Why I Oughta...

 Back in November of 2020, McDonalds had a Happy Meal promotion with Walt Disney World that featured ride vehicle toys from the parks included in each Happy Meal.  The promotion started (I think) right before Thanksgiving , but by the end of the month they stopped selling the toys due to an error of some sort with the QR code that came in the package .   Of course, when they released these, we ran out to get a Happy Meal for the kids.  They gave us two of the same toy (Goofy) and one Mission Space toy (Mickey). The ones we have are marked "Walt Disney World" and the Goofy one is from the newly opened (at least...new to us, since we haven't been to the Parks since the pandemic hit) Runaway Railway ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  The Mission Space one is from the ride in Epcot below. You can see all ten of them here from WDWNT .  Wonder if they'll ever bring the toys back?   They kind of remind me of these Disney Matchbox cars that I have ...

Walt Disney Productions retail store sign, circa 1930s pic.twitter.com/0rR4dfbh5S — The-Disney-Elite (@JuoshM) March 17, 2020 I came across this tweet recently and it made me pause.  Not just because of the fact that it sits at the intersection of my interests:  Vintage Disney + Vintage Christmas.  But, also because of the description:  'Retail Store Sign'.  I found this post on Hakes Auction that talks about the use case of signs like this one .  From a description of a different Disney ToyTown sign : Double-sided 11x14" cardboard features repeated image of Mickey Mouse on skis, Donald Duck throwing snowball and Santa Claus pointing at large blank area for store to write advertising text or store name. So...the folks at Disney would give these signs out to retailers?  Genius. 

A few days ago, I posted a photo of a vintage University of Illinois Fighting Illini football 1984 Rose Bowl felt pennant and remarked that it was from my childhood.  It was (somehow??) saved by my mother who packed it away with a bunch of other things from my life.  When my folks moved out of their house in Frankfort - and we moved into our home in Downers Grove - they gave me a bunch of boxes and tubs loaded with personal effects.  Along with a collection of greeting cards from my First Communion and sports trophies, these pennants were stuck into the boxes.  There are a whole bunch of them that I'll get to, but today's post is about this epic, vintage Walt Disney World Epcot Center spacesuit felt pennant.  It features Mickey, Donald and Goofy all in their 'Rainbow Brite' costumes  and this one, too, I remember from my childhood.  I'll have to ask my mom if she has any memories of when we got this, but it seems that this *has* to be from the ...

This might be the killer crossover.  For me, at least.  This is a vintage Mickey Mouse Christmas ornament.  Sits right at the intersection of vintage Disney and vintage Christmas and is perfect for our house.  I was given this as a gift by Nat's Mom recently.  Mickey himself is in great shape and has almost no wear on him.  He's holding a big candy cane and some holly and waving with his other hand - covered in a green mitten.  He has full eyes - he's not 'pie eyed' - so someone with some history with Disneyana can likely date this particular ornament.  There isn't a sticker on him, but on the back of his belt there seems to be a little bit of residue that a sticker might have lived.  I imagine a 'Made in Japan' sticker was there, right?  I have a few pieces of Disneyana here on the blog including this Estate Sale Disneyland pennant (which...reminds me to post about something else soon).  The other items posted here are:...

We picked up this copy of Life Magazine that features the opening day of Walt Disney World in Florida on the cover.  Being Disney people and vintage/Antique Mall people, this seemed like a good fit for us.  There's a lot of little things to note on the cover including the front row of characters (See Pooh Bear's costume?) The inside headline is all about the east coast move:  "Disney Moves East" with Mickey the Mouse leading the marching band down MainStreet USA. The biggest spread of photos is below and is from this pretty unique angle starting with the Rivers of America and Frontierland in the foreground and you can see the Seven Seas Lagoon in the background.  A few things to note - Frontierland really just had a cul-de-sac and didn't go over to where Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain are today.  And the show buildings where Peter Pan and Philharmagic are located ARE HUGE.  Likely due to the perspective, but still. Filing this under b...

