Disney Snowglobes Q & A

Linda writes in with the following:

"Hi, I bought my grand daughter a Tinkerbell snowglobe for christmas 2007. It got broke and I can't find another one anywhere. It was a purple flower pot. It had lite and dark purple flowers. Tink was sitting holding the flower stems and the flowers came out of the top of the globe. Was it a christmas special or maybe old inventory? There is no name or number on the bottom. I got it at the disney store in Sarasota, Fl."

Hi Linda, Thanks for writing. Is that your globe in the picture? My records show it was available at the Disney Store and it was available at DisneyShopping.com at the beginning of the year but is no longer listed on the site. I don't think it was a special or closeout, its just that the Disney Store globes don't seem to stick around long. It may reappear, I have a picture of at least one color variation with a red pot and a pink and orange tulip instead of purple. Ebay is probably your best chance to replace it if that's what you want to do but there isn't one on there right now and I don't think I've seen one since they've no longer been available. I think it must have been made in a pretty small quantity. The stock number used on DisneyShopping.com was S6447U0002.

Star Wars Weekends - Parade Photos

Every time I post Star Wars pictures my page count visits spike up, so here's some more parade pictures from yesterday's visit to Star Wars Weekends.

Star Wars Weekends

It's rare for me to visit the parks on a weekend. I'm usually working and actually I prefer it that way because the parks are too crowded on the weekends anyway. The only downside to that is i always miss Star Wars Weekends at the Disney-Hollywood Studios. But, as it happens, I've been on vacation this week and was able to go over for a few hours today to check it out. It's been several years since I've attended and my first impressioon is...Wow! It's a heck of a lot better then it used to be. Characters are everywhere! It's also a heck of a lot more crowded then it used to be. This was easily the busiest I have ever seen this park.
Warwick Davis was an excellent host for the star conversations which is now held in the new enclosed, air-conditioned theatre that was built where the Hunchback of Notre Dame stage show used to be. He mentioned this was his 2nd year of hosting the event and I hope they continue to use him. He did a great job. In fact, someone call sci-fi and tell them to give this guy a talk show. Considering his acting experience in the fantasy and sci-fi genres, it would be a perfect fit.

Also got a chance to check out the new Narnia attraction. Really short. But better done then the original, I thought. It's really just a walk through with a couple of short videos advertising the movie and a few cases of movie costumes and props. Since it's such a simple attraction, I can't imagine why they didn't have it open in time for when the movie came out. The guy playing Prince Caspian outside of the attraction really looks like the guy in the movie.

Toy Story Mania had at least a 80 minute wait all day and when I arrived at around 10:30 the fast passes that were being dispensed were for 7:30-8pm. The opposite side of the street has opened with a small newstand style shop, a western wagon serving snacks and a photo op with the characters. Way too busy to even try to get decent pictures of the new offerings.

Had a lot of fun, despite the crowds and heat. It's worth going just to see all the star wars characters running around.

There were no new snowglobes to report on.

WALL-E

Wall-E debuts today and according to the critics it is the best thing Pixar has ever done. Haven't seen it myself yet but I am surprised at the lack of merchandise available. I was expecting a lot of merchandise especially since there wasn't that much Narnia stuff available. I figured that Disney was putting its merchandise efforts behind Wall-E for the summer which was why Narnia didn't get that much.
Jim Hill recently wrote an article claiming that it is actually the Pixar movie Cars that is responsible for the small amount of Wall-E merchandise. It seems because Cars is still so extremely popular that the larger toy companies opted to go with Speed Racer as the big merchandising movie this year. Apparently buyers at large toy companies don't have much imagination. And then there is Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Hulk and Batman this season as well.
The merchandise that is available seems kind of lame to me but I guess its because it all looks the same. Not a lot of variety when you have a film that pretty much has only two characters. Thinkway Toys has an action figure line where each action figure pretty much looks about the same but each Wall-E has a different function.
I'd like a Wall-E snowglobe, please. One with a simple base that has Wall-E in the middle of a globe looking up at the snow above him.

Cinderella Snowglobe - Sneak Peek

Velvet has kindly provided another Disney snowglobe sneak peek for us all to enjoy.

Alice in Wonderland Snowglobe - Sneek Peek

A sneak Peek at a future Alice in Wonderland snowglobe coming to DisneyShopping.com.

Snowdome sipper cups

Anyone out there collecting the snowdome sipper cups? I'd love to get photos of your collection for my book in progress. If you are interested in helping, please leave a comment with your email address so I can contact you. I will not post your message and your email address will be seen by nobody but me.

I Didn't see it on Ebay

A site I usually forget about but then remember when I am looking for something to post about is the Hake's auction site. This link will take you to 321 items of mostly vintage Disneyana that was sold in their latest auction. Lots of interesting stuff I will never be able to afford, but still loads of fun to look at!

I Saw It On Ebay

Time for another thrilling installment of I Saw It On Ebay.

This 1930's Minnie Mouse cloth doll sold for $1,629.

This 40 years of service pin sold for $676.66.

