Disney Gallery Holiday Catalog, 1999 - PART 4
Hey hey! No, I'm not the Monkees. Today I am presenting the fourth and final installment in the series of 1999 Disney Gallery holiday catalog posts, from our good friend Sue B.
The items on this page are actually described on the final page of the last Disney Gallery catalog post, consisting of decorative boxes "in a blend of gold, silver, bronze, brass, and pewter". What, no molybdenum? If your favorite is the set of Cinderella items, you have good taste, because that one cost $1,950. You're worth it! The crystal castle is practically cheap at only $1,495.
Those "framed costume posters" are a bit odd if you ask me (and you did). The handbag looks like it will hold plenty of candy, so it is beautiful as well as practical. As a kid I would have been drawn to the charms bracelet, with all of those little items. There's even a spoonful of sugar!
Another doll. I respect that people love dolls, I truly do. They're just not for me! Mary Poppins has just had Botox injections, so her face is a bit like a mask, but a few weeks on the rooftops of London will set things right.
I love a tea party! With the little sandwiches and cookies and... other stuff. You know you can put Nesquik in a teapot too, don't you? It'll change your life. I decided to (poorly) merge this two-page spread for your viewing pleasure.
The snow globe with St. Paul's cathedral, much like the one seen in Mary Poppins, reminded me of a cool blog post from Kevin Kidney (see it HERE) restored the original globe back in 2013. This merchandise version is quite a bit fancier, but it still recalls the one from the film.
I like this next piece, not quite a prop repro, but pretty close... Mary Poppins' parrot umbrella! It says that the parrot head was cast from one of the originals, but I think that they missed a trick when they didn't make it so the beak could open and close.
Those of you who have been reading GDB for a long time might know that Pinocchio is my favorite of all the animated features. It's incredible! But... here are more dolls. DOLLS?! And more porcelain too, the world supply of porcelain must have been depleted by the Disney Gallery.
Here's more Pinocchio stuff, including miniature bear doll things (WHY?). I'm not wild about sericels, but this one was signed by Dickey Jones (voice of Pinoke), so that's pretty cool. Actual Disney history there. The Figaro and Cleo snowglobe sculpture is cute too, one of the few animation cels that I own shows Cleo in her bowl.
And here it is: the back cover! WE'VE DONE IT! We've looked at the whole catalog, and now we crave charming little Disney knick knacks to fill every corner of our homes. "I'm sorry, I'd offer you a seat, but everything is covered in Disney dolls. Sorry!". The Pooh (and friends) plush figures are cute, but Disneyland gave plush toys a bad name.
MANY THANKS to Sue B. for sharing this Disney Gallery catalog with us!!
16 comments:
Major-
I don't know... that porcelain version of Pinocchio makes him look as though he discovered an unlimited supply of Hostess Twinkies® - and he's been stuffing his face for many days. Next stop - Marie Osmond and Nutrisystem - a fate worse than ending up on Pleasure Island-!
Thank you Sue for sharing all these images with all of us.
I like the Mickey & friends figures at the top of the page. Nicely done. They look like animation cels from a Disney cartoon. I thought I would like the crystal castle more than I do, but something about it leaves me rather uninterested.
The crystal handbag isn't big enough for candy, in my opinion.... I like candy.... a lot. Well, it may be big enough for Skittles; you could fit a lot of Skittles in that little bag.
Ms. Poppins is a nice enough doll but what are you supposed to do with it? Surely not play with it! That would decrease its value. The only way I would be interested in this figure is if the parrot head was an animatronic like it was in the film.
I rather like the snowglobe, or at least I like the idea of it. "Feed the Birds" is my favorite Sherman Brothers song, and that's saying a lot considering the plethora of wonderful songs by them.
I'm with you, Major, the Pinocchio bears are just weird. I'm not even sure I would know that they were Pinocchio and Geppetto, just from looking at them.
Thank you, Sue. It's been fun looking at these items; some of them quite nice, some of then quite ridiculous. And thank you, Major for posting the images with your witty commentary.
