Lookout Disney We Have Boxed Pin Sets Four

An Ancient Ritual, Disney Catalog Sales


There use to be a time back in the day when you would go out to the mailbox and check if the postal carrier brought the newest Disney Catalog.  My mother, the sponsor,  ordered so much from the catalog  that she had a personal shopper.  The shopper would call her and take her order or suggest items that she knew my mom would be interested in.  Mom ordered so much that she was designated a Best Guest. It may sound frivolous but it saved time and mailing off a catalog form.  It also gave my mom access to special items that were not published in that month's catalog.  The biggest perk of all was the items that were given to you because you were a Best Guest. 

Mom enjoyed the title Best Guest.

 Even cast members at the resort hotels and the parks recognized the Best Guest logo. Because of the twins and my mom being their Nonna, many of the orders included clothes and toys for the kids.  Also, the Disney character cookie jars that I blogged about on May14 and May 31 came from Disney Catalog.  


Disney Catalog offered boxed pin sets.  As a family we had become huge pin collectors.  The idea of boxed pin sets were a logical extension.  We started with the early Disney and I. B. Werks production of early Mickey Mouse films that launched our little mouse heroes film career.  Steamboat Willie made in 1928 was the same year my mother was born.  That was the reason she loved that mouse so much. The March 26th blog displayed those early pin sets.  Disney followed that release with the of Silly Symphony cartoons.  These were shown at theaters in color.  That caused a sensation.  Most films were in black and white.  The April 3rd blog was about these film releases.  All these Disney Catalog exclusives were produced as limited editions. Most of them were released as part of a 3000 limit.  Others were released in some significant number.  On May 2nd, I blogged about some the boxed pin sets that were related to sports. 
The Disney Catalog released a pin set that represented pin trading. Pin trading was taking off at the various Disney parks.  Guest had lanyards and could trade pins with any Disney cast member.   If you had a full lanyard it was substantially heavy around your neck especially a child's neck.  As the number of pins increased the people began to adopt other options, such as pin vests or pin cases.  These pin vest were generally khaki or black.  Some people had pins on the front and others covered the vest front and back.  It must have been incredibly uncomfortable and heavy.  Some traders opted for the pin cases.  Disneyland set up sites where pin traders could congregate to unzip their cases and display the pins they wished to trade.  The Disney Catalog boxed pin set depicts these differing activities.  Mickey Mouse and the whole gang are shown in trading pins.

Pin trading took the parks by storm.

Kiosks and pin cases

You've seen this before.

As time went on many of the collectors edition boxed pin sets were more specific.  Take the pin set Donald Duck: My Family Album.  Donald Duck has a large family and a significant other.  We all know Daisy Duck, that glamorous and sassy Peking Duck has been Donald's girl friend since she was created in 1940.  Of course, everyone knows Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  They in a cartoon episode decided to raise a sunken boat with ping pong balls.  It worked for them but many real life people were skeptical.  Then the television show Myth Buster decided to either confirm or bust this myth.  They devised a delivery system for the ping pong balls and the method was confirmed.  They even had to use less balls than they calculated.  The nephews were in many of Donald's adventures.  One of my favorite ducks was the smartest of the Duck family.  He had many shows on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color that informed us on topics ranging from Child Psychology to introducing Tall Tales.  Professor Ludwig von Duck was Donald's uncle.  Another uncle everyone wishes they had was rich Scrooge McDuck.  A poor thrifty Scottish duck that hit it rich in the Klondike finding a a goose egg sized gold nugget.  This launched his fortune that has been rising steadily ever since.  In 2011 Forbes Fictional Fifteen revealed that Uncle Scrooge hit number one being worth 44.1 billion dollars.  

Star of cartoons, comics, and movies

Only a small number of the Duck family

Huebert Duck, Deuteronomy Duck, and Louis Duck  are better known as Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  These nephews appeared in some of the earliest Disney films meant for theaters to the Disney's Afternoon Avenue show Duck Tales.  Poor Donald was often the receiver of misfortune.  In Good Scouts Donald is taking his nephews on a camping trip.  Where he is befuddled by a petrified tree, chased by a grumpy bear and foiled by "Old Reliable" geyser.  When Donald is injured, the boys spring into action using their scouting skills and the result is Donald looks like a mummy.

This was volume # 5 Of the Disney Animated Shorts series

The nephews are in their uniforms.

Why would you have a limited edition of 1932?  "Gawrsh" the answer is your celebrating the 70th anniversary of everybody's favorite anthropomorphic dog, Goofy.  Goofy's first role was in 1932 Mickey's Revue.  Goofy played Dippy Dawg and a star was born.  Goofy made many "How To" and "The Art of" cartoon shows.  However, we all know these turned out to be "how not to".  Take the 1941 Art of Skiing.  Goofy's misadventures caused him to go over a cliff gave rise to what is now known as the "Goofy Holler". This sound effect written in scripts as "yaaaaaaa-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey!!" This sound effect is used in many movie and not just by Goofy.  Goofy can be heard in the video game Kingdom Hearts using this yodel as he comes charging with his shield, the only weapon he uses.

The old dog looks good for 80 now.

