Released four years after Disneyland opened in California, Transogram’s Disneyland game had players embark on a journey through the four different realms of the California theme park in search of Disney characters.
GAMEPLAY
Two to four players (called travellers) raced each other from the Park entrance at the Casey Jones Jr. railroad station through the four realms of Disneyland: Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland. The goals was to “meet” and “pick up” a select group of Disney characters/objects along the way.
To start a game, 16 Disneyland character cut-outs were placed on their matching facsimiles on the game board. The characters included Donald Duck, Space Man, Mickey Mouse, Daniel Boone, Jet Rocket, Kit Carson, Elephant, Tiger, Tinker Bell, Monkey, Space Repairman, Flying Saucer, Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan, Giraffe, and Pluto.
Each player selected a playing piece and one of four Disneyland Travel Cards. Each card contained four characters that formed the player’s pickup list. With card in hand, players moved from realm to realm via a spinner. The result of each spin determined the number of exact stops on the board a player could move their pawn. Stops on the playing surface were indicated by small white, black, and yellow round dots, and much larger red dots.
Landing on a red meeting stop allowed a player to pick up the character piece and place it on their travel card. Landing on a white dot forced a detour to another location on the board. Players could also hop on the Casey Jones Jr. Railroad, which encircled the entire park, to quickly move from one realm to another.
The first traveller to traverse the park, collect all their characters, and return to the Civic Center was declared the winner.
IN THE BOX
A complete Disneyland game included the playing board; four plastic playing pieces in red, green, yellow, and blue; four Disneyland Travel Cards; a spinner; and 16 cut-out Disneyland Characters. Printed instructions were included in the box.
COLLECTOR CONSIDERATIONS
There is a large and passionate fan base for Disneyana and Transogram’s Disneyland game certainly belongs in this collectible category. While copies of the game routinely appear in secondary markets, they often contain well-used or missing components or a game board/box with excessive wear. Finding a copy with unused or uncut playing pieces would be quite a find!
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