01:33:40
Speaker
Yeah, they're good ones. I love the mention of the European soundtracks and books because I think that's something that the Europe parks do so well. um We already talked pretty heavily about the books, but like their soundtracks too, like a lot of the well-themed parks in Europe, they really do put a lot into their soundtracks. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
01:34:04
Speaker
And selling that as a CD or a vinyl is so smart. Like, you would be literally sitting there. I mean, they might have it. I don't know. But, like, you'd be sitting there listening to Taryn's music on loop all day. i mean, Allison does that daily, probably.
01:34:22
Speaker
That is how we manifested a trip to Fantasia Land. Yeah. 23. cluetime soundtraing And then last year we manifested a trip to Europa Park by listening to the soundtrack to that park.
01:34:40
Speaker
And then I got in on our contract on our way to Winter Chill Out last year. And we booked our flights like two days later. Yeah, because we said if flights drop under $600, we'll do it. And then they dropped under $600 and everyone was like, by bye, bye, bye.
01:34:56
Speaker
Oops. All Europe trips. Yeah. More reason for me to post this ah Switzerland vlog. hello Where did it go? So Ethan had a ah comment I wanted to read out.
01:35:10
Speaker
He said, I'm not a big park merch collector myself. I feel like I said that weird. I'm not a big park merch collector myself unless it means something sentimental to me. For example, I worked at Raptor in 2021 and I have a Squishmallow and shirt of that ride.
01:35:23
Speaker
And then for my first Europe trip, I knew I had to get a Hyperia shirt because it's so good. I think the most important factor in buying merch is getting something that relays back to a memory that means a lot to you. I really like that.
01:35:35
Speaker
I feel like everybody that was on our Europe trip ended up with a Hyperia shirt. Yeah. And then like everybody at Lennon Maki got a Tiger shirt. Because we all wear them on the same days now.
01:35:49
Speaker
Yeah, there're there's usually, anytime we have like a Buzz Bars meetup now, there's just like a non-zero chance that multiple people will be wearing a Hyperia shirt. I love that.
01:36:02
Speaker
mean, when we were at Holiday World last weekend, I think three different people had Hyperia shirt with them on the trip, but none of them had the exact same one.
01:36:14
Speaker
Right. They were all different.
01:36:22
Speaker
um yeah amazing yeah it's like for my helix hoodie like they didn't have a lot of merch but darn it i loved helix and i loved lisa berg and i wanted this hoodie and i paid good money for it that's me with the 600 talon shirts that are tacky like they're just tacky and i wear them all the time i ended up when we were in europe this year I did buy a few shirts, but I bought a bunch of lanyards as well.
01:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, you really did. I don't use them a ton, but it was an easy way to it was an easy way to get some kind of souvenir without taking up a ton of space.
01:37:06
Speaker
Yeah. know I know I bought one at Legoland. ah bought one at... I think I bought two of them at Lisaburg. Yeah. I bought a few of them, yeah.
01:37:20
Speaker
I have a Busch Gardens one that I have for my like daily keys or whatever. just got a bunch of coaster track on it. I'll usually get one on like group trips that have like ah like a name badge kind of thing, like especially for our Buzzbars trips. A lot of times I'll get like a cute park-themed lanyard just to go with the badge as a little souvenir.
01:37:39
Speaker
I've got a really cute like kids one from Hershey Park that was just like a bunch of cutesy doodles on it. Yeah. I forgot about that one. It's so cute. yeah Most of those are downstairs by you, Mike.
01:37:52
Speaker
I see them. Yes. um Laurel had some unique ones, too. Yeah, I actually meant to look up what are cats meows.
01:38:04
Speaker
They're like the wood cutouts. Have you seen like the wood cutouts where they show like a scene? There's like a I'd have to find it again.
01:38:15
Speaker
But yeah, they they're like some wood cutouts and I think they kind of tell some of the history of what it is maybe on the back. I know on the back side it's got some text.
01:38:26
Speaker
Cats Meow Village? And I think this is it.
01:38:33
Speaker
Newest national parks. so For context, Laurel said, Cats meow because they have a hidden Roscoe or Nemi in each one and are decently priced and cute to display. This may be a niche Ohio, Pennsylvania thing because I only have cats meow from Cedar Point and Waldemere.
01:38:49
Speaker
Yeah,
Cats Meow & Nostalgic Collectibles
01:38:50
Speaker
I've never even heard of these and i I like they're so smart, but I also really, really love that they have cats hidden in them. Like, yeah, literally every single one I'm on their website, they have a black cat hidden in them.