Back last Summer, I posted a 'one that got away' about a vintage Disneyland drink tray that I came across .  It was white, but had the state of California and a bunch of characters.   I admired the tray, but quickly realized that I can appreciate it without actually having to own it.  Besides...there are really just a handful of times a year (for us) that we could actually use a tray like this one. But then....we stopped into the Blue Sky Cellar.  It is in Disney's California Adventure and included a bunch of models and Imagineering stuff.  There are interactive cards to fill out, a video to watch and artifacts to gaze over. They bill "Blue Sky" as the first step in the Imagineering process. In amongst the artifacts was that black Disneyland beverage tray that you see at the very top of this post.  I'm certain there were a bunch of iterations of the Disneyland tray, but now we know of at least two of them.  While my initial thought was...

Right at the end of November, I posted a photo of a Walt Disney Comic book featuring Donald Duck on the cover that I had bought for a buck at an antique mall in Wisconsin.  Inside the back cover of that book was this rad Disneyland View-Master ad that featured the discs from the five realms of Disneyland.  Today is the third post all from that same Disney Comic book - this time another advertisement. Inside the front cover - in glossy stock - is this Kool-Aid ad.  Featuring that crazy-looking clown and the "Tell Mom You Want Kool-Aid" call-to-action.  It also features the value line of "5 Cents makes two quarts". A quick Google search reveals that this clown ad was commonly run over the years.  I'm guessing that this clown was also probably in their tv ads?  I grew up in the 80's with the Kool-Aid man running through the wall , so by then, they had retired this (frankly...scary) clown.    Also...Root Beer Kool-Aid?

A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of #188 Walt Disney Comics and Stories book featuring Donald Duck and his nephews .  Inside the book were stories about Donald Duck, The li'l Bad Wolf, " and of course Mickey the Mouse in "The Case of the Hungry Ghost".  I haven't read any of them yet, but will get to them soon (I hope!).  In the meantime, I flipped through the book and came across the advertisement you see above at the top of this post for Disneyland "View-Master". The photo at the top of this post is via Google's Photoscan app .  The one at the bottom of the post is just directly from my phone.  There's pros/cons with each one.  Here's a link to the photoscan version on Google Photos that is full-size that you can zoom in/around on if you want the details. There are a few other ads worth sharing, but for now, let's focus on this Disneyland one.  This is from May of 1956 - just ten months after the July 1955 grand opening o...

At some point earlier this year, I picked up this copy of #188 Walt Disney's Comics and stories book at an antique mall up in Wisconsin.  This one is from May of 1956 and is in good condition, but we're not retiring on this thing!  I paid just $1 for the book and it will go into the archives here at the homestead.   This is the third 'vintage Disney' item that we own with a few others that I've posted about here on the blog that 'got away'. The first are these Matchbox cars from the 70's/80's that were mine when I was a kid . Then there was this vintage Pooh Bear Golden book from a garage sale .   A prized possession:  this election-themed Pooh Bear glass from Sears .   Then this Summer, I shared this Mickey the Mouse back scratcher .   And finally, I found this vintage Disneyland pennant at an estate sale .  

I went to the Estate Sale that I've posted about recently on a Friday morning and took some photos of things that I've posted about here on the blog.  All of them, I was at least *comfortable* with passing on after saying my mantra to myself.  But there was one item that I wondered if I should go back for:  this Disneyland vintage felt pennant from Walt Disney productions.  After showing it around to Nat and her family, it seemed like I was drawn to this.  You can see that they were asking $5 for it on Friday - which I think (for me at least) is too much.  But, I went back Saturday knowing that they'd have 50% off of everything and more willing to deal.  The pennant was still there.  Marked down that 50%.  But, I offered $1 and they took it.  And now this vintage pennant from (what I think is) the 1960's is hanging in some of the blank space of my Disney pin boards hung in the garage .  I just tacked it up there for now to ke...

