D23 Expo 2011 - My photos and stuff

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Coheteboy

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Hey Freaks,

So this past weekend was the D23 Expo 2011: The Ultimate Disney Fan Experience, held in Anaheim, CA, right across the street from the original Disneyland. I promised the gents in the DisneyWorld/Disneyland thread to post pics in a new area so here they are.

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For you guys who don't know what D23 is, D = Disney. 23 = 1923, the year the Walt Disney Company was started (not called WDC but it's Disney's own company). D23 is Disney's official fanclub with quarterly magazine and monthly events that really only benefit you if you live in Southern California.


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I went to the 2009 Expo (the very first one) and while it needed major tweaking, I was really impressed with what they delivered. The second go around delivered quality goods... but not as impressive, more of it, but on fewer days. Basically it was just too jam packed.

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In 2009 there was only ONE store: the D23 Expo Dream Store. You hit it up once and you were set for all four days. For 2011, there were FOUR merchandise locations, all with completely different stuff.

1. Dream Store: Where you get D23 Expo and some Theme Park merch including Olzewski pieces and plush toys and pins. This is where the Tron Monorail was sold.

2. Disney Store: This is the store you see nation wide, but it was their 25th anniversary with many D23 Expo exclusives including Lion King vinylmation launch, silver Lightning McQueen, Funko Pop! exclusives, this store had a long line throughout.
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3. Mickey's of Glendale: This is Walt Disney Imagineering's exclusive store and open to attendees all weekend long. This is where you get the true nerdy items like pins, clothing, artwork, mugs, etc.


4. Walt Disney Archives Treasure Trove: This store sells items from past D23 events as well as really cool Disney archive type merchandise.
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con't.


Missed the Rocketeer event? You can still buy the Rocketeer D23 merch.
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Other cool items in the Treasure Trove
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The Disney Store's exclusive Lightning McQueen.
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Artists of the Lion King vinylmation
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A new line of dolls is announced for the disney store:
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And they look pretty good!
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more to come...
 
Can ya tell I'm getting merchandise out of the way?

Yes, in addition to the FOUR disney merch locations, there was even a NORDSTROM! They have exclusive Small World merchandise that is actually quite nice. And a free Mary Blair litho with purchase? Sign me up! (well... i actually didn't but I support it completely).

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Alright so... in the theme parks and disney store they have a special vendor that makes their plush. This booth is for EVERYONE ELSE. And they had an exclusive Minnie Mouse for $15.
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Hallmark had a booth with an exclusive ornament
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Yes, even stamps were sold! These new Pixar stamps are pretty neat.
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More to come..
 
Mattel had a booth to showcase their CARS, Toy Story, Disney Princess line, as well as Fisher Price's new Rockstar Mickey toy.

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Believe it or not, this is a new $60 Lightning McQueen in the 1:55 scale... it talks, moves its eyes, and zips around on its own.
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Mattel was also selling their exclusive Submarine Finn McMissile. The difference with this one was supposed to be super metallic paint.
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But I guess you can see that the metallic paint never happened. It's the same DELUXE car that can get in the store for $8.99 or less. So to make up for it, they gave everyone a Top Secret bonus car of Finn that is doubly ransburg paint. I'm guessing this was supposed to be a blu-ray exclusive.
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Mattel also sold a Toy Story Woody's Round-up exclusive for $20
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And showed off their new INfinity and Beyond space Toy Story toys.
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And of course, Rock Star Mickey!
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more to come...
 
Thanks you guys! And please bare with me as I'm trying to post whenever I can but can only post 10 images each time and end up spending all my time counting each picture in a post....


So here's more from the floor, which is what they dubbed the COLLECTOR CORNER. Basically the exhibition floor for other vendors to come in and do their thing. A lot of art and merchandise vendors and the like.

Here, Garner Holt had his booth trying to get people to spend money on him. He makes animatronic figures but not part of Disney. Fun fact, Disney did contract him to build the new Maleficent dragon in Disneyland's Fantasmic!. It was littered with problems its first year so... maybe a lowly pirate is a safer bet.
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A Garner Holt robot
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here's Disney Legend Bob Gurr checking out Garner Holt's pirate animatronic. For those who don't know, Bob Gurr graduated from art school and immediately went to work for Walt Disney designing the original Autopia, Abe Lincoln animatronic for the World's Fair, Submarines, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Monorail..... basically if it had wheels, he designed it. He's an incredible personality and has a million great stories about working for Walt Disney. If you're a fan, look him up and enjoy.

