A Tale of Two Cities

This past weekend saw the release of some city specific Vinylmation, one on each coast. The similarities end there however as the New York release was by all accounts a smooth affair. However, the San Francisco release left some unhappy costumers wondering why there were not enough Vinylmation to handle the demand. If you missed it on our podcast, Episode 027, we aired some of your comments about the SF store situation. But first, the Playwright sent in some pictures of the new NYC exclusive 3" Hey Taxi.

The colors on this figure, like its 9" counterpart, really pop!

On the back, you can see Mickey looking out at the city.

Of course, the 3" comes in the beloved tins! Nice detail inside.

Artist card is included.

NYC has already seen it's share of exclusives. Take a look here for our review last fall of the 9" Hey Taxi with close ups of all the detail it has to offer.

San Francisco was all a buzz this weekend with the release of it's first two exclusive vinyls. The first was a 9" Golden Gate Bridge with an LE of  1540.

The second figure was a 3" SF Trolly in a tin. This figure is not Limited Edition.

People lined up as early as about 1am outside a store that would open that Sunday at 11am. There was much excitement for these figures, but unfortunately not everyone would walk away with figures. Here are a few reports from listeners that were at the SF store

Cynthia, who also reported on the Sci-Fi Trading academy on the podcast, gave her report: 

"My roommate got to the store at 2 am and was 5th in line.  I was sixth - by the time the manager came out to talk to us about 10:00 am the line was at least 100 people long. The manager came down the line with two other cast members.  One of them stamped our hand, and with a pen wrote our place # on our hand by the stamp.  They had 98 of the 9" and 184 of the 3".  The limits were two 9" per person and five 3" per person.  They asked us how many we were going to buy and kept count so they would know when they were going to run out.  They let us in to the store about 10:30 am and let us start buying instead of waiting to open at 11 am.  So my roommate and I were done by 10:35.  Lots of people drove up from LA."

Marcia wrote: 

"I wanted to express my complaint and bad experience I received today. I woke up extra early to be in line by 6:00 am to get my hands on the San Francisco exclusive Vinylmation but to find out that the Disney Store did not receive their full shipment and only the people at the top of the line were going to get the Vinylmations.  We should of gotten some kind of voucher so that way when we return at least there would some kind of acknowledgement that we were present on the day it was released."

Nick J Called in with his report:

"It was pretty much a mess. They said for the 9", which are LE 1540, the store only had 100 in stock and there are probably over 200 people in line. The Cast Members did not know how many 3" they had, but they sold out of those as well. They said they will have more, but don't know when."

With Vinylmation at such heights in popularity, it is odd to me that they didn't have a hefty stock of the SF exclusive Vinylmation in hand on release day. Were you there? Did you get your hands on one? What do you think of the SF designs?