Yep, you could actually build your own Six Flags! I remember sitting on the living room floor and sliding my paper log down the paper flume in the shadow of my paper tower. Very cool stuff!
I found this unpunched book on eBay and sent the seller a note telling them that I was excited to find it. As it turned out, I was in for another surprise. The guy selling these is the guy that actually originally printed them for Six Flags! He also told me why they are almost impossible to find.
The year was 1972. Earl Warren came up with a great product, a build it yourself amusement park! What kid wouldn't want that? He printed up 5000 of them and they began selling them in the park...and then tragedy struck. Well, maybe what happened wasn't a tragedy, but it stunk pretty bad. You see, one of the attractions featured was the Enco Happy Motoring Freeway (a ride where you drove little cars around a little highway, like the Disneyland Autopia). The problem was that Enco chose 1972 to become...Exxon. In one fell swoop, the books no longer represented a major sponsor. Out of 5000 books, only about 1000 were sold. It was never reprinted. As a kid, I was in the right place at the right time!
44 years later, I was in the right place again. A chance search for "Six Flags Punch Out" yielded the long forgotten book. As it turns out, Mr. Warren is a very nice guy who also included this:
In case you can't read it, it says "John- This was the bad boy! Earl Warren" At least he can laugh about it now! Speaking of laughing, Mr. Warren still lives in Arlington where he is the leader of a clown organization. He seems like a really interesting guy!
If you would like your own copy, he still has a few. They are very reasonably priced, so I would jump on it quickly (oh, wait, I already did, lol!)
By the way, here are the other pages:
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
Wow, what a great story! And I love this little item. I remember a Disneyland version that was similar to this. I believe my brother and I each had one, but I think maybe only one paper piece from one of the sets still exists. Congratulations on finding this treasure from your childhood!
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog(s) and I really like what I've seen so far. I will be going back and reading more of your past posts!
This is a great find! I had several punch-out sets around this same time period. I remember a farm and a city downtown, but nothing this cool.
ReplyDeleteLike TM!, I just stumbled on your blog this evening (thanks to your mentioning the church model in a comment on Stuff From the Park), and like TM!, I'm looking forward to perusing your older posts as well as waiting for the new ones.
I think my notifications must be turned off for Stu's Attic....
DeleteI'm glad to have you on board!