One last item from our recent Antique Mall visit and this one, too, is Disney-related.  Unlike both the Disco record and the Disneyland tray , this WDW Mickey Mouse backscratcher was something that I couldn't live without. I never knew how much I had to scratch my back until this thing came into my life.  They're a dime a dozen (or more like $10 to $12) on Ebay, but this one was just a couple of bucks.  Thus, it came home with us. But, the other part of this that I was drawn to was what you see below:  The Globe Mickey. If you turn the backscratcher sideways, you'll see that there's a "Walt Disney Productions" printed on the backscratcher, which helps date it 1 . There's a hole on one end of the scratcher which is just screaming out for a nail to be used to hang this thing.  Maybe down in my shop?  Or maybe next to the pinboards in the garage? Also, it is clear that the Disney bug has struck me when it comes to vintage find hunting, rig...

Up in Wisconsin, I came across this totally adorable 1 Disneyland "California" tray.  It is about one foot in diameter and super thin with a shallow lip.  Not the kind of lip you normally see on the beer trays like this Schlitzerland one . You can see the price tag on this one:  $18.  And I thought about this thing for a bit, but then I leaned hard on my collecting mantra .  I said it out loud to myself: "It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them."   And after snapping this photo, I put it back for some other collector to pick it up, love it and (hopefully) use it. I'm guessing it is from the 70's, right?  Like the late 70's?  It is in really great condition and *feels* vintage, but isn't *old*. You can click here to see the same photo on Google Photos where you can really zoom in to see all the details.  Go ahead... go over there . Ah, you're back.  Still have that Google Photos ...

Another weekend, another stop at a few garage sales.  And...another vintage book added to the collection here on the blog .  This one is a Golden Book titled "Walt Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Patch".  It has a 1980 date printed on the inside and with Pooh Bear being The Bird's favorite (or all time!) and him being generally a big deal in our house, I couldn't pass this one up.  This will make for some good bedtime reading together!

If you pause for a moment as you go under the elevated train tracks as you enter the Magic Kingdom and look to your left or right, you'll come across some vintage posters hung up that represent various rides around the parks.  This one, featuring Carousel of Progress - was one of about four that I spied on our last trip.  *This one*, however, was worth the stop and photo.  Why?  Because..."It's a great big beautiful tomorrow..." What's that?  Oh...nothing.  Just one of my favorite experiences at the Magic Kingdom.  Sure, the last 'scene' needs updating, but with the oncoming rush of various VR headsets in the news these days, dare I say that what is old is new again?  Could they just update the clothing and claim the thing that the kid and grandma are wearing on their heads are just Virtual Reality headsets from Samsung? The little plaque below the poster reads: The carousel of progress first premiered at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair...

We couldn't pass up this 'Winnie the Pooh for President' glass when we saw it.  I thought it was too much for something silly like this (I think they were asking like $5) so I put it down after admiring it, but..when you put all the pieces together, it almost seems like this glass was destined for our family.   Nat said we *had* to buy it.   It is Disney (of course) and is marked with 'Walt Disney Productions' - which this page tells us that it could be from a VERY wide range of 1939 to 1986 when they changed to 'The Walt Disney Company '.   So...why buy it? Let's count the reasons: Pooh bear?  Check.  The Bird's favorite guy in the world.  She sleeps with a Pooh Bear everynight. Political reference?  Check.  I'm a sucker for political kitsch stuff. And...it was sold through Sears?  And has a Sears mark?  Check.  The Moran's have a deep Sears connection.   This guy now is ours and as you can see fr...

My mom has begun cleaning out her attic and has started to deliver a lot of my personal effects to our house over the past few weeks.  The timing is great because we're having a garage (really...a "yard") sale next week.  At the bottom of one of the boxes that contained a bunch of childhood items were these three vintage Matchbox Disney cars.  Guess who I didn't really love?  Looking at you, Minnie.  Compare the paint job on Jiminy Cricket - and how banged up he is - compared to the relatively untouched Minnie.  Also, see that "TJ" on the front hood of Jiminy's Rolls Royce?  That's what I was called for a few years when I was a little one.  I actually don't remember that period, but I'm reminded every once in a while when one of my Aunt's calls me that at a family gathering. Don't worry.  These cars aren't going in the garage sale.  The Babe had asked recently for some 'cars' - after playing with them at her friend Mic...