SeaWorld has begun rebranding itself her in Central Florida calling itself the Coaster Capital of Orlando. To try and make that moniker stick they have certainly gone full on thrill ride lately. The park always had a quite a few high octane coasters, but now they are looking to add a few more over the next few years.
In 2022 they opened Icebreaker, and now here in 2023 they have added Pipeline a standing Surf-style coaster.
I was fortunate enough to get a little bit a preview during a special Passholder event. Getting up close to this new unique coaster was on the agenda but honestly I was there to try and hopefully find new elongated coins. That dream unfortunately was to go unfulfilled for now.
Pipeline was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillar (B&M). Has a maximum speed of 60mph, 1 inversion and top hight of 110 feet, and lasts just under 2 minutes.
Guests are secured into a standing position seat with shoulder harness on top of a large surfboard style ride vehicle.
It’s a first-of-a-kind prototype where the seats of the riders shift up and down along the course layout. This gives riders a feeling of floating along the ocean waves.
After you finish your ride you will find exit through the High Surf gift shop. This is also where you can look at and purchase your on-ride photo.
This is not a very large store, however it has quite a lot of fun merchandise themed around the Pipeline coaster. Plenty of t-shirts, sweaters, hats, even little surfboard pens.
As I mentioned earlier I was hoping to find a new pressed penny machine for Pipeline or maybe even an 8-design set showing off all the coasters in the park. But nothing like that was available, hint hint SeaWorld maybe something to think about for the future. Before I headed out I did spot something that piqued my interested and it was a special Limited Edition 39mm Minted Coin. Above is a photo of the reverse side of the coin and its included acrylic display case. This included a lot of interesting details about the new attraction.
The front of the coin had the Pipeline logo and says “Opened 2023”. It did say this was a Limited Edition coin, but there were no marking on the coin or packaging stating how many were created in this Limited offering. I also don’t know how long these will be available, but at a cost of $35 they may be too high priced for most guests or even collectors to pickup so they may still be available on your next visit if you are interested. Keep on Collecting and Surfs Up!
With so many friends in our collecting community I will admit not much gets passed us when it comes to newly released pressed pennies, or even if a machine goes mysteriously missing. Any changes I usually get flooded with comments and emails which are always welcome and I try to keep the information here as up to date as I can. But recently it seems that a new machine made its appearance without anyone noticing right away. We don’t have confirmation of how long it’s been on stage, however once I heard about the possibility of this new machine I headed over to Hollywood Studios to see what I could find.
The info I had was that the machine was located back along Grand Avenue inside the Muppets Courtyard. The two machines inside PizzeRizzo’s were still there and unchanged so the hunt continued. The Stage 1 Company store is still closed for business which used to have three different machines inside.
The only other place I thought it could possibly be was inside the Muppet Vision 3D theater.
Sure enough I found the machine just outside the entrance doors. So you don’t need to go inside the theater or even watch the show if you are just looking to press a set of the new pennies.
The cabinet has as similar style to some others that can be found throughout Hollywood Studios. I can’t confirm for sure, but this does remind me of one of the machines that was stuck in limbo inside the Stage 1 Company Store. Hopefully we may see those other machines revamped and released somewhere else in the park.
This is kind of a random selection of elongated coin designs including images of Steamboat Willie (Mickey), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Vampirina from Disney Junior, and Stitch & Angel. We think this is the first time Oswald has appeared on a pressed penny here is Walt Disney World and honestly I think he’s great and hope we see more of him in the future.
As always I want to give another big thank you to everyone out there that is sharing information on their trips and any new information on machines no matter how small you think it may be. It’s so wonderful to be able to share the fun an excitement of new coins with all our collecting friends. Keep on Pressing!
Who would have thought that we’d still be talking about Tron after so many other previous posts. But here we are, and honestly this one was a surprise. Disney is notorious for opening a new attraction with plenty of fun new merchandise except for new pressed pennies. Previously it’s seemed like the time table was roughly about 3 years before we saw new elongated coins released for things like Pandora the World of Avatar in Animal Kingdom, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Hollywood Studios.
