Spotlight On: Aaralyn’s Baby Lady

WDWNT on July 8, 2012

Here’s the latest from Custom Artist Aaralyn. In her own words…


“I had been planning on creating Baby Lady this Christmas for quite some time now. When the theme of Blind Bags 3 was released, I was excited to be able to create her earlier than I expected. The inspiration for this piece comes from one of my favorite scenes in Lady and the Tramp, where Jim Dear gives Darling a hat box for Christmas. Darling opens the box to reveal Lady, looking very adorable in her big red bow.

I knew from the beginning of her design that I wanted to paint the vinylmation’s ears like the wallpaper in the couple’s living room. Their wallpaper color also has hints of green which goes well with the Christmas theme.

The most difficult aspect of Lady was her face and facial expression. I spent a lot of time redrawing her face on the mold to duplicate the expression I had drawn on her paper sketch. Generally, I am finding facial proportions are harder to execute on the newer 9″ mold, but I really enjoy the challenge. I also didn’t expect that I would have to tie the bow over five times, it wasn’t as easy as I expected to get it look I had envisioned.

Altogether, I really love how she turned out and I hope whoever wins her as a grand prize custom in BB3 will enjoy her just as much as I enjoyed creating her. I am planning more holiday themed customs in the future, so I hope readers will follow my page for the latest updates!”

Thanks Aaralyn for a look into the mind of an artist as they create a custom piece.
 
Aaralyn’s Contact Info:
Website: www.artworksbyaaralyn.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/artworksbyaaralyn
Twitter: @ArtistAaralyn
Instagram: @ArtistAaralyn
Email: customsbyaaralyn@aol.com

2012 Dee Vee Award Winners

WDWNT on July 8, 2012

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
Set: Burbank Studios
Best 9″ Figure
“The Clock Strikes Twelve” Cinderella’s Castle

Artist: Gerald Mendez
Set: “The Clock Strikes Twelve”

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
Set: Park 9

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
Set: Park 9
Best Use of Ears
Mickey’s Philharmagic Donald

Artist: Casey Jones
Set: Park 7
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
Set: Robots 2
Best Accessory
Rhino’s Hamster Ball

Artist: Monty Maldovan
Set: Animation 2

Thank you to celebrity presenter Amber from the Revolution Diaries podcast.
Best Mickey
Director Mickey

Artist: Jim Valeri
Set: Burbank Studios

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
Set: Park Starz
Best LE Combo Set
Carl and Ellie

Artist: Ron Cohee
Set: Pixar 1

Thanks to Carl C. Von Lewin from ChasingVinylmation.com for presenting this award.

Best Use of Clear
Hat Box Ghost

Artist: Casey Jones
Set: Haunted Mansion
Best Location Specific
Director Mickey

Artist: Jim Valeri
Set: Burbank Studios

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
Set: Park 1
Those are this year’s winners. What do you think of the results?

Fantasia 3 Online

WDWNT on July 8, 2012

Fantasia 3 came online today. Check out the backs of the figures. Both are Dinosaurs which I have always enjoyed. $24.95 for the combo pack of two. They should also show up in D-Streets later today.

How many of the Fantasia sets have you gotten so far?

An Additional 25% Off

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

 

Over at the Disney Store they are having their twice upon a year sale. Today they announced an additional 25% off selected items. Above are the vinylmation I found for the additional savings.

To get the extra discount put one of the items in your shopping cart. Then type in promo code: SALE25.

 Also check out other items on sale, like several of the Funko Pop Vinyl Series.

Release Day! – June 29th, 2012

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

Lets start with the biggest, most exclusive, piece first.

