Spotlight On: Photographer Cassie Dyer

WDWNT on April 4, 2011

This Spotlight On segment is going to be a little different than normal. Usually we use this segment to highlight interesting Vinylmation artists. Today we will do that same thing, but in an “outside the box” way.

On twitter the other day we spotted a tweet about vinylmation pictures. We clicked on the link and found one of the coolest niche sites about vinylmation we have ever seen.

Cassie Dyer is a professional photographer from Ohio. Along with her husband, she runs a local portrait studio. In her free time she’s fallen in love with a little Park 2 friend: Poncho the Mouse by Randy Noble.

Cassie created the site ponchothemouse.tumblr.com and takes all the photos you can see there. We had a chance to “sit down” with Cassie and talk about her, and her site.
MC: How long have you had your site?
Cassie Dyer: My first Poncho picture was taken in June 2009. I would just post them on my Facebook, but due to his growing popularity I decided to create a blog site in June 2010 for a larger audience to see and enjoy.
MC: What’s your favorite picture so far?
CD: It was incredibly fun to take pictures throughout Disney World, but I think my 2 favorite pictures are “Poncho went rock climbing” and “Poncho went searching for dinosaurs.”
MC: The dinosaur one is pretty cool. How did you come up with the idea for the website?
CD: When photography became my career, I lost my passion to shoot anything that wasn’t portraiture. I wanted to take pictures outside of the business but I had to think about what my new subject would be. What did I love? Disney World was the obvious answer. At that time, my parents had fallen in love with vinylmations. I looked them up online and knew that one of those vinylmations would be perfect subject. Poncho seemed to have the most personality out of the bunch. It was love at first sight!
MC: He is cute. What reactions have you gotten from the site?
CD: Outside of the Disney fanatic world, I get some funny looks when I’m taking pictures of a toy mouse, but it’s very fun. My friends and family love the Poncho the Mouse series. He makes so many people smile. Now I’m really wanting to branch out into the Disney community.
MC: They are a great community to be involved with. Speaking of Disney, what is your favorite Vinylmation figure? (Or 2nd if the answer is Poncho)
CD: Aside from Poncho, I love all of the EPCOT vinylmations. I’m also really looking forward to my Disney World trip in July to buy park series 6! The EPCOT road sign and Norway troll vinyls are too cool!
MC: Are you working on anything else vinylmation related?
CD: We have about 25 vinylmations and I’m wanting to take pictures of them soon. Check out Poncho the Vinylmation Mouse on Facebook and I’ll be sure to post some!

MC: I will! How can people find out more about your pieces and see your work?
CD: You can go to Ponchothemouse.tumblr.com or become a fan of Poncho on Facebook by searching Poncho the Vinylmation Mouse.

MC: Thanks for joining me, and I encourage everyone in Destination Vinylmation land to click on the link above and check out all Cassie’s photos!

Park 6 Photo Shoot at the Magic Kingdom

WDWNT on April 3, 2011

Our Park 6 figures decided to take a trip to the Magic Kingdom. We said, OK, and documented the trip in pictures. A big thanks to Chris for helping us out with the shoot. You can find “variants” to many of these photos at our Facebook page: Facebook.com/DestinationVinylmation

 Look what Donald pulled out of a blind box!


Find the Wet Paint Donald “variant” photos at our Facebook.
Orange Monorail was pondering how to get his life back on track.
Space Mountain Paris visited Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom to spy on his competition.

Find the Space Mountain Paris “variant” photos at our  Facebook.
Abe Lincoln felt right at home in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom. Here, he addresses the crowed of red, white and blue Mickey Ear antenna toppers.

Find the Abe Lincoln “variant” photos at our  Facebook.
Needless to say, Pinocchio didn’t expect to see Monstro show up in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom!

Find the Monstro “variant” photos at our  Facebook.
Everyone on the Ferryboat to the Magic Kingdom felt safe with the DCL Lifeboat on board.

