Disney Interactive Invites Fans to Play, Discover, and Explore!

Disney Interactive Invites Fans to Play, Discover, and Explore the Future of Interactive Storytelling at DISNEY’S D23 EXPO, AUGUST 9–11, 2013

 

Division to offer sneak peek at un-announced projects, including Arena presentation with exclusive performances, reveals and D23 Disney Infinity giveaway

BURBANK, Calif. – July 12, 2013 – Disney Interactive is inviting fans to experience the latest digital offerings from Disney at the D23 Expo, August 9–11, giving fans hands-on experiences, first-look presentations, and exclusive D23 Expo giveaways. With an unprecedented lineup of upcoming games and products, including Disney Infinity, Fantasia: Music Evolved and more, Disney Interactive is turning up the excitement with its largest D23 Expo presence ever including a show floor pavilion, daily presentations, and the D23 Expo Arena.

Arena Presentation:  On Sunday, August 11, fans won’t want to miss “To Infinity and Beyond: Disney Interactive Takes the Stage,” Disney Interactive’s first ever D23 Expo Arena Presentation. Kicking off at noon, Disney Interactive Co-Presidents, Jimmy Pitaro and John Pleasants, host an inside look at the division’s upcoming slate of games, apps, and online shows including:

·         The world premiere of Blank: A Vinylmation Love Story, the highly anticipated upcoming web series based on the Vinylmation franchise.
·         An Expo-exclusive demo of the just-announced video game Fantasia: Music Evolved, complete with a live performance from the Disney Chamber Ensemble. 
·        Disney Infinity will pull out all the stops with several surprises fans won’t want to miss, including un-announced character reveals, brand new game features and an exclusive giveaway of a never-before-seen Disney Infinity figure for every fan in the audience! 

Pavilion Experience: Located in Hall B, the Disney Interactive pavilion lets Guests step into the world of interactive storytelling through hands-on experiences with the latest games and products from Disney Interactive.  Gamers, fans and families will have the opportunity to discover Disney Interactive’s upcoming digital innovations bringing them closer to the characters and stories they love on the platforms and devices they use every day. 

·      Just days before Disney Infinity arrives in stores, attendees will be among the first to experience the new gaming platform that lets fans play in the worlds of their favorite Disney and DisneyŸPixar films. 

·        Fans can assume the role of the Sorcerer's Apprentice in the upcoming game Fantasia: Music Evolved and transform classic and contemporary music through motion-controlled movement like never before. 

·      Guests can join the “D23 Expo Story Scavenger Hunt” by using Disney’s new personal storytelling app, Story, to share their favorite memories and moments from this year’s expo to win great prizes throughout the weekend.

·         Attendees will have the chance to demo an un-announced premium tablet experience which gives Guests unprecedented access to Disney’s rich heritage. 

·    Catch exclusive trailers and sneak peeks from the latest online shows like Blank: A Vinylmation Love Story, apps, and games at the Disney Interactive Main Stage.

With exclusive collectible giveaways, still-to-be-announced panels and presentations, and first looks at the Fall’s hottest digital products, Guests won’t want to miss the surprises Disney Interactive has up its sleeve. Visit www.D23Expo.com and DisneyInteractive.tumblr.com for more updates leading up to the D23 Expo 2013.

About Disney Interactive

Disney Interactive is one of the world’s largest creators of high-quality interactive entertainment across all current and emerging digital media platforms. Products and content released and operated by Disney Interactive include blockbuster mobile and console games, online virtual worlds, and No. 1-ranked web destinations Disney.com and the Moms and Family network of websites.

About D23 Expo 2013

The D23 Expo—The Ultimate Disney Fan Event—brings the entire world of Disney under one roof, providing attendees with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, and theme parks. For the latest D23 Expo 2013 news, visit www.D23Expo.com. To be part of the D23 Expo conversation, make sure to follow @DisneyD23 and tag your tweets with #D23Expo.

About D23

The name “D23” pays homage to the exciting journey that began in 1923 when Walt Disney opened his fledgling studio in Hollywood. D23 is the first official club for fans in Disney’s nearly 90-year history. D23 gives its members a greater connection to the entire world of Disney by placing them in the middle of the magic through its quarterly publication Disney twenty-three; a rich website with members-only content at D23.com; and member-exclusive discounts and special events for D23 Members throughout the year, highlighted by the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, August 9–11, 2013.

Fans can join D23 for free at www.D23.com and at www.DisneyStore.com/D23. To keep up with all the latest D23 news and events, follow us @DisneyD23 on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.

**Press release courtesy D23

Odds And Ends: Weekly Cap-Off (7/25-7/31)

It's been a busy week here at Days In The Park!  We're fully back in the groove of things now that our blog redesigns are done, and we only missed Tuesday this week!  Not sure how we did miss that one day, but we'll just have to assume something must have been going on and we'll have to make it up to you guys this week.  Just to recap:

On Monday, we challenged you with our weekly "Magical Mystery Mondays" to guess where in The Parks we were when we took a particular picture.  This week's came courtesy of the Greetings From California store in Disney California Adventure.  We have a lot of fun with these every week, so make sure you stop by each and every Monday to participate with us.  Guess correctly, and you'll find your name posted on our blog come Tuesday morning!

