The Magic Mountain Sky Tower Museum

[robbalvey]

For those of you who may not be aware, The Sky Tower at Six Flags Magic Mountain is currently undergoing a make-over. Not quite to the level where Ty Pennington will come by and tear down the Sky Tower and rebuild it in 24 hours, but enough that it's getting the attention of the press all over the Santa Clarita Valley and Los Angeles County.

Heck, even Six Flags CEO Mark Shaprio was promoting it the other day along side new for 2008 attractions like X2 and Thomas Town.

Here's a really nice article from The Daily News about Brandon's Sky Tower Museum (Brandon is the guy who pitched the idea to management and is currently spearheading the re-do.)
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8412730

VALENCIA - The purple fur of the troll costume was matted and the plastic eyes were scratched, but 19-year-old Brandon Bruce eyed it as a piece of local history and the building block he needed.
The refurbished King Troll, with his gold cape and bead-studded crown, is the centerpiece of Six Flags California's Magic Mountain's new museum, under construction within the theme park's landmark tower and set to open this month.

"He also has a friend who's orange. We're researching who he is," Bruce said during a recent trek to the top of the 386-foot tower, the newly painted red steel fixture that put the Santa Clarita Valley on the map.

Bruce, a college student and senior ride supervisor, is in charge of the Magic on the Mountain museum, one of many projects corporate executives are looking at to help recast the 37-year-old Valencia theme park from teen haven to family-friendly destination.

Daily News also posted a great interview with Brandon:
Check out Brandon's Interview Video!

Last week Theme Park Review was able to go up into the Sky Tower during the make over to check out some of the pieces of Magic Mountain history going into the museum -


At the moment, the Sky Tower IS a mess! =) But it will all get cleaned up into something VERY cool!


The museum will include lots of concept art from attractions that didn't make the cut or alternate ideas for rides you currently see in the park.


You would be amazed at how many different ideas are presented for each attraction before one is decided upon.


Hey look! They thought about it before Disney! At least Six Flags ditched the idea so they wouldn't be stuck with a $1 billion mistake!


Lots of signage from past and present attractions.


More signage.


Tons of old costumes dating back to the 1970s.


Ride designs before it was all done on computer!


Ahhh! One of the old trolls! I know there was "Bloop" and "Bleep" but I'm not sure which one this guy is!


And my personal favorite piece of art in the collection - Yes, that IS a taco with a sombrero!

Look for the Sky Tower Museum to open later this year and you can re-live some old Magic Mountain Memories!

--Robb Alvey
www.themeparkreview.com

[TikiRoomLiz]

This would actually get me to go over to Six Flags! Oh, and I really love the taco with a sombrero - priceless!

[WOKcreative]

It's great to see this being done and the trust they've given him to do it (not to mention the money they're saving by doing it this way). It will help in going the way the want to go (and need to) toward making it a more family friendly place - the way it could be, and used to be.
There's some great stuff in there - drawings, chain sections, costumes... I forgot about the trolls.
They should include music from back then (if they can get the clearance). I always remember (in the 70's) hearing Chicago's "Saturday in the Park". Good times.

[Olympicnut]

That is awesome!

[MollyTrolly]

Yay that is so awesome, it will be great to see some of that old stuff again, when SFMM was a family park! Thanks for the update

[GhostHost2]

Well, we all know where Disney got the brilliant (deep sarcasm) idea for DCA now.

[kirbilicious]

The museum seems like it will be really awesome. Thanks for the update.

[drb]

Ahhh! One of the old trolls! I know there was "Bloop" and "Bleep" but I'm not sure which one this guy is!

IIRC, there were Bloop, Bleep (sometimes with Baby Blip), King Blop (the one with the crown who's in that photo), and The Wizard. I think the fur colors changed for most everyone when they replaced the original costumes with new ones that looked a lot better and quite possibly made it a little easier for the hapless person inside to stop themselves from being troll-rolled down a hill by punk kids. That Blop would be one of the later costumes.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a very long time.

[wrs28220]

For the research I have done for the Magic of the Mountain exhibit, (I work at the park), the park referred to the Trolls as follows:

The Troll with the crown - King Troll
The male Troll - Bleep
The female Troll - Bloop
There is mention of their Troll child - Blip, but blip never made an appearance.
...and the Troll.

Yes there was more than one generation of Troll costumes, and that is mentioned in the museum.

Here is a great link for Troll history, including the Legend of the Mountain.
http://members.tripod.com/heylownine/troll.htm

Enjoy!

My name is William,
and I am SIX FLAGS!

[KingEric]

Awesome Robb thank you so much for sharing!

[Anna06Pantz]

Hey i am looking for what happened to the old steam train. I know they sold it off or somthing but where is it now? anyone know?

[wrs28220]

There is a dog kennel on the OLD ROAD, about 5 miles south of MM. The owner of the kennel buys/takes old stuff off of the parks hand. He has TONS of old stuff from the park, and one of the things he has is the OLD 99 STEAM TRAIN. You can see the train from the street.

[k_peek_2000]

Six Flags California Adventure? I have a feeling it wouldn't have been any different than what we have across the street from Disneyland.

[TacAlert]

I saw the "museum" yesterday and thought it was kind of lame. To me it was just a bunch of old uniforms and art from things that don't exist anymore. It was neat to see the model of how Viper should have looked before it was crammed into its current space. Other than that, there wasn't too much on timelines in the park history.

Very cool to be able to go up there again after years of not being able to. It is amazing how much the SCV has grown and I was able to get a picture of my house as well.

[Olympicnut]

I saw the "museum" yesterday and thought it was kind of lame. To me it was just a bunch of old uniforms and art from things that don't exist anymore. It was neat to see the model of how Viper should have looked before it was crammed into its current space. Other than that, there wasn't too much on timelines in the park history.

Very cool to be able to go up there again after years of not being able to. It is amazing how much the SCV has grown and I was able to get a picture of my house as well.

But isn't that the point of a museum? To see things like that from the past collected in one space? Of course it's just a small exhibit I'm sure, but still I think it'd be cool to see it all.

Glad ya saw your house though! I can't wait to go up into it. The museum is just a bonus to me!