After a lot of leaks and expectations, we finally got the Muppets 2 chaser in hand. Check him out… Remember we do like to try to keep spoilers hidden for a little bit, so just click on a pick to see his front or back!
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| Muppets 2 Chaser (front) |
Muppets 2 Chaser (back) |
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| **Reminder, the figure in this picture is a combo we made. No word on what he will really look like! |
As part of the festivities down at D-Street Florida today, Nick got a chance to talk with Artist Doug Strayer (the artist behind the whole Nerds Rock series). Apparently, the Nerds Rock! set is not finished. While there isn’t plans for a whole series 2 (that we know of) there are still several designs that have been held back. The most awesome of which, is Nerd Stitch!
We also have word from our reader Austin Reed, that Maria Clapsis also has a Mystery Nerds Rock figure.
Stay tuned to find out more! (We’re very excited about this news!)
One year ago…
Kick Ass and How to Train Your Dragon were leading the box office. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” and Kesha’s “Tik Tok” we topping the music charts. Park 4 had just hit store shelves. It was April 16th, 2010 and a new store just opened in the West Side of Downtown Disney Orlando. This store would not only offer new merchandise choices geared toward a younger audience, but would also help lead a Mickey Mouse shaped collectable into a whole new era.
Opening Day was met with much fanfare. Of course Mickey was there. He jumped out of an oversized Vinylmation box to kick things off.
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Many artists were on hand to greet guests and sign autographs including Thomas Scott, Lisa Badeen, Randy Noble, Monty Maldovan, Dan Howard, Eric Caszatt, Tyler Dumas, Quynh Kimball, Maria Clapsis and Adrianne Draude. The even also featured world-renowned speed painter Rock Demarco painting his interpretation of Mickey Mouse. |
Some One-of-a-Kind Vinylmation went on sale last April as well.
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Guests to D-Street on opening day were encouraged to sign this 9″ Vinylmation:
From the start, Vinylmation would play a large part in D-Street, and D-Street in Vinylmation. Vinyl figures are a main focus in the design of the store. Check out this video Disney released giving a tour of the store when it opened.
The D-Street opening would also be the first place Vinylmation trading occured at Walt Disney World. First tested at D23 in California the previous summer, both Open and Mystery trading boxes were unveild to guests in the store.
D-Street would go on to host numerous activities and be the sight of many Vinylmation fan get-togethers. I remember the early morning Nightmare Before Christmas line. And who could forget the chilly 7 hour wait for Star Wars?
Release Day Line
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Mike Sullivan
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Happy Birthday D-Street! It’s been a fun year getting to know eachother. DV wants to thank Disney for giving us a fun themed place to visit, collect, trade and talk. We appreciate the hard work by all the cast memebers that make the store possible. We look forward to many years to come.
What are your favorite D-Street displays? What was your favorite release day wait?
We dug into the Disney archives and found these links to Opening Day that you might also enjoy.
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/04/vinylmation-visuals/
Some photos courtesy of Disney Parks and Vinylmation Blogs
Nevermind, in the time it took me to write this article it has sold out online!
This is the contest post. If you don’t know about it, check out Evilos’ Evil Giveaway Rules. You have til midnight EST to leave a comment to be entered into the contest. Good luck!
First, we wanted to thank Evilos again. Check out the cool Evil Kermit above. We are giving this one away, but check out his webpage at Evilos.com. There are lots of cool figures to check out there. Second, we wanted to say how cool and how nice a guy he is (as you’ll see in the letter he sent us). Always one to bring a positive attitude to this community, I think we should all try to be a little more like him when we can. Here’s the message he asked us to add to this post.
“I want to thank Nick and MC for allowing me to give something away to the dedicated listeners, its my pleasure to help promote their awesome podcast, the site and Vinylmation in general. Anyone that knows me personally knows I’m very passionate about vinylmation and the Disney brand.
I can’t believe its almost been two years since I first made a custom using the 3″ Blank I purchased at Disneyland. That custom the was Evil Kermit which brings this contest full circle once again.
Vinylmation has provided us artists with such an iconic canvas to work with, Mickey Mouse. Pushing the limits of what a vinyl collectible can do, it challenges artists to think outside the box and truly be creative.
I hope that over the years I have inspired both young and old to pick up a blank and just be creative. There is an inner artist in all of us, I think we were all put here to create things and inspire others, rather than destroy each other.
