The Niagara Skywheel stands among the other attractions owned by the Harry Oakes Company in the 2010's. If you haven't already heard, the Harry Oakes Company (HOCO), which owns the Niagara Skywheel and all the attractions on the same side of the street, has announced plans to demolish the Skywheel and build a new, taller wheel in it's place. But this isn't just a simple upgrade. It's part political response, part hope for the future, and potentially, the end of an era. The then-new Skywheel in 2006. To start this story at the beginning, the 53m tall Skywheel was built in 2006 by Chance Rides, with the Golden Griddle restaurant and Q-Balls Billiards Pub that were attached to the former Quality Inn being demolished to make way for it. The Quality Inn as a whole would be demolished in 2009. The Skywheel itself was a replacement for the Falls Tower Ride (formerly Space Spiral Tower) that had been built in the 60's a little down the street. After a tower in New Jersey built by the same manufacturer around the same time began to have structural issues, the decision was made to pre-emptively tear down the Niagara tower in 2006 and build a new observation attraction. Aerial photo featuring the Comfort and Quality Inns, Clifton Hill, Dazzleland, and the Falls Tower Ride from around the year 2000. This was all part of a much larger plan however. This redevelopment plan had actually kicked off back in 2002 when the Dazzleland entertainment centre was replaced with the Great Canadian Midway. With design firm White Hutchinson Leisure Learning Group working on the project, HOCO planned to build an amusement park around the Skywheel with an old-fashioned boardwalk/carnival theme. This was the original reason Quality Inn was to be demolished, and the now-demolished Comfort Inn up the street would have been retained along with the original Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf. In the large field between the amusement park and the Skylon Tower, a high-rise hotel with an indoor/outdoor waterpark was to be constructed as the final phase of the project. For reasons still not completely clear to this day, this never came to fruition, however the recession, the rise of smartphones/social media, and changing consumer interests towards the amusement industry as a whole no doubt all played major parts. After the shuffling around of some of the other attractions on the street such as Movieland Wax Museum, the Skywheel was the final part of this plan that ever saw the light of day before the aforementioned forces hit the timeline. Artist's rendering of the never finished development plan, featuring an amusement park surrounding the Skywheel, a still-operational Comfort Inn, and the waterpark hotel resort in the background. Now, 20 years later, the Skywheel has become a political bargaining chip, and faces the wrecking ball itself. Recently, as part of his "Building Ontario" initiative, Ontario premier Doug Ford had announced the construction of a massive observation wheel in Queen Victoria Park, the designated greenspace at the bottom of the Hill that's located across the street from the Niagara Gorge. Now, the current political climate in today's society, and the global dystopian hellscape we currently exist in as a whole, could not possibly be further from what we discuss and focus on in this online community (we much rather discuss fiberglass dinosaurs). That being said, in aside from the fact Doug has obviously shown where his interests lie in regards to the topics we do cover here (hence the Ontario Place fiasco), this news has created quite the uproar from the general public, and rightfully so. The Falls are a natural marvel, deeply rooted in the early history of Canada, the U.S.A., peace between the two nations, and most importantly, the indigenous peoples who first saw it's beauty. This greenspace, and the forested hill between it and the rest of the city, exists as the buffer. It is the dividing line between one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and a major city of casinos, high-rise hotels, and animatronic movie monsters. Queen Victoria Park with the Skylon Tower in the distance. Since the attraction boom of the Clifton Hill and Fallsview districts beginning in the 1950's, there have long been people who have criticized amusement attractions being located in the city. Now, more than ever, there seems to be constant calls from disgruntled members of the public on social media that the city's attractions should be "bulldozed" or "leveled". Those who cannot see the artistry that goes into a good attraction, the locals who have built them, or the joy they inspire, use the history of The Falls as justification for why they view these attractions as tacky or corporate, when in reality, there is nowhere on Earth like this city. As I've said many times, there are countless ways to make money as a business in a tourist area like this, and countless ways that would make a lot more money than a wax museum or a miniature golf course, but in the amusement industry, you are offering a service that brings joy. That is something extremely special and deeply human that cannot be denied, and something that does, very much, deserve to exist near a place where humans have been drawn to for millennia. But then there's the city's other, more recent problem. The "Vegas-ification" that's been threatening the identity of the city since the aforementioned shift in consumer trends. Las Vegas moved away from its notorious mob roots in the late 80s, trying to implement more family operations like arcades, amusement parks, themed restaurants, animatronic shows and rides. But it failed, and was all gone by the early 2000s. Why? Because the public themselves didn't want it. Customers wanted mob Vegas. They wanted strip clubs, gambling, and "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". This has only gotten worse recently, as Vegas is no longer the weekend getaway for the average American that it even was back in the 80's, instead now being an ultra-expensive, luxury destination for high rollers, influencers, and dubiously funded mega-projects. Unfortunately, this has also become a very real threat to Niagara Falls lately, and I can think of no better example of that threat than an observation wheel literally modelled after the High Roller wheel in Vegas, being placed in a former designated greenspace on the exact spot where the original indigenous Canadian people once showed Europeans the beauty of the The Falls almost 400 years ago. The 167m tall Las Vegas High Roller, which holds 40 people per car. This greenspace is what keeps the corporate casino and high-rise hotel world away from land this culturally significant, and it's preservation is also what gives amusement attractions like those on Clifton Hill the right to exist just a few meters away. Here, the noise of the slot machines is far too distant to hear, the hum of ride motors fades away to the roar of the Falls, you can smell the flowers, and hear the birds signing. This is what we stand to lose. And what's worse, that land would be leased out to the private sector to develop and operate the wheel, so ticket sales wouldn't even directly go back into Niagara Parks, the city, or even the province. Ford has explicitly said his reasoning for constructing this wheel would be to attract "Vegas-style" resorts and major casino brands to The Falls to replace it's current offerings. Are we really "Building Ontario" by inviting multi-billion dollar American and global corporations in to replace one of the most unique cities on Earth, or are we replacing Ontario? This is where HOCO has come to the rescue, sort of. Ford's new wheel would be nearly three times the height of the Skywheel, meaning it would likely dwarf it even though the Skywheel sits on top of the Hill, which wouldn't be a good look for HOCO. In fact, it would render the Skywheel completely obsolete, as the new wheel's planned location would quite literally block the view of The Falls from the Skywheel and many of the existing hotels, no doubt a pre-meditated dig by Ford to render existing attractions obsolete and further his more lucrative replacement ideology. In response, HOCO has proposed tearing down the Skywheel to build a new, taller wheel. This would render Ford's wheel effectively pointless, and hopefully put an end to the development. It's currently not clear where exactly HOCO's new wheel would be built. If it actually physically replaced the Skywheel in the same spot, a wheel of that size would likely require modifications to several of the attractions immediately surrounding it as well. It's likely that a portion of the Dinosaur Adventure Golf course would need to be re-routed should the new wheel sit in the same spot. Otherwise, the building housing Wizard's Golf, the Upper Canada Trading Co., and Gizmos Wax Hands would likely need to be demolished to build a massive que/base area for the wheel. As mentioned before however, HOCO's land runs all the way from Clifton Hill to the Skylon Tower, and this might be where the hope for the future comes in. By the time the recession had cooled off in the mid 2010's, public interests and consumer trends had changed dramatically. This was before the trend of retro nostalgia, which perfectly serves the Midway and the cancelled amusement park, had come full circle, and HOCO completely abandoned the rest of their plan after the Skywheel was built. Choosing a different design firm named IDS to head redevelopments going forward, the current Dinosaur Adventure Golf eventually replaced Quality Inn, repurposing several figures from the original Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf, which was removed. A few years later in 2015, Comfort Inn was demolished. The pandemic seemed to be the nail in the coffin for the amusement park/hotel idea. A brief idea was floated by IDS to build a luxury megamall instead of the hotel element, but that thankfully never materialized. Plans for the never-constructed indoor/outdoor waterpark hotel. More developments did eventually come, such as the Niagara Speedway go-kart track and a few screen-based simulator rides replacing Comfort Inn, but nothing close to the promised