This past spring, I shared a story on the Disney Parks Blog about how Vinylmation, Disney’s line of collectible vinyl figures, continues to evolve. I’ve enjoyed seeing the Vinylmation team introduce new and exciting figures for fans to collect. I recently caught up with Disney Design Group artist Thomas Scott to discuss a new collectible Vinylmation figure debuting at the 13 Reflections of Evil event being held September 13-15, 2013, at Epcot.
“We call this new figure ‘Meet & Greet Mickey,’” explained Thomas. “Many fans may recall that the blank Mickey Mouse shape, or ‘platform,’ as I call them, was the foundation of Vinylmation. We’ll continue using that shape to create 3-inch figures. We’ve actually introduced a few different platforms in recent years, such as Vinylmation 95, Park Starz and even Popcorns. With the fifth anniversary of Vinylmation in November this year, it seemed like a great time to try something new using Mickey.”
This time, instead of a blank canvas, Meet & Greet Mickey is a fully detailed figure which Thomas feels “will appeal to guests who love the Disney Parks.” I love the fact he looks like Mickey Mouse from the 1970s! The limited edition figure will stand about six inches tall, and will have an edition size of 500. Each figure will retail for $49.95 plus tax, and will be packaged with an individually numbered header card.
He shared a few more details about this new collectible figure.
“The first ‘Meet & Greet Mickey’ will be released during our annual trading event at Epcot,” continued Thomas. “The figure is colored to compliment this year’s event theme, 13 Reflections of Evil. As this platform was designed with collectors in mind, there are only a handful of additional figures planned in the coming year. Fans may see future ‘Meet & Greet Mickey’ figures released at events like Disney Trading Nights or the upcoming Festival of the Masters 2013 on November 8-13 in the Downtown Disney area at Walt Disney World Resort.
Thomas said the Mickey Mouse-shaped form will stay the same, yet the colors will change with each new release. No colors will be repeated. The figures are limited edition, which means that once a particular figure is sold out, it won’t be reintroduced.
Check out these posts for more updates about Vinylmation:
Comments
Is that the actual artwork or a concept of the figure and the artwork will be a surprise? I assume it’s just a concept of the figure.
I agree the hands are a little odd but I love it. I am not a vinyl collector, I only buy the limited edition ones that I really like, but this one is definitely in!
Will this release be available on line or just in the parks. Thanks
I do like the detail on this since I was never a fan of the blank dunny look. I was a collector of the “original vinylmation” when they were detailed and shaped like the Cheshire Cat with different color schemes. Alas they were not around too long. I have 13 (I believe there were only 17) and unfortunately the 13th one was the all black version and I have had bad luck ever since. I am hoping to discover more to break the curse. I do agree with some of the others that there needs to be a traditional Mickey colorization. I am interested to see where this collection goes but will not jump in immediately for fear that, like before, it get cancelled too soon.
It does make more sense after reading Eric’s comment but I still don’t like it and it has nothing to do with the hands :o) But that’s why there is so much merchandise to choose from – everyone has different tastes. I definitely will be passing on this one. Sorry Mickey.
I like the idea of the color changing and the color scheme….but I think it really goes beyond what everyone has learned to accept as a vinylmation. Evolution is good but maybe there needs to be a new subcategory.
I really like it. Eric hit the nail on the head, this is “Meet & Greet Mickey” a plastic version of an older walk around character, brilliant.
The hands. I dunno…this thing just looks creepy. Maybe it the hands and/or the colors?
Being a child of the 70’s I remember going to WDW during that time and this figure totally rings true with my memories.
I love it!
I want one!
Will this be available online if it doesn’t sell out at the event?
Are only attendees of the event able to purchase these?
Will they be available in the park after the event?
I have a friend who will be there next week and I would love for her to be able to pick this up for me.
I hope you can answer some of these questions for me.
Thanks!
