D23 Expo 2013, Day 2

Post Ten of The Twelve Posts of Christmas covers the return of the bi-annual Disney Expo, D23!

While I’d attended the previous D23 Expo in 2011 primarily to check out Mickey’s of Glendale (Walt Disney Imagineering’s cast member-only store), there had been such a disappointing lack of The Little Mermaid-centered merchandise/events despite the opening of Ariel’s Undersea Adventure in Disneyland that I really had no interest in attending this year. (Admittedly, I missed all the Jodi Benson-related stuff in 2011 since it was on Friday and I had to work.)

However, my interest was piqued by something called “Art of Ariel” and the Richard M. Sherman × Alan Menken (two of Disney’s most iconic music-makers) concert, so I figured I’d give the event another shot.

The Expo sold out for both Friday and Saturday, so there were a lot more attendees than I remember having to deal with last time. Things seemed to be a bit disorganized — disconcerting, since the Prime Directive for cast members (CMs) has always been to “exceed expectations”. For example, I waited over an hour for Brad Bird (director of The Incredibles)’s signing. He arrived late, they changed locations halfway through, and then they cut off the line right in front of me about ten minutes before it was scheduled to end, saying he had to leave! >< After that disappointment, I rushed over to the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony, which had already started.

Thanks to my blog, I was able to get a press pass, which was a bonus! ^^b Unfortunately, it didn’t really allow any actual perks inside the expo (still had to wait in lines and such) and I didn’t get to use it to its full effect (would have loved loved LOVED to have been able to meet Menken as well as my idol, animator Glen Keane (character designer of Ariel) — at least I caught his acceptance speech during the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony; see my video on my YouTube Channel).

There were a lot of other little things that led to a frustrating experience. The program for the day mentioned that Ariel and Eric would be opening the Disney Dream Store at 9am that morning, but nowhere did it mention that only attendees with special admission packages were allowed into the expo that early (I found out later that general admission, including press, was at 10am). At least there were plenty of cosplayers at the con, including Traci Hines!

After picking up my credentials and waiting over half an hour to get into the building, my badge wouldn’t scan and I had to go back to the box office to pick up a new badge; one of the CMs mentioned that it’d been happening all weekend. Really?!?!

After that hassle, I figured I would be able to make it to the Art of Ariel Collection signing since it was scheduled to run until 12pm. By the time I found the signing area at 11:30 (after needless delay at the Disney Store, where there was an Art of Ariel display but none of the CMs seemed to know what was going on with the signing), I found a line with only a handful of people in it; however, there was already someone holding the “End of Line” sign. I’m comforted by the fact that I got to see Pat Carroll, the voice of Ursula, later on in the day.

Exploring the Collectors Forum, I noticed that there were much slimmer pickings than in previous years so I didn’t buy anything there; so much of the merchandise was either expensive “art” such as Giclées and prints or things like pins, pins, and pins. The really cool items, like this carousel horse, weren’t part of the Collectors Forum; they were up for bids in the Silent Auction.

There was also a lot more stuff from Marvel and Lucasfilm since Disney’s purchase of those companies in the years after the last expo.

Thankfully, there were a few highlights. Besides seeing Glen Keane receive his Disney Legends Award, I managed to see the simulcast of “The Disney Songbook” concert that evening.

I also ran into friends Red Velvet Cosplay and veveisme, whom I don’t usually get to see, and had lots of fun wandering around with them! ♥

The pins were the only things I bought, and they were mostly impulse buys since I’d waited in so many lines for them I figured I needed something to show for it. I thought the WDI pins were particularly cool and bought the duck ones b/c I’m more of a duck fan and I already had the Donald one from a few years back; too bad these new ones are a different scale. ><

Will I go back for the next D23 Expo in 2015? We'll have to see. For now, be sure to check out the three videos on my YouTube Channel and find many, many more photos on my Facebook Page!

2013 08 10 Sat: D23 Expo 2013, Day 2

D23 Expo 2011, Day 3

From 19-21 August 2011, the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim CA was home to the D23 Expo. I went down on Sunday to check it out!

D23 Expo is a Disney convention run by The Walt Disney Company so it tends to have a very corporate feel to it. It seems to be running every other year, since the last time it was held was back in 2009.

If you compare this photo with the first photo, you can see that they updated the monochromatic Sorcerer Mickey Mouse banner to a much larger three-part full-color one. They also changed the tagline from “The Ultimate Disney Fan Experience” to “The Ultimate Disney Fan Event”. I’m bummed that they got rid of the Ariel banner among others. I hope they didn’t toss it out!

The 2009 Expo ran for four days, but this year it only ran for three, which may have had some sort of effect on that tagline. Tickets sold out on Saturday, the day I’d originally been planning to go, so I wound up getting to the Expo around 4pm on Sunday, which gave me about two hours in the hall to check out the proceedings.