amusement park and waterpark hotel. Instead, a massive pay parking lot was built on the land originally designated for a portion of the hotel and amusement park. It unfortunately probably makes more money than anything else HOCO operates, and is sadly a perfect example of one the more lucrative ways to make money than an amusement attraction that I mentioned earlier needs to be avoided in this city. HOCO will design this wheel and the area around it in the way they see fit, however the question is will this too be in a corporate Vegas-style not unlike what Ford is also pushing, or will they tastefully integrate it into the local area? If it's the former, then it is truly the end of an era for Clifton Hill as it's existed, as the Skywheel's removal for such a development would truly mark the end of the Y2K Clifton Hill era that never even got to be fully realized. I have high hopes however, that this will not be the case. Despite some more recent developments such as the screen-based simulator rides and the parking lot feeling a little rushed and honestly, cheap, HOCO has generally done a good job in recent years at preserving it's brand identity. See some of this Spring's updates to their side of the Hill as an example. If they want to give this wheel the space it needs, the land originally designated for the waterpark hotel, is still empty. I have no hopes of them replacing even a portion of the parking lot with an amusement park anytime soon, but at least the plan could maybe still see the light of day, or at least a version of it. Dinosaur Park is gone, but the larger and arguably much more immersive Dinosaur Adventure Golf has retained it's spirit. Comfort Inn is also gone, which despite being beautiful, likely wouldn't have held on much longer anyway even if the original plans had been retained, being a motor hotel built in 1956 with no elevators. Now that HOCO has been out of the hospitality industry for over 10 years since Comfort Inn's closure, I can't see them ever opting to build the waterpark hotel due to the massive operating costs and logistics of such a development. I think finally constructing the amusement park however, with the new wheel as it's centerpiece, would be a fantastic way to finally see this plan through in some sense. It would "Build Ontario" in a continuation of the local character of the Clifton Hill district, not Vegas casinos. It would also integrate extremely well with their pre-existing attractions such as the Midway, Dinosaur Adventure Golf, the Speedway, and yes, even the parking lot. I would just hope they give this new wheel the same name and starburst light pattern, as it's truly become an iconic sight on the Niagara skyline, and itself harkens back to the old Maple Leaf Village Amusement Park wheel that ran from the 1970's-1990's. The Skywheel's iconic starburst pattern glows on the skyline just before sunrise. Image credit: HOCO We'll see if either of these wheels ever come to fruition. The public outrage over Ford's proposal seems to have quickly fizzled out the project's momentum, and HOCO may have no reason to replace the Skywheel if there's no competition after all. I have long said that the tourism industry in The Falls has stood at a crossroads since the pandemic, to either go in a direction in the style of what Ford now wants (and is unfortunately actively pushing/funding) or evolve on what it's always been. Things like the upcoming and sudden opening of the massive McDonald's on Victoria Ave. at the top of the Hill certainly doesn't paint a bright picture, however this wheel debate may be the catalyst that finally pushes The Falls towards one path or the other at that crossroads. So the question remains, will The Falls be a place where taxpayer money is spent to give American casino companies a cheaper Trojan horse into the country, or will it remain a unique city built and defined by the hard work, hospitality, resilience, and cultural/historical respect of its locals?

Gizmos Wax Hands, one of Clifton Hill's new updates this year that's replaced Tim Horton's. It seems like every year recently, the landscape of Clifton Hill changes much more dramatically and frequently. We saw several updates before the tourist season started this year, ranging from the usual annual shuffling around/removal of arcade machines to the closure of the historic Dairy Queen location that's been located in the Thriftlodge building since it opened as the "Peppermint Stick" ice cream parlour in the early 60's. Starting with the most highly-publicized on social media, the Tim Horton's location on The Hill has closed after 20 years. The location opened in 2006 along with the Upper Canada Trading Co. next door when they replaced the original Movieland Wax Museum (which moved down the street to the former Circus World). This has (a bit surprisingly) created a bit of an uproar on social media. It being such a recognized brand locally and such an iconic Canadian fast food chain globally made it a popular fast option for Canadians, and a bit of an attraction in itself for international tourists, evidenced by the fact the place was always packed. Word on the street is that Tim Horton's parent company (which isn't even Canadian, might I add, rather being owned by the same folks who bring you Burger King) raised the franchise fee to an extraordinary price since they thought HOCO (who owns the entire side of the street) could afford it. Evidently, HOCO wasn't playing around, and to be honest, good for them. As I mentioned, the place was usually insanely busy, and if you had even the slightest Clifton Hill area knowledge, it was probably a good idea to opt for one of the dozens of faster, quieter, and honestly higher quality coffee/lunch spots nearby. The store also had a bit of a reputation for being a cleanliness disaster (this is even something brought up in the posts remembering it fondly), but I'm sure with the volume of business they were doing, the staff were trying their best to fight a losing battle on that front. I personally only dared visit here when it was slow, but it seems like people are genuinely sore about this. The former Tim Horton's as it appeared in April 2026. That's evident by how lambasted it's replacement has been simply for being the thing that replaced it, however I think the new attraction is fantastic, and even a little poetic. First of all, there's the positive that it's an attraction at all, not a global fast food chain or trendy merch store. This loss of identity is something that's been threatening the atmosphere of Clifton Hill for two decades, so it's always good to see something original, kitschy, and very in-line with the local spirit. The new attraction is Gizmos Wax Hands, a store where you can have casts of your hands done in coloured wax. This has been a staple of Clifton Hill for years, and several stores/wax museums used to sell them, but since the Fun Factory down The Hill was replaced by expanded Movieland space in 2023, there hasn't been anywhere to purchase them. The first place on The Hill to sell them was the original Movieland, located exactly where Gizmos now sits. In a 1992 remodel, a section in the middle of the museum's walkthrough was removed for a counter to purchase the wax hands. It was extremely popular but both held up the museum's foot traffic on busy days and wasn't visible from the street, leading to a loss of business on slow days. When Movieland moved down The Hill, the attraction now exited into the aforementioned "Fun Factory" store selling them, which was accessible from the street. The wax hands now return both to Clifton Hill and the building they were originally sold in. Another good thing to see is the return of the hand-shaped chairs that you sit while you wait. If you plan on visiting I would do it sooner rather than later, however. Small store spaces like this have always had a high turnover rate since Clifton Hill's inception, and being right on the corner near the Skywheel and facing straight down The Hill, it's probably some of Canada's most highly foot-trafficked real estate, which I imagine would mean it will be quickly replaced if it doesn't perform as expected, although I hope that's not the case. The retro-inspired interior of the new Gizmos, complete with chairs that carried over from the old Fun Factory. Image credit: HOCO On the topic of fast food, the next update is unfortunately much sadder, however not without hope. The Dairy Queen located in the Thriftlodge building has closed down, and although not confirmed, I wouldn't be shocked if corporate greed and raised franchise fees contributed to it's closure as well. This location, decked out in neon, chrome, a spinning sign, and a giant, glowing, plastic swirl-top cone has been a nostalgic sight on The Hill for decades, however the history of the space goes back much further. In the early 1960's, the Burland Family (who owns the majority of the opposite side of The Hill from HOCO) tore down the Clifton Cabin Court to build the Clifton Court Motel, except for it's restaurant/offices, which still exist today as the Clifton Hill Family Restaurant with the Niagara Clifton Group's offices still upstairs. The Clifton Court Motel also still stands today as Thriftlodge, but when the motel was first built, the restaurant building was expanded and the "Peppermint Stick" ice cream parlour was added. It was renamed in the early 70's to "Frostee Freeze". I've long been puzzled (when it comes to both Clifton Hill and abroad) whether or not "Frostee Freeze" was ever a franchised brand. Several mid-century ice cream establishments across North America all bore the name, or some variation on the spelling such as "Frosty" or "Frostie". While they all had similar branding, this could just be due to them all opening at the peak of American diner/drive-in culture and it's design philosophies. From what I can gather, it was never an official chain, just a popular naming choice, likely stemming from a cross between the "Tastee Freeze" and "Foster's Freeze" franchises that both originated in the U.S. Regardless, the Frostee Freeze on Clifton Hill was rebranded to a Dairy Queen in 2001. The former Dairy Queen on Clifton Hill awash in it's