Fantasmic!

My rare Disney-MGM Studios Fantasmic Pin

That and a few other rare/hard to find pins can be found at our store!

Bacon Framed By The Mouse

This is the superbacon from earlier, flanked by our latest acquisitions - Mickey Mouse kitchen towels.

Pirate Pin With Booty!

My beautiful and amazing wife got me this awesome pin, and it arrived in the mail today!

More details in a little while. Right now I'm too excited!

Reverse of pin reads:

This Limited Edition trading pin 

contains pieces of the

Audio-Animatronics (R) Figure of

the original Pirate Ship Captain

from the Pirates of the Caribbean (R)

attraction.

This figure was featured in the

attraction until Captain Barbossa

was added in 2006.

This Magic Kingdom (R) Park

attraction opened on

December 15, 1973.

Be Our Guest - 1972

I found this. It's from the year after the opening of Walt Disney World. While I would love to say I was there, the truth is that next year will be my first time ever to a Disney park of any kind.

If you want it, I just listed it for sale.

Tokyo DisneySea Grand Opening Coin

This was in my big haul form last week:

It's still sealed, but I know virtually nothing about Tokyo DisneySea. I do know that this was a Cast Member Exclusive, and the back even had a short letter:

It is with great pride that we present this Cast Member exclusive medallion

 to you in celebration of the grand opening of the newest generation

 of Disney theme parks, Tokyo DisneySea.

Tokyo DisneySea is a richly imaginative world of adventure, romance,

 discovery and fun - a celebration of the myths and realities of the sea

 in the grand tradition of Disney family entertainment.

Please join us in celebrating this momentous occasion 

as Tokyo DisneySea joins the Disney theme park family.

Jim Cora

Chairman, Disneyland International

However, I need to fund my pin collecting obsession, so I am putting this up on eBay for anyone that's interested.

Not Just A Fan Of The Mouse

They're here! They're here! They're here!

Okay, so maybe I've become more of a fan of Star Wars merchandise over the movies during my post 1999 fanboy career, but these are so cool!

Still Sorting

Older Disney Rarities

The first batch:

The second batch:

The third and last (for now):

Stations of the Mouse

Sometimes people look for conspiracies where there are none. Sometimes the conspiracies exist, based on misdirected truths. Sometimes the conspiracies are very real, but the evidence connecting the salient points only mock the person who just knows something isn't right, when viewed from a more grounded standing.


Oh, before I go further into this post, you should probably play the following on repeat until you are done reading:

We see references to the number three everywhere we look. It's a magic number, after all. Three signs of the Holy Trinity. Three rings in a circus. Three circles to draw...a mouse?

How could I have been so blind?

Well if one 3 is magical, then two of them would be twice as nice, right? Plussed, even. Here I present Walt Disney's own exclusive Club 33 - named after (according to the two stories) the address of the club (located at 33 Royal St. in New Orleans Square in Disneyland) or the 33 corporate sponsors of Disneyland when the club opened in 1966-67. You decide.

Let me offer up a different theory. Club 33 exists because Walt himself (along with Winston Churchill, John Adams, Buzz Aldrin, and a host of others, if you believe the list) was a 33rd Degree Mason. The highest of the order, and privy to all sorts of historical secrets, Walt probably designed both parks as giant maps to Masonic and Templar treasures. 

And what better way to hide those secrets than with grinning cartoon mascots? Seriously, who would believe a person ranting about the secrets of the Founding Fathers, along with the true Grail Legends and location of the hidden Templar treasure, if he or she told you that everything was revealed by following the Hidden Mickeys at the Disney Resorts, or by analyzing the motions of the little audio-animatronic children on the It's A Small World ride, correlating them to astrological charts, and then discovering that the ultimate answer in in the chemical bonds of a Dole Whip?

This is how Disney discredits Dan Brown, Michael Baigent, and the History Channel in one fell swoop.

So what is the real truth? What am I trying to reveal in this article that is so urgent that I will stop at nothing to let the facts be known?

Well, the first thing of note is that the black and yellow pin in the first picture is from the Cast Lanyard Collection 4 from Walt Disney World. It was released in 2005 and contains a Hidden Mickey in the lower right of the circle.

The second is the pin below. It depicts a skull wearing a Mickey crown, with a Hidden Mickey at the bottom of the pin itself. It's from the Disneyland 2007 Hidden Mickey Lanyard Pirate Collection.

In Hoc Signo Musculus

Special thanks to PinPics.com and the fine folks at DisneyPinForum.com for information on these pins.

