The Backside of Vinyls - Catastrophe Canyon

In today's The Backside of Vinyls, I'm looking at the Catastrophe Canyon figure from the Park #13 series, designed by artist Maria Clapsis. A lot of collectors didn't care for this figure, but I think it's expertly designed and a wonderful tribute now that the Backlot Tour is extinct.

(Photo Credit: The Mouse for Less)

On the back of the head we can see the canyon walls complete with their lines and cracks. Moving down to the body, the canyon walls continue in the background while we see the pumpjack in the foreground surrounded by fire. The fire continues in to the backs of the figure's arms in the same way that fire surrounds our ride vehicle during the scene at Catastrophe Canyon. On the back of the feet, we can see the water that cascades down toward the end of the scene.

Finally, in the back of the right ear we see more fire, which begins above the canyon wall in the same way that the fire is pictured at the top of the figure above the canyon. Then in the back of the right ear, we have detail from the ride vehicle itself (pictured above) which makes a great use of the space and is a really neat touch.

I think the backside of this Vinylmation is very well detailed, a job well done by Maria Clapsis and a great piece in my collection.

The Backside of Vinyls - Pardon Our Pixie Dust

For today's Backside of Vinyls post, I'm taking a look at the back of the Pardon Our Pixie Dust Vinylmation from Park #13. The back of this vinyl continues on from the front, with the construction tape across the arms, and cranes and ladders on the back of the ears. 

The body of the figure continues the Pardon Our Pixie Dust sign, with the wooden plank design. There's also a silhouette of Sorcerer Mickey, waving a wand that spreads pixie dust up on the back of the Vinylmation's head.

Of course I love that Caley Hicks didn't just design the back to be blank slats of wood, but I also love the symbolism of Mickey on the back of the figure. It's as if Mickey is working behind the scenes, spreading pixie dust to make magic happen at future attractions. You'll only see it if you turn the Vinylmation around! Another wonderful backside of vinyls!

Snapshot Sunday - Tower of Terror Elevator

The Backside of Vinyls - Quicksand Portrait

You might have noticed that this past week, Vinylmation Isle has had a Halloween theme going on. I love Halloween! Now that it's October, I have chosen to give my articles a Halloween twist for the month. That continues today with this post on The Backside of Vinyls.

Today's Vinylmation is one of a set of 4, The Haunted Mansion Stretching Room Portraits set from Park #13. This particular vinyl is the Quicksand Portrait, and only by looking at the back can you see how the figure represents one of the Haunted Mansion's stretching room portraits perfectly. I honestly would not have bought this vinyl going off of the front of the figure alone.

As the name suggests, this portrait is of three men sinking in quicksand. The front of the vinyl shows the first man in the bowler hat. On the back of the figure, we can see the second and third man on the back of the vinyl's body. Further down on the back of the vinyl's feet, we can see the green, bubbling quicksand from the bottom of the portrait that the men are sinking in to.

Finally, one important detail that hasn't been neglected in Ron Cohee's figure is the quicksand sign sticking out in the bottom right hand corner of the portrait. The same sign can be seen on the back of the figure's right ear. This is an incredibly detailed figure where the back is just as important and well designed as the front.

Park #13 Tower of Terror Ghost Set Release

The final Park #13 set was released today at D-Streets and the Disney Store Online. This is the final Vinylmation release of 2013 and Disney are going out with a bang! This set is the very first blind box combo set, with a 1 in 10 chance of bloxing variants.

The set features four 3" figures and one Jr figure. The commons are the above pictured black and white characters from the Tower of Terror pre-show in the library. The variants (pictured below) are the electric blue ghosts from the hallway scene during the Tower of Terror ride.

This set has a Limited Edition of 1,500 with 1,350 being commons and only 150 being variants. It's been reported that this set sold out online within 5 minutes, so expect those variants to have excessive prices on the secondary market. This set retails at $69.95 and all 5 figures were designed by Ron Cohee.

Park #13 Haunted Mansion Stretching Portraits Set Release

The first of two Limited Edition Park #13 combo sets was released today at D-Streets and The Disney Store Online. The Haunted Mansion Stretching Portraits set features four 3" figures from the first scene in the Haunted Mansion attraction (see below picture). Each figure represents one of the four portraits, all designed by Ron Cohee. This is a limited edition of 2,000 with a retail price of $59.95. This is proving to be a very popular set, as of 7am EST this morning, it was sold out online.

The Stretching Room in the Haunted Mansion

Price and 360 Pictures of the Park #13 Tower of Terror Set

Disney's Official Vinylmation page has released 360 pictures of the "Tower of Terror Elevator Ghosts" set today, along with the artist info and price point. Ron Cohee was the artist of all 5 figures and the combo set will retail for $69.95 when it is released online and at D-Streets on December 27. I have to say that as much as I don't enjoy parting with $70, I was expecting this set to retail for a much higher price. But $69.95 does equate to 4x $14.95 (price for most Limited Edition vinyls) 3" figures + 1x $9.95 Jr figure.

Here are the 360 pictures and names of the characters:

3" - Dewey Todd

3" - Carolyn Crosson

3" - Gilbert

3" - Emeline Partridge 

Jr - Sally Shine

The Collector's Space - Upcoming Vinylmation

For today's Collector's Space post, I'm going to talk about upcoming Vinylmation series that I'm really excited for.

First up, I'm pretty excited for the Park #13 Haunted Mansion Stretching Room combo set which I recently previewed. This is a set of 4 figures all designed by Ron Cohee, that draw inspiration from the portraits that stretch in the Haunted Mansion. There's currently no information about this set on Disney's Official Vinylmation website, but non-official Vinylmation websites have reported that it has a Limited Edition size of 2,000 and a retail price of $59.95. It was announced at the Reflections of Evil event that this set would release on December 20.

Back of the figures (source: DestinationVinylmation)

I'm also excited for the release of the Park #13 Tower of Terror combo set. Collectors were wondering how the previewed Park #13 bellhop figure would manifest in this series and now we know. (I knew he was the bellhop from the Tower of Terror movie!) This set is comprised of four 3" figures and one Jr figure to make a 5 piece set of the five characters from the ride. The Limited Edition size will be 1,500 with 150 of those sets being variant sets. The commons will be black and white versions of the characters as they appear in the Library pre-show. The variants will depict the characters in their "ghostly" form seen during the Tower of Terror ride.

Personally, I prefer the commons (which is lucky since I'm more likely to get those) but I wouldn't complain if I miraculously received the variants. This set's release date was announced at the Reflections of Evil event as December 27 but we have yet to be informed on the retail price. I've been saving since I heard about this set, I get the feeling it's going to hurt my bank balance.

Variants pictured top, commons pictured bottom

(source: DestinationVinylmation)

And finally, I'm pretty excited about the release of the Indiana Jones series. Not much is known about this set right now, other than what was announced at Reflections of Evil. The series will be based on Raiders of the Lost Ark and is scheduled to release in 2014. I'll be interested to see the case size and the artist(s) involved in this series.

Series artwork (source: DestinationVinylmation)

Obviously there are plenty more interesting and exciting vinyls coming our way, not to mention some of the amazing series that have been released recently. I just wanted to share what I'm most excited about right now. I'm almost certain that all of these series will make it to my collection. (Hopefully I can afford the Tower of Terror set and hopefully the Indy series will have a good choice of characters with amazing artwork).

Park #13 Release

Park #13 was released today at D-Streets and the Disney Store Online. This is an 8 figure set following the apparent new shift in set sizes. The series is sold in blind boxes and features work from artists: Ron Cohee, Thomas Scott, Maria Clapsis and Dave Perillo. Each figure retails for $12.95

Disney Parks Blog Haunted Mansion Portrait Preview

The Disney Parks Blog released a picture today of the upcoming Park #13 Haunted Mansion Portraits Series hanging out at the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom.

You can check out full 360 pictures of this series over at Disney's Official Vinylmation page. The series is due to release on December 20.

Park #13 Sneak Preview

Disney Merchandise Communications Manager Stephen Miller has posted a sneak preview today of one of the figures from the upcoming Park #13 Vinylmation series. This confirms collectors' suspicion that there will be a Park #13 series.

He declined to announce when Park #13 will be available to purchase, stating only that it's coming to Disney Parks "at a future date".  Not much can be seen from the black and white picture, but Stephen confirmed the figure is another Tower of Terror bellhop. In my opinion, this figure looks very similar to the bellhop from the 1997 movie Tower of Terror starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst.

First look at Park #13

A scene from the Tower of Terror movie featuring Dewey the bellhop

What are your thoughts? Are you excited for Park #13?