Vinylmation Review - Designer #2

When the Designer #2 series was first previewed on the Disney Parks Merchandise blog, I was pretty excited. Collectors seemed to like the unique style of the first Designer series, as well as the artist Miss Mindy. The second series did not disappoint! Instead of being a movie or park themed set, this designer series brought a variety of popular characters and a mix of different art styles to create an all-new series. When this set was released and I saw the backs of these figures, I was completely blown away! With all the changes in the Vinylmation world over the last couple years, this is exactly the series this hobby needs.

Things to love about this series:

• It's something a little different - We've had a lot of Eachez releases recently, several Star Wars releases, and a fair amount of Marvel Vinylmation too. This set is different in that it's artsy, and not aimed at a specific movie or franchise
• Good characters - I say this a lot, but I mean it. If you're a princess fan, there's Snow White and Belle in this set. You like Villains? There's Zurg and Cruella de Vil. You like classic Disney characters? There's Pluto and Donald Duck. In fact, you could argue that the designs on the back of these vinyls make this a 14 figure set
• The Chaser - (Spoiler alert) The chaser is Sorcerer Mickey. Before you grab your rotten vegetables and tell me just how many Sorcerer Mickeys we've had, hear me out. It's true, we really got burnt out on Sorcerer Mickey figures, but this one is different. Firstly, it's far more artistic and doesn't look like any Sorcerer Mickey that came before it. Secondly, if you weren't sold on this figure when you saw the front, take a look at the back. This is my favorite Sorcerer Mickey ever, and now I wish I had that instead of the figure from Park #5 (trade anyone?)
• The accessories - If you needed more convincing that Snow White and Belle were incredible figures, check out their accessories! The enchanted rose might be my favorite accessory ever with how appropriate it is and how pretty and well designed. Snow White's apple is something I don't think we've seen before. I love it because it's appropriate for the figure and has another design on the back (the poisoned apple), which makes it the perfect accessory for both Snow White and the evil hag on the back of the figure. Of course Buzz is not complete without his helmet, and I love that Donald's hat is an accessory and not drawn on the figure
• Variants - This one is going in my things to love list and my things that aren't so great list. It's here in the things to love section because if you really love variants, there are two in this set 
• Mix of platforms - This set uses a mix of the Mickey platform and the Minnie platform, and it works perfectly! I love seeing the two princesses in this series on the Minnie platform and how Minnie's bow has been well used in the designs
• Great use of ears - The 16 designs in this series all have great use of ears with the exception of one (Belle). Even though some are more simple, like the ribbon on Donald's hat and Patch's ears, it looks great and works well for that character. I would like to have seen something more creative than plain black in the ears and bow on Belle, but overall the ears have been used very well in this set

Things that aren't so great: 

• Variants - I'm not a huge variant fan, especially when I don't think the variant is relevant. For example, the only thing that's different being the color. I guess the Pluto variant and Snow White variant are kind of like another artistic take on that same design, and maybe some people like that, but I think it's really just a color change for the sake of creating variants and I'm not a fan
• Character repeats - We've seen every character in this set before, so there's really nothing new here in terms of unique characters. However, the designs are completely different and many far surpass their predecessors. If you want a character we haven't had before in Vinylmation form, you won't find it here. (Unless you want an angel/devil Pluto, we've had several Pluto figures but not that exact one). But even if you own some of these characters already, there's reason to add them to your collection again 

Overall, despite the things I personally think aren't so great, I still think this is an absolutely fantastic series! I am so happy to see such a strong and desirable Vinylmation set and a few of these are on my want list for sure.