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Remembering When: Hanna Barbera Land

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  • monitor_ep
    Talkative Member
    • May 11, 2013
    • 7364

    Remembering When: Hanna Barbera Land

    Way back in the mid 80's Houston Texas had another Amusement Park called Hanna Barbera Land. Sadley it only lasted two years.


    Visitors entered the park through a large rainbow archway.
    19970415352_636df984d0_b.jpg

    The park featured:

    A character carousel, including Jabberjaw, Dino, and Yogi Bear
    19970413442_b6a2b9569a_b.jpg

    A Scooby-Doo roller coaster, now at California's Great America as Woodstock's Express
    b0c1af40fca7582c8da916c435572f90.jpg

    Boulder Bumpers
    Boulder Bumpers.jpg

    Silly Stix, an enormous jungle gym of sorts that looked like it was constructed out of giant Tinker Toys; it was repainted and rebranded as "Pepsi Pavilion" for the replacement water park.
    4623379131_34cbdc27bd_z.jpg
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  • monitor_ep
    Talkative Member
    • May 11, 2013
    • 7364

    #2
    H.B.L. Funliner
    19951870976_2460567e07_b.jpg

    The Funsonium, a "do-seum" designed by Edwin Schlossberg which housed interactive and educational hands-on games and experiences such as Your Name in Lights and You Are the Star; in addition, a continuous feed of Scooby-Doo cartoons was shown
    ooby carto.jpg

    Pedal boats with themed characters including Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, and Huckleberry Hound
    19355494734_ace0bf4b01_b.jpg

    Water body slides, added for 1985

    Puppet shows
    hannabarbera-land-76e81521-b029-4c13-b8ce-7a5b8d996eb-resize-750.jpg2763186874_6307e2086c_o.jpg

    Papa Smurf's Forest restaurant

    A live Keystone Cops brass band (branded the 'Kops of Komedy')[4] that performed Hanna Barbera theme songs

    'Rufus the Rainmaker', a live performance featuring the "leading authority in the art of rainmaking"
    Last edited by monitor_ep; Jul 15, '22, 1:33 PM.
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    • sprytel
      Talkative Member
      • Jun 26, 2009
      • 6539

      #3
      I'm surprised they abandoned this so quickly. Flintstones bumper cars look hellafun!

      Comment

      • monitor_ep
        Talkative Member
        • May 11, 2013
        • 7364

        #4
        Remembering When: Hanna Barbera Land

        3291744567_521f5655bd_z.jpg

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        charaters 2.jpg

        I went during the summer of their first year. <y family went with a friend of the family who had 2 young girls and a son the same age as my brother. Because of this I was allowed to bring a friend with me my own age, my best friend/boyfriend. We each had a map and had to meet up every 20 minutes to attend one of the functions together stage production or get something to eat). I was supposed to take by brother & his friend with me with the "girls' did the kiddie activities. Back then it was an innocent time, no phones, cameras, or handheld games. I remember doing the part where you were in a Scooby Doo cartoon. On the merry-go-round I sat on Jabberjaw lap because I loved that cartoon. Those paddle boats were fun because only two people would fit so BF & I could be together and under the bridges we would sneak a kiss. Most the rides were two persons so that worked out great.

        We only went that once. I remember getting a pendant that is boxed away. We were so excited to be able to do stuff we did not even think about taking photos while there. For that matter I do not have any memory of the characters walking around either but that was so long ago I do good to remember going.

        From WIki:
        Despite increased attendance in 1985, a number of factors led to the park's closure. An oil bust in the early 1980s severely impacted the economy of the Greater Houston area, not to mention competition with the well-established and more centrally-located AstroWorld, as well as minimal spending in the park on concessions, gift shop purchases, and souvenirs all eventually doomed the park.

