A Haunted Vinylmation Photoshoot

Evilos to be at Designer Con

Designer Con is a convention that incorporates everything in the world of design including apparel, plush, printing, sculpture, designer toys, and art ranging from fine to urban. At this year's event in California, Evilos will once again have a ton of customs and figures for sale. Including the 12" Mickey In Carbonite which will be on display and available for purchase a few weeks from now.

Jedi Mickey will be among the many well known customs on display and for sale by Evilos. 5" Mickey In Carbonites will be $50 and Mickey in Carbonite Jr's will sell for $20.

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His DCON Exclusive will be an Alien Pin (No.7) that will be $15 and limited to 100 Signed and Numbered pieces.

Some of the Blind Bags Series 3 customs will be on display as well. Disney Store Artists Gerald Mendez, Erique Pita & Nacho Rodriguez are also scheduled to be guests at the event.

Visit http://evilos.com for more info on Evilos.

Designer Con General Info:

Pasadena California
Saturday November 3rd
9am - 6pm
Tickets are $5 Online and $7 at the door.
Evilos Booth #428 (See Map)

Wrestler Fire Variant found

Thanks to Evilos who tweeted this pic earlier today.

Did you think the wrestlers would have variants?

Episode 095 Yellow Splattered

Ep. 095 Yellow Splattered This week we discuss the Pixar 1 line up, the new AP 3" figure, new Japan figures and much more. We have the full announced upcoming release calendar. And we have a Mystery Mail Bag filled to the brim with your questions and comments.

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DLR Passholder Variant Revealed

Like we conjectured on the podcast (which isn't even out yet!) Disneyland will be getting a variant of the WDW Passholder vinylmation. Not only will the writing be changed to reflect the other park, the top balloon will also be a different color! The DLR one is yellow, the WDW is blue.

What do you think of these vinyls? Will you get both? Only one? Will the other parks get these too, like the Celebrations First Visit Balloons?

Picture of New Passholder Figure is Floating Around the Web

Thanks to a friend for pointing us toward this photo of the previously unknown Annual Passholder 3" figure that is due out on November 2 for $14.95 at both D-Streets.

This same picture has been used in a few eBay pre-sale auction already. The photo is not credited  but appears to be taken at the D-Street Orlando upcoming figures display case. You can see Walt Disney World printed on the balloon, I would assume the DLR version is identical except for Disneyland printed on it. This figure represents a gathering of the iconic Mickey head shaped balloons inside a balloon sold on Main Street USA.

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Andy's Toys Arrive For U.S. Play Date

Today, the series of 4 Vinylmation designed to look like Andy's crayon drawings from the Toy Story films where released at D-Streets.

They retail for $12.95 each and were originally available in Japan to commemorate the opening of Tokyo's Toy Story Midway Mania attraction. Also released today was the 9" Park 11 Grizzly Peak designed by Casey Jones.

It is an LE 800 and retails for $44.95.

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, Check Out Noah's Festival of the Masters Custom

The 2012 Festival of the Masters takes place November 9-11 at WDW's Downtown Disney. Once again, Noah will be among the artists with work on display and for sale. That collection of work will include some custom Vinylmation.

Noah calls his latest creation "Crash Test Dummy." As you can see, it comes on a custom road sign base. There will be twelve 9" versions available for $650 each and twelve 3" versions for $150 each.

Barney's Electric Holiday Backlash

As November approaches and I already see my TV shows inundated with Christmas shopping commercials, I recalled the Disney / Barney's Electric Holiday partnership we talked about a few months back. In that announcement, we learned about a couple Vinylmation and other merchandise designed with a high fashion theme in mind. 

For more on the Vinylmation and the product line itself, please check out Zoe's article here. The reason I'm bringing this up today is because I decided to Google the line, since we have not heard an update, to see if any more information was announced about the November 14 expected release date. I did not. Instead, what I did find, were a ton of columns from various blogs and news sites that talked about people's negative reaction to the look of Minnie Mouse.

