The Museum of Pin-tiquities Trip Report

Because we wanted (i) a photo opportunity and a (ii) video opportunity. I was supposed to take still photos, and he was supposed to take videos. We have stills, but no video, obviously. Besides, it was a very rough ride due to the weather, and I think even if he went up, he will need to hold on with both hands. On the way down, I was yelling at him that he should not bring the camcorder with him, before I was told that they shut down the ride.

I just got home in Chicago, and the temperature is around 61 F! This is July??!!

Zz.

On our last day at WDW, we spent the morning at DHS. Did ToT, Indiana Jones (a cast member got hurt in the show and they had to stop it for a few minutes), RnRR, Muppet Vision 3D, and of course, our favorite activity, the Animation Academy.

Now, when we walked in, the animator told us that Mickey hadn't been drawn yet that day, so we will draw Mickey. I was kinda disappointed because I was hoping for a character that I haven't drawn yet. But that disappointment was short-lived. It turns out that we would be drawing the Socerer Mickey!

And this is my first attempt at Socerer Mickey.

After we did that, we decided to see if Socerer Mickey was there next door for the Meet and Greet. It would be perfect to get him to autograph it. He was, but the line was VERY long, and we had to leave from the park and head straight to the airport to catch our flight home. So we had to leave without getting Mickey's autograph.

Zz.

I can't believe it either. It always goes too fast. Now December 1st feels like 151 days away!

Zz.

Well, work harder.

Y'know, it would be nice to meet up with someone from here. Anyone planning on being at WDW between Dec. 1 and 9? We could meet up at the Animation Academy!

Zz.

So these are the pin I got from the pin event. They do not include pins I traded with other pin traders at the event. These are pins that we received either as part of attending the event, or the ones we purchased from the pin list released for this event.

This first group of pins are part of what we get for attending the event. The top row of pins (the smaller individual pins) are what we get when we picked up our registration package. The top 2 on the left were the welcome pins, and the top right is the "early bird" pin, i.e. if you registered before their early-bird deadline. I don't collect Tink, so that pin is going right into my trading pile! But the two welcome pins are quite good, so I'm keeping those. The remaining 2 boxed pins are the parting gifts. One is a 4-pin set, while the other is a jumbo pin.

The remaining pins below are all pins that we selected to buy AND got selected by the Random Selection Process to GET TO BUY them. Many of these are of low edition number, so not everyone attending the event gets a change to buy them.

This first group consists of the Mickey pins. The top left pin is the logo pin for this event. My favorite is Mickey as Galileo (bottom right).

We collect Donald, so of course, there had to be Donald pins. The sundial Donald on the left is my favorite.

Another collection that we have, although not as "serious" as the Donald collection, is Chip 'N Dale. The top left is the Pinbassador Chip 'N Dale pin, which was one of the more difficult pins to get at the pin event. While it isn't as sought after as the Figment Pinbassador pin, it was still not easy to find, and was sold out by the middle of the event. It is also my favorite in this collection. Why is it such a sought-after pin? There's plenty of humor in it for many pin collectors. In the pin, Chip 'N Dale excavated the notorious Millennium 2000 pin. This Millennium pin is the bane of many pin collectors, because Disney made so many of them, and it because notorious because one used to be able to find them for $1 a piece being dumped on ebay. No pin collectors wanted them. So there was a tongue-in-cheek humor with this pinbassador pin.

This is what I called my miscellaneous pile. They are pins that do not belong to any of our existing collection, but we bought them simply because we like the design, and who knows, one day, they'll make good traders if we decide not to keep them. My favorite is on the far right, which is a vase with picture of the hitchiking ghosts.

This pin set is contained in a box that looks like a diary. It tries to look like an entry in a diary, and there are 5 pins in it. We got them because it has an "egyptian" motif, and we are trying to make a frame with nothing but egyptian themed pins. So these pins will fit into that frame.

Continuing with the egyptian motif, this one is fairly obvious. The box looks like a Mickey sacarphogus, while the inside contains 3 pins of Mickey, Goofy, and Donald sacarphogus (sacarphogi?).

This next jumbo pin is my most favorite. It is Mickey, as a chemist (complete with safety glasses), in front of the period table of pins!

The last pin that I showed was one of the most sought-after pin at the event, and I can see why. It is one of the most intricately-designed pin I've ever seen. It is the Dream Machine, and has both Figment, and the Dreamfinder. When the catalog of the pins for the event came out, many of us predicted that this could be the IT pin at the event (very much like Mickey as Scoop Sanderson was the IT pin at the 2007 event). Now, I don't collect anything Figment, etc., so there was no reason for me to get this pin. But still, I put this as #1 in my first RSP. Why? Because I was going to SELL IT if I got it!

Let's just say that even before I saw the pin, I was getting offers three times the amount I paid for it. And that, I think, was considered as someone on the average end of the range of offers. If I sat on it, I'd probably could get a bit more. But still, I didn't want to hang on to it too long, and the person who made the offer was a good friend. So I have sold it off, which means that this super jumbo pin is no longer in my posession as of yesterday.

So those were the pin that I got from the pin event catalog. Of course, during the event, I made a lot of pin trades with other pin collectors. I think I got a good haul over all from not only the event, but also during the whole trip. I'll try to post later some highlight pins that I got.