        The park was sold to private investors and the SplashTown USA water park was built in its place; the water park was sold again to Bryant Morris, then to Six Flags which purchased it in 1999. After initially not wanting to brand and call it "a member of the Six Flags family," Six Flags eventually decided to re-brand it as Six Flags SplashTown. In 2007 it was sold to PARC Management, The park was later renamed Wet N' Wild Splashtown and in 2019 it was rebranded Six Flags Hurricane Harbor SplashTown

        Last edited by monitor_ep; Jul 15, '22, 1:50 PM.
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        • monitor_ep
          Talkative Member
          • May 11, 2013
          • 7364

          #5


          Now image being in Jr. High with your girl/boy friend and your family sitting in the audience listing to this together
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          • Earth 2 Chris
            Verbose Member
            • Mar 7, 2004
            • 32498

            #6
            That's very cool, thanks for sharing. We had Hanna Barbera Land as part of nearby Kings Island, near Cincinatti, and went there several times over the years. I have several pics of myself and family with some of the in-costume characters. This looks a bit more heavily HB-themed than the Kings Island version, but that makes sense, since it was only the "kiddie" land of that amusement park. The park was eventually was bought out by Paramount, and slowly became more Nickelodeon based, but there were still a few Scooby-Doo themed attractions. Then Cedar Rapids bought it, and now HB Land is a Peanuts-themed area. Not really a bad trade-off. They still have their signature blue soft serve ice cream, which was once themed to Huckleberry Hound, then the Smurfs.
            sigpic

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            • Bruce Banner
              HULK SMASH!
              • Apr 3, 2010
              • 4327

              #7
              I went to Canada's Wonderland a few times in the early 80s. They had a Hanna-Barbera Land there (initially called Happyland of Hanna-Barbera.)
              Good memories of that theme park.



              Last edited by Bruce Banner; Jul 15, '22, 5:14 PM.
              PUNY HUMANS!

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              • drquest
                ~~/\~~\o/~~/\~~Shark!
                • Apr 17, 2012
                • 3742

                #8
                Defunctland did a nice video on this.

                Danny(Drquest)
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                • TrekStar
                  Trek or Treat
                  • Jan 20, 2011
                  • 8355

                  #9
                  What a cool place to spend the day with family or friends/girl friend. I like those boulder bumpers and who wouldn’t want to go on a pedal boat ride with snagglepuss? although I might have passed on a rub-a-dub from Gulliver, yikes!

                  Comment

                  • RonnyG
                    Career Member
                    • Apr 23, 2014
                    • 909

                    #10
                    Only Scooby Doo and the gang live on now at Universal Studios Hollywood which is where I work. No rides or attractions, but actors in costume walk around the park and pose for pictures at the Mystery Machine. I had a mild shock one time as I walk passed "Daphne" backstage, and she tore her wig off. LOL Sometimes I'll see them in the employee cafeteria "out of character." It seems the Simpsons have taken over, and surpassed Hanna Barbara. There's a whole section of the park called Springfield with Simpson's themed restaurants and rides. The Minions are also big. The guests spend a lot of dough on Minion Sippers and Minion popcorn buckets.

                    Comment

                    • TRDouble
                      Permanent Member
                      • Jul 10, 2012
                      • 2525

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Bruce Banner
                      I went to Canada's Wonderland a few times in the early 80s. They had a Hanna-Barbera Land there (initially called Happyland of Hanna-Barbera.)
                      Good memories of that theme park.
                      Hanna-Barbara Land was a big reason why I wanted to first go to Canada's Wonderland. It did not disappoint back in the 80s.

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                      • TheNewGiJoeWithKungFuGrip
                        Veteran Member
                        • Jun 18, 2015
                        • 450

                        #12
                        Strange that I've never heard of this, especially since I live in Texas!
                        The hands that grip.

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                        • Nostalgiabuff
                          Muddling through
                          • Oct 4, 2008
                          • 11290

                          #13
                          if the place changed hands that many times makes me think there are issues with the location. i had never heard of this park, but then again I am in NY so rather far from TX

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                          • monitor_ep
                            Talkative Member
                            • May 11, 2013
                            • 7364

                            #14
                            One of the main problems was location. HBL was located outside of Houston way up north of it but Astroworld was closer to the center.

                            It was also geared more towards little kids where as Astroworld was geared toward teens and up. We only went one to HBL but went to Astroworld several times.
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