Rob, I do agree that Alton Towers produce some fabulous and well made items. I too have bought mugs etc years ago and they are without a doubt very good. My main issue was that when we were about to leave and get the children specific t-shirts we wandered all through that shop and couldn't find any?? then we had to travel all the way back over to the dark forest, which was in itself also very lacking in merch. They only had ladies t-shirts etc. I still say that they can use other shops within towers street to house things such as Bench, and Moshi monsters or whatever the sponsor may be and leave that shop for us big fans to scoop up all the actual "Alton Towers" things. Its not like you can go online and get "all" of the bits either? maybe a select few but its still not the same as going there and bringing back a memory, especially as a present to someone else. I cant see my children being happy that we travelled 200 miles to buy them a moshi monster, when we could have got that from out local tescos, they would want something with Alton Towers relevance thats all I'm saying, it just seems to be overrun with everything else. One a total plus note (because i'm not a total negative person!! lol) I loved the SW7 merch! I wanted a hoody, but sadly they had run out lol..??
And thanks Dave for the "Bench" explanation..