Commonwealth of Dominica Music-themed Disney Stamps

Posted on December 18, 2021 by Dis-LEE

The Commonwealth of Dominica is an island country in the Caribbean. Dominica has been nicknamed the “Nature Island of the Caribbean” for its natural environment. Hey, it’s in the Caribbean. Duh! And they are now known for this set of music-themed Disney stamps.

This set was released in 1979. And what else was going on in that year in the Commonwealth of Dominica? In mid-1979, political discontent with Founding Prime Minister Patrick John’s administration climaxed in a civilian coup. But through it all, the good people of this nation were still able to send letters in style!

I have many sets of Disney character stamps and they all seems to focus on pretty much the same cast. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy are mainstays. Also, each set has a basic theme, with this one being music.

Although, what kind of music one would get by combining a violin with bagpipes, or a jackhammer with a drum, or with whatever Goofy is playing on the 5 cent stamp, I’m sure I don’t know!

Horace Horsecollar appears in quite a few vintage Shorts as a musician. Here, on the 10 cent stamp, he is hampered by Dale who seems to think the French Horn is a Theme Park ride!

UNICEF is the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and was established in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II. Its mandate was clear: to help children and young people whose lives and futures were at risk – no matter what role their country had played in the war. What mattered to UNICEF was reaching every child in need, protecting children’s rights to survive, thrive, and reach their full potential.

FUN FACTS: Pairing this organization with Disney characters is a natural fit! Disney most notably paired with UNICEF during the 1964-65 New York’s World Fair with the creation of the It’s a Small World attraction.

Posted in Artwork, Characters, Collectibles, Ephemera, Music, Places, Stamps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Foody Friday: Mickey and Friends Green Seedless Grapes

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Dis-LEE

Disney is so pervasive that it literally shows up everywhere! In a store? There’s a piece of merchandise. Walking down the street? There’s a billboard. Listening to the radio or watching TV? There’s a commercial. Just minding your own business? There’s no way to do that with Disney!

So, are you shopping for food at your local supermarket? There’s a bag of Mickey and Friends Green Seedless Grapes:

Other than the Disney branding, there was no indication of where these grapes were grown. I’ll assume the USA for lack of any other information.

The bag says that the grapes are No.1 Grade, but they didn’t look that good to me. They were a bit small and slightly discolored. Not very appetizing so I didn’t buy them!

Disney has a long tradition of linking its characters to food starting as far back as the 1930s. From Donald Duck Orange Juice to Mickey Mouse Post Toasties cereal, if it’s edible, a Disney character has promoted it!

I wonder how many items of food you have in your home right now that have a Disney character on the box?

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Funko Minis Disneyland 65th Hook on Peter Pan Attraction

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Dis-LEE

It may be a pirate’s life for Captain Hook, but it’s a collector’s job for me! I never wanted a large collection of Funko Pop! vinyl figures. However, they keep coming out with interesting designs and concepts, like this Funko Minis Disneyland Resort 65th Anniversary Captain Hook at Peter Pan’s Flight Attraction offering. Long name. Small toy.

Let’s have a look at the vintage-style packaging:

I like how this line of merchandise is sold in sepia tone packaging. Though it does make it hard to decide if I’m going to remove the figure for display or leave him/her in the box.

I know Captain Hook isn’t supposed to look cute, but…

Even though the actual 65th Anniversary of Disneyland was in the now-infamous 2020, and the Park itself was closed, the merchandise was still created and sold at other outlets.

For more swashbuckling fun, check out my full-sized Disneyland 65th Anniversary Captain Hook vinyl figure. If you don’t, I’ll have someone visit your town and scuttle your butt! Whatever that means. But I’ll do it!

Posted in Anniversaries, Attractions, Characters, Collectibles, Disneyland, Figurines, Merchandise, Theme Parks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pixar CARS Golden Edition Lightning McQueen

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Dis-LEE

Although he is the ‘Golden Boy’ of the racing circuit and a lean, mean, money-making machine for Disney/Pixar, I’m uncertain as to whether we needed an actual Golden Edition version of Lightning McQueen.

Says the man who bought him anyway:

I’ve got several versions of the Piston Cup Champion: Road Trip McQueen, Precision Series McQueen, Mini RC Racer McQueen, and him painted in Dinoco blue and him covered in bushes, dirt, and who knows what else!

