Before I go to far into this post I wanted to give a big Thank You to everyone out there that not only visits us each week to read about all our new Pressed Penny adventures. But also for all the comments, tips and news about newly released machines. It definitely keeps me busy, but at the same time helps make my job much easier in finding all those new coins.

Just the other day I received an anonymous message about some new pennies available at Universal Studios Florida. With all the info printed out I left for the park as soon as I could on the hunt for this new machine.

Once inside Universal Studios I took a right and headed straight down Hollywood Boulevard. This is where you can find the Brown Derby store, The Bourne Stunt Spectacular and our destination the Five & Dime store.

This store is primarily the gift shop that you exit into after experiencing the Bourne Stunt show. However this store is not limited to just Bourne themed merchandise, you can also find plenty of just standard Universal swag.

In my opinion though the best stuff is all about the classic Universal Monsters. Some like Dracula, the Mummy and Frankenstein’s monster are all looming nearby as your shop around.

As you wonder through the store if you head towards the back corner near the check-out registers is where we found the brand new machine we had heard so much about.

The cabinet was not overly themed, but had a nice blue and green paint scheme. I kind of wish this was designed like Dracula’s coffin, or have all those crazy electrical components on top like in Frankenstein’s lab. But I guess maybe that would take up too much room, plus those types of overly themed machines don’t seem to be as popular anymore. I supposed this makes it easier to swap out designs in the future without having to completely redesign the cabinet as well.

As I’m sure you noticed from machine’s marquee, this set is all about Universal Monsters. I was so happy to see that we got not just the usual suspects like Dracula, and Frankenstein’s Monster but also the Bride, the Mummy, The Werewolf, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Invisible Man.

This is such a great set and I’m kind of surprised this has just shown up now, but there definitely seems to be a lot more popularity around these characters here at Universal recently thanks to some fantastic Halloween Horror Nights mazes themed for Universal Monsters in 2019 and the Bride Lives in both 2020 and 2021. There are also rumors swirling about an entire Universal Monsters land for the new Epic Universal Theme Park that is currently in very early stages of construction. Oh wow it just hit me that we will have an entirely new huge theme park opening in 3-5 years. Think of all the new pressed penny machines!

Let me know in the comments if you are a fan of the classic Universal Monsters and which one is your favorite. Thanks for visiting this week and as always Keep on Pressing!

Disney has been releasing so many new pressed coins and even collectible medallions it’s getting a bit hard to keep up. But I promise I’m not complaining. Having too many new machines to write about is definitely a nice problem to have. As I’m sure you have seen recently I’ve been running around collecting the new 50th anniversary pressed pennies and medallions. On one of my stops I visited one of my favorite places the Polynesian Village Resort

There are quite a few buildings that make up this resort and it’s easy to get a little turned around when trying to find a specific guest room. The main lobby area is in the Grand Ceremonial house which is located near the center of the property. Inside is also where you will find the different restaurants, including the Pineapple Lanai should you be interested in cooling off with a delicious dole whip. Up on the second floor of this building is also where you can find ‘Ohana my personal favorite restaurant, and also a store called the Moana Mercantile.

Just outside of this shop used to be two machines, one was a pressed penny machine, and the second was a pressed quarter machine. Both of those machines have been removed and now replaced with a new 8-design touch screen model.

As I posted about previously this set does include four 50th anniversary designs including a really nice one of a retro looking Polynesian Village resort, the Orange Bird, Hei Hei from Moana, and Stitch. Finishing out this set of eight designs are a four more all themed around the Polynesian Village Resort including Mickey and Minnie, Trader Sams, Donald playing a drum and Goofy with a surfboard.

I am still sad to see the pressed quarter machines disappearing, but in there place we have seen a few collectible medallion machines instead. This is one of those locations and if you want to reach about the medallion machine you can check out this post. The medallions are quite a bit more expensive so I feel there is a limit as to how many of those they can release. Hopefully we continue to see more pressed penny machines instead and I think this is a really cool new set.

I don’t know about you but I’m ready for a dole whip. Thanks for visiting the Polynesian Village resort with me today, I hope you have a safe week and as always Keep on Pressing.

