Magic Mountain Troll Statue

When Magic Mountain first opened in 1971, the park had the licensing rights from Warner Bros. to use the Looney Tunes characters as its mascots. However, the park chose not to use the mascots during their first season of operation. When the park opened for its second season, in 1972, it decided to introduce some new mascots; a wizard and three trolls, King Blop, Bleep, and Bloop. They also erected the following statue at the entrance to the park:

Image © Robin Hall

If I’m not mistaken, the troll on the horse is Bloop. It’s definitely not King Blop, or the female Bleep, so it must be Bloop:

Image © Robin Hall

I recently learned that a local businessman here in the Santa Clarita Valley, Mike Lovingood, has been salvaging items from the boneyards of Southern California’s theme parks for many years, such as Legoland, Universal Studios Hollywood, and Six Flags Magic Mountain. He restores what he can and puts them on display around his business. Items that are beyond restoring are repurposed into other useful items. Mike is incredibly resourceful and sees nothing as waste. Everything he saves is ultimately given a second life. Even though his business is temporarily closed, Mike was gracious enough to invite me over and let me photograph many items from Magic Mountain’s past. He has a very rich history with the park, having started working there in 1973. He still does odd jobs for them every now and then and remains in close contact with the park personnel.

One of the very first things you notice when you enter his property is a giant statue of Bugs Bunny riding a horse. Does it look familiar:

In 1985, several years after Six Flags took over the park, they decided to do away with the wizard and troll mascots and start using the Looney Tunes characters. They ended up chiseling off the troll from the statue (he’s gone forever) and replacing him with Bugs Bunny, which is what you see above. When the statue was eventually removed from the park, it was thrown in the boneyard and became destined to rot away in the elements. Mike rescued the statue, patched up all the holes, and gave it a fresh paint job. He said the latex paint he used isn’t holding up very well, so he plans to sand it down again and put some fresh enamel paint on it.

I’d like to thank Mike for taking the time to show me around his property and sharing his history of the park with me. Look for more photos of things I took at his place in future articles.

Bonus: That reddish looking tub you see in the background behind the statue was the bottom of one of the El Bumpo boats. Mike uses them as small wading pools for his dogs in the summertime. He says they work perfect and are virtually indestructible.

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7 Comments

1. 

   Eric

   11/19/2011 at 1:06 am

   Actually, Magic Mountain did use the Looney Tunes characters as mascots in the 1971 season. I can still remember signs saying, for instance, that you had to be as tall as Sylvester in order to ride. After a six-month closure to improve capacity, Magic Mountain reopened with the Wizard and trolls. The Looney Tunes didn’t return to the park till 1985, six years after Six Flags took over.

   Reply
   • 

     Kurt

     11/19/2011 at 7:39 am

     Interesting. Did they have live mascots walking around, or just use their likeness on signs?

     Reply
     • 

       Eric

       12/17/2011 at 11:12 pm

       I totally forgot about this topic [hangs head in shame]

       There were mascots walking around, as well as their likenesses on the signage around the park. I honestly don’t know why they dropped the Looney Tunes for the 1972 season when they reopened after an extensive park overhaul.

       Reply
2. 

   Sara

   02/04/2012 at 6:17 pm

   I want to know if the original trolls are worth anything now. Whats there value?

   Reply
   • 

     Kurt

     02/04/2012 at 9:48 pm

     Hi, Sara. Unfortunately, I am far from being an expert on Six Flags collectibles. My only recommendation is to maybe keep an eye on eBay and see if anything similar comes up for sale and see how much it goes for. Good luck! -Kurt

     Reply
3. 

   Brandon

   06/07/2012 at 10:54 am

   Nice post! It’s great to see the photos of the original statue. Too bad the troll is gone. 🙁

   Reply
4. 

   DON JOHNSON

   02/24/2017 at 10:48 pm

   I worked at Magic Mountain from 1975 to 77 as the park photographer.
   What would a 16mm time lapse film be worth, of the Revolution coaster being built? I shot that on my days off so I own it.

   Reply