It’s been an absolutely crazy month for Universal Studios Hollywood, with the opening of the Springfield Midway Games a week and a half ago, to the soft opening of Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. The crowds have really found their way to this small Hollywood park giving us a delicious taste of what this park has to offer over the next 2.5 years.
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem & Super Silly Fun Land
On Thursday, Despicable Me opened up for the first day of technical rehearsals and we were there to cover it.
Super Silly Fun Land unfortunately has not yet been completed, though the area does look quite promising. It will open with a brand new flat-ride spinner, two play areas, 3 midway games (Including SPACE KILLER from the film) and Super Silly Stuff, the gift shop which is now open.
The entire area is really truly impressive, some of USH’s most detailed, best work to date.
To the surprise of many both Minion Mayhem and Silly Swirly (the new flat ride) have been added to the digital wait time board. Since Silly Swirly will be the only flat-ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, it’s expected to be very popular.
Springfield Midway Games
Also completed this past month are the Springfield Midway games that line the front of the Simpsons Ride. This addition to the area signifies the end of phase 1 of the upcoming Springfield expansion.
For our coverage of the new midway games please visit our article HERE.
Springfield Expansion
Now that Despicable Me is complete, and Super Silly Fun Land is slowly wrapping up, Universal can turn their attention towards 2015, which includes a “Rumored” Springfield Expansion and Fast & Furious attraction. Currently the location where the rumored Springfield expansion is going is mostly dirt, but since the time the photos below were taken steel has started going up in that location.
A look at some of the Simpsons themed construction walls.
Fast & Furious: Supercharged
Also planned for 2015 is a new studio tour addition which was recently leaked to be called ‘Fast & Furious: Supercharged’. The rumored location will be where the former Mummy’s Tomb spinning tunnel used to be.
The construction site is pretty massive. It’s likely they’ll relation the entire Picture Cars portion of the Studio Tour to this area.
Studio Tour
Else where on the Studio Tour Fast the old Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – EXTREME CLOSE UP! attraction sits abandoned, curious if Universal will completely gut this location or perhaps convert it to something different after 2016.
The War of the World’s set has its days numbered. The location has been constantly moved and cleaned up for HHN. Only a skeleton of the original 2005 set remains. The site will be converted into a large soundstage in the coming years.
Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade
Steel is going up at insanely fast for the Hollywood version of The Forbidden Journey.
Since it’s being built onto the side of a large hill, the entire show building is elevated off the ground.
Additional Parking
Universal Is prepping the site for an additional parking structure to help brace the upcoming crowds.
View full photo gallery below.
Click here if you can’t view the slideshow
That does it for this look at the on-going evolution of Universal Studios Hollywood. In 2 years this entire property will be completely unrecognizable from its current state. We cannot wait to follow the progress. For more information about Universal Studios Hollywood please visit their official webpage at www.UniversalStudiosHollywood.com and for information on where to buy tickets please visit their ticketing website HERE.