nostalgic neon. It hadn't changed at all during it's entire 20 year existence aside from updating to the current logo, and remained in all it's neon-chrome glory until this year. I think having a major brand's location on Clifton Hill isn't an inherently bad thing as long as there's something unique/different about the store that the location on your average street corner doesn't have. Unlike Tim Horton's, this was a great example of that, and another example that comes to mind is the Whopper-eating Frankenstein's Monster that sits atop the Burger King located in The House of Frankenstein. While DQ's unique design will definitely be a missing sight on Clifton Hill, it'll be very interesting to see if anything more permanent replaces it. Just a few weeks ago, a temporary looking sign was pasted over the (thankfully) untouched chrome and neon facade reading "Chug's Cafe", which is a drink stand selling soda, iced coffee and a variety of desserts. Perhaps Niagara Clifton Group saw the void in the iced coffee market left by Tim's closing across the street and quickly put something together to fill the empty space. The space isn't large enough for much else, and I think reverting the space to an original dessert stand created by Niagara Clifton Group themselves was a great use of it. They would have got bonus points if they had named it Frostee Freeze or Peppermint Stick, but the beaver mascot is a plus. I just hope they update it with more cohesive retro theming later in a similar vein as to what DQ had, as it currently looks very temporary. The new Chug's Cafe, which I think with slightly more effort put into it's signage, could be really interesting. The menu looks delicious. Image credit: WEGO Places Tours Back on HOCO's side of the street, the Zombie Attack shooting game ride theatre has been given a quick makeover and is now "Creepy Castle". Zombie Attack's theming always had a bit of a temporary look to it, and it's pretty clear that the intention with this theatre was likely always to simply swap out the film and the decor on the outside. This is also likely the case with the Carnival Chaos "Dark Ride" located across the walkway, which I put in quotations since "video game" is probably a more fitting description. Also developed by Triotech who developed Zombie Attack and Creepy Castle, the ride takes you past several screens that show things to shoot at, and has no physical scenery and very little exterior theming. This is almost certainly so it can also be quickly converted into a "new" attraction when the time comes for virtually no cost. Zombie Attack was looking a little dated at 10 years old as the whole Walking Dead craze it was clearly riding the tails of has long died down, so I'm not shocked they chose to replace it. It'll be interesting to see what comes of these rides in the future or if anything more permanent ever replaces them. The much older Ghostblasters located in the Great Canadian Midway always seems far busier than either of these even on a slow day, almost certainly because to be honest, it's a lot more interesting due to it's beautiful physical sets and props, creative design, and immersive storytelling. Creepy Castle, which has replaced Zombie Attack, despite many remnants of the latter such as the caution tape pattern and sheet-metal walls. Image credit: HOCO Speaking of the Great Canadian Midway, the old Slugfest arcade game by William's is back and next to the pinball machines, which is absolutely insane because this game hasn't been seen since the closure of the Q-Balls Billiards Pub in the old Quality Inn, the ultra-obscure arcade and pool hall located next to Golden Griddle that closed in 2009. While it's not clear if this is physically the same copy from Q-Balls or not, the Midway hasn't been the sort of arcade recently that would opt to order authentic retro games from a supplier, instead focusing on the ultra-modern "giant cellphone games" and stripping away many of their longtime classics lately. As far as I know HOCO owns all their arcade machines and doesn't rent them from a coin-op company, and I can't recall any other instance of them purchasing a game second-hand. So with all that being said I would say this is most likely the exact same cabinet seeing the light of day again almost 20 years later, and I could not be happier. Despite being produced in 1991, William's designed this game as a modern (at the time) callback to the old electro-mechanical pitch-and-bat arcade machines of the 50's and 60's. It even dispensed custom baseball cards for beating the game when it was new. I would guess this cabinet likely has that feature disabled as I don't imagine there's anyone at The Midway printing reproduction 90's baseball cards, but upon playing this game I couldn't get past the third inning, so I wouldn't know. The last time I encountered one of these cabinets was over 10 years ago as a teenager in the arcade at Alliston's famous Nottawasaga Inn when it was removed as the arcade downsized, which is what I'm blaming my rustyness on. I've always loved William's cabinet artwork from this era. It has this tongue-in-cheek touch to it that parodies 20th century Americana. The artwork here is reminiscent of other William's classics like "Hit the Ice" or "Smash T.V.". It seems simple at first, the ball comes down the playfield then you swing the bat and hope the ball goes where you want, but it's actually much deeper than that. You switch between pitching and batting, and can select what pitch you're throwing by hitting the fast ball, curve ball, change up, or screw ball buttons. Different pitches are more likely to go to different places on the playfield when hit, so when pitching against the computer or an opponent, you can select a pitch that's almost impossible to hit towards the target your opponent needs. The timing of swinging at different pitches is important too, as for example a curve ball hit early might go to one very specific target on the playfield whereas one hit late might go to another, or hit nothing at all, so knowing what you need to throw/hit and when is a huge part of this game's meta. There's also buttons to pinch hit and steal bases when batting. I would love to see more older games like this return to The Midway. HOCO has always kept things around in storage long after their removal (see this article on the return of the original Dinosaur Park Brontosauruses to Dinosaur Adventure Golf this spring) and I'd be super interested to know what else they still have. I think customers would genuinely appreciate the variety, and although I understand how some things like the old token launcher games aren't feasible since the swipe card apocalypse or profitable in the modern "6-12 credits a play" arcade economy, I'd say that's only true for a small percentage of older games. I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather pay 8 credits to play Tekken or pinball using a swipe card than not have the option to play them at all, and with nostalgia now being an undeniable part of the arcade experience even to the average consumer, I don't think I'm alone in that. I'm happy to report that the changes we've seen so far this year have been somewhat positive across the board, as I'm even interested in seeing if Chug's gets more fleshed out and becomes a permanent fixture. This continues the trend of the last few years, which has seen similar updates, and more importantly, love poured into classics again, the Dinosaur Adventure Golf Brontosauruses and the Castle Dracula restoration being prime examples. We can expect some big changes to Clifton Hill in the next few years (more on that later) so it's refreshing to see that the ball is currently rolling in the right trajectory.

Spring has sprung on Clifton Hill, and with that means the de-winterization of Dinosaur Adventure Golf. We usually see updates to the course around this time of year, usually a new figure or two or maybe some new signage, but this year's new additions are probably the most important in the course's history to longtime fans of Clifton Hill or anyone who grew up in the Falls. Built in 2010 and opened in 2011, Dinosaur Adventure Golf was the spiritual successor and sort of expansion of the former Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf. Dinosaur Park originally opened in 1992 as a nameless mini golf course that was part of the Dazzleland complex. It was given a huge theming update in 1994 to capitalize on the success of the Jurassic Park films, becoming Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf. The course operated here until 2002 when Dazzleland was replaced by The Great Canadian Midway and the former location of the course became Boston Pizza. From there it was moved to the former parking lot in front of the old Comfort Inn. When the current course was nearing completion in 2010, Dinosaur Park was closed and all of the original dinosaurs "migrated" across Clifton Pl. to the new course. All that is, except for three. The original Pteranodon that sat stop the original course's sign, and the pair of neck-up Brontosauruses that peeked out from behind a tall hedge. Figures when they were brought out of storage in spring of 2019. At the course's original Dazzleland location, the Brontosauruses were placed in one of the course's ponds, making it appear as if they were emerging from the water rather than towering over the foliage. When Dinosaur Adventure Golf opened, two large, concrete pads were constructed in one of the ponds on either side of a footbridge over the water. That being said, for 10 years, there was absolutely no sign of the Brontosauruses returning, however nothing else took their place on the concrete pads. They remained a memory of the old course until spring 2019, when suddenly, they appeared lying on the ground next to the pads in the ponds that hadn't been filled for the season yet. Despite this, they were never put up, and instead moved to lie in the gardens adjacent to the pond when it was filled with water for the summer season. They would lie here for the next 7 years, their condition deteriorating as they were stepped on, hit with putters, and annually covered in snow. One had even lost one of it's glass