I sincerely do understand the concerns of parents, but the above is purely meant to be a fun art style for Disney fan's to see classic characters in forms they are not used to. It is an art form, just like when DDG artists fit characters on a Mickey shaped canvas, Popcorns platform or Pook-a-looz. If you don't want your children to see or have this merchandise, then you avoid it or use it as a teaching opportunity. But it should not be pulled from the campaign as many suggest. It is a very creative and stylistic design that has many Disney fans excited for something new.

Here are some new images Disney/Barney's released. They include scenes from the video the public will see on November 14.

Closing scene from video

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You can Google "Barney's Electric Holiday Minnie" to see the opposition news articles I am talking about. I wanted to post Barney's and Disney's response to the critiques. It is a bit of a shame that they had to unveil the end of the November 14 video early just to try to quell some of the opposition. 

From the Disney Post; The Official Blog of the Walt Disney Company:

(October 12, 2012) In August, we announced “Electric Holiday,” a project with Barneys New York. The one-time holiday promotion includes a moving art video that was designed to be a playful interpretation of the fashion world where Minnie Mouse briefly imagines what it would be like if she and her friends were a part of that high fashion world. The images shown during the brief dream sequence in the moving art video are highly stylized interpretations of these artistic characters. In the end, the video concludes with Minnie returning back to her classic self happily wearing a Lanvin designer dress.

We know many of our fans were intrigued with this news, and we wanted to give the behind-the-scenes story firsthand and provide insight into how we developed the creative concepts. I sat down with Luis Fernandez, senior vice president of global creative at Disney Consumer Products, to give us the scoop.

Nidia: Luis, we know that fans all over the world have an emotional connection to Disney characters. What can you tell Disney fans about how these stylized looks for “Electric Holiday” came to be?

Luis: “Electric Holiday” is a fun and colorful campaign that gave our character artists the creative liberty to do something artistic and completely unique. The elongated poses of Disney characters, including Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and Cruella de Vil, are dramatically stylized. They’re creative interpretations from a fashion lens, and only appear for a few seconds in this video. Their true form remains as classic as ever in every aspect of the company. A project like “Electric Holiday” is the kind of creative challenge which forces one to stretch the imagination while proceeding with caution. We know we have to be respectful of who these characters are and what they mean to us and to millions of people.

N: There is a scene in the moving art video when Minnie Mouse is transported into a fantasy world where literally anything is possible. Can you elaborate on that?

L: As we see Minnie gazing at a Paris travel poster, a dream sequence takes us into her mind – a fantasy world where she imagines herself as a fashion model on a Paris runway show, and we see her getting styled by the best in the fashion industry. Although Minnie is in her classic form for most of the piece, she does go through a dream portal at one point where she takes on this stylized fashion model form for just a few seconds. In the end, we see her happily back to her classic form still wearing her designer dress, designed by Alber Elbaz for Lanvin.

One of our more difficult challenges was bringing the two separate worlds of Disney and couture fashion together in a believable manner. Our solution was to have the characters pass through a magical portal as they step out onto the runway.

N: Sounds like a labor of love – a lot of passion, imagination and creative integrity went into the development process. What else is in store that fans can look forward to?

L: “Electric Holiday” will also feature a range of exclusive, limited-edition Disney holiday gifts that is just as magical as the creative itself and includes Vinylmation figures designed by Paul Smith and Diane von Furstenberg, Mickey Mouse ears designed by Rag & Bone and L'Wren Scott, and smaller items such as holiday ornaments, edible sweets, and much more. We also created original and exclusive artwork that will be featured on special Barneys shopping bags available with all in-store and Barneys.com purchases during the holiday season. 

From The Window; Barney's Official Blog:

The "Electric Holiday" campaign is to feature a video in which Minnie fantasizes about modeling in Paris.

