Veteran visitors to Disneyland and Walt Disney World may have a spooky sense of déjà vu when perusing the Parks’ Halloween merchandise offerings. Many, if not most, of the goods are repeats from last year, with the only change being the “2014” marked on the apparel.
The light-up Mickey pumpkin Trick-or-Treat bag makes a return appearance, now dated 2014
Duffy the Disney Bear’s seasonal outfit is still the purple and green suit. The shelves are stocked with the same plushes, costumes, and mugs as last year.
The exact same Mickey and Minnie plushes as last Halloween
The small number of new items are hard to fish out. There is a cute new Ear Hat, featuring glow-in-the-dark eyes on the ears and a felted bat topper. And for those looking for something more practical, the candy dish bearing the likeness of Snow White’s Witch looked fun.
There was a key to identifying the owner of each pair of eyes on the back of the ears
Given that previously unreleased items were so few and far between, the Halloween selection for this year is, on the whole, a let-down. A few returning favorites would have been fine, maybe even expected, but this is a bit much. It feels like no effort was put in, especially when you see what is available in other Parks across the globe. Let’s examine the Tokyo Disney Resort, shall we?
Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea each had an individual theme (Tokyo Disneyland’s being more about the harvest and DisneySea celebrating the macabre side of the season) plus the shared theme of the Disney characters dressed as monsters.
This headband is from Tokyo DisneySea’s collection, which has a skeleton motif
Even non-traditional characters, like the Pumpkin Girl who appears in one of Tokyo Disneyland’s seasonal parades, get their time in the merchandise spotlight
The Fab Five get Halloween makeovers on this horned hoodie
Duffy and his friends, ShellieMay and Gelatoni, were also treated to some fabulous new apparel. The two bears will actually have two costumes this year, a scarecrow-themed one as well as a black cat one. Gelatoni’s costume transforms him into little kitty jester.
The difference between the Halloween merchandise available at Parks in the States versus those in Japan is so great that one can’t help but feel a tad envious as well as a bit perplexed. For a company that relies so heavily on money spent on its property, it would seem that Halloween would be a great opportunity to sell additional goods. But with so many reiterations of past items, that chance may have been lost.
[source: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/treasure/special/event/halloween2014/tds/goods.html ; http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/treasure/special/event/halloween2014/tdl/goods.html ; http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/treasure/special/event/halloween2014/tdl/goods2.html; http://fantasy.tokyodisneyresort.jp/tds/duffy/hw2014/goods.html ]
A Southern California native, Natalie Kipper has been visiting Disneyland on a regular basis since she was two years old. She is an avid toy collector and a fan of Duffy the Disney Bear. Her favorite Park attraction is the Haunted Mansion.