I also want to thank Donald Ferro and Steven Miller who, behind the scenes, put a lot time and love into this product we all enjoy. They have gone out of their way to make us the fans feel excited about a Disney product again. Also to the Artists, Thomas Scott, Eric Caszatt, Lin Shih, Chris Chapmen and the army of extremely talented people that are pushing the envelope and coming up with amazing designs everyday. They are the life-force behind vinylmation and I salute them.
Lastly I would love to thank my beautiful wife who has put up with my creative madness and has been really supportive, even though there seems to be a million Mickeys all over the house. Also my two children, Alexander and Isabella who are my reason for living..
Thank you all.” -Christopher (Evilos)
Thanks again Evilos for everything you’ve brought to the vinylmation community.
Update: 4/22/11 We snapped this photo which confirms the $99.95 price point, as well as establishing a LE of 1000.
Update: 4/14/11 Release date of April 29th officially announced.
Sushi is a boxed Vinylmation set designed by Thomas Scott that includes six 3″ figures, two Jr figures and chopsticks. It is current for sale at Disneyland Paris for 99.95 Euros. We have good reason to believe it will be $99.95 (update it is!) when released in the US. Historically, that has been the way prices have gone between DLP and US, meaning DLP collectors pay a bit more. No release date yet announced in the US. The set is LE 1000.
 California Roll (front)
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 California Roll (back)
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 Salmon Roll (front)
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 Salmon Roll (back)
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 Salmon (front)
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 Salmon (back)
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 Shrimp (front)
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 Shrimp (back)
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 Tuna (front)
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 Tuna (back)
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 Unagi (front)
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 Unagi (back)
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 Wasabi Jr
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 Ginger Jr
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 Top of Box
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Thank you to Aranya for the pictures
Thanks to custom artist Evilos, we have the great opportunity to hold a contest to give away a free Evilos Evil Kermit custom.
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| *Not actual figure. You’ll see that Tomorrow in the contest post. |
All decisions are final. One entry per person, per day. Official staff of Destination Vinylmation are not eligible (sorry Zoe and Ryan). Because of mail fees only people residing in the United States can win. Winner will be announced on this weekend’s podcast.
Please be cool and try to make your comment worthwhile 🙂 We can’t wait to show you this piece and start this contest.
In fact, those of you who listen to the podcast regularly will know how to get a second chance at winning this contest. Consult the latest podcast for more info.
After finally catching up on my lack of sleep the day of the Duck Tales release, I would like to share with you my experience on Friday morning.
There have not been very many limited releases lately, so I went in to this not knowing what to expect. A lot of other releases that I woke up early for and waited for hours ended up being on the shelves for months! (Like Nightmare Before Christmas, DLR Attraction Posters, etc.) I stopped by D-Street the night before to ask if they were planning on opening at 8:00 or 10:00 the next morning. The cast member told me that the store was opening at 10:00 and they would distribute wristbands at 7:00. Uh oh. Wristbands? I knew that meant that there was only a limited amount and that sleeping in wouldn’t be an option.
My mom and I headed to Downtown Disney at 5:15 am, we got there around 5:30 am and there were already 40 people in front of us. We waited for an hour and half until we were given our wristbands. They let us know that we could come back until 1:00 that afternoon and pick up our figures. This was refreshing so now we could go grab something to eat and come back and get in line. We were gone an hour and came back around 9:00 and there were 75 people in line at D-Street already with their wristbands.
Finally at 10:45 we made our way into D-Street and picked up our figures. There were many more people behind us in line and we were so grateful to be in the store buying our Duck Tales!! By 1:00 in the afternoon D-Street made the announcement that they were completely sold out and there would be no more Duck Tales on the floor for the stand-by line!!
I love release days because it gives you a chance to stand in line and chat with other fellow Vinylmation loves and make friends as well as do some trading.
Can’t wait until the next release!
-Zoe
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   My mom and I went down to Disneyland in search of this hat! We went to every store we could think of and finally after an hour search, we found the hat! After doing some research, we learned that the hat was put on the floor by accident but we were lucky enough to buy one before they realized the error.  The Jr that comes with it is the clear one on the right, on the left is another Jr with a keychain I had from a Vinylmation Cutesters 1 handbag! |
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| My boyfriend, Tyler, figured out that the figure was cream filled (Eclair) because of the pictures I added you can see there is filling on the bottom of the feet and the top of the head!! On the bottom we saw that the artist is Maria Clapsis, who designed all the figures in the Cutesters Too series.
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Overall I love the set, it is adorable!!
Oh! And the price was $69.95 (a bit higher then usual I think.. Maybe because of the Jr?)
What do you think? -Zoe
All pictures by DV Reporter Zoe
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Every now and again, Large Neil remembers why he hates the rebellion sooooooooo much!
