Disneyland Ceramic Castle Plate and Ashtray

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Dis-LEE

Do you own either of these Disneyland Ceramic Castle Plate and Ashtray? If you’re a collector of Disneyland merchandise, you likely have some ceramics with Sleeping Beauty Castle on it.

Mugs. Bells. Spoons. And yes, plates and ashtrays.

This miniature offering is just 6 1/2″ in diameter, so not a wall hanging plate! And can you see the little detail that makes this plate special? Yes, those are Mickey Balloons lifting into the air over the Castle! And now for a pet peeve of mine: I hate it when the combined ‘Disneyland’ and ‘Walt Disney World’ branding appears on the back of an item that was created solely for sale in just one of those Parks! Is it just me?

Are you someone who misses smoking while walking down Main Street? Then this next item is likely something you would have purchased to remember your Disney trip:

At just 5″ in diameter, this little ashtray might not accommodate the chain smoker! But it does have three indentations if you wanted to smoke with your friends. It’s strange now to think that Disneyland once had a Tobacconist shop and you could buy cigars in the Park!

This ashtray is branded ‘Walt Disney Productions’ which dates this item to pre-1986 times.

I’ve lost count of how many variations of merchandise I have with the Castle motif. But one thing is sure: I will be increasing that number whenever possible!

Posted in Artwork, Attractions, Ceramics, Collectibles, Decorations, Disney Parks, Disneyland, Merchandise, Plates, Souvenirs, Theme Parks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mickey Unlimited Donald Duck Pen by Kreisler

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Dis-LEE

We all know the ‘Leader of the Band who is made for you and me’, right? But for this post, we must join a certain rascally mallard in yelling a hearty ‘DONALD DUCK’!

Yes, we are featuring a beautiful Mickey Unlimited Donald Duck Pen by Kreisler, and I think even Mickey would be proud to write with it:

The Mickey Unlimited brand has been quite pervasive in the past few decades. I don’t personally believe the merchandise to be of the highest quality but it is quite varied and usually very interesting. This pen is a good example.

Even though Donald should be getting the spotlight here, I just couldn’t resist geeking over the Mickey Hand in the box and how it holds the pen! This is packaging ramped up to eleven.

This pen sports the standard ‘Disney’ copyright with an additional marking of R.O.C. which I believe may stand for ‘Republic of China’. If this is right, it would be another way of saying ‘Made in China’.

And just who is Kreisler? Kreisler Pens have been offered for sale as far back as the 1960’s and have offered an extensive line of top quality writing tools. They still have a sales presence online. These Disney branded offerings seem to be from the 1990’s and can sell today for around $75.00 or more. Many different styles were offered but it seems the same box was used for all.

So if you’re on Team Donald, this tribute pen is for you!

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Book Review: Disney’s The Emperor’s New Clothes

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Dis-LEE

Publisher: Random House

Year: 1975

Pages: 44

Type: Hardcover

ISBN: 0-394-82568-3

“But he hasn’t got any clothes on!”

And with that innocent proclamation from a little girl the Emperor realizes that he is a fool after all! This simple children’s book is a retelling of the famous story by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It has been reworked in many different mediums from books to movies. The Emperor’s New Clothes, a 1987 musical comedy adaptation of the fairy tale starring Sid Caesar, part of the Cannon Movie Tales series, is one to miss! I wish I had.

This particular effort by Disney uses established characters from the animated Robin Hood and Pinocchio movies. Prince John is the titular Emperor and Honest John and Gideon play the crafty weavers who trick their way to riches in exchange for clothes that only the wise can see.

Buyer beware?

Prince John is looking as vain as ever on the cover and in the liner pages below:

The artwork is par for the course for these Wonderful World of Reading efforts. The watercolor look is quite nice.

As said, Honest John and Gideon take a break from conning Pinocchio with much more success in their tailoring ‘business’.