My brother has Goofy golf stuff thanks to the sponsor

In 1936 the animated short called Mickey's Circus.  You would think it was all about our favorite mouse, Mickey.  Mickey, however, starts and ends the feature.  The main part belonged to the most easily frustrated, Donald Duck.  Donald has a trained seal act.  The adult seals are supposed balance a ball and play the horns.  It is the little seal pup that steals the show.  First by stealing the fish intended to reward the seals.  Next, by playing the horns better and a one-man-band drum and symbol.  Salty the Seal later tormented Pluto in a future film.  This boxed set was a limited to 1500.

Come to Mickey's Circus! Orphans get in free.

How come there is no Salty the Seal?

Going through these boxed pin sets gives me a good feeling, I get to remember my mom.  She loved shopping and Disney.  The Disney Catalog gave her an excellent opportunity for both.  She also love the fact that she had a personal shopper.  She was a salesperson and buyer in retail sales her entire life.  She prided herself on the attention and service she gave her customers.  And they were her customers.  The majority of them would rather leave the store than have anyone else wait on them.  Department stores don't give service like that anymore.  Has anyone at Walmart ever asked you, "That is a beautiful shirt! Let me show you a sweater and a tie that would look great with that."  The idea of just one someone to take care of her seemed perfect.  Being designated as a Best Guest made her feel special.  Next time we'll explore more of these Disney Catalog exclusives.  

Look Out Disney We Have Boxed Pin Sets

Boxed Pin Collections

Over the years when the Sponsor, my mother, was alive, we use to go though the Disney Catalog and look for pin sets.  Initially we just purchased the 1928 Walt Disney original Steamboat Willie. My Mom liked the fact that she and Mickey mouse were born in the same year, within a month actually.  This started off a collection that included many of the original Disney Cartoons.  Many of the first cartoon offerings that Disney produced were black and white. Then Silly Symphony cartoons were filmed in color.

On November 18, 1928 Steamboat Willie premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York City.  It was a debut for both Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.  Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie was able to synchronize the picture with the soundtrack.  This was revolutionary.  The audiences loved this little film.  It helped propel onto the world stage the Disney Film Company.  The film included a menacing cat Captain Pete.  Also, there was a musical number that included farm animals to a rendition of Turkey in the Straw.

The idea for Plane Crazy was thought up by Walt and Lillian Disney on a train trip from New York to Hollywood in 1928. It was inspired by aviator Charles Lindbergh.  It was originally a silent cartoon and contained 'crash!' 'bang!' and 'ha ha!'.  It was animated entirely by Ub Iwerks.  He drew 700 drawings per day.  The drawings were inked and painted onto celluloid by Walt's wife Lillian, brother Roy, and his wife Edna, and his sister-in-law Hazel Sewell.  In 1929 a sound track was added.

Mickey Mouse is escaping a storm and he takes shelter in an empty run-down but not unoccupied house.  There are many spine tingling skeletons. Mickey is commanded by a hooded figure to "play!" an old pipe organ.  
Mickey answers, "Y-yes. ma'am."
The music stirs all the ghouls and Mickey makes his escape.  The Haunted House's doors creaked open on December 2, 1929. Walt Disney directed this cartoon and supplied the voice of every body's hero Mickey Mouse.

Mickey and Minnie are the longest sweethearts in show business.  There are many people who wonder why this might be the case.  They seem so drawn to each other.  The reason may have been clearly answered with the release of Mickey's Nightmare on August 13, 1932.  In this film Mickey says his prayers and goes asleep.  He dreams that he marries the lovely Minnie.  You should see the rock he gave her.  So as the song goes in My Blue Heaven, "and baby makes three," the storks soon arrive bring babies by the bucketful.  They take over Mickey's home. They are a force beyond nature.  No room is left alone.  Even Mickey and Pluto are swarmed over by the hoard of mouselings.  Fortunately, Mickey wakes up and he has been a bachelor ever since.

On September 2, 1933, Puppy Love brought Mickey Mouse and Minnie together on another date. Mickey with Pluto in tow brings Minne flowers and a heart shaped box of chocolates.  While Mickey and Minnie were at the piano singing their new song, Puppy Love, Pluto is being led on by Minnie's dog, Fifi.  Pluto, to impress Fifi, sneaks the chocolates and gives them to her.  He replaces the missing sweets with a bone.  When Minnie opens the box, the battle of the sexes ensues.  Everyone gets into the act Mickey and Minnie, Pluto and Fifi, even the birds and squirrels in the trees.  They all swear off the opposite sex until Fifi brings Minnie the last few candies.  Soon everything is back to normal.

As time marched on Mickey cartoons also changed with the times. This included the use of Technicolor in the Mickey Mouse Clock Cleaners that was released on October15, 1937.  This was just two months before Disney's first feature length feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Also Mickey was aided by his two friends Goofy and Donald Duck.  On a extremely tall community tower, the trio battle the inner workings of the clock and its clockwork bell ringers, Father Time and Miss Liberty.  Each hero has his own challenge.  Mickey battles an obstinate stork.  Donald is absorbed in a perky mainspring.  Goofy is tortured by mice.  
Collecting these boxed pin sets was something my Mom and I did together.  We weren't just collecting pins, we were collecting memories.  Memories from her childhood when a child could go to a movie house for a ten cent matinee.  We bridged the generation gap with this reminiscing.  I may trade the pins but I would never trade the memories.  Nor would I trade the quality time I got to spend with my Mom.  Take the time to find out what cartoons your Mom or Dad enjoyed in the theater or on television.
Next time we visit the Disney boxed pin sets, we will look at Walt Disney's Silly Symphony cartoons.