From Official Vinylmation Blog:

How many of you already have the Vinylmation™ Toy Story series? We will be releasing the three 9-inch figures on Friday, September 17 at D-Street in California and Florida. The three figures were designed by Thomas Scott who also designed the 3-inch figures.

The Bo Peep figure is a 9-inch plus 3-inch set and includes one of her sheep.

 

The remaining two figures include the Evil Emperor Zurg and one of the Little Green Men (who isn’t so little). You may recall that we had a 3-inch Little Green Men figure in Park Series #2.

 

 

The Zurg and Bo Peep figures will have an edition size of 1200, while the Little Green Men figure will have an edition size of 1500.

From Official Vinylmation Blog:

We have some news regarding the release of the Nightmare Before Christmas Collection coming up this Friday, September 10. As special courtesy to all of our Vinylmation™ collectors, the D-Street locations at both the Disneyland® and Walt Disney World® Resorts will be opening at 8:00 a.m. We can’t wait to see everyone there! As a reminder, the limited edition Vinylmation™ Figures will be limited to two Figures, per style, per Guest, per day.

And now a quick update … for those Guests looking for the Vinylmation™ Toy Story series on the DisneyParks.com/Store today, we have a bit of unfortunate news that we just learned. The release of this series on-line has been delayed a week (darn that Lotso!!). It will now be released on September 15. We send our apologies for any confusion this may have caused

Cody Smith has returned with more photos of upcoming Vinylmation figure previews from today’s second half of the Pin Celebration 2010–Trade City USA, each day at the event they add a few more figures, so let’s see what tomorrow, the Vinylmation Showcase, brings.

Park Series #5 Preview, Coming October 2010

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Disneyland Release Information:

AUGUST 27, 2010
PRODUCT RELEASE

D-Street at Downtown Disney® District in California

-Annual Passholder – Mr. Toad

-Toy Story

Walt Disney World Release Information:

AUGUST 27, 2010
PRODUCT RELEASE

D-Street at Downtown Disney® West Side in Florida

-Annual Passholder – Mr. Toad

-Toy Story

Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park

-The Animal Kingdom

AUGUST 29, 2010
EVENT

Trade City, USA – Vinylmation™ Showcase at Epcot® – World ShowPlace
The first-ever Vinylmation™ Event will take place on Sunday, August 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This “Vinylmation™ Showcase” will be held in World Showplace at Epcot®. It is part of the annual Disney Pin Celebration which this year has the theme of “Trade City, USA.” As the story goes, the newest subdivision in Trade City, USA is called Vinylmation®, hence the event. There are some unique items that have been created just for this event, and we’ve planned so much more.

In addition, at the event there will be quantities available of the following Vinylmation™ collection:

-Annual Passholder – Mr. Toad

-Toy Story

-The Animal Kingdom

-Disney Pin Trading 10th Anniversary

From the Disney Parks Blog:

I loved playing with toys when I was little. I still enjoy playing with toys only now they include more technology and are more expensive. Like many parents, I took my kids to see Disney-Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” on opening day in 3-D. Besides being a wonderful film, it brought back many memories of toys I played with when little. Now a whole new generation of “kids” (yes, the little ones and those that refuse to grow up – you know who you are) will be happy to see the latest Vinylmation “toys” – the Toy Story series. I spoke with Thomas Scott, lead designer for Vinylmation, about this new series.

“Work began on the series in summer 2009,” explained Thomas. “I suggested an entire series saluting the trilogy of Toy Story films. This gave me a range of characters to select from including some characters not featured in the newest film.”

The series will be sold as a Limited Release mystery set. In other words, there are 11 known designs and one Mystery Chaser. Lin Shih from Disney Design Group worked with Thomas on the packaging. He digitally illustrated the Buzz Lightyear and Woody characters on the packaging using the same techniques used by the animators of the Toy Story films.

Thomas explained the key component to what makes the Toy Story series different than other Vinylmation series.

“New in this series are accessories,” continued Thomas. “I thought to make this series work, we needed some key accessories like Buzz’s helmet. And if Buzz Lightyear had a helmet, then Woody and Jessie would need hats. These accessories were essential to making the characters more recognizable.”

I personally love Buttercup (as unicorns rule!). I asked Thomas about his favorite design.

“I like Big Baby,” Thomas said. “When I was designing the characters last summer, I didn’t have many details about the storyline. I only had character model sheets to reference, and Big Baby was the one character that I was drawn to the most.”

Anytime we create merchandise featuring Pixar characters, partners at Pixar review the designs to ensure character integrity is maintained. This is similar to how all Disney character merchandise is reviewed by Disney trained artists. Thomas talked a little about the partnership.

