SATURDAY SIX Looks at the Halloween Horror Nights 35 TRIBUTE STORE

This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads over to Universal Studios Florida and explore one of our favorite parts of any recent Halloween Horror Nights event… the Tribute Store! For those unaware, Tribute Stores at Universal are elaborately designed temporary gift shops that are loaded with fantastic details. While “Universal Creative” gets the lion’s share of credit online for these fantastic stores, they are actually designed by the criminally unheralded Visual Merchandising team. Today we are going to take a look at a few of our favorite parts of this year’s Tribute Store, starting with…

# 6 – Welcome Home

Over the last several years the pop-up Tribute Stores have been showing up in various places throughout USF, including the Hollywood area of the park. Last year’s HHN Tribute Store was actually shoehorned in the arcade area that is next to the Revenge of the Mummy gift shop. However even under those circumstances the Visual Merchandising team was able to make chicken salad out of chicken you know what. For this year’s HHN 35, the Tribute Store has returned to the spot where it works best, in the New York area of the park to the left side of Revenge of the Mummy. This particular area gives the Tribute Store team plenty of room to work with.

The theme to this season’s Tribute Store is a traveling sideshow, filled with “oddities and curiosities.” Your best chance to see the most amount of oddities inside any Tribute Store is to come the very first day it opens so that you can bear witness to the YouTubers, TikTokers, live streamers, and gotta-be-first bloggers.

# 5 – Tributes to Tribute Stores

Now that the Tribute Stores have been a continuing addition to the park for over a decade, my personal favorite details are the references to previous Tribute Stores. These are the references that are for the true sickos, like many reading this very article. Hey, I’m not gonna lie, I love when current theme park rides reference previous attractions, and I like it when Tribute Stores do it too. For example, in this year’s Tribute Store you’ll find a cat wearing a witches hat…

The cat is referencing Henry the Cat, who made his debut in the HHN 31 Tribute Store.

One character you will see in the store made their first appearance back at HHN 32 Tribute Store. The cases in the back also have items that have been featured in previous Tribute Stores.

Here’s a look at The Collector from the HHN 32 Tribute Store.

You have to love this poster featuring the “intergalactic space crab.” By itself, it is a fantastic piece of art that can appeal to anyone, but for faithful Universal fans it referencing a much deeper cut into Tribute Store lore…

…as it is referencing the “space crab” as featured in this year’s Mardi Gras Tribute store. Who else but the incomparable @bioreconstruct would be there to document all the various changes made to this crab over several weeks?

One running joke in many Tribute Stores over the years is the character of Gerg the Llama. Gerg only exists within the Tribute Store universe, as he has not escaped containment yet like Earl the Squirrel.

# 4 – Running Stories

Each Tribute Store has an overarching theme that continues throughout the experience that allows you to follow multiple stories. The HHN 35 Tribute Store begins with an overture designed with traveling exhibit style posters. As you go through the various rooms of the Tribute Store you will see scenic elements that reference these very posters.

For example, one of these interwoven stories features the Moss Monster character. In one area you’ll see a poster featuring the creature…

…while it’s skull will be found elsewhere.

The Pit is a gladiator-styled arena where guests can see Odrik the Monster Tamer battle various monstrosities.

The Pit itself is a display that features pretty cool animated shadows in the background.

# 3 – Truck-O-Saurus

For many longtime HHN fans, the fabled Robosaurus still holds a place in their hearts. There is an unbelievable reference to Robosaurus in the Tribute Store.

Back in the early 1990s, Robosaurus was a mechanical dinosaur whose show took place in the area of USF where the guest entrance of Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift will be.

Robosaurus was created in 1989 and was also seen traveling around in various motorsport events, like Monster Truck rallys.

In fact, Robosaurus was such a fan favorite it was even parodied on an all-time classic episode of The Simpsons (Bart the Daredevil in Season 2.) For the parody, Robosaurus was named Truck-O-Saurus, which brings us full circle to the Tribute Store reference.

# 2 – Ghosts

There are ghosts trapped in bottles inside the Tribute Store, and if we learned anything from Walt Disney Imagineering, sometimes the simplest effects can make a lasting impression. Two of the ghosts trapped in a bottle happen to be the explorers who discovered the Pithos and ran the Market of Antiquities HHN 2025 Tribute Store.

Our next ghost is part of one of the stories that is interwoven throughout the Tribute Store. In one section of the store we are shown an Old Timey picture of a woman, located directly under the Amulet of Misery.

The Amulet of Misery has its own attraction style poster, promising the wearer to be “cosmetically cursed.”

The poster includes the phrase, “the appetite of the Amulet is never satiated” and we get to see the ghost of the woman in the picture of above in a mirror inside the store.

No matter where you are in the room, the ghosts featured in these mirrors are looking directly at you. It is a neat effect that works brilliantly.

Here is a video of the ghosts in action…

# 1 – The Decoder

I love this advertisement for the Tribute Store for several reasons. First we have the location of the store revealed as being “located at the historic I. Stein and Co. fairgrounds.” If you go to the very first photo in this article, you’ll see the facade for the Tribute Store takes place within the I Stein & Co. building. Inside the clown’s mouth are words that appear to be non-sensical, but inside the store we will find…

…a pair of decoder wheels!

Putting these wheels together allows guests the opportunity to translate a cryptic message.

Which includes some pretty good advice!

So there you have it: The SATURDAY SIX Looks at the HHN 35 Tribute Store! 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).

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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, Ace Photographer Diservations, 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 Thickey for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by Lightning Lane Influencer Professor Leisure. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHide.