Haunted Mansion Stretching Room Combo Turnaround Photos

The Park Limited Edition combo sets are really impressing me. I can not wait for the Tower of Terror blind box set or this, the Haunted Mansion Stretching Room four 3" figure combo pack.

This set was designed by Ron Cohee and will be released on December 20th at both D-Streets and Online. The price is $59.95 for an LE size 2,000 combo.

I Bearly Believe This Price Tag!

Vinylmation Exchange has reported and Instagramed a photo of a price tag of $49.95 on the Park 12 Country Bears LE Combo.

The price was reportedly going to be $39.95 and the Disney Parks Merchandise Blog still shows that lower price point as shown in this screen shot:

Mickey's Circus- DCA Mad T Party Combo

This Disneyland exclusive LE set is slated for a December release! The 3" combo was designed by Maria Clapsis. It is based on the Mad T Party area at Disney's California Adventure where people are dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland. Join the party, with DJ White Rabbit and Mad Hatter on vocals.

Mickey's Circus- Dracula swoops into stores on 9/14

9" Holiday 3 Dracula will release on September 14th.
Figure by Maria Clapsis

Upcoming Animation 2 LEs

Nick was able to take a pic of the upcoming Animation 2 LEs.
First, Geppetto 9" LE 1000
Second, a 9"/3" combo, Humphrey and Ranger J Audubon Woodlore LE 1200.
Along with the previously announced Maleficent and Prince and The 9" Roger Rabbit, these seem to be the 9" limited edition figures.
Still wondering about the Rhino ignite we saw earlier.
What do you think of these sets? Geppetto will go nicely with Pinocchio from the Animation 1 set.

The Rescuers Fly into Vinylmation

Today vinylmationtraders.com found some pictures of a new limited edition set from Animation 2. Similar to the Park 7 Kitchen Kabaret and the Alice in Wonderland Cheshire set, this looks like a limited edition set of 3" figures. Check out Bernard and Bianca from The Rescuers.
Both figures are by Casey Jones and is $26.95.

They are from the 1977 Disney animated film.

They also reported that the Fife and Drum set will be released at $44.95 on January 27th.

Also, the 9" Park 7 ELP Dragon for $74.95.

That seems steep for a single 9" and our look at the side of the 9" Park 7 shows it isn't accompanied by a 3".

Great addition to the set, and I'm glad to see some 3" Limited Editions. Although I wish Fife and Drum were 10 bucks cheaper. What are your thoughts on The Rescuers?

One Reader's Case FOR Limited Edition Vinylmation

Earlier this week, we posted an article asking for the end of Limited Edition Vinylmation. Many of your responded both pro and con. One reader submitted a strong rebutal to our argument. Here is Brian's Case FOR Limited Edition Vinylmation:

DV, as much as I love your site, I am in complete opposition to your cause. LE’s shouldn’t be made extinct. We shouldn’t overact based on one or two bad experiences. These bad experiences are only due to the increasing popularity of Vinylmation within the last 6 months. The Vinylmation world is becoming dense. At the end of last year, the Vinylmation world only had 2 or 3 active websites devoted to everything Vinylmation. Now there are 6 or 7 active websites. When I started collecting, just before Park 2 was retired, it took me over 100 blind boxes (bloxes) to get my first chaser and complete a set. Now, I can complete a set in less than a week by trading alone. I digress. My point is that our Vinylmation addiction is the root of the problem. Disney’s policy surrounding Vinylmation hasn’t changed since the inception of Vinylmation until the dreaded “Goof Troop” debacle. What changed? Nothing has changed but the intensity of our addiction and the realization that the LE’s help us up-trade to find our “holy grails”. Below I have offered my rebuttal to the points in your article. With that, I can’t offer criticisms to your points without offering up my own solution to the problem.

One of the reoccurring points, and hot button for many collectors, is that online auction house we have come to love. Many traders use it as the benchmark to determine if a particular trade is fair, most of the time. It is about the only safe spot to acquire hard –to-find Vinylmation figures aside from face to face trade. But the point that a “dedicated Disney fan who has no shot at one of these combos unless they have want to fork over triple retail” is based on the assumption that the seller sets the price. To me, this not the case. The buyer sets the price. If that individual demands that particular figure and is willing to pay 3X the price, then the seller will oblige. If the buyers aren’t buying then the price goes down. It is simple economics, supply versus demand. Plus, there are several great trading outlets that allow you the opportunity to trade for the LE figure you are searching for. Not all is lost.

