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Ep. 041 Cosmos
The news of the week included Park Stars, Star Wars, Kidada, and Hawaii. We run down the full release date and events calendar. In our feature topic, we discuss Park 7 variants… what are the options? And we read your comments and answer your questions in the Mystery Mail Bag.
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The official Vinlymation blog just announced that the Park 7 series that we saw previewed at The Florida Project will be released on October 14th at the D-street locations. While it’s always great to have a release date, there is something particularly exciting about this announcement.
It was revealed that the Park 7 series will be considered a “tribute collection”. Though we’ve known that the Park Series was going to start marking “important” things in Disney history, this particular set is officially the “40th Anniversary Tribute Collection”.
But, what does that mean exactly? Well…
Lets start off with the tray box.
As you can see, the tray box has been decked out using the Walt Disney World 40th Anniversary Merchandise Collage, created by Natalie Kennedy, a Senior Graphic Designer with Disney Design Group.
This box is awesome, capturing the last 40 years beautifully.
Then there are the individual blind boxes.
Again, the Merchadise Collage has been used to decorate the box, bringing life to the usually boring, black box we are all familiar with.
With such a wonderful design, I might just hold onto the box for once, instead of just recycling them.
Then there are the indiviual figures.
A much anticipated series, from the first time we all caught a glimps of these figures, I think we all agreed that this series showcases some of the most creative uses of the Mickey figure we have seen to date. Specifically, how Casey Jones captured Donad’s “good side” in his interpretation of the Philharmagic attraction; Thomas Scott’s Space Figment, utilizing the Buzz Lightyear space helmet; and my personal favorite, the sparkly Tinkerbell with WINGS! (EEP!)
Here is the America on Parade figure from Park 7:
The series will retail at $12.95 with the combo pack selling at $26.95.
Pictures borrowed from the official Vinylmation blog:
At D23, the Park 7 Vinylmation lineup was announced… by way of pins. 10 of the 12 Vinylmation designs where on display as pins. the 11th design that was not a pin is the already known Earful Tower and the 12th would be the mystery chaser. So here is the known Park 7 line up:
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Muppet Vision 3D
This colorful figure fits perfectly onto the Vinylmation. It’s Kermit’s hot air baloon that flies high over the attraction. |
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Tomorrowland Rocket
This was the icon of Tomorrowland in the Disney Parks. I showed off pride as being a USA rocket and gave excitment to the future of space exploration. You can see the rockets circling the head. |
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Tinker Bell
The famous fairy gets another vinylmation. |
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Donald Philharmagic
This is a favorite of mine. It’s from the Philharmagic show where donald gets stuck in a tuba at the end of the show. Only to get blasted out into the wall behind you and then end up tangled in the instruments of the ceiling of the gift shop. |
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Hong Kong Castle
From the markings on the body, this looks like the Hong Kong castle to me. |
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Hula Guy
Does this guy come from the Polynesian? Aulani? Or none of the above? |
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World of Motion Sea Serpent |
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Spacesuit Figment
Figment makes his third 3″ Vinylmation appearance. |
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EPCOT 2000
Love it or hate it, it’s now a Vinylmation |
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Kali River Rapids
A great, and wet, Animal Kingdom attraction. |
Update: Check out Park 7 Explained for full set list.
Not much new on the Park 7 front, but we finally get a glimpse of Figment in Spacesuit. This set will release in November and will retail for $12.95. (thanks Zoe)
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| Figment in Spacesuit |
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| Earful Tower, EPCOT 2000, Kali River Rapids |
What classic EPCOT attraction did you enjoy more: Horizons or World of Motion? Everybody gushes over Horizons, but for me, the humorous scenes and unforgettable characters made World of Motion the EPCOT attraction I hold closeest to my heart. So, I can’t believe I missed this Disney Parks Blog post back in January. Steven Miller, when talking about retro EPCOT merchandise, stuck this picture into the post:
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| Photo from Disney Parks Blog |
Do you recognize this guy? It’s the Sea Serpent from World of Motion who is found looking right back at Christopher Columbus who is searching for the New World. Steven remarked that this figure will be in a future Park series.
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| Photo from www.MeetTheWorldInProgressland.blogspot.com |
An interesting piece of information I found out while looking for the picture above, is the Sea Serpent currently resides at Disney’s California Adventure!
