The Magic, The Memories, and Merch! February 2014 Photo Report of the Disney Outlet Store

It’s February, and earlier this month Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow, which signaled six more weeks of bad merchandise, so off to Disney Outlet Store we go! This week we’ll be wearing our Mickey Mouse “Rebel with a Cause” t-shirt, slip on our $1,690 Mickey Ears necklace, and make sure our phone is protected with the Blank – A Vinylmation Love Story iPhone case. Now that we are geared up, it’s time to hit the outlets!

Please remember to click on any picture to see it in full size.

One thing that jumped out to me on this trip was the amount of items that I would consider relatively “new” at the parks and at Downtown Disney. The first is this mashup of Mickey Mouse and Iron Man. I remember first seeing it late last year at the World of Disney store, and I can’t say I’m surprised to see it at the outlet. I like Mickey Mouse mashups, and love my Mickey Mouse/Tron, Mickey Mouse/Indiana Jones, and Mickey Mouse/Star Wars figures, but this Iron Man plush just looks weird.

Let’s start off with a look at some of the clothing options available. It’s always neat to see Animal Kingdom related stuff.

I loved that the sign above this one said “Assorted Ladies Branded Apparel.” Next we’re gonna see a sign on DisneyQuest that says “Ladies Night.”

 

My favorite things to see at the outlets include DVC items, hard ticket party merch, and stuff from special events like Food & Wine, so it was neat seeing this Vero Beach shirt.

This Beauty and the Beast shirt falls into what I call a “zero quadrant item.” I just don’t understand who the market is for this shirt. It’s too “adult” for young kids and too childish for anyone old enough to get the joke.

These Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck “silhouette” shirts were pretty neat. $19.99 each

I can tell you first hand how impossible it is to find Frozen related merchandise at the regular Disney stores, especially anything with Elsa, but there’s certainly no end to products featuring Planes at the outlets. Looks like someone bet on the wrong horse in that race.

I like the look of these classic-style Mickey shirts at $9.95 each (reduced from $29.95).

2013 branded items slowly starting to take less shelf space…

But out of nowhere a million of these propeller hats showed up.

Literally a million. I counted each one.

This Norway hoodie was originally $46.95 but can now be yours for just $16.99.

 

Hard to believe this “Mickey Around the World” shirt didn’t take off.

 

Let’s take a look at some hats. I really wanted to dislike these “characters over the years” hats, but there’s something about them that is actually charming. Each hat has representations of the classic characters from some of their more well known cartoon appearances, including “Mickey’s A Christmas Carol” and “Roger Rabbit.” I don’t think I could wear these hats in public, but I would like to see a similar idea done as a lithograph or a t-shirt. Each was $8.99.

 

The following is an actual hat made by the Walt Disney Company ($7.99).

I love that this four park icons hat has the Spaceship Earth “golfball” sitting in space like a Death Star ($4.99).

As far as Mickey Ears go, I liked this Sorcerer’s Hat one ($8.99)

You can allegedly get this New Fantasyland thing to fit onto your regular Mickey Ears. I say nay nay, but Disney-holic Morgan Crutchfield assures me it can be done. This I would have to see to believe. None of them had a price tag.

Pair of Stitch “paws” for $14.99. They come with a small Stitch accessory, as well, so not too bad of a deal.

Here was another surprise, all of the “it’s a small world” toys that came out late last year have been shuttled over to the discount bins.

Speaking of “it’s a small world,” this post card set was pretty neat.

Are there a lot of people out there who collect miniature versions of hats? These Alice in Wonderland ones were $8.99 each.

 

Surprised to see these Nightmare Before Christmas salt and pepper shakers here. Keep them in a closet until September, and I’m sure you can just resell them at full price when Halloween season comes back around. Originally $14.95, now $8.99.

Time to head into my favorite area…VINYLMATION! First up is the 2013 branded one.

This Disneyland giant Vinylmation is everything I don’t like about Vinylmation in a nutshell. It’s just art thrown onto the Mickey regardless of how it looks, and they have absolutely no idea what to do with the ears so they just leave them blank.

THAT SAID, this River Country themed one isn’t the worst, and I like the inner tube add on.

I am convinced this wall of John Carter Vinylmation will be here for years. If anyone actually does go back to Barsoom, please take these with you.

Can someone please tell me why this Lady and the Tramp print is being sold for $479? It’s not signed by the artist or part of some limited print run (and how limited would it have to be to justify that price anyway, 1 of 2?). In case you can’t see the price tag, it says ORIGINALLY $950. There has to be a story here. My mind can not comprehend this, so there must be a piece to this jigsaw puzzle I’m missing.

Time to go, but we’ll close out by looking at the items that probably have the shortest lifespan of just about anything ever created: New Year’s Eve light up merchandise. Basically, these items are good from what, 6 or 7PM to about 1AM on New Year’s Day. After that, you will never see another human being on Earth wear one. Talk about the ultimate niche market.

 

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). For this edition of MMM, we went to the location near Disney.

Previous editions of Magic, Memories and Merch: July 2013, August 2013, September 2013, October 2013, November 2013, December 2013, & January 2014.

If you liked what you read here, you may enjoy THE SATURDAY SIX articles every week on the TouringPlans.com blog, as well as the Pardon the Pixie Dust podcast.