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Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Disney Collectible Curmudgeon


If you have read much of this blog, you know I am not much of shopper let alone a Disney shopper. I'm certainly no collector as a lot of Disney fans are. Now Mrs. DisneylandTravel has about 4 Lenox ceramic pieces of Mickey and Minnie together. We have a couple of Disney snow globes. All these are in the curio cabinet. Nice pieces yes, but hardly a collection.

Disney loves collectors. Collectors are a revenue stream. And I'm certainly not here to bash Disney collectors of anything because they do what they want with their money that makes them happy. All Disney collecting starts with those pins. There are thousands of them, some common, some rare, all driven by a market that is kind of controlled by Disney. I think I have collected about 7 pins over the years. That's it. I keep thinking maybe I might want to collect pins from my favorite ride or favorite land (no characters) but every time I walk into a pin shop, I usually walk out scratching my head. My collection of 7 is just fine.

A couple of years ago, Disney started Vinylmation, assorted grotesque Mickeys costumed up or can be decorated by hand apparently. The thing about Vinylmation from what I understand is that you don't know the Mickey you are getting in the little box. It's a mystery. In a previous post I called Vinylmation an abomination. I'll stick by that statement. Pins I get. Vinylmation I don't.

I guess you could say I collect Disney baseball caps. I think I have about 5 or 6 of those. I have to buy these fairly regularly because I tend to lose them on rides. If anyone found a Pirates: Let the Beatings Begin hat in or near Grizzly River Run, it's probably mine. You're welcome. Mrs. DisneylandTraveler keeps dragging me into stores and wanting buy to buy this T-Shirt or that T-Shirt. The problem is I seldom wear Disney clothes outside my visits to the park. I have a Grumpy sweatshirt that's really pretty nice but I won't wear it outside my trips to DL unless it is cold - it is a sweatshirt and a warm one.

Maybe the closest thing we have to a Disney collectible are prints for the walls of our home. You know the ones that are primarily sold in the bigger gift stores and at the Disney Gallery. They run about $35 bucks each. Below is a picture of an original artwork by Disney Imagineer Larry Nicolai that was shown at the Disney Gallery and I think it had a price tag of about $6000. We have the print - $35 and it's even signed by Larry.


Maybe I'll get into this Disney collecting thing some day but not now. I pretty much collect memories.

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