Spotlight On: Custom Vinylmation Artist April Skyy

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Destination Vinylmation: You just designed a line of custom Vinylmation specifically for Valentine’s Day. Tell us what makes this concept so unique?
April Skyy: You can send your special someone a custom Divine Valentine Vinylmation to show how much you care. Customize the Vinylmation with a date, nickname, or initials to commemorate the occasion. Allow me to send the Vinylmation directly to your special someone and you can decide how to reveal your identity. Remain anonymous or I will include a Valentine with your name inside the package. Items can be shipped quickly or sent to arrive the week of Valentines Day.

DV: Where on the vinyl does the personalized message go?
April: The customization you choose will be revealed when the vinylmation is turned around, on the back of the head.

DV: What colors do the customers get to choose from?
April: Crush- Pink and Purple, Fantasy- Blue & Silver, Bestie- Purple and Pearl White, Love- Red and Pearl White.

DV: How did you come up with this idea?
April: When I was in school, I used to help deliver roses to other students. Each color of rose symbolized something, just like the Divine Valentine Vinylmations.

DV: Do you have plans for other holiday specific Vinylmation?
April: Yes, I am creating even more Valentine Vinylmation customs and look for more holiday creations in the future.

DV: What is the price and how does someone order one?
April: $45 each with free shipping for all orders placed by January 25, 2012. All orders placed after January 26th will be $50 each with free shipping. Please contact me for shipping prices if you are outside the USA. Order by February 5th for delivery by Valentines Day.
Place your order by contacting me through Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/April-Skyy-Art/328749133807869

Vinylmation Speculation: Rumored Release Dates

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Disney Mozart has done some digging and has come up with some, as of yet unannounced, release dates for some upcoming Disney Store Vinylmation. These dates seem to appear on the store CM’s schedules, but not on the Disney Vinylmation website. So again, we are just calling them rumor at this point.

January 29th

Just in time for Spring Training, we may see the MLB teams figures released. We know of 8 teams on the first wave roster (details). We were told at the Florida Project that all designs will be available at the theme parks and online, Disney Mozart is speculating on two things here based on his research… 1. The teams might only be released in their respective regions inside the Disney Stores. 2. Only the newly redesigned Disney Stores may be carrying these.

February 10th

The fourth set in the Cutesters series “At the Beach” should drop this day into the stores.

February 20th

I’m very excited about this set. Disney Store Tunes looks very well designed. According to Disney Mozart, we may see this in late February.

March 9th

We don’t know much about Urban 9. Just a sheep and toaster shown to us at The Florida Project, but Disney Mozart says we may see this series in March. I find this surprising. March is about when we should see Park 8 and I thought they would like Park catch up to Urban before the 9s came out.

Episode 056 Herbie

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Ep. 056 Herbie


This week we talk about the latest releases including the Chinese Zodiacs and Theme Park Favorites. We review the D-Tour series. And Annemarie joins us to talk Variants… do we like them? What ones make sense? And as always, we open the Mystery Mail Bag and read your questions and comments.

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Release Weekend News

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

A few interesting notes about the latest slue of Vinylmation releases. First off, D-Tour. One of the original six designs that we saw Disney release photos of was NOT available for purchase at D-Street this weekend.

Flowers & Vines has not yet, to our knowledge seen the store shelves. In it’s place was a design Disney hadn’t told us about.

Headphones Mickey, a figure we reported for sale on eBay a few days ago, is fully stocked at D-Street. Here’s a peek at the shelf as it looked last night.

I saw a lot of interest in these new designs. We also learned via Disney Artist Eric Caszatt’s Twitter that: “Artists at DDG created flat 2D art that Maria Clapsis translated to the Vinylmation Mickey platform.” I was wondering about that as the first thing I did when I ripped open my first D-Tour was check the bottom of the feet… no credit given.

Next up, when Disney released the turn around pictures for the Theme Park Favorites, there were two we had not seen on the series poster.

They are variant designs of the yellow “Classic Fan” figure from the poster. A look in the D-Street display case…

…and the shelves…

…show no sign of the Red and Blue versions. Might these be more variant Cast Traders? In retrospect, this is a great series to have such traders. As this is series geared toward the guests of the parks that are not necessarily into Vinylmation yet and Disney would like to hook them on the idea of trading. A concept that hooked a lot of us into this hobby in the first place. Your thoughts?

Also available this weekend for the first time state side, the Chinese Zodiac series.

No oddities here. And the final release was this 9″ Valentine’s Day piece from Holiday 3.

