One of our readers made a very special custom for his Dad this past Father’s Day. Custom artist Jason Adler, aka DisneyMozart, from Birmingham, AL made an Alabama Crimson Tide custom. Here are the pictures.
 |
| Front View |
 |
| Can you spot the Hidden Mickey in the room? |
 |
| Roll Tide Roll! |
If I were in charge of Vinylmation, and I’m not, I would get rid of Limited Edition Vinylmation Releases. Goodbye. Good riddance. LE Vinylmation, you have caused too many problems around these parts and it is time to go. I hear your voices and want to make those awesome LE figures available to you! No matter where you live. D-Street. Online. Neither work. And I’m not talking about fair. I don’t care about fair. I care about being able to collect what I like. In taking the pulse of the Vinylmation community, I think there are more true collectors out there that are more concerned about grabbing their favorite Vinylmation figures than having a figure that may be worth some cash because there are not many of them. I know I would.
Let’s take the Disney Afternoons series. An insanely popular set of figures. Maybe beyond what Disney even thought. Now when they release these at the D-Streets, locals are forced to roll out of bed, head down to Disney and wait in line for up to 6 hours in cold or heat and then be late to work. “Aw, poor Orlando local” says the Disney fan in Idaho sarcastically. This is the dedicated Disney fan who has no shot at one of these combos unless they have want to fork over triple retail at that special online auction house. So many of you cry out that releasing LEs at D-Street isn’t fair. And I can’t argue with you.
How about an online release? Oh, we have tried that… many times. Here are just some of the problems with online releases of Limited Editions. No stated release time, no purchase limits, slow computers, misplaced items online, fake sell outs, computer error. Not to mention I hate playing the get up and hit F5 game for hours. I hate it for Baseball tickets, I hate it for this. But if you are going to put LEs online, give us an exact time and date. But I say, just ditch the LEs all together.
If you are collecting because you like the figures and enjoy the chase for your favorites, then it shouldn’t matter if there are 500 or 500,000. So what would I do? Limited TIME releases. Instead of limiting the production run, I would limit the time they are on the shelves. Maybe 2 weeks. Maybe a month. Maybe 3 months. But advertise and stick to the time periods and keep the production flow coming until time is up. I would still limit same day, same guest purchases to two. These Limited Time releases have a number of effects. First, locals do not have to crowd the sidewalk on release day. Second, non-locals can plan trips to the parks around figures they really want. Third, if the release is online, it creates a less frustrating ordering atmosphere. Fourth, it takes some steam out of that cut throat aftermarket.
All that said, I would still keep around Limited Editions at events such as D23 or the Florida Project. That still makes sense to me. Those are special celebrations that have a limited number of people attending. No sense not capping those. And many times, even after the RSP and on-site sales, product is left over and goes for sale at the parks. I would also keep LEs on 9″ figures and Ear Hats. That seems to work, even for the most popular. 1000 seems like a great number. There were still more of the “sold out” Up figures at D-Street Orlando a week later.
So there you go. I don’t need ’em. I’d rather be able to purchase all the figures I like and want. Other than Events, 9″ and Ear Hats, NO MORE LIMITED EDITIONS!!! Who is with me?
As we rumored a few weeks back, the Times Square NYC Disney Store did in fact release another 3″ exclusive today and our friend the Playwright was there.
 |
| I “Mickey Head” NY in a tin |
This I “Mickey Head” NY is a 3″ version of a 9″ figure that was released a few months ago. It is designed on the new mold, comes in a tin and retails for $12.95.
 |
| I “Mickey Head” NY with Hey Taxi and Statue of Liberty Minnie |
 |
| Inside of tin |
Thanks to the Playwright for these great pictures and report. He not only picked one up, but he toured the city with his new Vinylmation as well!
 |
| There is a lot to explore in NYC out of your tin |
 |
| Best way to get around |
 |
| He doesn’t take up much room on the Subway |
 |
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.
|
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…
Picture Copyright DisneyToday vinylmation.com released real shots of The Florida Project vinylmation. You can check them all out at the site, but the most interesting, and freshest part of the announcement was a picture of the box the Empress Lily will come it. I love the colors of The Florida Project!