01:39:04
Speaker
Oh, I'm looking it. I just sent the link to the Magnum one. Or Gemini. But I'm looking at it. Yeah, I see the little black cat. Yeah, the black cat is hidden in every single one. Like, there's a little Christmas snowman with a black cat in his pocket.
01:39:19
Speaker
Like, I've seen those at the park before. I did not know about the little ah
01:39:26
Speaker
the little hidden cat in it now. Or until now. Yeah, that's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing that, Laurel. We love that one. I just like that it went on their website and I see it. It's Mealoween season.
01:39:39
Speaker
It's Mealoween season. It's so cute. Most of them on Cedar Point, they're pretty much pretty much all of them on Cedar Fair's online store are Cedar Point, except for they did have a 50th for Kings Island.
01:39:57
Speaker
Yeah, I found one on their website for um one of the piers in New Jersey. So it looks like they do a couple. But it's neat. like They kind of just have like a little description on the back of them.
01:40:11
Speaker
That's cute. Yeah, like the Kings Island one, it shows the the Eiffel Tower and I Street with the fireworks going off for the 50th. And then it kind of...
01:40:23
Speaker
talks about It just says, since 1972, guests have known King's Island as a place where unforgettable memories are made. Throughout the 2022 season, King's Island presents a special summer-long celebration full of new experience but experiences that tell you the stories of the park's first 50 years.
01:40:42
Speaker
So it just kind of tells you what the picture is of and what's going on in it. It's kind of neat. that's very neat. it's cute. yeah that's very yeah Look at that. We learned something new about merch today.
01:40:55
Speaker
Thank you, Laurel. Yeah, we did. Thank you for sharing this one, Laurel. I love it. Oh, Roscoe. and then she did continue and say, press pennies because they're small, easy to store, and expensive. In a collection I started as a child, I have press pennies from Geago Lake to Velocicoaster.
01:41:12
Speaker
I like merch that is functional, cute to display, or nostalgic, and at a low price point. Yeah. Yes, all very valid.
01:41:24
Speaker
All very, very valid. They're good points. um
01:41:31
Speaker
We also have... um Brandon, he said, I love merch. Unique coaster shirts that aren't copy and paste from other parks.
01:41:42
Speaker
Coaster dynamics and nano coasters. The rare case when parks sell ride... Parts. Sorry. Typo on
Collaborations & Ride Part Merchandise
01:41:49
Speaker
my part. That's right. Parts. Defunct ride merch.
01:41:53
Speaker
um third party collabs homage charlie um charlie hustle made to thrill jack and sage etc yeah made to thrill is another one who that does incredible work um and i love seeing their stuff in the books between the the uh shirts and the posters they yeah they do a ton of great stuff yeah and they've expanded into like magnets and pins and a whole bunch of stuff yeah Yeah, their designs are so... They're really good. And then we talked about how majority... They're absolutely incredible.
01:42:28
Speaker
Shirts as well. Yeah, this is a good comment. I also... yeah more on the defunct ride merch. I think more parks should really take it advantage of that nostalgia.
01:42:40
Speaker
i love when parks sell ride parts. Blackpool had a ton of stuff. Yeah, Blackpool was... There was way we could have gotten anything. Blackpool had so much... And they didn't treat it as like such precious cargo like a lot of them do where they keep it under lock and key. ah You could just walk up. They had a bin of parts.
01:43:01
Speaker
And you could just dig through and see what all they had, what all interested you. I wish we could have gotten some. I wish we had more time in that store. We were on a time crunch. but Yeah, they had ah had one that was like 350 pounds.
01:43:18
Speaker
But it was like a neat little... It's like little platform with a chunk of rail from the big one. Yeah.
01:43:28
Speaker
Yeah. They sell all kinds of stuff. i'm looking at their I'm looking at their site right now. You can buy a big one turnstile for almost 900 pounds. That's crazy. Yeah. like I mean, it's a great way to kind of make a little bit of extra money when you have to do maintenance.
01:43:50
Speaker
ye so Yeah, valid. And people will buy it. Oh, for sure. i mean, King's Island is a good indicator of that.
01:44:01
Speaker
but like Yeah, the Vortex. The Vortex sliver. yeah The Eiffel Tower that had a chunk of Eiffel Tower paint with it.
01:44:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy. That's not why I bought it. I bought it for the the Eiffel Tower, but I got a chunk of paint with it. That's
Quality & Variety in Park Merch
01:44:26
Speaker
pretty fun. um Yeah, people definitely buy them. It makes sense.
