Welcome to the latest edition of The Magic, The Memories, and Merch! the longest running monthly look at the Disney Outlet Stores in Orlando. Outlet Intern Julia Mascardo, secret shopper Daisy Lauren and I found a whole bunch of neat items this month including Adventureland Tsum Tsums, next level bonkers coffee cups based on Fantasy Football, and a Dapper Dan nutcracker (like we could make that up.)

Ready to see what we else we found? Alright, let’s go!

Disney spent a long time on the creation of the Rivers of Light show at Animal Kingdom, and while the show itself isn’t drawing the rave reviews The Mouse was looking for, it did bring with it a whole bunch of great merchandise. Between the food & drink components, the awesome Rivers of Light soundtrack, and the other items at the gift shops, no other show at WDW comes close to touching the merch quality of Rivers of Light. Some of those items – all of which actually debuted well before Rivers of Light because the show got delayed so long – made their way to the Outlets this month.

First up is the E-Ticket Lotus popcorn bucket. This is hands-down the best popcorn bucket the American parks have ever made. It looks incredible, holds a giant amount of popcorn (have you seen the 10 kernels of popcorn that the Star Wars Tie-Fighter popcorn bucket holds?), and actually has an led lighting feature. The other two items also light up and they were both souvenir cups. The “adult” one resemble a stein, while the “kid” version was like a lantern which you could actually collapse.  I bought all three of these when they came out at the parks, so of course it drove me insane to see them at the Outlets, but good for all of you (he begrudgingly wrote).

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I really liked these Mad Tea Party coffee cups. May actually make my top six all time Disney coffee cups. Originally $19.99, now $5.99.

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Also a big fan of these Mickey and Minnie cups that came out during the Flower and Garden Festival. I believed they arrived late though because these probably would have flew off the shelves if they were offered throughout the Festival. Originally $14.95, now $5.99.

The ubiquitous Chip and Dale have a coffee cup that seems to be based on a peanut, although you’d think an acorn would make a lot more sense. Originally $17.95, now $5.99.

Okay, get ready for these. In the last few years, Disney has done this crazy deal that’s sort of based on Fantasy Football except it contains none of the fun of Fantasy Football. So what we end up with is a bunch of merch with just crazy “team” names that end up at the Outlets. Last year a whole bunch of shirts made it, and this year we have some mugs. This first one features Scar from the Lion King, and clearly that is a football helmet being scratched. All of the cups were originally $14.99 and reduced to $5.99.

The next cup features Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo and it looks like he is bitting a baseball bat in his teeth.

Our last cup features Sven from Frozen and it’s based on hockey. If you’re confused, well take a number. I wonder which villain got lacrosse? Probably someone from The Black Cauldron. While there were three cups for sale, there was a gap for a fourth cup. This means the eBay pirates had cleared out one of them, so it seems at least one design was popular. If you ever want to do a psychological study, rope drop the Outlets and watch these people work. Thanks to Disney’s buying limits they travel in packs, like hyenas, and they will pick clean any item that could have resale value.

This particular Mickey Mouse themed cup was designed for that elusive demographic of 5-8 year olds who drink coffee with their Coco Puffs. Originally $19.99, now $5.99. I need to do a reboot of Jack & the Beanstalk and in my version Jack sells the family’s horse for a bunch of these cups. When he gets back, his wife proceeds to take the cups and break them over his head. A thrilling and action packed movie would then proceed only to reveal at the very end it was a Jacob’s Ladder scenario with Jack dying in the early part of the movie because of being hit by one of these cups and the rest of the film was what he imagined in his dying moments.

And for those wondering, yes, my Xanax script ran out early this month.

Pretty rare to see an Eeyore piece of merchandise. Originally $14.95, now $5.99.

Nice Maleficient cup. Originally $14.95, now $5.99.

This mermaid cup for Pirates of the Caribbean is kinda neat with the mermaid tail as the handle. I think the entire line is a little too sexualized for the Disney audience that goes to the Magic Kingdom, but what do I know. Originally $15.99, now 5.99.

Set of the “Fab 4” in coaster form. Originally $21.95, now $9.99. A while back at the Outlets I bought the Adventure Land coaster set, so definitely didn’t need to buy this one.

Oh who am I kidding,

OF COURSE I BOUGHT IT.

Inside the box the coasters were taped together with those cardboard Mickey heads on the outside. That’s a nice touch.

Love the design of this it’s a small world plate. Originally $12.95, now $4.99.

This is the most impractical spatula in the history of spatulas. If you look at spatulas in your house you’ll notice they all come down to a flat end at the bottom, which allows you to slide the spatula under food. This one has a thick edge at the end so it can define the fingers on the hand. This means when you try to slide this under a pancake to flip it, you should probably just use it to slap yourself in the face for buying it.

But this isn’t just ANY impractical spatula. This is a spatula that is named

BODY PARTS GLOVE SPATULA.

So of course I bought two, and now I really want to know what the body part the Mickey turkey baster looks like.

This canvas placemat was nice. Originally $9.95, now $4.99.