eyes by 2022. The statues as they sat for many years, still awaiting installation. It's unclear why exactly this occurred, but it appears as if there was some sort of issue fastening the the dinosaurs to the concrete pads. They were obviously planned to be installed there since day one, and perhaps HOCO (who owns the course) ran into a planning issue installing them. It does seem like the pads seem a little small for the size of figures' bases. It's possible they came up with a solution, brought them out of storage in 2019, but had to go back to the drawing board for some reason. It appears metal pads have been welded to the bottoms of the figures to allow them to bolt onto either side of the pads in addition to sitting on top of them. Metal pads securing the figures to the concrete on either side. It does appear based on the shape of the figures themselves where they meet the pads that this is how they were built to be installed, and likely originally were. Regardless of how long it took, I'm overjoyed that these beautiful statues haven't just returned, they've also been beautifully restored and displayed in a pond the way they were intended to be for the first time in 24 years. As I've mentioned before on this website, the original Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf location beside Dazzleland is my earliest memory, and although I don't have distinct memories of these particular statues until the course moved to Comfort Inn, I have fond memories of gazing at them from my hotel room window as a kid. It'll be interesting to see if they receive any spotlights and how they look once the course's fountains get filled for the season. The statues in their original location when the course was connected to Dazzleland can be seen in a pond at the center of this image, 1999. They were beautifully lit from below and displayed in a similar manner to the new installation. This photo was taken aboard the Space Spiral Tower Ride, with the Quality Inn's Golden Griddle visible at the top. It should also be stated that we still have no idea who sculpted these incredible statues. The newer Dinosaur Adventure Golf figures are mass-produced from a variety of high-profile manufacturers, but the old Dinosaur Park figures appear to be totally unique. White Hutchinson Leisure-Learning Group designed Dazzleland along with it's original mini golf, although we don't know if they provided the dinosaur updates that came to the course just two years after it opened. Photos of the course with the dinosaurs present are featured on the company's website, however they make no claims about designing the figures, just the course itself. Unfortunately, records on the project apparently no longer exist at W.H.L.L.G.'s offices. The statues were wrongfully attributed to Niagara Falls artist Derek Costello for years due to an erroneous claim by blog website Roadside America, but during my interview with him in 2023, Mr. Costello told me he simply created a proof-of-concept for the course, which was rejected at the time for being too large (this was a T-Rex head which lives on in The Haunted House of Wax in Niagara Falls, NY, another Costello attraction). The irony of this, of course, is that the figures that were eventually ordered new for Dinosaur Adventure Golf are nearly twice the size of the original Dinosaur Park figures, so perhaps Costello was a bit ahead of his time. While the newer figures may be larger and scalier than the Dinosaur Park originals, the level of detail in these hand-created statues is unmatched. All of the old Dinosaur Park figures convey such deep emotion, from the lizard-like snarl of the Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor, to the majestic and beastly gentleness of the Triceratops or Brontosauruses. If HOCO was accepting proposals for third-party artists to create the dinosaur statues, it stands to reason it wasn't W.H.L.L.G. who designed them, meaning we still don't know where these incredible works of art originated. Speaking of which, we've seen a couple repaints this spring. The old Dinosaur Park Dilophosaurus has been painted an extremely dark green. Most of the dinosaurs were a much less intense green during their time at the Dazzleland location, however they were painted with stripe and lizard-like patterns during their time at Comfort Inn. The original giant turtle from Dinosaur Park has been given a new shell pattern too. The Oviraptor has strangely been painted neon green like a figure from a 1950's roadside mini golf, but despite the strange colour choice, I'm just thankful they're still giving these original figures love and attention. Brand new additions include some neat fossil panels filling out some of the empty spaces in the gardens and plenty of other dinosaur bones. Repainted Dilophosaurus (left) and fluorescent Oviraptor (right). This leaves the original Pteranodon as the only Dinosaur Park figure that has so far faced extinction. If the Brontosauruses were in storage for as long as they were, it stands to reason this figure might still exist in storage as well. If it can be done, I think it would look great perched on one of the rocks on the side of the volcano. For the vast amount of change that HOCO has brought to their side of Clifton Hill in the last 10 years, it seems like they at least preserve what they remove. Hopefully the original Dinosaur Park figures aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and hopefully we'll some day know what studio or artist is behind these iconic statues.

The main stage at Captain Carnival Pizza Theatre in Windsor, Ontario. Animatronics fans rejoice. Footage of the elusive Captain Carnival, the homegrown Canadian response to Chuck E. Cheese's, has been found. For the uninitiated, Captain Carnival Pizza Theatre was a short lived chain of family entertainment centres that operated in Southwestern Ontario for only 18 months. Founded in 1983 by Joe Sorgi and Phil Jakobi, the chain only expanded to two locations, the original in Windsor and a second location in London, Ontario. There were ambitious plans to expand into American markets, with planned locations in Atlanta, Pittsburg, New Jersey, two in Massachusetts, and five more Canadian stores; two in Toronto and three in Vancouver. Despite these ambitious plans, the 1984 over-saturation of animatronic pizza restaurants caused a market crash from which not even Chuck E. Cheese's was safe (their original company folded in 1984), resulting in Captain Carnival topping out at the two locations before falling into obscurity. Davey Jones and the Beach Bones, a wisecracking skeleton band, occupied half of the stage left of the Captain's pirate ship. The animatronics for the stores were provided by Elnicky Enterprises, who also provided the rare " Family Album " human band animatronic shows to a small handful of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theaters in the early 80's, as well as " The Hot Fudge Show " to the Clawson, Michigan location, which was based on characters from a local children's TV show. The stage consisted of Captain Carnival's ship containing the Captain at the helm, his parrot named Pinza, and a pizza chef (who it turns out sounded more like the Swedish Chef than a stereotypical Italian chef). Located to the left of the boat was a small island containing Davey Jones and the Beach Bones , a loudmouthed, surf-rock skeleton band that served as the comic relief. After the chain's abrupt closure, The Beach Bones from the Windsor location ended up at legendary local arcade Fast Eddy's on Riverside Dr., where they spent their final days. The characters had a gimmick that set them apart from other animatronic pizza chains at the time, that being that they could be controlled/voiced live like puppets from backstage to actually interact with guests on special occasions. The Captain himself. The discovery of this clip is quite interesting, as lost media has surrounded this restaurant for years. Aside from all footage and show tapes of the show being lost, there was also a 1983 TV commercial known to have been filmed at the Windsor location. This unearthed footage is not the missing ad however, instead appearing to be part of a local children's show involving a wizard (calling on you Windsor locals for help ID'ing it). It was uploaded to YouTube by the channel " CPRWindsorsub ", who allegedly had it recorded due to a family member providing the voices to some of Captain Carnival's animatronics. After allegedly seeing that footage of the show was lost in showbizpizza.com 's fantastic research video on the chain, they uploaded their footage to the internet. The segment is a good chunk of advertising for the restaurants, showing a good chunk of the show, some closeups on food and merchandise, and some great early 80's arcade footage. We can spot Super Pacman, Galaga, Millipede, Baby Pacman and classic Skee Ball machines amongst the games. Shot of the ticket redemption counter. In the background, two leather-clad guests play Bally/Midway's pinball-video hybrid "Baby Pacman", while the side art of Atari's "Millipede" can be seen behind it. All things considered, the fact this footage surfaced at all is incredible. While birthday party footage from the place may still surface in the future, seeing nearly seven minutes of professionally shot footage we didn't even know existed is probably a greater discovery than the lost commercial, and probably had a slimmer chance of resurfacing as well. Unlike the commercial, which may reside on a dusty VHS tape somewhere containing any Southern Ontario commercial break from 1983-1984, this likely only aired once or twice as a segment on this obscure local show. Huge thank you to CPRWindsorsub for this footage. With it, an entry in the Lost Media section of the website can be checked off. Video can be found below:

