Vinylmation Trading Update: June Update

We owe our friend and AllEars Teammate Rhonda a trading update from June so we decide to share it here with everyone.

We collect Vinylmation figures. Without going into much detail: Vinylmations are figures made out of vinyl shaped like Mickey Mouse. The shape is the same (not counting the new molds) and are painted differently. They are generally sold in sets of 12 based on a theme (Star Wars, Muppets, Toy Story are examples) and when you buy one you don't know which one you are getting. There are some that are sold "displayed" or "open-box" so you can choose one you really like. the most common size are 3" figures, but they also have 9" and 1.5" figures. Vinylnation.net has a good 101 page on Vinylmations.

Since folks were ending up with duplicates or figures they didn't want, Disney setup trading locations in the parks and now The Disney Stores. You can either do a random trade (pick a number 1-24) or pick from a selection of 3 inside a clear box.

We left for FL with 6 figures in-hand that included a Rowlf, Quasimoto, Buttercup, Lotso, Holiday I Soldier, and Big Baby. We've opened about 4-6 Big Babies but got rid of all duplicates through trades.

During the solo portion of his trip Dave stopped at D-Street in Downtown Disney and pulled The Evil Queen from Snow White (Villain series) out of the clear box. After Dave made another loop around the store another cast member (Disney employee) was manning the counter so he broke the "one trade per day/location" rule and went for the blind box. He got the Buzz Lightyear gun (2nd from left) from Park Series 5. Another D-Street trade on Friday led to the Norway Troll from Park Series 6 and we purchased a Muppets 2 box and got Lew Zealand (first on left).

We bought 6 figures while down there (excluding the cupcake one in our report) and traded all but one away.

Miss Piggy, Pinnochio (one Dave was really after) and the lifeboat came from blind boxes around the Studios. Pepe was a keeper purchased in The Emporium. Can't remember the locations we found Rex, that goat-looking guy, and Monstro. The one with the long neck was a Have a Laugh series item Dave has been looking for and found in a Polynesian Store clear box.

Zoot (the guy with the hat) and the other Muppets Pigs in Space figure were FREE! While in the Studios on Sunday Dave checked his Facebook and found one of the vinylmation sites he follows, Vinylmationkingdom.com, posted that they were in the Studios giving away vinylmations to the first three people to find them. We had an approximate location by Star Tours and a t-shirt description. We love pin trading and vinylmation trading because it is the thrill of "the hunt" and adds new dimension to our Disney trips. So we were excited to have to hunt for someone. We made our way from Tower of Terror to Star Tours, grabbed a ride, browsed Tatoonie Traders, and then found Matt. He was happy that we found him (mainly due to his direct exposure to the sun). He pulled out ten for us to choose from. We were trying to collect Muppets 2 so we picked those figures. The opportunity cost was Alice from the animation series. We talked to Matt for 5-10 minutes and posed for a picture. He's a real nice guy with a lot going on so show some support by visiting his site or Facebook page.

Do you have a good trading story to share?