We’ve all heard of Christmas in July. A time when retailers try to squeeze a few early dollars out of the hapless consumer. But Christmas in… March? These are currently available at the IDA Pharmacy chain in Canada.
I don’t do holidays, but I do buy the occasional ornament. Hallmark does such a great job of creating wonderful ornaments that can be hung all year around because they have no link to a specific celebration. A case in point are these Hallmark Mystery Ornaments – Star Wars Characters:
Imposing, ain’t it! It has the same vibe as the black Monolith in 2001 – A Space Odyssey. Can you hear the Dark Side calling, or Darth Vader’s theme music playing?
Even the packaging is fun with this series. There are seven figures to collect. Three are common. Three are rare. And one is super rare.
“Hmm. Upside bottom, I am!”
Naturally I got one of the common figures! But he is cute as an Ewok. At first I thought this was Grogu from the Mandalorian series but the packaging clearly lists him as Yoda.
Could we at least consider him to be an actual Baby Yoda? Why not!
These figures are just 1 1/2″ high and come with a cord for hanging. Yoda has the Lucas Film Ltd. copyright on his butt. That may be taking branding a bit too far.
This is the fourth novelization of the Herbie the Love Bug movie franchise. The Love Bug, Herbie RidesAgain, and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, came first.
The covers for these books are designed in the same way with a bold yellow box with the title within. The picture will either be a photo still from the movie or a cartoonish painting.
Each Herbie movie relies heavily on a comedy star to push the movie along. There has been Dean Jones and Buddy Hackett (The Love Bug), Ken Berry (Herbie Rides Again), Don Knotts (Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo), and in this go round, Harvey Corman and Cloris Leachman. Herbie Goes Bananas was the fourth and last movie of the original series and the least profitable.
The book is a basic retelling of the movie with some black and white screen captures. The quality of the paper is deplorable and so the images are yellowed and grainy. But fun!
Did you know that Herbie was thrown into the ocean in this story? It was during the time he went bananas! And while there, did you know that he met Hank the (not quite) Octopus from Finding Dory? It’s true! And I prove it in my post entitled FINDING DORY Easter Egg – Dory and Hank Swim with Herbie. Yup. I was even able to pinpoint where in the ocean he was dumped.
“Walking” the Plank
I love finding links between media for characters like Herbie!
Below is a picture of my wife and me posing with Herbie in happier times:
Disney’s Hollywood Studios – 2007
I also have a post on the site of a rare real-world siting of the little race car! Check it out: It’s called Found Disney – The REAL Herbie the Love Bug. He showed up outside a grocery store in a little town called Leamington, ON. He clearly had some cosmetic work done!
I would give this book a 4 Out of 5 Stars. It does well as a basic dime-store novel. But it is mostly aimed at youngsters and so might not appeal to adult Disney fans.
From the 1960s onward, the rotary dial on telephones was gradually supplanted by DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) push-button dialing. This new fangled way of ‘reaching out’ was first introduced to the public at the 1962 World’s Fair under the trade name “Touch-Tone”. This has become the standard layout for keypads in the form of a rectangular array of push-buttons.
I’ve been looking for one of these Mickey Mouse Touch-Tone Phones for years and now have finally added one to my collection:
Poor Mickey was quite beat up when I got him from a private sale for just $50.00 CAN. The man I got if from was a Landlord and the phone was left behind by a former Tennant. He is fully functional but is a bit loose from his base. This doesn’t affect the display value which is all I do with landline phones anyway. I’ve used nothing but a Smart Phone for telecommunications for years now.
A model in mint condition with the original box can fetch prices of between $100.00 and $150.00 US but without the box a price of $100.00 is more than enough. Used examples with any damage should sell for well below that amount. These Mickey phones are quite common so the price is modest. Other more rare examples can fetch much higher prices, of course.
Photographing this Mickey Phone from the back reminded me of my 2007 vacation to Disney’s Pop Century Resort in Walt Disney World. The property is filled with oversized versions of iconic characters, toys, and games. Such as:
This gargantuan Mickey Phone has a rotary dial. I also have a version like this in a real, usable model, which you will see at the end of this post.
Now let’s look at some of the features:
Hand CradleReceiverTouch-Tone Number Pad
The blank white space under the number pad was so that you could write in your own phone number. Yes people, there was a time when we old folks had to write things down so we wouldn’t forget!
So this is my collection of this most iconic of all Mickey Telephones. I have the rotary version, Touch-Tone, a Hallmark Ornament, and a small plastic figurine of Mickey using his own likeness to call Minnie. For more of my telephone collection with other styles, simply click the link.
The two phones in the picture above were sold by the American Telecommunications Corporation and made in Malaysia.