With the recent Tron Lightcycle Run coaster opening in Magic Kingdom I figured we were lucky to just get those souvenir arcade tokens. Then just a couple weeks after I receive news of a brand new penny machine. So I grabbed a virtual queue spot to ride Tron, then afterwards headed into the nearby Tomorrowland Launch Depot.
This is the gift shop that sits right alongside Space Mountain, and is now the combined store for both Space Mountain and Tron. Above is the front of the store that you are probably most familiar with.
However there is also a back entrance that you would see as you are exiting the Tron attraction area and heading back out into Tomorrowland.
As I mentioned this is supposed to have both Space and Tron merchandise but right now it’s like 95% Tron merch.
Located just inside the doors if you are entering from the Space Mountain entrance side the new penny machine is tucked away in the corner.
The machine cabinet is fantastic. You know me, I love nothing more than an over the top themed machine. Now I know this is just a vinyl wrap but that’s fine with me. I’d rather this than just a plain white cabinet any day.
This includes some great designs of the Tron Lightcycles, Players and my favorite is the “Hidden Mickey” created with light disks that is such a cute design.
I’m very happy to see this set released so close to the official opening of the attraction. Now we just need to get some pressed pennies for the Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille attractions over in Epcot. Maybe that 3 year time frame still applies to those rides. That won’t stop me from continuing to follow up and I’ll be sure to report back as soon as they show up. Keep on Pressing!
Opening back in Disneyland on January 24, 1993 the Mickey’s Toontown area was inspired by the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The builders were stylized and colorful, and has several attractions involving classic cartoon characters such as the houses for Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and a children’s roller coaster.
In early 2019 Disney announced that the attraction Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (originally created for the Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida) would open at Mickey’s Toontown in 2023 inside the ElCapiTOON Theater.
Once the new attraction opened followed shortly after by the newly renovated Toontown opening fans flocked to check out all the changes. The queue for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is very different from the version in Florida that is housed inside the Chinese Theater firmly home to the Great Movie Ride. But once you get through the queue and climb aboard the train being controlled by Goofy the attractions are almost identical. If you are interested in reading a bit more about the Florida version you can check out this post here.
Photo Credit: Kelly Buchwald
As I’m sure you are very familiar with, when you exit off the attraction you will eventually find yourself inside a nearby souvenir store. This new attraction is no different, but for those of you maybe not interested in the attraction no need to worry you can access the shop through a entrance just to the side of the El CapiTOON Theater. Just look for the sign with the name EnginEAR Souvenirs.
Photo Credit: Kelly Buchwald
There is plenty of themed merchandise inside this shop and I’m not going to go over it here. But something of interested to myself and hopefully you as well fellow coin collectors is a new pressed penny machine. The design of the machine cabinet is fantastic and looks like it came from the classic California Zephyr passenger train line.
This set of pressed pennies are all themed around the new attraction with some cute designs of Mickey & Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Peg-leg Pete, Daisy and the newest character Chuuby the bird.
Each of the pennies in this set also have a special backstamp of the Mickey’s Toontown Disneyland logo. This is such a great little extra that Disneyland does with their penny machines. I hope someday we see this in the Florida parks as well.
This is a fun new family attraction that everyone can enjoy, with some truly amazing new ride technology that really makes you feel like you’ve been pulled into a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Keep on Pressing!
Out of all the Star Wars movies and TV shows released my all time favorite is Empire Strikes Back. Part of it could be that was the one we had on an old Beta Max (yes I’m that old) tape and would watch it over and over again. The planet Hoth and the battle scene there is one of my favorites, we are first introduced to the iconic AT-AT walkers, Tan-tans, Master Yoda, Lando Carissian and probably one of the most shocking relations An interesting fact about that relation is that it’s one of the most misquoted movies lines.
Most fans will say “Luke, I am your father” which is incorrect. The line is actually “No, I am your father.” To be honest I’ve been guilty of referencing the incorrect version, but either way this single line shook everything I thought I knew about Star Wars back when I was young.
The above elongated coin featuring Darth Vader, the Star Tours logo, and the line “I am your father” was available at the Tokyo Disneyland theme park inside the Tomorrowland Terrace.
To all our Sith friends out there. I hope you have a great Revenge of the Fifth day !!
To all our Star Wars fans out there I hope the force is strong as you celebrate May the 4th. This may be due to my age, but I do prefer the original trilogy of movies (even before they had episode numbers). Probably more from childhood nostalgia, plus from seeing them so many times over the years I feel like I use the famous dialog in my everyday life.