Certifiable

I took yesterday off from blogging, but today I was met with much in the way of pins. (SO MANY PINS...yet somehow, never enough.) I was happy with that, and found myself bouncing around the house at the new and shiny arrivals, but there was also another package. It contained...

MY D23 MEMBERSHIP KIT!

That's right. Back in the early part of September, my wife gave me the gift of a D23 membership (still getting a foothold on this Disney delirium, I had no idea what this was or what it meant), and I saw that the kit with official papers, a card, and a watch (more on that in a little bit) would be arriving in 3-4 weeks, so rather than marking days on the calendar, I started reading about the D23 Club, what it means to be a member, and what I can and can't do with the bestowed privileges (that part is an experiment in progress). 

The club is designated as D23 in commemoration of the year (1923) when Disney opened up his animation studio in Hollywood. Members get a card (shown at the bottom of the photo above), a certificate signed by both Robert A. Iger (President and CEO of the Walt Disney Company) AND Mickey Mouse (though between you and me, I think the first signature may have been forged), and watch.

The watch itself is very interesting, as the face depicts Mickey as a bandleader (I've heard something similar in a song somewhere), and the only positions that are marked with numbers are the 2 and the 3. 

Get it?

Pretty cool, huh? But (I say to you, adjusting my plaid blazer, polka dotted bow tie, and tipping my straw hat) that's not all! 

You see, being  D23 member isn't just about being able to show off a watch and a club card to people in order to see how many different types of shrugs have been developed by people, or to have even those closest to you smile and nod in hopes of mollifying one's Disney-related madness*. It also allows you to receive invitations to events that regular Guests (and if you like any aspect of Disney, you're far from regular) cannot attend, as well as being able to buy merchandise exclusive to D23 members. 

Yes. In addition to being able to attend special events, my D23 membership allows me to empty my wallet in ways no one else can!

Of course there are exclusive pins!

Let's take a look at a typical day in the life of a D23 member, to give you an idea of the awesomeness that is experienced:

You wake up and spring from bed, still wearing your Eeyore footy-pajamas with the tail tacked to the partially-buttoned butt flap. As you rub the sleep from your eyes, a host of woodland animals fly in through your open window (because that's the kind of safety you feel, being a D23 member), and begin cleaning your house, preparing breakfast, and dressing you for the day ahead. You bound to the door, throw it open and greet the Sun with a wink (if only because it's polite enough to wink back at you, knowingly). Marching down the street, you sing a happy tune. If you stop, a passerby will pick up where you left off, or a bird will chirp the refrain back to you. Heck, you can even cross in the middle of a busy intersection and the cars will all honk in chorus to your jaunty little song. People shower you with attention and give you exclusive deals at stores. Every day is like your birthday, winning the lottery, and being anointed King Ralph** rolled into one!

Then you really wake up. Well, you don't really wake up so much as learn about Newtonian Physics the hard way when you realize that the song you heard was really your snooze alarm going off for the seventh time, and you rolled too far in the opposite direction of the clock on your nightstand and abruptly met with the floor. Struggling to your feet, you slip once again on what may have been a bag of Doritos or one of the many Disney vacation planning guides scattered all over your bedroom floor. People on the street don't so much sing with you as much as they yell at you, because you're trying to make it to the corner store for a cup of coffee and your somnambulation is causing you to get right in the path of oncoming joggers, cyclists, and dogs who are more than happy to ensnare you in the leashes by which they are leading their owners. The cars honking at the intersection? That really happens, and it actually does sound musical if you stand still long enough while you get your bearings. You cannot (and this is important to note) pay for coffee, energy drinks, or beer with your D23 membership - nor is a card depicting Chip and/or Dale considered legal identification at most convenience stores, bars, or gun ranges. 

However, go into a Disney park, Disney store (I'm sure there's one at a mall near you), and most Disney-related areas and flash your D23 card - and you will be given glimpses and opportunities to get things that no one (save for other D23 members) else can have! Pins. Film cels. Events. Tours. Pins. Books. Ornaments. Statues. Did I mention pins? 

These are the advantages of being a D23 cardholder. It's for those few who appreciate Disney...in a very mature way.*** No jumping around. No getting giddy and squealing like an overly excited man-child. This is serious and official stuff.

Right?

* There is no mollification. Not successfully, anyway. Once afflicted, a person will forever have Disney Madness, and start seeing Hidden Mickeys in clouds, bowls of cereal, and (so help me) even bank statements.

** I have never seen this movie. I just assume (hopefully) that it's about a man who, because he witnessed something to do with Roseanne Barr in the late-80s, was granted royalty status and all the Burger King meals he could eat, as reparation for his suffering.

***Like Peek Freans