Vinylmation Limited Time Magic at Epcot

     This weeks Limited Time Magic is a special one. From March 18-24 guests can purchase  special Easter Egg hunting maps for $4.95 and then head off into the World Showcase to hunt for 10 hidden Easter Eggs. Once you have found all the eggs and marked them on your map you can then return to Port of Entry to get a choice of one of the Vinylmation Pairs 2 key chains sets.

    
      I was able to stop by on the first day and spend my day at Epcot so obviously the first place I headed was the Port of Entry to buy my map and set of int search of Easter Eggs. I started out in Canada and was beginning to get worried by how hard they were hidden until I found it can went on to the UK and realized they are not too hard to find. The whole search took me about 30 to 40 minutes including some extra stops around the world. When I returned to Port of Entry it had gotten more busy with a line to buy the maps and a line to pick up your prize which they had hidden under half Easter Eggs. The cast member would stamp your map and then show you what was under each egg and you got to choose, I chose the Donald pair since he is my favorite. They had all of the pairs except for the Cheshire Cat pair which I was glad I had already gotten in the past. 

This is the map that you are given along with stickers you place the sticker with the corresponding character that you found

    
     I believe this is one of the better Limited Time Magic's (Besides the Long Lost Friends Week) especially to help people get into the Easter mood and to reward guest and maybe introduce new people to Vinylmation. However one could look at this as a way to get rid of the Pairs 2 since they have been one sale and in the outlets, but besides that its still a fun way to get into the Easter mood.

Zero to Hero's

     A trip to EPCOT the other lead us to Mouse Gear like always to check out the trader box. Like always  we had no great expectations. When me and my friend go trading we always try to work together to try to find something worth trading so he went first and picked his two numbers with no luck and then it was my turn. I picked number two and the cast member pulled out a little piece of paper that said "If the guest chooses this number please call your manager" So she asks me do you want me to call my manager? Of course. I thought what kind of vinyl would they have that couldn't be kept  in the trader box and so we waited. After what felt like forever the manager came out with this little gem wrapped up in a clear plastic bag and before she could say anything I yelled YES! ILL TAKE IT! I was just happy to know what it was the monorail cast chaser or I wouldn't have really had too much interest in it or maybe I would just because of the trouble they went through because its really not the greatest looking vinyl but it is kinda neat once you get used to it

One thing I did notice is his glasses have no connecting brim?!

   

   

Star Whoas

    The day after my great day of trading led to a not so good day at DTD. Ive recently been in pursuit of Hans from Star Wars 2 which had lead to finding all of the Star Wars 2 except Lea,Obi Wan,the Chaser, and HANS! But anyway back on track this day I got another Star Wars 2 in hopes that this time I would get lucky. So I picked one up and opened the box to find a Tusken Sand Raider which I all ready had one of but I figured what the heck Ill keep him maybe ill end up with and army of Sand Raiders by the time I'm done with this search. So my friend took him out of the box and asks me. "What am I supposed to do with his hammer?" I told him to put it in his hand and he just gave me this look and said what hand? I said the griped one duh. Then he shows it to me a says. "He has two left hands!" And true it was there was my Tuskan Raider who comes with a hammer and has to have a gripped hand lacking one. I thought to myself how does something like this even happen? It wouldn't be a big deal if he didn't come with a hammer. BUT HE DOES! Yet again it got me thinking with the recent flaws of Furry Friends and Whiskers and Tails what really goes on over in that Vinylmation factory?  So if I got a Raider with two left hand does that mean somewhere out there is one with two right hands. But this ends my rant on that I just had to get that out lol. If any one else has had similar incidents happen I be more than happy to hear about it

Now what am I supposed to do with this

Trading at the Parks #1

     So a trip to Epcot and Magic Kingdom this weekend lead to a surprisingly good trading turnout. Our  day began around 12 at Epcot with a stop by Mouse Gear to check out the trader box with the recent trip to DTD and a poor turnout of traders from both D-Street and Pin Traders I was really not expecting anything great and just there for the fun of it. However this was not the case I traded my Mascot Pluto and on my first try pulled a D-Tour DJ Mickey... not bad but not really what I was looking for since I all ready had one for trading. However my second pull was surprisingly good and I was quite excited when the person pulled out Jose Carioca from Animation 2. It goes with out saying I took him with me which started my goal to get Panchito Pistoles when Animation 3 comes out. This would be just the beginning of my great day of trading. 

