Why I Oughta...

I've been doing the 'throw out the number of items that match the day of the month' thing during October.  That means that I've turned to cleaning out my desk and office to toss unnecessary items.  It also means that I'm finding some things that I stashed away and forgot about.   One of those stashed/forgotten is this:  a Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort Pin featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse in their cabana gear.  I've always been a 'deluxe resort' kinda guy at Disney Parks.  But...can I say something?  I REALLY liked Caribbean Beach Resort.  The Skyliner is there.  We had a 'corner room', so we had windows on two sides (sorta), so it felt a little less motel-y.   We could walk to the Disney Riveria resort for breakfast or dinner.  I'd stay here again.  

My annual Christmastime Disney pin - this year's version is below - featured Santa Mickey Mouse steering a sled chock'd full of presents and lead by just one flying reindeer.  The phrase "Holiday Magic" is at the top and it has a pair of studs in the back due to it being a 'longer' pin (longer than it is tall).  This is an exclusive Disney Pin to the 2023 Very Merry Christmas Party and includes that note on the big green gift tag in in the sleigh.  2023 Disney Very Merry Pin - Holiday Magic I wore it on Christmas Eve and it will now go up with its fellow Christmas Disney pins .

One of the kids pieced together this collection of Disney Tsum Tsum trading pins that I found when digging out some of our Disney stuff.  You have 'Disney Parks stuff', don't you?   As for these pins....I don't think Tsum Tsums are 'a thing' any more, are they?  I never really *got* them - they were stackable - that was the appeal.  But, they're mostly hamster-looking Disney characters.  Not for me, but that's ok.  Same with Funko Pops.  Not drawn to them.  These Tsum Tsums *do* have cute faces, though.  This collection of pins will join some other Tsum Tsum pins on our big boards in the garage .    There are a few interesting ones in this group - Obi Won from Star Wars, Baloo from Jungle Book and the pair of birds that are from an Adventureland Booster set.  Juan the Barker Bird from the outside pre-show at the Tiki Room is pretty awesome.   And, so is one of the Showgirl Birds - the cockatoos who come down fr...

Back in March, the folks at Disney announced they were closing some of their stores as their business continues to transition to e-commerce.  That has only surely accelerated due to the pandemic.  One of those stores that was on the list of closures was near us - up in Rosemont.  Turns out, it is an outlet store.  And, I didn't know this, but Nat did (because she's been there a few times), they carry quite a bit of Disney Parks merchandise.  In particular, they carry Disneyland Park merchandise that has cycled through the park and ends up here - at the outlet with discounted prices.  Kinda neat.   With outlet prices coupled with the store closing, Nat went up there and picked up a bunch of clothes for the kids.  And, she came home with two things for me.  2020 Disneyland Park pins.  Disneyland was closed for nine of the twelve months of 2020, so it is no surprise that 2020 merchandise ended up at the outlet, right? The pins were ma...

Earlier this month, the fine folks at Disney Imagineering shared even more details of the newly refreshed entrance to Epcot that includes the original fountain, some cool ribbon lighting and a series of flagpoles that are flying flags featuring the original symbols of Epcot .  Seems like it is a lot of "back to the beginnings" for Epcot in terms of the entrance and I'm here for it.    In our pin trading, we've collected a series of the Epcot pavilion symbol pins, but there's one that we just came across that was new to us.  It is what you see below:  Now, we can certainly have a conversation about *if* this is scrapper (and it might be), but that's not what I'm here to post about.  It is about the fact that, based on THIS pin, I just learned that the World Showcase had/has a symbol that was in harmony with all the other ones that I was familiar with over the years.  What is interesting is that this story on D23 (the official fan club for Disney) doesn...

Here's another Disney Parks pin that was in the recently uncovered stash of pins in my closet.  This one, however, isn't new.  It is NOT on a card, so I'm thinking we traded for it off of a cast member's board or lanyard.  PinPics says that it is from 2011 (or at least the companion DLR one with Sleeping Beauty's Castle is from 2011 ). This one features Tinker bell and Cinderella's Castle.  It is billed as "It's Magic" .   The pin "starts" as a black and white line drawing of the castle.    But, when you lift up on the tab that has the Walt Disney World logo and pull, you get a little color magic show with a full-color castle with fireworks.  It is kinda neat. This is a pretty THICK pin and like I said, has a easel on the back: The easel makes it seem like this pin is best set up on a shelf somewhere, but you guys know that we have a board and not a shelf.  Seems like I'll give it a go to see if it sticks in the board and will hang ...