The "Wizard" as he appears in Feartek's catalog (left), or "Merlin" (right) as he was better known in West Edmonton Mall's now-walled-off and abandoned "Merlin's Haunted Laboratory" attraction. Feartek productions was not a Canadian company, rather being based in New York City, however they supplied theming to some of Canada's most famous haunted attractions.  Feartek was founded sometime in the late 70's by James and Earle Goodman, two brothers who had worked under the legendary Fred Mahana along the amusement-rich Jersey Shore.  Mahana's attractions were so creative and successful that he garnered the nickname "Fast Buck Freddy" amongst amusement operators for how fast his attractions could return a profit.  Mahana was a visionary with a keen eye for horror specifically, creating an iconic, cartoonish art style that came to define East Coast amusement piers and attractions. "Blackbeard" figure created by Mahana for Brigantine Castle in Brigantine, NJ. The coffin hallway in Mahana's "Morbid Manor" attraction in Ocean City, Maryland. The Goodmans would combine this art style with a more modern take on prop design and digital technology to create high tech attractions with Feartek.  Their most high-profile and well known attraction on Canadian soil, which you can still visit today, is The Haunted House on Clifton Hill, which opened in 1984 in a former section of what was once the World's Largest Gift Shop underneath the Honeymoon City Motel (now Travelodge).  Speculation flew for years around the true creators of this attraction.  Early theories included Freddy Mahana himself, as well as his cousins' company, due to the identical art style found on the attraction's facade to several of the Mahanas' other attractions. Fred Mahana's famous Haunted House attraction on Morey's Pier in Wildwood, NJ. The clear influence on Feartek's "The Haunted House" on Clifton Hill is striking. Clifton Hill's Haunted House prior to minor renovations in the mid-2010's. It wasn't until a Feartek ghost identical to one that can be found in The Haunted House was found in Waldameer Park's legendary Wacky Shack, that the full story became clear.  Several ghouls from The Haunted House can be seen in this newly surfaced 1981 Feartek prop catalog courtesy of Reddit user Ok-storage3530 .  Bits and pieces of this catalog have been floating around the internet the past year, but seeing the full product line tells us a lot more about Feartek, and The Haunted House, than was previously known. The ghost figure seen in both the Wacky Shack and The Haunted House that finally tied the mystery together. In The Haunted House, two identical copies of this figure appear and disappear on either side of guests via a mirror trick. The "Wheel of Death", "Apparition" and several more of the prop skeletons, skulls, creatures and even background sets are all longtime mainstays of The Haunted House.  There's also speculation this company designed The Fun House next door, which also took up a portion of the former gift shop space and opened the same year under the same owners.  The Fun House originally contained a wide variety of murals and artwork that matched the cartoonish style, and there's even unconfirmed claims that at one point, the attraction featured a skeleton scene at the end despite not being a haunted attraction.  All these signs definitely point towards Feartek designing the attraction, however concrete evidence is yet to surface.  Skeleton props matching the style of ghouls hanging around The Haunted House. Background set components that can be found throughout The Haunted House. "The Wheel of Death" in Feartek's catalog. The "Wheel of Death" in The Haunted House. Several of The Haunted House's props have slight cosmetic difference to the versions shown in the catalog. This is likely due to the fact the attraction opened 3 years after this catalog was printed, implying these are early versions. Feartek's 80's polish, high-tech (for the early 80's) motion detection technology, and larger-than life sets and props created a middle ground between the classic boardwalk haunts of the 70's and the modern props we see in the haunted attraction industry today.  Tributes to Mahana can be found throughout The Haunted House, but this cartoonish art style crossed with a clear 80's dark fantasy influence, create a style unique to Feartek that resembles an 80's Saturday morning cartoon (the likes of He-Man, Dungeons and Dragons, and the short-lived series based on the Dragon's Lair arcade game come to mind.) Feartek's rare and impressive "Troll King". Speaking of the fantasy genre, a much more obscure, but much more infamous Canadian Feartek attraction lives on in the memories, and nightmares, of Edmonton-area locals.  West Edmonton Mall's Fantasyland amusement park once featured a little-known haunted attraction named "Merlin's Haunted Laboratory"; a labyrinth of twisting caves housed inside a faux rock cliff face.  The attraction took guests past baby dragons, dungeon-dwelling creatures, and most infamously, Merlin himself.  The animatronic wizard reportedly became a legendary piece of nightmare-fuel amongst young visitors due to his sudden appearance, towering stature, and close proximity to guests.  Most inexplicably, the attraction was located in the children's area of the park, only adding fuel to the warped memories and trauma the attraction left in it's wake. West Edmonton Mall's Fantasyland in 1983. Merlin's Haunted Laboratory was located just out of shot near the dominoes on the right. While obviously meant to be an all-ages attraction with a cute and lighthearted tone, the low ceilings, lack of lighting, and median age of the audience who experienced it made this attraction go down in history as an obscure but haunting part of West Edmonton Mall history.  The attraction closed in 1995 when the park renovated, and for years only lived on as whispers on Edmonton schoolyards, mentions on old park maps, and lost internet users posting into the online void in an attempt to find anyone else who survived the attraction without repressing the memory. That is until Best Edmonton Mall's documentary series "From Fantasy to Galaxy" uncovered the first images of inside the attraction's walls ever found, but these were not 30 year old, historical photographs, these were of the attraction as it looks today.  In a horrifying turn of events that only adds fuel to the nightmarish legend of this attraction, it turns out after the attraction closed in 1995, it wasn't demolished, but walled off and abandoned for nearly three decades, where it remains rotting away to this day.  These horrifying photos not only show just how eerie this attraction would have been when it was operational, but also the decrepit state its in today.  An incredibly sad end for such a legendary attraction, but perhaps a fitting one, as it has only helped further its secretive and legendary status.  While the aforementioned baby dragons aren't included in this photo set, if they even still exist (part of the attraction may have been demolished, as despite these developments, there's still a lot that isn't known about what else this attraction contained), photos of the dungeon creatures as well as Merlin himself surfaced, sitting in their rotted and melting state. Merlin behind glass, his white beard now dark grey with dust. Dungeon-dwelling creatures peer out from their nest in a small cave in the rock walls. This brings us back to Feartek.  Going through the catalog, we find the exact Merlin animatronic that sists abandoned at West Edmonton Mall.  It also turns out that Fantasyland's dungeon critters were actually referred to as "Nerfs" by Feartek.  These connections, as well as the fantasy theme which Feartek specialized in (their logo even contained a dragon), no doubt place Feartek as the true wizards behind this mythical Canadian attraction.   Merlin as he would have looked before three decades of dust. This is also where the catalog and the photos of Merlin's Haunted Laboratory start to fill in gaps for each other.  The catalog gives a name to these creatures, and also describes what their animation would have been (the catalog states their heads bobbed up and down as well as side to side), going on to describe that "an amusing soundtrack has a nest of Nerfs talking about the viewers, sniffling and coughing and wheezing in alarm".  The catalog states however that the heads pictured are unfinished props, and that each would be attached to a "furry, baggy body" and situated in a nest.  These bodies as well as the nest can be seen in the photos of the abandoned figures at WEM, giving a strong sense of what this scene would have appeared like, albeit with a little melted latex that's deteriorated over time and given the Nerfs long snouts. Feartek's catalog page for the Nerfs. The Fantasy Excursion Railway (later renamed "Fantasyland Express"), the original train ride which took guests through the park, contained a horror themed section inside a tunnel as the train passed through the same rock cliff facade which housed Merlin's.  Even less is known about this area than Merlin's, as the darkness of the tunnel combined with poor home video recording capabilities at the time has left nothing but questions.  Several people remember a Werewolf, severed heads, and Frankenstein's Monster.  If Feartek supplied the theming for Merlin's, it stands to reason that this area's props would be their handywork as well, and sure enough, all of the props so far remembered as being in this haunted tunnel identically match ones found in this catalog. Could this be the Werewolf that once hunted the guests aboard Fantasyland's train? Hanging severed heads offered by Feartek. Feartek eventually disappeared sometime around the mid-late 80's shortly after these attractions opened, leaving little paper trail.  Fortunately, their props, which seem to have been more popular sold individually rather than as part of entire attractions like these, can still be found littered around North America in haunted attractions, dark rides, and carnival spook houses.  They were an early innovator in a new age of haunted attraction theming that would fully form by the dawn of the 90's with companies like Distortions Unlimited, Lifeformations, and Scarefactory.  Perhaps they just existed in too much of an in-between for their own good, with their over-the-top props being a little too ahead of their time, yet being a little too early to catch the wave that later companies would in the latter half of the 80's. Feartek's 7-foot-tall "Frankenstein Jr." prop.