FUN FACTS: Although no longer in common use, the rotary dial’s legacy remains in the verb “to dial (a telephone number)”. I suppose it sounds better than “Could you push me a number, please?”
Funko has many different types of products on the market. The usual big-headed vinyl figures in display boxes, keychains, games, plush, and now Bitty Pops! What’s next?
Before we found that out, let’s have a look at this Funko Soda figure. It’s Mickey’s nemesis Pete from the old Disney Shorts:
Pete made his first appearance alongside Mickey Mouse in the 1928 Short entitled Steamboat Willie. But it wasn’t until later shorts that he adopted his red hat and blue coveralls.
The little disc inside the can, that I like to call a Pog, tells you who the character is, how many of the figure was made, and if you won the Funko Lottery and have found the Chase. As you can see from my Pog, I did not:
Still, there are only 7,500 of this figure with the other 1,500 being Chase figures. So that’s special. I finally figured out why the amount on the can is different from the amount on the Pog! I feel like such a smart boy. It only took my about a dozen of these things to clue in.
It may not be because of Disney’s desire to be more PC these days, but Pete’s signature stogie, or cigar, is conspicuously missing with this sculpt.
FUN FACTS: Even Disney isn’t always consistent. If you watch enough of his appearances in the old Shorts, you’ll notice that sometimes he has both of this legs whole, and if he does have his iconic peg leg (hence his name Pegleg Pete), it can be on either side of his body.
There is no end to the Disney-related things you can find on retail shelves these days. The Mouse is certainly in tune with capitalism and profit, and we the consumers seem to like it that way!
So as I was browsing in a local store to kill some time, I came across these Disney 2-Pack ceramic mini loaf pans:
All three of the offerings here focus on a Spring theme. It may be a bit premature as it is only March, but one can’t fault them for their optimism!
All three have Mickey and Minnie Mouse as the characters of choice, either alone or together.
These pans are a 2023 product. They are dishwasher safe but not for use in the microwave. There are other warnings on the bottom that would be good to read before the first use.
Best Brands Consumer Products Inc. is the manufacturer.
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for his one-man stage show called Mark Twain Tonight! of which this album is a excerpt. He performed Twain as a character for over 60 years.
In 1967, Mark Twain Tonight! was presented on television by CBS and Xerox, and Holbrook received an Emmy for his performance. It was a treat to find this record of that show:
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. This album does a good job of introducing us to the wit and wry humor of this interesting man! Over the years he was praised as the greatest humorist the United States ever produced, but fans of Will Rogers might dispute that claim.
Now it’s time to stop typing and let Holbrook regale us with his Twain:
The Dreams of Our Youth
This is the shortest clip on the record but still gives a good glimpse of the kind of performances you can expect from the effort.
It’s worth enlarging and reading the notes by Richard Schickel from the back of the album cover. He tells us that listening to this album ‘is rather like knowing Samuel Clemens himself… or so one imagines’. Not having ever heard a real recording of Twain myself, I’ll have to take his word for it!
Holbrook performed in a special production as Twain for the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair for the BellTelephone Pavilion. This was the famous Fair that Disney provided so many iconic attractions for, like Abe Lincoln. We can imagine that Walt Disney himself, a fan of all things Americana, must have enjoyed Holbrook’s show!
Vining Productions Inc. produced this album in association with the CBS Television Network. It was manufactured and distributed by Columbia Records.
Bear in the Big Blue House is an American children’s television series created by Mitchell Kriegman and was produced by Jim Henson Television for the Disney Channel’s Playhouse Disney series. The program debuted on October 20, 1997, and ended on April 28, 2006.
Bear looks as good as ever in this talking and dancing plush version, although I think he could use a good brushing:
Bear was performed by Noel MacNeal. He was designed by Paul Andrejco. I always found the big furry bear to be charming and funny, but I have known some children who found him terrifying! I guess that may come from Bear’s tendency to stick his nose right up close to the screen and sniff. Seeing a massive animal ‘lunging’ at them could be the problem!
This anamorphic character is best known for his signature song ‘The Bear Cha Cha Cha!’ This talking and dancing plush is designed to emulate that performance. You can see it for yourself in this video from our YouTube Channel:
The laugh at the end gets me every time!
I also saw Bear in a parade at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2007:
This was the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade. For more information about it and to see a cool die cast collectible featuring Buzz and Woody, check out this link.
The Bear in the Big Blue House was absorbed by the Walt Disney Company along with the Muppets in 2004. This piece of merchandise was produced in 1999 and so is still under the Jim Henson Company copyright.
Today you can watch the entire Big Blue House series on Disney+.
Disney Traditions collectible figurines designed by Jim Shore combines the magic of Disney with traditional motifs of handmade folk art. Shore creates new interpretations of classic characters that are sure to endear themselves to the young and the young at heart!
Minnie Mouse is playing the part of Marie from The Nutcracker story. Marie receives a wooden nutcracker carved in the shape of a little man and immediately takes a liking to it. Minnie however gets a wooden nutcracker in the familiar shape of a little mouse:
Yup. She really does seem to love the little guy. Mouse. Mickey Mouse. Go figure!
The Walt Disney Showcase Collection is still alive and producing more figurines as I type. The Enesco company hosts a wonderful website where you can see many of them.
“Maybe someday they’ll catch him. Do you reckon they will?”
There is a world of hate for the Disney movie Song of the South and even more debate and controversy. But it remains one of my favorite hybrid Disney movies alongside Mary Poppins. I believe it deserves a place alongside other beloved classics and James Baskett more respect than the issues surrounding the movie has afforded him.
That said, and my soapbox firmly put away, I’d like to feature a piece of merchandise from an earlier time, before Disney wanted to separate itself from Uncle Remus:
I found this Little Golden Book at a local Charity Shop and just had to save it! I’m going to reproduce the entire contents in this post in an effort to preserve its history and give people a chance to make their own judgement as to whether the subject matter is problematic or not.
So with a happy bounce in our rabbit feet and our cares behind us, let’s get to the first of the three stories reproduced from the movie:
Br’er Rabbit’s Laughin’ Place
This is a completely innocent story. It simply shows how Br’er Rabbit uses his wits and imagination to escape a precarious situation. Now on to our second story:
Br’er Fox and the Rabbit Trap
This is another example of how Br’er Rabbit both gets himself into trouble and then back out of it again by using his wits and fast thinking! Now to end with our last story, the one that is more problematic:
The Tar Baby
The Tar Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881. The whole point of the story is that the more that Br’er Rabbit fights the Tar Baby, the more entangled he becomes. And so is captured by his enemies and needs to think fast to escape yet again. In later usage, tar baby came to refer to a problematic situation that is only aggravated by additional involvement with it.
But unfortunately, the reference took on a darker meaning in more modern times. Although the term ‘tar baby’ is documented as coming from a folktale of African origin, its meaning in America came to be used as a derogatory term for African Americans.
According to Wikipedia, Linguist John McWhorter argued that people are “unaware that some consider it to have a second meaning as a slur…” and it “is an obscure slur, not even known to be so by a substantial proportion of the population. Those who feel that tar baby‘s status as a slur is patently obvious are judging from the fact that it sounds like a racial slur”.
Whether it is or not, the association with racism will forevermore plague the Song of the South movie, its characters, and even these animated segments.
As for this book, it stays pretty close to the original Disney movie source material, with only small changes to locations and the omission of certain details due to space constraints. I would give it a 4 Out of 5 Stars. Although there is nothing to fault it with from the writing or the artwork, the fact that it covers a controversial subject lowers the overall score.
For a different view of this story, please check out my earlier History 101 post. It contains much of the same content but in record form with audio files: Songs and Stories of Uncle Remus is worth a look!
Unfortunately my loathing for the Disney animated film FROZEN has tainted my desire to obtain any merchandise from the franchise. I adore Anna and have come close to buying an Olaf plush several times. But the right one never came along. Until now!
Meet the Build-a-Bear Workshop FROZEN Olaf plush from 2014:
I’ve wanted to do a Build-a-Bear plush for a long time but never found one that really made me think the expense would be worth while. But I couldn’t pass up this example that I found in a local Charity Shop for just $6.99 CAN.
He is super soft and has an amazing ‘In Summer’ patterned shirt, like a Hawaiian shirt, that I just fell in love with! The shirt is removable with Velcro behind the buttons for ease of play for children:
The song ‘In Summer’ is Olaf’s signature rant about how much he is looking forward to sunbathing in the good ol’ summertime. Yeah. That can’t possibly go wrong. But the pattern on the shirt makes it look like a lot of fun!
The Build-a-Bear Workshop has a nice website. Apparently you can build online and have it shipped to you anywhere in the World. Here is the official spiel about the company:
“Originally conceived as a place for children to create their own special teddy bear with a step-by-step process including our now iconic Heart Ceremony, Build-A-Bear is now a multi-generational, multi-dimensional global brand appealing to diverse consumer demographics.“
“This year marks Build-A-Bear’s 25th anniversary and the celebration of heart, hugs, creativity, laughter, fun and friendship through the making of more than 200 million furry friends around the world!“
Disleelandia 