I checked out the Collectors Forum first, since the main reason I went was to shop. xD As most of the booths were run by secondary market dealers, there were very many cool, hard-to-find, and expensive items!

Some of the booths belonged to artists who are under contract with Disney, so it was kind of cheating. But they were still pretty cool to look at regardless! My wallet was cringing the whole time. xD;

Here are a couple of Noah’s artwerks; I got a print of his version of Ariel during the Ride Product Debut and Signing at Disneyland!

Papercraft of Ariel. This type of art is always impressive to me b/c you can’t really erase your mistakes!

Mickey Mailbox! Like last time, the USPS was selling Disney-related philatelic items and accepting mail. Not sure if they were canceling postage with a special postmark or not.

Paige O’Hara, the voice of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, was at a booth signing autographs and taking pictures. Apparently, I missed Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel, who was at the Expo on Friday for The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure panel and her Disney Legends award ceremony. ;_;

Leaving Collectors Arena, I started hitting some of the other booths/pavilions on the way to Mickey’s of Glendale. Here, they were selling tickets for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween at Disneyland Park.

There was a pretty sizable pavilion featuring props and costumes from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Many maquettes and such at the Animation Studios area. Here are Disney Fairies Tinker Bell, Queen Clarion, and Silvermist the Asian fairy! xD

Finally made it over to Mickey’s of Glendale! Mickey’s of Glendale is the private merchandise store for Walt Disney Imagineering. Only Cast Members and their invited guests can shop there, and most of the merchandise is exclusive to the store. Found some goodies there, but was pretty upset there was no love for Ariel, especially with the new ride that had just opened in Disneyland and still yet to open in Walt Disney World. 😡

After shopping, went next door to the Parks & Resorts pavilion, which gave guests a sneak peek at upcoming projects at the various parks and properties around the world. This is the concept model for the New Fantasyland at Walt Disney World Resort’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. You can barely make out Eric’s Castle from The Little Mermaid in the center. I think it looks much better than the Victorian-style building that Disney California Adventure uses for the attraction.

Disney California Adventure is also getting a makeover. Here’s the statue of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney that will greet guests on Buena Vista Street (formerly Sunshine Plaza) as they enter the park.

Model of the forthcoming Shanghai Disney Resort. Doesn’t look like much of a park. :3a

Back out in the convention center, there were some vehicles on display. Here’s the Dharma Initiative van from Lost.

Over at the D23 Expo Dream Store were some neat-looking Giclées that kind of reminded me of Nagel’s work. Wish I’d thought to get a better shot of Sleeping Beauty, as Aurora is one of my favorite princesses.

Over at the Disney Store, they were showcasing the limited edition designer dolls. Each had a different edition size and was to be released on successive Mondays. If you pre-ordered the entire set of 10 dolls, you’d get a limited edition set of lithographs. Had I known that these $60 dolls were actually going to sell out, I might have actually done it!

Since the Disney Store will be celebrating its silver anniversary, they had many exclusives that could only be found at D23 Expo. Everything was silver for the silver anniversary!

They were also promoting a new series of vinyl figures called Kidadas. There was a big freaking blow-up Kidada Ariel right in back!

While I think Cars is by far the weakest Pixar movie and am still irritated that they’ve been hyping up Carsland for the last two D23 Expos instead of Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, I have to admit that this Lightning McQueen made of LEGOs was pretty cool. Mainly because LEGOs are the awesomest toys ever.

Incredibly cutesome Alice cosplayer from Alice in Wonderland (quite possibly Tim Burton’s version, as I don’t remember the animated version having such a detailed dress).

There were many more cosplayers this year than last time! Had to use the flash here because it was after 6 and they’d just shut off the lights in the hall. D:

After the hall closed, I wandered about for a bit and found Tinker Bell and Rosetta outside. I’ve watched some of the Disney Fairies movies with my little cousin and I have to say I like Rosetta just because she’s voiced by the awesome Kristin Chenoweth! After I took this picture, Tinker Bell kept going on about how much she loved my Ariel shirt. ♥ I should’ve offered to make her one, but I was too intimidated — she was one statuesque Tink! (Bonus: see if you can find Traci Hines in this pic!)

After I got home, it was time to go through my loots! The guide book, fans, Pooh lithograph, New Fantasyland postcard, and the Prep & Landing Christmas card were freebies. They were handing out fans by the handful after the hall closed, lol.

The shirts and pins were all from Mickey’s of Glendale. Most of these items will be gifts for my family, but of course I will be keeping one each of the Sebastian and Donald items and also the Fantasmic! pin b/c it has Ariel on it. 😉 Prolly should’ve bought an extra Sebastian shirt so I could wear one and keep the other.

