Tower of Terror Pins

November 25, 2013 by M. Booley

Disney California Adventure cast member pin with the letters “TOT” erroneously imprinted on the back. This pin line was discontinued and “TOT” was replaced with “HTH”, which presumably was to make the folks in the legal and licensing department happy.

If you’ve been to a Disney park in the last 15 or so years you’ve seen these artsy little bits of metal pinned to Cast Members and guests alike. At $7-$12+ a pop, pin trading isn’t a hobby for the weak of wallet, but it can be fun to hunt down favorites and complete collections. And before you get any hopes of collecting them all, just know that Disney has created over 90,000 unique pin designs.

For an excellent introduction to Disney pin trading, visit Peanut Blossom’s Disney Pin Trading 101.

Many collectors like to focus their collection around a particular theme. My primary collection’s theme is the Tower of Terror (of course!), and I focus my collection on pins that only depict the Tower itself. This helps keep the hunt exciting and the costs sorta-reasonable. 😉

There are well over a hundred Tower of Terror related pins – way too many to list here. Disney’s been pumping out pins for the Tower of Terror pretty much forever, and there’s more added all the time. The very nicely organized PinPics’s Tower of Terror pin gallery is a great place to browse Disney’s vast pin catalog.

Where to Find Tower of Terror Pins

My pins are from the parks and eBay, but for more advanced traders there’s a few more options:

Search for Tower of Terror pins on eBay is great for all pin collectors. Check back often and you might see some rare ones pop up.
PinPics is the web’s biggest site for the serious collectors
The Disney Parks – Pin racks can be found throughout the 11 parks – check ’em all, the stock varies by location, park, and season. Tower of Terror pins are found all over the parks, not just at the Tower’s own gift shop.
Cast Members oftentimes have pins that cannot be bought directly but must be traded for – check their lanyards and ask politely to see their pins, and you might find a Tower of Terror pin that isn’t available in the gift shops.
Disney’s online store – Buy ’em directly from the source. (Alas, no Tower of Terror pins are on the Disney store site last I looked.)

Tower of Terror Pin Designs

Tower of Terror pin designs usually take the form of iconic Disney characters on the attraction and/or dressed as bellhops, the Tower by itself, and hotel props such as hotel room keys and “Do Not Disturb” signs.

DCA Tower of Terror pin grand opening 2004

This blue and purple DCA Tower of Terror pin is one of my favorites.

In my experience, it’s been easier to find pins depicting the California-style Tower of Terror. (And yet if you press a penny in the California Tower of Terror, the impressed design is that of the Florida Tower!)

The top half of this Tower pin changes as you tilt the pin left and right, revealing a lightning bolt at some angles.

Filed Under: Memorabilia Tagged With: merchandise, replica, souvenir

Tower of Terror On Ride Photo Souvenir Frames

November 21, 2013 by M. Booley

If you’ve ever bought one of those pricey on-ride photo souvenirs you might recall the paper frame your photo came in. Somewhat clumsy to put together and all too easy to pop the photo out of, these keepsakes often featured some wonderful artwork unique to the frame design. Scans and photos of these souvenir photo frames are rather difficult to come by now that everything’s going digital. This gallery of the Tower of Terror on ride photo souvenir frames seeks to preserve the frames and their artwork.

1990’s

Guests who purchased the on ride photo in the Tower’s early years got this souvenir photo frame. These are wonderfully detailed artworks from before the Photoshop era; they look like they might’ve been painted in soft pastel and maybe some colored pencil. (I wish I knew who the artist was.)

These two 1990s photo frames are from my personal collection, both from the Florida tower.

Tower of Terror On Ride Photo Souvenir Frames 1994 photo frame

I first rode the Tower in 1994 and this is the artwork used on the front of the souvenir photo frame. Click to enlarge.

When I returned to the parks in 1999 the artwork on the cover of the photo frame had shifted hues, perhaps in relation to the addition of ride reprogramming that added a second drop. The photo inside is headlined “Twice the Fright” to accompany the change. It’s the exact same artwork, just palette shifted. The palette shift was probably done digitally.

Tower of Terror on ride photo souvenir frame 1999

Disney gave the frame’s cover art a hue shift for the 1999 version of the on ride photo souvenir frame. This change likely accompanied the addition of a second drop to the ride’s show profile.

Inside the Frame:

My 1994 frame and my 1999 frame are identical except for one peculiar detail: the second frame (from ’99) lacks the phrase “Tower of Terror” in the little yellow box over the photograph. Everything else is the same. I can only guess at why “Tower of Terror” had to be removed – perhaps it’s a colloquial abbreviation that wasn’t actually approved by the legal department, much like the pins that were discontinued because they used “TOT” on the back instead of “HTH”.

Back in the day, the process of purchasing an on-ride photo also netted you one of these “Do Not Disturb” cards with your picture’s number written on the back.

2000’s & 2010’s

I got nuthin’.

This gallery is incomplete! Do you have a Tower of Terror on ride photo frame from yesteryear? If you’d like to share it here, tell me in the comments!

Filed Under: Memorabilia Tagged With: artwork, Hollywood Studios, HS, merchandise, photos, souvenir

Tower of Terror Big Fig

October 12, 2013 by M. Booley

What’s a Big Fig?

Appealing mostly to elite collectors (and elite wallets), Disney big figs (literally, “big figurines”) are some of Disney’s largest, most elaborate, and most expensive souvenirs. These replicas of beloved characters and park features are typically between 20” and several feet tall.

Tower Big Fig

Figurines of the Tower of Terror itself are, in general, quite rare. Disney seems to prefer promoting the Tower through licensed characters and Hollywood Tower Hotel-themed merchandise like bathrobes and front desk bells. But a few figurines of the Tower itself exist, and the biggest and brightest of all is this gorgeous DCA Tower of Terror replica.

This Tower statue is not a “true” big fig (it’s 9” tall whereas normally big figs are 20”+), but it widely accepted as “the Tower big fig” because it’s the closest thing to a big fig Disney has made for the attraction.

The Tower of Terror big fig is 9” x 9” x 9” and made of carefully detailed cold-cast resin. It is HEAVY – about 10 lbs. Nearly two dozen individual trees decorate the exterior, along with a miniature fence perimeter, tiny window sills, roof tiles, detailed facade cracks, and light-up sign that flickers almost exactly like the sign of the real-life DCA Tower of Terror.

How to Find

This Tower replica is a must-have for any serious Tower of Terror and Disneyana collectors but Disney doesn’t make ’em anymore, and at $200+ (if you can even find it for sale) it won’t come cheap. Stalking around eBay yields an occasional Tower big fig. So if you’re interested in adding this one to your Tower collection, keep an eye on eBay and may the force be with you!

Filed Under: Memorabilia Tagged With: DCA, figurine, merchandise, replica