Seeing that tiny photo on the back cover, reminded me about the entrance to the Gallery in the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana. The doorway was the larger circle of the "three-circle" Mickey silhouette.
"I'm sorry, I'd offer you a seat, but everything is covered in Disney dolls. Sorry!".
Major, you jest, but I know someone who's mother collected Cabbage Patch dolls in the eighties. She had so many that there was no place to sit down in her living room. It was scary! Especially when all of the dolls' eyes would follow you around the room.
Thank you for this series of posts on the Disney Gallery catalog, Sue and Major!
Thanks for these Major and Sue. It's been fun looking back into the strange world of 1990s Disney merchandising. I like today's items rather more than the previous instalments – mainly because of the focus on Pinocchio and Mary Poppins. That St Paul's snow globe sure is elaborate. I don't live far from St Paul's and I walk my dog around the cathedral almost every afternoon. Yesterday there was a man actually feeding the birds (and squirrels) in the churchyard at the back. Needless to say, my dog got very excited (luckily for the birds and squirrels, she stays on a leash) and I then had 'Feed The Birds' stuck in my head for the rest of the walk!
I think the snowglobe wins for a lot of reasons (many of which are cited by others above). "Feed the Birds" has been a favorite since I was a wee one. I'm all misty eyed as I type this, thinking of a conversation I had with my mother about the song when I was no more than 6; it was one of her favorites, too.
Of all the items seen so far, I think the costume sketches are the things I would be most likely to buy. Just the right style combo for a hall bath or a kids room.
I feel the attraction to the Mary Poppins items, like Pete and Chuck, a great film and childhood memories..
Pete, great story. Thank you for sharing that.
However, none of these items can hold a candle to the model Millennium Falcon covered in pave’ rhinestones that I saw for sale on my last Park visit, multiple 10’s of thousands $ too.
Thanks Major!
JG
All kind of odd to me, but: I'm sure whoever bought these things are treasuring them. The one thing I would buy and use now is the Poppins umbrella. Since the movie is somewhat obscure and old to "most mortals"...I'm not sure anyone would get the joke. The framed MAPO costumes are cool: but it doesn't state if they are taken from originals, or some random whipped them up for this catalog exclusively. As I look around the strange collections of items in my office: much like a mad scientists collection: I suppose ANY of these items would look completely at home. In my older years I am much more discriminating than I was even a decade ago...and prefer some rusty crusty things to these highly refined collectable items. This catalog seems to go on forever: hope it was commercially viable to them.
I see Van Eaton recently sold one of those snow globes for $500.
https://vegalleries.com/art/disneyana/4307/collectibles/mary-poppins-feed-the-birds-snowglobe-id-jundisneyana20172
Nanook, it’s true, Pinocchio looks like he has been laying into the baked ziti. Maybe the Blue Fairy will wish the pounds away!
JB, I didn’t really look closely, but the Mickey and Minnie are well done. I still don’t want that pewter sculpture, but at least it is pretty cute. That item would make a good murder weapon in an Agatha Christie mystery. Skittles are OK, but I like Starburst. The red ones especially. Dolls are not for playing, they are for display ONLY. If you even touch my dolls there will be hell to pay! I would like the snow globe better if an Ewok was in front of St. Paul’s. I like Geppetto Bear’s amazing perm, it looks like my grandma’s hair.
TokyoMagic!, I would assume that the photo you referred to IS the Gallery in Santa Ana. Ugh, Cabbage Patch dolls, I don’t get the appeal of those at all. Ugly little goblins. But they definitely had their time, remember when people would go nuts at stores and fight over them? It goes to show how the public can be manipulated into thinking something is good even when it’s bad.
Pegleg Pete, wow, I wish I got to walk MY dog around St. Paul’s! I’m always conflicted about people who feed the birds… I get why they do it, and yet it attracts hoards of pigeons, and who needs those? At my old job, a lady used to drive by in her Cadillac, she’d pull up to the curb early in the morning, and dump a bag full of bird seed between the sidewalk and the street, and drive away. The local hawks discovered that it was a good place to nab a pigeon or two. What were we talking about again?
