Welcome back to another Disney Top 5.
I'm in between Disney trips right now, which is to say that I'm barely home a month or so from the last sojourn to Walt Disney World and I'm already deep into planning the next one. We have more than the usual reasons to return to Central Florida. At the moment, both of my twin sons are down there in the Disney College Program. They are living the Disney dream; working in the parks and spending their free time park hopping, resort hopping and helping to spread the Disney magic to countless guests. Not having them around has been rough, but we know they're having an awesome experience down there. Plus…we get to go visit!
Something that has been painfully obvious from the photos our sons are sending this is that their old man's love of Disney stuff has definitely rubbed off on them. It seems like every week there's a different shirt, sweatshirt or jacket on their backs, new pins on their boards and new Magic Bands on their wrists. I can't imagine where they get that from! If you've been reading my articles here on MousePlanet for long enough you're probably aware that I used to write a monthly column called Disney Stuff. Each month I talked about all of my Disney collectibles, acquisitions and all the little bits and baubles that make me the Disney fanatic that I am.
We retired the Disney Stuff series quite a while back, but every year or so, I like to dip back into my old writing habits and share my most recent Disney pieces of treasure with you all. Some are from the parks on our last few visits down there. Others are from my intrepid treks through New York Comic Con or other comic conventions in the area. Still others are gifts from friends and family that know “exactly what to get Chris” when the time comes. I've gotten a lot of stuff since the last installment of this article a little over two years ago, but as always, I have to narrow it down to my 5 favorites so let's count them down with my Top 5 recent Disney acquisitions.
5 – Mickey Mouse: The Main Attraction Jumbo Pins
If you know me well enough, you know that Disney pins are a big thing for me. There are currently 4 pin boards on the walls of my basement with hundreds of Disney pins adorning them. I've been doing the Disney pin thing for a long time now and I still enjoy the hunt in the parks, at the resorts and most recently at the various comic conventions that I attend. In 2020, Disney released a series called Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction. The idea was simple enough. Take some of Disney's most beloved attractions like Peter Pan's Flight, Big Thunder Mountain and “it's a small world” and theme some Minnie Mouse merchandise to them. Each series consisted of a Minnie plush, Loungefly backpack, jumbo pin, key and set of ears. In 2022, they launched a similar Mickey Mouse line, revealing a new attraction and set of merch each month. Naturally, I gravitated towards the jumbo pins to add to my pin boards.
Three of the twelve Main Attraction jumbo pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
At around $25 per jumbo pin, I didn't pull the trigger on them immediately though. From what I've read, the Minnie series sold out quickly and instantly commanded high prices online from sites like eBay. The Mickey series, for some odd reason, didn't sell out nearly as fast. As a matter of fact, at one of the few remaining Disney Outlet stores in New Jersey I was able to snag two of them – Peter Pan's Flight and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room – for $5.99! That's a solid deal no matter how you look at it for any collector. I landed the third online at ShopDisney during one of their 50 percent off sales. Seeing Mickey dressed up to honor some of my favorite Disney attractions was a no-brainer for this collector. I've got 3 of the 12 in the limited series, but that's probably all for me…for now at least. If I happen to make it back to the outlet and they're still selling them for six bucks, a few more might have to make it home with me.
4 – Disney FigPins
Following up on the pin discussion, I've only recently jumped on the FigPin bandwagon. For those of you that don't know, FigPins are technically pins. They are painted enamel pins much like the above mentioned jumbo pins. The big difference is these are sold in stands and are essentially meant to stand on their own. You could remove them from the stands and pin them to a pin board, but I'm pretty sure the intention is to display them on their stands.
My collection of FigPins is small…for now. Photo by Chris Barry.
I started spotting FigPins at Comic Con and didn't pay too much attention to them. Most of the ones I saw featured anime characters like Sailor Moon or My Hero Academia or even video game characters like Call of Duty and Gears of War. That all changed when I spotted the Figment FigPin in August at Walt Disney World. I snapped that one up and that led me to the classic Mickey which I found at a collector's booth at New York Comic Con this past fall. I soon found myself over at the official FigPin booth where I scored this limited release Goofy exclusively available at NYCC 2022. If you log on to their official website, you can see that they've expanded their Disney line into all corners of the company's properties including Marvel, Star Wars and Kingdom Hearts, as well as classic Disney animated characters starting with Steamboat Willie and working all the way up to Raya and the Lost Dragon. Great! Just what I needed! Another Disney line of collectibles to accumulate! I'm in trouble because these are actually very cool collectibles and I'll be looking for the 100 years of Wonder Mickey FigPin and the Orange Bird FigPin on our next trip down to Orlando this spring.
3 – 100 Years of Wonder Mickey Mouse Figure
I'm a sucker for a Mickey Mouse figurine. That simple statement rings true if you look at the photo below of my collection of various Mickey figures.
I've got just a few things on my Mickey Mouse shelf. Photo by Chris Barry.
My sons and i were in the Thimbles and Threads shop on Disney's BoardWalk when I spotted the latest Mickey Mouse figure with the world's most famous mouse decked out in his purple and silver garb for the upcoming 100 Years of Wonder celebration.
