Episode 105 Pirates of the Caribbean Helmsman

Ep. 105 Pirates of the Caribbean Helmsman This week we record at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with special guest Scuba Owl. He is an avid listener and Vinylmation writer. We talk about all things vinyl and the future of the hobby. In a twist, Scuba Owl interviews us to give you the chance to learn more about us. We also deliver all the latest news and the current release calendar.

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Home Sweet Home with DVC

The concept art has been floating around for a long while, now we can confirm the third DVC exclusive is in fact the white picket fence "Home Sweet Home" figure.

Due out on February 22nd at D-Streets and possibly online, this Lisa Badeen designed 3" will retail for $14.95 and is open edition. You must show a valid Disney Vacation Club member ID to purchase.

New, Moved and Head Scratching Release Dates

This update, not going to lie, hurt my brain a little bit to process. Disney certainly does not make it easy for us. By the way, side note, and probably why I am in a bad mood while writing this... Did anyone else see that the WDW Premium Annual Passholder discounts will drop to 10% as of January 1, 2013? So as my discount gets cut in half, I can tell Disney that not only will they be getting less money from me at renewal, but I'll be sure to purchase at least half as much merchandise as I normally do. Anyway, how about those release dates... They changed some days. Changed some locations. Added new dates and even duplicated some. Take a look.


The Disney Vacation Club Exclusive 3-inch figure (Open Edition / Retail: $14.95 ) was moved from a January 11th release date to February 15th in the parks only. It is still supposedly set for a January 11th online release. The design of this figure is not known at this time, but is presumed to be from this this concept art.

As I have been presuming for a few weeks, the January 10th release of the 3" Run Disney figure (Commemorative / Retail: $12.95) and WDW Marathon Weekend Mini Medals (Open Edition /Retail: $1.95) will be at the Clubhouse Store at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex during the Expo that takes place before the races. How do I know these releases better than Disney itself? The odd part is, they kind of took away the part about it also being available at D-Street in Orlando. I say "kind of" because, well here is the exact wording: "ESPN Clubhouse Shop, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex t Downtown Disney West Side in Florida". Um, ya, ESPN is not at Downtown Disney. However, there is a later posting on the Events page about the Mini Medal accessories being released at D-Street Orlando on January 22nd. But that still still leaves the 3" figure. I presume it will also end up at D-Street, if not on the 10th, then by the weekend. The 3" Run Disney figure remains on the release slate for January 10th at D-Street Anaheim  The January 13th signing with artist Maria Clapsis also remains in place for 5-7pm at D-Street Orlando.

On February 1st, the February 2013 Poster Art 3-inch figure by Patty Landing (Edition Size: 2,013 / Retail: $14.95) will be released at both D-Streets. In an exciting turn of events, the exact same figure is also listed for a February 11th release... but only in Anaheim  Sorry Orlandonians, you only get it once. Here is a look at the calendar art and Vinylmation figure.

On February 22nd, both D-Streets will receive a new 2013 Easter 3" figure designed by Billy Davis (Commemorative / $14.95). No photos of this design as of yet.

The left coast D-Street will also get a Mad T Party, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, 3-inch figure set (Edition Size: 1,500 / $24.95). No photos of this design as of yet either.

Photo from  Loren Javier's flickr

Lastly, the Disney Vinylmation Facebook page store will get the Fantasia Series # 5, Baucchus & Donkey from The Pastoral Symphony, 3-inch figure set (Edition Size: 1,500 / $24.95). We did not know until this posting what characters were in sets 5 through 8. I wish they accompanied this release info with a photo, but they did not. So here they are from the movie itself.

New December/January Release Dates

With the announcements below we confirm there will be WDW Marathon figures this year as well as another Valentine's Day commemorative. We have yet to see the actual figures, but the marathons are called "mini medals." So here is a look at the 2013 medals:

The Valentine's one is anyone's guess. We also get details about the 2013 series, a Pixar LE combo and the third Fantasia. We have no clue what order the 2013's will be released in, but Disney released the calendar from which the figures were inspired in park stores. So i'll find it and take a look this week. I would assume the order of release would correspond to the months they appear on the calendar. Here is a look at the 13 figures as they were on display at Mickey's Circus.

