*Rawr!*

[furtech]

I'm a sucker for Egyptian horror stuff...so went on a fool's errand to Magic Mountain...Rant cut because I'm past foaming at the mouth about it. If you're interested in a mini-review about MM's "Fright Fest," or some cute stuffies, read on!


So.

After seeing an ad for Six Flags Magic Mtn's "Fright Fest" featuring Anubis and a bunch of Egyptian mummies and stuff, I decided to make a special trip to check it out. This says a lot: I am not a rollar-coaster fanatic, and without the thrill rides Magic Mountain is a hole. I called their information office and asked which was the Egyptian/mummy maze. After much confusion, they tell me, "Dead Man's Bog."


Bullet points:
* First bad memory resurrected: MM's parking (their expensive "close" parking) is still about a quarter mile away from the entrance. And nothing interesting is near the entrance...
* I trek to the ass-end of the park to see the "Parade of the Dead."
* Parade is lame. A dozen "zombies" and "Lady Vampires" and three hearses. Two skeletons. Woo.
* The "Dead Man's Bog is at the other ass-end of the park. I hike over there and get in line.
* Forty minutes gets me: a sub-par-charity-haunted-maze. Literally just dark with fake smoke and "zombies" going "boogedy" at people. Lasts almost three minutes. Nnnnrgh!
*I run to the "Brutal Planet." Not a bad maze; I see no mummies, though. Thirty more minutes of my life gone (25 for the line, 5 for the maze).
*Run to Samurai Summet (who puts hills in an amusement park?!?) to race through "Willoughby's Mansion." Fortunately cardiac hill deters many patrons: the line is mercifully short. No mummies again. Average maze. Event-coordinators have no idea where mummies are: "You're thinking of Knotts!"
*Race back to Zor's for a late dogwalk and to rant!
*Further phone calls result in: "The commercial was possibly a mistake," or "The Egyptian stuff might be in one small room in "Carnage E. Hall." Great: the one maze whose description made it the least-likely candidate besides the clown maze. I miss my "insider" contacts! (Hi, Jimmy!)

There were actually a couple of interesting stuffies on the midway: the blue (and red and purple) hyenas and the snaggle-toothed wolves! I wish you could just bribe the hawkers and buy one! I'm lousy at throwing games.

Comments

[silabub.livejournal.com]

I went to the Fright Fest at Magic Mountain the Halloween before last ( my Junior year at LMU ) and it was major lousy suckage. I made the mistake of getting there early in the day, so I had to waste my time around the park until it actually got dark for the Fright Fest thing to start.

And yes, that Samurai Summit SUCKS. I hate that friggin hill and going up- its so unbelieveably steep. They really should have leveled the entire property before building an amusement park on it.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

They should level the whole thing *now*! Fortunately I called to see when the Fright Fest stuff opened, so the pain was minimized...

[desertcoyote.livejournal.com]

Ugh- I hate crappy Halloween "haunted" houses and whatnot... so many of them are lame- rarely, I've managed to find a good one (I think *once*!), but mostly they're not worth it. :P
Those hyenas were sooo cute! I'm pleasantly surprised to see such cute ones made! :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I still want to go to "Haunted Verdun Manor," a werewolf-themed haunted house with *great* props and werewolfy-things!

I actually bought one of these from some street vendor last year! He's big: I'm thinking of re-stuffing him with something other than those annoying foam-bean-pellets.

[shadowolf.livejournal.com]

Alas, Verdun has closed down, but it was great, honest!

As for all them great plush- get in touch with Play-by-Play Ace/Acme (on 6th St?) in the warehouse district. They will sell the same plush you see in all the amusement parks to the public, though the minimum purchase is $100 or so- the super-sized ones are 30-40 dollars, and the medium ones are 8-12, depending on what you're looking for.

The showroom is a trip, like a department store of cartoon animals- though on my last trip there, it must've been some site to see one guy sitting in his car with three 5' tall scoobies strapped into the passenger and back seats!

I was afraid of that...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Lance Pope's death still unsettles me. He'd had so many close calls before and survived them-- I wanted to try and get out to Verdun but never managed to coordinate the time and logistics. Hope the rest of the crew is doing all right.