The 100 Years of Wonder Mickey Mouse figure sports a vintage look and a shiny silver and purple outfit. Photo by Chris Barry.
I loved his vintage look and, in my eyes, he was a steal at $12.99. He's my new favorite Mickey on the shelf.
2 – Space Mountain Model Set
I started off this article talking about my sons and how they're living down at Disney, working in the parks and accumulating more and more Disney stuff just like their dad. One of the few downsides from a parent perspective is that Disney is, of course, a 365 day a year operation and the holidays are jam packed down there. This means as a College Program student, you're more than likely going to work through the holiday season and not come home. It was weird not having Casey home with us for Christmas this year. After all, he's only 20, and he's never spent a holiday season away from us. We knew that we would see him in January when we moved in his twin brother, and we figured we'd exchange some presents while we were down there. I was certainly expecting something from the parks and I was, of course, pretty excited about that prospect. He knows what I like. Leave it to one of my boys to get me something as a Christmas gift that I've never managed to spot on the gift shop shelves down there. That's a rare feat in and of itself.
The Space Mountain Model kit is a great addition to the Disney gift shop shelves. Photo by Chris Barry.
From what I can gather online, these attraction model kits are relatively new. There's Space Mountain and Cinderella Castle at Disney World and there's the Haunted Mansion and Sleeping Beauty Castle out in Disneyland. My Space Mountain kit was easy to build. It's really solid and has great details. It's a great gift for any Disney fan and it commands a perfect spot in my family room on the entertainment unit. Every time I sit down to watch some TV, I look at my very own Space Mountain and think of my son and it makes me smile every time.
1 – Br'er Rabbit Pressed Penny
How did something as simple as a pressed penny make the top slot on my list? There was a time way back when my daughter was very young that we got her a pressed penny book and that was our big hunt each day in the parks. But that phase came and went pretty quickly, never to return. I probably haven't pressed a Disney penny in close to 20 years. So, once again, why did this little penny land the top spot? As always, when it comes to me and Disney, it's the little things that tend to mean the most to me.
I have a long history with Splash Mountain and Br'er Rabbit in particular. The ride has been an all time favorite of mine and I'm very sad to see it go. I was pretty much alone in my love for this classic attraction though. When our daughter was four, she was iffy about going on Splash Mountain because of the drop. I bribed her with a Disney Princess pin set that she had her eyes on and told her that if she went on with me, we'd head right over to the pin shop in Frontierland and purchase it. Bad idea Daddy. She was terrified going over the falls and that was just about her last time on the ride. She did make it on with some friends years later, but still didn't like the drop one bit. My wife could take it or leave it and my twin boys were also never big fans of the drop. So, I typically rode my favorite attraction all by myself and it was a must ride for me on every single trip.
On our last trip this past January when we moved our son Alex in to the Disney College Program, I made sure to get one last ride on Splash Mountain. I knew it was scheduled to close just a few weeks later. This time, despite his trepidation, my boy Alex came with me. It was late that night. We were in the parks by ourselves, and we got to the ride just a few minutes before closing. I was beside myself happy to be sharing my last trip up Chickapin Hill with my son after riding essentially alone for the last two decades. We had a great ride. I bid farewell to all of the characters and, as we were walking out, I spotted the pressed penny machine in the shop and ran right over to it to see if it still had any Splash Mountain designs in it. I was thrilled to see that it did and I pressed myself a Br'er Rabbit penny right away.
This might be the last thing that Disney ever sells with Br'er Rabbit's likeness. Photo by Chris Barry.
I've collected some Splash Mountain stuff over the years, like pins, figures and my favorite little Br'er Rabbit Disneykin from when I was a kid. When they made the announcement that the attraction was going to close for good, I tried to get my hands on anything that sported the ride's name or its three major characters – Br'er Bear, Br'er Fox and my favorite Br'er Rabbit – but to no avail. Once it was gone, it was gone, wiped clean from the face of the parks practically overnight. I imagine that I purchased one of the last items that will ever have Br'er Rabbit's likeness on it and that's a shame. I'm not going to get into the history of the film and the reason the ride was closed. I wrote about that issue already. Suffice it to say that Br'er Rabbit has always been a favorite character of mine, Splash Mountain was always a top favorite attraction of mine and this silly little penny will always remind me of that last ride with just me and my son laughing at the characters and screaming our heads off as we went over the falls one last time. I'll cherish this little thing for a long, long time.
As you can see, I've acquired some pretty cool items over the last few years and there's plenty more where that came from. I've kept up my Disney watch and Disney pen collections. There's some great new books that I've been reading like 100 Disney Adventures of a Lifetime that my wife bought for me and my coveted D23 and Celebrations magazines. And I can't say enough about the massive Guardians of the Galaxy Lego set my daughter got me for Christmas. But it was these 5 things that have been making me smile the most and as with most of my most treasured Disney items, they all remind me of particular moments with the people I love. That's why we collect these things, isn't it? To remind us of the magic when we can't quite be there.
That's all for this time. As always, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Click on the link below to share your thoughts. Stay safe and I'll see you next time with more Top 5's and more of that great Disney Stuff that we all love so much.
