Cody Smith has returned from a final day at Trade City USA, today was the Vinylmation Showcase. Not only did we have the ultimate preview area, but also taking place was the Vinylmation Conversation, a 30-minute information presentation by Steven Miller of upcoming news and previews in the Vinylmation World.

Let’s begin with a Park Series #5 Preview of the whole set (excluding chaser, and a few 9in Figures)

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Today Cody Smith took a trip to Day One to Pin Celebration 2010, Trade City USA, which offered many previews of upcoming Vinylmation Series. The Vinylmaiton booth said that each day they’ll add more previews to the booth, so expect more images each day.

First, we have a preview of an upcoming, Open Edition, Open Windowed Series of Flags

Holiday Series #2 Preview, the Halloween 9in is said to be out before Halloween, and the Snowman 9in is a 9in/3in Set with the 9in Snow Scene, and the 3in Snow Girl

Toy Story Series (Featuring 9in Zurg, 9in Little Green Man, and 9in/3in Set of Bo Peep and Sheep)

Park Series #5 Preview

Urban Series #5 Preview

Pin Preview of Urban Series #5

Special Walt Disney World 40th Anniversary Figures

Upcoming Miscellaneous Figures Coming Soon (DVC Exclusive, Disneyland Attraction Poster, and others)

Finally, we have a preview of the upcoming Nightmare Before Christmas Figures (in pins, will have figure pictures tomorrow). We learned that the set will not be blindboxed, and instead, be Open Windowed. For more news on upcoming pins to be released be sure to check out the Disney Pincast.

From Disney Parks Blog, by Steven Miller:

What is your favorite animal? I think that is a question that everyone has been asked at least once in their life. With that question in mind, we created a new Vinylmation series called “The Animal Kingdom.” The series will be released on August 27 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. I spoke with Dan Howard, the Disney Design Group artist behind this series, about its evolution.

“This series has been in development for a very long time,” explained Dan. “I started work on it in August 2008, long before Vinylmation was first introduced to Guests. The idea was to sprinkle a couple of animals through each collection. It was Randy Noble who suggested this be an entire series.”

The first animals Dan designed were the zebra and the tiger. The giraffe came much later. In the early days of Vinylmation, accessories were discussed but never implemented. It wasn’t until the emu’s neck accessory from the Have a Laugh series that accessories began to be added to figures.

The series also started as a limited release mystery series. The giraffe would have been the mystery chaser. We changed the series to an open window box to allow Guests to select their favorite animals.

I asked Dan if he had a favorite figure.

“I’d have to say the tiger is my favorite,” continued Dan. “When designing this series, I wanted to push the boundaries of design and feature some really cool graphics. I also like the lion as my son is a fan of ‘The Lion King.’”

In this series, you may notice that the bottom of each figure has a unique signature from Dan. We also added a description for the series – Animals Series 1. This description will be something new added to future Vinylmation figures which will help Guests and Cast Members identify the various figures.

“I created unique signatures for each of the animals,” said Dan. “I don’t take myself too seriously. I’m having fun with design, and I wanted to make the signatures a fun little detail for Guests to discover. When I sign figures in person, I typically sign ‘Dan,’ so it made sense to continue that trend on these figures.”

Dan also added a feature that Guests have come to love at Disney Parks – Hidden Mickeys. Look carefully on each figure and you will see them like the photo below.

I think my favorite figure is the polar bear. It is the mascot of my university, and I like a certain television show about an island. Now I will ask you that popular question: What is your favorite animal?

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 Official Vinylmation Blog:

We’ve heard many questions regarding the Vinylmation™ The Animal Kingdom series. First, the series will be open boxed, similar to the Vinylmation™ Big Eyes Collection. Each figure will be sold seperately at a retail of $9.95. There is not a “chaser” figure to this series as all of the designs have been revealed. Also, while this series shares some of its name with Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, it was not specifically designed to tie into the park which explains the inclusion of animals not found in that park. Although, we’re still wondering how that polar bear snuck in, they do keep ending up in the oddest of places don’t they?

First, we have some preivews from the upcoming series, The Animal Kingdom.

From the Official Vinylmation Blog:

Happy Earth Day! In honor of this naturific holiday we have a preview of another upcoming Vinylmation™ The Animal Kingdom series:

For more pictures of the Animal Kingdom series check out our galleries.

On a side note, yesterday a few figures from the upcoming Open Edition, Big Eyes series were previewed, check out our galleries for the pictures.