The SATURDAY SIX Looks at Our Favorite Pieces of Epic Universe MERCHANDISE (Captain Cacao, Isle of Berk, Dark Universe and MORE!)

With the upcoming grand opening of Universal’s Epic Universe later this month, theme park fans are getting excited for all the exciting new rides, shows, and restaurants. Not us at the SATURDAY SIX though. Nay Nay! Longtime readers of this fine blog series know what we really like…MERCHANDISE! Let’s take a look at our early favorites starting with…

# 6 – Isle of Berk

When walking through the portal into Isle of Berk, the opening reveal is one of the best in Epic Universe, with your eyes immediately drawn to two giant statues in the water. One featuring a Viking and one featuring a dragon. The pair make for one of the most stunning photo-ops in the entire park (a park that is FILLED with incredible photo-ops!)

You can buy miniature versions of these statues in Berk.

Along with a fun t-shirt featuring them.

Now, one of my all time favorite theme park souvenirs is the Chocolate Frog available in the Wizarding World. It combines a collectible with a snack, and its hard to beat that. So, our next piece of featured merchandise in Berk can be found at the incredibly named How To Treat Your Dragon shop.

The Dragon Mystery Box works along the same lines as the Chocolate Frog. The presentation is just fantastic, as the box is a miniature version of one of the many dragon houses you’ll see in Berk along with How To Treat Your Dragon store signage on the front.

Inside the box is a treat along with a dragon training card.

When thinking about what souvenirs to bring back home for friends and family, what kid wouldn’t flip out getting of these Mystery Candy Boxes? Exclusive to the theme park, contains a snack, and has a card to collect which will get them looking forward to their trip to Epic Universe.

One of the many fun elements in the How To Train Your Dragon movie franchise are the sheep that the Vikings take care of. To stop dragons from eating sheep, the Vikings would dress up the sheep as dragons. You’ll see representations of these sheep in disguise while you walk around Isle of Berk…

…and you can also buy an adorable plush!

Big fan of these sheep-themed salt and pepper shaker set. Sheep merchandise is almost automatically rated E-Ticket in my book.

One thing I have been wanting for YEARS is more ride vehicle toys from Universal and Disney. Thankfully, we’ve seen several released over the past few years including Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Cosmic Rewind, and the VelociCoaster, but if I had my druthers we’d see something for almost every ride at every park. Epic Universe is opening with ride vehicle model kits for a couple attractions, including Isle of Berk’s Fyre Drill.

# 5 – Dark Universe

Let’s head into Dark Universe and our first stop will be for an item supporting the Curse of the Werewolf coaster.

That’s right, a fantastic ride model kit. Complete with lap bar!

Our next piece of merchandise is also based on an attraction in Dark Universe, but sadly I can’t recommend it even though it features something I have desperately wanted in theme park merchandise for a long, LONG time: action figures. Unfortunately the action figures made for Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment are $85 a pop, which is just next level bonkers considering they are just complete junk compared to what you will see in toy aisles at places like Target and Walmart for brands like Star Wars, WWE, and TMNT.

I could maybe see the case if these were being sold for $40, and I also don’t understand why Universal didn’t follow the lead of several action figure lines and throw in a “build-a-figure” bonus in each box to encourage collectors to buy both. If Ygor could be obtained by buying both figure sets, then you could justify such an outrageously high price point.

So let’s get back to more reasonably priced merchandise that’s also great. We’ve seen the Universal Classic Monsters represented in cute looking plush before, but Dark Universe features their character plush holding even smaller plush. That’s pretty awesome, and I love the Wolfman’s nails!

To me personally, the greatest piece of theme park merchandise is when we get a Disney or Universal comic book. While Dark Universe does not have an official comic book (at least not yet) it does offer several pieces of merchandise that feature covers of faux Dark Universe comic books, such as this magnet set.

Its hard to turn down any piece of merchandise featuring the Burning Blade Tavern. This hat and stein are must buys.

One of the least talked about aspects of Dark Universe is also one of the most amazing facts in all of Epic Universe: the background music was scored by composer Danny Elfman (whose work includes Batman, Spider-Man and Nightmare Before Christmas.) You can almost guarantee that one of the hardest to get items in all of Epic will be the Dark Universe soundtrack album featuring Elfman’s score.

