Herschend acquired the series back in 2018 and they have had toys from the series in the parks since then.
Our boys have always been big Chuggington fans.
Herschend also owns the Splash and Bubbles series from PBS Kids.
Nice to see some fellow fans here! Been a bit fan for the longest time, and even worked a little bit with peeps from their Studio division; lovely folks and been great seeing their relaunch be a massive hit!
Yup, HFEC is still pushing their media wing forward. I saw a news alert not long ago about them making another big hire in that department. Curious what it will bring to the parks as they start churning out more programs and getting some footing in the media world. They just need to add a steam train character and we'll be set.
Same here; since the initial reports of the buyout, they mentioned wanting to incorporate them into the parks and doing live events. Their approach with Chuggington has been "slow and steady" (the new season was preceded by live action/animated shorts they aired a couple months leading to the premiere), and with the screenings at the Riverfront Playhouse last summer, that seems to be applying to the parks too!
Having (what I'm assuming to be) a travelling exhibit they could easily have tour the parks is an excellent way to start out doing attractions for the parks without being too bombastic or out of place. Just curious where they're gonna be locating it...
And it's funny you mention that; there's quite a few steamers in the show! This fella (Old Puffer Pete) is one of them: