Why I Oughta...

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 from the ceiling during "Let's All

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 many years we've been to the

 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 feeder, so it will be quite appropriate for putting together on the

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 close to the ot

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. 

Back in March of 2017, I posted a photo of a Storm Trooper Easter Egg-shaped Disney pin that one of the kids traded for on a trip down to WDW.  In that post , I mentioned that the Storm Trooper was one of six pins in the set.  Welp, recently, I was cleaning out my office closet and came across a little bag of Disney pins that included these two:  Darth Vader and Chewie egg-shaped pins.  That puts us at 50% of the set and gives us some new targets on our next trips:  find the rest of these: 1.  R2-D2 2.  C-3PO 3.  Boba Fett If you look closely, I'm pretty sure you can figure out that the Vader one is a scrapper .  The enamel is a little low in spots and that silver post on the left side of his mouth (our right) is standing out from the pin.  For now, I'll put these two on the pin board in the garage and keep a mental reminder of the other three. 

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"!?!

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.

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 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 .

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&

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 .  

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.

The Bird picked up this pair of 'safety pin' pins featuring Sully from the Monsters Inc/University movies and her favorite: Pooh Bear.  (Well...Ariel might be her favorite, but she's a princess, so that's different in her mind!). These appear to have been originally marketed to Hong Kong Disney Land so between the ratty enamel on these and that post on the Disney Pins Blog , I'm guessing that these are scrappers.  Doesn't make them any more fun to the girls, but they're still scrappers .