When Paul Met Julie

We here at Destination Vinylmation would like to congratulate Paul and Julie on their engagement. Paul took a special approach to asking his lady for her hand, and since it involved Vinylmation we asked Paul to tell us a little about what went into making that special night.

“It was June of 2009 in California Adventure that my girlfriend, Julie, and I purchased our very first vinylmations. Little did we know that almost two years later our small purchase would become our biggest addiction and hobby together. Going to either Disney World or Disneyland every year has become a tradition for us, and now collecting and trading vinylmations has become part of that tradition.”
“When I was in the planning stage of proposing to Julie I was trying to come up with a great shock that I could do that I hadn’t seen before, something not cliche. So I ordered a couple of blank vinylmations not knowing how that would work out. Upon starting work on it, I really liked the way it was coming out and had to move on to the next step in the process; how to make this whole thing a surprise.”
“The plan was to place my custom, inside a sealed package, then place that sealed package inside a current series vinylmation box and glue it shut. Opening a box carefully and patiently, so I could reseal it, was not so difficult. Opening the vinylmation bag inside the box was. I tried to open some vinylmation bags like a bag of chips. This result did not work out. So I eventually made a small slit on the bottom of the bag with a razor blade, and slide out the vinylmation feet first. Once I finished my custom vinylmation and custom artist card (yes I created a custom artist card also, gotta be authentic), I slid it inside the bag and used some clear packing tape, carefully placed inside the slip, to seal up the bag. Next, I glued the box and I was all set.”
“Later that evening, I invited Julie over to open up the vinylmations I had bought over the weekend. It worked out well that Muppets 2 was released this past week because it didn’t look suspicious that I had purchased some vinylmations for us to open. We set up to open hers and mine, I had her go first, and the rest is history. I was very nervous because I’m not much of an artist but, I’ll say she was totally surprised. I would say it was a home run.”

-Paul

Nick’s Character Autograph 9″

Each year on my Birthday I take a 9″ Vinylmation to WDW and add some character signatures to it. Yesterday I decided to take some fun pictures with my new Celebration 1st Visit Park Jrs that seemed to fit nicely with my vinyl. I included some close ups of these Jrs, maybe my favorites so far.

Character Autographed 9″
FastPass Jr
Autograph Jr (back)
Autograph Jr (front)

Bad, Bad Luck

Update: 4/18/11 It looks like everything has been fixed over at the Disney Store Online. They have SINGLE blind boxes of Jr 3’s for $8.95. Get them while you can!

Update: 11 AM One of our listeners sent us his receipt for several cases of Jr 3’s for $8.95 a piece. The order was made at 3:30 AM PST. This means that the price did actually go live early this morning. (We thought it might have been just a placeholder.) Check out the at the bottom.



Over at the Disney Store Online today, the Jrs 3 series is up… and sold out. That was super quick. Well until you look at the price. Something is up with Disney, because they have the tray of 36 listed at the price of $8.95, instead of individual boxes for that price. We expect that to be sorted out. (I’m surprised to see a set added on a Wednesday instead of a Friday.)


Wow that’s a good score. We wonder if Disney will honor this price. (Unlike with TailSpin, this is clearly a clerical error and we expect Disney to just cancel all the orders for this case at this price.)

Celebration Variants! Where was your first visit?

Update: 4/7/11 On a hunch, we contacted our friend @milkyjoe75 and asked him to take a picture of the back of his 1st Visit 3″. Look what he found! Hong Kong also gets it’s own variant. We assume that this means there is one for Disneyland Paris also, and have contacted our friend in France to try to find out. Stay tuned!

4/6/11 Well, the rumors are true, and it looks like there will be a variant in the Celebrations 3″ set. Based on the fact that their are two parks, it looks like there are two different backs to the 1st Visit 3″. The rumor is that each one will only be available in the park it has on it’s back. But will shall see! Check them out…

1st Visit
Disneyland
(back)
1st Visit
Walt Disney World
(back)
1st Visit
Hong Kong
Disneyland
(back)
1st Visit
Disneyland Paris
(back)


What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea?

ZoMG: Urban 7 and Animal Ear Hats

My mom and I were in the park today doing some trading and we stopped by the Mad Hatter shop on Main Street at Disneyland. Looking into the window I found some new and exciting things, such as 2 brand new Vinylmation Urban #7 Ear Hats! As well as one Muppets #2 Ear Hat!! I had to get all three so I could show everyone whats inside!

Milk and Cookies Ear Hat – Urban #7


First off we have the Milk and Cookies set which is my favorite! The hat looks like a milk carton on the top with the words Milk on the front with a little Vinylmation shape, and has chocolate chip cookies as the ears and the right ear has a bite taken out of it. On the sides it says ‘Vinylmation Dairy Products’ (too cute!)