The most famous scene in this story (as shown above) has a little girl innocently proclaiming the Emperor ‘naked’. But in this sanitized version, he is merely in his underwear! In the HCA original, the crowd wonders if the Emperor has become a naked ascetic.

This links to the Sanskrit word Digambara meaning “sky-clad”, referring to the traditional monastic practice of neither possessing nor wearing any clothes. Hey, each to his own!

And in a rare crime-does-pay moment, the last pages show the ‘weavers’ escaping with bags and bags of gold. It seems that in any situation, facing any opponent, ol’ Prince John loses the little gold coins he prizes so much. Oo de lally!

I would give this book 4 out of 5 Stars. It’s fun to see Disney characters stretch out into other roles, as it were, but the storytelling itself offers nothing new. It’s a fairly straightforward presentation of a well-worn (see what I did there?) story. But for young readers, it will entertain. And don’t forget that these books are made so that children can read them themselves.

FUN FACTS: Although Pinocchio had been out for decades when this book was released, the animated film that begat Prince John as a lion was only two years old, having been released in 1973.

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Zani Chocolate Egg with Toy Mickey Mouse

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Dis-LEE

It’s time to release your long-suppressed Sweet Tooth and let it have some fun! And what better treat to give it than this Zani Chocolate Egg with Toy Mickey Mouse:

I’m not a fan of how much packaging is used to deliver such a small toy to us, but it is what it is. Lots of foil and plastic between the packaging and the toy itself. But it is fun to break inside and see who or what you got!

And I got:

These crude pieces of plastic are just about 1 1/2″ tall. The finish and paint leave something to be desired, but I did buy it at a Dollar Store, so I really couldn’t expect much else.

The character selection is a line up of the usual suspects with the exceptions of a Conductor and Pete. There are also three gold surprises to find and collect.

I’ve never been able to figure out why these promotions choose to use multiple poses of one character, in this and almost every other case, Mickey Mouse, instead of including other popular Disney favorites. Donald Duck is conspicuously missing.

For any child, a big piece of chocolate and a plastic toy is always welcome, so for this reason, this product from Zanai hits the spot!

Posted in Animation, Candy, Characters, Collectibles, Figurines, Food, Toys | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Disney’s Goofy Vinyl Figure with Cloth Clothes

Posted on December 25, 2024 by Dis-LEE

Sometimes I find things in surprising places. Recently I was renovating a customer’s basement which required me to move copious amounts of stuff from side to side in order to complete my work. While moving a particular pile, I found a treasure!

When asked about it, the customer said I could have this Goofy Vinyl Figure with Cloth Clothes:

She remembered buying it at Walt Disney World during a family trip but admitted she never liked it. That’s okay. I love it!

Goofy is 9″ tall and made of vinyl. He is posable. His arms and legs move back and forth while his head moves side to side. And his ears swing to and fro. Don’t ya know!

No manufacturer is credited on the labels, just that it was made in Hong Kong for Walt Disney Distributing under the Walt Disney Productions copyright. Part of this information is also stamped on the bottom of Goofy’s left foot.

Also on the bottom of Goofy’s feet are the particulars of his purchase. My customer was at Disney in August of 1975. It also says ‘FLA’ which signifies Florida, so we know the ‘Disney’ in question is Walt Disney World.

Goofy was purchased just a few years after my first trip to WDW as a child. Did I see this little guy on a shelf when I was there? Did I beg my parents to buy him for me? I will never know, but it’s fun to think about and makes this vinyl figure very special to me!

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Hallmark Keepsake ‘Clear for Launch’ Space Mountain Ornament

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Dis-LEE

Space Mountain is a space-themed indoor roller coaster. The original Space Mountain coaster opened in 1975 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. There are two tracks designated Alpha and Omega, which passengers can choose from.

I’ve collected many toys depicting this attraction, and now I add the Hallmark Keepsake ‘Clear for Launch’ Space Mountain Ornament:

Mickey may be small but he’s big on adventure. Approximate size in inches is 1.5 x 2.5 x 3.5 or so.