Ka-Ching!

So it’s time to just change his famous catchphrase from ‘Ka-Chow!’ to ‘Ka-Ching!’ and get it over with. If there’s a three-second scene in any of the CARS franchise movies where McQueen has any other look, there is a die cast model of it for sale before the credits are finished!

Now don’t get me wrong, McQueen looks good in gold! But some of the iterations don’t look so good. I’ve passed on some of the more outlandish versions… for now. But I am a Completist, so…

I do like this series of Metal models from Mattel for their high level of detail and finish. A good way to check if a die cast car is of good quality is to check the undercarriage. If the plastic molding faithfully reflects the actual underside of a vehicle, then you have a designer who put some work into it!

This version just showed up at my local Wal-Mart a week or so ago. I haven’t seen any other characters from the Cars franchise produced in the Gold Edition line yet. But could a gleaming Tow Mater be far behind?

Posted in Animation, Characters, Collectibles, Die Cast, Merchandise, Pixar | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Magical Music of Walt Disney 8-Track Tape Set

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Dis-LEE

Before streaming and Apple Music, iTunes and portable devices, there were LP Records. But before LP Records, there were cassette tapes. But but and before before cassette tapes, there were annoying 8-Track tapes the size of city buses that held maybe two songs on a good day. And they cost $1,299.99 a piece!

And now… the truth.

Everything in that opening paragraph was true except the details about 8-Track tapes. Of course, they were fairly big and cumbersome to store and annoying in that you had to toggle between set tracks instead of between individual songs, but that was the way we rolled back in the day!

And if there was a technology to exploit, Disney put it into a Box Set with a book:

Mickey Mouse had his 50th Anniversary in 1978 and this was part of the merchandise line to promote that celebration. It contained five 8-Track tapes with a selection of music from the movies, television shows, and Theme Parks of the Disney brand.

8-Track Tapes
Information Book

As always, I buy these oddities for the commemorative books they contain. Although I know more about Disney than a normal person would ever want to know, I do manage to learn something knew with each of these that I read.

Let’s have a look at some the pages:

Animated Classics
Music Department
Sound Effects
Theme Parks

And now for a trip back in time to when, if you wanted to take your music with you, you needed a wheelbarrow:

I remember my father bought an old Fargo van that had an 8-Track player in it. The former owner left a few tapes behind and I played them while I drove it. This happened so long ago that the van had three-on-the-tree. If you know what that is… you’re old too!

I have several of these box sets in my media collection. Some have cassettes, some have LP records. All of them have a wonderful booklet full of interesting information. You just never know exactly what you’ll find when you open one of these boxes!

Two other box sets might be of interest, each have VHS tapes and other inserts. One is Beauty and the Beast while the other is Fantasia.

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Celebration, Florida Promotional Brochure

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Dis-LEE

“The Town That Disney Built“. We visited this wonderful, idyllic, Disney town in 2014. Of course, by then, Disney had sold it off and had washed its hands of the project. The Mouse House does tend to do things like that! But they left behind a beautiful functioning town.

The place offers some town-specific merchandise, one of which you can see here. This previous post also contains some pictures from around the town. But I especially liked this piece of ephemera. It makes a nice keepsake:

Front Cover

Produced as a basic guide to the area, this fold-out brochure gives you everything you need to know about Celebration, Florida.

Information Spread

We did walk around the main areas of the town, but didn’t stick to the Architectural Walking Tour offered in the center spread of the brochure. We also drove up and down some of the streets to admire the variety of construction styles used for the houses.

Town of Celebration Map

Do you get lost easily? It would be hard to lose your way in Celebration, but if you are the type to take a statement like that as a challenge, you might want to carry this brochure with you! The map is excellent and comprehensive.

Back Cover

Ephemera are items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed like this one, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity. But for a Disney collector, we tend to keep things like this promotional brochure alive for way longer than it was ever intended to be enjoyed!

My paper, magazine, and book collection is becoming quite extensive, with two large book cases unable to contain it. And still I buy more!

Posted in Advertising, Attractions, Ephemera, Places, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Posta Romana ‘Band Concert’ Commemorative Stamps

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Dis-LEE

Posta Romana is the only postal services provider in Romania. Founded in 1862, Posta Romana offers a wide range of services in the country and is in charge of sending and receiving all postcards and money transfer services and other payments. And, it would seem, commissions stamps featuring various themes, such as this one commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Disney’s classic Short film ‘The Band Concert’.