Find the DCL Lifeboat “variant” photos at our  Facebook.
Sonny and Sonny perfromed many duets on Saturday to a packed house at the Starlight Cafe. Cosmic Ray was pleased enough to have a open toppings bar for the guests on hand.
DHS Clapboard voted to go to Hollywood Studios but was outnumbered. So he spent the day at the Main St. Cinema watching classic Mickey cartoons and trading Vinylmation with guests.
Tiki was shocked by his Adventurland counterpart’s size. He was also disappointed to find out that his designer Casey Jones didn’t equip him with the ability to squirt water.

Find the Tiki “variant” photos at our  Facebook.
Walt Disney World Road Sign wouldn’t stop pointing to stuff all day! It was really annoying, but I did capture this fun shot when he was showing us all where the castle was.
Troll of course wanted to visit his homeland at the EPCOT World Showcase, ride Maelstrom and have some good eats. Instead, he found himself at home in the brush just outside the Magic Kingdom train station.
No dinos at the MK, so Primevil Whirl hung out in the overgrown plants in Adventureland.

Spotlight On: Celeste’s 9″ Villains

WDWNT on April 2, 2011


One of our favorite custom artists here at Destination Vinylmation recently let us in on a little, well 9″ tall, secret. After receiving her Villains 1 9″ figures, Celeste thought, “I want to see my other favorite other villains in 9″ form”. So she did it herself! Check out Scar (Lion King) and the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland). You might remember Celeste from other figures we have showcased on this site. Her work with Adam Lambert for his charity auction was cool, but her Muppets’ Animal has spoiled us for whatever plans Disney has for their upcoming 9″ Animal.

Scar

When I first saw the picture of this figure I was amazed. Whatever Celeste has done to finish the paint on this vinyl makes it look like it’s straight from the Disney factory. Not only that, but the face is perfect, right down to the sideways glancing look in his eyes. Her use of space on this figure is wonderful, having Scar’s head fill most of the front. On the back is a nicely rendered tail, one that makes me not care that it’s not 3D.
Queen of Hearts

Wonderfully colorful, this piece comes alive with the queen’s mouth screaming “Off with their heads”. I love that Celeste uses Mickey’s nose as the queen’s chin. And check out the crown in the ear. Great piece, I’m sure it would look even cooler with a tiny Alice next to it!
Nevermind, Celeste already though of that idea!

We’d like to thank Celeste for letting us see these figures, and plead with her to continue doing exactly what she’s doing! For more of her custom’s check out Celeste’s site at celestecustomvinylmations.blogspot.com.

Let’s Make Some Noise!

WDWNT on April 2, 2011

Vinylmation Jr pics by Aranya

Last week we posted photos of the Celebrations set from our French friend Aranya. This Jr was part of the Party Time 3″. We put the word out on twitter asking for help with what it was. Disney Artist Thomas Scott responded, “It makes sense when you see the side view.” So that’s exactly what we did. We contacted Aranya and asked her for a side view. She responded with the pictures seen above. We are now calling this Noisemaker Jr. after those things you blow into during parties that make weird noise. Like this one…

What do you guys think?

Destinations Officially Announced for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

WDWNT on April 2, 2011

From Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald on the Disney Parks Blog:

It won’t be long now before Star Tours re-launches and “The Adventures Continue” at both Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California! But where in the galaxy are we going?

We know a lot of you have been wondering and asking, and today we are happy to reveal the final destinations you can expect to visit when Star Tours resumes service. You already know we’re going to Tatooine for the Boonta Eve Podrace and to Coruscant.

Additional destinations include a visit to the beautiful planet of Naboo, a rare tour of the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk, and a trip to the icy planet Hoth (seen above in a still image from Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back).

Of course, no Star Tours adventure would be complete without an unexpected visit to the Death Star, this time above the planet Geonosis.

In addition, we’ll be departing from a spectacular new Spaceport, created just for the new Star Tours voyages.

As revealed earlier, these destinations will be combined in more than 50 different story adventures, so you’ll never know where the Force will take you!

It appears that our speculation was correct with the exception of Bespin which was not mentioned above, but may still be in the attraction. Regardless, the possibility of “50 different story adventures” sounds like we’ll be riding this attraction a lot once it opens on May 20th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Who knows, maybe we’ll be blasting off before then…

Destinations Officially Announced for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

WDWNT on April 2, 2011

From Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald on the Disney Parks Blog:

It won’t be long now before Star Tours re-launches and “The Adventures Continue” at both Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California! But where in the galaxy are we going?

