Title explains it all, but let me get into a bit of the background here. I've always been a huge fan of Disney and that comes from my parents but moreso mother. She is a huge fan of animation in general and growing up as I found myself enamored with art, I had an abundance of appreciation for cel-animation, storyboards, claymation, and so forth. While I'm not a fan of the princesses, I can absolutely appreciate the art and production of them which comes from a simple book my parents bought me as a child: Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs & the Making of the Classic Film 50th Anniversary -- I could go on about this, but I sort of wanted to explain the long history in a nutshell. Anyhow, if you ever have the chance -- even if you're not a fan of Disney, watch the videos of them doing the voice recordings, storyboards, or just the production. To date my favourite Disney movies are Alice in Wonderland, Lilo & Stitch, and The Nightmare Before Christmas -- three movies that use very different techniques.
The next layer of fandom comes through the visits to Disney World. Now I couldn't tell you much about the visit as a child though there does exist a fantastic picture of my crying over the loss of a balloon. My family loves pointing out that picture, I don't even remember that happening but I know the emotions in that picture. Anyhow, we got the chance to visit again when I was sixteen and I had a lot of fun which includes riding my roller coaster rides (though which came first, I forget). Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which I got a migraine from and/or the Tower of Terror where my glasses flew away from me and then my mother and I proceeded to visually search for them while my brother and father had fun enjoying the ride. (Enjoying the ride is for chumps who... well, ah. I think this means Tower of Terror was my first ride because of my newbie error).
Side Note: I developed an extreme fear of heights sometime after this. Oh well.
Moving along to years later, during the advent of Blizzcon, I decided that my friends must endure Disneyland. Somehow they didn't disagree with me so we went two years in a row. But did I just skip the most important part? Yes. Well, no.
See in the three visits that I remember to a Disney park, the one thing I've always wanted to do is participate in pin trading. I'm a collector and an organizer, and each time I saw those magical pin trading posts, I really wanted it. When I was 16, my parents tried to reason with me to tell me that it was a phase and that I shouldn't indulge because I'd end up doing nothing with them. I relented because I wasn't even sure who I'd trade with or how, especially since it was just one visit to Disney World. Then during both visits to Disneyland I talked myself out of it just like I talked myself out of the Vinylmations. But the funny thing is that I still wanted them and so over 10 years later I finally decided to jump into pin trading.
And by jump, I mean, barely touch the water. I really wanted the Mechanical Stitch but I figured that if I was going to do this then I needed to get a starter kit. The problem was that during my last two visits, there were no Stitch packs avaiable so I had settled on getting The Nightmare Before Christmas. However with a bit of poking around online, I found that there were some Stitch sets that came in red or blue.
Frankly, I would have gotten them both but I thought I was being ridiculous. Mostly because I'd never trade Stitch which made the whole "pin trading" part kind of hard. I'll deal with that when the time comes.
After much analyzing (and disbelief that I actually got it), I'm quite content with what I got. I did check (and double check) to make sure that I didn't get any scrappers or counterfeits. The bag they came in still had the Disneyland price tag on it and everything looks legit, so perhaps I didn't need to check as much as I did but as a newbie, I might as well educate myself.
So why write this lengthy post about pin trading? Partially because I wanted to. I'm a verbose kind of gal and I need a hobby. But this new hobby away from the old hobbies is also a bit on the consuming side. I was lucky to go to Disney parks as many times as I did (actually, I'd like to thank the friends and family that allowed for that to happen) but never picked these things up. Which meant that I had to get them online which creates a bit of a risk (not to mention one hell of a markup) so it's better off to have the small indulgence but to not quite jump in.
Who knows though, perhaps if there's another Disney trip in my future I can get some new ones and actually participate in the pin trading. But I'm going to need an Alice in Wonderland set in order to trully give in (again).
The next layer of fandom comes through the visits to Disney World. Now I couldn't tell you much about the visit as a child though there does exist a fantastic picture of my crying over the loss of a balloon. My family loves pointing out that picture, I don't even remember that happening but I know the emotions in that picture. Anyhow, we got the chance to visit again when I was sixteen and I had a lot of fun which includes riding my roller coaster rides (though which came first, I forget). Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which I got a migraine from and/or the Tower of Terror where my glasses flew away from me and then my mother and I proceeded to visually search for them while my brother and father had fun enjoying the ride. (Enjoying the ride is for chumps who... well, ah. I think this means Tower of Terror was my first ride because of my newbie error).
Side Note: I developed an extreme fear of heights sometime after this. Oh well.
Moving along to years later, during the advent of Blizzcon, I decided that my friends must endure Disneyland. Somehow they didn't disagree with me so we went two years in a row. But did I just skip the most important part? Yes. Well, no.
See in the three visits that I remember to a Disney park, the one thing I've always wanted to do is participate in pin trading. I'm a collector and an organizer, and each time I saw those magical pin trading posts, I really wanted it. When I was 16, my parents tried to reason with me to tell me that it was a phase and that I shouldn't indulge because I'd end up doing nothing with them. I relented because I wasn't even sure who I'd trade with or how, especially since it was just one visit to Disney World. Then during both visits to Disneyland I talked myself out of it just like I talked myself out of the Vinylmations. But the funny thing is that I still wanted them and so over 10 years later I finally decided to jump into pin trading.
Frankly, I would have gotten them both but I thought I was being ridiculous. Mostly because I'd never trade Stitch which made the whole "pin trading" part kind of hard. I'll deal with that when the time comes.
After much analyzing (and disbelief that I actually got it), I'm quite content with what I got. I did check (and double check) to make sure that I didn't get any scrappers or counterfeits. The bag they came in still had the Disneyland price tag on it and everything looks legit, so perhaps I didn't need to check as much as I did but as a newbie, I might as well educate myself.
Who knows though, perhaps if there's another Disney trip in my future I can get some new ones and actually participate in the pin trading. But I'm going to need an Alice in Wonderland set in order to trully give in (again).
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