The store's chase light adorned sign that also contains the last mentions of the sorely missed Rock Legends Wax Museum, which closed in 2019. December 1st will be a sad day for both heavy metal fans and the Niagara Falls tourism landscape. Rockworld, the souvenir and merchandise store that has sat on Centre Street half a block past where it becomes Clifton Hill for nearly half a century, will close permanently. The store has been a staple of the top of Clifton Hill since it opened in 1983, and is predeceased by the iconic Rock Legends Wax Museum which the same owners operated upstairs from 1997-2019. The wax museum's collection had been sculpted entirely by the owner, Pasquale Ramunno, who coincidentally wasn't even a rock music fan and allegedly had an ear for opera. Thankfully, he had an eye for art, and apparently for business as well, as Rockworld became a legendary pit stop for Ontario metalheads, punk rockers, and classic rock fans alike for generations. A section of the store named the "Niagara Souvenir Centre" offered more generic Canada and Niagara Falls themed items. When the wax museum was added upstairs in 1997, it greatly helped further the identity of the more thematically darker attractions in the up and coming "top of the Hill" area that was becoming popular with teenagers and young adults, joining Alien Encounter, The Criminals Hall of Fame, and the Screamers haunted attraction chain (Rockworld was actually neighbors with the short-lived 3rd Screamers location named "Horror Manor"). The museum's giant neon guitar and wall of musician's faces on the front of the building became a staple sight of the area. Rockworld, Rock Legends Wax Museum, and the iconic neon guitar. After years of success, the wax museum's visitor numbers unfortunately started slowing down in the mid-2010's as the Niagara Falls tourism landscape (and greater amusement industry as a whole) went through a turbulent period. By 2014, all the attractions I listed above that used to rub elbows with Rockworld were gone. With mounting pressure from record labels and their exorbitant licensing fees, the decision was made to close the museum in October 2019, allegedly (according to a conversation I had with the owners some years ago) due in part to YouTube's infamous copyright algorithm flagging vlogs of the museum for use of music, thus alerting media companies to the museum's existence. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic less than 4 months later essentially halting the entire tourism industry for two years, it appears the decision may have been the right one. The incredible and impressive Locomoland, a model train attraction that replaced the wax museum upstairs and was operated by a third party, also unfortunately closed down this past summer (stay tuned for more on that). This also decreased traffic through the store as the wax museum formerly let out into Rockworld, therefore Locomoland did as well after it. The store was carried on for years by Ramunno's children Nick and Maria, but they've decided it's finally time to retire. I was a regular at the store, not for the reasons I'm a regular at most Clifton Hill area attractions, but as a heavy metal fan. The store was well known in the metal scene (allegedly even "back in the day") as a place to get rare and imported merchandise, and as Ontario's other rock stores, headshops, and other headbanger hangouts closed throughout the 2000's and 2010's, the king of them all stood strong. Nowadays, you have essentially three options to buy music merchandise. If you're looking for merchandise from an A-list band (Metallica, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etc.) you might be lucky enough to find something at a run of the mill mall store like Hot Topic or Spencer's, but don't expect them to be quality, or anything other than the most basic designs. If you're a fan of more obscure bands like me, you could order them online directly from the band or an online merchandise store, but as a Canadian, expect shipping costs as high as the price of the item you're buying. The third option is buying merchandise at a band's concert, if you're willing to pay an arm and a leg, and if you're willing to wait for the band to roll through a city near you, which is especially problematic if a band usually only tours Europe or even worse, no longer exists. Rockworld was the only place left you could buy an officially licensed Razor, Destruction, or Mercyful Fate shirt in person and for a decent price, examples I use because this is probably the only excuse I'm going to have to mention those names on this website. Not only that, they carried a variety of items you simply don't see anywhere anymore like patches, flags, pins, and a variety of spiked/studded accessories. The best part? The store didn't charge the city's infamous "tourist tax", and proudly displayed that above the door. It'll be sad to see the store go, but the owners definitely deserve a good rest after everything they've done for both the Niagara Falls and metal communities. The store is currently on massive discount and getting more and more picked over by the day, so if you were a regular here or even want to squeeze in your first visit before it's too late, I suggest you make the voyage as soon as you're able. For die-hard rock fans or attraction operators, the museum's impressive collection of over 70 figures hand sculpted by Pasquale Ramunno (including the ones that were relocated to the store after the museum's closure), are in storage and still up for grabs, but expect to pay what these works of art are worth. If you've ever wanted an identical replica of Alice Cooper in your living room, Gene Simmons in your basement, or Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie in your Halloween display, now is the time to act.

Niagara Falls, Ontario company Enter-Tech (formerly Waxattract) has been discussed in great detail on this site, even getting a rare special article which can be read here . They were by far one of, if not the most important companies in the development of the Canadian amusement industry as we know it today, and the worldwide industry in general. It's tragic then that most, if not all historians in the amusement history corner of the internet have never heard of them. In brief summary - I first dug the name out of the copyright archive around 5 years ago when researching Niagara's legendary Castle Dracula, and instantly got a feeling that this company was much, much bigger than just that. After years of research, browsing newspaper archives, and interviewing members of the sole family who ran the company, my suspicions were confirmed. They were hugely important to the industry - from designing and building scenes for the majority of Niagara's many wax museums, haunted attractions, and exhibits, to being innovators in early lightshow and projection technology, to pioneering the first electronically programmable animatronics outside of Disneyland for The House of Frankenstein in 1971. By 1980, the company had rebranded from Waxattract to Enter-Tech to reflect changes in the industry as the company's animatronic technology got more advanced, and animated shows became the forefront of the business. The company's Hillbilly Bear Jamboree show at Maple Leaf Village in Niagara Falls, early-80's. Credit: Dunham family archives. Even after learning so much about this company and their vast portfolio, I still can't shake the feeling the company was bigger and more influential than even those involved with it know. One thing that stood out to me when I interviewed members of the Dunham family (who ran business), was that their work didn't stay local to Niagara Falls - far from it. The company built displays and exhibits across Canada, and more importantly than that for today's topic, sold pre-built haunted walkthrough attractions, stage shows, displays and figures to attraction operators at trade shows in the States. That's the work that to this day, remains mostly lost to time. A 1980 newspaper article states that by that point the company was producing "around 60 figures a year", which would have made them one of the largest animation companies in the world at that time, certainly the largest in Canada. Where all those figures went, the ones that didn't end up in iconic Niagara Falls attractions at least, remains largely a mystery. There's tidbits of information buried out there - people remember a "Boris Karloff Wax Museum" in Wildwood, NJ that was likely one of their pre-built haunted attractions, a newspaper article mentions they built an animatronic W.C. Fields for a bar in the States, and they had some sort of work relationship with Creative Presentations out of Schaumburg, IL, possibly even doing early commissions for them until Creative Presentations began building their own shows. But several recently uncovered photos and anecdotes in corners of the internet may just shine some light onto where at least some of this work that has been sadly lost to time was located. Circus Time Pizza newspaper ad, 1983. Credit: Tumblr user smthngstrangehppnd. Exhibit A gives us Circus Time Pizza in Flint, Michigan, and actually connects back to a strange newspaper article covering the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree show. The article on the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree's construction in 1982 shows a photo of a panda bear in front of a circus backdrop, stating he is "Big John" who leads Enter-Tech's Hillbilly Bear Jamboree. However, what limited footage and photos of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree exist show a different large bear leading the band, who is presumably Big John. The panda bear seems to be totally absent from the show, unless it was outfront the attraction in the hallways of the mall, or on a side stage, which the show doesn't seem to have had. It also doesn't seem the mysterious panda's outfit or circus backdrop match the woodland theme of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree. What the panda does match however, both in style and theme, is an illustration of a bartender panda character in the above newspaper advertisement for Circus Time Pizza. Circus Time Pizza opened in 1983 and unfortunately only lasted until 1984. It's possible that upon visiting Enter-Tech's studio to report on the construction of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree, the reporter also photographed other works in progress, which Circus Time Pizza's show would have been at that time. It's possible the newspaper's editors then used the incorrect photo assuming he was part of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree, or even possible that he shared the named "Big John" for the Circus Time show if it's a name Enter-Tech enjoyed using, adding to the paper's confusion. You can faintly make out the words "Bear Jamboree" on the panda's hat however, furthering this mystery. The dapper panda proclaimed to be "Big John" for the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree show by the Niagara Falls Review, however this may not be the case. The mysterious panda isn't the only piece of evidence here tying this show to Enter-Tech. The company frequently blended art styles even within the same show, usually creating a varied cast of characters instead of all the characters in a show being done in the same art style. Some characters would have sculpted latex masks, whereas characters right next to them would have foam sculpted heads done in a more plush style similar to the animatronics