One of the classic lines from Empire Strikes Back is from Grogu’s long lost relative Master Yoda as his patience are tested while training young Luke Skywalker.
Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.
The above elongated coin featuring this classic quote and nicely detailed image of Master Yoda along with the Star Tours logo, was available at the Tokyo Disneyland park.
This post was requested by some collectors and Disney fans who have been actively working on collecting the special 100th Anniversary medallions and pressed pennies available at both domestic US parks Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. Below are photos and information on the 8 pressed coins that are currently available at the Tokyo Disney Parks and resorts. Happy collecting!
Tokyo Disneyland
Penny Arcade
Just as you enter the park in the World Bazaar section you will find a familiar looking exterior of the classic Penny Arcade. Here you will find a coin machine that has a Disney 100 design that includes a silhouette of the castle with Tinker Bell sprinkling some pixie dust. The bottom of the coin also lists Tokyo Disney Resort.
Tomorrowland Terrace
Over in the futuristic land of tomorrow at the Tomorrowland Terrace they have a special enclosed area setup just for the souvenir medallions (pressed coins). There appear to be three machines in this location, but only one of them has a new Disney 100 design of their beautiful castle surrounded by fireworks. This design also includes the Tokyo Disney Resort along the bottom.
Tokyo DisneySea
Villa Donaldo Home Shop
We jump over to what many fans and guests call the most beautiful Disney park ever created Tokyo DisneySea. As you enter this part you find yourself in the Mediterranean Harbor and one of the stores here is called Villa Donald Home Shop. There you will find an amazing looking coin press with one of my favorite Disney 100th designs of a classic Mickey Mouse surrounded by fireworks.
Tokyo Disney Resort Line (Monorail)
Bon Voyage Souvenir Store
Bon Voyage is a large souvenir store located next to the JR Maihama Station at the Gateway to Tokyo Disney resort. Inside one of the amazingly themed pressed coin machines has a Disney 100 coin with a great image of Walt Disney’s face and has Tokyo Disney Resort along the bottom.
Resort Gateway Station
For these last few machines they are located at the different Monorail Resort Line stations. First is the Resort Gateway Station that has a couple coin machines available. There is just one Disney 100 design here of Minnie Mouse with her classic Bow also surrounded by Fireworks. This bottom of the coin has Disney Resort Line listed.
Tokyo Disneyland Station
The next stop on the Monorail Resort Line is the Tokyo Disneyland Station. Here you can find the next Disney 100 coin featuring Tinker Bell flying among some fireworks. The bottom has Disney Resort Line.
Bayside Station
Continuing our trip on the Resort Line we come to the Bayside Station which is the stop closes to Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels. The Disney 100 coin at this station has a Classic Disney “D” surrounded by stars. The bottom of this coin also lists Disney Resort Line.
Tokyo DisneySea Station
The last stop is at the Tokyo DisneySea Station which is obviously the stop for that park and Hotel MiraCosta. This final Disney 100 pressed coin has Donald Duck surrounded by fireworks just like the other designs of his friends. The bottom of this coin also states Disney Resort Line.
That is the entire set of Disney 100th pressed coins or collectible tokens / medallions however you would like to reference them. There were only 8 designs released and it seems like some of them may have already been replaced. With Tokyo Disneyland currently celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary newer coin designs have been released for that celebration. You may be able to find some of these through other collectors or resellers on sites like eBay. Good luck and Keep on Pressing!
On April 22nd, 2023 Disney celebrated (yes another one) the 25th Anniversary of their Animal Kingdom Theme Park. I visited the park on anniversary day and the celebration was a bit subdued. I think between the 50th (WDW) and 100th (Disney Company) celebrations they didn’t want to over do things. There was a nice little ceremony in front of the Tree of Life with plenty of Disney characters.
Of course you know Disney would have plenty of special merchandise available. Some of these items were available a few days before, but they also made sure to have a few items released only on the 22nd.
Most of the items were available in the two gift shops nears the Tree of Life. One called the Island Mercantile, and the other is the Discovery Island Company.
