Across the Pond – Mickey’s Circus

This edition is a bit of a “ramble” as it doesn’t directly effect the UK or Europe but after spending the entire weekend checking out people’s photos, tweets, emails etc from Mickey’s Circus in Orlando, I might have been thousands of miles away, but I still felt like I was part of the action as I could live through all the people sending out information.  It’s amazing how technology makes events like this, so much more accessible to everybody.  And for that, I have to say a huge thank you to everybody who posted pictures to Twitter, Facebook, email, Instagram, Carrier Pigeon etc.  I couldn’t have enjoyed this past weekend without being able to live through you all.

Anyway, I thought I would take a little “side step” for this week as there was so much news that I was still buzzing over them all, so thought I would just sit down and give my own views on what I saw.

First up, I loved how they popped new vinyls into the display cabinets each day, even if the first 2 proper days were meant for Pin collectors.  I was great every afternoon to see pictures being sent to me of what they’ve added and passing it along to the readers now it was a bit of a rush during my break at work to get the pictures posted onto the website.

The actual Vinylmation talk (which I was watching on the live chat feed from Destination Vinylmation while eating my dinner after finishing work) was a interesting thing since they literally just threw everything out there as quickly as they could.  I felt my pounds flying out of my wallet with everything they announced (except for the Crapsters Vogue).

So out of everything I’ve seen this past weekend, I’m excited about the Pixar Series, Muppets 3, Animation 3, Haunted Mansion and some of the Classic’s series.  But it is the Popcorn series that has really caught my attention as I seemed to enjoy every single one they have previewed and while I’m not happy with the $25 price tag, I think these are going to be very popular.

Obviously I’m also happy about Star Wars 3 and maybe Park Starz 2 (generally looking to see if I can get some of the first series since I only have 1, so I’m happy they’ve are about to come back to stores soon).

But one thing has really stood out from Mickey’s Circus and possibly Park 11 represents this problem the most, they are just throwing too many releases out, too quickly, and I simply don’t have enough cash nor maybe just as important, the space in my home for all these new vinyls.   I am now looking at Vinylmation in a slightly different light, there is no way anyone (without a pile of cash) is going to be able to collect them all, its time to start cherry picking.

I had already made a “rule” for myself to not bother with collecting Villains, Urbans, Crapsters (most people know my hatred of anything too cute) and anything that just doesn’t interest me.  I do however have the odd Urban or Villain that I really like such as Steamboat Pete, Runaway Brain and a few Urbans that interest me. But I feel I will have to be much more strict on myself with other series, out of the new series that got announced, Robots 3/Heroes/Myths/Rhymes are all not going to be going in my “want” pile.  Even the Classic Collection look very hit and miss for me (but I could be twisted into getting them all especially if they get released in the UK).

Will I wait for some items to be reduced?  Probably, John Carter obviously is a easy pick for these, since everybody knows they will be but judging by the speed of the releases of the Park series, they don’t seem to be hanging around long enough to be reduced.

We didn’t get much more information on the Park series other than for series 11 which is just out too quickly as I still haven’t completed Park 9 or the Park 10 series as I wanted to pick them up in a few weeks while I’m away.  I love the Park series and consider it one of the main series I would like to collect but to have to admit, churning out 5 series (7/8/9/10 & 11) in a 12 month period is just too much.  We barely have time to get them (especially if your not near the parks).

Mickey’s Circus has been a lot of fun and hopefully now its over, Disney will get back into the habit of announcing things as they’ve been holding a lot close to their chest for this event.

I would like just to close off by saying a huge thank you to everybody who was at the event and passed on their information via social media, we can all live through you.