found at Chuck E. Cheese's. This is a distinct feature of Circus Time, which actually had multiple shows. The main stage consisted of the aforementioned panda bartender, a drumming rabbit, a tiger vocalist, a bear on guitar and a saxophone-playing elephant. The guitar-playing bearded circus performer who covered Kenny Rogers songs in a separate room from the main band. Credit: Tumblr user smthngstrangehppnd. Side lounge rooms contained side-shows (pun not intended), one being a circus performer who was a spoof of Kenny Rogers, and the other being a panther in a cage alongside a clown named Jell E. Bean, the restaurant's mascot. These characters, specifically the panther, match the contrasting character styles of Enter-Tech's shows. While no photos exist of the main stage, the circus-themed stage the mysterious Enter-Tech panda figure was photographed on appears to be larger than what's seen in the photo, alluding to him being part of a larger show. This is all speculation, but it's very possible this character was on the main stage at Circus Time Pizza. It's also possible, of course, that the panda was somehow part of Hillbilly Bear Jamboree after all or a different restaurant/stage show entirely, and that Enter-Tech was involved in Circus Time Pizza, but this panda figure was not. Finally, there's the possibility this is entirely coincidence, and they weren't involved in the restaurant at all, but with nobody online having a clue who produced the Circus Time Pizza shows, and Enter-Tech's work being as vast as it was, it's a strong possibility. Jell E. Bean and the panther next to the attraction's owner. Credit: Tumblr user smthngstrangehppnd. Next we have the ultra obscure Pizza Planet of Buffalo lore. Another spot just across the border, the only evidence of it's existence is a 1984 commercial that went viral for it's low-budget production and unsettling narration, as well as the nightmare-inducing Peppy Roni walk around costume. No other photos, videos, and only a handful of vague newspaper articles featuring the attraction exist, leaving little tangible record of it. Coupled with the fact that the fictional arcade restaurant in Toy Story shares the same name, this means any browser search for this place turns up completely empty, except that commercial. What that commercial does feature however is a brief clip of the restaurant's animatronic band in the background of a birthday party. The figures on this stage bear striking resemblance to Enter-Tech's work, specifically the mechanical shapes of their "All Star Mouse Review" show, the only show of Enter-Tech's that is *quite literally*, lost. As in, it was never installed and nobody knows where it went or what happened to it. You can read more about that fascinating story here . The art style on these panda characters is also extremely similar to the panda figure discussed above. The restaurant opened in 1983 and lasted until around 1985, so the timeline also lines up. You can watch the hallowed advertisement here, which apparently aired on Southern Ontario TV back in the 80's too. Exhibit C brings us to Paul E. Parrott in Pheonix, AZ. This is definitely the biggest speculation in this post, as the band featured at this F.E.C. is totally lost. No photos or video exist of this band or the interior of this restaurant at all. All we have to go off is detailed illustrations of the characters in a newspaper advertisement, and while they do look strikingly similar to Enter-Tech's art style, it's hard to say based off illustrations alone. The restaurant was also located on the opposite side of the U.S. from where the bulk of Waxattract/Enter-Tech's confirmed or suspected works abroad ended up. Their influence can be found mostly along the East Coast due to the company owning and operating attractions in Lake George, Myrtle Beach and Panama City Beach, with some more of their confirmed commission work found in the North half of the country. An animatronic toucan is seen in an early 80's Enter-Tech IAAPA brochure, and is the only figure seen in the brochure who's purpose hasn't been made clear, however the species of bird doesn't match. While it does prove they produced a bird mechanism, any relation stops there, and until photos surface of Paul E. Parrot and friends, we'll likely never know. When the short-lived Paul E. Parrot went into bankruptcy early on, this is the only trace it left behind, along with an auction listing. Finally, and most excitingly, we have the only find in this post that without a shred of doubt, proves the existence of a previously unknown and lost Enter-Tech show. Huckleberry Junction Playhouse Theater, also located just outside Flint, Michigan, needs no introduction when it comes to animatronic pizza restaurants. The attraction has been around since at least 1982 or '83, and is still going strong to this day. The attraction now features the popular mass-produced "Daniel and the Dixie Diggers" animatronic show built by the legendary Sally Corporation, which can be found at various amusement parks and restaurants across the world along with their side-stage counterpart, Jethro P. Hogg. However fans of the attraction's 80's glory days remember a different band there, that up until recently, we've had no photos of. These images were recently brought to my attention of the illusive "Animal Krackers" show, which operated at Huckleberry Junction from opening day until it was replaced in 1994. Apparently, fans of animatronic shows have been searching for the manufacturer of this show for as long as it's been mentioned on the internet, with theories ranging between everything from the band being created as a project by a local career skills college to being produced by Dave Thomas, former lead artist at Creative Engineering, who built the animatronics for the giant Showbiz Pizza chain. The truth however, is that this show was made right here in Canada by Enter-Tech. Let's take a deep-dive into why. One of the sole surviving images of the elusive band. Credit: Tumblr user dreamsdntcry. First of all, the art style is instantly familiar, but upon closer inspection, these characters seem to be direct retrofits of Enter-Tech's other confirmed works. The dog (or lion?) at the piano, the female singer sitting on the piano, the moose drummer, and the mouse railroad conductor all appear to be direct cosmetic makeovers of characters from the Mouse Revue, with the conductor even using the same face mask with different coloured fur surrounding it. The dog on guitar has a similar posture and art style to all of Enter-Tech's confirmed works, but the biggest tell is the panda bear on the stand up bass. He seems to be an almost exact copy of Beverly Bear, the seated fiddle player from the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree, his fiddle has just been swapped for a bass and his fur is a different colour. This incredibly unique and specific character design in particular, when put together with all the other evidence presented here, proves almost without a doubt that this show is the work of Enter-Tech. While most of the band seems to re-use the mechanical structures of Enter-Tech's other known works, two elements so far unique to this show are the singing moon on the wall in the lop-left corner and the singing face on the drum kick. There were allegedly two more characters over the pizza pickup window, presumably calling out orders ready for pickup, but no photos of them have surfaced. It's a shame the Animal Krackers have been largely lost to time, but at least another piece of Enter-Tech's history and the Dunham family's story has been preserved in at least some form. It's a great example of how this company was far bigger and far reaching than anyone realizes. Even with this find and these other leads, I still have that feeling that these will be far from the last pieces of this puzzle to fall into place. We will probably never know the true scope of their work, but I have a feeling we'll track down a lot more of it in the future. Huckleberry Junction newspaper ad from 1984 featuring the Animal Krackers. It appears the show had recently got new showtapes when this ad was run. Credit: Facebook user Pasq Notrook. Special Thanks to: The Dunham Family Animatronic Appreciation Blog on Tumblr Pasq Notrook on Facebook

When I rarely have a few minutes of downtime every few months, I'll check YouTube for any recently uploads of under-the-radar vacation footage of Canada's various amusement areas (Niagara, Wasaga Beach, Yonge Street) in hopes to find footage of some obscure long-lost attraction, or even better, something I've been after for years. Yesterday, this paid off big time. This incredible video was uploaded to YouTube recently, showcasing the Niagara region in 1994. After a brief shot of the abandoned bridal path, turned miniature go-kart track, turned walking path, at the 10:04 mark the cameraman enters the Skylon Tower's legendary amusement park, of which very little is actually known. This is despite it being one of the most popular amusement attractions in The Falls from the 1970's to 1990's, and although limited photos exist, establishing the layout of the vast indoor park has been next to impossible until now. This clearly shows the location of the Shooting Gallery, Miniature Golf Course, Bumper Cars, Go Karts, Carousel, the famous Bavarian Nut Shop, and most importantly, where all this was located in relation to what's there today. The cameraman enters the doors on the West side of the building just off of Murray Street, near where the bridge across the street to Fallsview Casino is today. This entrance to the complex remains, and while the amusement park has been gone for nearly 25 years now, the extensive arcade that filled every other square inch of the basement is still there, although massively downsized. One cool thing in this footage is seeing the original facade of the Adventure Into the Unknown dark ride that was designed by legendary Italian artist Armando Tamignini for manufacturer Bertazzon, imported to Canada, and re-assembled by park staff. The facade would be opened up a very short time after this to include a load station and 2nd floor balcony visible from the outside, however originally it looks to have been contained within the walls of the attraction, adding to the "Unknown" theme. A coffin scene outside the attraction looks to be a static prop, but may have been Tamignini's Dracula in a coffin figure he used in many of his attraction, just shut off. The Dracula figure was definitely a part of this attraction as it's in the auction listing after it closed, but where it was located in the attraction is fittingly, unknown. Mural along the front of "Adventure Into the Unknown" that was removed a short time later. There's some great footage here of the shops on the second floor during better days, but sadly the cameraman doesn't visit the Skylon's undocumented and unfortunately now-abandoned third floor which contained the roller rink and potentially the ever-mysterious World a Million Years Ago attraction. There was a Star Trek Exhibit which opened in the Skylon around this time, however if replaced World a Million Years Ago, the Potvin Miniatures Museum (theorized to have been in the basement next to the amusement park), or neither, is unknown. On the escalator back down into the amusement park, a small shooting gallery-type attraction immediately to the left of the escalators near the Capcom bowling lanes can be seen that appears non-functional, however looks to be the same manufacturer as Dazzleland 