Everyone wants to bring home a souvenir of their visit to a park, and Great Adventure has offered a plethora of merchandise locations over the years featuring a wide variety of gifts and trinkets.
	For the 2005 season, Six Flags Great Adventure added its most ambitiously themed new section to the theme park featuring numerous rides, attractions, show venues, food stands, and merchandise locations.  While two of the three new shops were rethemes of prior structures, the Tiger's Leap Market was a totally brand new structure. The open air gift shop was built right at the exit of Kingda Ka, serving as the destination for Kingda Ka merchandise. The record breaking coaster sold shirts, mugs, and other merchandise allowing riders to brag of their accomplishment conquering the World's Tallest and Fastest coaster!
	The hexagonal-shaped merchandise stand was comprised mostly of metal including a sheet metal roof and decorative copula. To make it appear a little less industrial, the shop, like the rest of the Golden Kingdom, was elaborately decorated with a wide array of props adorning it to help convey the sense of mystery and adventure found in the Golden Kingdom.  The interior of the shop was filled with wooden cabinetry and storage crates to appear as cargo from some far-off exploration. Two oversized arch signs were erected on opposite sides of the stand, one to catch the eye of those entering the back corner of the Golden Kingdom and the other to attract exiting Kingda Ka riders.  Even the stand's sign incorporated theming with metal elephant and sphere enhancements. With the 2014 addition of Zumanjaro Drop of Doom to the structure of Kingda Ka, the Tiger's Leap Market became the purveyor of Zumanjaro themed gifts as well, standing at the exit to both attractions. Zumanjaro's construction also saw the elimination of the wooden Rolling Thunder roller coaster.  This allowed for the area behind the Tiger's Leap Market to be widened transforming the store to a shop-in-the-round with all sides housing merchandise displays.  Extra awnings were attached to the store to help protect the shops' treasures during inclement weather.
	After almost fifteen seasons, time had taken a toll on many of the theme elements of Tiger's Leap Market with the worn looking display pieces beginning to fall apart from the harsh winter weather and summer sunshine. The props would finally be removed from the roof in 2019, leaving the serviceable bare metal roof minus some of its original character.  At the same time, the stands' signage received a refurbishment. Tiger's Leap Market proved to be an efficient and effective way to promote park merchandise with its open sides and easy access for guests.  In fact, this was so much the case that the same exact structure was purchased and installed the following season when El Mercado was constructed in Plaza del Carnaval for 2006.
Original Spotlight:  February 19, 2020  GAH Reference#:  SHOP-2005-002