Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Rosita's wings

When Rosita debuted on Sesame Street she had a set of furry wings under her arms.

Image from Webshots
From Wikipedia:
Rosita was originally designed to look similar to a fruit bat and bore the name Rosita, La Monstrua de las Cuevas ("the monster of the caves"). However, her wings were removed in season 35.
 Images from Muppet Wikia 

When the wings were removed on the television show, they were removed at Sesame Place.

Image from Flickr

Monday, October 29, 2012

Tokyo Sesame Place: Big Bird Entrance

The Tokyo Sesame Place park had a Big Bird head, much like the Langhorne, PA and Irving, TX parks once had.

The Tokyo Big Bird head was considerably smaller than the one in either of the US parks.

Also, unlike the other Big Bird entrances, this one began at ground level, where the others were raised.

One final difference was that the "eyes" were three dimensional.


IRVING, TEXAS:
  image  (C) 1982 MCA Nashville

LANGHORNE:
 Image from Flickr

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Tokyo Sesame Place: Stage Show

Just like Sesame Place in Langhorne, Tokyo Sesame Place had stage shows with the large costumed characters of Sesame Street.

The costume designs look identical to the ones in Langhorne. Big Bird even wears his striped tie.

The screen shots below are from a show called "Everybody Makes Music".

 Images from YouTube

The video can be viewed in three parts:
PART 1 
PART 2
PART 3

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tokyo Sesame Place: advertisment & website

Image from Tokyo With Kids
Tokyo Sesame Place operated from 1990 to 2006 giving Japanese children a chance to play and learn with Big Bird and company.

Here is a snapshot of what the website looked like towards the end of the life of the park:


The text in the center box reads (according to an online translator):

Special guest "Tingo" Summer is coming to Sesame!
7/21 ~ "fair Chibikko" event summer vacation
7/21 - "Bubbles Factory" event summer vacation
Water's activity is fully open from Saturday, July 1! !
"Big Bird gymnastics plow plow" New English play-along will start from 4/1! !

Monday, October 22, 2012

Tokyo Sesame Place: Archway and Ticket Booths


Image from Webshots

Sesame Place in Langhorne opened in 1980. A couple years later a second Sesame Place opened in Texas. It was not successful and closed in less than three years.

Five years later, in 1990, Tokyo Sesame Place opened. It was far more successful than the Texas park but it too closed, in 2006.

Today there are Sesame Street themed areas in Busch Gardens theme parks and elsewhere around the world, but none carry the Sesame Place name.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Oscar's Trashcan Bandstand

 Image from WebShots
Oscar's Trashcan Bandstand was a play area near Big Bird's Rambling River.

The area featured instruments made of objects like this upside down tub:
 Image from WebShots

Later, the area was converted into a game of chance titled Ernie's Duck Pond:


When it was Oscar's Trashcan Bandstand it was up a small flight of stairs:
  Image from WebShots

You can see how the cement is slightly different colored in the area where it was replaced when the steps were removed:
Image from Google Street Views


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Frazzle Freeze

Here is a cute little passage from a Sesame Place article from 1992:

A cashier not only let my kid buy a lemon-lime sherbet called Frazzle Freeze ($1.55) after hours, but then replaced it for free when he tearfully dropped it.

Lemon-lime sherbet image from Gannons Ice Cream


Frazzle was a Sesame Street character who was popular in the early 1980s.

Image from Muppet Wiki

Frazzle was often used in artwork at the park:
1986 Image from YouTube

I betting that the Frazzle Freeze was often available in orange.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

S. S. Sesame Place shirts

Here are a couple of older shirts that I just found on eBay:

 Image from eBay
 Image from eBay

I don't know when these were made, but perhaps the image was from when Good Ship Sesame was brand new.
Image from Yelp

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The Twiddlebug Tunnel

Here is a neat little bit of playground equipment from the early days of the park called The Twiddlebug Tunnel:
Image from YouTube

It included some tinted round windows and a tunnel that was part plastic and part cargo net. Notice the parent on the right peering through the glass.

The 25th Anniversary Float

In 2005 Sesame Place celebrated their 25th anniversary. Interestingly, that was also the year of Disneyland's 50th.

To celebrate, a special float was constructed:

Image from webshots


Monday, October 1, 2012

The Count Looms Large Over Sesame Place

Right now, Sesame Place is celebrating their annual Halloween event.

I liked this little touch, temporary "Count Von Count" images cover the Big Bird on the logo:



Grape Shaped, Grape Juice

Image from YouTube 

Here's a blast from the past! I remember drinking these as a kid, probably not at Sesame Place, but I do remember them. They had a "sports bottle top" and looked really cool. Here is a picture of them available at a stand outside the Food Factory.