Here's a matched set of Disney Parks pins that were in that little stash that we came across last weekend - but these are a matched set of a matched set.  Of holiday character themed-mittens.   With the whole Bernie Sanders inauguration mittens meme,  I'm so *on* trend right with this post now, amiright?  The first one below is from 2015 Christmas at the Polynesian Resort (note: not yet the Polynesian Village Resort) featuring Stitch.  And the other one on the left is from the same 2015 Christmas/holiday celebration at Disney's Contemporary Resort featuring...for some reason...Tinkerbell in a Santa hat and outfit.  Both of these are on cute cards that carry the whole mittens-theme forward and are both marked "Limited Edition".  This is the most recent of the discovered 'stash' pins from Disney Parks on the blog.  ALL of my posts about various Disney Parks trading pins can be found here .  I also have created this running log of everythi...

Another day, another pin for the archives here on the blog.  These are all from the little stash that I found last week that had a bunch of unopened (and not put on the pin board) pins from a couple of trips in 2015 and 2016.  First was this 2015 Christmas pin with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee , then yesterday I posted a pin from Hollywood Studios that showed off the final year of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights in 2015 .  Today is the third new pin, but this one is from 2016.  It is from the 2016 Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival and features Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in what I think is kind of an homage to their topiaries.  I've posted about the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival/show before here on the blog - including this Tow Mater topiary from 2015 .  I also posted some photos of some plants from the 2016 festival  and we were there in 2018 to pick up this Passholder Magnet from the Festival .  I don't know how ma...

Here comes the second newly discovered Disney Parks trading pin from this stash that I turned up when cleaning out a closet .   All of the pins seem to be from 2015/2016 and a series of them appear to be special-event or limited edition in nature.  Two days ago, I posted a photo of a Captain Hook and Mr. Smee Holiday pin from the 2015 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party pin .  Today, is ANOTHER Christmas pin, but from a different park.  It features The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights from Disney's Hollywood Studios and has Santa Mickey Mouse and Santa Minnie Mouse along with a photo card that features all the little lights. We saw these lights in what appears to be the final year at the park - 2015 - and we were blown away by them.  Here's a few photos of our visit that I'm not sure I ever posted about here on the blog: Disney Parks, Entertainment and Products Group - DPEP - donated these lights to Give Kids the World Village and they had a litt...

One of the pins in the stash that I posted about yesterday from what seems to be a couple of Disney Parks trip in 2015 and 2016 is this Christmas pin you see below.  It is marked "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party 2015" as well as "Limited Edition".  It features Captain Hook and his guy Smee and has a ribbon bow affixed to the front of the trading pin: Looking through the archives, it seems that I documented a few of these back in the day - including these two companion pins from the very same 2015 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom  and these Haunted Mansion one from the same series , too. 

 I recently came across a little stash of unopened, undocumented (at least here on the blog) of Disney Parks trading pins from 2015 and 2016 that are mostly still on the cards they came with when we bought them. Here's a look at the little Perry the Platypus lunchpail that I stored them in: I'm going to pick through these and see how many of them that I haven't documented and will push some of them here on the blog.

 Just two days ago, I posted my latest progress photo of this 750 piece Disney Parks collectible pin jigsaw puzzle that I had - to that point - been working on for two weeks.  Today, I can say that I've completed my third Winter COVID puzzle.  See below for the full reveal: First was a 300 piece Christmas puzzle.   I didn't take any photos of it, unfortunately. Second was a 1000 piece Harry Potter book cover puzzle that I did over break. And third, is this Disney Parks pin puzzle.   This one is pretty disorienting.  It was hard to train my eyes to review the back of the box for the actual image because with so much going on, it was VERY natural for my eyes to just kind of wander around.   Up next is the Kodak one that you see at the top of the photo.  Yeah...Kodak.  Weird, right?  They went from cameras and film to, umm, puzzles?  Must be a licensing deal.  Well, that was a gift and is of backyard birds at a fe...

 A few weeks back, I posted a photo to mark the beginning of my second Winter Break COVID puzzle - this 750 piece puzzle featuring Disney pins that you can trade in/around the parks.  Well, I hit it hard out of the gate - while I was still had some time away from work.  But, then, reality hit and my days were filled with Microsoft Teams calls.  As with my previous COVID puzzles (a smaller, 300-piece Christmas one and a 1000-piece Harry Potter-themed one ) that I successfully completed, I set this Disney Pins puzzle up in the screened porch where there is a lot of light and plenty of company.  After starting strong, this puzzle seemed to just kind of sit idle.  Couple work stuff with the kids using my puzzle table to do their Christmas Lego sets and this one got shelved for a bit.   But, this past weekend, I picked up where I left off, reset a few of the pieces that had come up and got busy.  Here's where I ended the weekend:  Pretty cl...