“Ben Butcher is our contact at Pixar,” continued Thomas. “He was an outstanding partner who was very enthusiastic about Vinylmation and helped me to select characters for the series. It was because of his support that this series was created.”

Speaking of partnerships, with the launch of the Vinylmation Toy Story series, we have taken Vinylmation from a Disney Parks initiative to a Walt Disney Company initiative. Select Vinylmation series will soon be sold in select Disney Store locations as well as Disney Parks. Vinylmation will also continue to be sold on our Disney Parks On-Line Store. Look for the Vinylmation Toy Story series coming to Disney Parks in late July/August.

Now if you will excuse me, it’s play time.

While at D- Street in Walt Disney World yesterday for the Condiment Set Release (which did not sell out), reader J. Alamed (greenhpper) noticed some new ‘displays’ along the ceiling of the store.

Group Shot of Various Upcoming Figures.

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From Official Vinylmation Blog:

The world needs more Unicorns like Buttercup. Don’t you agree?

 
Buttercup – 1900×1200
Buttercup – 1280×1024
Buttercup – 1024×768
Buttercup – 800×600

Fellow Disney blogger Michelle Harker posted an article and video featuring West Coast artist Noah yesterday on the Disney Parks Blog. We heart Noah and LOVE (that’s with capital letters) the 5-foot Vinylmation figure he created that was inspired by World of Color (yes, we still can’t wait to see that show!!). The interview he did is a lot of fun so we hope you enjoy as much as we did – SEE IT HERE.

Noah also shared with as a picture he took with his camera during the morning that video was shot. Awesomeness!

 

The Toy Story Series was released yesterday at the Disney Store of Montebello, CA opening. The 12-figure set is blindboxed, and features characters from all three Toy Story films. The set features:

-Woody
-Buzz Lightyear
-Rex
-Hamm
-Green Army Man
-Jessie
-Bullseye
-Wheezy
-Lotso
-Buttercup
-Big Baby
-Evil Dr. Porkchop– the Chaser

For individual images, be sure to head to our Toy Story Series Gallery. All images courtsey of Evilos.com.

From Official Vinylmation Blog:

We hope all of the Vinylmation™ fans enjoyed the little surprise yesterday. It’s official: Vinylmation™ is coming to select Disney Stores. Some of you may have already found the new Vinylmation™ Toy Story, Vinylmation™ Have-A-Laugh and Vinylmation™ Urban #4 series in the new Imagination Park location in Montebello, California. Congrats! These series will also be introduced at Disney Parks and on the Disney Parks on-line store soon.

The partnership between Disney Theme Park Merchandise and the Disney Store has been in the works for several months now. There were lots of fans who wondered about having Vinylmation in Disney Stores during the live chat on April 29, 2010. Sadly, we couldn’t discuss it at that time. But we were thrilled to hear of the interest.

As we’ve mentioned before, Vinylmation™ draws inspiration from the roots of the Walt Disney Company: artistic expression combined with fantastic storytelling. We are excited to take Vinylmation™ from a Disney Parks initiative to a Walt Disney Company initiative. And the Disney Stores, especially with the introduction with of the new Imagination Park locations, will be a key partner with this expansion.

So now, Vinylmation™ is at Disney Parks, on the Internet and now at select Disney Stores.

To celebrate this partnership, here is a new wallpaper image featuring two pals – Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story.

 
Happy Vinylmation 01 – 1900×1200
Happy Vinylmation 01 – 1280×1024
Happy Vinylmation 01 – 1024×768
Happy Vinylmation 01 – 800×600

Oh for those wondering, the new Disney Store at the Shops at Montebello will hold a Grand Opening celebration on June 29, 2010. Here is the address: 2060 Montebello Town Center, Montebello, CA 90640. We learned Radio Disney will be there to celebrate the opening. The fun starts at 10:00 a.m. when the first 400 kids get free Mickey Mouse Ears (while supplies last!). There will also be celebrity hosts, special guests from Disney Channel, plus a meet and greet with Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie from noon to 4:00 p.m.

At the grand opening of a new Disney Store in Montebello, California, Disney Store President Jim Fielding tweeted: “Vinylmation debuts at Montebello!”, with the following picture attached:

Not only is there Vinylmation in a Disney Store, but it’s two series that have still not debuted in the parks; the “Have a Laugh!” and “Toy Story” series. I replied to Jim Fielding on Twitter asking when we would see more Disney Stores with Vinylmation, he replied “40 stores by 7/11″. Vinylmation is on the way to the Disney Store!!! Stay tuned to The Vinylmation Station as we find out more information on this developing story.

In other news, we can report the following characters are represented in the “Toy Story” series thanks to the above photo: Jessie, Rex, Woody, Lotso, Buzz Lightyear, Bullseye, Wheezy, Green Army Men, Buttercup, Big Baby, and Hamm.