Once upon a time, back in the late 1990’s – early 2000’s, I started collecting Disney pins. My ex-husband started off with one pin, and said he’ll collect “just a pin a week”. Soon, I got into the hobby and the one pin became multiple pins, and every weekend we were at Disneyland to get the newest pin release. The hobby became so popular, that we would get to Disneyland before the park even opened, and camped out at the gate. Once we camped out at 4:00 am for a rare, limited edition pin. I stopped collecting around 2011 around the time of my divorce.
On Saturday, March 4th, there was a special vinylmation doll being released, and a friend living in New York asked if I could get it for her friend who lived in the UK. I said sure, and then on Saturday, that’s when I realized that I didn’t miss the headache of collecting anymore… To start off, the line to the parking structure was awful. It should have been a clue that it was going to be “that kind of day” when my line all of a sudden closed due to computer error. Then, the queue for the security line was horrendous, and then the line to board the Disneyland tram was just as bad. If this wasn’t for a friend, I would have hightailed it out of there.
I’ve been away from Disney collecting, I forgot how bad lines can get. So I was in complete surprise to see a line in front of the store, and then another line to see the artist. At 11:00 am, this was the line to get into the store to buy the doll, and Stephen (who had never done such an event) was not too pleased that his breakfast would now be turned into lunch.
I clocked the time in line, and it ended up being about 46 minutes from the time I entered the door. The line wrapped around the perimeter of the store, and down the center of the store to the register.
Meanwhile, as I was standing in line to get the doll, I had Stephen go outside to the second line where the artist, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, was there with 2 other Disney artists to sign their work. Stephen posted the photo of the second queue, which was even longer than the one I was in. The line wrapped around 3 times.
It was a little before 12:00 when I got in the 2nd line with Stephen. By then, he was halfway down the 2nd row, and we were told the artists would stay to sign for everyone who was in the line (whew). By 1:00, we made it to the front of the line. They asked only 2 items signed, and limited conversation. While waiting, the cast members helped me open the sealed box, and Jasmine signed not only the box, but the actual doll.
Even though the doll wasn’t mine, I was happy to have helped someone who doesn’t live as close to Disneyland as I do. However, I am grateful that I am not a die hard Disney collector that I once was, and don’t plan on doing this again for a long time.
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