Meet The World In Progressland posted this description on where to find the Sea Serpent: “he is hidden behind the buildings on the north side of the Hollywood Backlot, just next to the Hollywood Backlot Stage. He’s surrounded by some wooden barriers that have “Props Dept.” stenciled on them, as well as a few other props such as some Roman columns and a Chinese rickshaw.”
I’m excited about all the retro type Park Vinylmation coming out. WDW Ticket, Retro EPCOT Guide Map, Kitchen Kabaret… Check out our Park 7 Explained Page for a look at what’s ahead. What classic piece of EPCOT would you most like to see in Vinylmation?
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Ep. 029 Monkey
Loads of great information in this show. We start out by selecting our Vinyl All Star 9 from the first half of the year. Then we discuss the recent releases of the DLR AP exclusives and the Steam Park set. We wrap up the WDW Trading Event with info on: Park 7, Holiday 3, Astrology and the Florida Project. We discuss the EPCOT banner with some interesting figures on it. And of course, open up the Mystery Mail Bag to answer your questions and discuss your comments.
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I was like a kid in a candy store last night at the Vinylmation/Pin Trade show at Walt Disney World. The candy store was the Fantasia Ballroom in the Contemporary Resort. The candy was the amazing looking upcoming Vinylmation from Park 7, Holiday 3, Urban 7, Astrology and The Florida Project. First up, lets flash back to the year 2000. Remember this:
This figure will be in Park 7 and is scheduled for an early fall 2011 release. It’s the EPCOT ball as it looked in 2000 when they added the Mickey hand, wand and stars. I am in a minority, but I liked this look a lot. Not as a permanent feature, and the 7 years it was there was a bit too long, but I was a fan. And I’m a HUGE fan of this figure. With the ball in the body, using the right arm as sorcerer Mickey’s arm (note the red sleeve), and the accessory wand with star!!! With the clear blue head and stars in the ears, this figure looks amazing in person. Also from Park 7…
Beautiful colors on this Kali River Rapids figure. Kali of course is a place to get very, very wet at the Animal Kingdom. Depending on what third of the raft you sit on, you either stay rather dry, get a little wet or couldn’t be more wet if you just jumped into the river. One more Park 7 was there. Check out the Hollywood Studios Earful tower.
The tower perfectly fits the Vinylmation mold and looks great. But what’s that red, white and blue figure in the bottom corner?
BOOM! This fireworks figure from Holiday 3, Fall 2011, is explosive. (sorry) We saw the pin from Sci Fi academy pics, and as expected, it comes with the cone cap.
In this side view, you can see the fuse. You can also peak at the side of Earful Tower where Mickey Mouse is painted on. But that’s not all! Astrology was on hand. And check this out:
Ya, Sagittarious has a bow. It seems to be the only accessory in the set. Astrology, designed by the talented combo of Lisa Badeen and Maria Clapsis, with art direction by Thomas Scott, has designs that are very well thought out. Here’s a look at the whole set:
I’m not a big fan of this set in theory, and am still not sure what ones, if any I’ll be buying, but I can’t deny the set is looks great and is well designed with the constellations mapped out onto the figures with perfect placement of the designs.
The packaging is an open window design with 6 figures pictured on one side and 6 on the other. They list the dates corresponding to the astrology signs so you can pick your figures out very easily.
Up to now, we have only seen a 2D version the 9″ Park 6 Davy Crockett. When we saw the 3″ version for the D23 Expo, Davy had a coon skin hat with a tail. It looks great, and lead us to hope for the same for the 9″ version. From the picture, we knew he would have the hat… but the tail?
