Happy Weekend! Mine started off with a bang as my car was rear-ended by a huge pickup truck Wednesday morning, so it hasn’t been Thursday news day until today. Tonight at 5PM, we’re meeting up at the Original Trader Sam’s to do some mugging and talk and trade tiki mugs. Stop by and say hello.

Last night, MiceChatters got a sneak preview of Knott’s Berry Farm’s new dark ride adventure, Voyage to the Iron Reef. Despite the rain, people showed up and had a ball. The ride is simply fantastic! Today is the official opening day – expect crowds. Much of the queue is shaded, though, and completely worth the wait. After the preview, we learned a ton about the ride from the designers in the Charles M. Schulz Theater. Some lucky stiffs got to take home prizes, including a ride blaster. Norman Gidney has a full review of Iron Reef up today, please be sure to take a look.

On to the news!

Diamonds and Other Treasures

Last time, I told you about Hall D23. This time, I’m telling you about treasures by any other name, and that name is: “Walt Disney Archives Presents—Disneyland: The Exhibit”. This time, it’s on the show floor, with Parks, Imagineering and all of the other main attractions to visit. I always wondered why it was separate before. Also, this year, it’s just huge. 12,000 square feet, only the largest ever for the Walt Disney Archives at the D23 Expo. Rebecca Cline continues to share what Dave Smith built with Disney fans everywhere and we’re grateful. What we’ll get to see includes:

…themed areas that honor the park’s history, attractions, parades, and entertainment over the past six decades, including the construction of Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mickey Mouse Club at Disneyland, Club 33, and collectible merchandise, as well as the park’s iconic lands: Main Street, U.S.A., Fantasyland, Frontierland, New Orleans Square, Tomorrowland, and Critter Country/Bear Country. Each area will contain items from Disneyland’s past, including attraction vehicles, costumes, props, and even Audio-Animatronics® figures…among the more-than-300 items on exhibit, guests will be able to see Ticket No. 1, purchased by Roy O. Disney on July 18, 1955, the first day the park was open to the general public. Guests will see many pieces shown by the Archives for the first time, including early surveying equipment from the 1950s used in the construction of Disneyland, a prototype vehicle for the beloved Alice in Wonderland attraction, dancing ­monkey costumes used in the nighttime spectacular Fantasmic!, an early Autopia car, original artwork from Mickey Mouse Club Circus, the Abominable Snowman from the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which was replaced during the attraction’s recent enhancement, and an original pitch book full of colorful artwork that was used to sell Disneyland to prospective sponsors on the East Coast.” 

Yes, please. D23 Magazine is issuing a sort of companion piece to the exhibit, in honoring Disneyland’s 60th anniversary for their summer issue. They take a walk through the park with Imagineering Chief Creative Executive Bruce Vaughn and Legend/former Imagineering Chief/Disneyland Day One Cast Member Marty Sklar, talk about opening day ads, billboards and other paper collectibles, and popular foods today (turkey legs, Dole Whips, you know). Fellow Disney fan Leonard Maltin (I literally read his The Disney Films books to rags as a teen) shows us Tomorrowland, Ant Man and Inside/Out, J.B. Kaufman looks at Pinocchio, we look at the Disneyland Hotel, Ambassadors, Disney Weddings, and more. Looks like a great read while waiting to get into Hall D23!
, Fab Disney News – Iron, Diamonds and D23

Disney Springs Gets a Reggie Bar

Jock Lindsey’s Hangar is opening at Disney Springs. Think Taste Pilot’s Grill meets Indiana Jones. Jock was Indy’s pilot through several adventures, including at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Reggie is his pet snake. Disney’s Darcy Clark confirms that there will, indeed, be collectible mugs there for us mug traders. When they were plotting out The Adventurers’ Club, Joe Rohde sketched out a seaplane berthed out on the water behind the club. This might be the ideal time to bring back that concept. No good idea ever dies at Disney, right? By the way, his first plane was OB1, but the plane he flew in Raiders was OB-CPO. Things are really shaping up for the new Disney Springs at Downtown Disney.

, Fab Disney News – Iron, Diamonds and D23

Darkwing Duck and Pocket Princesses

If you’re going to Phoenix Comic-Con May 28-31, Boom Studios Disney/Henson comics alums Amy Mebberson, James Silvani and Aaron Sparrow will be there.

James does:
, Fab Disney News – Iron, Diamonds and D23

Amy does:
, Fab Disney News – Iron, Diamonds and D23

She also does the adorable misadventures of the Pocket Princesses on Facebook. I can’t reprint them here, so look them up. I especially love her take on Merida.

 

That’s the news for today folks. Got a scoop? Think MiceChatters want to hear what you’re up to? Drop me a line at [email protected].

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Shelly Valladolid
Shelly Valladolid, aka Fab, has been writing about Disney and theme parks for about two decades. She has written for various fan and pop culture sites, Disney Magazine and OCRegister.com and participated in several books, including Passporter's Disneyland and Southern California and Disney World Dreams. She was co-founder and president of the Orlando, Florida chapter of the NFFC (now Disneyana Fan Club). She taught a class on theme park history at a Southern California University. She is creator and co-owner of Jim Hill Media, one of the creators of MousePlanet and was a consultant on MSNBC, The Motley Fool and others about Disney and various media matters. She was a Heel wrestling manager on TV and a voice artist on the radio in Honolulu, HI, where she grew up. She has a blog and a podcast with her daughter, Mission:Breakout Obsessive Alice Hill. She and her husband, MiceChat columnist Noe Valladolid, live in Southern California with Alice.