Even though the back of the box makes a big deal out of how this was designed by ‘a real person with a real passion to tell a big story’, they don’t tell us who it was. Strange. But it was ‘artist crafted’. Sure!

These ornaments can be quite expensive. A standard one will be at least $19.99 CAN with an ornament featuring sound fetching up to over $30.00 CAN. Some have movement. Some have power packs and bases you have to purchase separately. So it should be no surprise that these little pieces of plastic can command a very high resale price.

If you like these Disney ornaments, keep the boxes and secure your future selling price!

Check out my Pocket POP! keychain featuring a very similar Mickey on the attraction. It’ll propel you into Space… and beyond!

Posted in Attractions, Characters, Collectibles, Figurines, Ornaments, Theme Parks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mark Twain Riverboat Brass Pencil Sharpener

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Dis-LEE

At just about 3″ long, this little boat won’t be taking on human passengers any time soon. But it can provide a very valuable service to aspiring writers out there!

Behold the Mark Twain Riverboat Brass Pencil Sharpener:

I saw this in a charity shop for just 50 cents and couldn’t resist buying it! It reminded me of the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland. That attraction opened in 1955 to take passengers on a scenic 12-minute journey around the Rivers of America. That boat is a stern-wheeler while this toy version is a dual side-wheeler.

This Mark Twain is in Dry Dock to help writers with their rewrites and mistakes. Do you create your stories in pen? No worries, the Mark Twain will wait for you to come to your senses and to grab a pencil.

Made in Hong Kong. I haven’t figured out yet how to empty the shavings. I think you may have to remove the screw shown above.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better remembered as Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. Walt Disney loved him so much that he named his paddle wheeler after him. I imagine he did this also because it circled Tom Sawyer’s Island, named after one of Twain’s most famous fictional characters.

There is another version of this sharpener out there. It has two extra steam stacks on the front and the ‘Mark Twain’ name is printed in red on the plastic windows instead of cast in the metal like mine. Either version could be expected to fetch about $10.00 US or more.

I do have a Disneyland Bracelet that features the Mark Twain Riverboat, as well as a wonderful old LP record featuring Harold Holbrook Jr. as the bard entitled Mark Twain Tonight! You can hear a clip as he regales us with a tale lifted from the writings of the real man himself. Enjoy!

Posted in Attractions, Collectibles, Die Cast, Disneyland, Theme Parks, Toys, Transportation, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In the Wild: Disney’s Mickey Band Toy Instruments by Bontempi

Posted on October 19, 2024 by Dis-LEE

The Band Concert is a 1935 Disney Short that follows a small musical band, conducted by Mickey Mouse, which struggles through a distraction-filled public performance. Next, Mickey shows up as a Band Leader in the Mickey Mouse Club of 1955.

He also appears in the tell-tale garb in many pieces of merchandise, like this Britto:

But today Mickey returns In the Wild: Disney’s Mickey Band Toy Instruments merchandise:

From time to time I find things in the wild while I am trolling for goodies to add to my collection. Often I will find something that interests me but not enough to buy. These wonderful plastic toy instruments almost had me! If the flea market vendor had had the entire set, it may have been different!

This is a collectible I would leave in the packaging. The graphics are fun and vintage. On the backs you can see the complete set along with a description of how to use the instrument, and in the case of the harmonica, a guide on how to play an actual song. Wow!

According to Wikipedia, the handy info-dump of the Internet, Bontempi is an Italian musical instrument manufacturer, best known for manufacturing low-priced, plastic-cased chord organs, which are small keyboard instruments in which the sound is produced by air being forced over reeds by an electric fan.

In the mid-1980s, Bontempi moved to manufacturing small, home electronic keyboards. The company continues to make low-priced musical instruments aimed at the educational and toy market, much like these early examples.