Wednesday,we celebrated a Park birthday for our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday when our very own M.J. turned "The Big 9"

On Thursday,we were back with our weekly article about our Vinylmation collecting with a "Vinylmation of the Week" piece; this week highlighting Janice from the Muppets Series #2

We were blog hopping on Friday with our friend at Magical Days With The Mouse, highlighting another fond Days In The Park memory; this week's featuring some of the Days In The Park Kiddies

And lastly, on Saturday, we spent some time talking about another one of our "Favorite Things" to partake of in The Parks, the Mint Julep

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It should be a really good week at Days In The Park!  We'll be recording Episode 7 of our Days In The Park podcast which we're really looking forward to.  Our show is doing really well these days with quite a few people listening in, and we think we have another great set of topics to talk about in this one.  We'll be recording and editing this week so we can get it out quickly, so be on the lookout for it.  We also have some pretty cool articles coming!  Mark is busy writing an article about one of our favorite Park treasures from the Main Street Candy Palace (and it's not candy!), and we have a new video coming we shot on one of our favorite little attractions we want to share.  Plus, we'll be back with our regular segments so be sure to tune in for our "Magical Mystery" Mondays, "Almost" Wordless Wednesdays, and come back to hop with us for our "Disney Flashback" Friday.

It's going to be a great week, so come on back.  We love having you around!

Vinylmation Of The Week: Janice

Vinylmation sure can get expensive!  Our favorite hobby can end up costing us quite a bit of money even though we enjoy doing it, and as such, recently we haven't been buying as many of the little guys when we're out and about inside The Parks.  However, that said, one series we still have been plugging away at bit by bit has been the Muppets Series #2.  We love The Muppets in all of their forms, including when they come in the shape of little Mickey Mouses that cost us $10 a pop.  All three of us have either complete or almost complete Muppets Series #1 sets, so when we heard they would doing a second, we immediately started collecting.  But, even though we enjoy all of our Muppets, we were most excited to start collecting Round 2 because it would be featuring the greatest band on the planet, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem!  So for the next few weeks, we're going to focus on just that; the little plastic bandmates that make up some of our favorite Vinyls of all.

We've always believed in the old adage, "Ladies first", and with that in mind, for our first Vinylmation of the Week focusing on the Electric Mayhem, the spotlight shines solely on Janice.

One of the continuing reasons we enjoy collecting Vinyl so much is because of the detail the artists continue to put into their work.  Janice is certainly no exception to the rule.  She's bright, colorful, and has a ton of detail.  Janice was always one of The Muppets who danced to the beat of her own drum ("If I want to live on the beach and walk around naked..." from 'The Great Muppet Caper', anyone?), but that's exactly one of the reasons why we like her the most; she certainly has a 60's looking "Flower Child" thing going on with her red beanie (complete with flower), necklace resplendent with a peace sign, and denim jeans with a rope belt.   She's most definitely a free-spirit and we think that Disney Character Artist Monty Maldovan did a fantastic job conveying that with the way that he painted her.

The back of this piece is pretty standard but we did get a kick out of the little piece sign on her left jeans pocket, smack dab on the buttock!  It makes us laugh every time we see it.  We're not entirely sure whether that's a good thing or not, but it's a nice little touch we thought and wrapped up the piece nicely.

So there you go, this week's choice for Vinylmation of the Week.  We'll be back next week with another from our Electric Mayhem set, so be sure to come back to see who we highlight. 

In the meantime, if you have a Muppet you'd like to see us highlight let us know and we'd be happy to!  Thanks for stopping by, and happy collecting!

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!

Disney Store Releasing Vinylmation Robots Nationwide & Exclusive Pop! Vinyls at San Diego Comic-Con

Anyone who reads our blog knows we love our Vinyls!  So when we were dropped off this Press Release this morning, we just had to share!

DISNEY STORE IGNITES VINYL MANIA WITH VINYLMATION ROBOTS LAUNCH NATIONWIDE AND

EXCLUSIVE DISNEY POP! VINYLS AVAILABLE ONLY AT SAN DIEGO’S COMIC-CON

Week of Vinyl Celebrated with Disney Artist Signings at Comic-Con and Disney Store at San Diego’s Fashion Valley Mall

To tweet this release, copy and paste http://bit.ly/DSVINYL to your twitter handle with the hashtag #DisneyVinyl

PASADENA, Calif., July 20 2011 –The robots are coming!  The robots are coming! Today, Disney Store announced the launch of its exclusive Vinylmation Robots series invading Disney Store locations nationwide and DisneyStore.com on Friday July 22^nd. Designed by Disney Store artists who were inspired by vintage wind-up robot toys of the 1950s, the new Vinylmation Robots are also featured in a never-before-seen video on DisneyStore.com/vinylmation , www.youtube.com/disneyliving  and on the 2,000 square-foot digital billboard above Disney Store in Times Square. To continue the vinyl craze, Disney Store also revealed its first limited edition Disney POP! Vinyl by Funko at San Diego’s Comic-Con. The POP! Vinyls are Funko’s creative take on Disney characters and the limited edition designs are on sale July 20 through July 24 only at Comic-Con.

Cute little guy, isn't he?

We're thinking this must be the "Love-Bot"...

“Disney vinyls are the hottest collectible right now and we’re pleased to offer two different styles in one great week,” said John Balen, director of toys for Disney Store North America. “The Vinylmation community keeps challenging us to be more imaginative and creative, and the Vinylmation Robots series is like nothing they’ve ever seen before. Comic-Con is all about exclusives and Disney POP! Vinyls are a great way to give the fans something unique.”