01:44:34
Speaker
um We can pop back to the rest of Sarah's comment. um She says, I think the most important factor in whether I will buy Park ah buy merch at a park is if they have it for the ride I want and if it doesn't have cringy phrases on it like I survived blank I was upset that they didn't have any furious bako shirts at Port Aventura I understand that not everyone likes that ride but it was the most interesting theming in the whole park in my opinion So it seemed like a missed opportunity.
01:45:04
Speaker
I also won't buy a shirt if has the same generic style and cartoon on it. I feel like it's fine one park to have the same style shirt for a lot of the rides. Like BGT shirts that have the logo in the pocket and the front and then the artwork on the back um for all the rides are really good.
01:45:19
Speaker
I just don't like when everything is the same across different parks because I don't want... um two of pretty much the exact same shirt just with different names on it if that makes sense. I think that parks should also have a variety of colors if possible.
01:45:32
Speaker
I actually think that Time Traveler and Ride to Happiness have the best quality or variety of colors to choose from. Maybe it's just a mock extreme thing ah spinner thing.
01:45:44
Speaker
Ride to Happiness didn't really have a whole lot of merch I felt. Or maybe I didn't look at it because it was so expensive. Yeah, most of the merch was kind of generic. It was decent, but yeah, the when they want 50 or 60 euros just for a t-shirt with a 2 inch by like maybe 8 inch logo on it that pretty much just says The Ride to Happiness on a black shirt, that's excessive.
01:46:17
Speaker
Yeah. Which, we know why. Yeah, it's all because of the licensing. Yeah. But, yeah it's still disappointing. um When she talks about the different colors and varieties, it brought me back to like... ah BGT merch hasn't been good for a really long time.
01:46:34
Speaker
But when Gwazi opened and like right after it opened, I feel like they did a fantastic job of offering the same or similar shirts in multiple colors. um First one coming to mind is that... ah do you guys know like neon shirt?
01:46:50
Speaker
Iron Gwazi shirt that like a bunch of people had? They had it in... Yeah, they had it in neon pink. Like neon yellow, orange, pink. Yep, they had it in yellow, orange, pink, and green.
01:47:01
Speaker
So it was like a color for everyone. um Yeah, just ah like fantastic idea. um So i I agree. I really like when parks do that.
01:47:13
Speaker
I also have to comment that i I too don't really love the cringy faces unless it's super duper looper. i will die on the hill that the I survive the super duper looper shirts are like the best Tercey Park shirts.
01:47:27
Speaker
Just because, like, I don't know, it was my first. It's got history to it because they've had that shirt for so long now. And they just keep selling it and selling it. It's because it's so, like, in my area of the States, like, that, if you go to a park and you do your first coaster that goes upside down, it's super duper looper.
01:47:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a rite of passage. It really is like such a rite of passage. And then i love that they have the adult ones too, because it's like, if you do it, if your kid does it for the first time, like, you know, kids eat that up. Like if their parent is going to wear one too, like, or maybe it was their uncle's first time on it too. So now they have survived shirts. Like, I don't know. I love it for that ride, but I agree 90% time it is so cringy.
01:48:21
Speaker
Okay. Two last comments that we haven't hit yet, so we'll hit those last two real quick. ah Cedar Kev. I really only buy merch for rides or parks that I like, even if something else looks cooler. My one comment on this is there was a shirt at Thorpe Park that I was absolutely obsessed with. Everything about it was gorgeous and perfect, except it was a Colossus shirt.
01:48:43
Speaker
It was like a spirit jersey and it was like purple and gold and it was beautiful. I remember that one. I refused to buy it because I hated that ride. Yeah, I've been there too. I i agree.
01:48:55
Speaker
um It's got to be a ride I enjoy. i won't buy merch on a ride I don't like. The one exception I have to that is i bought a hot like bright tie-dye mind eraser shirt back in the day.
01:49:11
Speaker
Because it was just so obnoxious that I had to have it. Yeah. I will also say that my first Cedar Point shirt ever was a Steel Vengeance shirt. so I also am not a fan of when they give great merch.
01:49:27
Speaker
like Like you're talking about to terrible rides. Like you know the Iron Dragon hoodie that John Mike bought? Yeah. Like it's...
01:49:39
Speaker
It's got like a super cool, just like very like, it's almost like a kind of like a Japanese art style dragon on the back of it.