@Raph – Thank you for the comment. At this point, there are no plans to carry this figure online. Attendees to the 13 Reflections of Evil event will have a first purchase opportunity for the figure. I don’t have information as to if or where any remaining inventory will be released following the event. That answer will depend upon popularity of the figure during the hard-ticket event.
After MK opened in 71, Mickey had white gloved human hands for quite some time. The gloves were so thin that you could actually see knuckles and outlines of fingernails and tendons.
this figure has 5 fingers because this is modeled after the Mickey Mouse that would meet and great guests at Disneyland when Walt was still alive. He had five fingers. It’s actually a very good likeness of it. Do a quick search on the web and you’ll see.
I see it is being released in Florida any news on when it going to be released in Disneyland CA?
@Juan – The first Meet & Greet Mickey figure will be released during the 13 Reflections of Evil event this coming weekend. I don’t know of plans to carry this particular figure at Disneyland Resort. There may be future figures planned for release in California but not this one.
I’m totes buying this Vinylmation!! I think it’s crazy cool. If you look at pictures of Mickey Mouse at WDW from the seventies you’ll see that his hands were gloved and human-like. Also with so many people not liking it the Vinylmation is destined to become collectibles “gold”.
You guys are missing the point. The reason for the “human-like” hands/gloves is because this is reminiscent of a person *dressed* like Mickey walking around the park, interacting with guests. Thus the name “Meet & Greet Mickey”. It’s not suppose to be a representation of the actual character.
Agree with the above comments. The hands look very strange…they look like human hands! Makes it look like Mickey’s head on a human body. Like the idea of changing the colors and Mickey’s head looks great, but the hands just look too weird.
Sorry Disney. As much money as I shell out in merch, this one I’m going to pass on. Too expensive, and a bit too creepy (I agree with the hands statements!)
Although does kind of take away from the basic idea–
After all, didn’t the whole concept of Vinylmation originally start with those 75 white blank celebrity-painted Mickey statues that used to be outside the park, back in ’03?
@Eric – I recall the 75 Years of Mickey statues in front of Magic Kingdom (I loved the Tron-inspired one, of course). The concept of using a blank three-dimensional canvas has been around for a long time in the vinyl collectible and art world. Those giant statues, however, were not part of Vinylmation (as Vinylmation collectible figures weren’t introduced until November 2008).
I kinda like it. The hands are a little unusual for Mickey but I love the coloring. Will these be available online?
@Shannon – At this point, there are no plans to offer this figure via the Disney Parks online store.
I think this Vinylmation looks cool. Will I buy it? Probably not but it’s still cool none the less. Yeah I agree with the other people’s comments saying the hands look too human like, but if you guys search for images of Mickey from the years that this was modeled after, you will see that the meet and greet Mickey’s back then did have human hands, meaning they had your basic human hand but covered with a normal white glove. I wasn’t around in the 70’s, heck I probably wasn’t even thought of yet, but I do know that when something says it was modeled after something in a certain time era, I want to look up what it was modeled after so I get a better idea of what I’m supposed to be looking at. I think they did a great job in designing this vinylmation with them modeling it after the 1970s meet-and-greet, 5 fingered Mickey’s.
@Bobby – Thank you for the comment. You are correct in that images from the 1970s inspired this figure. If you are a fan of the official Facebook page for Vinylmation, you may have recently seen a teaser image for this figure. It featured a postcard of Mickey Mouse from the 1970s in front of the Meet & Greet Mickey figure.
Pass
I collect Vinylmation religiously but I may pass on this one. Seems a bit too far out for me. Maybe go for a bit more cartoonish look on next one?
Feeling kinda weird about Mickey’s hands. Too human-like. A gloved hand with puffy fingers would work better for me.
The hands, Mickey only has 3 fingers and a thumb.
That’s legit the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Also, the hands are very human like. Thomas Scott is my favorite Vinylmation artist, the Mickey head looks amazing but overall not my favorite work.
Hmm…not sure how I feel about this.
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