Welcome to Thrillventions

Greetings! Thrillventions was created to be a source of high-quality and interesting information regarding news, history and engineering topics in the world of themed entertainment and attractions. Growing up, I used to visit many niche fan sites that offered incredible content that I would spend hours reading through and as a result be inspired by it all (enough so that I ended up working in the theme park industry for over a decade). In recent times however, it seems that the caliber of content has dwindled. My goal is re-ignite the spark I felt myself in others by offering a higher standard of content than you what you find on most theme park sites today. I couldn’t care less about the latest cupcake or bus wrap (how those things ever became news-worthy is beyond me). I’m more interested in lesser-known information, the kind of stuff that is truly fascinating and substantial. In addition to those topics, articles will also be posted showcasing different theme park inspired projects.

What’s on File

Articles are filed into four sections, like chapters in a maintenance manual:

1. News: Reporting on news-worthy events, announcements and industry insights.
2. History: Preserving memories of the past and looking towards the challenge and promise of the future.
3. Engineering: Deep dives into the technical inner-workings of different attractions and technologies.
4. Projects: Creations inspired by the art and engineering in the world of themed entertainment.

Every article gets a drawing number. The master drawing log lists them all.

The inspiration for the sites style

I had the fortunate opportunity to purchase an old maintenance manual for a long-extinct Walt Disney World attraction on eBay (these manuals still pop up every now and again). For someone who has worked in a technical role at theme parks, it was quite exhilirating to thumb through the pages of a document more than 50 years old and look over the parts lists, electrical drawings and instructions on maintaining an attraction. The manual, which was produced by the now defunct MAPO division of Walt Disney Productions, had such a unique design and character to it, that I thought it would be the perfect way to style this website. With the assistance of AI, I was able to find fonts that were similar to those in the manual so that I could capture the look and feel of the publication on a screen. I had a lot of fun in designing this site, and I hope you will enjoy it as well. Thank you.