The Band Concert was released in 1935 in full colour and is a wonderful example of how poor Mickey is just trying to do something nice only to have his efforts scuttled by outside forces he can’t control. In this case, these forces are a force in the form of Donald Duck! Oh, and a tornado.

This set of stamps was released in 1986 in cooperation with Walt Disney Productions, who obviously supplied the artwork. The set is called, in English, ’50 Years of Color Animated Film’. Instead of using the original English title of the Short ‘The Band Concert’ the Romanian equivalent is given as ‘Orchestra Concert 1935’.

I’ve arranged these stamps in an order that makes sense to the original storyline. I’m not sure what order the Post Office of Romania had in mind based on the monetary denominations of each stamp!

Each stamp has a title spelled out in Romanian. Mickey, as the Conductor (or Maestrul), readies to begin the concert (above).

Paddy and Peter Pig start things off and try their best to contribute on both big and small brass instruments. They are not very competent and provide Mickey with his first challenge to overcome!

As Mickey is trying to deal with the pigs, Donald shows up to hock hot dogs and lemonade even though his cart says ‘Ice Cream’. A Rățoiul is Romanian for ‘duck’. This is the moment when everything really goes off the rails for Mickey the Maestro!

Donald is inspired by the concert and just wants to be a part of the performance. The duck jumps on stage and starts to play along to the William Tell Overture on his never-ending collection of flutes. Unfortunately, his flute playing is a tad pedestrian for the highbrow elements in the audience and Mickey must remove him!

But before Mickey can remove the duck, he must return to the podium to restore order over his orchestra, leaving Donald to play along. But something else happens! Trombonistrul’ translates as ‘Trombone’ in English, and this band member relieves Donald of his collection of flutes and throws him off of the stage. But this doesn’t stop him from causing mischief. A bee and dollops of ice cream provide the next few minutes of mayhem!

Clarabelle Cow jumps in to restore a bit of order with a beautiful refrain on the flute. But the bee returns and more mayhem ensues!

No one seems to care who this guy is, but we are told he is a Clarinetist. He seems to be giving it his all during an upbeat portion of the program!

Horace Horsecollar jumps in as a Tobosarul (drummer). It looks like his performance might be a bit more spirited than desired as the weather picks up into a raging storm!

The Short ends with a tornado sweeping up the orchestra, who don’t miss a beat but keep on playing, until the storm subsides. Only Donald Duck is left in the audience and once again begins to play his flute. This engenders a hostile reaction from the haggard orchestra, who throw their instruments at the plucky duck, who just keeps playing as we fade to black.

These stamp sets are a fun way to remember old Shorts or to interact with characters in a new way. For more examples, simply type ‘Stamps’ into the search box at the top of this blog.

Posted in Animation, Anniversaries, Characters, Collectibles, Ephemera, Shorts, Stamps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pixar Toy Story Trading Cards by Skybox

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Dis-LEE

Trading Cards are still popular but not perhaps as much as they were. You can purchase complete sets for very reasonable prices at flea markets and collector shows. I paid only $14.99 CAN for this set of Pixar Toy Story trading cards from Skybox. Value Village comes through for me again!

This set contains 98 individual cards:

Whoever owned this set before me took the time to buy an oversized hard plastic case to protect the cards. I promptly dropped it on the floor and broke the hinges, hence the tape you see in the picture above.

Packs of 16

Each pack has 16 cards wrapped in a plastic sleeve (above). Each pack contained not only the basic image cards but also the full range of specialty cards.

Below is listed the types of cards and amounts for each:

1-30 Story Cards

These cards contain screen grabs from the film itself. Most of the key scenes are represented featuring the main characters.

31-38 Character Cards

Each main character gets their own card with a complete biography on the back. Did you know that all of the fictional features that the Buzz action figure was supposed to have were transferred to the real toy available in stores except the karate-chop action?

39, 40 Class Clown Cards

41-43 Green Army Men Cards

44-46 Woody Cards

47-49 Buzz Lightyear Cards

50-52 Mutant Toy Cards

53, 54 Checklist Cards

I always find it funny that the Checklist cards are never card numbers ‘1’ and ‘2’. In this large set, they are card numbers ’53’ and ’54’. Of course, this doesn’t matter as you get the set in random packs of 16 so it could be many purchases later before you even get a Checklist card!

