Toyland Tours closed during 2005 in order to receive a retheme and an extension which saw the ride transformed into a magical tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Take a look back at the construction of this family favourite ride based on the well known story by Roald Dahl.
The old exterior of Toyland Tours was now well on its way to being removed.
The old entrance to Toyland Tours was now stripped of its signage and the Toyland Tours elephant looked on mournfully, knowing that it too will soon be leaving the Towers. However, the construction walls that had gone up around the area were already advertising the new attraction. Where the old Toyland Tours exterior was being stripped off, the brickwork façade of Doom and Sons could be seen emerging from underneath.
Demolition continued at a pace, with whole facades now disappearing. At the front of the building, the remnants of another former ride emerged, with the turrets and entry sign for Around the World in 80 Days now clear to see.
These pictures show some of the theming objects that had been removed from the building, along with the boats themselves which were sitting out in the sunshine.
As October came around, there wasn’t much left of the Toyland Tours façade. Plenty of ground work was also underway and a whole corner of the building was gone, although the old entrance arch was still intact.
Although not too much has changed, a digger was clearing old theming and some of the old steel framework was visible. The old Around the World in 80 Days theming has gone and so has the arch.
It may have only been another day, but now even more of the old façade was gone, providing views of the building where the river boat ride of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be. The lonely Toyland Tours elephant outside of the attraction was all that remains of the theme, while another pink elephant removed from inside the building was looking very sad (and disassembled).
This was the update where the outdoor ele-copter finally succumbed to removal.
Pictured in this update are a number of theming pieces removed from Toyland Tours. These included some very battered looking Toyland Tours presents, one of the “doll mixtures” standing guard over its fallen comrades and a large pile of teddies, and another teddy driving down the railway tunnel, which was also housing the TLT train.
Back at the attraction building itself, all of the exterior theming and facades had now gone along with the ele-copter. However, some new footings had started to appear.
With it being two months since the previous update, there had been much progress on-site. From a distance it was possible to see how tall the new structure is, with the new façade starting to be put in place, consisting so far of two fans and a chimney. The new entrance façade supports were in place, and a bit of the repainted station could also be seen.
Peering into the building, it was evident that the station area had been worked on – you can see newly added theming. Outside, the framework for the façade was coming along quickly and a 3D style chimney had been erected. Various pieces of equipment lay littered on the ground in front of the attraction.
This update features a number of photos taken inside the new attraction. In order, these showed that: the Mirror Maze section was starting to come together, the Inventing Room theming was in place, the boats were being painted (note the old style in the background), the Chocolate Room was looking scrumptious, and that more theming was being pieced together and painted. Also shown is the footer for one of the two lifts and a section of the new façade being painted ready for installation out the front of the attraction. The exterior photos show that the new factory was taking shape, with another chimney being lifted into place.
Work on the exterior façade continued, with the ride building now completely covered.
As the façade continued to be worked on, scaffolding had been erected around the building along with protective plastic sheeting. The piece which was shown being painted in an earlier update, can now been seen installed in place.
Not much had changed since our last update, except the addition of new theming to one of the factory entrances. Nonetheless, as the factory was covered in plastic sheeting, it was hard to see any changes.
Although the factory was still mostly covered in plastic sheeting, there were a few uncovered areas which meant it was possible to see some of the painted façade.