We will have to wait until January for the 9/3 Crush and Squirt LE combo. It will have an edition size of 1250 and will retail for $64.95.

The third Fantasia combo is a Parks and Online release featuring Hop Lo & Gold Fish. There are 1500 of them and it will retail for $24.95.

Also in the mix is the seventh junior series installment and a new Disney Vacation Club Piece. The junior series is themed to space and was on display at Mickey's Circus.

We don't know for sure, but we can assume the DVC figure will be this design that we saw only in concept art on Vinylnation years ago.

JANUARY 4, 2013
D-Streets
2013 Series - 3-inch figure by Dave Keefer & Maria Clapsis (Edition Size: 2,013 / Retail: $14.95)
Valentine's Day 2013 - 3-inch figure by Maria Clapsis (Commemorative / Retail: $14.95)

JANUARY 4, 2013
Online
Valentine's Day 2013 - 3-inch figure by Maria Clapsis (Commemorative / Retail: $14.95)
Vinylmation Jr. Series #7 - In Space (Mystery Box / Retail: $9.95)

JANUARY 10, 2013
D-Streets
2013 Run Disney - 3-inch figure by Maria Clapsis (Commemorative / Retail: $12.95)

JANUARY 10, 2013
D-Street Orlando (And Wide World of Sports?)
Walt Disney World Half Marathon Mini Medal (Open Edition /Retail: $1.95)
Goofy's Race Marathon Mini Medal (Open Edition / Retail: $1.95)
Walt Disney World Marathon Mini Medal (Open Edition /Retail: $1.95)

JANUARY 11, 2013
D-Streets
Vinylmation Jr. Series #7 - In Space (Mystery Box / Retail: $9.95)
Disney Vacation Club Exclusive 3-inch figure (Open Edition / Retail: $14.95 )

JANUARY 11, 2013
Online
2013 Series - 3-inch figure (Open Edition / Retail: $12.95)
Disney Vacation Club Exclusive 3-inch figure (Open Edition / Retail: $14.95)

JANUARY 18, 2013
D-Streets and Online
Pixar Series #1 - Crush & Squirt, Finding Nemo - 3-inch & 9-inch figure set by Maria Clapsis (Edition Size: 1,250 / Retail: $64.95)

JANUARY 25, 2013
D-Streets and Online
Fantasia Series #3 - Hop Lo & Gold Fish, The Nutcracker Suite - 3-inch figure set by Thomas Scott (Edition Size: 1,500 / Retail: $24.95)

Say Aloha New Vinylmation!

A few news and notes out of Hawaii. The release date for the Aulani figures we saw previewed at Mickey's Circus have appeared on Disney's Events page. Disney has two figures listed and call them both "Minnie" but we are going to assume one is supposed to be "Mickey." A misprint is a safe assumption since they also say "open edition" with an LE number of 1,500 right next to it AND a price tag of $24.95 which is ridiculous for a 3 inch figure. They also list them under the "Disneyland" section, but we believe they are an Aulani Resort in Hawaii specific (again, based on info given to us at Mickey's Circus). AND, one more caveat, Aulani is a DVC resort so we are not sure if you must show your DVC membership or not to purchase these. Ok, enough explaining... here is what they look like...

We have also seen pictures from various sources of a wonderful 3" Minnie Mouse with a grass skirt accessory.

As you can see, she comes in a beautiful Hawaii themed tin. It seems this figure was unceremoniously released on October 29, 2012 and is only available at the Ala Moana Shopping Center Mall on Oahu, Hawaii.

DVC Members Get New Keys on 8/24

The Disney Vacation Club 3" Key figure will be released at both D-Streets on August 24. We first saw it previewed at last month's WDW Trading Night.

The figure will retail for $14.95. And of course, in order to purchase this figure, guests must present a valid Disney Vacation Club ID at time of purchase. Remember, we still have never seen the DVC white picket fence figure Disney released, and shown on Vinylnation.net, the wrap around for years ago.

Are the DVC members out there going to pick up the key vinyl? Just for fun, here are the other two DVC wrap arounds.

DVC Key

At the WDW Trade Night, a new DVC exclusive was shown to the crowd. It retails for $14.95 and will be available at D-Street soon. Guests must show a DVC card to purchase. It is a golden Mickey Ear Key against a purple backdrop.

