D-PINZ Reporting to You Live…

Steven Miller

by , Senior Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Walt Disney World Resort

I wish I had a time machine. I would have loved to be in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955 (some of you reading this blog may be saying, “Hey! I was there.”). For the rest of us, however, there is no way (yet) to turn back the clock. That could be one reason why I’m looking forward to the upcoming Dateline: Disneyland 1955 – Pin-vited Press Event. This will be a great opportunity for Guests to pretend like it is the opening day “press event” for the Happiest Place on Earth.
Dateline: Disneyland 1955
This hard-ticket, Disney Pin event will be held on Saturday, July 10, at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There are 55 unique items created for especially for this event ranging from individual pins to boxed sets to framed sets. Guests who attend the event will have the first opportunity to purchase these items, enjoy a continental breakfast and participate in trading activities.

Dateline: Disneyland 1955

I talked with Disney Design Group Artist Monty Maldovan, who along with Chris Chapman, is one of the art champions for this event. We discussed the design inspiration behind the event merchandise.

Dateline: Disneyland 1955

“We wanted a ‘modern retro’ look for this event,” explained Monty. “We wanted Guests to pretend they found a trunk containing all of these wonderfully nostalgic items from the opening day of Disneyland in 1955.”

To achieve this vibe, Monty and Chris used mid-Century pastel colors and those great geometric shapes from the 1950s in many of the designs. Those elements created a distinct difference from the other 55th Anniversary merchandise that currently exists at Disneyland Resort (see Michelle Harker’s blog entry).

Dateline: Disneyland 1955

Disney Design Group Artist Alex Maher created these amazing sculpts that will be released at the event. There will be 500 created in full color and 55 will be done in black and white. Each sculpt will contain two pins – the Disneyland dedication plaque and a replica of the Reporter Mickey sculpt.

“It took me a little over two weeks to sculpt and paint these items by hand,” said Alex. “I made four ‘paint master’ sculpts –- two color and two black and white. I sent one set to the manufacturer and kept a set to compare the final samples they create. I love Disneyland and anything retro Disney so it was wonderful to work on these unique items.”

Registration for this event opens today via DisneyPins.com.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog…

Comments

  • I really got into pins this past year and I just registered for the Dateline Disneyland Pin Event! Made the decision before the 4/3 early bird registration cut-off so that I can get the Early Bird pin 🙂

    It’ll be my first pin event – never even traded a pin before – and so I’m excited and curious what to expect; I don’t even know what a trade board or pin activity game is yet I’m going to attend with child-like amazement!

    See you there!

    Art

  • Love your work…and we would love to make the Pin Event in Disneyland, however we already booked Disney World this summer.

    We will be at the Grand Floridian the first week of June, and we don’t think we will be on site during any pin event. Therefore, we asked the concierge if we can tour the pin design facilities. They didn’t know of any such regular tour.

    So, just a request that you consider adding such tours, as we know that other people would also like see how you craft a pin.

    Thanks

  • Are there going to be any special vinylmations released at the DLR Dateline Disney Pin Event. I heard that WDW will be getting special vinyls for their Trade City Pin Event and was just wondering if DLR will get some too! Thanks!

  • These all look great. Seeing as I live in Minnesota, is there anyway to buy this merchandise without going to the event?

  • First off, I must say that the merchandise for this event is really awesome. However, I do have one question. When Disneyland opened in 1955 there were 48 states in the USA. Both Alaska and Hawaii weren’t officailly states until 1959. Now I know that when it comes to pins there is a small amount of space to work with. But my biggest pet peeve when it comes to pins with the American flag, is there aren’t the correct amount of stars. Now my question is this: For the Mickey Reporter Sculpter, the flag has 50 stars not 48 and was wondering if this is going to be changed in final production? I’m hoping it is changed but if not I still love all the pins for this event.
    Thanks so much,
    Katie

    • Katie – Wow! You have good eyes. Yes, we caught that one too. The final version will be correct. The black and white version pictured above actually has the correct American Flag with 48 stars.

      The color version was one of the original sculpts. As mentioned, Alex literally created it by hand. So he used what was available (the flag was actually a sticker – they don’t make many 48 star flag stickers these days :-). You’ll notice on the color version there is a white line at the top of the flag. That won’t be there in the final version. The color version will also have the correct 48 star flag.

      And just because … the black and white version will also have some different colors used on the flowers and text around the bottom to make it more “black and white.”

      Hope to see you at the event.

  • Awesome! I love to turn back time, the retro look.

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