Furry Friends; Furious Fans
The release of Furry Friends has caused a ton of commotion across the web concerning the production value of this Disney Store release. From poor paint jobs, to stains to the seeding of cases, it seems like the issues were not localized to the Costa Mesa store. At this point it we recommend collectors hold off on purchases until this matter is resolved. Here is a compilation of website comments, Emails, Tweets, Facebook posts, pictures and Disney Store responses. Please feel free to add your experiences.
Annemarie brought this Flickr album by “pokermanuel” to our attention. It shows close up shots of a Patch figure purchased by a collector:
Sophie took these screenshots directly from the DisneyStore.com website that is advertising the product for sale online. They show obvious paint issues. Since these are official Disney photos, they back up the photos we are seeing by collectors:
Here are some more comments about quality from our Facebook page:
JoAnn – They look terrible. Some are a little better than others, but not by much. They all have smudges, paint blobs, spots where the paint is thin, and some look just plain dirty like they have been through a trading box a million times! Very disappointed
Lysette Marie Wittmann (Tucson, AZ) – We got our case and overall not too happy. Ranging from bent wings on one of our Pegasus to a dent in a few of the vinyls. I woulda preferred a recall and to wait a few weeks then open what we did. I hope Disney does something about this.
Here is a picture from LP1983 on the Vinylmation Kingdom forums of his poor Pegasus with scratches and broken wings:
We found one account of a purchase here in Orlando at the Florida Mall by Thimble on the Vinylnation forums. It was a mixed review:
At first I purchased 2, opened them right there in the store. First one I got was patch..he’s cute but on the back of his head, there was like a small bump/glob that had obviously been painted over, with white paint that was brighter than the rest of the head (almost looked like liquid-paper-white) And his ears had rough edges. Second one I pulled was the pegasus. He had perfectly attached, straight wings so I was happy with that. There’s what looks like half a finger print on the back of his head, and the ears are cloudy. THEN I decided to get ONE more and pulled a Marie The Marie was perfect, no spots or anything. Except her arms won’t move. So all in all I was happy with my trip
This email is from AK who purchased his Furry Friends in NY:
Just got back from my local Disney Store. I purchased 6 Furry Friends blind boxes. Packaging is great but the paint job on these Vinyls is HORRENDOUS. Worse than Cutesters Like You. One gentle touch on Marie’s paw and white paint chipped off. Tramp looks awful — as if only a preliminary paint job had been done and it was only 3/4 finished. Lines and paint quality on all the others I got were sub-par. When I was at the store, a cast member said a little kid bought a blind box and got the winged Pegasus but the wings were broken. The very accessory that made that piece unique was defective! I was so excited about Animation 2 and Light It Up. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.
The issues are not only about the quality, but also with the seeding of figures in the sealed cases. Annemarie sent us a photo of the side of her Furry Friends case. All previous mystery series have had this same guarantee printed onto the side of the case:
But unfortunately this seeding was not true in many cases with Furry Friends. Caz sent us this email from the UK:
We didn’t have 2 sets in our case. It had 4 Max, 3 Pluto, and 3 Oliver. We saw other people had missing ones so it wasn’t a one off.
And Penguin left this comment on our website:
I purchased a new tray of Furry Friends from the Bluewater Disney Store (UK), inside there was a full set of 12 including the chaser (which is the main reason why I buy a tray) but instead of another set of 11 I got a set of 9, with an extra Pluto, Meeko and Chaser. Also what was strange is one of my figures had no foil and the box was open (Not ripped open) however it was a brand new tray.
Although the issues were discovered in various locations across the US and UK, not all experiences were negative:
David Lessor (Montgomeryville Mall in Pennsylvanya) on Facebook – I bought a case this morning and they all look good, no problems
Nick Branch wrote an article about the UK release and had this take – We managed to get all 12 vinyls and the paint jobs are amazing in person. Almost looking flocked and giving a furry appearance.
Lisa from NJ commented on our site – No complaints. They look fine to me except for being able to see through the collar paint job on ones like Oliver.
And Disney North commented – Picked up 3 blokes: Tramp, Meeko and Percy. Percy was the only one with “serious” quality issues: his ear had some errant paint. All else were good. I’m happy with my pulls
Of course, there has been a fury of Tweets about Furry Friends:
The Disney Store was quick to respond:
As of this post, we do not know the planned solution, but Disney accepting the complaints via the email address personal.shoppers@disneystore.com.
Matt from Vinylmation Kingdom had this to say on his own forum:
Disney is trying to apologize and contacting ppl who send them tweets about the crappy ones. Not good enough. Somebody at Disney has to have the stones when they see this crappy production to say “No, we can’t sell these.”
The Disney Store has been contacted by DV and we are awaiting an official response.
For more on Furry Friends, please listen to our Podcast Ep. 054 Blue Monorail where Annemarie gives a hands on review, read Annemarie’s review and check out Nick Branch’s article and pics from the UK release.
