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Ep. 083 Watermelon Chaser – The Vinylympics We are half way through the year and it is time once again to rate the sets that we have seen so far. This year, we take on an Olympics theme. 26 sets compete in 6 events to find the best of the best. We also choose our 2012 Dream Teams. |
On June 29th, the 9″ Yeti from Park 8 will be released as an online exclusive. With an edition size of 1000, it will retail for $74.95. (Park 8 LE Explained page)
This is the second time we have seen the outrageous price tag of 75 bucks for a single 9″ figure. Price aside, let’s talk about the creature it is based on.
Expedition Everest opened on April 7, 2006 at Disney Animal Kingdom park at Walt Disney World. When completed, the mountain of steel beams and imagineered rock work stood nearly 200 feet tall. Here is a great article from Popular Mechanics Magazine with a peak inside the mountain. To me, the best part about this ride is the most detailed queue line at the Disney parks. Every inch of the path onto the train is fulled with treasures and artifacts from a journey into the Himalayas. It may be a bit of a stretch to say this, but I don’t mind avoiding the Fast Pass line now and then to check it all out.
Once on the train, guests are sent up a hill offering one of the best views of the rest of the resort… if one is brave enough to take a breath and look around. The downhills are great and the ride backwards is a thrill, but the star of the attraction is the Yeti… the protector of the imagineered “Forbidden Mountain.”
The Yeti, standing at 22 feet tall, is the largest animatronic the Imagineers ever built. The story of the Yeti is a much publicized one. Dubbed “Disco Yeti”, he now stands motionless with a strobe light on him to simulate movement. Here is an Orlando Sentinel article from 2010 highlighting the issue.
We have a Park 1 Yeti and a Park Starz version, but none seem to capture the Yeti’s ferocity as depicted in the Exhibition Everest attraction as the new 9″ Park 8 does.
This Park 8 version has the straggly fur, glowing red eyes and big dangerous teeth. Where as the other versions depict a more cartoonish Yeti.
The 9″ figure looks to take inspiration from both the animatronic Yeti himself as well as some of the artwork in the queue.
But the big question still remains… will the Vinylmaiton Yeti’s arms move?
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Ep. 070 Wolf Boy This week we discuss Phineas and Ferb, Disney Character Star Wars, Duffy the Disney Bear, the new Park Starz variants and much more. Annemarie joins us to chime in on some of the key topics. We also have a full release schedule and listen to a voicemail review of Jiminy Cricket in our Mystery Mail Bag. |
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Ep. 066 Palm Trees |
Our friend, and soon to be contributor, Don Sawyer sent us this picture and caption:
My visit to D Street today in Orlando to purchase the 9″ Contemporary Motel and the 3″ Gold Monorail was especially exciting for me! I knew that I would get the chance to bring it home and display all of my other 3″ Monorails together as a set. They really look great together on my mantle. I am hoping that Disney will continue to release more monorail vinylmations in future park series because it one of my favorite collections!
We recieved this fun email and picture from a long time reader/listener we thought we would share:
When I was 3, my dad won a photo contest which had a trip to Disney World as the grand prize. Part of the prize was being grand marshals in the 3 o’clock parade. We were also given exclusive tencennial ear hats with silver ears that, from what I understand, were not available to the general public. When I saw the artwork for the tencennial ticket vinylmation, I knew that was one that I had to have. Here is my ear hat combo with a set of our tencennial ears. You can see that the ears have yellowed a little over the past 30 years, but they’re still in great shape.
Thanks,
Scot Moore
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Ep. 059 WDW Castle
This week we discuss the latest sports teams releases as well as news about the Disney Store 25th Light Up Series and Kidada. We have a hands on review of Cutesters at the Beach and Kitchen Kaberet. And we also answer your questions in the Mystery Mail Bag. |
Recently, we got a sneak peak at a figure from Park 9. Park 9! Hold on there Disney, we are still enjoying Park 8. It did force us to get in gear and finish up our Park 8 photoshoot. We of course took the most recent series around Walt Disney World for some photos… and this is how it turned out. Thanks to Austin for help with the shoot and for providing the captions. We also posted some variant pictures on our Facebook page.
We saw him visit the shelves of DLP before the US parks, but now, the Park 8 combo topper featuring EPCOT Future World Mickey will be available at WDW and DLR beginning March 2.
The combo topper will cost $24.95 and will of course be packaged with a blind box of Park 8. The design in a nice choice for this WDW themed set and even the face looks a bit retro and differently designed than other Mickeys we have seen. Is it just me, or does the face actually look more costume like than the other Mickey faces?