The Disney Store Vinylmation Robots collection includes 12 three-inch vinyl figures ($9.95 each) representing a different robot persona, including Radio-Bot, Tesla-Bot and Love-Bot, to name a few.  Also available are three nine-inch limited edition Robots characters -- Silly-Bot, Salvage-Bot and Reflector-Bot ($39.95 each).

The POP! vinyls come with metallic finishing and glow-in-the-dark features.  The series includes nine-inch Metallic Buzz Lightyear ($50), nine-inch Metallic Maleficent ($50), three-inch Flocked Sully ($15), three-inch Glow in the dark Mike Wazowski ($15), three-inch Metallic Mickey Mouse ($15), and a three-inch Blue Mr. Incredible ($15). 

Ben Butcher, Disney-Pixar designer will meet with Comic-Con attendees and sign autographs at the Funko Booth #4829 July 21 and July 22 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Guests can also take a break from the madness of Comic-Con and head over to the Fashion Valley Mall Disney Store location, where they can meet their favorite Disney Store Vinylmation artists on July 22 and 23 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  

For information about all Vinylmation series from Disney Theme Parks and Disney Store, guests can visit the official Vinylmation blog at www.vinylmation.com.

To find a local Disney Store, guests can visit www.DisneyStore.com/storelocator or call (866) 902-2798. To stay updated on all the exciting news at Disney Store, guests can visit the official blog, the Buzz, at blog.disneystore.com

Guests can also become a fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/DisneyStore or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/DisneyStore

ABOUT DISNEY STORE
The Disney Store retail chain, which debuted in 1987, is owned and operated by Disney in North America, Europe, and Japan.  Disney Store is the retail merchandising arm of Disney Consumer Products, the business segment of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and its affiliates that extends the Disney brand to merchandise. Disney Store carries high-quality products, including exclusive product lines that support and promote Disney's key entertainment initiatives and characters. Disney Store opened its first store in Glendale, California and, in doing so, originated the themed retail business model. There are currently more than 200 Disney Store locations in North America; more than 40 Disney Store locations in Japan; and more than 100 Disney Store locations in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal, plus online stores www.DisneyStore.com and www.disneystore.co.uk. Each Disney Store location offers a magical shopping experience that can only be delivered by Disney, one of the world's largest and most successful entertainment companies.  For more information, please visit www.disneyconsumerproducts.com/press/us/disneystore or follow us at www.facebook.com/DisneyStore and www.twitter.com/DisneyStore.

Odds And Ends: Weekly Cap-Off (6/27 - 7/3)

Visits to the Park this week:  1

It's another single visit week this week.  We'll be out at The Resort this evening to see "Transformers 3" (Suckers! No, not you. Us!), and then we'll be closing out The Parks.  We haven't done that in a while so we're looking forward to it!

Last Week on Days In The Park:

On Monday, we were back to our usual shenanigans with our "Magical Mystery Mondays" game where we challenge you to guess where in The Parks we are with nothing but a picture as a clue

Tuesday, we were blog-hopping with the Magical Mouse Schoolhouse

It was time to visit one of our favorite napping spots inside The Parks for our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday

And lastly, on Thursday, we gave you a look at our Vinylmation (Domination) of the Week: Sorcerer Mickey

Video of the Week:

Well, all the big attractions of this summer have all officially opened now, with the last new attraction, Goofy's Sky School, having opened up this past Friday.  We think it's never too early to look into the future, though.  we're already getting excited about next summer and the debut of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.  The Disney Parks Blog released a great video this week designed to give us an early view of the attraction and how it will love to Park-goers this time next year, and we thought we'd share it with you today.  Does it get you as excited for next summer as it does us?

Here At Days In The Park:

Probably the biggest thing coming in the near future to Days In The Park is a whole new look!  Chad and Stephanie are still hard at work (it doesn't help that we're both so picky!) with an entirely new redesign for the blog that we hope will be done this week!  We know we said the same thing last week, but again, we're just so darn picky!  We still think it's looking great so far and we can't wait to debut it!  Hopefully we'll wrap that all up this week.  Cross your fingers for us!  It's taking up a lot of time, and if we can ever get it done we'll be able to get back to more of what we really enjoy doing; writing!

Even though we're working on the cosmetic look of the site, we're also working on loads of new ideas for articles at the same time.  Lots of new "Favorite Things" coming, a new "Pathing" article is in the works, and we have some ideas for articles that we think are just plain fun and fit our goofy personalities to a tee.  You'll see what we mean and know them as soon as we post them.  They're not your average run-of-the-mill articles, or so we hope.  And we're hoping we'll have Amy back and writing soon.  She's been really busy lately and life's been all over her like white on rice, but we miss her and we're hoping she'll be back with some articles of her own soon.  Wish her well here and on Twitter.  We miss her loads! 

We'll also have our usual weekly articles like "Magical Mystery Mondays", "Almost Wordless Wednesday", and "Vinylmation Domination" all ready to go.

We hope that you'll keep coming by and spending an occasional Day with us.  We love having you around!

