printersdevil78 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I was too busy this fall to post TRs about a few fun spots we visited as the trips happened, so now that I have two weeks off work for the holidays, it's time to catch up! We'll start with this little weekend journey in early October to eastern Pennsylvania, where... well, the photos will tell the story. Enjoy! Lauryn gave the chili cheeseburger and chocolate milk a thumbs-up, too. And thus concludes our October Pennsylvanian adventure. Thanks for reading! Yocco's chili dogs, pierogies and a birch beer--it doesn't get much more Pennsylvanian than that! Um, thanks, but since this place is renowned for its chili dogs, I think I'll just have a couple of them instead. They're world famous, apparently. Hooray for pic-nic-pacs! We left the "factory" at 10 minutes past closing time and made our way to this landmark Allentown eatery (the chain is a landmark, anyway; not sure about this particular location). Here are some facts for you to digest. However, the highlight here was the world's largest crayon. I wonder why all their landmark crayons are blue (note the color of the 100 billionth many photos above). Inside: crayon tubes! Back downstairs, the giftshop entry featured a mural of color swatches representing just about every Crayola crayon ever produced. Some of these toys definitely had seen better days. The final floor of the "factory" was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Engineers or some similar group. Basically, all the exhibits here had to do with building things. I didn't? Well then, yes. Trains were also present. Oh, did I mention they also had trains! In the first room, kids took their boats through an obstacle course. In the last, they were encouraged to build their own course and see if a boat could make it through without getting stuck. I don't have any theme parks or roller coasters in this TR... so I guess I'd better squeeze in a donkey! These stiffs were just hanging around for Halloween... I think. Disneyland may have taken out its keelboats, but they live on at the Crayola Factory! Fun with pulleys! This is what a real canal boat looks like. Approximately. Take the tunnel! This is how the canal locks work. It's kind of like the birds and the bees, only with less actual sex. Lift hill shot! Screw the coloring; Lauryn said this was her favorite part of the "factory." Each kid was given a toy canal boat that they had to navigate through a waterway obstacle course that took up an entire room, learning about the physics and mechanics that make up Pennsylvania's canal system along the way. As a bonus, the National Canal Museum is also located in the Crayola Factory, and admission is included. Let's take a look! Mine was a Christmas wreath. They had stations set up with actual melted crayon wax. You were encouraged to dip an extra-long Q-tip in the wax and then dab it onto a paper shape, where it immediately cooled. But nothing beat this exhibit in terms of uniqueness. OK, so apparently Crayola makes this stuff called "Model Magic" that's kind of like Play-Doh, only completely dry so you can color directly on it. It's pretty odd, but it was so much fun that Lauryn decided to redeem her last two tokens for not just one but two samples of it. Chalk zone! This was the coolest exhibit there, and I'm kind of bummed that we didn't get her the at-home version for Christmas. Remember the old computer light pens of the '80s? Crayola has brought them back, and this time they're in different colors! EDIT: Kelly saw this TR and just informed me that there WILL be one of these under the tree on Christmas morning! Apparently it's been bought and wrapped for weeks. Shows how much I know! ...while Kelly made a "Jason" puppet! Honestly, I don't think it looks a thing like me. I don't own an orange tie! Next up was the puppet-making station! Lauryn made a "Mommy" puppet... ...and have lunch! At this point in the tour, Lauryn took a break to spend some time in the "factory"'s interactive indoor playground... Aww, Lauryn made some new friends! Actually, this was pretty cool. They would take your picture with the Crayola Fairies or with Tip (they had a walk-around version, though we never saw him) and print it out for you as line-art coloring page at no extra charge. Unfortunately, that page has long since been colored, crumpled and thrown away, so I don't have an example to post here. This made Lauryn very excited (and the fact that we were able to sneak right past the hands-on fingerpainting booth located behind this exhibit without her noticing made US very excited!). Did I mention the Crayola Factory also had CRAYONS? Boy, they really need to find a better cleaning service! Why, it's a color shadow projection screen that allows you to recreate some of the best trippy '70s music videos of all time, of course! And what's this thing? They had a little mirror thing where you could adjust the lighting to make it look like your head turned into a lizard's head. I didn't really understand what that had to do with Crayola, but whatever.... TPR hoodie represent! TPR represent! ...and even write on the walls! ...make Halloween decorations out of construction paper... ...color scenes from "Cars" with color-changing markers... Regardless, there were plenty of actual fun things to do at the Crayola Factory. Like try a sample of Crayola Color Explosion paper... After the show, they invited all the children in the audience to a little hole in the plexiglass, where they handed out free cray-- er, Silly Putty. Which totally made since since the show had absolutely nothing to do with the manufacture, nor even made any mention, of Silly Putty. This is how many crayons had been made so far that day... and counting. This part of the tour was a slight letdown. The last time I was here, nearly a decade ago, they had a little booth in the room where they showed how crayons were made and one where they showed how markers were made, all with one-on-one interaction. It was very cool. Now it's all mashed together as a little "show," complete with posted showtimes, where the audience stands on risers behind a completely glassed-in, corporate-approved area. The "factory" also housed a folk art collection sponsored by Crayola. For some reason, this one reminded me of Dave Thomas (the TPR Dave, not the Wendy's Dave). This is the company's most recent marker innovation. These were the original Crayola markers, issued in 1978. Ever wonder where the name "Crayola" came from? Now you know! What, you thought I would lie to you? This was the factory's 100 billionth crayon, made by Mr. Rogers. These would be some of the new crayons that replaced them--at half the pay and fewer benefits. These are the "Hall of Fame" retired colors. Now all they do is fish all day and complain about "those dang young whipper-snapper crayons." Upon paying our admission, we got tokens for various machines and redemption areas scattered throughout the "factory." A Crayola marker machine seems like something they should have in Tokyo somewhere. Off my head goes to be made into a pie! "Grrr! I'm crazy Frankenstein's monster! Gimme some crayons!" They had a month-long Halloween promotion going, so in addition to getting free candy, we checked out some photo ops. "Aaaah! It's a big red Tip!" OMG, their mascot is named "Tip!" *giggle* Look out below! Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. Because right next door in Easton, PA, is the one... the only... Crayola Factory Tour! (Don't get too excited. This place has as much of a crayon "factory" as Hersheypark has a chocolate "factory"--they're both fake, cheesy and fun!) The show was held in an antiques mall, so afterward we shopped around there, as well. Hulk Hogan wasn't for sale, but I did buy some comic books from the booth down the hall. Trading card companies also use the show to showcase some of their coming products (I personally am more into the vintage stuff than the new issues, but there are plenty others for whom this advertising--and the free samples that come with it--pay off handsomely). Just like comic cons, they have guest artists signing their works each year. And just like most comic cons, I have no idea who these people are. This was one section of the showroom. It looks a bit bare-bones, but if you're into the hobby, this place is Mecca. First stop of the weekend (and the impetus for the entire trip): the semi-annual Philly Non-Sports Card Show in Allentown, PA. (It was held in Philadelphia for many years, until it was priced out, hence the "Philly" part of the title.) If you aren't sure what "non-sports cards" are, they're basically baseball cards, only with pictures of TV shows, movies, comic characters, etc., on them instead of baseball players. Check out the sign for examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speeddeamon128 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Nice TR Jason! I've lived outside of Philly all my life & never knew the Crayola factory was close by! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy524 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I love to watch Ghost Whisperer, but why would anyone want trading cards? Are they collectible? I just don't understand. The Crayola factory looks like something fun for the kiddos. Nice report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emiroo Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Fantastic report! It reminded me of this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printersdevil78 Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 I love to watch Ghost Whisperer, but why would anyone want trading cards? Are they collectible? I just don't understand. If you're a sci-fi or cult TV geek, then yes, this kind of stuff is highly collectible. That's most of what today's trading cards aim for. Back in the '70s and '80s, there were trading cards for most hit TV shows ("Happy Days," "Knight Rider," even "M*A*S*H"), and they were strictly for the kiddie audience and even more strictly to help these companies push gum. But they haven't packaged gum with these cards for a long time because in the '90s there was a big boom, and people realized they could make big money off some of these cards. Since then they've been made for everything from promoting AIDS awareness to attracting fans of TV shows that aren't geared toward kids in any way, shape or form. That's a big reason I like to stick to the vintage stuff (1930s-'60s), though I do have a good deal of '80s and '90s cards in my collection from when I really was a kid). And I'll usually try to pick up a set whenever the Disney theme parks release one (every five years or so)... but that's for an entirely different collection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Looks like you even got a bit of coaster in this TR on technicality; I think I see a sign advertising the Mauch Chunk Railroad in the background! (Makes sense, being in Penn.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy524 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I love to watch Ghost Whisperer, but why would anyone want trading cards? Are they collectible? I just don't understand. If you're a sci-fi or cult TV geek, then yes, this kind of stuff is highly collectible. That's most of what today's trading cards aim for. Back in the '70s and '80s, there were trading cards for most hit TV shows ("Happy Days," "Knight Rider," even "M*A*S*H"), and they were strictly for the kiddie audience and even more strictly to help these companies push gum. But they haven't packaged gum with these cards for a long time because in the '90s there was a big boom, and people realized they could make big money off some of these cards. Since then they've been made for everything from promoting AIDS awareness to attracting fans of TV shows that aren't geared toward kids in any way, shape or form. That's a big reason I like to stick to the vintage stuff (1930s-'60s), though I do have a good deal of '80s and '90s cards in my collection from when I really was a kid). And I'll usually try to pick up a set whenever the Disney theme parks release one (every five years or so)... but that's for an entirely different collection! Thanks for explaining! I really had no idea they made trading cards for shows like that! I remember the cards with gum from when I was a kid, but I didn't know they made cards for adult shows. Wild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrideseeker Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 Is it just me or does it not seem like this photo would be a great photo to come preloaded on computers for you to set as the background?! ~Matthew Yes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printersdevil78 Posted December 22, 2009 Author Share Posted December 22, 2009 ^lol, thanks! I actually took a similar photo of miniature golf balls for a newspaper article I was working on a couple years ago that I used as my background for awhile. I tend to like close-up photos of large groups of small, colorful objects (jellybeans or M&Ms, anyone?). I took this one during a Labor Day weekend parade and then used it as a promo graphic for an event I chaired this Halloween. Golfy golf, golf, golf, golf... golf! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemical_echo Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 I used to collect a bunch of those kinds of cards when I was a kid. I actually have a few full collections just collecting dust. I think I have South Park, Back to the Future, 3 different Looney Tunes, and probably some Disney ones too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsterfan99 Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 The Crayola factory looks like something fun for the kiddos. Nice report. Ha, my fiance wants to go there for Paris. Fantastic report, looks like you had a blast. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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