Today the Park 8 Yeti was released exclusively online. The Casey Jones figure costs $74.95 and there are only 1000 of them. Buy it at DisneyStore.com

At both D-Streets the Duffy the Bears came out. Read more about them at

And also at D-Streets are the new Color Block Series. Read more about them at:

Also remember that Disneyland will be having a trading night tonight from 7-10 at the Pacific Ballroom at the Paradise Pier Hotel.They will also be having signing with Monty Maldovan and Quynh Kimball throughout the day and at the trade event.
Over in Orlando, WDW will have a Park Starz Series artist signing with Thomas Scott and Casey Jones from 5-7 at D-Street. D-Street WDW will also be getting the new 9″ CYO Vinylmation ’95 pieces.

For all the details of upcoming events go to our calender at

Magic Officially Around the World (not a sports post)

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

Last week we featured a picture of a new vinylmation that someone found in a UK Disney Store. It was labeled as “Magic Around the World” and mentioned future releases in that series. Today the Vinylmation Blog explained it, a bit.

According to the blog, the Disney Store will be celebrating “Magic Around the World” by releasing one new Vinylmation for the next 6 weeks. The first one was this black one, officially released on July 2nd. It is $9.95 or 10 Euros. Right now, it can be found on the France Disney Store Online, but not the US site. It was however found in at least one physical US Disney Store, The Times Square location. The Disney blog points out that the second figure in this series will come out on July 6th. (Which technically means there was two this week.) No word yet on what the second one (or any others) look like. But our friend The Playwright talked to a Cast Member at the Times Square Disney Store and they said:

“there are others in the series that represent cities from around the world like Tokyo and London that will be released soon.”

We talked a little about the black design on the first post. It’s reminiscent of the Holidays Around the World vinyl, only this time the flags are in little mickey head symbols instead of circles. Take a look at the back of the vinyl courtesy of The Playwright.

Also, here is a look at the back of the box with an explanation of sorts for the series.

The Disney blog post didn’t quite clarify the release location of these. Disney Stores? Yes. All or just certain locations? Who knows. They could technically release one of each week in a different country!

What do you think? What do you think will be the other vinyl figures? Just a background change or something else?

Sad Clown Sits Crying in the Dumpster

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

Last week we saw a picture of several pieces of the upcoming Disney Store Under the Big Top series. We also saw a picture of Gerald Mendez (the series artist) with two more figures in his hands. The picture was too small to clearly see what the figures were, but today one of our guesses was proved correct. eBay seller suzannal has put this scary (footless) clown up for sale. Now this is most likely a dumpster dive, so we don’t want you bidding of this auction, but it does mean you get a chance to see a better picture of the clown.

What do you think?
What do you think of clowns? Good or evil?

Hong Kong Cast Trader, hold the Variant

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

Interesting news from the Hong Kong Disneyland Facebook today. They just posted this picture as an ad for trading at their park. They are calling this figure a Cast Trader. As far as we can tell it’s a cast trader, not a cast trader variant. The two variants to the Disneyland 6 figure set are silver. One has the D on it and the other has the 55. This is neither silver, nor the D or 55 figure. That means the figure is not a variant (it looks exactly like the figure we’ve seen advertised in Disneyland CA) but rather a figure that can only be picked up (in Hong Kong) buy trading with a cast member.

Very interesting for Disney to use out of region vinyls are special cast traders at Disneyland. What do you think?

For more on this set go to:
Disneyland 6 Figure Set

Disneyland Cast Trader Variant Found

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

If you recognize the fingernails, you’ll know it’s Zoe found this vinylmation when trading at D-Street in Disneyland. It seems to confirm our suspicion that the silver variants are Cast Traders. The other figure looks like this.

So it looks like at least one of the variants is now out and in trade boxes!
For more info on the Disneyland Series check out this post:

Congrats to Zoe for being (as far as we know) the first person ever to receive this variant! If you receive the D Silver variant, please let us know!

Park 9 Combo Topper

WDWNT on July 7, 2012

The other day Nick (with the help from some listeners) speculated on what the Park 9 Combo Topper might be. It turns out it was the Brave Little Tailor. We got to see it at Friday’s WDW Trade Night.

This figure looks great. What do you think? Check out all of Park 9 here.