For those of you that have already listened to this week’s Disneybrit Podcast (Episode 85), you will have heard us make a decision. 2012 will be the year that we will campaign to get Disney Vinylmation recognised in the UK by the Disney Company, guests and Cast Members. We have heard reports in the past few weeks of a lack of Vinylmation in UK stores (including those “spotlight” stores Disney had told us about) , and those that did, had them shoved on a low shelf and didn’t seem to care too much about them. In fact, some stores had as little as 4 in stock and out of those, several were opened. I took a trip to Birmingham during the Christmas break and decided I would go to the Bull Ring store and stock up on Vinylmation. This is what I found:
5 Vinlymation from the Have a Laugh series, two of which had been open. Having Tweeted out this photo, I had replies from people all over the country telling me they have seen the same thing. Several had spoken to Cast Members and they had expressed their disappointment at what had happen and were even frustrated that people didn’t understand what it all meant. In the same period, Disney seem to pull many of its Vinylmation from their online store as well as physical stores. Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King and Robots all vanished out of site. Come January and Cutesters and the 9″ London Vinylmation were reduced in the sale.
It was now what people feared the worse. Would UK collectors have to pay the extortionate shipping fees set by Disney Store in the USA, as well as the cost for customs fees? Would we have to rely on US residents to buy and send them and would I have to rely on my Vinylmation Mule (Craig Duncan) to continue to fit them in his suitcase?
It seemed so, until the Disney Store sent out an email to its newsletter subscribers today.
Part of that email headed “Introducing Vinylmation” seemed to be doing exactly that. Is this Disney finally realising their potential? And does this mean there is a commitment by Disney to begin to sell them on a much bigger scale? Better still, the email also tells us that the website will be getting the Furry Friends series this month. Is this season going to be the proper launch of Vinylmation? I couldn’t think of anything better than being able to go in to my local Disney Store and picking up a new vinyl. At the moment, I have to travel 45 minutes or pay £5 for delivery to my house 10 minutes away from the Disney Store European distribution centre!
All we do hope here at Disneybrit is that Disney are going to continue to bring Vinylmation over to the UK and we plan on supporting that all the way! If you are talking about Vinylmation on Twitter and are in the UK? Please support our cause for better Vinylmation choices by adding #SaveUKVinylmation to any Vinylmation tweet you put out there.
Happy Trading!
Brilliant, let’s do this woop woop
[…] According to our friends at DisneyBrit.com, Furry Friends will be coming to the UK Disney Store. According to a flyer emailed to them, the Disney store looks to be introducing Villains 2 (along with the 9″/Jr Jafar/Genie vinyl) and Furry Friends. This will be great news to our English fans who often don’t have access to some of the cooler series that we get here in the states. In fact, this might be the start of a whole new campaign for Vinylmation across the pond. Who out there lives in England and likes vinylmation? What vinyl have you been able to collect, what do you want to collect? For a good English commentary on the subject, check out the DisneyBrit article: #SaveUKVinylmation […]
Let the Vinylmation Armies grow!
I live in birmingham ( and yes I have my mousemeets ticket woop wooop )….. Anyway back to my point… Nothing surprises me about the Birmingham store, I popped in around October and there were NO vinylmations out. When I asked the girl behind the counter if they expected more in she said “there are loads out back” and “they just dont have the room to put them out”….. she then went out back and brought out 4 or 5 trays. I also asked if they would be getting new series and she said she didnt see why not as they were extremely popular….. hummmmm so why keep them out the back then?
i am a big fan of vinylmations and i am always look for vinylmation in the disney store , i have to travel 1hour 10 mins to birmingham or over 1 hour to cribbs causeway . when asked in my local store if there were going to stock vinylmation – didn’t not what i was asking for ,i explain that the disney store in bristol stock them and ask if a transfer could be carried out , and was told it was easiler to buy on line . ( so shipping i must pay )
i would like to mention all the awesome vinylmation fans on disney vinylmation uk facebook page – i have traded with a number of people and the vinylmation spirits still lives in the uk .
keep on trading
This is great news, as a collector its great not to have to rely on ebay, DL Paris mail order and other forums (like vinylnation) to buy & trade on, as getting blind boxes is half the fun.
while it is annoying that the ds.co.uk site has sold out of lion king and others, at least that means things are selling and hopefully this push might help it.
back in november I was over at the cardiff store where they had a small selection by the till (HAL, toy story, villians and animation) they had a couple that were opened. Also the women in the shop said that they were currently on trial in the UK. they don’t have any in the plymouth store which is the closet to me.
Just been to Liverpool ONE Disney Store, NONE on display, just kept in the back! #SaveUKVinylmation
I saw the exact same thinggg….. grrrrrrrrrrrr. I’m going again tomorrow to check out the Brum store.
The birmingham store are usually fantastic and extremely friendly. They save pins for me as a regular customer, however i recently purchased one of the furry friends vinylmation collections, when i got out the shop to open it, i had the chaser, fantastic. However it had already been opened!! Vinylmations and pins need the recognition they deserve to keep the true fans happy. My disney fix keeps me very happy!! Now i can wait for mousemeets to meet fellow collectors!!
I recently went in to the Disney Store on Oxford street to see if they had any Vinylmations, as usual they didn’t have any on display, when i asked if they had any out back they told me no as they were not very popular but that they will be getting some in future weeks!?!?!?
Hi guys. I really want to trade vinylmations in the UK. Any tips???