 What happens when you do a couple of puzzles and your family notices?  And it is right before Christmas?  Well...that means you get MORE PUZZLES.  MOARPUZZLES.  This one, though, (as the kids say...) slaps .  <insert how do you do fellow kids meme> But...seriously....I am going to REALLY insert it here below. Why? Because, I read somewhere that if you start saying things that your kids have started to say, they'll start to think it is very UNCOOL.  So, I'm getting ahead of things with my kids and the phrase 'this one slaps'.   Well...back to the puzzle.  This scratches me right where I itch:  it is a Disney Parks pins puzzle.  Imagine laying down hundreds of Disney Parks pins and taking a photo of them.  That's EXACTLY what this 750 piece puzzle is.  See below for my photo of the box: You can find it on Amazon (non-affiliate link here, people), but go to your local toy store and ask them.  It is 18" tall....

One of the kids bought this Duffy pin during our stay at Aulani from earlier this year, but I just found it amongst their toys randomly.  But, I should have known that there was a third pin because I only documented two Aulani-related pins from our trip:  the O'lu turtle pin and this "Happy Holidays" Aulani pin featuring both Duffy and Shellie Mae . This "Aloha Duffy" with his Hawaiian shirt and luau necklace is going right on our pin board ( here's the first one and here's the second one ) in the garage alongside the rest of the pins we've collected. With my travels to Tokyo Disney, I've been able to bring home a few other Duffy and Friends-related things for the kids and they seem to love him.  Despite being pulled out of the American parks in all things but for the "Good Night Show" that they play at the resorts.  Oh, you haven't had your kids watch it?  Mine love it and this version on YouTube means we can even watch i...

I added this 'resort' pin from Tokyo Disney Resort on my most recent visit.  Pin trading isn't that big of a deal it seems at the Tokyo Disney parks and they have a limited number of pins.  The last time I was there, I grabbed a park-specific pin for both DisneySea and Disneyland , so this time, I figured I'd get something with the year on it.  The problem was that I didn't see any park-specific ones that also included the year.  In fact, they had a couple of character pins (Duffy ones, I think), but the only other ones were three:  the two previous park pins we already own.  And this one:  a 35th Birthday pin. So, of course, I grabbed this one.  It features both Mickey and Minnie and has the 35 in the middle along with [Tokyo Disney Resort] in the banner at the bottom.  Since the 35th celebration spanned 2018 and the beginning of 2019, the actual year isn't on here. I'll post this on the big pin board in the garage and try to get it...

A week back, I posted a photo of the Christmas-themed pin from Aulani that one of the kids picked out and mentioned that we picked up a few other ones.  Today is the pin featuring 'Olu the Turtle.  He's "A Disney friend of Duffy".  Who is 'Olu the Turtle? And how did he meet Duffy? From the Disney Parks Blog : As Mickey and Duffy sailed the islands on a quest to find the perfect birthday present for ShellieMay, rhythmic sounds of an ‘ukulele called to them over the ocean, leading them to a cozy cove and to ‘Olu, a kindhearted turtle playing happy music.  ‘Olu smiled and shyly greeted Duffy, “I play my ‘ukulele to make songs of love. Want to sing with me?” ‘Olu strummed a beautiful song for his new friends. “That will be the perfect present for ShellieMay!” said Duffy excitedly. Off to the party they went, singing the special song together for their birthday friend. He's exclusively at Aulani in Hawaii, so they have a full suite of 'Olu the Turtle ...

Before we get too far away from the holiday season, I wanted to post this new addition to our pin board:  a Limited Edition 2018 Happy Holidays - Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa Christmas ornament pin that opens up to reveal a couple of special Aulani friends: Duffy and his lady friend ShellieMay.  You Disney pros know who they are.  But those of you who are confused why Mickey the Mouse isn't in there?  Read this piece about who is the most popular Disney characters in Asia . We've been to Disney Parks in the past around Christmas time and because of that, we usually end up with at least one Christmas-related Disney Pin.  I've covered some of these on the blog before. Here's a photo and post about a Stormtrooper with a candy cane holiday Disney pin .   Here's a Haunted Mansion Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party pin from 2015 .   We also bought two other pins from the same party in 2015 including one with Mickey, Minnie and P...

Another post about a pin that I found in my office closet is up for today.  And the reason for posting this one, like the Easter Egg Star Wars ones is because this pin is part of a set that I've already posted about.  Tigger, here, on a circle is a part of the set that includes this Pooh Bear pin that I posted in April of this year .  This one, was certainly, traded-for by the Bird - our Pooh Bear SuperFan. This is the fourth Pooh Bear-related Disney pin that I've posted on the blog over the years.  The other three are: Most recently was this circle Winnie the Pooh outline one A safety pin Pooh Bear one This cross-stitch Winnie the Pooh one that is part of a set of four

About a week ago, I posted a couple of recently unearthed Disney pins that I found when I was cleaning out my office closet.  Here's another one that I'm posting mostly because based on the edges and back imprint, this is almost certainly NOT a scrapper.  Featuring Pirate Goofy and a line from the ride Pirates of the Caribbean, this one too is going up on the pin board in the garage.