Vinylmation Domination: Sorcerer Mickey

Last week, for our Vinylmation of the Week choice, we opted to begin a quick series (which we'll wrap up next week) of some of our favorite Vinylmation that are actually painted like Mickey.  Almost everyone who knows about Vinyl knows that they're shaped like Mickey, but there are actually quite a few that are painted as one Mickey or another, too; last week's was created to look like Mickey from the 1995 Disney cartoon, "Runaway Brain Mickey".

We actually had a comment (and a sort of request) last week mentioning the Mickey we've decided to feature today, so it makes us especially proud to bring you this week's choice for Vinylmation of the Week: Sorcerer Mickey.

Most people are already very familiar with this little guy.  Mickey in his sorcerer form is arguably one of the most iconic of the Disney characters and is always very popular with people.  He made his first appearance in public in the 1940 Disney film, "Fantasia", in the short "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", and is a mainstay in all of The Parks.  He can currently be found roaming The Resort in character meet and greets (we've seen him in the Disney Animation Building in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and in Mickey's House in Mickey's Toontown), and he's also a huge part of the Park "finale" night shows World of Color and Fantasmic!

This particular piece of Vinyl, just like last week's, was sold as a combo-topper (a limited edition piece sold as part of a two-pack), as a part of the Park Series 5 release.  He's pretty simplistic in terms of his appearance and is pretty much just how you would expect to see him based on his appearances in film and cartoon.  Same outfit, same sorcerer's hat, but complete with a mischievous wink which is no doubt a nod to his "trouble-making" side, which he showed the world by stealing said sorcerer's hat from his master Yen Sid, and using it to perform tricks and do his dirty work (cleaning) for him when he wasn't quite ready.  Bucket-carrying brooms, way too much water and one ticked off sorcerer, anyone?

Unfortunately, there's not a lot going on on the back of this piece (next week's has a pretty cool one, so stay tuned!), but we don't really think it detracts from how cool this little piece is very much.  We think you pretty much can't go wrong with a nod to this particular Mickey so we're glad we decided to add it to our collection when we had the chance, and it rounded out our Park Series 5 collection perfectly.

And there you have it! This week's Vinylmation of the Week starring Sorcerer Mickey.  Next week we'll wrap up our little Mickey collection (we only have one more so we'll be done) with what is arguably our favorite of the actual Mickey Vinylmation that we have.

We hope you're enjoying these as much as we are!  If you have any questions or comments for us, we love talking Vinyl and we'd love to hear from you.  Be sure to leave us a comment; we always answer!

Till next week, keep collecting! 

Vinylmation Domination: Runaway Brain Mickey

We know that sometimes people might not really understand or get the whole Vinylmation phenomenon.  We've been asked before why we write about them on our blog, because a lot of people really don't get how they tie into The Park, and that's cool.  We figure each to their own for the most part.  For us, collecting Vinyl ties into our visits to The Park in one simple way: it's a way for us to bring a part of our visits to The Park home with us.  We look forward to our purchases whenever we go out, and it's just become a pretty natural part of our Days while we're out and about.  Selecting the individual boxes we purchase has become a game we enjoy playing, and even the times we get a duplicate is an opportunity to trade, so it's all fun for us.

We also get asked a lot what Vinylmation are when we mention them.  We've discovered that even people who go into The Park a lot really don't pay much attention to them, or what they're called anyways, but they seem to have all seen those "little hard plastic Mickey Mouses painted like different characters" when we describe them to people.  We figured since people seem to be familiar with the little plastic Mickeys, it only made sense to feature some of the ones that are actually painted like Mickey over the next few weeks, since they are some of our favorite Vinylmation from our collection.

He's licking his chops. Must be hungry.

Today's is one of our favorites, and was sold only as a combo-topper (part of a two-figure set) in The Park 6 Series: Runaway Brain Mickey.  The Runaway Brain Vinyl is based on a Mickey Mouse cartoon, called "Runaway Brain" of course, which was produced in 1995 by Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris and originally packaged with the theatrical release of "A Kid In King Arthur's Court".  In it, we find Mickey trying to make money to pay for a Hawaiian vacation with Minnie, but as usual, things don't quite go the way intended.  He winds up being a part of a "brain-switch" in an evil scientist's experiment with a huge behemoth of a monster looking very much like Pete, and this crazed look is the result.

There's been an increased interest in what we've dubbed around here, "Troublemaker Mickey", in recent months, especially with the release of the "Epic Mickey" video game around Christmas, which makes this one of our favorite pieces we've collected and very popular with many people.  Mickey hasn't always been what one might call a "jolly good fellow", and "Runaway Brain" was a fantastic cartoon and an excellent inspiration for this particular Vinyl, and we think it does a fantastic job of showing off the "darker side" of The Mouse.

We liked the detail on his back; even his tail is frayed.

So let us know what you think of this piece!  Yay or Nay?  Do you enjoy seeing Mickey a bit "out of his element", or is it just a bit too creepy?  We'd love to hear from you so drop us a comment and let us know!

Vinylmation Domination: Prince John

Imagine waking up to THIS at night! That's why it's in our closet now.

There's a reason why Villains, and Villainesses, form such a huge part of the Disney canon of animated features.  Everyone loves a good "bad guy".  It's the reason why characters such as Darth Vader, and the list could just go on and on, prove so wildly popular with the masses.  Maybe it's because we know before the movies have even started that good will win out, the bad guys will go down, and because the whole world loves an underdog.  And who's more of an underdog than a villain, really?

