Background

Disney’s Vinylmation series uses one of the most iconic cartoon characters – Mickey Mouse – as the basis for a blind-boxed line of platform toys. They recently released the Vinylmation Park 2 Series, which includes 12 different designs from 5 artists. The designs feature characters, attractions and icons from the Disney Theme Parks and Resorts.

Packaging

The series is blind boxed. We don’t have any photos of the packaging, but it looks similar to Park Series 1. And if you remember, we liked the sleek design of the black box. Also, each figure includes a small, illustrated card with the random character you received.

The Figure

The Vinylmation Park 2 Series consists of 12 different designs – 11 regular and 1 “chaser” (I’ll take a cola, please). Each 3” tall solid plastic piece features 3 points of articulation (head and arms) and uses the same Mickey Mouse sculpt as previous series.

Several artists have created designs for the lineup, including: Dawn Ockstadt (DO), Maria Clapsis (MC), Randy Noble (RN), Michelle St. Laurent Sheive (MS), and Glenn Winters (GW).

The list of designs (in the order pictured above - and favorite to least - has the artist in parentheses) is as follows: Panda (DO), Monkey (MC), Little Green Men (RN), Snow White’s Adventure (MS), Festival of the Lion King (MS), Mike Mouse (RN), The Little Mermaid (MS), Aquaramouse (DO), Penny Machine (GW), Toon Hole (RN) and Poncho (RN).

Our Opinion

Disney’s Vinylmation Park Series 2 made a u-turn and started this line heading in the right direction. While the first series used the Mickey Mouse shape with somewhat random designs (and the Urban Series anything but urban), they‘ve done what I’ve been suggesting all along…use the wealth of Disney characters to their advantage.

While there are some misses in this lineup (i.e. Poncho and Toon Hole), there are plenty of good designs to overshadow them. Disney has pulled characters from films such as Snow White, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. And since these are primarily sold at the Disney Parks (unless you get them via ebay), people are obviously looking to purchase Disney memorabilia.

There’s still the fact that the 3” Vinylmation figures really aren’t made out of rotocast vinyl. Is it PVC plastic? Whatever it is, these figures are made of solid injection molded plastic. And while I haven’t actually seen the 9” line in person, I would have to believe that these are rotocast.

Overall, if you’re a designer toy collector and you make your way to one of the Disney Theme Parks, you’ll want to pick one of these up to add to your collection.

You can pick one up at the following:

@ Disney Theme Parks: $9.95 ea.

Vinylmation Park 2 Series Grades:

Quality: 6/10
Paint: 7/10
Packaging: 7/10
Durability: 9/10
Hype: 7/10
Fun Factor: 7/10
Value: 6/10

Overall: 7.3/10