The 3 inch is a chocolate milk carton! I love the details on this figure!! It has Vinylmation Farms on the top as where the milk is from and also a little Vinylmation shaped cup of chocolate milk on the front!

If you look at the back of this figure, it has the nutrition information, my favorite part is where it says, 100% Vinylmation!

The Jr. for this set is a chocolate chip cookie with a bite taken out of the ear! (like the ear hat)

This set is so well done! This is one of my favorite ear hat sets made so far! This set is by Maria Clapsis and Caley Hicks.

Please Stand By Ear Hat – Urban #7

The ear hat looks like a test pattern, with TV antenna on top! The left ear says, Please Stand By and the right ear looks like static.

The 3″ that comes with this set looks like a remote pointed at a TV set. The backside of this Vinylmation is the TV remote batteries with the TV on top. I love the way that they made this figure! The arms and ears are clear where there is no design so you can really see the artwork.

The Jr. for this set is a little battery!
This set looks great all together and the 3 Inch is so well done! This set is by Thomas Scott and Maria Clapsis.
Animal Ear Hat – Muppets #2

I love this!! This set is definitely the most stand out! Anyone that loves Animal and the Electric Mayhem will definitely need this for their collection! My boyfriend is a drummer and loves Animal so he will be very excited to see this set!

The ear hat for this set is Animal! I love the way that Monty designed this set! Animal’s ears says Rock and Roll and the entire hat is animals face! I love the addition of the hair and the nose!

The 3″ for this set is perfect! It represents Animal’s drum set! And his ears are cymbals! The backside of this figure has a star as well as the band logo of a tooth with wings!

The Jr. for this set is all black with a red mouth!

This is such a fun ear hat set! One of the brightest and most stand out that I have seen!

This set was done by Monty Maldovan!

I was so excited to get these hats today and I hope everyone is excited to see these new upcoming designs! This makes me even more excited for upcoming 9″ Muppets 2’s as well as a sneak peek at what we can expect in Urban #7!!

-Zoe

Retro Weekend: 04/17/11

This whole week has been crazy, but here are some of the articles we had this weekend that you may have missed because we were changing servers.
First up, Nick got an exclusive hands on with the new Mickey Vinylmation Mold. Check out his first reactions to the actual figure in real life.

Two great posts were written about the D-Street happenings on both coasts.

First, Nick discusses D-Street Florida’s one year birthday party and talks to each of the artists available to sign vinylmation.

D-Street Florida Artist Signing 4/15/11

We also got a great ZoMG article from our Californian reporter Zoe.

She went to the Muppets 2 release and got to talk to Muppets artist Monty Maldovan.

ZoMG: Monty Maldovan and Muppets 2

While we are the subject, Zoe also gave us some great pictures and a review of the Cutesters Too Ear Hat.

ZoMG: Cutesters Too Donut Ear Hat and Eclair

On Friday, Muppets 2 came out in both D-Streets and in Disney Stores across the nation. There was just one little difference…

Prices at D-Street and Disney Store

For those who like to be Spoiled, we revealed the Muppets 2 Chaser.

A quick talk with Nerds Rock! artist Doug Strayer revealed some big news, turning our April Fools joke into a joke on us!

Nerd Stitch, More then a Joke!

Disney announced the release date for the Sushi Set, April 29th.

Sushi Vinylmation Explained

There was even another release that Friday. The 9″ Holiday 2 Easter Basket. It sold out online.

A Tisket a Tasket, Easter Basket Online and Price

And, if you hadn’t noticed, we were running a contest with the help of custom artist Evilos. This post went up Friday and was the opportunity for readers to submit an entry.
Everyone left great comments, you should check them out.
Thanks again to Evilos for the wonderful giveaway.

Evil Kermit (The post you’ve been waiting for!)

The winner was announced this afternoon on…

Destination Vinylmation
Episode 018 Balloon Chaser

Nick and MC visited the Muppet Theater to record this podcast. Special Guest Stars: Vinylmation Product Developer Donald Ferro and the Electric Mayhem.

Episode 018 Balloon Chaser

Ep. 018 Balloon Chaser
In our first Mystery Chaser episode, we celebrate the release of Muppets 2 by recording live from The Muppets Theater. Kermit and the rest of the Muppets join in for this exciting event. Our special guest is Vinylmation Product Developer Donald Ferro. He talks about D-Street’s first birthday and the new Vinylmation mold. We update you on the latest release dates and review Muppets 2. In addition we announce the winner of our Evilos Comment Contest. There are also plenty of Muppet surprises in store for you. Enjoy the show!
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