X marks the spot!

Posted on July 17, 2012 by daydreamingdisney

Back in August 2011 I wrote about finding a Disneyland ticket book at a flea market in New York. If there’s one thing I love more than Disney shopping…it’s Disneyana shopping!!!

Now I know that thanks to Ebay we have the ability to purchase wonderful examples of Disney history for our collections but it’s almost too easy. Isn’t it much more fun when you have to look for these things; searching every thrift store, jumble sale and charity shop? I’m always hoping that someone will have discarded something that no one else will notice, and that something is just sitting there waiting to be found by a Disney fan like me.

Yesterday we took a drive out to our favourite seaside town. We try to take at least one day-trip here every summer, usually enduring the delightful British weather…i.e. rain!

Our first stop is always a second-hand book shop tucked away in a residential street. Now I use the term ‘shop’ loosely as the place is actually just an old house filled from floor to ceiling with books! The smell of old books, dust and damp hits you as you walk through the front door. Each room is sectioned off by narrow rows of bookshelves; which are overflowing, books are piled at all angles on every surface, including the floor.

If you were to look at every book in that shop you would be there for hours so on each visit I head straight to the children’s section in the hope of finding a quirky little Disney book.

Up until yesterday each visit would end the same. I would look through the books, trying to ignore the cobwebs and damp smell, and not find anything that really caught my eye. I would try to summon up the courage to ask the shopkeeper if he had any travel or guide books relating to Disneyland or Walt Disney World, but I would always chicken out at the last-minute, thinking that he would laugh at my request.

And so…back to yesterday… The same scenario as many times before. Looking through the first shelves in the children’s area. A row of books lying on their sides, too big to stand upright on the shelf. I moved the book that had been placed on top of them so that I could read the full titles. A quick scan, the word ‘Disney’ caught my eye, not particularly unusual for all the Disney annuals in the place, but something made me look at that book again, something made me pull the book out from the shelf so that I could read the full title…and there in my hands was this….

I had found A WALT DISNEY WORLD BOOK!!!!!!!! Not only had I found one but it was in perfect condition and only £3!!!! Inside my head I was doing the happy dance. After years of searching the shelves of this damp old house, after years of hoping, I had found my treasure and the rush of excitement is waaaay better than pressing that ‘buy’ button on Ebay!!

The book isn’t dated but looking at the attractions and resorts featured it’s easy to date as late 1989 / early 1990. I’m guessing it’s not a particularly rare book if you went to WDW during that time but if you love old-fashioned Walt Disney World as much as I do then it’s a great find.

I like the how ‘glossy’ the book is and love the colouring of the photos. It’s great fun to look at what the people in the photos are wearing; its difficult to believe that it’s already 23 years old!

It’s strange to look at what’s not mentioned in the book because they haven’t arrived in the parks or on property yet, such as resorts like Port Orleans or the Yacht and Beach Club.

So there you have it; you might not get a treasure map to help you but it’s always worth searching for Disney hidden treasure…..you never know what you might find!

The craze that I crave!

Posted on June 12, 2012 by daydreamingdisney

“…but they all look the same…” “…aren’t they just plastic?…” “…they look cheap…” “…Mickey Mouse shouldn’t be that colour…”

I’ve heard or read all of the above statements used in reference to the subject I decided to cover in my blog post this week….know what they refer to? The Disney collectible craze that is Vinylmation. In preparation for my upcoming WDW trip I’ve been making room for new additions to my Vinylmation collection so I thought it would be nice to share a bit of daydreaming on the matter!!

For some reason people seem to either love or hate Vinylmations, I’m not entirely sure why but I guess if we all liked the same things Walt Disney World would be a very boring place!

Now I have known for many years that I love, love, LOVE to collect things and have been buying Japanese vinyl ~~toys~~ collectibles for the last ten years. When Disney first announced that they were bringing out their own vinyl collection in July 2008 it seemed to me to be a natural and obvious step for a company that is always looking to appeal to the current trends.

The official Disney description of Vinylmation is as follows… “Vinylmation™ is a fun and affordable collectible designer toy created by Disney Theme Park Merchandise. At its core,Vinylmation™ is about creative expression and the mysterious thrill of the chase.” For me personally that description is pretty much spot on and the Disney Vinylmation website provides a lot more official information and guidance.

I also love this WDW Radio show #218 where Lou interviews Disney artist Randy Noble and discusses the Vinylmation craze.

