Vinylmation Review - Topiaries

Released: March 28, 2014

Revealed/Concealed Blind Box

Topiaries was the first Vinylmation series to use the new "revealed/concealed" concept, where each blind box has a "revealed" figure on top, plus a "concealed" figure inside the blind box. My thoughts on that are for another post, this post will be a pure review of the 5 figures in the series.

This series was released as part of the 2014 Flower and Garden Festival celebrations at EPCOT. During this time, topiaries can be found of different Disney characters around Walt Disney World, particularly at EPCOT. The figures in this series are to reflect some of those characters in their flower form. I think this was a fantastic idea for a series! Something new that we haven't seen before, something memorable from the parks thats appeal to those who have never experienced the Flower and Garden Flower, whilst commemorating the occasion for those who have.


Reasons to love this series:

• It's something a little different - 5 characters and no chaser (unless you consider all 4 "concealed" figures as chasers) making it much easier to collect the whole series. (Let's not open the can of worms on how much that would cost you and how many Sorcerer Mickeys you'd have left over)
• The use of 3 molds - here there are technically three different molds: Sorcerer Mickey, Minnie and the regular Mickey mold. Mixes things up a little and is very appropriate for the figures included
• The use of ears - I love the bumblebee and Donald's hat in his ears, plus the butterflies in Daisy's ears, so cute!
• The accuracy - the characters look just like they do in their flower form, especially Donald, who is my favorite in this series. In my opinion they look realistically like topiaries, although I haven't seen any in person
• The character choices - there are plenty of characters to chose from that have been used for topiaries. Sticking to some of the Fab 5 I think was a good choice. They're loved by a wide audience and can instantly be connected to the Flower and Garden festival

Things that aren't so great:
I don't really have anything to say here. The only issue I have with this series is not related to the series itself, it's a criticism of the method in which the boxes are sold, the nature of the revealed/concealed concept, but I won't talk about that here because it's a marketing strategy. It doesn't reduce the quality or appeal of the figures, it's just a potential deterrent to blind box them. (You can read about my feelings toward the Revealed/Concealed concept here).