It made our choice for our Vinyl of the Week a cinch to pick.  We went with one of our favorite Disney Villains of all time this go around, Prince John from the 1973 Disney Animated Classic, "Robin Hood".

We think Prince John's problem might just be a raging case of Pink (and green) Eye

We knew as soon as they announced that there would be a Villains Series of Vinylmation, that we just had to have them.  Everyone loves the Disney Villains, so rather than buying them all individually at a Disney Store (they weren't available in The Parks when they first came out), we (Amy and Chad) decided to buy an entire case and take the guesswork out of it all.

There were 11 different Villains (and "nesses") included in the set along with the standard Chaser, but Prince John quickly became one of our favorites based on principle (and our love of the movie) alone.  We absolutely loved the crazed look in his eye, and it doesn't hurt either that this dude has everything in the world going for him; well, at least for a while.  Roaming the countryside in a wagon full of riches, a snake named "Hiss" at his beck and call, ruling jolly old England (albeit ineligibly) with an entire fist.  What's not to love?!  And let's be honest here, we think it's all just a psychological misunderstanding.  How else do you explain the constant sucking of his thumb and his yelling out, "Mommy!", every other second?  It's obvious to us that Richard received all of the love and care in the family, leaving poor little Johnny out in the cold.  It's only natural for him to have longed to seize power by any means necessary.  And he would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that fox and his meddling band of merry men.

So there you have it, our pick for Vinyl of the Week.  We'll be back next with with another one of our favorites.  Hope you'll be back to see who we feature!

Oo De Lally! 

Vinylmation Domination: Kevin Flynn

Greetings Programs. 

We realize we're running a couple of Days behind on this week's Vinylmation Domination post, so we're going to make it a double bit of goodness with our Vinyl of the Week this time around.

After recently watching "TRON: Legacy" for the thousandth time, we decided that the choice for this week's Vinyl was easy.  We chose Kevin Flynn.  Not only was he in both TRON movies, but he was also played by none other than Jeff Bridges!  Yes, you have to say it just like that.  Not convinced?  Watch this video and then get back to us.  You'll see exactly why we say it just like that each and every time!

From the moment we first meet Flynn at, well, Flynn's, it's easy to see that he's a hardcore gamer, so right off the bat he relates to us.  Next up?  Getting sucked into a virtual world known as 'The Grid'.  It doesn't get much cooler than that.

And let's not forget that he also updated 'The Grid' in the sequel and created a whole new world for us to play in.  Yes, he did also create the villain CLU, but to be honest we're kind of grateful to him for that.  If it wasn't for that genius mistake, we wouldn't have had a blockbuster sequel to enjoy, either.  So thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Sir Flynn.

Without further ado, the Days In The Park Vinyl of the Week.

Both old school AND new school Kevin Flynn

End transmission.

Vinylmation Domination: Boba Fett

When keeping in line with an ongoing theme such as a week of Star Tours and "Star Wars"oriented posts, if the topic of the Day is going to be Vinylmation, what we're going to be writing about should be pretty obvious.  The two come together in a cataclysmic explosion (much like both Death Stars) and the result is an article about what was one of the most highly anticipated Vinylmation releases to date, "Star Wars Vinylmation Series #1".

We loved our case of Star Wars Vinyl!

The tale of how we got our own set of these little beauties is one we'll tell on another day perhaps, but suffice it to say it involved a banzai run to Downtown Disney early one Wednesday morning (for more information on "Banazi Runs" see our past article on the matter) to make sure we beat the crowd out to get one.  We had already missed out on one release of the series (they sold out at D-Street in a matter of hours), and we were determined to do everything in our power to get a case this time, even if it meant getting out of bed early.  We were, of course, successful in our mission as there wasn't another soul in sight to purchase any.  Maybe they didn't get the memo?  At any rate, Amy and Chad both got half of the case (or two full sets), Amy kept the Chaser for herself, and they're now proudly on display in our own personal collections.

For today's Vinylmation Domination post (you can check out last week's article to see exactly what we're doing here), we've decided that this week's featured Vinylmation should be none other than everyone's favorite bounty hunter: Boba Fett!

Say cheese!

Why did we choose Mr. Fett?  He's one of a kind!  Okay, that's not true, actually.  Since we've in recent years found out he's just a clone of another guy and that there were in fact countless thousands of them running around, it's kind of taken the luster off a bit.  But he's still pretty darn cool!  Jetpack's blazing!  Wrist rockets that shoot out high-tension cable (see "Return of the Jedi"), and we're assuming actual rockets!  Adorned in a full suit of Mandalorian body armor!  It's enough to make a grown "Star Wars" fanboy cry.  We mean, who wouldn't want to fly around in a horizontally-challenged spaceship called "Slave I"?  We honestly have no reason why that's so cool, but it is!  And if you're looking for a Star Tours: The Adventures Continue tie-in, we have that, too!  We won't give away the scene in too much detail, but Boba now makes a cameo in the new Star Tours attraction, and it is easily one of our favorite parts of the entire ride.  We've only seen him once in our three rides (our first time out), but he's left us screaming for more (picture "The Beatles" on "The Ed Sullivan" show).

We love the amount of detail they've put into this little guy, and he's easily our favorite from the entire set.  We kind of knew he would be going in, though.  When a character that was originally intended to be a secondary one in the movies goes on to become of the most sought after action figures of all time, you know he's going to be big.

Even the Mandalorian skull on his armor remains intact. Sweet!

Rocking that jetpack!

So there you have it; this week's Vinlymation Domination "Vinyl of the Week"!  Even though we've picked Boba to be the star of the week, there's no doubt that we love the entire set of Vinyl from Series 1.  If you're a fan of Vinylmation, and a fan of "Star Wars", you owe it to yourself to pick some up if you have a chance.  They make a fantastic addition to anyone's collection. 

May the Vinyl be with us!

Chad's set of Star Wars Vinylmation minus the Chaser

Vinylmation Domination: The Pumpkin King

Welcome to "Vinylmation Domination", our Vinylmation of the Week!  We've been slacking so much on our Vinylmation posts lately we decided to create a new segment just to make up for it.  We think that this one is a winner, especially for you Vinyl fans out there.

So which Vinyl did we choose to be our first "Vinyl of the Week?"  How about one that has his own theme song?  One that makes you scream like a banshee.  One that is made of royalty and pumpkins.  That's right, we decided to go with (enter announcer voice) "The Pumpkin King"!

When we first talked about creating this segment, we both knew straightaway who should be crowned king (no pun intended) for the week. This one has been on our wanted list for a very long time, and recently, thanks to a friend and family member, we were able to gain access to this very special guy.  He was easily the rarest of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" Vinylmation Series and we never saw him ourselves in The Parks.  We know he was there, but by the time we made it out on Sunday, people had already snatched him up in droves since he was considered the Chaser of the set.  Now, he is readily available (at the time this is being written) on the Disney Store should you wish to purchase him and add him to your own collection.

So there you have it, our first "Vinyl of the Week".  What do you think?  A good choice?  We plan on doing these weekly (of course!) in the future so stay tuned!

Adventures in Vinyl: Muppets Series #2 And More!

We realized quite recently that it's been a while since we wrote about our "Vinylmation Madness"which, if it hasn't already been deemed an actual disorder, surely will be in the very near future. We have, however, been collecting all along, though not quite as avidly as we might like due to petty roadblocks in our way, such as money.

One of the cool things about going to The Park with someone who's a close friend and digs many of the same things as you is that when you start collecting things, like Vinylmation, you often do it in tandem. And it's worked out really well for us in the past because when we suffer the horror of buying dupes (see our past article on our "Quasimodo Nightmare") we can often trade it immediately to each other for something we don't have yet. It's worked out well for us.

There are two primary sets we've been working on collecting for some time now that we can share with you today. We've both been collecting the TRON: Legacy series as well as the Muppet Series #2 which came out about a month or so ago.

Mark is substantially ahead of Chad in terms of his TRON collection. Two things are really great about this set though: you don't have to collect 12 of the little guys (as there are only eight in the set), and you can buy the ones you know you need because they aren't sold in blind-boxes, but rather in transparent packaging so you always know what you're going to get and can set your sights on just what you need each time you go out to The Park. The only negative is that now they've been out for a while so they are slowly but surely becoming a little less readily available. If you're going to collect a full set of these, now might be a good time to start!

Chad's been pretty undecided on whether he wants a full set or not, but he did buy two of this favorites very early on as they were two of his favorite characters from the movie: "Rinzler" and "Quorra".

Mark also has these two, but an additional four more and is well on his way to a full set. He needs to get a move on and fill it out! He also has: "TRON", "Kevin Flynn", "CLU", and "x"

We're also each about halfway through our Muppets Series #2 sets as we each have six of them, and almost identical sets save a couple of exceptions. It's been a little slow going as of late due to some issues with some dupes (we keep getting the "Penguin" and there have been some "Janice" issues), but thanks to collecting at the same time (as we mentioned before) we've been able to help each other along a bit.

As it stands now, Chad is in possession of: "Dr. Teeth", "Sgt. Floyd Pepper", "Janice", "Link Hogthrob", "Penguin", and "Lew Zealand".

Mark has four of the same, but rather than Link and Floyd he has: "Piggy In Space" and "Scooter". So between us, we're only four away from a complete set! Not that that means much.

Chad has also dabbled a bit with the new Park Series #6, primarily because he liked the combo topper for the set which was based on a cartoon with Mickey Mouse called "Runaway Brain Mickey", and the only way to get it was to buy the topper. If you're not familiar with the combo-toppers, they're basically little two-packs of Vinylmation; one is sold in a blind-box, and one is a more limited edition Vinylmation sold on top of the blind-box (hence the name "topper") that can only be bought as part of the combo. He figured since he had already started collecting them (sort of) by buying the topper, he might as well make a collection out of it. It's pretty slow going though with the other two sets having come out, so unfortuatenly this one is looking more and more as though it might fall by the wayside; it happens sometimes. As it stands now though, he currently has: "Lifeboat, Disney Cruise Lines", "Wet Paint Donald", "Disney's Hollywood Studios", and "Runaway Brain Mickey". We'll have to see how this one goes in the future.

And there you have it, you're now officially up to speed on where we are. There was a lot to cover in this one (since we haven't written about our collections in a while), but if you're like us and you love Vinylmation, the more the merrier, right?

Be sure and check back later today for another Vinylmation article/segment we'll be debuting. We can't wait to have you check it out, so be sure and pop back in for a bit. We know you won't be disappointed.

Until next time, Vinyl lovers...

Our Favorite Spots To Shop

Welcome to the first stop aboard Magical Blogorail Blue. Enjoy the ride as we share with you our favorite Disney shopping spots.

When we first began going to The Parks several years ago we definitely had yet to acclimate ourselves to the environment enough to completely enjoy it.  We were the ones who would go from line to line, from attraction to attraction, all day long and then leave at the end of the day absolutely wiped out, because that's how we figured it had to be done.  We've since become Annual Passholders and with that has come a certain amount of understanding in just how to play our time in The Parks to our advantage.  As time has gone one, we've begun to enjoy all of the other things that The Parks have to offer as well, including restaurants and shopping spots.

We honestly enjoy shopping now in The Parks, even though as men, this probably puts us in some kind of minority.  We even have our favorite places to shop, which we're going to share with you today!  One of the reasons we enjoy shopping in The Parks is because there is always something to see.  It's true, you can find the same merchandise in any number of shops around, but we enjoy the way that they gear each shop towards the land that it is in and much of the merchandise the same.  And it seems like there is always something we've not noticed before every time we go in a particular shop, such as window-dressings or displays.  We talk a lot around here about the "little details", and Park shopping is certainly no different, so come along with us for some of our favorite shopping haunts inside The Resort.

One of our favorite "window-dressings" in The Park

Westward Ho (Frontierland)

The Westward Ho Trading Co. - Pins and Vinyl galore!

One of our favorite places in The Park to hang out is Frontierland, so it's probably only natural that one of our favorite places to shop is there as well. We love the pioneer and western feel of the area, and Westward Ho is perfectly themed to fit in. Set on the end of a western boardwalk (picture a saloon with hitching rails outside, complete with a cigar store Indian), rarely a visit to The Park goes by where we don't stop in at least once. It's specialty? Disney Pins and Vinylmation! When we go shopping for Vinylmation (when we're in the heat of a collection), this is usually our first stop. In our experience, it offers the best selections of Pins in The Park, and there are trading tables outside if that tickles your fancy. Or, if you're like us and deal in plastic, there are also trading boxes inside you can use. We've always found the Cast Members in Westward Ho pleasant and fun to deal with as well. They've always been great to deal and interact with, and definitely go a long way towards making Westward Ho one of our favorite stops.

Pooh's Corner (Critter Country)

"Waiting for you, and me Winnie the Pooh..."

We've almost begun thinking of Pooh Corner as a hidden treasure! Set way back in The Park at the back end of Critter Country, the Corner (as we've taken to calling it) has become one of our weekly stops while we're roaming around late at night. We love the Critter area, and this shop fits in perfectly with all of the other decor and features around. Pooh Corner itself is an awesome shop for souvenirs for the kiddies! There are several rooms stretched out together here (the shop is really quite large) with all kinds of clothing, toys, and everything else your kids would typically be screaming for. Good stuff!

Being who we are, though, our reason for coming back here is totally different. We like the treats! We've talked to many people, many of whom don't even know, that there is in fact a candy shop in Pooh Corner. We kind of think of it as a miniature Main Street Candy Palace (from Main Street, USA). We love going into the shop and watching them hand-make all of our favorite treats. And what's better than watching them make them? Eating them, of course! Many an evening will find us at the counter ordering either a Peanut Butter Sandwich (or Heaven) and a carton of milk for dessert. Or, if you have peanut allergies, there are TONS of other options as well, such as toffees and candy apples. Plus, there is a wide assortment of other candies here such as the Disney brand of Jelly Belly candies (which take up an entire wall along the back) and pretty much any Goofy's Candy Co. candies you can think of (including our beloved Sour Balls). Not sold yet? We honestly don't know what else could say to convince you then. Moving on!

Need we go on?

D-Street (Downtown Disney)

The King of Vinylmation stores. See, told you we called it that...

Lastly, we need to visit what we've dubbed the King of Vinylmation stores at The Resort, D Street. Located in the hip and trendy Downtown Disney area, D Street is also a place we typically stop at at least once a trip out. If a new Vinylmation series is coming out, this is your place to get it! They get all of the new releases as soon as they come out, and many an hour we've spent in here just checking things out and wishing we had the money to buy every piece of Vinyl in sight. There is also always a trading box in here (and usually people outside willing to trade as well), so if you are looking for that special piece for your collection, this just might be your place to find it.

As strange as it is to say, since that's mostly what we are there for, D Street isn't only about the Vinylmation. It is in Downtown Disney after all, and there are tons of other cool and kitschy items here. Lots of Star Wars and other sci-fi items are in here, and there are tons of t-shirts, posters, toys and other things here to keep even in the most discerning geek happy. Definitely worth checking out!

It was hard narrowing down our favorite shopping spots to just three, there are so many of them!  But in the interest of time we had no choice.  But we have a little bonus for you!  We've taken the liberty of creating a Gowalla Trip of our favorite shopping spots, specially for The Magical Blogorail and its readers.  Here you'll find our Top 10 shopping spots (including the three you've just read about) with a little description as to why we enjoy them so much.  That way if you're ever at The Resort, you can easily pull up our spots and see just where we like to go yourselves.

