Friday, March 09, 2012

Souvenir Dungeon - Scene-o-rama!

Let's take the rickety old elevator down, down, down, to the souvenir dungeon!


Check it out: SCENE-O-RAMA. Everything is more exciting when it ends in "o-rama". Try it and see for yourself. Scene-o-rama must be a pretty scarce item, since I've never seen another one (I know, some of you probably have). There is no date, but I suspect that it is from around 1955. Notice the use of the Peter Ellenshaw painting on the box (not to mention the term "Disneyland Park" for all you nomenclature sticklers). The box is pretty big, at almost 22" across.


Here's what was inside: a vacuum-formed plastic model of the park (with plenty of artistic license taken), all ready to be painted by you. As stylized as this toy is, you can still make out two features that are often seen in early depictions of the park - the circus tent in the backstage area and the street that runs parallel to Main Street. They even included a parking lot full of cars.

I think it's neat that the contents are unused, although the brush bristles have fallen out.


At a mere two dollars, Scene-o-rama was a bargain. Or was it? Two dollars in 1955 is equal to about $17 today.


Here's the instruction sheet, with the typo "SCENE-O-ROMA". Maybe the toy was supposed to smell? I am going to go in and do a ridiculously detailed paint job on this, with realistic textures. Then I'm going to rinse it off under the kitchen tap and start all over. Jealous?


I hope you have enjoyed Scene-o-Rama!

13 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

I want one!!! Can it be turned upside down and used as a Jell-O mold?

Nancy said...

this is so cool!!

Matterhorn1959 said...

JEALOUS!!!! This souvenir is at the top of my want list. Ikon wolf two others in collections.

Matterhorn1959 said...

That would be know of two....(autocorrect)

Pegleg Pete said...

What a great souvenir! Thanks for sharing. I love spending time down in the Souvenir Dungeon.

Thufer said...

Very cool.
The Souvenir Dungeon is an 'E' ticket for sure.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Oh my, I've never even seen or heard of these! TOO COOL! Thanks for sharing.

Major Pepperidge said...

TM!, I suppose it could! You might have a slight loss of detail though, but the Jello would still taste good.

Nancy, I think so too!

Matterhorn, I am going to add the words "Ikon wolf" randomly to all of my sentences now! Also, you are the reason I mentioned that somebody out there probably had seen this item before.

Pegleg Pete, now the popcorn in the Souvenir Dungeon uses real butter! (Previously I used rancid bacon grease)

Thufer, no tickets are needed for the Souvenir Dungeon - not since I stopped requiring ticket books back in 1983.

VDT, I'm glad you liked this one!

jedblau said...

Super nice. I've seen images of these before(vintage catalog?) but never the real thing. Cool!

thepicklebarrel said...

make that THREE!

i absolutely treasure this as probably the neatest Disneyland merch item next to the rocket ship control board.

actually, i thought i had the only one as i also had not seen another. weird thing is, mine is unused too. how in the world do things like this survive without ever being used?

great post!

Ikon Wolf said...

I have never seen this item and I don't know why someone would mention me here.

Connie Moreno said...

OH...MY...GAWD!!!! I have never, ever, EVER seen anything like this!!! WOW!! And you own it????

hopey said...

Really enjoy your site! My interests are nearly identical and figure we've probably crossed paths since I'm from LA. I have one of these interesting sets which I will unfortunately have to be selling. It'll go on eBay shortly. Just a heads up. Thanks for the fun! Linda Cervon