Disneyland Marquee Collectible Wood Sign – Errors

Disneyland Marquee Collectible Wood Sign – Errors

As shown on the official Disney blog, this wood Disneyland marquee is actually part of a bigger sign collection created by the arts and collectibles team at Disney. But I’m not here to discuss how cool these signs are — my mission is greater.

Two Flaws

Because I’m a stickler for authenticity and these signs are supposed to represent their original counterparts, I noticed a couple of things that didn’t really add up. To start, I’ll give you two frames of reference for how the Disneyland marquee originally looked:
Original Disneyland marquee

This marquee stood for 31 years from 1958 to 1989 and was only slightly modified in color and design in the 70’s. Here’s what it looked like in 1976:

1976 Disneyland marquee

Problem #1 — The biggest problem is the letter Y on the reverse side. As you can see in both images, the little colored blocks that appear behind the letters are actually the faces of the letters on the other side of this double-sided marquee. On the wooden art piece in question, they got three of the four correct. Somehow they left out the one for the letter Y! This bugged me, so I made up an example in PhotoShop® to see what this piece would look like if done correctly:

Updated wood Disneyland marquee

Updated wood Disneyland marquee

As you can see, it still looks great so I hope the artist didn’t leave it out for aesthetic reasons. It may have very well been just an oversight, but in my opinion, this is quite a big one! Here’s the original as it looks when you buy one:

Original wood Disneyland marquee

Original wood Disneyland marquee

Problem #2 — The second thing I noticed that was incorrect about this is the font of the Disneyland logo. Today’s font is more refined and honestly does look better than past logos, but in keeping with originality, it would have been nice to see the original font be used on this piece.

The fonts differ ever-so-slightly, but you can see the biggest differences with the first letter D, the S and the Y. The original font, being wider, is also responsible for offsetting the squares surrounding each letter which would have altered the letter spacing on the replica sign as well.

Final Word

Normally, I wouldn’t make a big deal about such issues, but with the price tag on these signs being $150, it’s only fair to get an accurate representation of the originals. With all that said, I still LOVE this sign!

If the wooden sign program continues to grow, I’d be happy to see the 1989 marquee be added to the collection as well. I’d also love to see the aforementioned issues fixed on new releases of this marquee if there is to be new stock created. So if someone at Disney happens to read this, please forward it on to anyone responsible for managing these products!

Before I go, here’s a photo purely for your enjoyment. For a short period of time in 1989, the original marquee still stood proudly on Harbor Blvd. while the new one was being built!

1989 and 1958 Disneyland marquees stand together

logo

Related posts

My Experience of the ‘D23 Disneyland Off The Map’ Tour Sweepstakes

My Experience of the 'D23 Disneyland Off The Map' Tour Sweepstakes

The tour was awarded to 25 D23 members, all of which were allowed to bring one guest. Once inside the park, we broke into groups of about 14 people and split. With camera in hand, I was prepared for a unique experience that not many people get to enjoy...at least for free. The tour consisted...

Disneyland Celebrates 58 Years Today – Happy Birthday!

Disneyland Celebrates 58 Years Today - Happy Birthday!

Most people generally like even numbers for celebrating big birthdays, so we won't be seeing much official celebration at Disneyland until 2015 when Disneyland hits the big six-O, but still...July 17th of any year holds a special place in the minds of any fan of the one and only original park...

Why is Disneyland so expensive?

Why is Disneyland so expensive?

The problem with answering this question is that the reasoning is subjective. The typical "what's expensive for some people may not be for others" comment applies here as does the thought of, "Do we get our money's worth regardless of the price?" To simplify this comparison, let's just focus on...

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.