I mentioned in a previous post that it has been a long time since Disneyland had released any new pressed penny designs and now they are starting to crank a few of them out. These I think you are really going to enjoy.

This new machine has been a long time guest and collector favorite due to it’s very unique cabinet design. I’ve always wished they would create something like this here in our Florida parks, but I will admit that California gets much more creative with their machines. When visiting Disneyland if you head over to the area near the Port Royal Curios Curiosities Shop and The Pieces of Eight Gift Shop known as the Court des Anges you can find this machine.

Look at this beautiful creation. Such a cool design and I’m happy to see that even though it’s been converted from the previous 3-design Quarter press (read about that version here), they still decided to keep this fun design. How many times have you pressed a penny housed in a coffin?

The designs available in this machine include the Haunted Mansion plaque, each of the three Hitchhiking Ghosts, Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero. Plus a special dated design with 2021 on it commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion Holiday celebration.

Special thank you to our friends at ParkPennies.com for the details on this machines whereabouts. I wish I could get out to the West Coast more often but that’s not in the plans for now. Their website is my main resource to help with my Disneyland press coin collection. If you haven’t checked them out before be sure to head on over there and see the treasure trove of information they have available.

This is a wonderful new set and I’m happy to see Disneyland starting to release some new machine. The Haunted Mansion is my favorite attraction and I always enjoy collecting new designs themed around that ride. You know any time there is a dated design you better pick it up quick before it’s gone and the end of the year will be here before you know it. As we have seen with these 8-design machines, there are actually 2 separate dies inside each with 4-designs on them. So depending on which die has the 20th anniversary design and additional three of these designs may also get the axe come the new year. Stay tuned and we will always keep you updated.

Keep on Pressing, and beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy running all around Walt Disney World Property looking to see if they released any new 50th Anniversary pressed coin designs and spoiler alert they have. If you haven’t seen the post you can check it out here. One of the stops along my travels was to the World Famous Contemporary Resort or as many people just know it as “the one where the monorail goes through the hotel”. I have been fortunate enough to stay here on a couple different family trips and it really is a unique hotel. Some of the rooms are a bit dated, and Chef Mickey’s buffet does not have greatest selection of food, but the California Grill is one of the best places I’ve ever eaten. Did I mention the monorail drives right through the middle of the hotel? Yeah that’s still pretty cool no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

Once inside the resort I headed up to the 4th floor concourse which is where Chef Mickeys, Contempo Cafe, the Outer Rim Bar, the gift shops and arcade are all located.

If you head over near where the monorail security check point is you will find the resort arcade and along the outside wall used to be the most amazing vision that could almost seem like a mirage to pressed coin collectors.

This has one of the biggest selections off pressed coin machines I’ve ever found all in one place. It consisted of 3 separate 3-design pressed penny machines, and then 3 separate 3-design pressed quarter machines which you can see pictured above.

Now however that wall of amazingness has been removed and retired. In it’s place are two new 8-design machines and a collectible medallion machine which you can read about in a separate post here.

The first machine actually includes some special 50th Anniversary penny designs which I had been searching for but also a few other nice new images. The set includes a 50th Contemporary with Mickey & Minnie, 50th Donald Duck, 50th Gus mouse from Cinderella, and 50th Bambi. The non-50th designs include a Classic Mickey, Ariel and Prince Eric, the Contemporary Resort with Monorail and the Chef Mickey logo.

Side stepping about 12 inches to the right you come to the second brand new machine. There are no 50th designs in this one, but instead some updated designs including Chef Mickey with a large Fork and Spoon, Carl and Russel from Up, Mickey and Minnie, Timothy Mouse from Dumbo, a Broom from Fantastia, Stitch, Mulan and Aladdin.

It is a very sad day to see that wall of pressed coin machines finally kick the bucket, but at least we got something in its place. You can’t get quite as many coins all in one location anymore, but it’s pretty close. As we have assumed it looks like the pressed quarter machines are certainly disappearing and there are only few left on property. Thanks for tagging along as I visited one of my favorite resorts the Contemporary. Now it’s time for me to hop back on the monorail and keep looking for more new machines. Have a fantastic weekend and Keep on Pressing!