I’ve stayed at a lot of Disney hotels, getting close to staying at all of them, but I’m not sure I have ever thought “you know, the quality of this towel is really good. Wish I could buy something like this for my house.”  So while it was interesting to see these here, it was a hard pass for me. It did make me think of way back when, back to the day when Disney was pitching the Art of Animation Resort and said that the furnishings in the room were unique, and that guests would be able to buy similar items in the gift shop. Outside of shower curtains, I don’t think a single item from those awesome rooms was ever available for us plebeians to buy.  That cool ottoman in the Lion King room shaped like a tree stump? NOPE. The neat lighting fixtures in the Cars room shaped like cones? NOPE. Towels that were possibly used by all the people in the Little Mermaid wing, a pool so crowded it made Caddy Day at Bushwood Country Club look empty? POSSIBLY.

FINALLY, time for my precious Tsum Tsums. Major score this month as the Tiki Birds from the Adventureland set arrived. For some reason The Enchanted Tiki Room would make my personal top six attractions at Magic Kingdom list. I just love it.

Here we have three more from the Adventureland line. Remember how I just said The Enchanted Tiki Room was one of my all time favorite attractions? Well I had no idea that the Tsum on the left was supposed to be a “Tiki God” so maybe I’m not as much as a fan as I thought. The other two are a Jungle Cruise skipper and the famous rhino from the Jungle Cruise, who has actually has be absent from the ride for months and no official reason has been given as to why.

A couple months ago I posted a picture of the Outlets selling a next level bananas Millenium Falcon drone, and this month there was one out of the box on display. I’m picturing someone bought it thinking it would look like the Millenium Falcon and instead it looks like that hot mess. 10 Year Old Derek would have killed for a Millenium Falcon toy growing up, but if my parents would have bought this I would have FLIPPED OUT. #NotMyFalcon

Tons of Star Wars pins from the Disney Cruise Line showed up. These were all originally $15.95, marked down to $4.99 and there was a strict limit to only “2 pins per guest per day.” It seemed like everyone in the store was faithfully adhering to that sign by buying zero. It’s kinda hard to see in this picture, but the one on the left has a blue background and the one on the right has a red background. I wonder how many of my DCL friends spet $32 on the ships making sure they had both of these to “complete the set” (I’m looking in your direction Julia Mascardo and @TheDCLBlog!)

Speaking of the Disney Cruise Line, did you know that TouringPlans’ own Brandon Glover – three time winner of the Handsomest Blogger Award – does a WEEKLY Disney Cruise Line Preview article? That’s right, CHECK IT OUT!

Anyway, here are two more blue and red pins, these two shaped like portholes. Looking now, it’s obvious they both open up. If they are still there next month we’ll find out inside. Probably something like “Don’t worry, $15.95 seems like a lot but it’s DUTY FREE!”

Okay, now these two are just plain bonkers. The one on the left I think has Star Wars characters made out of nautical rope and the one on the right is – I think – an anchor made out of Star Wars logos and/or heads of characters. Hard to believe these made it to the Outlet.

Turns out, those were the good pins. Up next is a pin for Chewbacca that reads “WOOKIEES NEED LOVE TOO.” I don’t even know what to say. This pin should have been a limited edition of 1/1, with the target audience being my TouringPlans mentor, Scarlett Litton. Originally $15.99, now $6.99.

Okay, this one is going to be a hard one to wrap your head around if you happen to be one of the half dozen or so sane readers of this fine blog series. This is unbelievable. About a year ago Disney brought out this thing called PinQuest. First you gotta buy the Starter Set, which is what you see here at the Outlet. This was $14.99. Then, for the price of $9.99 EACH you could buy “clue cards.” These cards would ask a question in which the answer could be found in one of the Magic Kingdom gift shops that were selling the pins. The answers were in a “scratch off” form, so you could just keep scratching until you got it right. Then you redeem the clue card for a pin along with getting a stamp for the map that comes with the starter kit.

You got all that? Okay, well you need to buy 6 clue cards to get all the pins. If you get all the clues right and have your map stamped, then you get the opportunity to buy a completer pin for just $4.99. So for $80, plus tax, you can go from gift shop to gift shop at the Magic Kingdom to buy pins. Whoever designed this probably went directly into Bob Chapek’s Cast Member Hall of Fame.

Originally $14.99, the Starter Pack was reduced to $6.99. This has gotten me to create my own Outlet Game, where for just $20, you marks, I mean Dear Readers, will be given a map to go back and forth to the two Disney Outlet Stores in Orlando to buy Tsum Tsums which you will then send to me.

What a month for pins. This set is from last years Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.This set featuring Disney princesses was originally $119, but  you could now have it for the low, low price of $59.99.

here is the back of the box showing the pins.

These glowing “Class of 2015” necklace things were reduced to just 99 cents. PASS.

These lanyard medals have been showing up at the Outlets pretty frequently. With so much information being kept on MagicBands, what would an average Disney guest need with a lanyard now anyway? In the past you could use them to hold your park ticket and paper FastPasses, but now? This Pirates of the Caribbean one was originally $11.95, now $6.99.