# 4 – WWoHP –  Ministry of Magic

Once passing through the Wizarding World portal, muggles will enter Place Cachée under a giant arch that contains a ton of fantastic details and several magical creatures, including mandrakes.

This iconic arch is available on several items in the land, including a pretty awesome photo frame. There have only been a handful of great photo frames that I have seen in my theme park going years, and this is one of them.

The new wands in the Ministry of Magic area are going to be huge sellers. These look sharp.

They also come in even better packaging than what we saw in Hogsmeade Village and Diagon Alley, no small feat!

Years ago when Universal announced they were going to be building another Wizarding World, I tried to wrap my head around what type of merchandise they’d be able to sell that wasn’t already available. Let’s face it, they have done an incredible job over the years when it comes to Wizarding World merch at Hogsmeade Village and Diagon Alley. I thought the well had been tapped dry.

However, it never occurred to me that we’ve never seen a line of merchandise based around Aurors in the Potter Universe. For all intents and purposes, Aurors at Potter are the equivalent of the Jedi in Star Wars. The Ministry of Magic area in Epic Universe features a whole bunch of cool Auror related merchandise, including wand holders…

…hats…

…wallets and more.

One of the many surprises inside the Ministry of Magic is an adorable animatronic Mooncalf that you can encounter while “window shopping” in the land. This magical creature is also available as a plush and is in high demand, as it should be.

Speaking of audio animatronic Magical Creatures inside the Wizarding World, here we have one holding up a true game changing piece of merchandise: the on-ride photo souvenir for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. Presented as the front page of the Daily Prophet and is straight up E-Ticket!! This may surpass my beloved Spider-Man comic book cover as the All Time Greatest Theme Park Photo Op.

# 3 – Celestial Park

Celestial Park is the hub of Epic Universe and there you’ll find the fan favorite character Captain Cacao in the Moonship Chocolates & Celestial Sweets shop.

Captain Cacao plush has been flying off the shelves from the minute Epic Universe previews took place. Like Figment at EPCOT and L’il Boo at Halloween Horror Nights, Captain Cacao is going to be a huge merchandise revenue generator for years to come.

Recently we did an article on Artists Inspired by Epic Universe, and this cute little bear has sparked the creative juices of many.

# 2 – Super Nintendo World

I’ve been playing Nintendo video games my entire life, and didn’t even realize how much merchandise I would have bought over the years featuring that brand had it been available to purchase. These oversize Mario and Luigi hats remind me of the big Mickey Mouse hands that Disney offers. They are just FUN.

The amount of merchandise you can purchase just featuring characters from the Mario games is mind boggling. Imagine if down the road they start expanding lines to include characters from franchises like Zelda and Metroid or if (summoning prayer circle) we get merchandise for iconic Nintendo games made by third parties (like

This Yoshi stacking game is just wonderful. I love it.

While not exclusive to Epic Universe, you have to think the Hot Wheels Mario Kart vehicles are going to be huge sellers. Fantastic packaging.

Super Nintendo World has more plush than you can shake a stick at.

Our favorite? The Donkey Kong coming out of a Barrel plush for Mine Cart Madness.

# 1 – Starbucks

As a person who has never had a cup of coffee in my life, the appeal of a coffee cup in the Real World is pretty low in my book. However, one of my favorite things to collect are Starbucks coffee cups featuring theme parks. How absolutely awesome is the one for Epic Universe?! To steal a line from the wise philosopher Stefon, this cup has everything… Pizza Moon, the Viking and Dragon statues from Isle of Berk…

…the Chronos Portal, Stardust Racers…

…Frankenstein Manor, Burning Blade Tavern and more!!

There’s even a miniature version for the weirdoes perfectly sane people who hand coffee cups on the Christmas Tree.

Speaking of great cups, I’m also a fan of the Epic Universe refillable mug design.

Each land has its own set of reusable bags. These are much higher quality than the ones we are used to in the parks. The Epic Universe branded one is probably my favorite of the bunch. Just looks sharp.

So there you have it: Our Favorite Pieces of Epic Universe Merchandise! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on BlueSky (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

Theme Park Turkeys of the Year Archives

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SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Josh easyWDW

SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Ian Barritt

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHide and you Potterheads will enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.

So, what’s the WORST piece of Epic Universe merchandise?

Don’t get me started on Metal Earth…