Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the first Disney Pin Board that I hung in the garage .  Today, you can see the larger pin board that I hung above it in vertical orientation.  This one is about 2.5x the size of the original board and can hold A LOT of pins.  Two weeks ago, I picked up a couple of these large-scale cork boards at a garage sale for $0.50 a piece.  And they threw in another smaller one that I might or might not use (depends on how far we get with our current volume of pins).  I decided to put this one *above* the first pin board mostly because it is out of reach of the kids.  I contemplated putting it right next to the first, full board, but because of where our stairs are located, that would have put this second board right within reach of the kids.  The downside is that I hung this with screws.  I learned from hanging the first one that once full of pins, these boards get really heavy.  And that means that there's no way of hanging these things that will work -

After years of collecting, trading and buying Disney pins, it felt like finally time to begin to take them out of their various Ziplock bags and boxes and put them out in a place that we can enjoy them.  What you see above is the first Disney Pin Board that holds a variety of pins that the kids and I have collected over the years.  This board came from a garage sale and if you look closely, you can get a sense for where our collection is *going*.  Hint...look up.  More on that in a different post. If you care to investigate, you can click here to see the Google Photos version of this photo .  There, you can zoom all the way in and figure out what is what.  Try to find the "Pooh Bear Collection"!?!

On a recent trip to the V acation Kingdom , the Bird traded for this pretty great Pooh Bear pin.  It is a good-sized circle with just the silhouette of Pooh on it.  I've posted this other 'safety-pin' Winnie the Pooh pin before on the blog .  The Bird has quite a good Pooh Bear collection on her board that this one will go. 

Here's another Disney pin that the kids traded for recently on a trip down to WDW.  Part of a recent series including this Pumba one and this Stitch one among others.  This one, acquired in the past six months is - as you can see - from 2001.  Now, what would possess someone to buy this pin back in 2001, hold on to it for 16+ years only to bring it back down to WDW and trade it away for, likely, some scrapper?  Just like this one from Disneyland that marks the opening of Toy Story Midway Mania back in 2008 , someone decided to part with their prized pin many years after the fact.  I kinda get the idea of bring back pins to trade, especially if you don't come very often.  As a kid, your tastes change year over year or what-have-you, so if you have a lanyard of pins that you don't care about, I can understand wanting to bring them back to swap them out.  But 15+ years?  Wouldn't you just want to keep this one as a part of history?  17 years mean that at the youngest

Yesterday, I posted two Disney pins (Pumba and Stitch) that we had acquired some time in the past 12 months and today is another pin from that same time frame.  I believe this one was traded by The Babe off of a cast member's lanyard, but I'm not certain of the exact vintage.  Looking around on the Dis Boards, it appears that there's some speculation that these "Magic Music Days" pins from Walt Disney World carry *some* value - to some folks, at least .  For us, I'll lump this one in with the Disney College Program pins that we traded for last Spring as pins that were given out to participants of an activity to only end up being traded for by my kids.    It is natural to wonder if these all (the Magic Music Days pin above and the College Program pins linked above ) are scrappers , right?  I mean...why would anyone dump those pins for something that you can find on a cast member's lanyard?  But, I know from scrappers.  Or at least, I think I have a

The last time I posted about a Disney Pin was back in November of last year , but as we were sorting out some of our traders vs. keepers, I came across some of the finds that the kids had secured sometime between last fall and now.  I'll post a few of these over the next few days, starting with these two:  a Pumba one on the left.  And a Stitch one on the right.  Both of these are, surprisingly, not scrappers.  They have nice edges, strongly-printed backs and clear writing on the reverse.  They also are super smooth on the front with evenly-applied enamel. The Pumba one is a cast member exclusive pin with a "Hidden Mickey" but the Stitch one appears to be one that was either part of a collection sold at a store or maybe in a blind bag.  Neither of them are very rare - based on the prices they're fetching on eBay.

There is apparently an entire set of these small, annual passholder buttons that you can/could have scored at the 2017 Food and Wine Festival at Epcot Center this fall.  Eight of them , in fact.  Alas, we have just this one that we picked up at the Light Lab .  I'll stick it on the pin board along with some of the other "non-pin" Disney Pins like this "Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse" button we scored on a visit to the parks on Mickey's birthday last year and the  @wdwtoday Twitter button I posted about yesterday . 

We ran into the @wdwtoday folks at the half marathon expo where they were handing out these buttons - which I'm not totally sure I understand.  Didn't stop me from grabbing one, though. Is this a button that *they* wear?  Or...am I supposed to wear it in the parks to tell people that I'm tweeting things?  

The King of the Ball Tossers came home with this It's a small world pin from a trip earlier this year.  We have a few IASW-based pins, but they're mostly modeled on the little kids in the ride.   This is genuinely one that *he* picked out.  Without any of our help.  Which...I think was a surprise to everyone.   One of the projects I have on my list to kick off is pin boards hung up in the house.  Maybe in the basement?  Or in the kids' rooms?

One of the pin-types that I trade for at the parks are these Mickey head-shaped ones that you can see above.  This one, in particular, is of Buzz Lightyear, but they have them in a bunch of designs like cast-member outfits and various characters.  This one is the second of these that I've featured here in this shape, the first of which was this Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas .  The King of the Ball Tossers loves him some Buzz Lightyear - in fact - he uses "To Infinity...and Beyond!" as a rallying cry for just about everything he does.  Jump into the pool?  To Infinity and beyond!  Go down the stairs?  To Infinity and beyond!  But is the pin for him?  Nope.  Don't think so.  Going to go on *my* board, which I'm hoping we'll hang at some point in my home office. 

One of the girls traded for this Pirate Pete pin and I love it.  It is nice sized and not a scrapper, but it features Pete, Mickey's foil all dressed up in a pirate get-up with pirate Mickey.   It is technically not the ONLY Pirate Pete pin , but since this one is Pirates of the Carribean-related, I think it is a nice cross-over between Mickey and the movie.  No hidden Mickey, but that's fine by me.   This listing says it is from 2011 .

This one is more badge than pin, but it is sold in the pin store down at Disney Springs, so we'll call it a pin.  But, I'll also call it something else:  awesome.   This Jungle Cruise Skipper is - as you can see - Limited Edition.   It is pretty big and it has 2 backs on it, but that didn't stop the Babe from wearing it and getting a bunch of compliments on it. The Jungle Cruise is Nat's favorite ride inside of the Magic Kingdom and the Babe really likes it too. Especially since she's been an honorary skipper and piloted a Jungle Cruise boat into the dock. Here's the video from a few years ago:

I have a soft spot for Lady and the Tramp.  With all the much newer, flashier Disney films/releases, I think this one moves to the back of most people's minds.  But, a movie with a Spaniel and a Schnauzer as the main characters?  Couldn't hit me more on the nose in terms of casting.  Well...I think that Lady is technically a Cocker Spaniel, but she's close enough to a King Charles that I consider her my own.  And growing up we had two dogs when I was a small kind.  Skipper and Max.  Both Schnauzers.  And both were barkers!  Max was a good dog.  Skipper, on the other hand, I don't remember much.  He was gone when I was a little kid, so I don't remember the end of his life.  Max was Vic's dog and he lived until she was a Freshman in college, so I have much fresher memories of him.  Max was a gentle dog. So, when we encountered a Disney Cast member with a Lady and the Tramp pin on their lanyard, I naturally steered one of the girls in that direction.  Now, we&

We picked up another Resort-specific pin during a stop at Disney's Yacht Club.  Just like the one from the Contemporary earlier this year .  Or the Port Orleans Riverside one .   This one has Mickey wearing his best beach/old-timey-boardwalk/sailor gear and seems to fit the vibe that the resort puts off.  Now that we're settled in, it seems like we should be doing something in the house with these pins and the various pin boards that are laying around in my office.  The resort-specific section would

That's Elliott from Pete's Dragon on a Hidden Mickey Cast Member's lanyard pin that one of the girls traded for at Disney's Yacht Club with the greeter right in the lobby.  There are plenty of scrappers that we come across that are Hidden Mickeys but a close look at the back/edges of this one, makes me think that this one is the genuine article. Over on PinPics, it says that this one is part of a series that includes other dragons/lizards like Mushu, Malificent , Figment  (and Figment chaser, which we own and that I've posted a photo of on the blog ), and Madame Mim .  

The Babe traded for this Tinkerbell Disney Pin that has [June] on it and must be part of a monthly series of pins, right?  There's limited information that I can find on the pin.  I've turned to my usual source of eBay and while there's other J une birthstone-related Tinkerbell pins , this one just turns up some generic descriptions.   PinPics isn't any more help as they don't have this one in their archives . This pin is interesting for the big pearl on it - and the dimension that it adds.  The pearl is about 1/2" raised off the pin, so this is one of the larger pins that we've ever scored - and this one was traded for from the boat guys at the International Gateway outside the backdoor of Epcot .   There are a few pins that we've traded for over the years that stand out in terms of being 'good finds'.  This one ranks up there.  Along with this vintage Polynesian Christmas one (that I don't seem to have posted) or this Minnie Mous

Last week, I posted a photo of the Tokyo DisneySea pin that I picked up on my trip there for one of the girl's collection.  Today, here's the companion Tokyo Disneyland pin for the other girl.  They're very close in terms of looks and this was, as far as I could tell the only version of the park-centric pins that were available.  (at least in the store I was in at DisneySea) The cards on these are plastic, so that's a big difference between these Tokyo Disney pins and the domestic ones sold in the US parks.  Also, the backs are quite different as each of these has the specific park listed on the backs, which is kind of neat.  I bought another pin (non-park-specific) and that back is different than these, so I'm thinking that the park-specific ones have their own stamped backs.

Over the weekend, I posted some photos from my visit to Tokyo DisneySea t hat showed off the Easter decorations and a bunch of the Easter-related merchandise available in the stores at both DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland .  I bought a bunch of that Easter stuff, but I also picked up some other items including, of course, some pins. I ended up getting a pin for Tokyo DisneySea the park itself as one of them.  You can see that pin above.  Once we get our pin boards out, this will join its brethren in the 'places' section that mostly features Resorts/hotels like the Contemporary pin in posted at the beginning of April  or the holiday-themed resort pins we picked up on our 2015 Christmas trip .  This might be the first park-specific pin that we've bought, although I believe we've traded for some park-specific pins over time. You can see the full post archives of various Disney pins here on the blog and once we get the pin boards and full pin sets out of storage, I&

Just like the Port Orleans Riverside pin that I posted here on the blog in late February , above you'll find a Disney's Contemporary Resort pin that we picked up on our recent trip down to WDW.  I typically try to get the pin from the resort we stayed at during our trips, but sometimes it ends up being a holiday- inspired version like this Chip and Dale Christmas one from the Polynesian from the holidays in late 2015.   I kinda love how they've included the monorail buzzing around from the side of the hotel in this pin and at first, I didn't love the Contemporary.  What..with the real lack of theme-ing, right?  Well, I've learned to really like it...and not just for the easy walk to the Magic Kingdom.  (But, that is preetay, preetay, preetay nice, right??) Turns out, my parents stayed at the Contemporary during the first year of existence when they took my two oldest sisters down to WDW for a trip in 1971 during the inaugural year.  That's kinda awesome, r

This is - what I think will be - the final pin post for a bit as I settle back in.  But this one might be the best?  I mean....who doesn't love the Millennium Falcon and a bit of 'space-age' iconography? One of the girls traded for this but it might not end up on their board.  Let's leave it at that.