Approximately around the time that the infamous giant Sorcerer Mickey hat finally left Hollywood Studios, the iconic Tower of Terror finally became, well, an
icon. With the hat gone and the Great Movie Ride on its way out (albeit with Runaway Railway to occupy the space later), Tower of Terror became the iconic building representing Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Being an icon brings the benefit of Disney producing a lot more merch of the building in question. Therefore, in honor of this blog's fourth birthday (and because the pandemic kept most parks rightly closed and thus left less to write about otherwise), I thought I'd highlight some blog "birthday gifts" in the form of new Tower merch I found this year. Note that I'm on the West Coast, so merch here is a rare and special find worth noting, unlike how it might be for Disney World fans who still have the ride!
First off, back in January, Disney released a line of blind bag plushies of park icons as part of its "Wishables" blatant cash grab plush line. I'm really not a fan of blind bags, especially ones that are so expensive ($10 for a handheld-sized plush, really?), but I was determined to get a Tower one! Thankfully a cast member helped me feel a bunch of bags (this was pre-Covid, obviously) to find the correct plush on the first try.
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| Pictured: The way to make me actually buy a blind bag item, I guess |
One thing I noticed was how the building was listed on the back of the packaging: "Hollywood Tower Hotel" instead of "Tower of Terror", even though all of the other buildings had their normal attraction names. Eventually I noticed that this was something of a trend regarding more recent merchandising, advertising it by the name of the hotel rather than the name of the attraction. I don't really have any reasoning for this; one commenter on a past post suggested it began when Disney started marketing certain home goods souvenirs (like robes) under the HTH name to make it seem like you'd bought those things from the "real" hotel. However, that wouldn't explain why the HTH name extended to more "out of universe" merchandising like toy depictions of the ride building.
Speaking of toy depictions of the ride building:
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| Pictured: the way to get me to eat at a McDonald's even though In N Out is down the street |
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| Side view with hidden Mickey |
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| Rear view |
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| Other side view, which has no hidden Mickey |
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| Bottom of car-- note the Hollywood Tower Hotel title |
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| Closeup of Mickey and his odd side-smile |
In November-December McDonald's started offering a "train" of Disney World vehicles and buildings to promote Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. The #6 car was the Tower--er, I mean, The Hollywood Tower Hotel. Both the logo on the bottom of the car and the toy's packaging all listed it as the HTH at all times, never by its actual attraction name. It is shorter to write than "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror", so I guess I'm fine with the marketing change. I'm actually impressed by the level of detail on such a small and stylized depiction of the building--the sign is accurately depicted on the front, it features the "boxes" on both the front and back of the building, and there's a hidden Mickey on the side! As the car rolls along, a side-smiling Mickey Mouse jumps up and down through the top of the building.
Even though McDonald's toys technically use the blind bag model, it was much more tolerable because it 1) was cheaper than the Wishables by a LOT and 2) came with lunch. The other ride vehicles were pretty nice too, so I wasn't complaining about getting the "wrong" ones.
This last one was a real surprise to find... in fact, I didn't know it was being made available on the West Coast at all outside of online orders. It's the Tower of Terror ornament:
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| Front view, on the tree |
What's funny about this one is that, in many ways, it's the opposite of the other two entries on this list. Unlike the happy meal toy or wishables packaging, which have stylized depictions of the buildings but accurate renderings of the sign or the right building name, this has an incredibly detailed re-creation of the façade but puts the full title of the ride instead of the sign! Seriously, the time the designer would be most justified in using the "Hollywood Tower Hotel" name is the one time they don't use it!
Still, I absolutely love this ornament. The detail is incredible, and I love that the back has a "cutaway" showing scenes from the ride. I also feel lucky having found it; nobody else I know had mentioned seeing it outside of Disney Florida gift shops or the notoriously unreliable ShopDisney site. I even searched the rest of the store to see if there were any other stray Florida ornaments, or even other copies of this ornament (since mine has a minor paint flaw), but nope. This was literally the only non-Anaheim ride ornament in that store.
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| Rear view |
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| Rear diorama details |
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| Right side view |
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| Left side view |
That's all the Tower-specific merch I found this year. There were some other generic "Disney Parks" items that included Tower or Mission Breakout as part of a medley of park icons, but those didn't seem specific enough to include. Amusingly, though, this Disney Parks ornament I found on the ShopDisney site placed the Tower of Terror next to California Adventure's Fun Wheel. I did a double-take, wondering if it was a misprint or old merch, until I realized it was generic merch featuring both Florida and California park icons.
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| Screenshot from the ShopDisney site, since I didn't buy this one |
And that wraps up another blog birthday post! I do have more "serious" content planned in the future: keep watching for more posts about themeing, as well as more insight into the DisneySea Tower of Terror!
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