FROM: Vinylmation 360 Published Mondays

Questions and Answers

Kelly gives us her monthly Q&A answers - Be sure to send in your questions to be included next month.

- by Kelly Firth, Sep 27, 2011

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Author’s note: If you have been looking for Vinylmation 360 on Sundays and wondering why the column was not available, there has been a scheduling change! Vinylmation 360 will now appear on Disney Dispatch every Monday.

Due to this change, all questions for the monthly Q&A column should be submitted no later than the Saturday night before the column is scheduled to be published. If no questions are received, a regular column will appear.
For the September column, please submit all questions in the comments section below or email them to me no later than Saturday, September 24th.

It’s that time again! Here are readers’ questions and my answers for this month. Don’t forget to start sending your questions in now for the October Q&A.

What upcoming sets are you excited about?
--Parker
Good question! A lot of releases were recently previewed at the Florida Project’s Vinylmation event. The Vinylmation team gave attendees a glimpse at a little bit of everything, from new Park and Urban vinyls, to an Alice in Wonderland series and more.

One series I have been waiting for a long time (at least it feels like a long time!) is the Haunted Mansion blind boxed series. It is not expected to be released until sometime in 2012, so I will continue to wait it out. Out of everything previewed at Florida Project, I am actually most excited for the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-based Vinylmation Jr. Series 6, due out some time next spring.

It will be interesting to see how they construct that series, since the Jr. Series line usually has 16 known designs and two chasers. The only vinyls that were previewed at the event were Dwarfs, but one would assume they will also include Snow White herself, the Prince, the Evil Queen (probably in Queen and Hag form), the Magic Mirror, and perhaps the Huntsman. That leaves at least five designs up in the air. Whether they will make the series with fewer designs or include other things too is my main question. They could always include vinyls based off of the dwarves’ mining tools, gemstones, and so on, or include some of the animals featured in the film. The poisoned apple is another possible design.

I do not collect the Jr. Series vinyls, but I will make an exception for these.  The Dwarfs that were previewed (Doc, Grumpy, Happy, and Sleepy) look great!

I’ve been trying to buy Lion King vinyls at my store, but they never have any! Do you think Disney will make these for a while?
--Piglet4Me
The Lion King series has sold really well at my store. The initial shipment sold out before I could even get over there to buy any! A week or so later they got one more case in, and I was able to get a few blind boxes.

Your best bet is to call or stop by your local Disney Store and ask them to put you on a call list. They can give you a call and let you know when they get another case in. Some Cast Members will hold vinyls for you for one to two days, so it is worth a try to ask. If they get very few of a vinyl series in and you do not mind not choosing your own boxes, this may be the best way to go.

Personally, I have no idea how long the Lion King series will be made. I am assuming it will hang around for at least a few months, like most other non-Park series do. The Lion King in 3D was not expected to do nearly as well as it did in movie theaters, and there is a mini-Lion King merchandise craze going on at the moment among some collectors and fans. I would think Disney also sees how well these vinyls are seemingly being received and will make more if need be. However, if you really want to collect something limited, you are better off buying it sooner rather than later. There is no way to predict when a series will sell out and, in turn, become expensive in the reselling market.

That’s it for this month! Check back next week for a closer look at one of my favorite vinyls ever made.

On the last Monday of every month, I'll devote this column to your questions and my answers. You can leave questions here as comments or send them directly to me.

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