Thanks for the tip on carny stuffies! I'm assuming this Play-by-Play is in L.A.'s downtown...? I'll check them out! Otherwise I'd spend a bazillion dollars to -not- win one!

Re: I was afraid of that...

[shadowolf.livejournal.com]

Lance Pope's death was quite unsettling, yes. As far as I know everyone's okay. Ysengrin's actually now in Northern California along with a couple other members of the Verdun crew, workin' on new projects and the like.

Play-by-Play is in Los Angeles, yep! Somewhere buried in a pile I have some of their flyers, but you can probably google them, they're a national company, I think their headquarters are in Texas, but that's from my fuzzy morning-memory right now.

Re: I was afraid of that...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

It seems that they've gone out of business...I'm sure someone else has taken over but I don't have that name. Google doesn't turn up anything after late 2000 and they're no longer listed on the stock market. Do you have the address? Maybe I can just drive by next time I'm down in the garment district.

Re: I was afraid of that...

[shadowolf.livejournal.com]

Drat. I haven't received a packet from them in awhile. I'll see if I can find the pamphlet for you.

[nerfcoyote.livejournal.com]

I never actually worked Fright Fest... I auditioned once, and I just wasn't scary enough. So, I ended up staffing the characters in the kids area for the "Harvest Games". Scruff E. was in charge of that area during his tenure there. I was usually Bugs. And because they kept the candy in the break room back there, I was pretty hyper on set thanks to the sugar rush. :)

Bugs can be scary...

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

when he wants ta.... :>

seriously tho... *ahem* Thanks for the update, furtech.. sorry it had to suck though ;P

I have never been to the Knott's one, even though I used to help with making some of the props long ago... and been thinking of maybe trying it out this year. Maybe.

How's that one?

Re: Bugs can be scary...

[nerfcoyote.livejournal.com]

Here's a pic of Bugs from 2001. Scary!

Re: Bugs can be scary...

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

OMG,.... :>
hehheh... actually, the Bugs looks pretty good to me...
The scary is the eye liner and mouth shape on Lola... 8|
*ulp*... fun pic tho!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I think you have to be a) violent-tended and b)a jerk (or both) in order to be a Fright Fest zombie. You're too bouncy and peppy: I'm sure the kids loved you! I'm still boggled at the intelligence of the staff...they need you two back!

All that sugar and Bugs was probably spazzy/ADD enough to be right on their level!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Those are hyenas? I thought they were Kougras!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I have no idea if they are hyenas or not: they have hyena-shaped ears and a canine shout and claws, but they also have stripes and it really is unlikely that someone would make a *hyena* for a pop-type stuffie. But they look more like hyenas than anything else (and weider things have been made into plush!).

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

They look enough like hyenas to me :) I want one!!
As for stranger things to be made into plushes...I have a nice plush mole..but never could find the naked mole-rat that I saw pics of :/

[furtech.livejournal.com]

What color and size? (large is about 24"; small is about 14")

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

Well, depending on cost, one of each. I'm pitiful when it comes to hyena/hyena looking plushes. I have to have one of each :P
I am also wondering if they re-released the large 12" plush hyenas that Disney sold in Walt Disney World for the original Lion King opening...I figured with TLK out on DVD that might be enough for them to re-release the plushes. Does anyone work near Disneyworld and can check on this? I should call them but last time I tried I got someone who didn't really check.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

You really want *9* of these? There are the three colors, and the two sizes...

Math...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

...er, *6* of these...

Re: Math...

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* naah..just one of each size. Now why one of each size is better than one of each color.I've no idea. O.o

Re: Math...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

One of each size: check. So-- what colors do you prefer? Or at least rank them in case they're got limited supplies.

Re: Math...