This limited edition of 1000 Cars motor speedway set sold for $1076.52. Quite a few of these sets have been sold on ebay. They dont all sell for this much. The lowest I've seen is in the upper $600's

This 1930's store display of a Three Little Pigs silverware set sold for $555.55.

More Sneak Peeks at Disney Snowglobes

Sherlock Velvet found two more sneak peeks at future Disney snowglobes for us to enjoy.

Disney snowglobes - Finding Nemo & Thumper sneak peeks

Velvet writes in to clue us into these two new snowglobes that will be sold on DisneyShopping.com. Thanks Velvet. I like both of these a lot.

Disneyland Paris Snowglobe

Found this picture on ebay indicating Disneyland Paris continues to issue snowglobes celebrating their Anniversary year.

Mulan snowdome cup

Mulan seems to be the latest movie to join the snowdome cup series at the Disney Store.

Star Wars Big Figures

These new Star Wars big figures are limited to 600 each and will be available at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Each one costs $200 and they will be coming out in september, but you can order them now direct from Disney.

Rare Toy Story Snowglobe

I've seen this Toy Story snowglobe on ebay a couple of times but a recently closed auction reveals that this Westland snowglobe was a Pixar employee gift which explains why we don't see it too often.
I tried posting this yesterday but was unable to post a picture with it due to technical problems. sorry for the delay.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Disney Dads out there.

Personalized UK Disney snowglobes

Today, I found out that there are 2 snowglobes on the Disney UK site that I wan't aware of. If you type "snowglobe" into the search engine you get the 18 snowglobes I normally see when I check every day for new globes. But, if you type "snow globe" you get these two.

These appear to be mostly the same as the american versions, but the inside of Dumbo's ears are grey in this picture and on the US site they are pink. Also the personalization plaques seem to be done quite differently.

I really dislike dealing with the color variations because I never know if I'm working with pictures of actual production or a picture of a sample and they changed the color. Anyone have the US or UK version? What color have you got?

Disney Snowglobe Sneak Peek - Fantasia

Velvet writes in with another DisneyShopping.com sneak peek and tells me not to eat the turkeys in my yard. Not to worry, my backyard is backed by a wildlife conservation area which is one of the main reasons I bought the property. The wildlife is safe from me. Unfortunately they are not safe from each other and there are a pair of Lynx that hang around.
Anyway, isn't this a great Fantasia snowglobe? Interesting that they've created another hourglass one after all this time.

Turkeys

Hasn't been a whole lot of new information about Disney snowglobes lately, so here's a picture of baby turkeys in my backyard. Who's hungry?

Toy Story Midway Mania - A Review

Hey, Howdy, Hey! I finally got over to the Disney Hollywood Studios today to gon the new Toy Story Midway Mania attraction.

I've never been a fan of the Buzz Lightyear game over in the Magic Kingdom. It was a very big disappointment to me when it opened and I've never gotten completely over it. Cardboard flats, most of which don't even move? In a place called Tomorrowland? Blecchh!

Universal's Men in Black ride used the same concept but, in my opinion, got it right, using full audio-animatronic characters.

Now comes Toy Story Midway Mania, using the same basic concept and I was pleasantly surprised to find this is my favorite of the three. The game is fast paced and a whole lot of fun. It's nice to see Disney creating innovative rides again. As well as continuing to take audio-animatronics to new heights. Somewhere along the line, Disney went from full figured audio-animatronics to having mannequins with moving heads (great movie ride) and it's wonderful to see them return to making great strides again using today's advanced tech.

The ride itself is by no means an elaborate, E-Ticket extravaganza, but it is a fun, interactive ride that demands to be ridden again.

Gift shop? Surprise! There isn't one. You get off the ride and your back on the street. No gift shop, no picture to view, just back out on the street. I really don't like the idea of dumping people in a gift shop at the end of a ride but if there ever was a ride that should have that, it's probably this one. However, they still have construction walls on the other side of the street and I'm guessing there will be some sort of merchandise available before too long. Heck, a whole line of toys could be created based on this attraction. An interactive carnival barker Mr Potato Head. Simple games based on the ride like a bean bag toss across game and a LGM ring toss game.

The arcade business man in me wants to see custom made plush crane machines at the ride exit where you could win a LMG. That's something Disney will probably never do but if there was ever a ride exit for it to be acceptable it would be this one.

So anyway, had a great time, want to ride it again, the most fun I've had on a Disney ride in a very very long time.

I Saw it on E-Bay

More cool Disney stuff on ebay.

These Three Little Pigs were Disney Store figures and sold for $2,800.
This 1950's tin wind-up carousel toy sold for $1,277.
This Alice in WOnderland Disney Store figure sold for $1,340.
This space helmet movie prop used in the movie Rocketman sold for $1,325.
This Mickey toy from the 1930's sold for $1,325.

Disney Snowglobe - Indiana Jones

Hadn't seen this one before. A rare, Limited Edition of 300, Temple of the Forbidden Eye snowglobe that was sold at the 10th Anniversary Event held in 2005. 9 1/2" tall.