Universal Studios Hollywood Lunar New Year & Animation Studio Store

We hit up Universal Studios Hollywood back in February and March. Yes, two separate trips lol. We were able to check out the Lunar New Year as well as the soft opening of the Animation Studio Store which has sections featuring Hello Kitty / Illumination / Dreamworks etc...

We did a quick a walk through of the Hello Kitty store once we got into the park because we were passing by it on our way to check out the Lunar New Year area. We have more pictures further down this post.

Here's the Lunar New Year area with all of the decoration and red lanterns flying high in the air.

We managed to catch Po as he was finishing his show.  

 Here is the Plum Blossom Wishing trees where you can write your own Lunar Near year message or wishes for good luck.

 This was the stage that Po was on earlier.

 This is the Feng The Palace Artist's Stand where you can learn to draw Po and the Furious Five with an artist from the Jade Palace. 

Of course we had to stop by Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop. You can buy authentic Asian dishes as well as interact with Mr. Ping which was pretty awesome!

There was also a Minion character photo op where the Minions were dressed in traditional Chinese attire. Pretty cool!

Next stop was Moe's Tavern. Here we see Barney with an empty beer mug.  

 Love their TV! 

 This is the epic prank call phone. You can pick it up and either Bart or another Springfield kid will be on the other end pranking you or mocking you lol. They're all pre-recorded so just random sayings. 

 How many of you remember pay phones? There's a nice once inside Moe's that isn't all nasty and gross as you might see in some public places. There aren't very many around anymore as most people have cell phones these days. Also nice to see some Springfield memorabilia hanging on the walls. 

 Nothing beats eating on top of a pool table!

Check out the bar. You can order beer, Duff Beer or the famous Flaming Moe etc...

Apparently, you're kind of expected to tip the bartender when ordering from the bar. Most people overlook that bit on their receipt. It's not enforced lol but we did overhear the "bartender" talk to the other one about not getting tips. 

 Been wanting to try the Flaming Moe for the longest time and it didn't disappoint. They use dry ice at the bottom of the cup which also opens etc... The drink tastes like orange soda for the most part. 

On the way back to check out the Hello Kitty store we spotted Puss in Boots walking around. Of course the nice kitty gave us a wave as he passed by!

The best part of the Hello Kitty store was meeting Hello Kitty herself in front of her store. Nice outfit too! Something different than her usual clothes.

Here were some of the items inside the Hello Kitty store. 

This was from the connecting store which is a nice Toothless statue from How to Train Your Dragon. 

Back to the Hello Kitty store... Check out all the pictures and the displays. So cute!!!

Finally before we left we spotted Doc Brown and asked him to take a picture with our mascot JoJo that's a 3D printed resin mini figure. 

We stopped back at USH again in March on our way to Wondercon and it was a rainy day. We spotted these new Sanrio Topiary shaped as Hello Kitty...

My Melody

Keroppi

Chococat

Donkey's Waffles was back open. He sure sells some expensive waffles lol. 

Stopped inside the Kwik E Mart and spotted some of these exclusive Homer and Bart bendable figures which are exclusive to Universal Studios. 

Back inside the Hello Kitty store, there's quite a bit of new merchandise. Love the new Hello Kitty x Universal Movies mashups!!! How can you not want them? 

These little statue figurines were new as well. 

These mini snowglobes were also new as well. 

Love stopping by Universal Studios Hollywood and we got our annual pass used a few more times before it expired. This June, Kung Fu Panda will be taking over the area that used to be Shrek 4D. Looking forward to that. The Harry Potter area is very busy as usual and always long lines for the Butterbeer. They also have new collectible cups that you can get while purchasing your Butterbeer. When we came last year, they didn't have any collectible cups when buying Butterbeer.

Always something new when you stop by USH! Will be back! :)