Little Bird's Court was a name for a play area in Sesame Place Langhorne. Within this play area was a play element called Little Bird's Hop. This was a bunch of "Hopalong Big Bird" toys that kids could hop across an approximately 15 foot AstroTurf surface.
Here's a Tokyo Sesame Place attraction that did not exist at the Langhorne, PA or Irving, TX Sesame Place. The attraction used motorized bumper boats manufactured by Bumper Boats Inc. of Rhode Island, maker of the "World Famous" Kiddie Bumper Boats.
When the Langhorne park opened in 1980 the Nets and Climbs were a centerpiece of the park until they were demolished in 2013. Today a new (smaller) set of nets, Monster Clubhouse, are in it's place.
When Tokyo Sesame Place opened in 1990 they had a very similar set of nets as Elmo's Nets and Climbs.
The Tokyo version had swings at the very top of the nets as did Langhorne for many years!
Back in 2012 I did a post about the location of the Tokyo Sesame Place. I was off by about a mile and a half.
Let's correct things! This weekend I was reading up on Tokyo Sesame Place (I will be blogging a bit more about it soon) and I looked at my old post and really couldn't match it up with the images I have of the park.
Thankfully I found an English language blogger who had done a blog where he mentioned Sesame Place. I reached out to him and he provided the location:
This is a look at the parking lot today. The green and brown building with the arched roof used to have a Sesame Place logo on it. You can see it on Andy's blog:
I'm not sure exactly what this building was used for. It does not appear on the park map. When arriving there would be a Sesame Place archway to the right side of the picture (now removed) You can see the archway on the map below.
This building was probably administrative use of some kind. Ticket booths were located after the archway.
At the top of the escalator you would reach the Big Bird head. I have blogged about it before. I found a cool bit of trivia. The eyes lit up and there were small lights that went all around Big Bird's head.
Thanks to Steve Davis for this info! Steve worked at the Langhorne park and traveled to the Tokyo park for it's opening in 1990.
All the play elements, restaurants and shops were on this level.
There's a bunch to cover here and I will put it together for you as soon as I can!
I will be discussing this at GalaxyCon Richmond in a panel called The History of Sesame Street in Theme Parks from Tokyo to Williamsburg (Busch Gardens Williamsburg is nearby and has a Sesame Street section.)
Big thanks to the following for assistance in this article: andysensei.com, Steve Davis, Greg Hartley and Amanda (@circe154 on Twitter.)
This weekend marked the opening of Sesame Place for the 2018 Season. The park looked fantastic. Everything looked new and clean and bright.
The forecourt had a large new planter and the finishing touches were being put on Oscar's Wacky Taxi, the new wooden roller coaster. They were testing the ride throughout the day. Looks really great, and although it is situated over much of the old VIP lot, there are still some great handicapped spaces up close.
Also, the queue looks really beautiful. I can't wait to get photos of that!
Here's the virtual ride:
Inside the park there are new topiaries. I didn't get a chance to look at them closely, but I am pretty sure they are inflatables. They look fantastic.
The park map has been redesigned and now notes all the different sections of the park. "The Count's Court" is a new name for the area where The Count's Splash Castle and the Count themed seasonal rides are. Sesame Island is a name that used to be used in advertising but I hadn't heard used in years.
It's neat to realize that Ernie's Waterworks Splash Area and Abby's Paradise Theater are completely surrounded by Big Bird's Rambling Lazy River:
Sesame Place is now a Certified Autism Center. The very first theme park to be designated as such.
The mailbox in front of Sesame Neighborhood has gotten a paint job. It had always been a standard mail logo, but this is much better:
There is also tons of new merchandise. Here are some of the T-shirts:
Historical note: the hand prints in the forecourt have been removed. Partially due to the new planter and because they are very difficult to keep clean. I was told that there is a desire to have a similar thing return in the future. I don't know exactly when they were installed, but there is a photo in the Sesame Place book of the forecourt in 1997 and it appears they were in place then. The were initially plain grey concrete and were painted years later.
I am planning to dig through all my photos and videos soon to find every detail I can about them for a more detailed post!