Why do I like Vinylmation? Because I see each one as an individual piece of artwork; and like art each one is actually signed by the designer. I don’t rush out and buy every piece from a series as I am very careful to only pick ones that appeal to me in an artistic or creative way. I also don’t trade outside of the parks or keep my collection in the boxes, I like to have them out on display so that I can see the 360 degree design. And yes, sometimes I get SUPER excited when I see details of a new design about to be released…just like with the recent Stars Wars series…I just love my Luke and Leia!!!

The photos featured on this blog post are of my own collection. I actually prefer the 9″ versions as I find the designs more creative; quite often the 9″ ones are also released in limited numbers. I’m also not as much of a fan of the new 3″ shape but appreciate that this was changed to allow the artists to create even more elaborate designs.

Do I have a favourite? To be honest it changes frequently! Like many of the Disney items I own each Vinylmation piece has a memory attached to it. One of my long-term favourites is the 9″ Cutester Like You ‘Gothy’….I was so surprised that Disney decided to choose a goth version to release….and then this year they released a completely unconnected series featuring a punk Stitch…well done Disney for appealing to us ‘alternatives’

Another favourite is the 3″ Statue of Liberty Minnie…purchased during my first trip to New York last year. We visited the Disney Store on the first day of our trip, to be told that they had sold out of these and would not be back in store until the week after we had returned home….however we popped back to the store a couple of days later and they had filled the shelves with lots of Liberty Minnies…good job we made that return visit!!

Another favourite is actually a pair….the 9″ Disney Fantasy and the 3″ Disney Dream pieces, bought on the actual Disney Cruise Line ships for me by friends….the 3″ was even sent to me as a surprise

And then there’s my Passholder exclusive Orange Bird, and my Florida Project 9″, and my Mary Poppins penguin (with the stripes from Dick Van Dyke’s coat), and my Chicago exclusive which was another surprise from a friend………

I won’t bore you with going through my whole collection!! I know that others have more, I know that some have many more rare pieces…but to me it’s just like any other art collection….I buy what I love and love what I buy.

So are you a vinyl lover or hater? If you are a collector do you buy each one from a series or just the ones which catch your eye? Were you a pin collector that diversified into vinyls or will you never be able to love Vinylmations as much as you do your collection of pins?

A little piece of the magic

Posted on October 6, 2011 by daydreamingdisney

So, this weekend marked the 40th anniversary of Magic Kingdom. Instead of making it a year long celebration Disney decided to mark the event with banners, 40th anniversary buttons and park maps, a one-off Disney character parade and a presentation in front of Cinderella’s castle. Despite not being at WDW I was lucky enough to join in the celebrations via Lou Mongello and the WDW Radio 40 hour broadcast.

But this occasion got me thinking about previous celebrations held at WDW, some of which I’ve been lucky enough to be at the parks for and others where I haven’t been able to attend but I’ve been lucky enough to track down merchandise from the event. I really enjoy finding merchandise that is from a specific event because it is then easy to date and connects directly to that moment in time. As I’ve said before, it’s not about the value of the item, it’s the opportunity for me to own a little piece of the magic.

Here are some of the items in my collection, which all appeal to me for differing reasons.

Firstly, my newest item, a vinylmation ‘Celebrating 40 Years of Magic’. There seemed to be a lot of merchandise available on-line from The Disney Store for the 40th anniversary. Whilst the Dooney and Bourke ’40th’ bags were beautiful I couldn’t justify buying another one just yet so I settled for adding another vinylmation to my collection!

I found this Barbie on-line a few years back and bought it because her outfit was so cute, check out that mini Mickey ears hat!! You can often buy the special Barbies at the parks and resorts celebrating one event or another. This one is for the 25th anniversary of WDW, and yes, that’s the same year as THE birthday cake castle

And my favourite item is this one, as I feel like I earned this! The Year of a Million Dreams promotion started in October 2006 and ran across both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Along with special events in both parks special cast members were given the task of handing out ‘dreams’ to park guests; the prizes were amazing and included such things as being able to spend a night in the remodeled suite inside Cinderella Castle! Unfortunately I wasn’t scheduled to travel to WDW during this celebration but Disney were accepting postal entries for the dream giveaway and guests could send in as many entries as they wished for the duration of the promotion. And, unusually for Disney, they were accepting entries from international guests!!! So, I proceeded to send in an entry every week for the first six months of the promotion, not expecting to receive anything, but if you don’t try etc etc…. And to my amazement one day a large Disney box arrived (always a good sign!) and in it was my very own pair of Dream Mouse Ears! There were only 250,000 of them made you know!!!

