Weekly Rewind 9.25.10

Apparently investing in Dick Clark can lead to quite a nice pay day.  Six Flags, who invested in Dick Clark Productions under the last set of leaders, just received a $41 million cash distribution from the company.  They can buy a lot of Euro-Fighters with that kinda cash! Just kidding.

 

As if Disney does not already have enough characters to turn into plush items, they've started to introduce Duffy the Disney Bear to American audiences.  The character is fantastically popular at the Tokyo parks, and the company is now bringing him to the U.S. parks.  He has his own meet and greet locations at Epcot and Disney California Adventure.  He is sorta cute, though.

While on the subject of Disney Parks, the company just announced a new "Let The Memories Begin" advertising campaign for next year.  The plan focuses on the ever growing use of social media as part of families trips to the parks.  Images of families taken at the parks will be projected on the Castle in Florida and the facade of Small World in California.  The plan has already met tons of criticism from fans who are not at all pleased to see photos plastered on park icons.

Mean Streak, at Cedar Point, started on fire this past week.  Before anyone makes any "burn it down" jokes, the fire was quickly put out and significant harm was not done.  The ride had some work being done on it and somehow the fire resulted form that, inspectors believe.

Keeping up with the construction of the Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach is easier with the addition of new construction photos posted on the park's Facebook.  Looks like a lot of the footers for the beginning of the ride are now in place.  This news article also covers the latest on the ride's development.

Cedar Point posted a pretty cool video of the park taken from a blimp ride.  It's always fun to see shots of some of our favorite parks from the air.  (cough, cough Aerial Antics)  You can watch the video on YouTube at this link.

A reminder that this weekend is the last time you'll be able to ride the Wild Mouse at Quassy Amusement Park.  Free rides are being given from noon to six as a way to celebrate the ride's time at the park.  With a new wooden coaster opening next season, the park will dismantle the older Wild Mouse.

The second clip for Busch Gardens Tampa's new 2011 coaster was revealed this past week, using the code word rush.  The 2nd clip appears to show the final return run to the station, but has me just as excited for the ride as the first one did. 

A bankruptcy court has given permission for the first of many creditors to take items back from Freestyle Music Park that are owed to them.  The company noted that the park is sitting idle with no insurance and could be potentially ruined by a hurricane or other event. 

Ride Entertainment Group has two goodies on their Facebook page relating to Six Flags Over Georgia's new Daredevil Dive coaster.  First, they've posted the layout of the ride, which looks pretty neat.  Second, they recently posted that the ride will have lap-bars instead of over-the-shoulder restraints, a first for a Euro-Fighter.