Star Wars Weekend Wrapup with Star Wars Chasers

WDWNT on January 14, 2011

If you missed all the Star Wars news from the last 24 hours here it is:

The crowd was out in full force last night as hundreds of people lined up outside of the D-Street Florida store to get their Star Wars Vinylmation. Nick and MC arrived at 6pm to check out the festivities and join the line. After several hours the wonderful cast members brought out several heat lamps borrowed from Bongos. At around 11 PM the store closed to set up and a DJ started to play outside. During the music, the DJ asked trivia questions for prizes. The winners got to pick Vinylmations from a bag. MC won a NBC Sally and an Holiday 1 American Flag. Nick scored a Buzz Lightyear Vinylmation.

Nick and MC were one of the first groups in, and the first customers out of D-Street. They instantly ripped into their box to find the chaser, a Darth Vader, and a Stormtrooper. They got Vader and the Stormtrooper signed by the artist Mike Sullivan (who was there from 12-2 AM).

Then the rumor started to spread that there was a variant somewhere in the cases, so Nick opened up his case. He was lucky enough to find the chaser variant! (Click on the mystery chaser to see a picture of both the chaser and the variant chaser.) Nick was the first, and as far as we could tell, only person to get the variant that night. Lots of people came over and took pictures of Nick and his variant. (In fact, as of now, every picture online of the variant IRL has Nick’s hand in it. Including the official picture from the Vinylmation.com blog)


We had a lot of fun and look forward to the next event. We met a lot of cool people in line and got some good trading done while waiting. Also we would like to thank the entire staff of D-Street Florida as well as everyone from Disney Vinylmation. Thanks to Steven Miller for creating the event, Donald Ferro for making the stormtrooper the extra figure, and especially Mike Sullivan for all the designs.

Now for some photos we have from this morning. Click to see larger.

Did you go to the event? How was it? Let us know what you think!

Everything’s under control. Situation Normal.

WDWNT on January 14, 2011

We had some fun with messing around with our new Star Wars. This outfit was inspired by Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

“Uh, negative, negative. We have a, a reactor leak here, ah, now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak, very dangerous.”

Waiting for Skywalker

WDWNT on January 14, 2011

The line outside of D-Street for the release of Star Wars. The line wraps all around the back of the Pretzel/Ice Cream/Bathroom building across from D-Street.

Our excitement level sky rockets!

WDWNT on January 12, 2011

Once we got over the excitement of the addition of Lightsabers to Luke and Vader’s Vinylmation figures, we missed the rocket pack on the back of Boba Fett. Well, the Disney Parks Blog released this turnaround photo today:

This set just keeps getting better and better! What other surprises do they have in store for us? We will see at the Midnight release party this Thursday, January 13th at D-Street in Orlando.
Another detail released today is the Star Wars set is a parks exclusive. It will not show up on the online Disney Store or at Disney Stores around the country.
Disney Design Artist Mike Sullivan is the designer of the Star Wars set. Here is what he had to say on the Disney Parks Blog:
“We began with several rough sketches of characters we wanted in the series,” explained Mike. “We selected characters from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ in honor of the film’s 30th anniversary. With so many memorable characters in the film, it was difficult to select just 12 figures. We worked closely with the great team at LucasFilm to make the final choices for this first series.”

Check out the complete blog post for yourself, and more pictures, here.

Are you wearing a costume for the release event? Make sure to bring some doubles for trading as we all sit outside D-Street Thursday night. And I can’t wait to talk to everybody in line about Vinylmation. Destination Vinylmation is around for fans of Vinylmation, so we welcome your input.

Now, Fully Armed and Operational

WDWNT on January 8, 2011

As I was looking at the Disney Vault page for an unrelated topic, I noticed that things had shifted since last time I was there. Thinking the release of Animation 1 this morning had shuffled things when added to the site I investigated and found that they had not updated the page with Animation 1 info, but with Star Wars info. So now we have all the turn-arounds for all 11 known characters.

There wasn’t really that much new we learned from the backs and sides; just a lot of capes (wouldn’t they have looked cool in fabric like the Animation 1 9″ Hippo’s tutu?). It’s interesting to note that they don’t show the lightsaber accessories we saw earlier today at D-Street. In the Animated 1 turn-arounds the Fairy Godmother shows offer her wand. I hope that doesn’t mean that they won’t come with lighsabers, and that those in the display were only for the display. (Something I doubt, but worry about)

What do you think of the figures are we’ve seen so far?

Lightsabers!

WDWNT on January 7, 2011

Take a close look at these pictures M.C. and I took at D-Street this morning while waiting for Animation 1.

Notice Luke and Darth holding anything?
Close up of Luke
Lightsaber close up
There is Darth with his red Lightsaber!

This was our first up close look at the upcoming Star Wars Vinylmation set since Trade City in August. The Lightsabers were NOT there at the time. Nor are the Lightsabers present in any of the art work that Disney has released. Was this a late addition? Maybe the reason for the hold back of the release date for so long. Whatever the case, they look fantastic. The details on each figure as a whole are very impressive and we can not wait for the Midnight release on Thursday, January 13th.

