Best theme park merchandise
- Thread starter CedarGardens
- Start date
The members only T-Shirts for Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf BGW did earlier this summer were some of the best coaster shirts I've seen. Coaster t-shirts are far more often than not pretty cheesy. These were anything but.
I think Cedar Fair does a great job with their merch for their parks. Kings Island and Cedar Point especially. I mean Cedar Point has nanocoasters for the Cedar Creek Mine Ride which I assume maybe 15 people have bought but still I mean there are shirts and random items for all kinds of stuff at Cedar Point. BGW and BGT I think handle it pretty well. I did not like the merch at SWO or SWSA last year it was mostly just animal related pretty much nothing coaster related I could find in the main shops. There was Ice Breaker stuff on sale next to the wall of very much not broken ice when I went.
I love the Busch pins. Especially with the little moving features, like how you can make the seats go up and down on the coaster pins.
On the other hand, I think KD has some of the worst merch selections I’ve seen at a theme park. From the infamous porcelain Michael Jackson and Marylin Monroe frogs on International Street, to the very questionable “I’ll be your Dominator” and “I’ll be your Volcano” and “Life behind bars” shirts, to the constant appearance of new merch with the park’s own name misspelled (“King’s”), KD’s merch ranges from uninspired to downright “what were they smoking?” territory.
The main exception for me is some of their new merch. The Jungle X pins and Whey Foundation memorabilia look great, and Twisted Timbers had some pretty well designed shirts and gifts too. Probably because corporate had a heavier hand in the curation of those items — and making me wish CF had a more standardized merch operation across the entire company so we could get the cool stuff that CP and KI get.
Disney constantly puts out great merch. Well, except for this. 
I concur, KD is a not quite as good as KI and CP on that end. I didn't even think Carowinds had that great of merch when I was there last year. But yes the newer Twisted Timbers and Tumbili merch is great. Six Flags is also rather inconsistent with Great Adventure having plenty of great coaster merch (at least in the shop I went in at the front at the end of the day) then I went to SFOT a few weeks ago and there's a DC hero superstore at the front and not a ton of ride merch. I don't go to Six Flags to buy a shirt with Superman on it.............well I also don't buy Superman shirts in general but still. (*shade thrown at Superman*)
I think SEAS has had a few good throwback tees and tank tops, especially the neon Gwazi gear at BGT. I wish KD would bring back the late 80s Shockwave hat with flaps
I'm still mad at the lack of Apple Zapple merch. Massive fail.
And where is KD's specially-themed, exclusive Squishmallow?
BGW had (has?) a great LNM bar set. And I miss the high-end Irish imports (Waterford, Lalique, etc).
Knoebels shouldn't be overlooked here...... great quality and really low prices on a huge variation of items..... and lots of T-shirts. I know people that don't usually buy park merch that actually will go crazy in a Knoebels gift shop.
I adore my Fury squishmallow because it looks like a butterfly-bat-racoon nonsense creature. Perfect merch, no feedback.
In all seriousness, the BGW's LNM anniversary mugs are one of my favorite things I've gotten at a theme park. Sturdy, cool logo, good size, dishwasher safe, subtle color.
In all seriousness, the BGW's LNM anniversary mugs are one of my favorite things I've gotten at a theme park. Sturdy, cool logo, good size, dishwasher safe, subtle color.
Bay Beach had some really awesome Zippin Pippin merch. Knoebels probably takes the cake for best park merchandise though. They have some qwerky and unique stuff.