We know a lot of you have been wondering and asking, and today we are happy to reveal the final destinations you can expect to visit when Star Tours resumes service. You already know we’re going to Tatooine for the Boonta Eve Podrace and to Coruscant.

Additional destinations include a visit to the beautiful planet of Naboo, a rare tour of the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk, and a trip to the icy planet Hoth (seen above in a still image from Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back).

Of course, no Star Tours adventure would be complete without an unexpected visit to the Death Star, this time above the planet Geonosis.

In addition, we’ll be departing from a spectacular new Spaceport, created just for the new Star Tours voyages.

As revealed earlier, these destinations will be combined in more than 50 different story adventures, so you’ll never know where the Force will take you!

It appears that our speculation was correct with the exception of Bespin which was not mentioned above, but may still be in the attraction. Regardless, the possibility of “50 different story adventures” sounds like we’ll be riding this attraction a lot once it opens on May 20th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Who knows, maybe we’ll be blasting off before then…

Duck Tales Release Date, Woo-ooo!

WDWNT on April 2, 2011

Update: 4/2/11 The Art of Disney DLR page had this graphic and confirmed the price as $26.95. Also worth noting, the small print saying “2 sets per guest, per day”.

Update: 3/25/11 Disney Events page officially posts the April 8th release date we announced earlier in the week. Thanks to J for pointing it out. It looks like both the FL and CA D-Streets will get the Duck Tales combo pack. It is NOT listed as being released online. Set your alarm clocks and we will meet you out there before dawn. What time will you line up?

Thanks to Ryan, the newest addition to the DV team, we have a release date for the Duck Tales combo pack from the Chris Chapman designed Disney Afternoons Series.

Expect to see Launchpad and Scrooge McDuck on April 8th. The only question is where? The release date info was uncovered at the WDW Trading Event this past Friday night. One Disney cast member said it would be released at D-Street, while the other said at the Disney Store Online. A Disney Parks Blog post back on March 1st said that all future Disney Afternoon releases after Tail Spin would all be at D-Street. The Tail Spin set retailed for $26.95, so we can expect the same price here. It also looks like the Disney Afternoons cartoon series will be released one combo set at a time. What do you think about this release info? Which is your favorite Disney Afternoons set.
Check out our Disney Afternoons page here.

Disney Store Online Update 4/1/11

WDWNT on April 1, 2011

Update: 4/2/11 As of Midnight, the Park 6 figures and combo topper never made it on the site. The Vinylmation Events page had had them scheduled for a online release on the 1st, but that was deleted late this week. Who knows when they will appear online, Juniors 3 was supposed to be online weeks ago.

4/1/11 Looks like Disney had a few Villains still lurking around the warehouse and decided to capture them and put them up online over the past day. According to @ilenelandestoy (11pm EST) “the (9″ Villains Maleficent, Jumba and Julius) combo has been online all day. I bought some this morning.” We also had this tweet from @vitto118 “as of 115am no park 6, (9″ Villains) Jumbo and Julius avail and malificent is sold out. More tron as well on disneystore.com.” Then messages from @volleytwin and @mjr1551 have it seem that at least Jumba and Julius were available until about 8am EST. Also Brad from Texas emailed us this screenshot:

Screenshot from Disney’s Online Store showing the 9″ Villains available for purchase again.
Also of Note:
Urban 6 has been removed from the website. As of yesterdays post, the Urban 6 singles and Combo Pack were available. In fact, we got this tweet from @legendpop “you guys listed on the site that urban combo was available on disney shop, but unfortunately still can not be added to cart.”
TRON: Legacy – $9.95
6 figures now available: Clu, Rinzler, Young Kevin Flynn, Old Kevin Flynn, Jarvis and Quorra
Nerds Rock! – $9.95
Chip, Pluto, Daisey, Mickey, Donald and Goofy
Vinylmation Series 2 Jrs are back online. Singles are $8.95