I dont know how closely anyone has followed this, but for the past several years, a future amusement park resort in Vinita, Oklahoma, has been hyped as the Disneyland of the Midwest, but the project is now deep in debt and ground hasnt even been broken yet
What do you think? Did they promise more than they could deliver, or is this just an elaborate grift?
In a similar story, the Mattel Adventure Park in Glendale, Arizona, has had its opening delayed yet again, now scheduled for 2025 after being pushed back from “late 2024” (and before that, 2023, and originally 2022)
I thought this looked interesting.
This one looked to be on the lame side.
I also haven’t heard much lately about the new Universal park being constructed in Frisco, Texas. I was excited about that one.
There was supposed to be an amusement park north of Houston a couple of hours. They managed to put in the water park and the RV park, but the amusement park section seems to be dead.
I saw a couple of videos of this and it look pretty much like construction is halted, almost no advancement between videos shot recently and 10 months ago.
But the Hot Wheels coaster looks interesting, it looks big, pretty long track outside and a huge inside space too. Also, the track will seemingly have a design that mimics the plastic Hot Wheels tracks which is a pretty cool idea
Well, even though every article on the project emphasized that “former Disney Imagineers” were designing the park, there wasnt much to go on based off the concept art. The theme of “Americana” is so broad it could be applied to almoat anything
It definitely looks like a single day experience for families with little kids. Still, I’m just surprised that no other toy company has tried it before.
As for the Universal Kids Resort (which i at one point thought would simply be Universal Studios Dallas), all the necessary paving has apparently been completed, and vertical construction has begun within the past week or two (I’ll get back to you with a link). The target for opening is May 2026, evidently to coincide with the FIFA World Cup that will be spread across the US Southwest and Mexico
Grand Texas, i remember reading about that a while back. Surprised nothing ever came of it.
Mattel was also planning a second park in Kansas, but i can only imagine how far behind schedule that will be.
Has anyone ever heard of Evermore? It was a LARP park in Utah, 2018-Spring 2024 (though it really died in 2021). One of those things that seemed like a great idea at the time, but didnt know how to follow through. I just found out that the property has new owners, who plan to revitalize the land and build upon the original concept.
Does that mean the track doubles as a whip to use in battles with your siblings as a child
I thought Legoland was aimed at children?
We were looking forward to that one
There are plenty of nerds who will angrily insist that Lego is not a “toy”
What i mean is, companies like Mattel have toylines with backstories: we’ve got lands dedicated to Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine.
Check out some other Mattel properties:
Yeah, there’s a Castle Grayskull laser tag arena, but thats thinking small. With the cast of characters MOTU has, you could easily put together some kind of He-Man vs Skeletor stunt show
Which one, Evermore? Mattel park #2? Grand Texas?
Have we met?
Seriously there are so few theme parks I don’t want to go to…but Evermore looked like it would have been amazing fun.
I wish we had. I rarely meet people IRL who like geeking out over theme parks.
I crave immersion, and Evermore sounded like the kind of place i would create if i had the money to do anything i want.