Originally Posted By dshyates "Apparently I don't. I certainly can't fathom why anyone would book a flight and hotel room to buy a fake magic wand or some other toy. Based on the reports here it seems that even Universal's management is astonished by the response." As any fan(atic) would say, "they are NOT toys, they are collectibles! Haha. As to Universal's expectations, obviously they knew the stuff would be popular or they wouldn't have been selling the stuff. They just had no clue HOW popular the merchendise would be.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo And I am glad it is. It may show DIsney they have lost their way, and that quality sells. The model has been too much quantity over quality over the years. I really hope WWoHP keeps pulling them in, and makes Disney really stop and think.
Originally Posted By dshyates Would Disney have built this? <a href="http://a.imageshack.us/img14/2287/hogwartsnight.jpg" target="_blank">http://a.imageshack.us/img14/2...ight.jpg</a>
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<To be honest that kind of fanaticism isn't something that I want to comprehend. The very notion that someone would wait in line for a half hour to buy a trinket at a theme park is silly to me.>> Do the words "Disney' and 'pins' ring a bell? People sometimes line up overnight or get wristbands to spend absurd amounts on Disney crap ... this stuff at least appears to be high quality, unique Potter crap!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Well I am guessing there will be very long waits to buy the 55th anniversary mouse ears this weekend too." True, and I made similar comments regarding the 50th anniversary and the reports of eager fans elbow to elbow at DL that day. No thank you ma'am.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Would Disney have built this?" Maybe, but by the time he died he seemed to be far more interested in this than theme parks: <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/theoriginalepcot/" target="_blank">http://sites.google.com/site/t...alepcot/</a> One thing I admire about Walt Disney is that he was the type of businessman man who understood that making money was a necessity in order to fund his incredible ideas. In one sense The Magic Kingdom was just the mechanism by which WDW would generate income to finance more ambitious projects. By the time he died his mind had moved beyond building mere theme parks. He was trying to build an entire city. It's likely that he probably wouldn't have been personally interested in building another themed ride in another theme park.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I think dshyates meant Disney the company, not Disney the man. IMO, yes Disney would have built that, because by most accounts, Rowling played a major role in how Uni's TWWoHP would look. She likely would have been every bit as insistent with Disney.
Originally Posted By 20years Count my family among those who are visiting IOA this year to see the Harry Potter World --- not for the FJ ride, though it sounds spectacular, or the Dueling Dragons ride, which we very well may skip because my youngest does not reach the height requirement. We are going for the experience. To be in Harry Potter's world, the world you see in your mind when you read the books, and in the movies. My kids love the Harry Potter books and movies and so do I. We could have vacationed anywhere in North America this year, and had a couple of other ideas in mind for this trip. But when I saw the preview for WWOHP on the latest HP DVD, I HAD to go there. Of course, we are visiting WDW as well and are VERY excited about our first trip there, but it would be safe to say that were there no WWOHP, we would not be going to WDW this year. I'm glad Disney didn't get HP too.
Originally Posted By a1stav Would Universal build this? <a href="http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=329&linkid=3020" target="_blank">http://www.themeparkreview.com...kid=3020</a> This is what Dragon's Challenge should/could have been.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper ^^No, but Uni still built the 2 most innovative, best themed dark-rides in the world.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Happy Valley, Beijing it says in the articles title. You can seem the pollution in the air in the last photo.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 Yeah, I kinda read that. My point was more like - WHERE THE HELL DID THIS PLACE SUDDENLY SPRING FROM AND WHY HAD WE NEVER HEARD OF IT BEFORE?!?! How can something that looks THAT cool not have come to our attention before?!?
