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Ep. 040 Confetti
We celebrate our 40th episode with a quick talk about WDW’s 40th Anniversary. Then we run down news including release dates for Alice, Park 7, and more. We answer a few Mystery Mailbag questions, and we reveal our big listener vote for our 1st Annual Anniversary Awards Show.
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In a month, Destination Vinylmation will be celebrating it’s one year anniversary.
As part of the celebrations we are going to have an awards show for the best of vinylmation from the past year. So starting today we’d like all our readers and listeners to nominate people and figures in the following categories. We will give you the categories and you have until Midnight on Friday, October 14 to submit your nominations. You may submit nominations for as many or as few categories as you like and can you can nominate as many figures or people for each category as you like. We will collect these emails and the final list of Nominees will be announced the week of October 16th on our podcast and online. Winners will be announced in November as part of our One Year Anniversary Store.
To nominate, simply copy and paste the categories listed below into an email, fill in the names of your nominees, and sent it to 
Remember all nominations have to come from sets released between November 1st 2010 thru October 31st 2011 (except “Most Anticipated” and the “Bonus Categories”).
The Categories are:
Best Disney Artist
Best Custom Artist
Best 3″ Figure
Best 9″ Figure
Best Jr Figure
Best Series (12 piece)
Best Series (not 12 pieces)
Best Chaser
Best Variant
Best Accessory
Best Location Exclusive Figure
Favorite Trading Location (inside the parks)
WDW and DLR
Figure Most Likely to be seen in a Trading Box
Best Packaging
Best Use of Ears
Best Use of Clear Body parts
Most Anticipated Upcoming Series
Best Mickey
Best DV Episode
Best DV Cast Member
Best Disney Vinylmation Event
And two special one time only (we think) “bonus” categories. These are open to nominations from any time, not just the last year.:
Best Muppet 3″
Best Disney Afternoons Set
Thanks and we look forward to seeing who get nominated! (Feel free to use the comment section to campaign for your favorites!)
Update: More pictures from Johnna and Freddie from inside the event
Update: More pictures from Johnna and Freddie
Update: Pictures just sent in from Johnna and Freddie from Room For One More:
Yes, that is and auction for a “Personalized Performance Art” by Noah. Minimum bid, $9800.00.
With WDW’s 40th coming tomorrow, Disney decided to celebrate The Haunted Mansion’s 40th right along with it. Tonight is the ticketed Room For One More event at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and last night I was lucky enough to attend the free after hours Trick or Meet up at the Haunted Mansion. So I would like to share some photos with you. First up, from our good Vinylmation Release Party friends Johnna and Freddie. They are attending Room For One More and made it over the Contemporary to pick up their merchandise and got a sneak peak at some of the decorations:
I am jealous. Hopefully they will give us a sneak peak inside the graveyard tonight! Next up, last night’s Haunted Mansion Meet Up. The Disney Park’s Blog hosted this free event. Last week they put up a Blog post and the first so many people to respond via email were invited to this special after hours meeting at the Mansion. Sorry for the bad iPhone pictures, my camera battery died. We should be able to update with some pics from the Disney Parks Blog soon.
We meet up at Blizzard Beach, many in costume. A DJ was on hand to spin music and ask trivia questions for prizes. The prize? A WDW 40th anniversary Vinylmation. The open window versions you can buy in the stores. Shortly after 9pm, we were bused over to the Magic Kingdom. It was a tiny behind the scenes tour as we drove past the buildings housing some Christmas and ELP parade floats. We ended up behind Splash Mountain and entered the park through Frontierland.
We were first guided into the Hall of Presidents theater where we were greeted by a guy in a Turkey Leg costume.
We then enjoyed a hilarious presentation by Disney Show Designer Jason Surrell. This guy, along with two of his Imagineer friends, gave an unforgettable presentation at May’s Destination D: WDW at 40 event. He was supposed to give us a history of the Haunted Mansion, but it quickly turned into a stand up comedy performance where he just fed off the audience and answered questions. With people recording the show on iPads, snapping pics on iPhones, and tweeting his every sentence, he made many jokes about it before saying that 10 feet behind him is Abraham Lincoln and the founding fathers saying “We fought the Civil War for this?” It was a great time.
After the presentation, we were free to walk around the Liberty Square/Frontierland area. There were rice krispy treats and refreshments set up. And characters walking around. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Dr. Facillier (Princess and the Frog) and various ghosts from the Haunted Mansion interacted with guests.
Of course the Haunted Mansion itself was open for rides. But the real treat was the tour of the new interactive queue by the Imagineers who built it.
The Diamond Horseshoe was the site of an Imagineer meet and greet and select guests where treated to one of these posters signed by the artist. On the way out, all guests received an unsigned version of this same poster. Oh ya, and there was candy. Lots and lots of candy. Guests were given goodie bags that they could fill up at a few candy stations.
Hmmm, look at that. It wasn’t all candy. All guests also received a Nightmare Before Christmas Pumpkin King 3″ Vinylmation. Thank you Disney and the Disney Parks Blog for this great free event. It was similar to the one for the re-opening of Star Tours earlier in the year. I look forward to more of these wonderful guest interactions in the future.
Congratulations to Cesar and all the artists involved in The Customation Project. It was an event held in California on September 24 showcasing the talents of custom Vinylmation artists. We would like to share some pictures and a video from the event. The full photo album, and believe me, you MUST see it, can be viewed here.
We have a ton of international readers that will enjoy this news. Our friends over at Vinylmation World found out that the London Bus and London Taxi, both 9″ exclusives at the Oxford St. Disney Store, are now available at the Disney Store Online UK.