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Here's a model of the Disneyland Jungle Cruise that sold for $7,500!
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This Autopia didn't sell... but I don't know if by Sunday it did or not.
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Artist Noah had his tron inspired Vinylmation customs
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Kinect had their Disneyland X-Boxes on display in s upport of the new game. The girl's arm is in the pic, super cute... we ended up talking for ten minutes and she ended up with my number. We'll see if she calls. haha
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Mindstyle creates Disney vinyl collectibles and had a contest for people to create Winnie the Pooh artwork.
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more to come!
 
So Friday was the Parks & Resorts panel. I didn't get there in time but it sounds as if there wasn't anything major announced. In 2009 they announced Star Tours 2, new Fantasyland for WDW, new lands for Hong Kong Disneyland, Cruiseline, Hawaii resort... LOTS OF STUFF! 2011 they showed more of the same. boooo.


Friday night was also the D!ck Van Dyke concert but it was held in one of the smaller ballrooms so only 1,000 people got in. As many as 250 people were in standby line and weren't told until half an hour after it began that they wouldn't be seated. Ba-lows! Glad I didn't even try.


Saturday morning was the BIG BIG Studios panel where they show off all the new movies. This really was worth seeing but compared to 2009, less was spent. In 2009, they had a full on orchestra playing Disney music while we waited. None this time. They also had performances by the Muppets and Miley Cyrus (not together) as well as a special appearance by Johnny Depp AS Jack Sparrow.

...yah.. that's hard to top!

So they didn't even try. 2011 gave us a lot of talent on the stage to talk about the movies but they were just brief cameos. We weren't allowed to bring our cameras so I stole these from online sources just to give you a taste.


Here's studio head Rich Ross
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John Lasseter came up to talk animation. Planes was the first thing and it's due out in 2013. It's about the world ABOVE Cars. Jon Cryer came out to talk as the voice of Dusty the plane.
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WRECK-IT RALPH is the next Disney CG animated film due November 2012 about an 8-bit Video game villain (John C. Reilly) who wants to prove he's good... and goes on a quest through other video games to prove himself. Jack McBrayer plays Fix It Felix, the hero in the video game. Sarah Silverman plays some cutesy girl from a candy land type go-kart racing game. They showed the first 5 minutes in animatic/storyboard form and it looks to be a really funny story. Video game fans should be pleased at all the in-jokes.

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What's always cool about these is that the stars start talking about what big Disney nerds they are. Sarah Silverman was wearing her original faded Mickey Mouse shirt and it actually started to crumble at the collar as she talked about it. Pretty trippy. She also said she has a love/hate relationship with Disney. She says she hates that they're so good and makes her feel things... and then she loves that it did. people laughed.

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Next up, PIXAR! Man... BRAVE looks frickin' amazing. They showed us the trailer again and introduced each of the characters and showed 5 minutes of the film (unfinished but almost). Just looks like a great film. This is Pixar's first attempt at a fairy tale type movie. Kelly MacDonald plays the lead Princess Merida. Kevin McKidd plays one of the neighboring Lords who wants his son to marry her.
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Then came talk of Pixar's 2013 film MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, a prequel to Monsters, Inc. about how Mike & Sulley became best friends... since they didn't start that way. It's directed by a new guy but the original cast is back so that should say a little something about it. Billy Crystal came out to talk it up and say it's going to be a lot of fun. It's the first animated college movie ever! They showed artwork of the movie but that was it.

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THEN t hey announced the next two films from pixar... ORIGINAL films! One's about Dinosaurs (late 2013) directed by the voice of ROZ and one's about the Human Mind (2014) directed by Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., Up).


Then it was the 25th anniversary of Pixar..
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And everyone got cupcakes...
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more to come!
 
Here are the other dolls... and sorry, I didn't get closer shots because it was so crowded and cramp and I didn't have the right lens in my camera for good shots. These aren't out yet and REALLY pricey... i think they're in the $80 range. But they're at Disneystores so that means they'll be online too.

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Fantastic pictures from the D23 expo, Coheteboy. I wanted to go to it this year, but didn't happen. Hopefully, the next time will work out.
 
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