     After leaving Mouse Gear I took my usual tour around showcase and had to stop and ride The Gan Fiesta Tour staring the Three Caballeros to celebrate and also since Donald is my favorite character. After spending a few hours at Epcot I took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom in hopes to continue this good luck which didn't let me down. The first thing I did was stop in at the Emporium to again this time I traded my D-Tour DJ Mickey however both pulls was good this time the first pull was an Animation Fantasia Donald which I would have snatched up if I had not all ready had one. So I guessed again and pulled a Villains Medusa. I was never really interested in the Villains series but saw her and had to have her. 

   I had my friend with me that day so he used his Theme Parks Favorites Tee Mickey to trade and pulled yet another good one a Villains Gaston! Gaston just happens to be my favorite villain. So after we left and enjoyed the rest of the Magic Kingdom which sadly didn't include Pirates since it was down for most of the day. However before leaving that night I said why not stop in again since we had one trader left which I don't recall at this time and see what they have. The good luck stayed all day because in the clear box was a Pixar Mike! He just had to come home with me. 

This was our good luck finds of the day

     This recent trip made me think maybe the recent reduction of trading boxes was actually a good thing. Maybe it did help remove unwanted vinyls from the boxes.

   

Treasured Tails

We all remember the outlandish story of the Furry Friends. A series released and just about the same time pulled from the shelves before some people had a chance to pick one up or even knew they were released yet. I may get criticized for saying this but I think the whole thing was blew out of proportion just because of some painting problems, but lets get to the whole reason for this post. I happened to be one of those people to show up to the Florida Mall Disney Store in hopes to pick one up only to find out they've been recalled at the time I had hopes that maybe D-Street might just might have them but also to a fail no luck so I was stuck to turn to eBay. I was able to find a Trusty on eBay for a reasonable price just about the same I would have paid if I had bought on Disney Store.com however this was before prices skyrocketed after word was released that they would not be released. Anyway after a long week of waiting for my very own Furry Friend it showed up however what was in the box was not a Trusty but an even better vinyl the seller had sent me Oliver on mistake! I was very excited since Oliver was my favorite from the series but i could not find on for a cheap price on eBay. Ever since then Oliver was added to my favorites collection along with my AP Orange Bird, CM Mickey, and Park 8 Epcot map as I have stated in a previous post I liked so much I have two.

Oops Ive happened to leave my poor CM Mickey out of the picture, but don't worry you'll see him in a future post.

(Also on a side note to those who may be wondering my Oliver has no noticeable errors on it at all)

State of Vinyl trading at the parks

    Everyone gets to the point where their collection includes a collection of traders, weather it be doubles of one vinyl or just unwanted vinyls such as the infamous Big Baby. This results in frequent trips to the many trading boxes around WDW. Since I work at WDW I frequently visit the parks and bring along my bag of traders in hope of pulling a good one from the trading box which used to be true past trips would bring home great vinyls such as park 8 Epcot (even though I already had one I like it so much I kept the second one). However recent trips to DTD with my roommate has led to many days of disappointment. The boxes are full of open series that have gone on sale both at the parks and from nearby outlet stores. They are also full of extreme wrestlers and an occasional urban series thumb.


                              
                                           The only 5 keepers from my trading journey so far
                                         We had to save poor Dug

        With the recent decision to take most of the trading boxes out of the parks leaving only one at each park and two at DTD how does this really fix the situation? Even when trading the cast member always says there nothing good in here but your still welcome to try. My own opinion on this recent change is less trading boxes= more unwanted vinyls that will sit in those boxes forever. Even though recent changes have made it so you can chose two numbers but you have to trade might help the situation I believe they should get stricter with the kinds of Vinylmations traded. I believe that a rule should be made that makes it so only blind box series can be traded this would stop trading boxes from being full of soccer balls or theme park favorites. 

Poor Turnout in DTD artist signing

     So today turned out to be a slow day in the Vinylmation world. We arrived at DTD around 4:50 to get in line for the February 2013 calender series artist signing with Patty Landing. We arrived to Pin Traders expecting to see longer lines but was surprised to see no line at all for a minute I questioned weather the signing was moved to another time or place until we saw the sign stating this was in fact the time and place. People didn't line up until about 5:00 when Patty showed up and we were 6th or 7th in line with only 3 or 4 people behind us. I brought my 2013 calender to be signed and we were out by 5:05 and headed to D-Street to pick up the February Vinylmation.

 

       They had the Vinyl as well as the pin at Pin Traders but since I didn't really want the Vinyl signed and we had to head to the West Side to pick up tickets to Warm Bodies I got it from D-Street. Since our movie wasn't until 7 we headed back to Marketplace I was surprised when we passed Pin Traders as no one was there Patty was gone and it was just a little past 6 the signing was supposed to last until 7. Was the signing such a poor turnout that they decided to cut it an hour short.

    Since this was my first artist signing I really didn't know what to expect. If anyone happened to show up to I'd be glad to hear your experience with today's signing.