's mysterious "Fire Department 911" water gun shooting gallery game. The mystery game in question can be seen at the bottom of this screenshot. At 42:22 there's some brief but cool Clifton Hill footage showing the exteriors of several attractions including Dazzleland, Castle Dracula , Dinosaur Park, and Movieland , however the footage isn't anything groundbreaking at this point compared to some of the more-depth videos of The Hill that have surfaced in recent years. What is groundbreaking however comes at 48:40 when the cameraman enters the Minolta Tower . After a journey to the Pinnacle Restaurant, observation deck, and top of the tower gift shop, the cameraman journeys to the basement. Now if you know the tower's history you know the basement was home to one of Niagara's previously "lost" attractions - one that had next to no documentation. A legendary arcade operated here from the 1970's to sometime in the early 2000's. Here it is in all it's glory, complete with footage of an attempt on it's 90's crown jewel that makes documentation of this arcade so sought after in the classic arcade community - Galaxian 3. If you know what that is, you probably just got goosebumps, if you don't, let me give you them. Galaxian 3 is the 5th title in Namco's popular Galaxian/Galaga series (don't ask why it's called Galaxian 3, the series' naming order has always been beyond confusing). This game completely overhauled the gameplay style of the classic vertical shooting games in the series that came before it however, and introduced a 3D, first-person rail shooter style that would end up setting the precedent for the genre later popularized by games like Star Fox and Time Crisis. The game was originally developed as an interactive theme park attraction in Japan that held 28 people, however Namco had the foresight to also market it as a 6-player sit down arcade machine inside a massive cabinet for arcades with the cash to buy one. The plot features you piloting guns on the ship "Dragoon" against an army of alien-bug attackers as per the series' theme, but this time the threat is much larger. The aliens have a superweapon named the "Cannon Seed" which threatens Earth, and you must fly your way in to the core of this weapon through a tunnel and destroy it's reactor. If this sounds a little familiar narratively speaking to a certain film franchise, that's actually deliberate. When Namco's Kazunori Sawano first designed the original Galaxian back in 1979, he wanted to make a Star Wars game, but licensing issues and technological limitations prevented this. The film's presence in the Galaxian series is felt heavily in everything from the ship in Galaxian resembling a Star Wars Y-Wing, the Galaga ship clearly being modeled after the iconic X-Wing, and the symphonic theme music introduced in Galaga and carried throughout the series. A Galaxian 3 cabinet as seen on KLOV (Museum of the Game). If you're a retro arcade fan and a Star Wars fan (those two things seem to go hand in hand), this game is a masterpiece. It's incredible music, technology, and thrilling narrative are a love letter to the previous games, the sci-fi genre, and the original vision of the series' creator years prior. This game has been deemed "lost" due to its obscurity, with several locations destroying them after they were decommissioned due to their high repair costs, easy conversion into other attractions, and the amount of arcade floor space they took up. While a small handful of these machines are owned by private collectors allowing it to be documented, and there's fairly decent documentation of the Japanese theme park ride version, this footage may very well be the only footage of the arcade machine on-location at an arcade. The game's climactic battle. The footage of the rest of this arcade doesn't disappoint, featuring a plethora of 90,s arcade staples including Konami's 8-player widescreen X-Men game, Final Lap 2, and more. Perhaps the coolest thing here is the giant blacklight mural on the ceiling resembling the Tron game grid. It also appears there was some sort of small non-mechanical zero gravity ride here that required an attendant to operate. Just a year after this footage in 1995, a section of the arcade was leased to Cybermind, a Canadian company that imported "Virtuality" VR arcade machines to Canada and started a short-lived chain of attractions in various major Canadian cities and tourist areas. It's unknown how much of the traditional arcade remained after this, but Galaxian 3 certainty lasted until the basement's closure. The arcade's awesome ceiling that looks straight out of the 1980's. The biggest highlight of this video to me however comes right after exiting the Minolta in the form of footage of Waltzing Waters , the dancing fountain lightshow that ran next to the Minolta Tower from 1962 to 2000. This attraction was one of the earliest amusement projects by Robert Dunham, who would go on to start the Waxattract company and work on some of Niagara's most iconic attractions like The House of Frankenstein , Movieland, Circus World, and the Boris Karloff Wax Museum. It was his first amusement attraction in Niagara Falls proper, with his only other attraction at the time being Fantasy Land at the nearby Crystal Beach Amusement Park. The impressive programmable computer technology that ran the fountain was lightyears ahead of its time, and foreshadowed the company's invention of early programmable animatronic figures for the House of Frankenstein less than a decade later. The lightshow concept would re-surface again with a horror theme in Dunham's beloved Castle Dracula chain of haunted attractions with locations in Niagara Falls, Myrtle Beach and Panama City Beach. The Myrtle Beach location even featured a Waltzing Waters style fountain in it's lightshow room, although if the Niagara location's lightshow had a water component is unknown. Waltzing Waters was expanded and updated in the 1970's, resulting in the version seen in this footage. The show used a switchboard so the operator could customize certain elements of each show, encouraging return customers and no two shows being exactly alike. Until now the only brief footage of Waltzing Waters in action has been on silent 8mm reels. This high-quality VHS footage complete with sound is an incredible window into an iconic gone but not forgotten attraction. Huge thank you to Bryce Barnett for taking, preserving, and uploading this footage to YouTube. Please support his channel and like this video.

New Lobby Display In Spring 2024, I visited Clifton Hill and noticed almost instantly that the iconic Castle Dracula sign that stands high above the building had been brilliantly repainted. It's once again one of the most eye-catching features of the Hill, especially from the bottom of the Hill where it appears centered with the street due to the bend. Upon closer inspection, the lobby display, which had formerly been a hunchback and vampire bride relocated from inside the attraction, had been replaced with a brand new static zombie prop. If you've visited Castle Dracula in the last 25-odd years, you likely know it's been in a sort of undead state of disrepair, and no update (or seemingly maintenance) to the place had occurred since the 1997 signage update out front. The fact capital was being injected back into the attraction was a huge signal new owners had taken over, and after I inquired, I learned that is infact the case. Castle Dracula with the repainted sign above it. Filming inside is not allowed, but I detail some elements of the remodel here on the attraction's updated history page , as well as link a video by a third-party YouTube channel that somehow filmed inside. In summary, my personal feelings on the remodel are somewhat split, but overall I think it's for the best. It's a bit of an interesting case study, the remodel is gorgeous, the place looks like it could last another 50 years now, which definitely couldn't be said before (there were spots you could see through the roof to the daylight under the old ownership). On the other hand, 90% of the original 1974 props built by Waxattract that been decaying in the unlit and walled off scenes were completely removed, along with most of the scenery, props, and artwork. I go more into specifics on what remains and what's been majorly overhauled on the history page linked above, but it's currently unknown if the removed props were trashed or salvaged. While it would certainly be devastating if they were destroyed, to be fair, there wasn't much left of many of them to begin with. They were 50 years old and received seemingly no maintenance for roughly 35 of those. That being said, these were historically significant pieces regardless of their condition, and it's sad to see them go. It begs the question which is more important? An attraction itself, or the actual props that made it historically significant in the first place, all those years ago? I think the choice is a personal one. Old artwork outside the attraction (left) and the painting that replaced it (right). It's easy to see why the new owners opted to buy new animatronics and effects to replace the old ones. It would have been next to impossible to repair 50 year old technology that was totally unique and ahead of it's time, especially after 30 years of being essentially abandoned. It's unknown if the Menechella family who initially moved the attraction to Clifton Hill in 1977 upgraded the original Waxattract 8-Track control systems to standard cassette tape, but even if they had, certainly nothing had been updated since the family sold the attraction in the early 90's and the decline began. It's likely most of the behind-the-scenes equipment needed to operate the props wasn't even still in there. The new props fit the attraction perfectly, and are definitely in the spirit of the originals. The most impressive thing is how detailed and unique some of the new props are. While a handful of them are popular mass-produced props, the majority of them I haven't seen in another attraction or trade show, leading me to question if these were ordered from a specialty studio of some sort. Castle Dracula now matches the other attractions on the Hill in the sense that it's changed greatly from it's original form, however it also joins them in once again being as clean and professional as the day it opened. I touch on this briefly on the history page, but despite all these changes, I would say compared to it's sister attraction The House of Frankenstein up the Hill (another 70's Waxattract creation), Castle Dracula is more true to it's original spirit. The House of Frankenstein is still an amazing attraction, and while it at least contains two working original props (all the original props in Castle Dracula either always were or remain static), the attraction itself is nearly unrecognizable, and the majority of the newer props completely unfitting. Castle Dracula on the other hand retains just enough day one 70's goodness to walk the line effectively, and the new props seem to have been carefully selected it to fit in almost seamlessly. Personally, while I'm sad to see so much history disappear and I'm ever curious where the unaccounted for 90% of it went, I think it's for the best that Dracula was given the chance to rise again. Here's to another 50 years!

Welcome to Canadian Amusement History. This section will serve as a news blog about topics related to current and former attractions on this page, updates on changes to them/their former locations, new research discoveries, and more.