As for online releases, they do give the opportunity for anyone not living near the parks. The problem is whether or not the opportunity is equal. In my opinion, Yes. As you stated, there are some problems with it such as “No stated release time, no purchase limits, slow computers, misplaced items online, fake sell outs, computer error”. Some of these points just don’t hold any water.

• No stated release time – Disney will never pigeon-hole themselves into that tight of a schedule. Disney wants to preclude any issues that may arise. The repercussions of not holding to that schedule could be very expensive. How many $10 or $20 dollar complaint vouchers would they have to fork over when people complain that it was listed at 12:05 instead of 12:00. This shrinks the bottom line possibly resulting in higher prices. Also worth mentioning is potential server problems. Imagine 5,000 -7,500 customers or more, possibly with multiple windows open on multiple devices all focusing on one product in a 1 minute window. Crashamundo! Is not knowing exact time annoying and inconvenient for us? Sure, but that’s the thrill of it all. My heart was racing when Goof Troop was released.
• No purchase limits – I will give you this one. Shame on you Disney. I guess they took the stance of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. This is a systems problem which is curable through some software changes or web coding. Supposedly it has been fixed with the recent announcement on the Vinylmation blog. We shall see.
• Slow computers – if referring to Disney’s slow computers, then the solution is upgraded servers or more of them. If referring to customer’s computer, then the playing field cannot be leveled. How is it Disney’s fault that one customer has a computer running an 6 core i7 Extreme processor with 12GB of RAM on a T1 internet line versus someone on a computer running a 1990’s Pentium processor with 128KB of RAM over a dial up connection?
• Misplaced items online – I will give you this one too. This has happened several times. Disney was sneaky as even a search for “Goof Troop” returned nothing for 25+ minutes after they were actually released. I personally think there is a conspiracy here, but I can save that for another time. They need to smack the web guy who hides the page. The solution is simple enough, code it properly to put the item where everyone thinks it should be.
• Fake sell outs – server and software issue. Hopefully fixed with recent update.
• Computer error – most likely a coding error, possibly relating to server problems. Smack the web guy again. Hopefully problem was fixed with recent update.

There are infinite solutions that we could come up with. Very few of them keep both Disney and the collector happy. Limited Time release is one of those solutions that only serve the collector’s ability to get the figure. Limited Time Release would be a production control nightmare. There are way too many issues with a solution like this. There will be times when there are tons in stock and times when there is not enough. If Disney underestimates the demand then collectors will be even more upset because they know it is supposed to last till some arbitrary date. If Disney over-estimates the demand, the excess is sold off at a discount. This also will upset collectors because of the reduction in value by increasing the supply. We all know Disney won’t destroy the production overages. I guess theoretically they could guess the demand correctly. You can’t mass produce everything. Look at Park 3, almost worthless to most collectors. Why? Because it was WAY over-produced.

I do not think Limited Time Release will reduce the crowded sidewalks at 5am. People are going to line up if they like it and want it regardless. Not only will it not reduce the front end frenzy, it will increase the back-end frenzy because people will have a finite date. Which is the lesser of two evils? The only time non-locals can assure themselves that they have the best chance of getting a figure they want while on vacation is to schedule around the release date. Lastly the limited time may possibly reduce the aftermarket up until just before the time is up.

My solution for LE’s… split release quantities between Disney locations (DLR, WDW, DLP, Hong Kong, Japan) and online. A lottery is put in place, essentially RSP. The terms of the lottery are up for grabs but here is what I think is fair and reasonable. Once a figure is announced, Disney Online opens sign-ups for a 3 day lottery with the close of the lottery 2 days prior to the figure being released. Entry into the lottery would require you to have an account with Disney Store Online. An important part of this is a shipping address and credit card or Paypal account for filtering double dippers. The number of online lottery winners is 80% of the quantity for online release with the remainder of 20% going into an open pool available to all for purchase online one week later. The lottery winners are notified that they have a certain window of time to purchase the figure on the release date. If the figure is not purchased within the window, the figure is put into an open pool. All of the non-lottery winners are notified and given a code which they can enter when trying to purchase from the open pool. The code protects against lottery winners from double dipping. The same could be implemented with some slight modifications to brick and mortar store releases. I think this system would be a little more sophisticated than Disney would probably want. But it solves almost every issue, reduced lines at brick and mortar stores, no stated release time, no purchase limits, misplaced items online, fake sell outs, and computer errors. It makes it as fair as possible because the opportunity is equal for all.