Most of the video's three minutes, Barneys has said, will show Minnie with her familiar proportions. But for a 5-second dream sequence on the catwalk, Minnie is stretched tall and thin because, as Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman initially explained, "The standard Minnie Mouse will not look so good in a Lanvin dress." Mickey, Goofy, Daisy and other Disney characters will be refashioned similarly.

In August, Barneys New York announced Electric Holiday, a special holiday project with the Walt Disney Company. The one-time only holiday program includes a moving art video that is conceived to be a playful interpretation of the high fashion world, where Minnie Mouse briefly imagines what it would be like if she and her friends were a part of a European fashion show. The 3-minute video maintains Minnie in her classic self, aside from the brief dreamlike runway sequence. Our intention was to keep the end of the short a surprise until its release on November 14th, but we can reveal it ends happily with Minnie—in her classic form—wearing the same designer dress she models on the runway.

We assure you Minnie is empowered throughout the video, seen throughout Paris in her classic form being photographed by legendary fashion photographers, styled by renowned hair and makeup artists and dressed by a top fashion designer.

While it is unfortunate the sketches that were intended to be concept art have been taken out of context, Barneys New York is fully committed to the magical spirit of “Electric Holiday.” We stand by the statement released by Disney and Barneys New York and we are confident our lighthearted holiday project along with the video’s positive message will be embraced by not only the fashion world, but Disney fans alike.

Park Starz Pinz 11/8

On November 8th, Disney will release a Mystery Collection of Vinylmation Park Starz pins. The set will contain 17 total pins. Each box contains 1 of 11 "Revealed" pins and 1 of 6 "Mystery" pins and will have a retail price of $32.95. Mean at $16.48 a pin, they are just about as expensive as the actual figures that came in a blind tin for $18.95!

The 6 mystery pins should be: Small World Boy & Goat, and then the variants for the Bride, Yeti, Abe, Squid and Figment. Check out OnceUponAPin.com for more on these and other Disney Pins.

Pixar 1: Sneak Peak at the 11 Figures

We were sent this picture of a wrapped (presumably the display figures) set of 11 Pixar 1 figures:

This does confirm the the 4 rumored figures we have not seen yet. From top left: Dug, Chuckles, King Fergus, Filmore, Nemo, Captain McCrea, Mr. Incredible, Remy, Flick, Mike and Jackalope. The set releases on November 16 at D-Streets, Online and presumably Disney Stores.

Theme Park Favorites Photoshoot

Austin and I decided to break the Theme Park Favorites out of their open window cages and take them around Downtown Disney for some photos.

D-Street Orlando Update 10/17/12

Just a few quick notes about some items at D-Street Orlando. They still have a handful of the LE 2500 Popcorns Clown Dumbo Variants around the store.

They also have a bunch of the LE 2000 Fantasia #1 Combos behind the counter.

And then this beautiful new 9" Custom Fortune Teller Mickey has shown up in the display case.

It comes in a real wooden box and lights up when plugged in. The manager on duty was able to tell me it has a $2,000 price tag and the artist is Mark Seppala. Mark made at least one custom around the opening of D-Street and is also the artist behind the Park 6 Wet Paint Donald.

New 2013 Japan Daruma and Kaa Eto

@Takuya_Vinyl tweeted out the above picture. I depicts a new Japan Tokyo Disneyland Resort Exclusive Daruma Otoshi Mickey & Minnie. It also has a picture of the New Year 2013 Eto Kaa. All thee figures are set for a December 1 release. I'm a big Jungle Book fan and I love the way he wraps around the canvas. I also like the cartoonish art style he is drawn with.

Spoiler Alert! Extreme Wrestlers Chaser

Extreme Wrestlers are not due out in Disney Stores until October 29, however some fans got there hands on them as some Disney Stores put them on the shelves a week early.

The chaser is Sammy Smackdown! Apparently from the USA, he seems to hold the coveted Vinylmation Extreme Wrestlers Championship Belt.