Disneyland's Toontown - 30th Anniversary

Today we have yet another "anniversary" post.  My other anniversary posts from earlier this year include, the 45th anniversary of The New Matterhorn, the 45th anniversary of Knott's Montezooma's Revenge, and the 40th anniversary of Knott's Camp Snoopy.

This year, Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland is celebrating it's 30th anniversary.  I have to admit that Toontown is my absolute least favorite "land."  With the exception of Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin (which didn't open until one year later), I have always considered the area a waste of very valuable real estate.  However, I had saved this Los Angeles Times article from when the land first opened, so I thought I would share it here, along with a few other souvenirs.

The article is dated January 21, 1993.  It mentions that the "Roger Rabbit ride" will be opening "this summer," but it didn't actually open until January of 1994.  Pictured below is the "Jolly Trolley" attraction, which closed after only 10 years of operation.

The article also mentions some of the other new "attractions," such as Goofy's Bounce House (which closed after 15 years), and Chip 'n Dale's Acorn Crawl (which closed after only 5 short years).  And the author talks about how Disney wasn't exactly breaking new ground here, since Knott's had built their children's area (Camp Snoopy), 10 years earlier.  It isn't mentioned, but Magic Mountain had a children's area (The Wizard's Village/Bugs Bunny World), even before that.  And Sea World had also opened their children's area (Cap'n Kids World), many years earlier.

The Motor Boat Cruise, Mission to Mars, and the Fantasyland Autopia, all received shout-outs in the article, but unfortunately it was because they were all being closed for good.  The reason given was, to relocate the employees on those attractions to Toontown, in order to "minimize additional operating costs" for the park.  Sad!

I think I have only ever bought one "Toontown" related souvenir, at the park itself, and that was the pinback button at the top of this post.  However, I did buy a can of Coke at my local grocery store, which commemorated the opening of the new land.

I made a huge mistake by not opening the can and draining the contents, prior to storing it away on a top kitchen shelf for years.  I had forgotten the urban legend, about how if you drop a nail into a glass of Coke, it will eventually dissolve it. Well, the contents of this can eventually ate a hole through the side of it, and leaked all over that top shelf.  I did not realize this had happened, until many years later, so there was a thick sticky mess to clean up, once it was discovered.  Coke actually contains "phosphoric acid," which etches the enamel on our teeth, and makes them more porous, so I'm assuming that was the specific ingredient responsible for eating through the can.

I did a search on ebay, and was surprised to see these other Toontown-themed cans were also available.  I don't remember seeing these in the grocery store, back in the day.  This first one is a Diet Coke can, which featured Roger Rabbit.

This can of Sprite, featured Donald and his boat.

And this last design, featuring Goofy and his "Bounce House," was on cans of Diet Sprite.

This final item is not from Disneyland in Anaheim, but from Tokyo Disneyland.  I bought this during a visit to the Disney parks in Japan.  They sell a series of miniature attraction vehicles, which are just about the size of a Match Box® vehicle.  I should have put a coin next to the vehicle, to show just how small it is!

The box lists the scale as 1/77.

The manufacturer of the "Disney Vehicle Collection," is Tomy®.  The sticker on the box shows a price of 750 yen, which at today's rate of exchange, would be about $5.00 in U.S. currency.  I'm guessing if they sold these in the U.S. parks, they would charge more than that.  I never found the price of food, souvenirs, or even admission at the Tokyo Disney parks, to be as inflated as they are in the U.S. Disney parks.  But then Disney does not own those two parks.  They are owned by a Japanese company, the Oriental Land Company.

I'm not completely sure, but I think the little "universal symbol" on the far left means, "Do Not Feed This To Pac-Man, Or He Will Cry."

And speaking of Tokyo's Toontown, if anyone is interested in seeing how the Japanese decorate Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown for Halloween and Christmas, you can click below, for some of my older posts.

Halloween in Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown

More Halloween in Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown

Christmas in Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown 

Happy anniversary, to Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland.  While I have never cared for the land very much, at least Disney finally decided to add another attraction (Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway) to the area, just this year.  It's too bad it took them 30 years to do it!  Oh, and when I finally saw Toontown for the very first time (one year later, in January of 1994), I took quite a few photos.  I will be including those in a 30-year "Vintage Disneyland Trip Report," this January.  So stay tuned......or "toon-ed," if you will.

****Post Update - 10-27-23****

I just found a few more Toontown-related items, in my personal collection!

This first one is a "game piece" from a contest.  These were given out when you had your film developed at Thrifty drugstores.  They were included inside the film processing envelopes, when you returned to pick up your photos.  The contest was also sponsored by Kodak.

These were "sealed," so you had to "tear open" that center square, to reveal the game piece inside.  Then, you had to match the character and the color of the Castle, with the image that was displayed on the counter of the Thrifty photo processing department.

The rules were printed on the back, along with a list of the prizes.  The top prize was a trip for four to Disneyland.

Another one of the prizes, was this Craig 'N Co. Rock 'N Toontown CD.  I had to look up this performer, since I had never heard of Craig 'N Co.  His name is Craig Taubman, and it looks like he made multiple appearances on The Disney Channel, back in the nineties.