Sometimes we all forget that this is just a hobby and not a way of life. We must remember that Disney is a business. They are here to make money. They are not providing services and products for their health. That would be financial suicide. When was the last time you received something free for doing nothing? Sometimes I think people would see it totally different if they were on the opposite side of the transaction. Also, I don’t really see how LE’s at the parks isn’t fair. Is it not fair that Walt Disney decided to place his theme parks in Anaheim and Orlando? Is it not fair that your parents decided to live so far from either park. It is not Disney’s fault that most of us don’t live near San Francisco, New York, Dublin, Copenhagen, Paris, Honk Kong or Tokyo. I think LE’s offer financially less-than-fortunate collectors a chance at something really cool. LE’s keep Vinylmation fresh. How long can we continue collecting park and urban designs? I personally love variety and my LE’s. Keep the LE’s coming Disney! That’s the way I see it. Thanks for letting me participate and keep up the great work.


- by Brian

The Case Against Limited Editions

If I were in charge of Vinylmation, and I'm not, I would get rid of Limited Edition Vinylmation Releases. Goodbye. Good riddance. LE Vinylmation, you have caused too many problems around these parts and it is time to go. I hear your voices and want to make those awesome LE figures available to you! No matter where you live. D-Street. Online. Neither work. And I'm not talking about fair. I don't care about fair. I care about being able to collect what I like. In taking the pulse of the Vinylmation community, I think there are more true collectors out there that are more concerned about grabbing their favorite Vinylmation figures than having a figure that may be worth some cash because there are not many of them. I know I would.

Let's take the Disney Afternoons series. An insanely popular set of figures. Maybe beyond what Disney even thought. Now when they release these at the D-Streets, locals are forced to roll out of bed, head down to Disney and wait in line for up to 6 hours in cold or heat and then be late to work. "Aw, poor Orlando local" says the Disney fan in Idaho sarcastically. This is the dedicated Disney fan who has no shot at one of these combos unless they have want to fork over triple retail at that special online auction house. So many of you cry out that releasing LEs at D-Street isn't fair. And I can't argue with you.

How about an online release? Oh, we have tried that... many times. Here are just some of the problems with online releases of Limited Editions. No stated release time, no purchase limits, slow computers, misplaced items online, fake sell outs, computer error. Not to mention I hate playing the get up and hit F5 game for hours. I hate it for Baseball tickets, I hate it for this. But if you are going to put LEs online, give us an exact time and date. But I say, just ditch the LEs all together.

If you are collecting because you like the figures and enjoy the chase for your favorites, then it shouldn't matter if there are 500 or 500,000. So what would I do? Limited TIME releases. Instead of limiting the production run, I would limit the time they are on the shelves. Maybe 2 weeks. Maybe a month. Maybe 3 months. But advertise and stick to the time periods and keep the production flow coming until time is up. I would still limit same day, same guest purchases to two. These Limited Time releases have a number of effects. First, locals do not have to crowd the sidewalk on release day. Second, non-locals can plan trips to the parks around figures they really want. Third, if the release is online, it creates a less frustrating ordering atmosphere. Fourth, it takes some steam out of that cut throat aftermarket.

All that said, I would still keep around Limited Editions at events such as D23 or the Florida Project. That still makes sense to me. Those are special celebrations that have a limited number of people attending. No sense not capping those. And many times, even after the RSP and on-site sales, product is left over and goes for sale at the parks. I would also keep LEs on 9" figures and Ear Hats. That seems to work, even for the most popular. 1000 seems like a great number. There were still more of the "sold out" Up figures at D-Street Orlando a week later.

So there you go. I don't need 'em. I'd rather be able to purchase all the figures I like and want. Other than Events, 9" and Ear Hats, NO MORE LIMITED EDITIONS!!! Who is with me?