Oh yeah! The King of the Wild Frontier, due out mid-August, is going to look great exploring the wilderness of my Vinylmation cabinet. Now we have seen all of Urban 7 before, but last night, one of life’s great mysteries would be answered. When we first saw Mike Sullivan’s, what we first called, “a Bob Ross painting like figure”…
we had no real clue what it represented. But what we DID know for sure, is the back would hold all the answers and let us know exac…
Oh. Ok, maybe it didn’t. Let’s move on to The Florida Project…
Park 7
Release Date: October 14, 2011
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Donald Philharmagic Casey Jones The best 3″ design EVER. Hands down. Wow. This is a favorite of mine. It’s from the Philharmagic show where Donald gets stuck in a tuba at the end of the show. Only to get blasted out into the wall behind you and then end up tangled in the instruments of the ceiling of the gift shop. |
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Muppet Vision 3D Lin Shih This colorful figure fits perfectly onto the Vinylmation. It’s Kermit’s hot air baloon that flies high over the attraction. It has a lot of bright colors and a clean design. |
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America on Parade Casey Jones This amazing little guy depicts the parade float Mickey, Donald and Goofy rode in America on Parade. (see Fife and Drum set below for more info)  |
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Polynesian Fire Dancer “Cousin Q” Quynh Kimball? Ok, they kicked it up a notch. Look at the fire stick! The pin didn’t do this guy justice. The ears are clear with the left having a flower and right saying “Aloha”. |
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Tinkerbell Eric Caszatt The famous fairy gets another vinylmation. Is this her flying through the night sky over the park?  |
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Star Jets Eric Caszatt A Tomorrowland ride that has had or has versions in all the theme parks. The ears are clear and have the rockets painted on them. Its a perfect rendition. It’s also a perfect accessory piece on the head. |
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Figment in Spacesuit Thomas Scott VARIANT  |
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World of Motion Sea Serpent Maria Clapsis It’s the Sea Serpent from World of Motion who is found looking right back at Christopher Columbus who is searching for the New World.
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EPCOT 2000 Thomas Scott Love it or hate it, the EPCOT ball had a wand attached to it for 8 years. This figure celebrates the occasion. In the picture, it says “EPCOT” above the ball, however, when the wand was originally put in place in 1999, it said “2000″ as on the Vinylmation. I liked it, but 8 years was overkill. |
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Kali River Rapids Billy Davis A river rapids water ride in the Animal Kingdom. This figure is from the logo and sign that greet guests at the ride.  |
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Earful Tower Lin Shih This was the iconic feature of Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) in Orlando, FL until the giant sorcerer’s hat was built in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. |
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Mystery Chaser
Could be anything. What would you like to see? |
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Mickey Mouse
This set represents America on Parade that ran from 1975 – 1976 at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. In the parade, Mickey had a flag, but it wasn’t in the display. Mickey does have a tri point hat on his head.  |
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Donald Duck Donald played the fife in the band as they rode the parade float down Main St. USA. The eagle float that Mickey, Donald and Goofy rode on was 18 feet tall. I like the duck bill extending down to the body. A ton of great Donalds coming out. |
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Goofy Goofy has a drum and stick accessory. The artist did a great job at capturing his eyes and face. The drum says “America on Parade”. |
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9″ River Country Goofy Jan/Feb 2012 LE 1000 $44.95 River Country was a beloved Disney water park before Blizzard Beach and Typhoon lagoon came along. It opened in 1976 and closed in 2001. The area next to Fort Wilderness sits abandoned today. What was your favorite attraction there?  |
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Magic Kingdom Ticket Jan/Feb 2012 LE 1500 $44.95 7 Adventures in one place! I want to go! |
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Main Street Electric Light Parade Jan/Feb 2012 LE 1500 $44.95 It’s the parade we all know and love that makes it’s way down Main Street USA nightly. Are you a ELP or Spectro fan? |
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| Mr. Dairy Goods | Mustard | Rice |
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| Bonnie Appetite | Broccoli | Ham |
9″ Main Street Electrical Parade Train
This is one of the oddest chaser stories we have seen. Disney, usually shy about posting pictures of chasers before they are released, posted the Park 7 chaser on the Vinylmation website today:
This is made even more odd because of the Park 7 pin we have already seen:
Add on top of that, the lengthy discussion we had on the last podcast about the above pin not being one of the 11 revealed characters or combo topper in Park 7. And how I mistakenly described the pin as being maybe the Hong Kong Castle until it dawned on me that the design on the body is that of the banners that hang outside Cinderella’s Castle at WDW.
All that being said… what are your thoughts on this chaser? I think it’s the first great one since Lincoln in Park 6.
Park 7 is for sure one of my favorite sets of 2011. It’s a brilliant celebration of 40 years of Walt Disney World. Austin and I took Park 7 around WDW to let the figures play around all four parks. As always, there are plenty more photos from this shoot on our Facebook page.
