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It’s time to close out yet another year of the Dandy Fun House. While all those “other shows” are slacking off and giving you retrospectives of everything they’ve already done in the past year, it is instead our tradition here at the Dandy Fun House to leave the past exactly there… in the past and instead look ahead to the brand spankin’ new year coming at us like Frehley’s Comet and take a glimpse at the coolest stuff we’ve been able to find that’s waiting for us in 2026!
We’re going to look at theme parks, movies, pinball and of course the TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2026 Toy of the Year Awards! Are you ready to get your kicks in 26? Then LET’S step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2025 year-end extravaganza where we wear the hats and blow our hooters about the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode we’re going to look ahead at WHAT’S HOT ON THE HORIZON FOR 2026 in the worlds of theme parks, movies, pinball and my personal picks for the 2026 TOTY AWARDS (Toy of the Year).
BUT FIRST! I have to show you these amazing DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts before time runs out! Perfect for swaddling the baby new year, They have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com before the Dandy Ball Drops!
Alrighty, hold on tighty and let’s get right into what’s hot on the horizon for 2026 starting with…
THEME PARKS!
And up first is going to be UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD (which isn’t actually in Hollywood, it’s in Studio City kind of like the LA Angels baseball team is actually in Anaheim and how they call the Embassy Suites here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee “Nashville South” which we absolutely are not. But anyway that’s a rabbit hole rant for another day.)
Anyway, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS in the greater Los Angeles, California area is breaking ground on a new roller coaster where each individual car experiences its very own 360 degrees of rotation. The coaster is called FAST AND FURIOUS HOLLYWOOD DRIFT themed after the Fast and Furious movies obviously. This one is expected to peel out in 2026!
And Legoland California is busy building the Lego Galaxy space-themed land including an indoor roller coaster.
Over at Kings Island in Ohio they’re opening what they are calling a new “dark ride” in 2026 called “PHANTOM THEATER: Opening Nightmare.” It’s in the location that has most recently held an attraction called Boo Blasters but is apparently the site of a previous attraction also called PHANTOM THEATER and this is apparently the return of that attraction with some various upgrades.
I went to the Kings Island website to get more information and there’s just a teaser video showing two girls walking into Boo Blasters and ending up in the Phantom Theater which appears to be a very loose sendup on the Phantom of the Opera. The cartoon phantom character they show in the teaser graphic is obviously based on the classic Lon Chaney silent film character, and visitors ride inside cars that resemble opera boxes. So… yeah.
Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (my neck of the woods kinda sorta) will be undertaking a $50 million expansion and also opening the world’s first ever hybrid indoor family coaster and whitewater river raft ride called the “Night Flight Expedition.”
Then under at Sea World, Orlando Florida they’re diving into a new dark ride called SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep. If you don’t know what a dark ride is, it basically means it’s indoors and you get moved from scene to scene. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually dark. Anyway, this new dark ride at Sea World Orlando will be what they are calling a suspended dark ride. The only information about this ride currently is that the rider will “discover dazzling ecosystems, legendary sea life, and breathtaking stories of resilience and wonder.”
NEW MOBILITY DEVICE POLICY AT SEA WORLD!
And speaking of Sea World, they have a controversial new policy which has been making the news lately that has just rolled out regarding mobility devices for the disabled. It appears that rollator walkers with seats are no longer permitted. The official updated policy from the Sea World website is as follows:
“For the safety of our guests and employees, rollator walkers with seats on them are not permitted at SeaWorld Orlando. Alternative personal transportation options, including standard wheelchairs and Electric Convenience Vehicles (ECVs), are available. Walkers without a seat are permitted.”
I’m guessing that more than a few guests were using their rollators like wheelchairs and it was causing some sort of safety concern in the parks. As someone who transports disabled people as my profession and handles mobility devices all day long, I can tell you from personal experience that a wheelchair itself is something you need to exercise caution with while pushing someone around. A rollator walker would be very, very easy to tip over if someone were attempting to use it as a wheelchair.
So while I am disappointed at the inconvenience some disabled guests are going to face with this new policy, I want to be very careful not to demonize Sea World too quickly on this new policy. Guests can still borrow suitable mobility devices from guest services.
Ok, time to work our flippers over to the world of PINBALL!