Also of note around Downtown Disney…

The shelves where stocked with plenty of Astrology, 2012s, Flags and Nerds Rock! (minus Daisy) but notably missing from D-Street were the WDW 40th figures and Sea Creatures. Granted, there are a ton of new releases, so they probably had to move them around property to make space.

We also saw signs that Urban 6 is on sale for Buy One, Get One 50% off. Did you pick up any new Vinylmation this busy weekend?

Japanese Zodiac Review by Annemarie

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

I have a pretty sizable Vinylmation collection, and I get most of it from the Disney Stores and Disneyland in the typical boxing fashion. But ever so often I have to head over to Ebay to catch that ever elusive and special variant I just can’t seem to get my hands on, or an unobtainable set stateside. Later this year, I’m headed to Japan, and Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea obviously, to check out what they have to offer in the Vinylmation world, and the trading scene in general. I planned to pick up some of the Zodiacs there, but when I saw an almost complete set for a steal on Ebay I had to jump on it.

I’ve been wanting these for months, ever since they were unveiled last year. And now that I’ve got my hands on them I can say they are without a doubt one of the best Vinylmation sets ever, in my opinion (if not THE best).

The color scheme is unlike any other set we’ve seen. The gold/silver/bronze scheme is slick and gorgeous. Other than the jet-black outlines used on the details, these are the only three colors used on the set. It keeps them cohesive and fits them together as a set perfectly. I love the choices they used for these figures. They are:

Year of the Rat- Remy from “Ratatouille”
Year of the Ox- Maggie from “Home on the Range”
Year of the Tiger- Tigger
Year of the Rabbit- Thumper from “Bambi”
Year of the Dragon- Elliot from “Pete’s Dragon” (not pictured)
Year of the Snake- Sir Hiss from “Robin Hood”
Year of the Horse- Pegasus from “Hercules”
Year of the Goat/Ram- Bo Peep’s sheep from “Toy Story”
Year of the Monkey- Abu from “Aladdin
Year of the Rooster- Chicken Little
Year of the Dog- Patch from “101 Dalmatians”
Year of the Pig- Pumbaa from “The Lion King”

Here’s a helpful graph in case you’d like to figure out your animal:


I’ll start with my favorites: Abu, Bo Peep’s sheep, and Sir Hiss.


Abu is my favorite in the set. His face is captured perfectly on the vinyl, his expression is great and it looks like it was taken from a moment in the movie exactly. I have to mention the detail and model of each character is captured perfectly on every single figure. Sir Hiss is a great, obscure choice (anyone who has read any of my articles knows I love the obscure choices best!) I love how they chose to include his basket as the feet. I think the best design is the sheep from Toy Story. If you turn it to the side, there are two more sheep on each side, designed so the arms are their faces. Amazing!


My next three faves are Maggie, Chicken Little (my year!) and Pegasus. Again, the colors look so unusual and fantastic. Maggie will be rare in particular, as there isn’t much merchandise of her (with reason). That movie wasn’t very great, but no one can argue it didn’t LOOK fantastic, and this figure is a great example of that. Love the Chicken Little figure, and Pegasus’s expression is great.
We finally have a Thumper figure! Not much to say about him, or Patch even.. they look pretty great. I normally might complain about choosing Patch or even Pumbaa again since we already have them in other sets (and there are so many other dogs and even pigs to choose from) but the set is so beautiful and they look so unique I can’t bring myself to care. I prefer this Tigger’s face to the Animation 2 Tigger, but they are both great for their own reasons. And Remy is cute… I don’t think I’d seen him (or remembered him if I had) when I made my own custom of Remy, but I anticipated in that article that they’d probably just do him facing frontwards and we might lose a bit of his “rattiness” this way. I still think this, he looks a bit more like a mouse here than a rat. But again, the figure’s so adorable I don’t mind.

My FAVORITE feature of the set is the detail on the back of each figure: a footprint with (I’m assuming) the Chinese character that denotes each year! The detail in each footprint is awesome, here you can see Abu’s monkey foot, a sheep’s hoof print, and Sir Hiss’s slither tail. Each character’s footprint is equally awesome, and unique to that specific character. If there’s anyone out there who can read Chinese and these say something different, please let us know!
I haven’t been able to get my hands on the chaser, which is Si/Am from “Lady and the Tramp”

I’m not sure of the significance of this choice for this set, but I love it. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Overall, a fantastic set. I think they could even do more series with this idea: Just to name a few ideas off the top of my head,

Year of the Rat- Ratigan from “Great Mouse Detective”
Year of the Ox- Babe the Blue Ox from “Paul Bunyan”
Year of the Tiger- Rajah from “Aladdin”
Year of the Rabbit- Roger Rabbit (OF COURSE!)
Year of the Dragon- Maleficent
Year of the Snake- Kaa from “Jungle Book”
Year of the Horse- Widowmaker from “Pecos Bill”
Year of the Goat/ Ram- Djali from “Hunchback of Notre Dame”
Year of the Monkey- Terk from “Tarzan”
Year of the Rooster- Allan-a-Dale from “Robin Hood”
Year of the Dog- [Insert practically anyone here]
Year of the Pig- Hen Wen from “The Black Cauldron”

Just some thoughts. Again, I like these obscure choices.