I believe we are not that long away from a deluge of MagicBand 1.0’s featuring characters at the Outlets. Until recently only generic bands were massively discounted, but this month Cinderella was the “canary in the coal mine.” Would be shocked if a bunch more  of these came way down in price over the next few months.

Very rare to see actual books at the Outlets, but a couple arrived this month. The first features The Art of Minnie Mouse. Originally $40, now $27.99.

The Best of EPCOT Festivals Cookbook was pretty neat. Originally $24.95, reduced to just $6.99. The hard part much be how you make the serving sizes so small. I should have bought it just to figure that part out.

Cute Disney photo frame. Originally $22.99, now $12.99.

Let’s check out some shirts. First up is a cool Hulk shirt from one of my favorite artists, Joe Madureira. At least I think it is. Also looks like it could be the work of another artist I like, Ed McGuinness. Originally $26, now $14.99.

Really odd – IMO – Pirates of the Caribbean shirt. Originally $32.95, now $14.99.

Disney had a one night hard ticked event titled Galactic Nights this past April. Now why is it Nights (plural) when it was literally one night, who knows, but this was the one night they offered lightsaber churros. This shirt from the event was originally $27.99, now $6.99.

Flower and Garden shirt. Originally $29.99, now $19.99.

Super cute Bambi dress and coat.Originally $49.99, now $19.99.

Last month we showed the picture of the Haunted Mansion zippered phone case and this month brings a princess version. Originally $27.99, now $7.99.

Princess Aurora Mickey ears headband. Now $4.99.

May be hard to tell with the picture, but this was a Cinderella Carriage keychain. Originally a whopping $25, now $7.99.

This cute Little Mermaid jewelry play set was originally $7.95, now $2.99.  I wrote about Art of Animation above, and I don’t understand why this set couldn’t just be moved over to that gift shop. Better yet, if you’re marking it down to just $3, why not hand out a bunch to Mousekeeping and let them surprise people with them in the rooms? To me that seems a no-brainer. A simple $3 toy could earn you the business of a family for a lifetime.

Tangled snow globe.

In my experience, figurines like this at Disney stores (both regular ones and here at the Outlets, break all the time. Make sure you look carefully when buying them because often hands, noses, or other parts are just gone from people dropping them.

Believe it or not I bought this Grizzly River Run tapestry throw. I think the Grizzly River area at DCA is one of the coolest designed areas in any Disney park. Originally $54.95, now $24.99.

I also became one of the rare people in WDW history to buy two different throws on the same day as I also picked up this design from Cars Land out in DCA. Originally $54.99, now $37.99. Yes, I just spent over $50 on throws and we hardly ever use throws because we live in Florida and ITS ALWAYS AS HOT AS THE SUN DOWN HERE.

Another “sketchbook minis” ornament set arrived this month, featuring characters from Toy Story. Originally $22.99, now $8.99.

This Tinker Bell ornament was an actual bell. I bought one of these. Anytime you buy a glass item at the Disney Outlets they wrap it up like you’re going to be traveling home in truck carrying nitro glycerin while driving over the Rocky Mountains. Let me tell you, unwrapping it is a procedure. Originally $17.99, now $5.99.

Sally ornament. Originally $16.99, now $4.99.

We’ve had a lot of Disney nutcrackers in the Outlet Reports over the years, but few make us scratch our heads like this one featuring Mickey as a Dapper Dan.

Outlet Intern Julia and I often have “therapy sessions” through private messaging, expressing our thoughts on the items we see. Here were her thoughts on this nutcracker.

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SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

There are actually two Disney outlet stores in Orlando. Both are in Orlando Premium Outlet shopping complexes, and they are called Disney’s Character Warehouse, presumably because The Land Of Misfit Toys was already trademarked. There is one Character Warehouse located on International Drive close to Universal Studios (4951 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32819), and the other is on Vineland Avenue, right across I-4 near the exits to Disney World (8200 Vineland Ave, Orlando, FL 32821). 

Previous editions of Magic, Memories, and Merch: July 2013, August 2013, September 2013, October 2013, November 2013, December 2013, January 2014, February 2014, March 2014, April 2014, May 2014, June 2014, July 2014, August 2014, September 2014, October 2014, November 2014, December 2015, January 2015, February 2015, March 2015, April 2015, May 2015. June 2015, July 2015, August 2015, September 2015, October 2015, November 2015. December 2015, January 2016, February 2016, March 2016, April 2016, May 2016, June 2016, July 2016 (3 Year Anniversary SPECIAL), August 2016, September 2016, October 2016, November 2016, December 2016, January 2017, February 2017, March 2017, April 2017, May 2017, June 2017 and July 2017 (4 Year Anniversary SPECIAL)

We also did an edition of Magic, Memories, and Junk for a non-Disney owned Outlet Store, and for you merch addicts like myself, you may also enjoy a look at the official Disney merchandise available on the Disney Cruise Line, Castaway Cay, and at the Orlando International Airport.

If you liked what you read here, you may enjoy THE SATURDAY SIX articles every week on the TouringPlans.com blog and you can follow your humble author on Twitter (@derekbugan).