Here are the rumored pinball releases expected in 2026 that caught my eye during the research for this episode. Please keep in mind these are only rumors…
AMERICAN PINBALL is rumored to be releasing a CUPHEAD pinball machine in 2026 based on the wildly popular video game featuring some amazing vintage animation styles. I’ll admit I’m not familiar with the character or the video game but I do love this vintage cartoon style!
SPOOKY PINBALL is said to be working on a MOTORHEAD pinball machine for 2026. NO offense to guitarist Wurzel or drummer Mickey Dee (now playing with the Scorpions) who were crucial to keeping the band going in its later years, but I’m really hoping it honors the original lineup of Lemmy, Philthy Phil and Fast Eddie!
BARRELS OF FUN PINBALL appears to be cooking up some GOONIES pinball for the new year!
RAMPS PINBALL will be coming out with LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS! Oh please let the carnivorous plant eat the ball!
And last but not least in our pinball 2026 rumours we have PINBALL ADVENTURES bringing us SUSHI MADNESS! Ni Ohashi Kudasai !
And if you’re REALLY a pinball nut as we know you are, you’ll want to put March 20th through the 22nd on your calendar because that’s when Frisco, Texas braces itself for the annual TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL! Over 440 games. One incredible weekend!
The website says tickets go on sale October 4th 2026. I have to imagine that’s a typo and they really mean 2025 otherwise only those with the ability for reverse time travel will be able to attend. There will be tournaments and challenges, special guests and panels, exhibitors, parts, memorabilia, new games and there will be a special tech day for those trying to upgrade and/or fix their own machines. That’s the TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL 2026! Rope you a ticket today! Yeehaw!
Alright, I think we’re ready to “steer” away from pinball and “drive” this herd into…
MOVIES!
First I’ll start with letting you know a few of my favorite movies of 2025 before we get into what’s ahead for 2026:
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH: Ok, it was pretty much par for the course but it had Scarlett Johansson carrying the entire movie on her shoulders alone and she pulled it off amazingly!
MICKEY 17: This is a movie about a guy who signs on to do very dangerous grunt work in space for a corporation and every time he gets killed, the company just prints out a new copy of him with all his same memories. The crux is that the new copy never knows if he’s actually the person being reborn every time or if he really dies and the new copy just has his memories and merely thinks he’s the same person. Weird stuff.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS – After many fantastic fails at trying to make this work on the big screen, they finally got the Fantastic Four right! The retro future vibe was spot on and all the actors were perfect!
SUPERMAN: I was really upset about losing Henry Cavill as Superman, but James Gunn came back with a fresh new fun feel on this one starring David Corenswet, even bringing in Supe’s dog Krypto! This movie was just a great time! More please!
THE SMASHING MACHINE: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a dramatic role co-starring Emily Blunt. It’s the story of Mixed Martial arts and UFC Champion Mark Kerr and how he conquered his biggest opponent: addiction.
And finally in my roundup of my favorite movies of 2025 I bring you… BUGONIA! This movie was a crazy trip with some really wild twists and many moments of pure cringe and I loved it! Starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons who seems to be showing up in everything lately! It’s a story about two conspiracy nuts who kidnap a corporate CEO thinking she’s a space alien trying to destroy the Earth. This was easily my biggest delightful surprise of 2025.
But before we get to 2026, I’d like to give a special nod to TRON: ARES because I always expect anything starring Jared Leto to suck eggs and this did not!
And SPINAL TAP II: The End Continues… Rest in peace Marty DiBergi.
MOVIES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2026!
THE ODYSSEY Expected Jul 17, 2026: After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Circe along the way. starring Matt Damon, Mia Goth, and Anne Hathaway. This could be really good or it could be really stupid. I’m betting this is going to be good and double or nothing that Mia Goth will be a siren or maybe Medusa. I think she’d make a good Medusa!
EVIL DEAD BURN Expected Jul 24, 2026 – I’m a sucker for the Evil Dead movies. This one is not likely to have any Bruce Campbell, but they’re keeping the details under tight wraps for now so who knows?
