Oi Oi Oi! Wookiee here with some info to share for all my favorite tappers. I know we’re all enjoying Thanksgiving and other assorted TSTO goodness, but I thought it was about time I gave everyone a progress report on the construction of Springfield at Universal Studios Hollywood. I’ve been trying to keep y’all up to date ever since I first posted about it so click more if you’re curious where it’s at now.
One of the many things I love about living in Southern California is the access to all the amazing theme parks here. I’m the nerd who has an annual pass to Disneyland and Universal Studios. Thankfully, I’m also the nerd who blogs about The Simpsons so I’ve been periodically popping in to view the construction for Springfield at Universal Studios in Hollywood to share with everyone here. My last visit was during Halloween Horror Nights with my little ewok and baby sister wookiee. We went in to the park both before and during the event and I made sure I took pics and picked the brains of cast members willing to share details.
Walking towards The Simpsons Ride, construction was previously only on the right side. It’s now on both which means as rumors suggested, Springfield will be completely immersive. This walk will be so cool in Spring 2015.
To the left, the old Italian restaurant and ice cream stand is now being worked on. Rumor has it this is the future home of Luigi’s and maybe Duff Gardens. To the right, the tall construction is supposed to be similar to the artist image at the top of this post. An employee told me Moe’s, Krustyburger and more will be there. I suspect it will be similar to the food court stuff I wrote about in my review of Springfield in Florida.
Due to all the construction walls, there are signs to ensure tourists that the Kwik-E-Mart (gift shop) is open. You have to enter through the back entrance that looks like Moe’s right now but there is lots of rad Simpsons merch there. I suspect this building will only be painted as the KEM once everything is done.
On the other side is the walkways to the Universal Studios Backlot Tram and it made me uber happy to see they brought back all the standees to decorate the walls. These were two of my favorites. I particularly love Comic Book Guy’s shirt which is a great pun on the Alien tag line.
Returning from the tram, you can see all of the tall construction more. The large building to the right is The Simpsons Ride. You can see the new stuff is going to be very high with the comparison image at the bottom. Of course, some of this is also the 2016 premiere that Potterheads are salivating over too.
Of course, no visit to this area is complete without a photo op with Homer Jay Simpson. The brunette is my little ewok btw. Both were excited to have their faces on this site. My famous relatives lol (insert sarcasm here).
And that really wraps up all the new stuff. The build is coming along amazingly and I am super excited for the opening in Spring 2015. We definitely should do an Addicts event there. Pretty please Alissa? Just to wrap it up… I have to say we all enjoyed a Lard Lad Donut and Duff energy drinks later that night while dodging the Krampus, Purge anarachists, killer clowns, werewolves, vampires and more. It’s a perfect item to share between three people.
Hope y’all are having a great day. Keep on tapping in the free world and stay classy. TTFN… Wookiee out!
I wish they would let us get in game donuts with every purchase of a REAL donut from these parks…
Also, Flaming Moe’s are WAY too expensive there!
Sounds like the butterbeer at Harry Potter… When I saw the price for those in an article, my jaw dropped.
What’s in a Flaming Moe there? Is it alcoholic or NA?
Flaming Moe is NA..and it’s basically Tang with a flare 🙂
glad they’re doing it. will visit if im ever in califonia (or is this florida?). but, and this might sound weird, i think ill be a little disappointed with how clean everything is.
This one is CA…but they do have one in FL as well..
I’ve only been to the one in California, as I live in California, and have an annual pass. Just waiting next year for you should know what (Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey) and see how crowded it gets later. I mean, in the other parks, the total of people who come daily increased to 20% more! That’s serious numbers.
HP is Spring 2016… Springfield and the Fast & Furious tour addition are next year. I plan on still being an AP so I shall go mostly when crowds aren’t bad.
Give me that donut please
OMG! IS IT WORLDWIDE?!?!?!?!?!?! I ONCE MET A HOMER SIMPSON MASCOT IN A CONCERT! EVEN THE WHOLE SIMPSONS FAMILY!
A Haunt monster does these post!! Small world I also work Haunt! Also love the gAmerican and simpsons.
Well… A haunt rookie. Folks from Infected call me Riot. Glad to know there’s another monster around here.
This is a little off topic, but… Crusties! In my days thumbing it from PDX to Oakland, never met any huge Simpsons fans. From the looks of that Homer picture up there, one or more of you may have ridden a rail or two, no?
Down here in So Cal it’s buses but yeah, I’ve gotten different places all sorts of ways. Gotta love my young punx.
After seeing the pics I came down to read the comments specifically to find some other simpsons addicted punks out there. Yay! <3
Thanks for the report and OMG that’s a big donut lol!
One question though… Are you sure it’s ” Homer Jay Simpson” and not ” Homer J. Simpson”? It’s probably stupid for me to even ask, since I’m sure you know a whole lot more Simpsonia than I do, but I always thought the “J” was a middle initial, not the actual name…
They actual had an episode where homer found out what the J was and it was actually Jay lol.
Also that looks awesome I wud love 2 check that out. I live in NY and wud walk 2 Cali if I gotta lol
His middle name *is* Jay – it was revealed as such in the 1998 episode “D’oh-in’ In The Wind”.
Until the Simpson’s tenth season episode, “D’oh-in in the Wind”, everyone (including Homer) only knew Homer’s middle initial. In this episode, Homer found out that his mom was a former hippie on the run, and that she had named him Homer Jay Simpson. This is one of the great classic episodes and included wonderful guest appearances by George Carlin and Martin Mull as grown-up hippies.
Oh yeah…I remember that great episode! Just forgot about the”Jay” part. Thanks to everyone for the info…I know I was being stupid to doubt Wookie, even for a second! ☺️
I live in Florida. Already visited the completed Simpsons section of Universal Studios. It is amazing! Feels like you’ve stepped into Springfield.
It really does. I was blown away when I went and my face hurt from smiling so much. I am super excited to have all of it much closer to me.
Awesome! Can’t wait for that to open! Any pics of the merch inside KEM?
I didn’t take any but I certainly can in the future. Lots of shirts, cups, magnets, etc.