55-58 Puzzle Cards

I’m conflicted when I collect specialty cards like these puzzle cards, as well as the remaining types of cards in this set. I want to break them apart and use them for their intended purpose, but I don’t want to mess with the mint condition of my collection. Oh, the internal conflict!

59-74 Pop-Out Cards

These Pop-Out cards come with ‘simple’ instructions on the back. But they forgot the final step. “H” should say ‘Throw your hands up in frustration and give up!’

75-90 Construction Cards

Each Construction project requires three or four cards to complete. So if you intended to build a character, again, you would have to wait until you’ve purchased multiple packs. Or multiples upon multiples. Just how rich are you, by the way?

Badge Cards 1-8

A badge is a a distinctive emblem that is worn upon one’s person which consists of a distinguishing emblem. These Toy Story badges have no way of affixing them to your clothing so are basically only good for collecting and trading. But they are distinguished!

My set contained no Foil Embossed cards or 3D Motion cards. Each of these would replace ‘normal’ issue cards to complete your set. So two people could have complete sets but with some different cards. I believe if you bought an entire box of any Skybox release you would end up with a complete set, but not necessarily one containing the bonus FE or 3D cards.

I’ve never bought a set of trading cards one pack at a time. I always wait until the run has ended and buy the set complete from a collector. Well, none of my friends collect this stuff so I have no one to trade with! And their mothers won’t let them come out to play with me anyway.

Posted in Animation, Artwork, Characters, Collectibles, Pixar, Puzzles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Peterbourgh Examiner: TODAY Insert featuring Stan Lee

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Dis-LEE

‘Stan the Man’. There could be only one man on the planet who deserves that nickname, and that’s the legendary Stan Lee! Of course, he could also be called ‘Captain Cameo’, but that’s for another article. The article in this post was found in the Peterborough Examiner of Saturday, April 18th, 2015.

TODAY published a one-page spread by Mark Daniell:

Stan makes brief comments on the war between Marvel and DC at the Box Office, how pleased he is to see Spiderman join the MCU, and his excitement about his heroes starting to populate the small screen. He even goes on record to state what his favorite cameo appearance was! But you’ll have to enlarge the page below to find out.

The character Stan gets asked about the most is Spiderman. He does have a special place in his heart for the wallcrawler, even copying his signature hand gesture with each pose he does for the fans. However, he does admit in the article that he loves everything he’s done! So no ‘favorite child’ there.

You won’t learn too much about Stan you likely didn’t already know by reading this article, but it is interesting to learn where his head was at in 2015.

For more Stan the Man wonderfulness, check out my review of his comic-styled life story entitled Stan Lee’s Marvelous Memoir. No hype there!

Posted in Celebrities, Comic Books, Ephemera, Marvel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Disneyland & Disney’s California Adventure Pressed Pennies

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Dis-LEE

‘Smashed Penny’ or ‘Pressed Penny’. It depends on where you live as to what you would call these copper tokens made out of your discarded money. Last I checked it was illegal to deface anything legal tender. But every Disney Theme Park has dozens of machines designed to crush your pennies into flat canvases for Mickey and his friends.

Let’s have a quick look at some of the offerings from Disneyland:

Usually each land in a Disney Park will have a machine that will give you around three options to choose from. Each will feature a different character doing something themed to the Land in question with the name of the Land on the back of the pressing.

Alternately, the image could feature a character interacting with an attraction from the Land in question, or it could just be a rendering of the attraction itself.

Now let’s look at a couple of offerings from Disney’s California Adventure:

I would consider this Tinker Bell example to be pretty generic. It just has a Disney character imprinted over a name on one side and the name of the Land and Park on the other. Pretty basic. And yet I paid 50 cents to get it!

Although Goofy’s Sky School is basically a children’s attraction, my wife and I enjoyed riding it! And being as Goofy is my favorite Disney character, I just had to have a pressed penny to commemorate our ride. And yes, I prefer ‘pressed’ over ‘smashed’!

Do you think it’s worth 50 cents to press a penny into a picture disc? I’ve heard some places provide blank tokens to use instead of pennies. Perhaps to avoid the currency issue, or maybe to make you buy something else? Ah, capitalism!

Posted in Attractions, Characters, Collectibles, Disneyland, Theme Parks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment