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!

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! 

Odds And Ends: Weekly Cap-Off (6/20-6/26)

Visits to the Park this week:  1

Just one visit this week.  We're out at The Park today for Star Wars Day At Disneyland soaking up the sun and the fanboy goodness.  Summer is here and we're not spending nearly enough time at The Resort.  We're going to have to fix that!

Last Week on Days In The Park:

On Monday, Chad was invited to contribute to Disney Donna Kay's blog with a "Mentoring Mondays" article

Tuesday, we wrote about our recent excursion to the Walt Disney Studios for D23's "50 and Fabulous" screening of the classic Disney film, "The Parent Trap"

It was a ride on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on Wednesday for our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday

We got back to our usual Vinylmation fun on Thursday with a brand new "Vinyl of the Week" post: Runaway Brain Mickey

And lastly, on Friday, we released the latest episode of our podcast; Episode 5 of the Days In The Parkcast

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 hard at work with an entirely new redesign for the blog that we hope will be done this week!  It would be nice to start off next week with a "fresh slate", so to speak.  It's not to say we don't enjoy our blog now, but we're trying to make it more "our own" and more fitting for our personalities.  We think it's looking great so far and we can't wait to debut it!

As always, we have tons of articles and ideas in the works.  We need more days in the week!  Lots of new original articles coming, and we can't wait for you guys to read them.  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: 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: 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!