Forever Magical
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Seminar Day Two: July 20th - Pin Collecting

Becky Carter

Becky Carter from Disneyland Brand Merchandising described pin trading at Disneyland. She started by mentioning the pin talks that are now held at 12p, 2p, 4p, 6p at the Disneyland Pin shop location on Main Street. She announced that they soon plan to invite guests to describe their pins. As part of this talk pin traders will explain pin etiquette and highlight new pins. She went over these points which have recently been published in the Disneyland Annual Passholder newsletter including asking before you grab a lanyard, trading pins a good condition, and do not trade pins for money.

Disneyland pins begin with a photo shoot in the Park, by watching a Disney film and selecting various images. They also consider special events and anniversary, marketing campaigns and logo. Once they have decided the basic design, basic line work is created. Then the size is determined. Next color models are created. Then it is sent to the vendor and they make the same pin in either gold or silver and determine which works. At this point they determine the edition size. They look at past pin successes with images, and then the characters success but Carter admitted that mostly they roll dice. Pricing is determined by the cost of the pin. She stated, “We never, never base price on limited edition. It is always based on cost.”

Next Carter unveiled the different product lines of pins. These include several series pins such as the Balloon pins, the Parade of the Stars series ...

Parade of the Starts series

... Memorable Moments, which are special moments in Disney film such Pooh sitting under the Mr. Sanders sign and Captain Hook looking over an open map. Carter explained that these pins are expected to create a moment that will appeal to a few and then move on to the next moment. For example the pin with Dumbo and his mother is special to Becky because she used to watch the video often and her sister would cry every single time so when that pin comes out she will purchase it for her.

Memorable Moments

The seasonal pins include Pooh characters sitting amongst summer flowers. They also have refreshed many of the Disney images. There are new pins for the characters from Alice in Wonderland and other Disney films.

Seasonal series