So these things might not be hard to find, or valuable to others, but they are things that I have around the house and help me with my daydreaming of Disney. And that’s how I get my very own little piece of the magic

Just the ticket!

Posted on August 29, 2011 by daydreamingdisney

Back in April this year I visited New York for the first time. During my visit I really wanted to seek out some flea markets; I’m not sure why, I just had this feeling that I might stumble across a rare find.

We found a flea market taking place in an old dark and dusty multi storey car park. Yes, a strange venue and it seemed to make the vendors seem stranger too! The majority of stalls were selling antiques and collectibles, and most of it was priced accordingly.

After walking around for a while we found a guy who was selling various old dusty antiques but on one side of his stall he had a load of old Disney items. It was one of those moments when you get excited and frustrated at the same time! Excited because right in front of me were old Disney toys, Disney Hallmark cards, postcards, maps etc. But frustrated because I don’t know enough about Disneyana to know if any of it was rare, overpriced, or something that every Disney collector already has in their collection.

So as I flicked through the items and tried to organise my thoughts I decided just to treat myself to something that I liked, rather than buy something for what it ‘might’ be worth. And that’s when I saw something that I knew I had to have; because of the history it had attached to it and how it instantly made me think of Walt and where it all began….

That’s right, it’s a Disneyland Coupon Book complete with one remaining B ‘ticket’!

This is the back cover:

And the inside back cover:

I’ve been really interested in determining the age of this book as I’m fascinated by Disney history, and it plays a big part in my Disney reading and research.

After checking several websites I’ve discovered that the word ‘ride’ was changed to ‘coupon’ during 1956 so I know I haven’t got the earliest version! Also on the reverse of the tickets in 1956 it stated ‘All coupons in this book are good any time during 1956′. Over the next couple of years this was replaced with ‘All coupons in this book are good at any time’, the same as on the back of my ticket.

The welcome message from Walt was moved to the front of the book around 1958 / 59. The ‘E’ ticket was introduced in 1959 and Sleeping Beauty Castle was moved to a B ticket in 1959. Although I only have one ticket remaining in my book I can see the edge of the other tickets left in the spine, and there are only four different coloured pages, confirming no place for an E ticket.

So taking these little clues and comparing it to photos I’ve seen on-line I’m dating my ticket book as around 1958, which is so exciting!! I’ve love to hear from anyone that has more definite information about the age or value.

For me it’s really great to look at that ticket book and imagine the guests who would have been using those tickets at the time….venturing into Disneyland, maybe for the very first time, stepping into Walt’s world of magic and dreams

You can never have too much stuff!

Posted on August 9, 2011 by daydreamingdisney

I think I have an addictive personality. I will discover something and obsess about it. Obviously my main addiction is Disney but that covers all manner of things that I obsess about. I’m really fascinated by the Walt Disney Company; its past, present, and future. I really love coming across old memorabilia from the parks and how it makes me think about Disney history. The items don’t necessarily have to be specific souvenirs, it can be anything collected from a park; such as a leaflet, receipt, resort map, just anything giving me a window into a moment of time. So that’s where this category of posts come in; I’d like to share some of the things that I’ve kept, found, or been given for my collection of ‘Disneyana’. Some of it may be worth nothing but it’s all priceless to me.

The first collection I want to share is important to me because it was given to me by a colleague at work. Now this person isn’t a Disney nut but I think she just about ’gets’ the Disney thing. I think she understands my passion, understands that there are lots of us Disney geeks out there, and understands that we take our hobby and holiday planning seriously! Not only has she taken the time to pull out newspaper and magazine articles for me about Disney holidays, Disney cruises, and even Celebration (she’s knows I have a soft spot for the place) but a few months back she gave me a collection of park items from Disneyland that she had kept since her visits in the 1980′s. Even without a great deal of knowledge about Disneyland through the decades I think these items are amazing and I can’t wait until my first visit so that I can compare these items against the current ones from the parks today.

Hopefully these items will trigger memories for you if you visited Disneyland in the 80′s or remind you that you have an old ticket stuffed in a drawer some place. If not, then I hope you enjoy the little snippets of Disney history that these pictures may provide.