Vinylmation of the Week: Pete

We're not really on topic, but today we're blog hopping with Lisa from Babes In Disneyland and Jenn from The Disney Babies Blog.  Be sure and check them out (and all of the other blogs in the hop) for all kinds of Disney related articles and goodies!

We didn't realize it had been so long since we last did a Vinyl of the Week article!  When last we joined our little Vinyl buddies we were knee-deep into a series about ones that actually were based on Mickey Mouse himself.  We talked about "Runaway Brain Mickey" and "Sorcerer Mickey", and we're wrapping up our little set of "Mickey Favorites" with one today that's not entirely Mickey, but we think you'll understand why we picked him as we reveal Pete!

Almost everyone knows Pete from his long-standing rivalry with almost all of the 'Fab Four': Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto.  He's also one of the oldest continuing characters in the Disney arsenal, predating Mickey Mouse himself and even Oswald the Lucky Rabbit!  This version of Pete (perhaps one of the best known and certainly the earliest remembered for most people) is inspired by Pete's appearance in perhaps the best known of all Mickey Mouse cartoons and the first to be released to the general public, "Steamboat Willie", in 1928.

Pete was released a few months ago as part of the Villains Series 1 Vinylmation set.  The set included such other popular villains as Ursula, Prince John, Ka, and even Madam Mim from "The Sword In The Stone".  Amy and Chad bought an entire case for full sets so they each have one in their personal collections, and even Mark got in on the action as the 24th Vinyl in the case (which is always a second duplicate of one other figure in the set) was Pete, the very one he wanted to be the bonus figure.  Doing the math he had just shy of a 10% chance of getting just the one he wanted, but he up and did it anyway.

This is honestly one of our favorite pieces, and  for several reasons.  For one, we think that Pete is very well-represented in this form.  The costume is spot on from the cartoon, his scowl is completely intact, and you have to love the animated stubble he has going on.  Being a sailor he no doubt gets little chance to shave, and it's just one other great little detail the artist put into painting this one.  Even his hat is present and painted on his right ear (or your left, we suppose, if you want to be a stickler about it).  But the thing we like most about this one is the black and white only paint scheme that's going on.  Of course, the cartoon itself was a black and white number so it makes complete sense, but there's just something about the plain and simple palette that makes it uber-cool in our books.  When stacked up against the rest of our collections, most of which are bright and colorful little pieces, Pete sticks out like a sore thumb, but in a great way!  He's different, has some really simple (yet awesome we think) artwork going on, and he fits in perfectly with his villainous brethren (and sisters) in the set.

But why choose Pete?  Because as we all no doubt know, Pete is not Mickey.  The answer lies on his back!  You can see it for yourself as there is a sort of "hidden" Mickey, from "Steamboat Willie", on Pete's back.  None of us had any knowledge beforehand that this was here, but when we saw it we immediately loved it.  It's nice little touches like this from the artist that make us love collecting Vinyl, and this is definitely one of our favorites.  The perfect little addition from the cartoon classic to make Pete complete.

So there you have it, our Vinylmation of the Week.  We hope that you've enjoyed all of our little "Mickey"-inspired picks.  We'll be back next week with another one of our favorite little "sets" of Vinyl, this group involving one of our favorite bands on the planet and some of the world's most famous puppets.  Hope you'll be back to see who we're featuring!