Chuck, I hope you don’t walk around with tears in your eyes all day, I’ll feel guilty. Just think about Ernest going to camp, that will cheer you right up. “Feed the Birds” is a beautiful song, I watched “Mary Poppins” when I was little and then forgot about many of the songs (there were always those famous ones of course) until I was an adult and finally saw the movie again. It really is wonderful (if a tad long).
JG, I tried to sell sketches of the costumes that I wear, but for some reason nobody wanted them. Maybe they don’t like the leather pants. Ha ha, I will never be able to think of the rhinestone Millennium Falcon without thinking of you. The crazy thing is that I actually think it looked kind of neat. I don’t want it, but I’ve seen plenty of stuff that I thought was worse.
Bu, I’m often astonished at what Disney fans love; of course “treasure” is in the eye of the beholder, but on Facebook somebody will post a photo of some battered plastic Disney toy from the 1980s, and you can tell that they are so happy that they found it! Meanwhile I wouldn’t give a nickel for it. I guess my own collection would make people wonder what is wrong with me, so we’re even. I know what you mean about rusty crusty things, and I used to like bisque Mickey figures from the 1930s because they were a bit “off model” and cheap (in their day). It was the lack of slickness that made them appealing.
Chuck... MAMA MIA!
I see the Mary Poppins charm bracelet has those memorable M.P. symbols, a fat airplane and a plate of almost-gone shrimp. Oh, that’s a penguin and Mary’s hat, oops. The price of the umbrella pin is covered, now how will I know if I can afford it? I think the penguin napkins are about all I could buy on these pages; at least they’re fancy. The snow globe has the song name printed on the bottom but doesn’t actually say if it plays Feed the Birds. Porcelain Jiminy Cricket’s abdomen looks too insect-like and disturbs me. He looks more like Wilbur the grasshopper from the Goofy cartoon (plus Jiminy wore pants in Pinocchio, scandalous!) And Elf Eeyore is pretty appealing. Thanks, Sue and Major.
I have to admit, the tea set is something I would buy for my wife. Also, that umbrella would make a statement when entering a room.
I don't understand how Disney collectibles seem to appreciate when most everything else made as a collectible winds up worthless. I expect that the reproduction Mickey & Minnie wind-up handcar would drop in value over time, but after seeing what that snowglobe sold for, I'm not so sure.
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s there was a BIG merchandise push to have popular collectible artists make Disney versions of their items … that’s how Radko …Brenda White … R.John Right dolls… Haylcon Days … Marie Osmond …Lassen (?) ( the whale artist ) … and so many other things became became big sellers in the 90’s …. Almost all unwanted and mostly worthless today. But that goes for almost any collectible … right now things like watches … dolls … teddy bears and colonial furniture … ceramics … Tiffany glass … all big valuable items money wise hade plummeted in value. Places like EBAY are a god send to collectors … but at the same time make millions of things once rare and difficult to obtain .. available to anyone who wants them. Buy them because YOU like it or live it …. If you want to invest see a financial planner … not a collectible catalog.
Find out present the 9th wonder of the world, the back side of the catalog!
Sure, that purse can hold a lot of candy, but can it hold a whole fried chicken?
I love the Jiminy cricket figure, but the Mary Poppins stuff is probably what I'd buy if I had a gift certificate to this catalog. We had the soundtrack on LP, so I knew the songs long before I ever saw the movie. Still can't sing "Feed the Birds" without getting choked up. When I went to London, we could see just the teeny-tiniest bit of the dome of St. Paul's from our hotel room window.
I enjoyed everyone's comments, especially the ones about the snow globe. From reading the catalog description, it didn't play music, but the birds swirled around, instead of snow swirling. Sweet. Pegleg Pete, your walk-path routine sounds heavenly.
Thank you, Major and everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season.
^
Oh, I stand corrected. I just looked at the link that Chuck provided to the auction. It states that the snow globe DOES play the song. That makes this snow globe (bird globe) even nicer!
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