01:49:52
Speaker
It's so cool, but it's, you know, Iron Dragon. I love Iron Dragon, but I get it. If you don't. I just sent y'all a picture of that mind eraser shirt that I'm talking about.
01:50:06
Speaker
So obnoxious. um And the last one, Chris Leonard said, usually collect pins and nano coasters at parks. I'll get shirts if it meets the criteria of being good quality and subtle enough to wear with casual daily clothes outside of a theme park setting. Six f Flags parks have a hard time with this one.
01:50:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, some of those are a little. Six Flags loves their very generic...
01:50:31
Speaker
17 different shirts that all say Six Flags over Georgia in the same text, but it's a different color. Yeah. And then they copy that exact same design to every other Six Flags park and just interchange the name.
01:50:49
Speaker
Yeah. it thinking about the different colors, though, Kings Island also does that. They have the Kings Island logo in like 20 different color variations. Yeah.
01:51:01
Speaker
I get having one shirt like that, but I think that Six Flags does it with multiple. Yeah. yeah like They just copy-paste all their designs across all the different parks, and it's just kind of not good repetition.
01:51:16
Speaker
Yeah. At least like repeat something good. Yeah. Like, yeah, the the Kings Island ones are because it's the classic Kings Island logo. the old The retro logo. It just it's a very popular design. And there's so many color options that they have. There really are.
01:51:33
Speaker
Four different color hoodie options, which I appreciate because. I can get one that, you know, suits me and the one that I've been, you know, in love with this year, the color combination. I think it's like a charcoal one with like red text on it. Have not gotten it yet.
01:51:49
Speaker
yeah color yet Yeah, there's still time this season. I don't anticipate buying that. But maybe now I need to because my favorite hoodie has a hole in it.
01:52:02
Speaker
Yeah. Poor Nemi. My elbow's been cold now. Not the elbow, not your...
01:52:13
Speaker
Is what it's called? Yes. Not your weenus. All right. June's
Listener Engagement & Conclusion
01:52:21
Speaker
getting slap happy. We probably need to hop off here before we hit the two hour mark.
01:52:28
Speaker
There's been a lot to talk about today though. yeah Yes, there has. Really and appreciate all of the comments on this one. We loved hearing from everyone on what they collect. yeah Why you collect it.
01:52:40
Speaker
It's very... eye-opening. I'm going to need to need people to send pictures of their collections. um um I might do a call on ah socials for this after the episode drops on Monday.
01:52:53
Speaker
We'll have people send that and repost some things. Yeah. Merch people really gravitate toward. me Add it to your story and we'll repost it.
01:53:04
Speaker
We want to see them all. We just got to tag us. so Yeah, tag us. Yeah, i I would also very much like to see people's collections. Okay, I have a note for that.
01:53:19
Speaker
Very good. Yeah, very fun episode. Yeah. yeah
01:53:25
Speaker
So, I think that brings us to the end of the episode, guys. Not me straight up waiting for you to say that.
01:53:34
Speaker
I usually get roasted for saying it. I've just gotten used to it at this point. I just accept it
01:53:41
Speaker
But Mike, thank you for joining us even though you absolutely are not a big merch person. Totally not a big merch person. I hate merch. We probably could have found a better guest for this one. He doesn't have anything. Yeah, I too i have nothing.
01:53:59
Speaker
yeah oh yeah Thank you for your contributions. and Stop spending all of our money on merch. No promises. Because we literally talk about getting a new sweatshirt.
01:54:12
Speaker
True.
01:54:15
Speaker
um go follow the inverted creative YouTube and follow our Instagram. And I, we, we have a Twitter, go ahead and follow it, but I make no guarantees about how much I'm posting on there.
01:54:27
Speaker
Yeah. And keep an eye out if you're listening and don't, and haven't actively participated and maybe want to participate, keep an eye out on the stories where the call for questions goes up, um, about a day or two before we record, we do put up a call for questions.
01:54:43
Speaker
or in this case comments um and we love to hear from anyone of our listeners so yeah keep an eye out for that gonna want to keep growing the podcast yeah which reminds me i still need to work on patreon stuff because you can get even more inverted creative podcasts once we have that up yeah it'll be soon guys we'll get your doubt for you allison's been busy That's okay. After the YouTube launch and the got a couple things up, then we'll focus on Patreon. Yep.
01:55:16
Speaker
It's coming. We promise. Please stand by. Yes. But in the meantime, remember to hashtag ThinkInverted
01:55:27
Speaker
see you next episode. Bye, guys.
01:55:45
Speaker
la
01:55:50
Speaker
Bye.