 |
Ep. 102 Lightning McQueen This week we had lots of fun breaking news. The announcement of a follow up to Furry Friends. The early release of Myths and Legends. Monorails in Disney trade boxes. New Japan releases. And artist signings for the 2013 series and WDW Marathon. |
After a long time of speculation and no comments by Disney, a photo of a tray of the second series of Furry Friends was leaked onto the Facebook site Vinylmation Exchange.
There is one change, the name. Series 2 will be called Whiskers & Tails. Vinylmation Kingdom reports that Disney Store Cast Members are pointing to January 21 as the release date. Now let’s see what we can gather from the box art. First, it looks like the figures will follow in their predecessor’s wake with specially crafted arms that look like paws. I’m sure all the custom artists have been looking for these for a while and will be happy to know they are back (I know I have been looking for over a year for a personal present). Other sites are also reporting that because of the size of the tray, we can expect the cool packaging from Furry Friends 1 (a 2012 DeeVee nominee for Best Packaging.)
Based on the box art we also know the 11 non mystery figures:
Lucky, from 101 Dalmations. Soon we will have all 101 represented!
Lucifer, from Cinderella. Looks pure evil.
Lambert, the sheepish lion. “Yes! Finally. There was a pin of him at Mickey’s Circus that I really wanted and now there’s a Vinylmation! I will be coming for that one, you bet ya.” – M.C.
Bolt, from Bolt. We already had a 9″ version but it’s great to see a 3″.
Figaro, from Pinocchio. Perfect. Many people felt this was one of the most obviously absent figure from Furry Friends.
Nana, from Peter Pan. It also looks like Nana’s long face will be spread over the head and the top of the body. Well done the artist.
Lady, from Lady and the Tramp. This is a great pairing for those who managed to get a Tramp from Furry Friends.
Flower, from Bambi. Another good choice. Although we’ve already seen one as part of Animation 2. When do we get a Thumper?
Dinah, from Alice in Wonderland. There was already one as the chaser from the Alice series, but I think this one looks better and the paws are always an added bonus.
Hen Wen, from Black Cauldron. He is the magical pet pig of Taran and Dallben in Disney’s 1985 feature film The Black Cauldron.
Tito, from Oliver and Company. Nice movie choice with a cool hair accessory.
There will also be a chaser of course. Any wishes for character selection?
No look at Whiskers & Tails would be complete without comparing them to Annemarie’s Furry Friends 2 from earlier this year.
Lady, Figaro, and Nana were all part of her custom 12 figure set. As for Figaro and Lady, they look almost exactly the same. With Nana, I actually think I prefer Annemarie’s better. The Disney one looks less energetic then hers. Also worth noting is that Annemarie included a set of the Fox and the Hound in her 12 piece series. This set will be part of the upcoming LE from the Animation 3 line.
|
2012 DeeVee Awards
The 2nd annual Destination Vinylmation Dee Vee Awards honors this year’s best Vinylmation and Artists. If you haven’t listened to Episode 96, please do, a lot of hard work was put into it by Nick and MC as well as all the presenters and artists who lent their voices. Here is the list of this year’s winners. We hope you enjoyed the process and remember to be on the look out for vinyl to nominate for next year’s Dee Vees. Please listen to our next podcast for the announcement of the winner of the Vinylmation from the voters drawing. |
|
 |
Favorite Disney Artist Maria Clapsis Some of Maria’s popular figures of the past year include: Star Wars, Tower of Terror Bellhop, and Roger Rabbit. Thank you Maria for all your hard work. And thanks to Inside the Magic host Rickey Brigante for presenting this award. |
| Favorite Disney Commissioned Artist NOAH NOAH gave us customs such as: DCL Pirates, Muppets, Villains and Epcot 30th. Thank you NOAH for your dedication to this art form. |
 |
 |
Favorite Custom Artist Annemarie This past year Annemarie has made many stand out customs including: Furry Friends 2, Hurley, LOST and Figero/Cleo. |
| Best 3″ Figure Director Mickey Artist: Jim Valeri |
 |
 |
Best 9″ Figure “The Clock Strikes Twelve” Cinderella’s Castle Artist: Gerald Mendez Thank you Lou Mongello from WDW Radio for presenting this award. |
| Best Jr. Figure Three Blind Mice Set: Nursery Rhymes |
 |
 |
Best 12 Figure Set Furry Friends Set: Furry Friends |
|
Best non-12 Figure Set Disney Character Star Wars Artist: Maria Clapsis Thanks to presenter O.C. Vinyl Don from Vinylmation Traders.com |