COYOTE VS. ACME Expected Aug 28, 2026 PG A story set in the ACME warehouse, the manufacturer of anything and everything used by the Looney Tunes characters. And apparently John Cena is voicing one of the characters! Oh please oh please oh please get this right! If 2025’s “The Day The Earth Blew Up” starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig is any indication, I think we can have high hopes here! Ooh, that’s another one of my favorites from 2025 I left off the list!
INSPECTOR GADGET – No details are available but I think we’re long overdue for some Go Go Gadget action!
DUNE Part Three Expected Dec 18, 2026 It follows Muad’dib, heir to unimaginable power, as he brings to fruition the ancient scheme to create a superbeing ruler among men, not in the heavens. And according to imdb it’s starring Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet and Anya Taylor-Joy. Did you pick up what I just picked up? Zendaya is not listed as a cast member on IMDB! How can this IMD Be!? You tell me!
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (untitled) – That’s all we know folks. Hopefully they got things squared away with Johnny Depp. That is if they want to sell tickets.
I AM LEGEND 2 – Military scientist Robert Neville seems the sole survivor in virus-ravaged New York. He’s waging a fight against “Darkseekers”, mutants resembling vampires trying to capture him as he searches for a cure. Starring Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan Alright! I could go for a sequel to I AM LEGEND! Especially when you add Michael B into the mix! I’d really like a sequel to iRobot but this’ll do me for now!
BLADE – That’s right they are teasing a new Blade movie for 2026 with Mia Goth listed in the cast but of course the burning question is DO THEY HAVE WESLEY SNIPES??? They gave him a cameo as Blade in the Deadpool vs. Wolverine movie last year. But Snipes is NOT listed in the cast on IMDB as of yet!
There is also an Untitled Denzel Washington Project Based on the historical figure of Hannibal, considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time. The film covers the crucial battles he led against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. You had me at Denzel, not to mention I love historical action movies. Bring it on!
THE BRIDE Expected Mar 6, 2026 In 1930s Chicago, Dr. Frankenstein asks Dr. Euphronius to help create a companion. They give life to a murdered woman as the Bride, sparking romance, police interest, and radical social change. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale THIS IS THE ONE I’M WAITING FOR! Love Christian Bale and love the concept of setting the story of The Bride of Frankenstein in 1930’s Chicago! Let’s go!
SCANDALOUS! This will be the story behind the Hollywood romance of Sammy Davis Jr. and actress Kim Novak. I love anything related to Sammy Davis Jr. “It’s gonna be fantastic baby!”
CLAYFACE – Expected Sep 11, 2026 A shape-shifting creature made of magical clay haunts Gotham City, alternating between villain and ally of Batman. Ok, it’s a Batman villain and not a super obvious one! Looks interesting!
EVEL KNIEVEL ON TOUR – This one is going to be about Legendary motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel and apparently the drama that surrounded the run-up to his 1974 attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.Starring Leonardo DiCaprio Ok, first of all, Evel was planning to jump the Grand Canyon but couldn’t get the ok from the US Government so he made a deal with an Indian tribe to jump the Snake River Canyon seeing how it was located on sovereign tribal land. Anyway, a new movie about Evel Knievel? Heck yeah!
THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING – Expected Nov 20, 2026 This new installment of the Hunger Games will explore Panem 24 years before Katniss’ saga, starting on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, where a young Haymitch Abernathy participates. Ok, this could be alright. I’m not super excited about it but I could be swayed since it won’t have Jennifer Lawrence in it.
And that’s it for THE MOVIES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2026!
Now for TOYS!
What I like to do this time of year is see what toys from 2025 have been nominated in various categories for a coveted TOY OF THE YEAR award otherwise known as a TOTY and let you know my personal picks, not that anyone in the industry is giving me a vote. Maybe someday.
BUT TODAY I bring you MY PERSONAL 2026 TOTY AWARD NOMINEE PICKS!
ACTION FIGURE OF THE YEAR: I like Avatar Interactive Shoulder Banshee by Disney Consumer Products – This thing looks pretty cool. It’s basically a small, colorful looking dragon that sits on your shoulder and attaches via a magnetic base you wear under your clothing. A handheld controller allows you to control head and wing movements as well as its voice. This thing is pretty darn awesome!
