everything old is new again...sorta

i was super excited when i learned about an upcoming exhibit called "that's from disneyland."  the girls and i visited van eaton galleries last year to look at auction lots of disneyland memorabilia, and this time around it was a much bigger deal.  it's a private collector's stash of goodies that he's been collecting for 25 years, with all sorts of great stuff from attraction posters to ride vehicles used in the park.  i read somewhere that he's raising money for the hospital where one of his young kids is being treated for an illness, which is kind of cool.  he rented a now-vacant sporting goods store to display everything, turning it in somewhat of a museum for disney fans of all ages to come and check things out.  it's free to get in, and the auction will take place over the course of two days around the end of the month.

we decided to head out on sunday afternoon of the opening weekend, and since the news and social media had been abuzz with pictures and videos and hype we were prepared to stand in line and wait to get in.  we weren't wrong:

but at least we were in the shade, and to be honest the line really did move pretty quickly.  i don't think we waited even ten minutes before we made it inside.  there were a lot of people in there, and so much stuff to look at.  it was total sensory overload and i didn't even know where to start.  so i just followed the kids blindly and the first thing i focused on was this model of main street.

 there was a ton of great stuff mounted on all of the walls.  want one of the disneyland mailboxes?

old signage that remind you of the days when disneyland was a lot more affordable.

maps of the park from decades past.  these were really fun to look at and see how much things have changed...and also how much has stayed the same.

hand drawn concept art.

so much great vintage stuff to look at.

 this is one of the neon letters from the old disneyland hotel sign.

there were lots of informational signs placed everywhere to explain what things were.

 this was really cool - the "cinderella" display that used to be in one of the windows on main street.

and when you looked up, the signs from the old parking lot were placed up on the posts.  back in the days before california adventure and the mickey & friends parking structure was built, you'd park your car in the lot in front of the main gate and these character signs told you which lot you'd left your car in.

everything was really well organized, and separated into sections based on the different lands within the park.  frontierland featured one of the canoes from the rivers of america and signage from old attractions that have been replaced by other things.

the highlight of the adventureland area was this fully functional talking "jose" bird from the beloved enchanted tiki room, along with other fun stuff from days gone by.

fantasyland used to have the skyway, AKA the "sky buckets."  i remember riding this at least once or twice when i was little, before they removed it altogether and closed the hole in matterhorn mountain that it used to travel through.

another oldie but goodie was the peoplemover, a slow-moving ride that used to travel overhead throughout tomorrowland.  it was the best way to rest your feet while catching glimpses of space mountain, star tours, the monorail, and autopia.  disney world still has their version, and we always make it a point to ride it ever chance we get.  i would love to have this in the back yard, but the starting bid of $25K is a bit of a deterrent.  heh.

when they took the peoplemover out, they replaced it with a faster, more exciting version of the ride called "rocket rods."  i remember riding it a handful of times and really enjoying it, but it was forever breaking down with a really, really long line to wait in for it.  this is one of the cars from that short-lived attraction:

from the old "rocket jets" ride:

a "doom" buggy from the haunted mansion:

this is one of the old rockets from space mountain.

many a wild ride has been taken in this bright red car with mr. toad.

one of the flying elephants from the dumbo ride:

from snow white's scary adventures:

and a bobsled from the matterhorn.

and a sweet pirate ship from peter pan's flight.

the new orleans square section had a really cool photo op set up with the stretching portraits from the haunted mansion in the background, but the line was crazy long and we didn't really want to wait in it.

so we settled for looking at the other memorabilia instead.  there was some great stuff there.

want an ear worm?  guess what attraction these items are from:

i'm not gonna lie, i totally want that trash can.  i think bidding starts at $400, which would make the $200 for the rose gold simple human trash can i've been eyeing seem like chump change.  well, okay, not really, but you know what i mean.

we'd seen most of it by then and decided to head upstairs to see what was going on up there.  as we rode up the escalator we had a bird's eye view of the whole exhibit.

there was an arts and crafts section for the kids upstairs.  along one wall was something called "kraftland," where the kids were encouraged to choose a category and a land for a handmade amusement park and then create their best version of it using all sorts of art supplies like hot glue guns and paint pens and foam stickers and wood cutouts.

she decided to create a restaurant in the "water world" area.  she named it "moana's island bites" and then we worked together on assembling the best quick-service spot we could create using the supplies on hand.  i think we did a pretty darn good job.

check out how we made that piece of sea-colored foam stand up:

we were really proud of ourselves for that one.  it may not be pretty, but it sure did the job.  right?  right??

back downstairs, we stopped in the gift shop.  most of the items for sale were straight out of the van eaton galleries and stuff we'd seen before, along with t-shirts and tote bags adorned with the "that's from disneyland" logo.

and that was that.  there's a ton of other stuff i didn't take pictures of, like original attraction posters and animation cels and tons of little pieces from all around disneyland.  this man's collection is pretty gigantic, and i have no doubt that every last piece will get snapped up by disney fans far and wide.  knowing that proceeds are going to benefit a hospital that treats sick kids is a great incentive, too, and i'm kind of hoping i can talk the hub into letting me bid on something small.

i mean...birthday princess month is coming in a few weeks.  whee!!