This is not my CD, but I found a few of them listed on ebay.  You can own a copy for as low as $5.95!  There was also an ebay listing for two "intact" Thrifty game pieces, for $24.99.

The other items I recently found, are these Toontown postcards.

Both postcards were stamped on the back, with a special postmark commemorating Disneyland's 40th anniversary.  On July 17, 1995, the U.S. Postal System set up a temporary station in the old Disneyland parking lot, and were stamping the special postmark onto any item with U.S. postage affixed to it.

I remember the postal workers were trying very hard to place the "N" in the word "Station" just barely onto the stamp, so that way most of the postmark would be on the actual item.  It looks like they completely missed with that first postcard, and just barely touched the stamp on this second one.

*****Post Update (April 2024)*****

I recently came across this color newspaper advertisement for Toontown, so I am adding it to this post.  It's from The Los Angeles Times, and while I don't have a specific date for the ad, I'm pretty sure it had to be from the earliest days or weeks following Toontown's opening, in January of 1993.

More Pressed Pennies, & Other Souvenir Coins From Disneyland

Back in March of 2016, I did a post about "pressed pennies" from various amusement parks and tourist attractions. In that post, I stated, "Believe it or not, I don't own one single pressed penny from a Disney park."  Well, I was wrong! I can't believe it, but I somehow managed to forget about the following pressed pennies within my collection of Disneyland souvenirs. I came across these recently and of course after seeing them, NOW I remember them!

Okay, these are actually pressed nickels, instead of pennies, but that's a minor technicality. These are from circa 1995. Note the nickel at the top, promoting Disneyland's 40th anniversary, and the one below it, which was available for the New Year:

These pennies represent Mickey Mouse, the Disneyland Hotel, and various attractions or "lands" within the park.

These nine pennies were all available back in the nineties, from machines located inside the Adventureland Bazaar. The top three are all characters from The Lion King (which was released in 1994), the next three represent various scenes in Adventureland, including the Indiana Jones Adventure (which opened in 1995), and the bottom three are all characters from Aladdin, (which was released in 1992).

Next, we will take a look at some Disneyland "commemorative" souvenir coins.

First up is this coin that I purchased in the Main Street Emporium, back in 1980.

The reverse side is divided into six sections for each of the park's "lands," with the exception of Bear Country.  I guess they thought they would solve that problem by putting two of the characters from the Country Bear Jamboree attraction, under the "Frontierland" heading.

The coin was "mounted" within a cardboard square, with a circular cut-out.  The cardboard was "flocked" with a material which makes it feel a bit like velvet.  The coin and it's mounting were then placed inside this clear plastic case.

I purchased this next coin at the same time as the one above.  Both coins are just a little larger than one and a half inches in diameter (or slightly larger than an Eisenhower silver dollar).  This coin was made specially for Disneyland's 25th anniversary.

The reverse side:

 

As can be seen by the original price tag, this coin cost a dollar more than the non-anniversary souvenir coin.

This 30th anniversary coin from 1985, was smaller in size than the previous two coins (about the size of a quarter), and came in a small cardboard box with a clear plastic lid.

The reverse side:

The price of the 30th anniversary coin was $2.50 more, than the one for the 25th anniversary, five years earlier.

For the 35th anniversary in 1990, the souvenir coins went back to their previous size.

The reverse side:

The 35th anniversary coin actually came down in price, and was only .95 cents more than the commemorative coin for the park's 25th anniversary:

 

I had an annual pass in 1995, and went to the park quite a bit that year, but I never saw a souvenir coin for the park's 40th anniversary (other than the "pressed nickel" seen at the top of this post).

In 2000, there was a coin available for the park's 45th anniversary.

The reverse side:

For those keeping track, the price had now doubled in the twenty years that had passed, since the 25th anniversary coin.

At one time, Disneyland used to have special events, such as "Viva Mexico" days and "Festival Japan" days.  These events celebrated other countries and their cultures, and sometimes featured special merchandise.  This coin was available during the park's "Festival Japan" days, in 1984.

The reverse side:

 And this one was available the following year, in 1985:

The reverse side:

 

This is my oldest souvenir coin from Disneyland.  It features the Chicken of the Sea Mermaid on one side.......

.....and the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, on the other side.  I wish I knew the story on these coins.  Were they sold in the park?  Or were they given out free, in order to promote Chicken of the Sea products?

This Jack Skellington coin is from December of 2006.  It was free with the purchase of a meal, at the park's Cafe Orleans and French Market restaurants.

The coin was just one out of a series of thirteen, all with different facial expressions of Jack's.

All of the coins had this image of the Haunted Mansion (Holiday) on the reverse side:

We will end this post with a couple of arcade "tokens."  This one was available at the Starcade, in Tomorrowland.

And this token was available at "Flynn's Arcade," during the special nighttime event, "Electronica," at Disney's California Adventure.  Both the event and the arcade, opened in the Fall of 2010, and closed in the Spring of 2012.

For anyone who might be interested, here is the link to my previous blog post (from five years ago) on souvenir Pressed Pennies, which includes pennies from Universal Studios, Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry Farm, and more.