Kim's Corner - Feb 25, 2002

Kim's Corner
Page 12 of 18

The prints themselves - available in two sizes and on two media - are a wonderful opportunity for nearly anyone to own a piece of Eric’s art - I know that I’ll have added several to my art collection by the time the exhibit ends. They are also an opportunity for the Disneyland fan and collector to support the addition of this technology to the park - if this exhibit/merchandise event is a success there will be more to come - if we fail to support the risk that the merchandise division has taken with this partnership - we’ll not see more - not in this economy. I can’t see that happening - now that we have these cool printers - lets wear their print heads off - and then ask for more images.

10822 bytes
100 Mickeys Logo Baseball-style Cap with Pin - $22.00 - SKU: 400-005-571-732.
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(550 X 636, 41,855 bytes)

I had spoken to Peter Moger - the Director of the Art Group, in charge of installing the print technology in the Gallery - earlier in the day and he had mentioned that the largest single sale of PoD art had been 28 pieces on art paper - I knew that it was going to be a good day. There was still a line for the signing and the support merchandise - especially the cap and t-shirt were selling as quickly as they could be stocked. The high end collectables were also selling - the $195.00 100 Mickeys boxed Lithograph set was selling well - the $1,200 Dave Avanzino piece had sold through more than half of its edition of 10 pieces - and more than 30 of Eric’s originals had found homes and 10 more were on hold - buyers don’t get their art until the show closes in September -yeah - it was a good day. Made me smile a bit as I remembered telling him to trust the collectors - they know "cool" when they see it.

24787 bytes
The 100 Mickeys watch - $95.00 - SKU: 400-005-570-339.
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(919 X 706, 71,310 bytes)

And, these prints are cool - advanced cool - cool like very little else in the Disney art marketplace is cool. Any of the 100 Mickeys can be yours - printed on archival art paper - in two sizes - 28.5" x 36" at $35.00 and 28.5" x 48" at $45.00 - or on inkjet studio canvas - in two sizes - 28.5" x 36" at $125.00 and 36" x 48" at $150.00. Great price points for the quality - I have to say that I was surprised at the cost - cynic that I am I expected to have to pay more - as was the case with the supporting merchandise - all is priced within resort parameters. As an added bonus, FedEx is shipping free PoD merchandise of charge since they are the corporate shipping partner of the DLR - a great tie-in for both the park and FedEx.

As Tony explained, "Once we had got the paintings complete, and we knew that we had an audience for Disneyana and we launched there… and we got great response and a lot of feedback from guests who didn’t attend Disneyana of ‘Well, what are you going to do with these?’ So we had a challenge on our hands. What do we do? And we knew that we had some great images that we could release in honor of Walt’s birthday but we never had a home in which we could showcase all 100 images or we had no way of printing a hundred different pieces. So, two things came along. One was Print on Demand… it’s a company called the Art Group, which has worked with the Disney Company Consumer Products for, I think, over 10 years… So, they came to us with this concept, which we attached to the Disneyana as well, and they did very well. And then we said, ‘This is a great avenue to be able to offer the guests 100 different images.’ But, if only one guest wanted that black and white Mickey, then this is a way for them to get it. So, this is a great tie."

25693 bytes
Note cards featuring five of the exhibits pieces - $15.00 - SKU: 400-005-481-802.
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(928 X 667, 76,204 bytes)