With more attractions in the mix, there will be more souvenir merchandise in the coming months in Central Florida. Not that we’re lacking T-shirts in these parts and parks, but it can still be fun to browse through stores, find clever designs but then think “but when would I actually wear that?”

On a recent afternoon, we blitzed through a handful of stores representing future productions, current special events and related shows.

Land dollars

At Universal CityWalk, there’s the Epic Universe preview center, a standalone store devoted to Universal Orlando’s theme park that’s set to open next year. The merch surrounds a big model of Epic, showing off its lands, rides and adjacent hotel, the Grand Helios.

In the store, four of the five lands have specific merchandise now on sale, including Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World and Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. (Celestial Park is odd land out right now.) The foursome also have themed portals as photo ops.

What you’ll see for sale in the preview center is an array of T-shirts, mugs, hats, lanyards, plush characters, tumblers and the like. Super Nintendo pops with color. Wizarding World leans into “for in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own” messaging.

Dark Universe – devoted to Universal’s classic monsters – may have the widest selection at this point with several black shirts using lightning designs and shadowy creatures.

For our money, we like the more generic navy blue T-shirt ($27) with the Epic logo front and center. That’s the one seen the most outside of stores, especially on young adults and teens. Of course, this will be the first Orlando theme park built in their lifetimes, and the big logo works on social media.

Horror haven

Just across the CityWalk plaza at the Universal Studios Store are many options tied to Halloween Horror Nights. There are specific tees for the event’s haunted houses, usually black, although the “Ghostbusters” fare is a little lighter.

We drifted again to the more generic looks though they were pretty rock ‘n’ roll featuring bleeding skulls, skeletons, ravens, scowling jack-o’-lanterns and disembodied eyeballs. A sticker warns that this is “blacklight reactive apparel.” Sticker price: $35.

Some of the choices are outside the box, including green flannel shirts and a hooded denim vest with HHN logos. A casket-shaped Horror Nights advent calendar, several Lil Boo items and an HHN ‘24 Christmas ornament are less predictable than you might expect.

And then there’s the Chucky popcorn bucket with a blood-splattered lanyard. “I talk! I light up! I see you!” says the sign. Cost is $44.99, which includes the first fill of popcorn. (There’s a How to Train Your Dragon popcorn bucket next door for $34.99, but he must not talk, light up or see you.)

‘Drawn to Life’ lines

Less harrowing is the Cirque du Soleil store at Disney Springs. It’s located on the ground floor of the theater where “Drawn to Life” has been produced since late 2021.

There are straightforward “Drawn” logo options, but there’s also the graphic appeal of a shirt featuring the production’s Wheel of Death contraption, a sort of spinning, doubleheader hamster wheel for acrobats. (The shirt, which sells for $35, doesn’t mention death; it’s probably a good move for a show with “Life” in the title.)

The store isn’t as colorful as a Cirque show, with one end being devoted to black, silver and gold apparel, pretty lux stuff. But nearby is a small clearance area with our new favorite sales designation: Special pricing.

Feeling Blue

A new store recently opened at Icon Park, the future home of Blue Man Group shows. Although the production is aiming for shows by the end of the year, it’s already selling merchandise. The storefront is still low-key and located next to Brother Jimmy’s BBQ restaurant on the south side of the complex.

The store showcases familiar props you might have seen during the show’s run at Universal Orlando, including oil-barrel drums, plastic pipe-powered xylophones, bulky costumes and marshmallows.

On the T-shirt side, the ones portraying actual blue men with a splattering of paint seem like natural purchases ($34). There’s also a small selection of Cirque wares because Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group purchased Blue Man Productions in 2017.

The store will remain in place even after the theater is constructed on the back of Icon Park in the shadow of the Orlando Eye, near Universal Boulevard.

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