New Pin Releases and June 24th Workshop Coverage
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The Workshop
Martha Blanding - Manager, Special Events
Merchandise for the Disneyland Resort
Becky Carter - Manager for Specialized Business and Initiatives at the Disneyland Resort
Jim Durgin - Product Development Manager for Pins for the Disneyland Resort
Mario Fiumani - Chief Executive Officer of Pin USA
The second of The Disneyland Resort's pin trading workshops was held to discuss some of the changes in the year-long merchandise promotion - and more. While the workshop held last month was mainly involved with outlining the changes in the trading guidelines for the program and to update collectors and traders on upcoming promotions and events the introduction of limited edition mystery pins to the DLR - the emphasis this time was on product and an overview of the pin-making process.
The three workshops held on June 24th each covered the same information and were held on the site of the now closed Big Thunder Barbecue. In the course of the workshops more than 300 collectors and traders - veterans and newbies - took advantage of the information and the availability of the four participants attending for a bit of Q&A.
Martha Blanding - Manager, Special
Events Merchandise for the Disneyland Resort
Martha began the workshop with a welcome, some event news and a legal disclaimer,
"The disclaimer is this, for Jim Durgin, who is our Product Developer for pins,
please do not give him any recommendations for any type of design or how to create a pin.
For legal reasons, we cannot accept it." With that she introduced Jim to the
audience.
Jim Durgin
Jim Durgin - Product Development Manager
for Pins for the Disneyland Resort
Jim took the stage to applause, and thanks for the new designs coming to pin locations
across the resort. "All this legal stuff makes me sound important - I'm not all that
important.", he joked. "I'm here to do a little show and tell which is great...
let you see some of the pins we're going to introduce in the future... some pins coming
out at the beginning of the summer and some we'll introduce at the end... what you're
going to see are all the way from kind of rough concept drawings, rough stages, all the
way to the finish and then I have some samples to show you."
Jim then went through several new designs for both rack or open stock pins and a few limited editions and commemoratives as well as the designs for a new DCA pin event. "I'm the Merchant Product Developer and what we do is... we look at anniversaries, events that are coming up. The Reluctant Dragon is having a 60th Anniversary, so we really like to go for some of those really obscure Disney Anniversaries... makes it really fun with really unusual characters." He then turned the black foam-core boards to show the new releases.
Friendship Day is coming in August
He announced the upcoming Friendship Day pin with Pooh and Piglet hand in hand - it's a LE but the edition is unknown at the moment, and a LE light-up Mickey as Uncle Sam for the 4th of July - to be released on Super Pin Sunday, July 1st in an edition of 2,400 pieces and selling at $10.50. "We're coming out with a whole Alice in Wonderland series... it will be the whole family of Alice characters... I shouldn't say that it's coming out next month, but I believe it is... coming up, ready to go."
Prototype of Goofy's Soda Shop
"Some really fun pins Mario has been working on for us, we like to bring Disneyland in to our pins as much as possible and we have Goofy's Soda Shop... it's going to be a little bit larger pin, I know some of our pins have been getting a little large, we're trying to bring them down, but this pin has so much detail." There will also be a new Disneyland specific Hot Air Balloon dangle pin featuring Mickey and Minnie. "We're also developing a really fun pin that has all the characters (fab six) in front, and we're trying a new technique it's going to look like a stained glass window. The rainbow is going to be translucent and the light is going to come through it and of course, it has the castle in the background."
The Alphabet Series