Today is the day. Disneyland Passholders can purchase Ariel and Goofy passholder exclusive Vinylmation. Cynthia sent us a picture of the line:
Disney today has posted some new, official Disney Store Online purchase limits for Limited Edition Vinylmation products. This announcement comes 1 week after Disney’s Presidential Customer Service department called me about an online survey I filled out about my online ordering experience. On the tails of Goof Troop and other debacles, I’m sure they have received many such negative survey results and have had to place many of these calls and emails. The customer service rep did seem genuinely interested in all I had to say about release times, fake sell outs and yes, purchase limits. When I asked what would be done, she told me that a HUGE change to the Disney Store Online will occur on July 18th. She said it will improve inventory control, the way we find items and the way we check out.
As far as this announcement, here are the purchase limit details direct from the Disney Vinylmation Blog:
What are your thoughts on these changes?
Disney Steampunk inspired Steam Park set will be available at both D-Streets Friday morning. The 6 figures set, designed by Mike Sullivan (Star Wars) will retail for $99.95 and be limited to 1000 sets. They will be up on the Online Store on July 22nd. Chris was at D-Street and sent us some pictures of the display.
 |
| Steam Park set on display at D-Street Orlando |
 |
| A Hidden Mickey! |
 |
| What time is it? One thing I know about Disney… nothing is random. Does anyone know the significance of 10:10am/pm? |
 |
| The face of evil peeking out. |
Pirates of the Caribbean was released on Friday, July 1. It’s the first in what seems to be a line of attraction based Vinylmation sets. Here is my take on this much anticipated set.
Looking good guys! But what’s under caps? A well detailed, designed and produced set of figures. They have a distinctness to them that really captures the character of the ride. The character selection is just a little off, but we will get to that later. One of my favorite figures is the hook pirate. His face is very animated. A lot of sharp facial features and a great looking beard. The hook hand is a nice touch, and for me, a welcomed addition to Vinylmation. Casey did a great job with colors in this series as a whole and they kept the colors true in the production phase.
Another treasure in this set is the pig. Nice job by artist Casey Jones to think outside the human characters and include this happy fellow into the set. The mud has a cool glossy effect. Sitting against the matte finish of the figure, it really stands out. Same with the dirt on the Dirty Foot Pirate.
The shipwrecks in this set? Three skeletons. Don’t get me wrong, they are all done well. They are more detailed than the Park 5 POTC Pirate. I especially enjoy the guy with the jewels around his neck, but I don’t need three skeletons in one set.
Can’t talk about this set without mentioning that it’s on the new mold. First impression is they look different, sure, but not bad. Many of you call me an advocate of the new mold. It’s not like that. But it’s what Disney is giving us and it’s not enough for me to be turned off from Vinylmation. So I said I want to give it a chance with a couple series. POTC is the third series designed on new mold. First was Sea Creatures. Hard to judge. They are odd designs in and of themselves. Next we had Cutesters Like You. Biggest problems I’ve heard with this set is poor production quality. And I would agree. They looked a little cheaper than previous Vinylmation. The paint jobs were also generally poor. Scuffs, smudges and and an unfinished look was common with these. But the Pirates series has turned the tide. The paint job and quality is much improved from the first two new mold efforts.
Disney said that one effect, and reason to change to new mold, would be to better apply the design onto the figure. Have more complicated designs. Tighter lines. Better wrapping. Not counting any shape issues with the new mold, I think they succeeded in giving us amazing looking designs. Now how about that shape?
Let’s go top down. I love the solid, stand up shape of the ears. I like the roundness of the top of the head. I’m with you guys on the “chipmunk” cheeks. It stands out on some characters, especially from the profile. That is the worse part about this mold. As for the body, sure I wouldn’t mind buttons, and the body is a little stocky, but overall, I don’t mind it. And I like the way the new feet are styled. Some people don’t like less definition between the feet, but i think it works and showcases better design features.
Overall, a great looking set that has a lot of character to it. The faces are drawn so well. Perfect color pallet chosen. And the hats really top it all off. I like the inclusion of Jack Sparrow, but only because he was added tot he attraction and Casey modeled him after one of his poses in the attraction. New mold, don’t care. These look fantastic in person