This second store is also where we were headed to track down the new pressed pennies. There are actually three machines we were looking for and they are along the outside of this store near the corner where you would turn towards the Dinoland USA section of the park.
To make things a bit easier, all three of the machines are right next to each other. There are only three special 25th Anniversary penny designs, and each of these machines has just one of these designs. On a quick side note, look at the details on these machines. I love that big crab on the top grasping a huge penny and the wood carvings in the cabinet are fantastic.
Here is a close up of the three pressed penny designs. Each have the Animal Kingdom 25th Anniversary Logo along with images of Mickey Mouse, Nemo & Dory, and my personal favorite the Tree of Life that has some amazing animal designs incorporated into the tree including the stylized 25 for the trunk.
All in all it was a fun day at Animal Kingdom, but nothing too “wild” took place. There is no time frame currently for how long these 25th Anniversary pennies will be available. I would anticipate they will be here through May 2023 but any longer than that and you truly risk missing out on these new designs. Keep on Pressing!!
On April 4th, 2023 Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom officially opening their newest attraction Tron Lightcycle Run. It’s a duplicate of a version originally created for their Shanghai park back in 2016. Construction was delayed due to the pandemic, and seemed to extend on indefinitely. Now after almost 5 years it opened and I headed over to check out the festivities.
They did offer some advanced previews for Annual Passholders, Club 33 Members, Disney Vacation Club and even D23 Members for a few weeks before the grand opening.
This attraction is located over in Tomorrowland next to Space Mountain. Its large exterior canopy catches the eye and is even more impressive after the sun goes down when it’s lit up and glowing.
As with most attractions at Disney the lines were quite long, but for a brand new attraction this actually didn’t seem to bad. I would have preferred some additional shaded areas in this extended queue area. The temperature were pretty high this day, and will only get worse as we head into the summer months here in Florida.
At least while you are waiting in this outside area you do get the opportunity to watch the guests zooming by on the ride vehicle. we have heard of quite a few guests having issues getting into it correctly.
You can see from the above photo that this is a unique style of vehicle that you need to get into. It’s similar to how you would sit on a bicycle but we have heard of quite a few guests having issues getting into it correctly. There is an accessible ride car on some of the trains that can accommodate anyone having an issue with these bike seats.
I really enjoyed the ride, it has a very fast initial launch and then you are just coasting around outside and eventually inside as you race your lightcycle against a digital opponent. The ride is fairly quick and seems to be over just as you are getting into it, but maybe that’s a way for them to get as many guests on it as they can throughout the day. There is no gift shop right as you exit, however if you head back towards Space Mountain there is now a combined gift shop under the new name Tomorrowland Launch Depot.
Currently this store primarily has new Tron Merchandise but I’m sure in the future we will see the return of some Space Mountain items here as well.
As I perused the new Tron t-shirts and pins I found some interesting items that caught my eye. On a shelf kind of tucked away in the corner were these two bowls filled with souvenir arcade tokens. They were $2.99 each and at first I thought there was just one silver and one gold design. Then as I kept digging through I found a few additional designs, 3 per color and 6 in total.
The silver color tokens had images of the Lightcycle Run, Enter the Grid and Tron logo.
The gold color tokens has designs of Space Paranoids, Tron with two Lightcycle, and Solar Sailor which are fictional games created by the Encom software company from the Tron movies.
All of the tokens had the same reverse design on them of the Flynn’s Arcade logo.
The opening day of any new attraction is always a unique experience. You can expect lots of long lines for not just the attraction, but also the merchandise, snacks and even special photo opportunities. I’ve done a few different openings and enjoy the experience every time. Hopefully in the near future we will see the release of Tron themed pressed pennies or collectible medallions, but for now I’m happy to have these cool little arcade tokens. Keep on Collecting!
We are certainly living in the future, everything seems to has gone digital. Photography, movies, television, currently and even NFTs whatever that is. Now I’m here to tell you even out beloved Pressed Pennies has gone digital Now this may not work exactly as you are picturing in your mind, this isn’t something you can do at your favorite roadside attraction or in any of the Disney parks. Although now that I think about it that would be a fun interactive game they can implement, but Disney please don’t take away our physical penny machines! However what I’m about to show you is Disney related so what you need to do is grab your smartphone and download the Free (to play) Disney Collect! app by Topps.
