A Very Handy Mickey

By Gaylin

I have a small collection of art glass. And while I would love to bring home a lot of glass from Arribas Brothers, I usually only have carry on luggage. Once I had the glass packed and protected, I would have to leave my clothes behind. Hmm, that’s an idea!

A friend of mine got me this glass Mickey container and I love it. It has Mickey’s gloved hand on it, it is glass, and it can hold pretty things or sweet things or? It came from the glass store in the Germany pavilion at Epcot.

It’s 5 1/2″ tall and 4 inches wide.

The Walt Disney World logo is on one side of the bowl and the etched Mickey heads are around the other side. Because glass is see-through, it looks like the Mickey heads are above the logo, but they aren’t!

From the back you can see that the etched heads circle the bowl of the container.

The bottom has the classic star pattern found on so many glass or crystal containers.

And from the top, you can see the stretched out fingers of Mickey’s hand in brushed glass.

Yep, maybe next trip I will throw out some clothes in order to bring back some of that pretty Disney glass!

McDonalds 100 Years of Magic Disney Glass Set

by Nick

In 2001-2002, Disney celebrated what would have been Walt Disney's 100th birthday with the 100 Years of Magic Celebration.

McDonald's released this glassy, er, classy, set of glasses to commemorate this occasion.

Each of the four glasses featured a park icon, with movie and character trivia, and even a quote from Walt!

This first glass features Spaceship Earth.
Park Trivia: EPCOT originally stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
The Walt Disney quote: "Today we are shapers of the world of tomorrow."


Movie Trivia: Buzz Lightyear said "To Infinity and Beyond" only 2 times in "Toy Story"


Character trivia: Belle is the French word for beauty.


The inside bottom of the glass.


This glass displays Cinderella Castle.
Park trivia: Tinker Bell starts the fireworks nightly at the Magic Kingdom.
The Walt Disney quote: "Fantasy...lies beyond the reach of time."


Pinocchio had to be "brave, truthful and unselfish" to become a real boy.


Dumbo's real name was actually "Jumbo Jr.".

Bambi was taught that "twitterpated" meant falling in love.


Park Trivia for this next glass: There are 325 animal carvings on The Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom
The Walt Disney quote: "...nature herself writes the most interesting stories"


Goofy-first known as "Dippy Dawg"-stars in "Mickey's Jammin' Jungle" Parade.


"Simba" is the Swahili word for "lion".


The outside bottom of the glass.


Mickey's Sorcerer Hat at the Disney Studios is 122 ft. tall.


"Kiss Me" were the only words ever spoken by Pluto.
Donald's middle name is "Fauntleroy."


"...it was all started by a mouse." Walt Disney



Happy New Year, and here's to the next 100 years of Disney Magic!

Teeny Tiny Tigger!

by Gaylin

On Main Street in the Magic Kingdom is one of my favourite shops, Arribas Brothers Crystal Shop. I have a small collection of glass art and while I love some of the amazing art pieces in the shop, they are out of my budget. I love to browse in the shop and often there is a glass artist hard at work and always willing to talk to the audience that forms and teach them about blowing glass.

After watching him create a beautiful ornament, I was about to leave the shop when I saw a display of miniatures and had to have one, of course it had to be Tigger! The figure itself is only 3/4 of an inch tall, safely sealed in its display container. The container itself is just under 2 inches and a bit over 1 inch square. They put him in a box made just for the miniatures so he was safe for his trip home.

I love this wee Tigger, right down to his teeny tiny tail!

Thrift Store Disney Glasses

Guest Writer Wednesday

Thrift Store Glasses
By: Gaylin
I don't have much luck out here in the Pacific Northwest finding Disney treasures in thrift stores. Also, I don't have many thrift stores in my neighbourhood. I was in the Salvation Army Thrift Store a few weeks ago and lucked into finding these! At first I thought they were all from the same set until I got home and realized two were from a MacDonald's promotion and the other one from ???

First one is a lovely glass with Pooh and Tigger on it!
Both Tigger and Pooh look quite happy on these glasses!

Next up is one of the glasses from MacDonald's restaurant. I know this was a Canadian promotional product because Cinderella is in English and French. Although it is hard to see (printed in white) there is also a Coco-Cola logo on the glass.
Going around the glass: first up, Cinderella herself.

With the Prince at her feet. (Did you know Cendrillon was Cinderella in french, I didn't.)

 

 Next is Lucifer, looking very pleased at finding Jaq and Gus.

And finally the Fairy Godmother with those helpful birds. A lot of detail on one glass!

The next glass is for Fantasia, which must be spelled the same in English and French as it is only printed once on the glass.
First up, Mickey with the ensorcelled brooms and buckets.

Then the dancing alligator . . . or crocodile?

What every drinking glass needs – a dancing hippo!

And finally all three glasses together, you can see the variation in shape and size from the 2 MacDonald glasses to the Pooh glass.

I thought these glasses were quite the find and they are used every day, I love them.

Drinks are on me!

Guest Writer Wednesday

Drinks are on me!
By: Gaylin

I love the following three mugs. I like clear glass mugs so these were all easy choices for me.

The first one I got was at the store coming off the Tower of Terror. Did I tell you that I won't let myself buy a ride souvenir unless I go on the ride? It was difficult to talk myself into going on the ToT the first time but I do like it now! (note I said like, not love!)

This mug has the logo on the front in green and even though I have never put this mug in a dishwasher, the green logo is starting to peel off. I have stopped using the mug for this reason. One of the L's and one of the O's are nearly gone, darn.

The HTH is cut into the glass all the way around so it won't be wearing off.

The next one is one that I got while having lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table. This was before it was so hard to get into that restaurant, one day at the Magic Kingdom we walked up to the podium for the restaurant and asked "can we have lunch here if we are willing to eat late?", sure enough we got a 1:30 reservation!

If you ordered a Bibbity Bobbity Brew, (a milkshake) you got this souvenir glass mug to take home. Same basic shape of mug as the ToT one, but not frosted and the logo on the front has not peeled one little bit and I use this one quite often.

And finally on my last trip, I found this one, tucked in the corner of a shelf at the Arribas Brothers shop at Downtown Disney. It was on sale for 40% off so I grabbed it quick. It is not the same size and shape as the other ones but it quite nice. And it was the 4th to last one available. They had only been made for the 40th Anniversary and were selling them out as old stock. Glad I got one.