We hope you've enjoyed coming around with us to our favorite shopping spots today, and like always, when you're out and about and doing the shopping yourself, keep your eyes open for your own little gems inside The Parks.  You never know what you might come across. 

Thank you for joining me today.  Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail is The CanaDisney Blog.

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Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ Days in the Park

2nd Stop ~ The CanaDisney Blog

3rd Stop ~ Disney Babies Blog

4th Stop ~ Cooking with Mickey

5th Stop ~ Meet the Magic

Final Stop ~ Pursuing the Magic

"Two-Fer" Tuesdays: Adventures In Vinyl - Storage!

Oh, my goodness!  It's been so long since I've written about our Vinylmation obsession in any shape or form!  Looking back to the last time I wrote something, I'm actually rather astounded it's taken me this long to get back to it.

I suppose if I had to pick a reason for the prolonged writing vacation from my addiction to Mickey Mouse-shaped plastic it would probably be because there just hasn't been much to write about lately.  If memory serves me in this department (and this is one of those topics I can usually count on it in), I haven't actually bought any new Vinyl since around mid-February.  Almost a month and a half gone without any purchase made whatsoever.  Hard to believe, ain't it?  The last time I opened any up was in a massive bout of Vinyl Anarchy in the back of my car (which Amy has since dubbed 'VinylPalooza'), in which she, Mark, and I, opened up three brand new cases of "Star Wars Series 1", "Muppet Series 1", and "Villains Series 1" Vinylmation between us.  It took about an hour to do it (no exaggeration), and it was a lot of fun, but since then we've basically all hit a pretty big dry spell; nothing really of note to talk about.

But as I was thinking about it today, there is in fact something worth talking about, and that's the topic of exactly how does one go about displaying their hard-earned Vinyl treasures.  I won't go into a lot of detail about the aesthetic way in which people can display their little Mickeys (everyone has their own tastes and ways that they like to display things), but one of the big questions for me as I've been collecting over the last few months has been, "Where am I going to put them if my collection continues to grow?"  And grow it has!  I have 65 of the little beauties now, and just stacking them single-file on my shelves didn't seem to be doing the trick anymore, and to be quite frank, I just didn't think that they looked very good like that.

Enter the "DB-17 Multi-Level Doll Exhibit BOX" from The Container Store!

Empty cases just waiting to be filled

I do want to go on record as saying right now, and Vinlymation collectors should know exactly what I'm talking about here, that I love the official Vinylmation display cases that they sell in The Parks and on the Disney Store official site.  They're seriously cool and they look amazing.  I mean, who wouldn't want each of their precious Vinyl treasures to have their own individual little "cubby" in which to reside?  And I love the Vinylmation logo on it!  They are seriously cool looking.  Unfortunately, they're just not cost-effective for me right now (they run about $80 for a a single case that holds 12).  I'd much rather have the $80 to spend on more Vinyl, but I'm sure that might just be me.  I'm sure hardcore collectors buy these up in droves, and I wish I could, but I can't.

So I've opted to go with the poor man's option, instead, and I still think that they do the trick pretty well.  I'm not really sure who told me about the display boxes to begin with (I'm pretty sure it was Amy), but as you can tell, they can make your collection look very nice!  Each display box comes with a very sturdy and solid plastic black base, pieces inside so that you can stack and "tier" your display box (as you can see in mine below), and a very nice (as in, it doesn't feel cheap at all), see-through lid which proudly displays your collection.  I wish I could think of more things to say, but pretty much what you see is what you get.  It's a very nice, and very affordable alternative for those of us looking for clean and crisp ways to display our collections.

Each individual box holds a complete set (or series), of Vinylmation; the 11 standard figures in each set as well as the Chaser.  For some of the newer sets with variants, they won't quite fit of course, but you can always buy another box for special additions, and the boxes themselves are easily stackable if you have them on a shelf so you can keep your Series together if you so desire.  You can display them pretty much any way you want to.  Always a plus!

My Villains Series 1 complete set.  Looking sharp, boys (and girls)!

Each individual display box sells for $9.99 and you can find them at the Container Store by mashing here.  A word of warning, though.  These things are popular.  Often times when going to place an order for them, they'll be backordered.  I guess these are pretty well known in the Vinylmation community and are very popular items, or so we've heard.  Both times I've ordered some (I placed a small order to begin with so I could kind of test them out) they've been on backorder.  But a couple of things I've liked about the whole process is that they don't charge you until they ship, and shipping itself has always been affordable, quick (when they are in stock) and well done.  I've never had to wait more than a couple of weeks for an order of mine to be filled, and in all honesty, for what you get, I don't think that's too bad.

I hope that maybe our article today has been useful for any Vinylmation collectors out there who may not know about these little beauties.  If you can afford the official ones, by all means I urge you to get them, they really are pretty sweet.  But if you can't, or if you want to save that extra $70 for that next case of Vinylmation that you want to buy, then these may be just the thing for you.

My collection as it stands (literally) today

I've written my article today alongside a great friend of mine from Magical Days With The Mouse, who is also a pretty avid (up and coming, but avid) collector of Vinylmation, hence our "Two-Fer" Tuesdays title!  If you like Vinylmation, today we're giving you two Vinylmation Articles for the price of one, kind of like a Combo-Pack.  Pretty cool, huh?

Be sure and check out Sarah's article as soon as you've read mine.  I promise you won't be disappointed if you do, and let her know that I sent you!

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