 |
 |
Best Chaser Tower of Terror Bellhop Artist: Maria Clapsis Thank you to celebrity presenter Tom Corless, host of the WDW News Today and the See Ya Real Late podcasts. |
|
Best Variant Dapper Dans Artist: Thomas Scott |
 |
 |
Best Use of Ears Mickey’s Philharmagic Donald Artist: Casey Jones |
| Best Trading Location Online Thanks to Dedicated to Disneyland Paris Podcast host Steve Riley for presenting this award. |
 |
 |
Most Likely to Be Found in a Trading Box Robots 2 Artist: Billy Davis |
| Best Accessory Rhinoâs Hamster Ball Artist: Monty Maldovan Thank you to celebrity presenter Amber from the Revolution Diaries podcast. |
 |
|
Best Mickey Director Mickey Artist: Jim Valeri Thank you to celebrity presenter Matt Hochberg from the WDW Today podcast. |
| Best Non-Mickey Platform Figure Park Starz Yeti Artist: Thomas Scott and Casey Jones |
 |
 |
Best LE Combo Set Carl and Ellie Artist: Ron Cohee Thanks to Carl C. Von Lewin from ChasingVinylmation.com for presenting this award. |
| Best Use of Clear Hat Box Ghost Artist: Casey Jones |
 |
|
Best Location Specific Director Mickey Artist: Jim Valeri Thanks to the creator of Vinylmation World, Gregg Gaines, for presenting this award. |
| Best Packaging Furry Friends Set: Furry Friends Thank you to celebrity presenter Brent Dodge from From Scream to Theme.com. |
 |
 |
Best Vinylmation Event Mickey’s Circus September 7-9 2012 at EPCOT Thank you to celebrity presenter The Professor from the YesterEARS podcast. |
| Most Anticipated Upcoming Series Pixar 1 Release Date: All ready out! Thank you to celebrity presenter Rapinzel from the Once Upon a Pin podcast. |
 |
 |
Best DV Episode Ep. 088 – Coverage of the Mickey’s Circus This is a great episode and includes an interview with artists Thomas Scott, Maria Clapsis, Eric Caszatt and Caley Hicks. Thanks to Matt Norris from Vinylmation Kingdom for presenting this award. |
|
Favorite DV Cast Member The Woman Who Reads the Podcast Intros Years on DV: 2 Thank you to celebrity presenters: Adam from DisneyBrit.com and Juz from OrlandoSkyRadio.com. |
 |
 Red Balloon Awards The Red Balloon Awards are one-time categories that honor special achievement in Vinylmation. They are named after the first chaser from Park series one. |
|
| Best Furry Friend Cheshire Cat Artist: Enrique Pita |
 |
 |
Best Park Series Park 1 Artist: Various |
| Those are this year’s winners. What do you think of the results? | |
Today vinylmation.com announced that Furry Friends would not be in WDW or DLR on the 9th, but instead the release has been moved to February. Now we weren’t even aware they were supposed to be in the parks at that time, so we aren’t too disappointed. Who’s looking to get these?
According to our friends at DisneyBrit.com, Furry Friends will be coming to the UK Disney Store. According to a flyer emailed to them, the UK Disney store looks to be introducing Villains 2 (along with the 9″/Jr Jafar/Genie vinyl) and Furry Friends. This will be great news to our British fans who often don’t have access to some of the cooler series that we get here in the states. In fact, this might be the start of a whole new campaign for Vinylmation across the pond. If you live in England, let us know What vinyl have you been able to collect, what do you want to collect?
For a good English commentary on the subject, check out this DisneyBrit article and follow the conversation on Twitter: #SaveUKVinylmation
Also, for those of you who have been asking about UK releases (we even had a Mystery Mailbag question about it this week in the podcast), we’re in the process of tracking down who has that info. It’s a different department than we deal with in the US and we hope to have a new contact there soon.
It seems like it’s been a long time coming. Ever since Disney’s Furry Friends series was announced, Annemarie has been talking about all the other characters that also deserve a chance to appear on this modified mold. So she designed a set of 12 and today we unveil her newest customs she calls (the unofficial) Furry Friends 2!
We are excited to share these with you, and i know she is as well. Annemarie also brought the figures to Disneyland for a photo shoot. We also talked to her about these terrific designs.
Destination Vinylmation: What drove you to make your own sequel?
Annemarie: I loved the Furry Friends series, I thought it was such a cute idea to give the characters paws. I figured it would be a great opportunity as a custom artist to give the same look to characters I would have liked to see in the original series.
DV: Did any Disney animals narrowly miss the cut of 12 or did you get in everyone you wanted?
