2025’s GOT ALL THE FUN STUFF! – Dandy Fun House episode 48

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In this edition of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to close out 2024 by looking ahead to 2025 and seeing what’s on the horizon for theme parks, movies, pinball and my favorite TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2025 Toy of the Year Awards! All this ahead! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! 

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2024 year-end extravaganza where we celebrate retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and while most shows are just mailing it in this time of year and giving their audience a “best of” mishmash of what they’ve already done over the past year, this show is instead going to take the opportunity to look ahead into the New Year of 2025 and explore the most exciting things on the horizon. 

But first! I have to show you these futuristic DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts! They do have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them with the rattiest pair of scissors we could find! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! All because we care! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com 

While you’re there, be sure to load up on all the gogo juice you’ll need for the new year with our Coffee Badger t-shirts, mugs and bags of harshly-ground dark French Roast coffee! You don’t have to love France to love their harshly-ground coffee, but it helps! Just get your oui-oui over to dandyfunhouse.com and get busy! 

Alright, let’s get into this new year we’re starting down the barrel of. There’s a lot of amazing stuff on the horizon and we’re going to explore that right now starting with… 

THEME PARKS!

And I’m going to start with the big thing everyone is talking about because it really is the attraction that is sucking up all the oxygen in the room right now as far as theme park chit chat goes and that is… 

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, Orlando Florida – EPIC UNIVERSE.

This is a brand new theme park located adjacent to Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure and it’s going to include 5 different specially-themed areas: Celestial Park, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon, Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. 

Let’s just cut to the chase and talk about the REALLY interesting part of this new theme park and the only part that makes me want to visit: DARK UNIVERSE!

This is a special land within Epic Universe that is dedicated exclusively to the classic Universal Monsters, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man! Sorry, no live for the Mummy or the Creature From the Black Lagoon. I mean someone has to recreate the movie theater attack from THE BLOB at some point don’t they?

Anyway, First off we’ve got an incredible looking ride called MONSTERS UNCHAINED: The Frankenstein Experiment. This one takes place inside Frankenstein’s Castle! Dr. Victoria Frankenstein continues the work of her ancestors deep below the family estate. A demonstration of her experiments to control monsters goes awry when Dracula leads a revolt of enraged monsters including The Wolf Man, The Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and more!

Then we have CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF! This appears to be a roller coaster where you ride in gypsy wagons to escape a pack of hungry werewolves. One thing that stood out to me in the renderings was a picture showing people sitting sideways, forwards and backwards on this ride. The information doesn’t divulge whether or not the cars spin or if you merely have different choices on the type of seating, but further investigation into the animated tour of the overall land of Dark Universe actually does show the cars spinning freely from side to side. It has a top speed of only 37 miles per hour so as long as you can handle the werewolves, I think pops can probably handle this one with you!

THE BURNING BLADE TAVERN: Upon first viewing from the outside looking in, this appears to be fashioned after the climactic final scene from Frankenstein where he (supposedly) meets his end in a burning windmill tower. It is indeed an eatery where you can enjoy burgers, wings, bratwurst and pretzels. But just the fact that they have the burning windmill from the movie Frankenstein with the windmill ACTUALLY ON FIRE is just blowing my frankin’ mind!

Another eatery in this portion of the park is DAS STAKEHOUSE: (notice how STAKE is spelled). This is apparently the more upscale dining option in the area and is a Vampire-Themed dungeon filled with vampire artwork and artifacts. 

DARKMOOR MONSTER MAKEUP EXPERIENCE: This appears to be a laboratory where you, the visitors can yourself become on of Doctor Pretorius’ mad experiments and be transformed into werewolves, vampires, mummies and more!

So, basically, two rides, two places to eat and a makeup shop. You’re not likely to spend your entire day in Dark Universe, but if the other lands, especially Nintendo, in this park interest you, then this very well may be worth your hard-earned theme park dollars. 

Regardless, you absolutely have to visit the Universal Orlando Website and see the animated tour renderings for yourself! They are amazing!

Okay, let’s go to Sandusky, Ohio and CEDAR POINT: If you know anything about Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio then you know this is the Mecca for all things roller coaster. I don’t usually exhort about coasters on this show BUT they have a new one coming out for 2025 called SIREN’S CURSE based on the mythylogical Lake Erie lore of the sirens of the lake who lured sailrs to their doom with their sweet, seductive songs. Okay, a sea monster-themed roller coaster. Yawn! What’s the big deal about that? Well, this particular roller coaster is what is known as a “Tilt Coaster” meaning that the cars come up to a ledge where the track ends and then the entire track the riders are on tilts forward until they are all looking 160 ft straight down. The track then connects to another section of track which is also straight down and releases the cars to go hurtling at pretty much the highest rate of speed possible. Maybe some of you enthusiasts have seen tilt coasters before, but I personally have never seen anything like this before and it just looks absolutely sick! 

2025 also marks the 40th Anniversary of DOLLYWOOD in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! Of course there will be all sorts of special shows going on for the year-long celebration, but I’m really not noticing anything new here except they are touting a bigger and more spectacular drone and fireworks show. Come on Dolly, step it up a little!

 

Moving on to PINBALL – Ok, I’ve been trying to find some lists of the best new pinball machines we can expect in 2025 but in my research, all I’m finding is old articles about 2024 and the search results are otherwise completely clogged by some website called The Pinball Spot with misleading headlines and what appears to be articles written by A.I. that don’t deliver the promise of the headline. Not sure how the search engines are allowing this, but it is what it is. But being the professional that I am, I trudge on. 

The most anticipated new pinball release I’ve learned about coming for 2025 in my opinion would have to be from Spooky Pinball: THE EVIL DEAD featuring the actual voice of the man himself, Bruce Campbell. Evil Dead Pinball is the 4th game by the designer duo “Spooky Luke” and Corwin “Bug” Emery. It features a double barrel shotgun ball launcher and more goodies than you can imagine. The shack, the basement, the hand and a life-sized version of the old lady even pops out of the top of the backboard! This thing just looks absolutely bonkers! I can’t wait!

Dutch Pinball is highly rumored to be releasing an all-new version of Back To The Future expected to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the film’s release and this would also mark 35 years since the release of the first Back To The Future Pinball release by Data East Pinball in 1985. 

I did learn via knapparcade.org of a likely new release from STERN PINBALL which would be X-MEN ’97. 

And if you’ll be around the Frisco, Texas area this coming March, you might want to flap your flippers into the 2025 TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL happening from March 21st through the 23rd at the Embassy Suites. This will have an abundance of exhibitors where you can see the latest and greatest along with long lost classics, tournaments and just about everything pinball your feeble brain can handle. Learn more and register to attend at www.texaspinball.com ! 

I also stumbled across the 41st Annual Pinball Expo which will be happening from October 15th through 18th in beautiful Schaumburg, Illinois at the Renaissance Shaumburg Convention Center Hotel. At the time of this recording it’s a bit soon to tell you about everything this expo will have, but after 41 solid years of holding this event, I’m pretty sure they know how to do it right and this one should be worthy of your time and attendance should you be able to get your shiny silver balls to Schaumburg!

Are you ready for some MOVIES? 

Before I get into the movies I’m looking forward to in 2025, I want to acknowledge a few of my favorites from 2024.