Want more Mickey Band Leader fun? Check out my Mickey Light Sword or the Leader of the Club sculpture.

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Walt Disney’s Frontierland Logs by HALSAM Products

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Dis-LEE

This has been a Holy Grail quest for me for literally years! This wonderful building toy is very hard to find in my area of the World and very expensive if you do. The Internet offerings have always been beyond my reasonable ability to justify. But then…

This somewhat beat up Walt Disney’s Frontierland Logs by HALSAM Products box came into the range of my sights, and I pulled the trigger on Old Betsy and purchased it:

Disney’s Frontierland came into existence in 1955 in Disneyland. Fess Parker played Davy Crockett on television in 1954–1955. Then he played Daniel Boone on television from 1964–1970. But he never played Kit Carson, another frontier legend, on television or anywhere else. You can see them all depicted on the side of the box below:

The Frontierland Logs by Halsam Products Co. sprang into existence and were sold at Disneyland from 1955–1962. The Halsam brand itself started in 1917 and ended in 1970. This Chicago toymaker was founded by Harold Elliot and Sam Goss, Jr. They created the company name by combining their first names HAL and SAM. It was a family business.

These were made of real wood and could be interlocked to create any number of frontier-styled homes and forts. The ultimate toy for any boy or girl obsessed with the old west and American history!

I purchased this incomplete set for under $30.00 CAN but haven’t been able to find individual pieces to complete the box. At a reasonable price anyway. It also didn’t have the instructions, so another $30.00 CAN was spent on eBay to acquire what you see below:

Eventually, I hope to complete the set and perhaps buy other kits. If you read the instructions, each set is listed, with some being smaller or bigger. This set is medium-sized.

For now, I will display it for the box art and the nostalgia boost it yields. But some day, there will be a log building standing proudly beside it, perhaps with a Davy Crockett action figure to complete the display!

Do you remember the famous Ballad of Davy Crockett from the Disney television series? If so, why not click on over and enjoy not one, but three, Davy Crockett Records that I have in my collection. You’ll be singing along in no time!

Posted in Attractions, Celebrities, Characters, Collectibles, Disneyland, History, Merchandise, Television, Theme Parks, Toys | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Mickey Mouse as Policeman 2000 Edition Figurine

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Dis-LEE

Mickey Mouse figurines are a dime a dozen. But sometimes you can find an interesting addition in a sea of plastic mediocrity!

Stop and obey the Mickey Mouse as Policeman 2000 Edition Figurine:

Mickey has had just about every job going. Maybe even more than Barbie! Here he is a Policeman or Crossing Guard. Fisher-Price produced these figurines that were made in China.

It’s hard to see in the picture above, but this packaging is very detailed. Mickey is on a street corner and you can see buildings and businesses behind him.

So just what is this Mickey Bonus Point system? I tried to Goggle it, but as this toy is over 24 years old, the promotion is long gone and apparently forgotten by even the all-knowing Internet. But for what it was ever worth, I have 1 Point.

This was a Millennium product that came out in the year 2000. You could collect all six figures, as seen above. Mickey as a Policeman, Minnie as a Florist, Daisy as a Baker, Donald and Pluto are delivering mail, and Goofy looks like a Tradesman.

I picked this up for a few dollars at a flea market. They really have no value other than what someone is willing to pay for them. Most of these figures would now be loose and played with and more than likely long since lost!

Again… kids! Why do parents keep giving them toys?

To conclude, Fisher-Price and Mattel are joined by Arcotoys, which is an acronym for the A. Rosenberg Company, a Hong Kong based production company started around 1967. Mattel acquired them in 1986 and they became a major subsidiary brand producing various dolls and toys including Polly Pocket, Other World and budget priced Barbie and Disney lines throughout the 1990s.

I don’t have any more of these figures, but I do have a Donald Duck Crossing Guard ceramic figurine that you can check out. Just be sure to obey his directions in the post! He can be cranky.

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