Ego Trips May Be Coming To A Theme Park Near You Trade Show Reveals Strong Interest In Instant-Photo Booths, Similar Products
To get a look at the next big thing in the amusement industry, there’s no need to look far.
In fact, just take a look in the mirror.
Judging from crowd reaction last week at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions trade show in Orlando, vanity is hot.
At least 10 companies at the 79th annual convention and exhibition are hawking the latest craze in Japan: instant-photo booths that spit out sheets of custom-bordered photo stickers.
Others are touting new technology that morphs customers’ instant images into any number of scenes: by the monument they’re visiting, with the queen or on top of a dinosaur.
The trend extends far beyond photos.
Wax Fun of Magnolia, Texas, had convention-goers lined up for the chance to dip their hands in several colors of liquid wax and take home the models.
And on an even bigger scale, Renaissance Entertainment Inc. of Orlando is marketing “Ego Trip: A Ride About You.”
The ride, which Renaissance hopes to sell to a theme park or to operate at fairs, will use riders’ names, photos and voices to create a totally personalized experience.
As paparazzi snap away and adoring fans call their names, riders will attend their own movie premieres. They’ll visit an art museum where they’ll view paintings of themselves as done by Picasso, Warhol and van Gogh.
They’ll attend a political rally where they’ll be urged to run for president and a sporting event where they’ll be praised for their athletic prowess. Finally, they’ll enjoy a ticker-tape parade in their honor.
Afterward, ego-stroked riders will proceed to the gift shop - where they can buy all sorts of stuff emblazoned with their images.
“What’s everyone’s favorite subject? Themselves,” Renaissance President Jon Binkowski said. “This is taking that to the nth degree.”
Vanity ran amok at the show, which attracts theme park operators but is closed to the public. It was just one of thousands of ideas and products vying for the eye of owners and operators of theme parks, family fun centers, shopping malls, carnivals, water parks and museums.
Hoping for a bigger share of the enormous entertainment industry was everyone from ride- and theme-park designers, to carnival toy makers to the creator of artificial thatched roofs.
Among the offerings:
Oversized, wearable noggins of everyone from Bill Clinton to Dr. Ruth Westheimer, made by Celebrity Heads.
“Fly Guys,” supertall dancers made from wind-filled nylon tubes by Air Dimensional Design Inc.
Portable backpack kegs - complete with dispenser and cup holder - by Rocket Man Mobile Drink Systems.
Carnival games featuring everything from balls tossed into a closing toilet to chickens bounced into pots on a grill.
Though most vendors at the convention went for new and different, some stuck with tried and true. The Eli Bridge Co. of Jacksonville, Ill., for example, sold ferris wheels not much different than the ones company founder William Sullivan sold at IAAPA’s first convention 78 years ago.
“It’s still the same thrill,” said company President Patty Rainey, Sullivan’s great-granddaughter. “And people still love it.”