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| I Mickey Head NY and Statue of Minnie Keychain Jr Vinylmation |
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| Copyright Disney |
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| Copyright Disney |
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| Statue of Minnie |
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| Back of packaging |
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| Back of packaging |
I think these look really good and will sell very, very well to tourists passing through the Times Square Store as little NYC themed Disney souvenirs. What a great product in terms of marketing.
Update: 11/1/11 Link to purchase tickets for a $5 donation: www.benefitsale.com. If you are looking to go for Vinylmation, please note that all Vinylmation will ONLY be sold at World of Disney. It also looks as if there will only be 25% off Vinylmation. Here is a report from Claudia:
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“FYI—-I was at Downtown Disney in Orlando today, and spoke to the Manager at the Pin Trader Store regarding the United Way Benefit Sale this Saturday Nov 5. The Store Manager informed me that the sale for Vinylmations will only be at 25% off and you CANNOT use any other discount (no Annual Pass or Cast Member Discount). I asked the Mgr about specific Vinylmations that would be on sale, and his reply was as followed: “Most VInylmations will be discounted with a a ‘few’ exceptions.” The Mgr did state they would have lots of DOORBUSTER SALES, and a few surprises, but the maximum discount on Vinylmations would be 25% off.”
The second annual Benefit Sale returns to the Downtown Disney Walt Disney World on Saturday, November 5, 2011. The Benefit Sale is a one day shopping event benefits the Heart of Florida United Way and gives guests the chance to purchase items at incredible savings.
As of today, 9/23, the website isn’t revealing any of the deals, but we do know, from a flyer given out at the AP sale over the summer, we can expect 75% off select Vinylmation. They have catagories such as “Door Busters”, “Gifts With Purchase”, “Buy One Get One”, “Percent Off” and “Product Launches.”
This is a ticketed event. Last year it was a $5 donation. We will let you know when the link goes live to purchase your Benefit Sale Voucher online directly from the United Way.
Update: 9/23/11 Looks like I was quick to hope for an actual solution to the problems associated with the sale of LE items. Here is the Disney Store’s response to the Designer Princes problem:
Dear Disney Store Guests:
As you may be aware, our new limited edition Disney Princess Designer Doll Collection has generated a good deal of excitement. While many of you love the new dolls, you have also expressed frustration in securing your favorite Princess, and brought to our attention ways we could make the process fair for all Guests. We want you to know that we read your comments on Facebook, saw your Tweets, and our wonderful Cast Members have told us what they heard from our Guests who visited our Stores.
Quantities of these dolls are very limited, and we realize that not everyone will be able to get the doll of their choice even with a new process in place. Our aim is to increase the possibility of our Guests to obtain the dolls that they are seeking. Therefore we have updated our release plans as follows:
• We will now release for sale all 5 remaining Disney Princess Designer Dolls: Tiana, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas on one date in Stores on 10/17/11.
• We will then have a Disneystore.com release of all 5 remaining Disney Princess Designer Dolls (Tiana, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas) the following day on 10/18/11, at a time to be determined.
• We will be limiting the purchase to one doll per Princess, per Purchasing Guest – both in-store and at Disneystore.com
• We will implement a line queue and ticketing procedure (first come, first served) in Stores on the release date and the dolls will be sold at store opening.
• Guests that are not successful in obtaining the Princess Doll of their choice at the Stores will be able to try again later at Disneystore.com
We thank you for your continued support and loyalty. We hope you have a Magical day.
(DV’s original article from 9/19)
Lets be honest for a minute. Each one of us may have ended up on the wrong side of a “Disney Store system malfunction” before. And it is not fun. But the true test of a customer satisfaction policy is, “what do you do to correct the problem?” Disney has always been better than most in that department. This is not to dismiss mistakes, but it needs to be pointed out. We are all familiar with the various Disney Afternoon and 9″ villains debacles. Well today, the Snow White LE designer princess doll was released at Disney Stores and at the Disney Store Online. And by all accounts, it was another mess. Sold out online in less than 10 minutes. Oversold to customers. Lines at Disney Stores with very little stock. And even the report from Tampa that mall employees were given the tickets reserving a doll early in the morning before guests had the chance to access them.
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| The Sold Out Designer Princess |
The Disney Store issues are more difficult to solve. There is only so much product and lines cant be stopped. But procedures need to be policed to enforce purchase limits and fairness of distribution.
As far as online, Disney has acknowledged a problem after the Vinylmation issues, and a fix was supposed to be put in place. But after this morning, we see that the same issues are occurring. Namely, overselling a LE product.
The good news? Disney Store President Jim Fielding made a public apology on the Disney Store Blog. He said, ” We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and recognize that this did not meet the high quality guest service that our Guests have come to expect from Disney Store.” Jim also went onto say that they are going to delay the next LE doll release explaining they will, “reevaluate our process to ensure that all guests have a fair opportunity to purchase these highly coveted dolls.”
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| Check out the Buzz at blog.disneystore.com |
I wish they took it this seriously after the first or second or third LE Vinylmation problem, but it is nice to see a public admission of a problem and a dedication to a solution. I would think its an overall look at how LE sales are computed online and would positively affect Vinylmation as well. Jim pledges an update by Friday, September 23.
Our good friend Chris tweeted up this picture and also let us know how the Vinylmation was in Orlando's Disney Store.
First up, Pop Vinyl 2 is available there. Lots of new figures. But this begs the question, "How long is their contract, and will they stop now that Park Starz is coming?"
Chris also reports that vinyl trading now at the store! They also have plenty of Vinylmation series to buy, Animation, Muppets, Urban 7, Cutesters Like You, Cutesters 2, Cars 2, and Spooky 1.
Thanks or the update Chris!