In the COLLECTIBLES category: There are two different nominees that caught my eye. One is Sticki Rolls Series 2 by Sky Castle Toys which is basically charm bracelets marketed to girls with rolls of small stickers on them with different fun graphics. The other nominee I like is Wigglitz by ZB Designs. These are tiny toy figurines of almost every type of fun character you can imagine that have some sort of wiggly aspect to them, or better put: something that moves when you wiggle them. If I had to choose between these two, I’d probably go with Wigglitz because it’s something you’ll get continual enjoyment from whereas the Sticki Rolls are only fun until you run out of stickers.
CONSTRUCTION PLAYSET OF THE YEAR: I have to give it to GeckoBot 2.0 by Thames & Kosmos, This is a kit where you build your very own robotic gecko that actually climbs up your windows. Thames & Kosmos just keeps knocking it out of the park!
CREATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR: Crayola Marker Airbrush has got my vote (that is if I HAD A VOTE which I don’t!). If you’ve ever dreamed of someday making awful-looking t-shirts and hats on the boardwalk, then THIS could be your starter kit! It’s an actual working airbrush sprayer courtesy of everyone’s favorite crayon company, Crayola! It even comes with various spray color cartridges so you start saying it by spraying it!
DOLL OF THE YEAR: Admittedly, I as a 57 year old man should absolutely NOT be voicing my opinion on the Doll of the Year Award (DOTY award?) but if I had to choose from the list of 2026 nominees I would hands-down pick Woof & Co by Sunny Days Entertainment. It’s a collection of fashionable dogs of various breeds who all dress FABULOUS! Yeah, this is the one I’d go for.
EDUCATIONAL TOY OF THE YEAR: In this category I am really liking the SNAP CIRCUITS SPY KIT by Elenco Electronics. This has a bunch of components that you just snap together to make all sorts of cool stuff like a vibration sensor, motion detector, trip wire, voice changer and a whole lot more. Oh the trouble I would have gotten myself into if I had something like this when I was a kid!
GAME OF THE YEAR: I’ve gotta tell you, there’s not a bad one in the bunch of nominees this year for Game of the Year!
They’ve got an EXPLODING KITTENS BOARD GAME where you actually flip the entire board and all the pieces stay in place!
There’s a Simon game (you know, the memory game Simon?) where they took it and incorporated it into a dance mat called SIMON JUMP. So you stomp out your moves on the dance mat!
Then there’s COWS IN SPACE where magnetic flying saucers dangle from your forehead via a sproingy headstrap and the object is to abduct cows from a field with your flying saucer!
But the game that caught my attention the most was TETRIS TUMBLE XL! It’s sort of like Giant Jenga except there is a base that rocks side to side and you roll a die to see what tetris pieces you have to stack on top of it and of course whoever makes the stack fall to the ground is the LOSER! I like this. It’s like a great big fun yard game you could also play in your living room. TETRIS TUMBLE XL for Game of the Year is my choice!
INFANT / TODDLER TOY OF THE YEAR: Ok, maybe another category I might not be the best judge for but I’m who you’ve got pal! And in this category I choose Pour ‘N’ Grow Pop-Up Garden by Yookidoo. This appears to be mainly a bath time toy kit but you could play with it really anywhere as long as you have some water onhand. It’s pretty simple: you’ve got three different toys, The fill and water flower, Peek A Bee and Pop Up Worm. You pour water into them or onto them and the water turns some internal mechanisms to make the flower open, the worm come out and wiggle or gets the bee to play peek a bee with you! Very unique and inventive and in my opinion, the absolute best of this year’s bunch!
KIDULT TOY OF THE YEAR: Kidult? That means it’s made for ages 14 and up. And I’m really torn down the middle between two nominees on this one.
I like the Miniverse Make it Mini Food Diner Series 4 by MGA Entertainment which is an art kit for making your own food minis that you control the designs and colors of. Have you ever walked past a restaurant that had fake food on display showing examples of their most popular dishes? Well that’s what you’ll be making with this kit only really, really small. The name is way too long though.
Or if you just want something cool to play with that doesn’t really take any time and effort, I offer you the ZipString Aracna, which is a newer version of the ZipString string loop toy, but it attaches to your wrist so you can shoot it out like Spiderman! (although they obviously aren’t allowed to actually invoke Spiderman but they sure are bending over backwards suggesting it as extremely as they legally can!) The really cool feature of this Kidult toy of the year nominee is the glow feature! Flip a switch on the ZipString wrist launcher, turn off the lights and do all sorts of awesome tricks and shapes in the dark with a glowing string loop.
