Give Me Vinyl: Disney's Vinylmation (part 1)

Originally, I didn't pay much attention to these guys, but a trip to Disney World has a funny way of getting you to spend money.  In the weeks leading up to our Disney trip last year, we somehow found ourselves at local Disney Store (I guess we must have been excited about going).  The cashier there told us all about Vinylmation, how you don't know who you're going to get, and how you can trade them at the gift shops down in Disney World.  The idea of trading them really appealed to me for some reason, so I bought a few just to whet my appetite...  And then I was hooked.

This was the first Vinylmation figure I got.  She's a sour-faced frozen lemonade character that is apparently supposed to smell like lemonade.  Regular followers of The Plastic Eyeball should know by now that I LOVE foodie characters, but I haven't talked about how much I love lemon.  I love lemon.  Sweet, sour, I suck it up.  But I can tell you that this figure does NOT smell like lemon!  It's more like citrus-flavored vinyl.  I had it displayed out in the open on a shelf in my toy room, and it stunk the place up for months.  Yet that still didn't stop me from buying more.

I guess I should go over what Vinylmation is, in case some of you aren't in the know.  Vinylmation is a series of collectable vinyl figures made by Disney.  They usually feature a character or artsy design on a basic Mickey Mouse shaped figure, with simple articulation at the neck and shoulders.  The artist's (and sometimes the character's) name appears on the bottoms of the feet.  Most of them come blind boxed, but some are visible in the packages.  You can trade them at some of the cash desks in the Disney parks and Disney Stores around the world.  Oh, and I suppose they can become highly addictive, though so far I've been pretty good at only getting into them when I'm going on a Disney trip.

I've only seen Alice in Wonderland once, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, so I can't remember any of it.  I don't remember any oyster babies, but that's not why I got this figure.  He was one that I had to trade for in Disney World, and I just thought he was so strange looking.  I couldn't figure out what he was.  It had to get him, and I only found out he was an oyster baby when I looked at his feet.

There's a bit of theme going with those last three.  I'll post the backs of the figures if there's anything worth seeing.

This is one of my favorite Vinylmation figures.  It's just so weird and kinda gross.  I love it!

Some of these figures are hard to photograph!  They're pretty reflective, which means a little bit of flash from the camera comes right back at you.  Frustrating!

"Tic Toc" the croc from Peter Pan is part of the "Villains" subset.  I never really thought of him as a villain though.  He wants to eat the villain!

This figure is from the "Sports" line, and I bought it because I thought it was a shuttlecock (which would be hilarious).  Shuttlecock Man!  But no, it's a volley ball going over a net, which is a lot less hilarious.

I love Donald Duck, and I love Christmas, so this one was pretty much a no-brainer for me.  I actually put it on the tree last year and everything.

A lot of the Vinylmation figures are cute.  Like, really cute.  Some are a little too cute for me.  But this "Nerd" Stitch was too cute to pass up.  There's not a lot that makes me, as a grown man (albeit a grown man that still loves toys) go "awwwwww", but this was one of those things.

Guess why I like this guy!

Besides the standard sized Vinylmation figures, there are also "Jr." scale figures that have no articulation, but come with chains attached to their heads if you want to use them as keychains.  Then there's the jumbo 9" figures, and a series of Pixar's Cars characters made to look like cars from the theme parks' monorail.

The "Occupations" series has the standard sized figures done up to resemble certain jobs, and each one came with a Vinylmation Jr. sidekick that could also serve as an accessory.  I LOVE the dental x-ray Jr. in this set.  It's so freaky!  But it looks happy.

This sumo is part of the "Extreme Wrestlers of Vinylmation" series.  I'll cover them in Part 2 of this spotlight.

Another unknown creature from Alice in Wonderland.  Well, he's unknown to me, anyway.  Apparently he's a hedgehog.  I think he looks more like a little troll thing.

The Root Beer and Popcorn figures are part of the "So Tasty" series with Frozen Lemonade that are supposed to smell like their respective flavors.  But they don't.  They smell like something, but the vinyl smell is so strong it blocks out any positive smells.  The Root Beer figure does smell somewhat like root  beer, I guess.

Well, let's hit the pause button here and reconvene later.  I knew I had a lot of Vinylmation figures, but I didn't realize quite how much I actually have.  There's probably another one or two posts worth of them.  I guess I don't have to show them all off (some of them are kinda duds), but I want to!