The other day, I heard my son laughing hysterically. I love the sound of a child’s laughter (who doesn’t?), but I was curious as to what was so funny. As it turns out, he was watching some classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. These are the same cartoons that I watched when I was little. They were part of a new program called “Have-A-Laugh!” This program is splinter of the previously discussed re-introduction of Mickey Mouse (I first mentioned it in the article about Oh Mickey!. I recently spoke with Eric Caszatt about the Vinylmation Have-A-Laugh series that he designed.
“There are so many wonderful Mickey Mouse cartoons,” said Eric. “My first step was picking 12 different animated shorts to feature in this Vinylmation limited release mystery series.”
Eric based his decision on some of the top fan rated Mickey Mouse cartoons such as “Mickey and the Seal” or “Hawaiian Holiday” (which of course is my favorite animated short of all time – Aloha!).
Similar to the Vinylmation Toy Story series, the Have-A-Laugh series will have accessories.
“Accessories are a great way to enhance a figure,” explained Eric. “We will continue to introduce them where it makes sense. For the Have-A-Laugh Series, I thought the emu from “Mickey Down Under” needed to have a neck extender. This same neck extender will be used for the giraffe in the upcoming Vinylmation Animal Kingdom series designed by Dan Howard.”
Eric mentioned his favorite figure was Mickey Mouse in the pumpkin from “Mickey’s Garden,” which contained an accessory item (the top of the pumpkin was needed to complete the figure).
By the way, the figures Eric selected were from the following animated shorts (in no particular order). Each foot stamp will contain which animated short inspired the figure.
- Clock Cleaners (1937)
- Early to Bed (1941)
- Hawaiian Holiday (1937)
- Lonesome Ghosts (1937)
- Mickey and the Seal (1948)
- Mickey’s Garden (1935)
- Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip (1940)
- Pluto’s Surprise Package (1949)
- Winter Storage (1949)
- Mickey Down Under (1948)
- How to Swim (1942)
- Pluto’s Sweater (1949)
Besides Vinylmation, we also introduced a Disney pin collection based on these classic animated shorts in April 2010. I particularly like the framed set which featured a specially designed completer pin featuring Mickey Mouse and the Seal. It had an edition size of 200. The framed set and individual pins were sold at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort.
You can see some of these classic animated shorts on the newly redesigned Mickey Mouse page on Disney.com.
This leaves me with one question – which Mickey Mouse cartoon makes you laugh?
Comments
Hi Steven! I have a quick question for you. (& it has nothing to do with this post) yet I love the whole concept of pin trading. I haven’t done much in awhile since I haven’t been to Disney lately and because I haven’t had many pins to trade but I love the hidden mickey pins! (I was going to comment on one of those posts but it wouldn’t let me 🙁 ) Anyways, back to my question:
For the hidden mickey pins … how many of each are made? For example, lets say the Chip & Dale on a ice cream sundae hidden mickey (which was in one of your posts & I have that one) … how many are there made? 5 … 10 … 150? I’m just curious because I’m that type of person who loves to have rare type items … haha even if 1000 were made … it still makes me feel special to know that I’m 1 of the people in 1000 to have it! 🙂
Thanks!
–Brittany
Brittany,
I’m glad to hear you like the Hidden Mickey pins (me too!). We really don’t give production numbers for those pins. We actually treat them more like open edition pins meaning that we could always reorder them if desired. In addition, we introduced the Hidden Mickey mystery pouches a few years ago as a retail item. I have offered some rare pre-production Hidden Mickey pins for auction at previous pin events. Hope this information is helpful.
Those look awesome!!! I just got two Vinylmations at Walt Disney World and they are the Scuba Diver and the Cookie Jar! I can’t wait to go back and get one of the Have A Laugh vinyls!
this set is great, i love that accessories have been introduced to vinyls, it really adds character to them. my favorite from the set is also the pumpkin mickey.
While I really like collecting Vinylmation on the whole, I am not a fan of the “accessories”. I think it’s WAY too early in their inception to drag out the gimmicks. I think you can paint the figure to look like a giraffe, without feeling like you need to add the neck extender just to make SURE eveyone knows it’s a giraffe. THAT is the fun of Vinylmation, for me.
I am so glad that they are re-introducing Mickey back into the programming. It baffles me that Mickey was ever removed in the first place! I hope that this indicates a return to the great cartoons that built the empire that is Disney today! Please – more cartoons! More shows about the parks! Please, less tweener shows that only reinforce the materialistic, shallowness that is that age!
Have A Laugh is the best thing on Disney Channel. More classic Disney cartoons and movies please!!!
I love the Have A Laugh pins! The Mickey Mouse cartoons that make me laugh are Winter Storage and Pluto’s Sweater!
Love them! Can not wait to purchase some of these1 🙂 <3
They look so cool!
These are fantastic! My son just got a “Lonesome Ghost” at the Vinylmation party held at the DVC Disney Doorway to Dreams in Schaumburg, Illinois last weekend! It’s hard to find place to purchase the figures outside of the parks, but the manager of the Disney Store in Woodfield Mall says they’re waiting on the figurines to arrive any day now! And the Disney Doorway of Dreams just set up their clear plastic “3 to trade” displays and they have an opaque “24 to trade” they take out for special occasions.
My kids love trading pins and now vinylmations with the cast members at Doorway to Dreams. DVC cast member Steve Finney in particular always makes them feel like they’ve transported back to the Magic Kingdom. Being able to continue the trading tradition even when we’re not able to be at the parks is a great way to extend the magic all year round!
We’re taking another trip down from Chicago to Orlando this weekend to visit Downtown Disney and the Vinylmation Store. Unfortunately, we’re seasonal passholders so we won’t be visiting the Magic Kingdom or any of the parks, but Downtown Disney is the next best thing for kids who love to trade!
Kudos on a great job with the trading program and extending it for those of us that don’t live close to a park. We can’t wait to see what new things you have up your sleeve!
Thank you for sharing the magic!
Steve, Lora, Derek & Sydney
Love this VM series, one of the best yet!
I’m a big fan of early, black-and-white Mickey from the Ub Iwerks era… Steamboat Willie, Plane Crazy, Galloping Gaucho… fantastic! Those classic toons, including the early Silly Symphonies and Oswald (and Alice too) were utter insanity!
Cory
Voyages Extraordinaires: Scientific Romances in a Bygone Age
Comments are closed.