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

Blue then purple then red... I figure they can't be /too/ expensive because they are carnival prizes. Famous last words?
Westly saw the wolves and has the same problem with plush wolves as I have with hyenas..so..he wants one of the wolves too (black naturally) *laugh* I wonder how much they are. O.o I feel this is getting expensive *chuckles*

[kubo.livejournal.com]

12" hyena plushes? *dies* o__O I've never seen any disney related hyena plushes except for the beanies & the large Shenzi made by Applause. I think if I saw a large Disney manufactured hyena I'd be broke in no time :P Are there any photos of them around by chance? I'd love to at least see them. Also, Lance, those colored hyenas at the park are cute beyond all reason. *just drools* ^_o

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

I've seen the beanies and if you mean the Applause Shenzi with the plastic head..then yes... These I mean were at Walt Disney World only. They had them up on display and I believe they were for sale. I can't find any pictures of them what so ever I'm afraid. When I called the main gift shop there a year or so later the person seemed to know what I was talking about but was sure there were no more. I even spoke with a Disney store employee who was a TLK fan and seemed to know what I was speaking of too. Then again they could have just been on drugs and sharing my hallucination. O.O

[was1.livejournal.com]

Skorzy, myself and a couple of friends went to Fright Fest down at Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ a couple of years ago. We made the mistake of going the weekend before Halloween and it was mobbed. It was much more crowded than we'd ever seen it, even in the dead of summer! Plus, there was a heat wave, so it was 80+ degrees and humid, bleah :P I think we managed to get on a total of 5 or 6 rides that night, and missed out on the Halloween stuff.

On the plus side, we hit both Disneyland and Magic Mountain off-season, the weekend before Christmas last December and the crowds were amazing light. The kids weren't out from school yet, and it was cool enough to scare a lot of the Californians away ;)

And for Halloween amusement park fun, we like to hit Knoebels, a small family-owned park in PA for their fall coaster event. http://www.knoebels.com/ I've got some photos from last year at:
http://www.was1.net/Photos/2002/10-05-Knoebels/

[furtech.livejournal.com]

My sympathies! I -hate- crowds and traffic jams! And I consider amusement parks date-destinations rather than group fun: when I went with friends I always had to sit on the tandem rides with the other date-less loser! Horribly uncomfortable/not-fun trying to keep from getting too intimate on a rollercoaster! I only found out recently that they'll let you ride alone (they just don't encourage it because [*gasp*] it leaves an empty seat!).

[brokkentwolf.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see Islands of Adventure in FLA. They dress them up at night during Halloween Nights and it's supposed to be pretty cool. One of these days!

*I like muenster cheese*

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I'm *still* trying to find pictures of the Universal Florida halloween night's "Beastly Women" (or some-such title). They're all dressed up in Georgian gowns (big hoop-gowns) and have these neat-scary beast heads (pigs, wolves, etc.). I think Jimmy said he saw them once (but did not get a pic! Boo!).

I like sharp, aged cheeses and nasty blue, moldy ones! Meunster is for wimps.

[brokkentwolf.livejournal.com]

I'll keep it in mind when my muenster goes bad and moldy to save it for you. :)

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

AHHHH I want those werewolves @_@ I'm surprised they wouldn't let you buy one, did you try?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

No...I get the impression that they aren't allowed to do that. And Plan B (wait until someone wins one and make -them- an offer) wouldn't work because the carny there was a ghost town. I'm gonna try that warehouse place that Shadowolf mentioned...

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! If you do, see if you can get one of those hyena-kougras for me! :D

BTW, you need to tell me what you want for icons! User icons or mood icons? November's going to be pretty busy for me, with NaNoWriMo.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

What sizes/colors would you want?

Oh, and I'm working on the info for the icons...I should be able to email it out tomorrow! Thanks!

[redstorm.livejournal.com]

We don't have haunted houses etc in the UK.
In fact, we don't really have halloween. My friends and I are the only ones really who make an effort. We get as big a group as we can and dress up and go on a huge pub/club crawl around London. No-one else dresses up. We are especially loud and bouncy for the occasion ;)

Let me guess - this place and all promises of snaggle toothed wolves and blue hyenas will all be long gone by the time I come over, no?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

No halloween?!? Feh! This is the only really decent holiday the US has! A chance to dress up in goofy costumes, eat nasty candy and run over children in the dark with your car!


The stuffies should still be here...the crappy haunted houses will be long gone, tho' (but there're Anubises in the Universal Studios Mummy maze!). How's your throwing arm?

[redstorm.livejournal.com]

I'm getting the arm ready to go! Training starts now! The stuffies shall be mine! ;)

I'm looking forward to seeing 'nube in all his Universal Studios glory.

Must be cool being near a big attraction like that. I think there's three fun parks in the UK. I'm not near any.