Zz.

Thank you.

The Dream Machine jumbo pin has an LE of only 200, so not everyone could get it. In fact, I got offered quite a bit more money for it during the early registration by someone. But since I've already promised that if I decided to sell the pin, I'll sell it to a friend of mine, I didn't take up that offer. So it was already a hot pin even that very first day.

I haven't checked yet how much that pin is going for on ebay. I don't think I want to know.

Zz.

Edit: Oy, I had to look, didn't I?

The Dream Machine pin is going for between $99.99 to $189.99 on ebay!

While it was a wonderful trip, there were a few things that I found disappointing, the biggest of which is the complete lack of theming to the parking area at Kidani Village. Rather than repeating what I've written, I'll just point to you a link where you can read all about them.

Having chatted with other frequent guests, and even other cast members, I've concluded that I'm not the only one who have noticed these things. So my observation here is certainly not unique. I can only hope that Disney will do something about it, since it does affect the "magic" that it is trying to portray.

Zz.

Beats me.

The animator said that to make it looks like he's be admonished for something, probably by Yensid. So that's why it looks as if he's been naughty.

Zz.

I don't think they, or anyone else, know. The closest thing one can have a good count of is the Tomart's pin catalog. And Tom Tombush himself (the publisher of that catalog) fully admits that, as extensive of a listing that he has, he still is missing a lot of pins. (Tom has been known to attend one of our Windy City Pin Traders pin meet every now and then.)

BTW, I need to take a picture of my "dole whip pins" vest that I wore that became a "minor hit" at the pin event. There's a "long" story that goes with that, which I had to tell repeatedly at the pin event, because everyone wanted to know the reason why I was wearing a vest full of identical pins. By the end of the pin meet, I had strangers looking out for dole whip pins and bringing my attention to them for me to add to my collection. It was such fun!

I have a few more pictures to post before officially ending the trip report. And of course, there's still the possibility of producing a video out of it. But work is getting in the way of fun, especially after I've been gone for a bit more than a week. Don't you just hate it when reality intrudes on your Disney activities?

Zz.

OK, so here is the background story of my collection of Chip 'N Dale dole whip pins. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a cast lanyard pin, or what it is now called hidden mickey pin, released quite a few years ago. It was commonly found on cast lanyard and special trading boards until about last year. This is what it looks like.

Now, picture this. Walt Disney World, May 2008 (do I make a good "Sophia"?). The Expedition Pins pin event, which was a 1-day pin event (read this for my trip report), was divided into 2 parts. The first part was the pin games, pin trading, etc. that was held at Coronado Springs convention center. This went on until around 6 pm. At 7:00 pm, the event shifted to Animal Kingdom, where the attendees had exclusive use of Asia, and that includes full access to Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest. I think I rode Everest at night for the first time that evening, and rode it 4 times in a row! Most of you probably have seen my video on this.

Besides riding the rides and also having dinner, which was included in the event, we were also given 4 tickets to play 4 different games, in which we either randomly selected to win a pin at each game. The first game I played, I got a nice cast lanyard pin. I forgot what it was. At the second game I played, I got the Chip 'N Dale dole whip pin. I shrugged, because I already had this pin for quite some time now, and don't care for another one. So I already made up in my mind that this will go into the trading pile. I then went on to play the 3rd game. Open my prize, and it was another identical dole whip pin. I went "oh no! Not another one!". Went to the 4th and last game, and.. you guessed it! I got another dole whip pin! I got 3 identical dole whip pins, randomly selected, 3 in a row!

I couldn't believe my rotten luck. But then, something hit me. I could either turn sour at being given a lemon, or turn it around into lemonade. I also started wondering that, maybe, just maybe, this is an omen from the Pin Gods, that I was being given a sign that the Pin Gods want me to collect Chip 'N Dale dole whip pins!

So yes, boys and girls. Ever since that fateful evening, your ZapperZ has turned it into a "religious" mission, to collect as many Chip 'N Dale dole whip pins as he can get his hands on. In the process, he has told this story to all of his Disney friends (and strangers), and they have joined in the mission to find for me dole whip pins. Friends who went to WDW actually traded for the dole whip pins, and brought them back to be traded to me. Some even do not want anything in return, knowing of the sacred mission and the better plane of existence that these pins will rest in.

And the plane of existence that these pins exist in is on my vest. The vest made its debut one week before my last WDW trip, at a Windy City Pin Traders pin meet. It was definitely a hit, and the "oohs and aahs" that people gave to the vest that I was wearing certainly elevate the sacred stature of the pins being offered to the Gods. Of course, I had to bring the vest with me to the pin event. When I wore it and walked around the event with it, strangers from all walks of life never failed to stop me and inquire about the pins. There was this irresistible attraction to them, and to want to know the story of the pins. I felt that it was my duty to enlighten them of the way of the dole whip pins, and why I had been ordained to be the keeper of these pins.

For here it is, the vest of Chip 'N Dale dole whip pins.

As of now, there are exactly 40 pins, but my friends, it will grow, because it has been destined to. The Pin Gods have their design for me and until I receive the signal, I will continue to be the custodian of these pins.

Zz.