The youngest guests of any park are a big consumers of souvenirs like
stuffed animals and toys, and Great Adventure featured a wide variety of
that merchandise in Fairy Tales.
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Fairytales tent colors through the
years: |
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Without a doubt the
most spectacular of the four tent shops was Fairy Tales, the shop aimed
squarely at the youngest guests. The silver tree with its bright foil
leafs was an amazing centerpiece.
Within the store stuffed
animals of every shape, size and type along with other toys and kid
oriented souvenirs were available. In the early years before Six Flags
purchased the park the park had its own characters, so they featured
toys and stuffed animals from all over...Disney, Raggedy Ann, Holly
Hobby, Warner Bothers, Hanna Barbera, Peanuts and just about anything
else you can think of. |
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Yellow and White
Tent
Names Through the Years
1974 - 1992: Fairytales
1993 - 2003: Six Flags Kids
2004: NB Tween
2005 - 2010: Six Flags Kids
2011 - Present: Flags
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Over time the
merchandise selection transformed as trends changed and additional shops
opened in the Main Street area of the park.
For a time the
building was subdivided to create a home for Ashley's Antique Photorium,
the old time photo studio.
Through the 1980's and the early
1990's the shop lost its direction becoming a shop full of generic
souvenirs and t-shirts. |
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In 1993 Fairy Tales
was transformed into Six Flags Kids and given a makeover highlighting
the Warner Brothers character merchandise as well as modernizing with a
more upscale selection of toys and even books and educational materials.
This reflected the trends in kids retail with the rise of stores like
Zainy Brainy and the Barnes & Noble bookstores as well as the Disney
Stores. |
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For just one season
in 2004 the store was transformed into NB Tween, aiming for a slightly
older demographic.
The store turned back to Six Flags Kids
again, and the merchandise selections were tweaked with a "Build-A-Bear"
style stuffed animal making station. In the following seasons the
merchandise selection went through more changes beginning to carry other
character merchandise like Disney and other non Warner characters as
they looked to increase sales to kids regardless of the park's licensing
harkening back to the original Fairy Tales merchandise selection. |
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For the 2011 season the store
went through another name change, becoming Flags. The merchandise
selection remained kid oriented despite the name change. |
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