AM: Tito from “Oliver and Company” was one I really wanted in, but we’ve already (luckily!) had several characters from that movie, I wanted to give a couple more obscure characters a chance, like Little Brother and Rufus, for example. I also would have loved to get the rest of Scat Cat’s gang in.
DV: We will not let the little guys read this next question… Which one came out as your favorite? Why? And did you know this would be your favorite when you designed it, or did the way it came out make it your favorite?
AM: That’s a really tough question. I’ve been working on these guys for over two months and have grown attached to them all! Figaro is probably my favorite, as you might have guessed. He was the first character I designed, and I really wanted him to be in the original Furry Friends series. As soon as I found out he wouldn’t be, I set to work on him right away, so he’ll always have a special place in my heart.
Georgette is one of my favorite Disney characters, so I was also a bit biased towards her before she was even finished. Peg is another favorite. As for ones I didn’t realize would become favorites, Nana probably best fits that category. I wasn’t expecting her to, but I think she came out as one of the best ones. (Scat Cat is another favorite. I love his little hat!)
DV: Which FF2 was the hardest to design?
AM: Rajah was the hardest. I initially considered doing him from the scene in the movie where Jafar turns him into a baby. So he would be a cute little baby tiger cub. He definitely would have fit the mold better, so to speak, but I thought it would be a bit TOO obscure, and maybe he would be more recognizable if I just did his adult form.
His ears were the toughest part, I was working off a Furry Friends mold that already had ears in the “ears,” so I had to make Rajah’s ears bigger than I would have liked to cover up the pre-existing ears. Such are the trials of covering up an existing design!
 |
Ep. 054 Blue Monorail
This week Annemarie stops by to review Furry Friends. We have the latest news on Park and Urban and the Animation 2 chaser is revealed. We also have the lastest release and event calendar. And read your comments and questions in the Mystery Mail Bag.
|
 |
Ep. 055 Elephant Bathing Pool
This week we talk about Furry Friends and Disney’s decision to pull the product from store shelves. Annemarie joins us once again to give her first hand input. We also review the newly released Animation 2 series. There are a ton of new releases dates to let you know about as well. And we interview special guest Mellisa French. A teach who used Vinylmation as the base of a series of class art projects.
|
Yesterday Disney announced that it was pulling Furry Friends off the shelves and letting customers return them. While we think this is a good thing because too many of the pieces were flawed, what will happen to the Friends that already have been adopted? Will they increase in value despite their flaws? Let’s look at the options.
Short Term (until Disney officially announces a re-release date or cancellation):
I think the price of these figures will rise in the short term., especially in two categories: Pieces that aren’t defective AND with custom artists who want the hands. While the series is on hold every pieces will seem like a LE for a period of time.
The big questions come once Disney announces whether or not they will re-release these.
If they cancel the series:
I think even the ones with mistakes gain value, but the exact value would be determined by how good the quality of each is. The chaser may hold a tremendous amount of value to a certain percentage of collectors. Cheshire Cat could reach the levels that Obi-Wan Ghost achieved when it first came out.
If they re-release the series:
Several questions will determine the value of the first series.
1. Will we be able to easily determine the two series from each other?
2. Do the first series’s mistakes have any extended value?
Update: The Disney Store Blog has posted an official announcement. “It is our commitment to offer high-quality merchandise and unfortunately the application of the Furry Friends Vinylmation artwork did not meet our standards. As such, we are no longer selling the product. We have not yet decided whether or not the collection will be re-released in the future, but we are offering a full refund to any Guest who is dissatisfied with his or her Furry Friends Vinylmation purchase.”
It is interesting to note that they are still donating the $60,000 promised, $1for Furry Friends Vinylmation produced, to the ASPCA.
Read the full announcement here.
According to multiple sources, Disney Stores across the nation received a memo this morning to pull Furry Friends off store shelves. This news comes on the heals of widespread reports from both the US and UK about poor production quality. I called two local Disney Stores and asked about this and they told me that Furry Friends were “sold out” in their store. Although believable, because other sets had sold out quickly in the first week, I didn’t fully believe it. After talking to a Cast Member, I was informed that often when a product is pulled for being defective or has a recall attached to it, they are instructed to tell the guest that the product is actually sold out. A third store was contacted and they confirmed Furry Friends was pulled off the shelf.
The good news is that Cast Members have been instructed to issue full refunds or exchange for a similar Vinylmation product with return of purchased product and valid receipt.
The Disney Store Online earlier today had changed Furry Friends from “Add to Cart” to “Sold Out” to now completely off the website.
Destination Vinylmation has contacted multiple people at The Disney Store’s Media Relations department and are awaiting official comment. You can call guest services at 800-328-0368 or email them at personal.shoppers@disneystore.com