Star Wars Explained

WDWNT on January 6, 2011

Update: 4/26/11 Star Wars set will be re-released on June 4th, 2011 at the Little Green Men Store Command in Tomorrowland, Disneyland. That is for those in California. For those in Florida, it’s still rumored to be re-released on May 20th at Star Wars Weekends.

Update: 1/14/11 Star Wars released at D-Street Florida. We have a photo of both the chaser AND the variant of the chaser. (See Mystery Chaser near the bottom)

Update: 1/12/11 Confirmation of a rocket pack on Boba Fett. Confirmation this is a Disney Parks exclusive and will not be available online or in Disney Stores.

Update: 1/8/11 We have full turn-arounds for all 11 characters now.

Update: 1/7/11 Lightsabers! Both Luke and Darth Vader have them. The whole set (minus chaser) is on display in D-Street.

Update: 1/6/11 The Disney Vinylmation Blog corrected itself and is now agreeing with the Art of Disney Blog that the release of Star Wars in California D-Street is: 8 am Sunday the 16th!

Update: 1/5/11 Several mentions of this as Star Wars #1! So I think that confirms at least a Star Wars #2. According to the Disney Vinylmation Blog today, the release schedule is as follows:

D-Street Florida – Midnight the 13 (Thursday night/Friday morning)
D-Street California – Saturday the 15th Sunday the 16th at 8 am
Disney Stores Online and IRL – Never!

1/4/11 Don’t know anything about Star Wars characters, or just want to see their Vinylmation forms. This is the page for you. We’ll try to update as often as we can.

Release date is January 16th 2011 at D-Street. (CA at the moment)

R2-D2

Played by: Kenny Baker
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Looks great, I think all the robots in this series look great. Lots of great detail work on his body.
C3-PO

Played by: Anthony Daniels
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Another robot, another good looking Vinylmation. Although his inquisitional look on his face is a little odd. I love the detail of the wire in his stomach.
Luke Skywalker

Played by: Mark Hamill
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Human figures aren’t as impressive here, but it does look like Luke, albeit at the start of “A New Hope”. Thinking of variants, maybe the chaser is Master Luke.
Update: 1/7/11 Check out the lightsaber. Seen in the display in D-Street.
Princess Leia

Played by: Carrie Fisher
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Classic buns style. Mickey’s ears kinda play that up a little and it’s cool. Nice Hoth cold suit. I wonder how many versions of each of the lead characters we will get.
Han Solo

Played by: Harrison Ford
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Look at that nerf herder’s smirk.
Chewbacca

Played by: Peter Mayhew
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Looks great. Love the detail of his ammunition belt. Although he does seem a little angry. Let the Wookie win.
Lando Calrissian

Played by: Billy Dee Williams
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

I hope the back has his cape. One of the better human representation in Vinylmation form. Check out that cape on his back.
Yoda

Voiced by: Frank Oz
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Works well. Interesting clothes choice. I guess it’s supposed to be the outfit we first meet him in. I hope he comes with a walking stick!
Boba Fett

Played by: Jeremy Bulloch
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Update: 1/12/11 Rocket Pack
Stormtrooper

Played by: Lightning Bear and others
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Nice details and looking rather cute for a bad guy.
Darth Vader

Played by: David Prowse
Voiced by: James Earl Jones
Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

There looks like there is a lot of detail on this one. I need to see it closer, but it might be pretty awesome. Also note he comes with a Red Lightsaber accessory.
Mystery Chaser

Vinylmation Artist: Mike Sullivan

Who could it be? The Emperor seems the most obvious. Unless it’s the RX-24 (Rex) from Star Tours (Voiced by PeeWee Herman)

Or maybe Master Luke? For instance Luke in the black Jedi robes?

Or Obi-wan?

Update: 1/14/11 Click on Mystery Chaser for photo of Chaser and Variant of Chaser (which there are very few of)

Here’s a look at the case the Star Wars Vinylmation.


Case Breakdown-

The display case has a giant Darth Vader vinyl as it’s center piece. It looks like the photos we’ve seen of the Darth Vader vinyl (unlike the Muppets one which has a giant version of Kermit on it, but the design was Kermit from Park 1 not Kermit from the Muppets 1). Surrounding Darth Vinyl are streaks of light reminiscent for those seen when heading into Lightspeed.

On the left side is the Imperial symbol with the words, “Disney Park Vinyl 3″ collectible figure”. Does this mean it will only be in parks? If anything THIS is a series to also put in stores, but we shall see.

According to the right side of the display, this is part of the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back which came out in 1980. I guess knowing that, we should have known that it wasn’t coming out in 2009.

Also worth noting is that it says “Star Wars Vinylmation 1″ so that seems to confirm (as if there was a doubt) that there will be a series 2!! Hopefully series 2 will have some 9″, because Steven said there would be no 9” for series 1.

The individual blind boxes also show Star Wars 1 and have the Rebel Alliance symbol on them.

As always, “No refunds, exchanges, or returns”

Most Vinylmation info from Disney sources like the Vinylmation Vault.