Magic Mountain Trolls

In 1969, the Newhall Land and Farm Company formulated the idea to create a more thrilling alternative to the Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm amusement parks. The company selected Valencia as its location, and construction began that year. The park was a combined effort of Sea World and NLFC and cost approximately 20 million dollars to build. It was also a sneaky way to get people to realize Valencia could be a possible real estate option. With plenty of land to sell and a hot new amusement park in its midst, the town of Valencia was sure to thrive. When the park opened on May 29th, 1971, there were 500 employees and 33 attractions. The admission price in 1971 was $5 for adults, and $3.50 for children between the ages of 3 and 12.

In the 1971 season, Magic Mountain obtained permission from Warner Bros. to use the Looney Tunes cartoon characters. However, the park did not begin using these characters for nearly ten years. Instead, in 1972, they began using trolls as the park mascots.
The trolls Bleep, Bloop, and King Troll, and the Wizard became a recognizable symbol of Magic Mountain. These characters were used until 1985. The trolls (and wizard) were the mascots of change. Disneyland at the time was using the ticket system. You received a ticket book upon entering Disneyland and had to surrender a ticket every time you wanted to go on a ride. The tickets were graded A-E. "E" being the most popular and also the fewest in the book of tickets. You were forced to buy more tickets if you wanted to ride all the good rides. The troll-filled park offered up a new option. One admission price-NO TICKETS. Once you paid to enter the park you could ride all day for free. The trolls represented freedom. Freedom to do whatever you wanted and not be taxed by the mouse. Magic Mountain's admission policy was one of the reasons Disneyland no longer works on the ticket system. The Magic Kingdom had to drop that policy in order to remain competitive. Bless you Trolls (and Wizard.)


They Always Come Back:
The Trolls will never return. They are gone forever. So... it looks like I'll have to force them back. You can get a Troll emblazoned shirt here. The troll shirt contains a very special message.