If you have ever been into collectible sports cards, or to be honest any type of collectible card you are probably familiar with the name Topps. They were the original blind bag collectible. I remember saving up my allowance to buy a pack of Hockey cards hoping to find one of my favorite players.
Topps has been releasing physical card for years, then starting in 2012 they going the digital age by releasing apps for your phone that allow fans to collect digital baseball cards. This was followed by separate apps for other sports like hockey and soccer, then they entered the entertainment genre with Star Wars, Marvel and Disney apps.
Once you have the app installed and your account setup you will find yourself with a home screen that has quite a few different options available to start collecting. As with physical collectible cards the idea here is to start buying packs of cards and get them into your collection. You do earn free coins throughout the day, as well as free Magical Gifts that can include cards from many different available sets.
Inside the store there is a constantly changing assortment of card sets available for your to collect. Click on one and you will get some additional information about that set, including a count down to when it will expire and no longer be available. There are also different pack options that will list how many cards you get for a certain amount of coins, and the odds per pack of getting rare or unique card variations. There are more expensive options as you scroll further down the list that give you better odds at acquiring those special cards. Just be aware that as with many “Free to play” apps you can spend your actual money to buy more coins to help speed up your progress if you chose, but that can certainly add up if you aren’t careful.
You can view your collection at any time and even if the set expires you do not lose the cards you hav already collected. This just means that those packs of cards can no longer be purchased through the store. So how can you fill in those missing cards from a set you really want. Well just like we used to do on the school playground you can trade with your friends and other users of the app. There are so many other little things you can do within this app to ear or upgrade your collection but I’ll leave that up to you to explore on your own.
Now let me show you something I recently found while working on my digital Disney collection. I was in the shop checking out some new sets that were available and noticed this one with Steamboat Willie (Mickey). I’m a sucker for classic Mickey stuff and immediately started working on collecting this set. In my haste to start buying up packs I completely overlooked the details of exactly what special cards were available.
Then in one of my packs I got a “card” that looked suspiciously familiar. I clicked on the info button for this card and there at the bottom my eyes were drawn to Group and Variant name “Chrome Pressed Penny”. WHAT!!!
Suddenly I had a new mission, the rest of this set was completely gone from my mind, instead I had to do whatever I could to collect all these pressed pennies. Well it took awhile but I eventually was able to grab the entire set and look at these they are so cool.
I had so much fun working on acquiring this entires set and once it was done I wondered if there were any other similar sets available with different themes. Well it didn’t take long for me to find quite a few other sets of digital pressed pennies available.
Here was another set I found with some classic Disney Villains including the Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, King Candy, Gaston and quite a few others.
Some of these have some ambiguous names to the series but the app does allow you to see what each design looks like even if you haven’t collected it yet. That way you can see which ones you still need to finish up the set. Here’s one called “Topps Timeless” with penny designs of Tinker Bell, Raya, Marie, Tiana and more.
They have even released multiple series for some of the sets. Like the above Series 2 of the Topps Timeless with new designs including Chicken Little, Baymax, Merlin, the Cheshire Cat among them.
Earlier this year they released a new Mickey Memories Collection dated for 2023 with the fab five and a special completer coin of the entire gang all in one design.
There are quite a few other sets but I wanted to show off just one last collection that even had players collection special silver medallions for Disney’s 100th Anniversary. It takes a lot of patience and time to work on each of these sets but they are absolutely obtainable even without spending your own money. I insist on playing this without spending any of my actual money which does add to the length of time it takes. For me though that part of the fun and I don’t need to worry about saving up my allowance to do so.
So what do you think of what I’m assuming is our first form of Digital Pressed Penny collecting. I truly hope this isn’t the ultimate destination for our hobby, bu for right now I think it’s another fun way to enjoy collecting some pennies when you may be stuck inside or unable to travel. In case you were wondering non of the digital penny designs I’ve seen so far look like any of the ones we have collected from Disneyland or Walt Disney World parks. Since those are created by another company I’m sure they don’t want to share their designs with Topps.
Are you going to give this a try and start collecting your own digital pressed pennies. Let me know down in the comments below. Enjoy the rest of your week and as always Keep on Pressing…Digitally?
David's Coin Travels 