Those of you out there on the west coast are especially fortunate to have access to Disneyland right now. The Disneyland Diamond Celebration has begun celebrating 60 magical years of Walt's original Magic Kingdom. I'm envious. I'd love to see the new nighttime parade, the Disneyland Forever fireworks spectacular, and Sleeping Beauty Castle decked out in sparkling splendor. As you can imagine though, the guy that writes a monthly column on collecting Disney stuff would also be looking forward to the special 60th anniversary merchandise. I don't see myself making it out to Anaheim anytime soon, so I'll have to live vicariously through the photos online.
The last time Disneyland celebrated a major anniversary, I did snap up some limited edition merchandise. It's hard to believe ten years have passed already since the Happiest Celebration on Earth commemorating Disneyland's 50th birthday. It feels like just yesterday that the kids were walking around in Walt Disney World wearing gold Mickey ears. The collectible merchandise for the 50th was pretty outstanding, and in my opinion the best place to find it at the time was the now defunct and much missed Disney Catalog.
I can remember checking the mailbox in anticipation of a new catalog just to see what they were going to release next—from monorail replicas, to artwork, to leather jackets, and everything in between. One of my purchases was a limited edition Fantasyland pin set. This particular set celebrated Fantasyland signs.
The set came in this simple box.
The cover of the Fantasyland pin set features the iconic Disneyland font. Photo by Chris Barry.
On the bottom you can see the Disneyland 50th logo as well as the edition size, which in this case was 1,500.
There are only 1,499 more of these out there somewhere. Photo by Chris Barry.
Inside the box are eight different pins representing the various signs from Fantasyland's storied past.
The pins are arranged in the box for display, and each one has a Mickey pin back. Photo by Chris Barry.
For Disneyland's 50th, the company went all out when it came to merchandise. The Disney catalog was bursting with exclusive limited edition items celebrating the long, wonderful and magical past of Walt's original park. They released pin sets like these for the other lands in Disneyland as well. The pin sets were part of an amazing collection designed by artists Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily. All of them were unique and put out in truly limited runs making them bona fide collector's items. Kevin and Jody's flickr page features photos of the incredible designs they have produced for the Walt Disney Company.
Snow White's Scary Adventures was first known as Snow White and her Adventures.
The Snow White shield pin features a heart, two doves, and a rose. Photo by Chris Barry.
My favorite pin in the box is the Mickey Mouse shield.
The Mickey Mouse shield pin features a film strip with Mickey silhouettes and an artist's palette. Photo by Chris Barry.
“it's a small world” after all.
The “it's a small world” pin evokes the international theme of the attraction. Photo by Chris Barry.
This sign harkens back to “A-ticket” attractions.
This pin resembles the sign posted at “A-ticket attractions. Photo by Chris Barry.
Disneyland's 1959 expansion brought six new attractions, including the Skyway through Glacier Grotto.
The 1959 Skyway pin shows the vintage ride buckets passing through the Matterhorn. Photo by Chris Barry.
I also really like the Sleeping Beauty crown sign that apparently existed outside the castle in the park's old days.
The Sleeping Beauty crown pin uses font like that in the film's title card. Photo by Chris Barry.
I'm thrilled to have the Fantasyland set, though I hadn't been to Disneyland when I purchased it—and, remarkably, I still haven't been. I still wanted to commemorate the milestone of its 50th year. As a Disney pin collector, I had to have these. I have a few other items from the 50th celebration and I've covered several of them here on MousePlanet, but I'm especially fond of these pins.
The Storybook Land Canal Boats pin only bears the attraction's name. Photo by Chris Barry.
To me Fantasyland is the heart of Walt Disney World and that's what inspired this purchase. I figured that it must be the heart of Disneyland as well and when I do get there, I'll want to head straight back to Fantasyland.
The Fantasyland insignia pin includes a stylized castle silhouette. Photo by Chris Barry.
Oddly enough, I had a tough time finding these sets currently for sale online. I was interested in value and perhaps buying one of the other sets; the Tomorrowland set comes to mind right away. Many of the pins seem to be available for purchase individually in the $10 to $25 range, but I couldn't find one complete set for sale. The original sale price for the set from the Disney Catalog was only $34.95. Even if each pin has an asking price of around $10, I think that bodes well as far as return on my investment, not that I'm selling them anytime soon, of course. They'll stay part of my collection until the 70th, 75th, 80th anniversaries, and beyond. Hopefully, I'll actually show up in Disneyland to celebrate one of those.
What do you think of this fantastic set of pins? As usual, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Click on the link below; let me hear your thoughts and I'll see you next time with more of that great Disney Stuff.
