This past weekend, June 13-14, Disney hosted a pin event that imagined what would happen if Jack Skellington and the citizens of Halloween Town took over the Happiest Place on Earth. Dubbed “The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disneyland”, it took place in The Disneyland Hotel event hall. Having never been to a pin event before, I didn’t really know what to expect aside from hundreds of people dropping thousands of dollars on collectibles. There was certainly plenty of that, but there was other fun to be had as well.
As I entered the hall, a display of Jack wearing mouse-ears and holding a Mickey balloon greeted me. Upon check-in, I was given my event t-shirt (which even glows in the dark), an early-bird registration pin and a special magnet. The latter had four spots for “skeleton keys” and I was given my first key with the letter ‘J’. To obtain the other three and spell out “Jack”, I would have to play games and visit the product showcase booth the following day.
My next stop was the merchandise pick-up as I had ordered a pin of Jack and Zero doing their best impression of the famous “Partners” statue from the park’s hub. After that, there really wasn’t much left to do for the evening other than hang out.
Much as he does to the Mansion for four months every year, Jack had wrecked the halls of the ballroom as well. Several set pieces and photos from Haunted Mansion Holiday were on display at the back of the room and the surrounding area smelled faintly of gingerbread. Granted. I don’t know if this was being pumped in or whether the props imbibed this scent over the years.
After a few laps around to look at the some of the other products available, I decided to spend some time in the parks before heading home. After all, the festivities began at 8 a.m. the next morning.
Saturday morning, with my credentials around my neck, I entered the hall and made a beeline for the games room. The first challenge was the Wreath Toss, where guests would attempt to launch shrunken heads, bats and spiders through the mouths of evil wreaths. While I excepted to end up with an appropriate score of zero, I actually got the hang of the game and managed to get one item in all three targets. Of course, my only prize for this was pride as the ‘C’ and ‘K’ keys were given out purely based on participation. The second game was a race to see who could put together the ghost reindeer puzzle first. Seeing as I was alone and no one seemed interested, I built the puzzle myself just to see it done and to feel that I had truly earned my pins.
To collect my final key, I headed over to the product showcase where several open and limited edition pins nearing release were on display. A few that caught my eye were The Rescuers, a “Piece of History” pin for Mike and Sulley to the Rescue and a limited edition “Guardians of the Galaxy” pin featuring Rocket Raccoon (sans machine gun). There was also a “Frozen” pin trading starter kit lanyard that will be released in September which I imagine will be quite popular.
Speaking of popular, I’m not sure that this event was. While a few tables in the ballroom were occupied by traders displaying their collections, there were almost always half a dozen tables where no one was sitting and another half dozen with only a couple of people. I assumed when I showed up that maybe I was just early and that’s why it seemed so empty, but this appeared not to be the case.
The longest lines of the event were for the various pin trading boards around the room. Even signings by Disney Design Group Artist Susan Foy maintained an extremely reasonable wait.
Regardless, the money spent by guests at this event was unbelievable. While a number of the silent auctions lots caught my eye, their going prices were far too rich for my blood. On top of this, the event store would make frequent announcements to update us on what products were selling out.
Overall, even though I’m not a huge pin trading fan, I found the event to be quite enjoyable, The idea for the product line was clever and made for a fun atmosphere. It is a little questionable why they would hold this event in June instead of, say, October or December, but who am I to question them?
While there may not have been as many people there as I would have anticipated, everyone seemed to be having a positive experience as well. Anecdotally, I heard of several people visiting from out of town just for the event. What was most impressive to me was the reminder that Disney pins aren’t just commerce, they’re art. While roaming the hall, I fell very much like Mr. Skellington in Christmas Town: “what’s this? What’s this?” So even if pins not be as popular as they once were, it’s nice to see that the artist’s creativity is still appreciated by this group of fans.