D-Street B-Day

One year ago...
Kick Ass and How to Train Your Dragon were leading the box office. Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" and Kesha's "Tik Tok" we topping the music charts. Park 4 had just hit store shelves. It was April 16th, 2010 and a new store just opened in the West Side of Downtown Disney Orlando. This store would not only offer new merchandise choices geared toward a younger audience, but would also help lead a Mickey Mouse shaped collectable into a whole new era.

Opening Day was met with much fanfare. Of course Mickey was there. He jumped out of an oversized Vinylmation box to kick things off.

Many artists were on hand to greet guests and sign autographs including Thomas Scott, Lisa Badeen, Randy Noble, Monty Maldovan, Dan Howard, Eric Caszatt, Tyler Dumas, Quynh Kimball, Maria Clapsis and Adrianne Draude. The even also featured world-renowned speed painter Rock Demarco painting his interpretation of Mickey Mouse.

Some One-of-a-Kind Vinylmation went on sale last April as well.
Guests to D-Street on opening day were encouraged to sign this 9" Vinylmation:

From the start, Vinylmation would play a large part in D-Street, and D-Street in Vinylmation. Vinyl figures are a main focus in the design of the store. Check out this video Disney released giving a tour of the store when it opened.


The D-Street opening would also be the first place Vinylmation trading occured at Walt Disney World. First tested at D23 in California the previous summer, both Open and Mystery trading boxes were unveild to guests in the store.

Wow, looks like the open box staple figures have hardly changed in a year. Trading would soon spread into the theme parks.

D-Street would go on to host numerous activities and be the sight of many Vinylmation fan get-togethers. I remember the early morning Nightmare Before Christmas line. And who could forget the chilly 7 hour wait for Star Wars?

Release Day Line

Mike Sullivan

Happy Birthday D-Street! It's been a fun year getting to know eachother. DV wants to thank Disney for giving us a fun themed place to visit, collect, trade and talk. We appreciate the hard work by all the cast memebers that make the store possible. We look forward to many years to come.

What are your favorite D-Street displays? What was your favorite release day wait?

We dug into the Disney archives and found these links to Opening Day that you might also enjoy.
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/04/vinylmation-visuals/

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/04/vinylmation-creation-station-coming-to-d-street-in-florida/

Some photos courtesy of Disney Parks and Vinylmation Blogs