What's on the Vinylmation Horizon

So, what's with this information drought Disney? No solid info has been posted on Vinylmation.com since before the Super Bowl. And with an ever shrinking confirmed release calendar, the Vinylmation collecting community is wondering what's next? So I thought this is as good a time as any to go over what sets and figures we know about that should eventually get released. The first on my list was an intriguing collection that we saw at The Florida Project.

These 7" battery operated night light Vinylmation had the community excited... but by the end of the weekend, Disney announced they would be indefinitely delayed. Next up, Disney Classics.

Touted as the Have a Laugh follow up, the release of this series seems to be on the near horizon as it does appear in the Sneak section of Vinylmation.com. The picture above is from a teaser slide at The Florida Project. It looks like a black and white set of classic Disney characters as they first appeared many decades ago. Then we have a follow up to the popular Disney Store Robots series.

We expect to see Robots Series 2 sometime in 2012. We were excited to uncover a couple pictures from a website called http://gdpinvestigation.blogspot.com/. They claim these are images of Robots from Series 2.

This first image features some concept art.

This second image seems like the packaging design. How about a blast from the past? The next two pieces of concept art were already posted online at Vinylnation by the time I started collecting about two years ago. They both seem to feature Disney Vacation Club exclusive figure designs.

This first one is purple with a gold key.

The second one is a wonderful little white picket fence design with Mickey Heads and a "Home Sweet Home" sign. We only have one DVC figure so far... will we ever see these produced? You can put these on the shelf next to Clear Series 2. What ever happened to those? Let's dive into the movies for a bit. Last year, Disney released a teaser image for a Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides set.

This Casey Jones designed set is expected to hit shelves sometime in 2012. No word on if it will open window or mystery box. This next set has a more solid release window. It's the Jr. 6 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We don't have a release date, but Disney says to expect it in April. We recently found this image of the packaging on http://gdpinvestigation.blogspot.com/.

I am so excited for this detailed Jr set. The seven dwarfs are a given, but it will be interesting to finally get the reveal of the remaining 11 figures. Sticking with the movies...

Disney Character Star Wars is rumored to have a release around Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios (May 18-June 12). We should also see the second Star Wars blind box series later this year as well.

October is the rumored release window. Park Starz was an exciting 2011 release, and Disney promised we will see variants in 2012.

No pictures yet, but Disney said they will sell variants individually, meaning no blind boxing for them. This is a fresh approach were you can just go ahead and purchase the variant outright if you want it. We also have one hint... "copper". Most people are looking at you Mr. Lincoln. Sticking with the "breaking the mold" theme...

We know absolutely nothing about Popcorns except this teaser image. But we do know plenty about Haunted Mansion... except a release date.

Between pins and concept art, we have a solid idea of what this set will look like. But for two years, we have been hearing rumors of release... I think I speak for everyone when I say "Please Disney, make 2012 the year we finally see this one!" And don't forget the watch.

This is due out around March/April. And last but not least...

Vinylmation.fr has been teasing us for about 4 months. We are expecting some exclusive vinyl sometime this year in honor of Disneyland Paris' 20th anniversary. So as you can see, although it has been a slow news month, we as Vinylmation collectors have a lot to look forward to in 2012 and beyond. What have I left off this list? What are you most looking forward too?

Aloha New DVC Resort Vinylmation!

On August 29 a new DVC resort opens in Hawaii, Aulani. To commemorate this resort, Disney will release an open window 3" Vinylmation. 

It will only be available at Kelepa's store at the Aulani resort and will retail for $14.95.

There was no official word, but with no word on LE and now markings on the box about an LE, we assume this is a limited released. Meaning it should be on shelves for a good time to come. There is also no specific word that you have to show your DVC member card to purchase this figure.

Copyright Disney

Disney calls this figure Menehune-inspired. Menehune are said to be a people, sometimes described as dwarfs in size, who live in the deep forests and hidden valleys of the Hawaiian Islands. I like the style of this figure and the facial expression is cool, but I would have also liked an Aulani logo on the back. What are your thoughts on this newest member of the Vinylmation family?