So… Miniverse Make it Mini Food Diner Series 4 or the the ZipString Aracna! The Miniverse Make it Mini Food Diner Series 4 triggers me relentlessly with that obnoxiously long name, so on that basis alone I am giving the nod to the ZipString Aracna!
OUTDOOR TOY OF THE YEAR: I think there should really be two sub categories here. One for younger kids and one for older.
For the older kids, I was really blown away by the Crazy Cart Shuffle by Razor USA. This thing is like a Big Wheel or a Green Machine on steroids. Not only can you pedal around in this thing but you can spin and also drift. It’s really neat.
And speaking of neat, for the little ones I absolutely love the Outdoor Kitchen by Hape. It’s not a real kitchen of course but it’s a really cool miniature toy version of an outdoor kitchen setup! Come on TOTY Awards, let’s break this one up by age groups!
PRESCHOOL TOY OF THE YEAR: Ok, there were some good ones in here and maybe I’m judging on my own male bias from a bygone era but my favorite here was the Little Tikes Creative Construction Power Cuts Set by MGA Entertainment. It’s a woodworking shop playset with an actual working , low-powered plastic chop saw which cuts through foam 2x4s and also comes with a play hammer, nails, measuring tape and carpenter pencil which is actually a marker. In the video demonstration I watched, the chop saw did struggle getting through the foam wood, but when you’re talking about preschoolers, that’s probably about the best you can hope for. We desperately need more encouragement and inspiring of our youth towards the skilled trades in my humble opinion and this is a refreshing step in that direction. Nicely done!
SPECIALTY TOY OF THE YEAR: I was truly taken by the Yes & Know Original Invisible Ink Trivia Game Books by Tree Town Toys. These are basically activity books where different things are revealed with the use of a special invisible ink pen. This looks fantastic for keeping the younguns busy on a road trip or maybe in a waiting room or anywhere you want to keep them distracted. That is until you run out of invisible ink and invisible ink activity books!
And those are my picks for the 2026 TOTY AWARDS and THAT’S our look ahead at what’s hot on the horizon for 2026! What are YOU looking forward to? Let me know!
If you’re enjoying this episode on one of the socials, leave a comment. Otherwise you can email me at neil @ dandyfunhouse . com
And even though I said I wasn’t going to do a retrospective of this past year, I will tell you my favorite Dandy Fun House episode from this past year of 2025: Oh, who am I kidding? It’s always the Halloween episode where the Dandy Fun House becomes the Dandy Spook Shack and I get to dress up like a ghoul.
But my second favorite might have to be the deep dive into the iconic toy company WHAM-O! I learned so much doing that one! You might think I just come on here and already know all this stuff I talk about but on the contrary, I do a great deal of research in the weeks leading up to producing an episode and I’m constantly learning amazing new things which is why I really love doing this!
DANDY FUN HOUSE Plans for 2026? More of the same of course! We’re getting really close to monetization on YouTube. Technically we’re already supposed to be there but YouTube gives conflicting information on this and is notorious for constantly moving the goalposts. So while we love publishing to YouTube, we certainly don’t put all our Dandy Eggs in that basket.
We also publish to Instagram, Facebook, X, Tik Tok and Rumble as well as our very own DANDY FUN HOUSE WEBSITE AT dandyfunhouse.com where you can watch the video, listen and subscribe to the podcast or read the entire episode in written form along with pictures! Who does that!? WE DO! THAT’S WHO!
And we do it by hand. No AI stuff. Okay, full disclosure, we DO use AI to help transcribe the episodes into written form and also the captions for the short form videos, but it always gets things wrong so we always go over it personally and make the needed corrections.
But while you’re on our website checking out all the episodes and buying stuff from the Dandy Fun Shop, be sure to visit our PATRONAGE PAGE where you can support future productions with your modest financial gifts!
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And THAT ladies and gentlemen sticks a fork in 2025. Please don’t forget the reason for the season, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and come on back next year for some amazing new frivolities in 2026! You never know what kind of crazy trouble we could get into, right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!