The only other thing I bought was the 24% lead crystal of Ariel, which I found in the Collectors Forum. I remember when she first came out years ago back when the Disney Store was The Disney Store, and now I’ve finally got her! Cheaper than the price she came out at, even. xD All in all, well worth the trip for a Disney geek like me. Next time I’ll be sure to plan ahead and maybe go for the entire weekend.

As always, many more photos on my Facebook!

2011 08 21 Sun: D23 Expo 2011, Day 3

Anime Expo 2011

Back for another year at AX11! ^_^b So happy to actually have people to hang out with this year that I like to call this year’s con FriendCon. xD Of course, this also meant missing out on pretty much all the cosplay gatherings and panels I wanted to check out, but it was worth it!

Was thinking about checking out AM² but then I heard some of my dearest con friends were only going to AX on Friday so I had to skip it. Since we were spending time catching up, I didn’t really get to stalk as many cosplays as I would’ve liked.

I did run into Danny Choo, who graciously pretended to remember me from AX10 and his websites and then posed for photos. We exchanged business cards and he invited me to his panel later that evening.

Since I was having dinner with my friends, I only managed to catch the tail end of it. But I did get some pictures of him and my friend Maridah, who was the official Mirai Suenaga cosplayer for AX!

Had to get up early on Day 2 because my friends Maridah and CosplayKitten were doing their Fate/stay night (or was it Fate/hollow ataraxia?) group at noon. e.e

Of course, when I got there the South Hall was being evacuated due to a suspicious package. Dx Despite the confusion and a hasty rescheduling, I was finally able to see the fabled “Real Saber” as well as my favorite Fate/stay character, Rider, before I had to run off for a lunch meetup.

After meeting some great new friends at lunch, it was back to the exhibit hall to meet up with more new friends from MyFigureCollection (aka tsuki-board). Always fun to geek out with fellow figure collectors in the dealer’s hall!

My phone died during the day and I despaired that FriendCon would come to a grinding halt, but luckily I ran into a couple of friends I already knew! So happy to hang with friends into the wee hours!

Day 3 actually wound up being the shortest day — even shorter than Day 4 — b/c I got such a late start (got there a little before 4 orz ) and had to cut out for a few hours.

I decided that since I hadn’t spent much time in Artists’ Alley I would check it out and also visit some friends who had booths there. It was cool to finally meet some of the many talented people I’ve gotten to know on Facebook, Twitter, and deviantART! ♥

Afterwards, it was lion-hunting time as I’d received word that Maridah had donned her Saber Lion cosplay! I’d missed it at Fanime so I was thrilled to have a second chance to see it!

I also managed to spend a little bit of time with one of my friends before her appearance at the Last Comic Standing finals. You can see some of the performances on my YouTube Channel.

Day 4 is generally a short day since the hall closes early and there’s really only the Charity Auction and Closing Ceremonies afterward, but it was so filled with awesome this year!

Despite showing up like an hour before the dealer’s hall closed, I managed to take one last little look-see and wound up running into the lovely Traci Hines and some other awesome cosplay/ers!

Then while I was puttering about after the hall closed, wallowing in the beginnings of post-con depression, Aoi Mizuno and shyot found me in the lobby. I was bummed that I hadn’t seen them all con (they’d split their time between AX and AM²), so yay!

While I was catching up with them, I happened to spy the one and only Vensy cosplaying Touhou Project‘s Suika Ibuki nearby. After many years of knowing her on-line, I finally got to meet her in person!

And then… I saw a naginata. Was it? Could it be? I ran over and I finally got to see my two favorite characters from one of my favorite series, Mai-HiME (aka My-HiME)! It’s not a hugely popular series, so it was a rare treat. Leonore13 as Shizuru Fujino and sanitynevermore as Natsuki Kuga pulled off the cosplays quite well (especially for being relatively new to the hobby). I’m delighted to report that they’re not nearly as tsundere/yandere as the characters they dressed as. 😉 I’m so happy to count them among the new friends I made at AX11!

Afterwards, I took in the incredibly delayed Closing Ceremonies before heading off to a small post-AX party. It’s always a little sad when a con ends, especially one as awesome as this one was.

Thanks again to all my friends, new and old, for making this the best AX ever! ♥ I didn’t get to see everyone, and I certainly didn’t get to spend enough time with all of you, so let’s get it right next time and make AX12 even better! ^_^

Check out the complete sets of photos via the links below; for video, be sure to check out my YouTube Channel!

2011 07 01 Fri: Anime Expo 2011, Day 1
2011 07 02 Sat: Anime Expo 2011, Day 2
2011 07 03 Sun: Anime Expo 2011, Day 3
2011 07 04 Mon: Anime Expo 2011, Day 4