What characters would you use for a Zodiac set? Leave a list in the comments.
Will we see a Japan Zodiac Series 2? I hope so!

Also- if anyone can help me complete my set with a Si/Am or Elliot, please tweet me @AdmiralAkbrown. I’ll do custom work for these! 😉

-Annemarie

Juniors 5 found in WDW

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Another great tweet from @vinyl79. He found this Junior 5 box at Frontierland. The picture is a little blurry, but it seems to match up with the figures we talked about earlier this week. We don't even have an official release date for these from Disney.

Jr 5 This & That Explained

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Junior 5
This & That

Release Date: Rumored 1/27
Price: $8.95

These pictures were found on VinylmationTraders.net. The 5th of the Junior sets is themed This and That and pairs up either objects that we are used to putting together or total opposites.

 Apples & Oranges


How does this Jr compare to the others? I like the use of orange and red in the ears and arms.
Bells & Whistles

One of my favorite designs in this set. It’s clean, simple and visually pleasing.
Bread & Butter

I knew the body had to be bread, but it took a few minutes to see it… then it was genius. The use of the arms and neck for crust is great.
Chicken & Beef

I just think of the Cow and Chicken Chick Fil A battle here.
Hats & Streamers

It’s party time on this colorful figure.
Hearts & Flowers

I like the contrasting colors here.
Comedy & Drama

We assuming a Dramatic mask face on the back.
Moon & Stars

A little empty for my taste, but works well in this theme.
Pins & Needles

Are you on these for this set? In all honesty, it will probably be a pass for myself but only because I focus on more Disney themed figures due to the slew on products coming out.
Stop & Go

A perfect fit in this set.
Rice & Beans

I’m thinking of sending this one to Dave Ramsey. Any financial talk radio fans out there? Ok, maybe I shouldn’t. He would yell at me for buying any Vinylmation based on my income.
Thunder & Lightning

This one seems so simple, but is one of my favorite designs in the set. I like the font choose on the Boom! How often do I get to praise a font style on Vinylmation?
Unicorns & Rainbows

I’d bet my Park 1 chaser Maria Clapsis had something to do with this one.
Up & Down

Make your own variant. Turn it on it’s side and its Left & Right.
A Wing & A Prayer

I was going way too deep on this one before MC pointed out what it was. I started looking up Greek Gods to figure out who went with Mercury.
Xs & Os

Kind of like play book from Sports Jrs. This can also be Hugs and Kisses for you romantic thinkers out there.
Mystery Chaser 1

Click image to reveal chaser. Highlight white space below for commentary.

My favorite figure in the entire set! Smoke & Mirrors. I seem to always like the chasers from Jrs.
Mystery Chaser 2

Click image to reveal chaser. Highlight white space below for commentary.

We don’t get it. Can you help?

Undiscovered D-Tour

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Looks like there is a new D-Tour design out there, one that we never saw from Disney. eBay seller pincrusaders has pictures of a D-Tour design that he bought and is now selling. The packaging is D-Tour but the design was not shown by Disney when they put up the list of figures.

The headphones seem similar to the ones we’ve seen on concept art for 80’s Dale.

How many new designs will we see?

The Rescuers Fly into Vinylmation

WDWNT on February 9, 2012

Today vinylmationtraders.com found some pictures of a new limited edition set from Animation 2. Similar to the Park 7 Kitchen Kabaret and the Alice in Wonderland Cheshire set, this looks like a limited edition set of 3″ figures. Check out Bernard and Bianca from The Rescuers.
Both figures are by Casey Jones and is $26.95.

They are from the 1977 Disney animated film.

They also reported that the Fife and Drum set will be released at $44.95 on January 27th.

Also, the 9″ Park 7 ELP Dragon for $74.95.

That seems steep for a single 9″ and our look at the side of the 9″ Park 7 shows it isn’t accompanied by a 3″.

Great addition to the set, and I’m glad to see some 3″ Limited Editions. Although I wish Fife and Drum were 10 bucks cheaper. What are your thoughts on The Rescuers?