Dance Dance Revolution from Disney for the Wii is just Great !
You get to dance along with your favourite Disney Characters.

 

Cookie Jar Guide

Remember Your Grandma and those delicious Cookies she used to make?

And how sweet she was pretending not to notice when you took two instead of one !

Even now just the sight of a cookie jar makes my mouth water. I can still taste her cookies and smell that delicious smell drifting from the Kitchen.

Many cookie jar collectors would be so jealous of those antique cookie jars she kept the treats inside.

Cookie Jars of course originated in England and were originally used to store and keep crisp the spiced and honeyed biscuits from earlier times.

In the 20^th Century Cookie Jars really became a craze to collect – especially when Walt Disney began promoting Mickey Mouse and the combination of cookies and Mickey Mouse became quite irresistible to a whole generation of American and worldwide children.

Those early Mickey and Minnie jars are still avidly snapped up by cookie jar collectors (and I suspect still used to store cookies for new generations of kids.)

The most valuable Cookie jars for collectors are ones featuring early movie characters.

Cartoon characters like Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Clarabelle, Betty Boop, Donald Duck and the whole panoply of Disney favourites and other popular characters like Felix the Cat are very collectable and  have all graced the Jars as have many famous early movie stars and more recently film stars and entertainers like Elvis Presley, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe.

A whole fleet of Superheroes fiercely face unknown daners from the front of Grannies Cupboard  including Superman, Batman and right up to date heroes are still being collected.

These are some of the cookie jars worth looking out for:

Jars from  Dsney

All major characters

Quaker Oats

Aunt Jemima

Vandor Beatles  or Elvis Jars

Uncle Sam jars

Nightmare before Christmas is a modern favourite

Nursery Rhyme and fairy tale cookie jars make a lovely display

Disney Princess Jars are really popular

Modern Film Heroes like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean are collectable but many have been sold.

Some major collections have been sold at auction – Andy Warhols collection sold for $250,000 and he bought at regular stores ,flea markets and yard sales.(that must have been  quite a sight - Andy Warhol with an armful of Disney Princesses !)- actually . I wonder if he signed any of them ?

Here are some average recent Cookie Jar auction Prices :

Mickey Mouse Fireman  $25

Minnie Mouse $ 35

Donald Duck $20

Pluto Dining $150

Snow White $38

Lady and the Tramp $60

Haunted Mansion $90

Coca Cola $9

John Wayne  $55

Snoopy $32

Dr Seuss Cat $35

Tazmanian Devil $15

Vintage Old King Cole  $325

Vintage Pig $50

Shawnee Smiley Pig $15

Puppy Hound Dog  $10

McCoy Mammy Jar $52

Vintage Kraft Bear $20

King Frog $30

Starwars R2D2 $100

Cat Treats $4

 

 

Auction prices are usually higher than prices in fleamarkets,yard sales , car boot sales.

Vintage Cookie Jars are nearly always more expensive

.

 

Most Popular sections for collectors are :

Disney

Cats

Pigs

McCoy brand

Vintage Jars

Shawnee Jars

Disneyland Hong Kong to be expanded.
Following criticisms about the size of the Hong Kong Park,

(and a rather upset public after many were in the past refused entry on the Chinese New Year due to overcrowding)

Hong Kong Disney is to  have three new theme areas.
These will be called Mystic Point,Grizzly Trail and Toy Story Land.
This will expand the theme areas from four to seven areas with a construction cost of $450 Million

This should solve the overcrowding problems.

As Disneyland Hong Kong is the smallest Disneyland, this move is seen as also answering the proposed Disneyland Shanghai which will be a huge theme park scheduled to open in 2014

This is still in the negotiations and planning stages.

We are pleased to announce that we now offer character Disney Merchandise from Disney Marketplace Store
This extends the number of Mickey Mouse and other Disney Character items for you to see.
Just click on the small pictures on that page to see full details of each item.

[caption id="attachment_628" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Captain Hook is happy to sign Autographs"][/caption]

Here are some of my photos of Disneyland Paris.
It really does look the same as the US Disney Parks.

The Worm Turns Video from Youtube

This has been moved here from another part of our site.
We hope you enjoy the movie !

Mickey Goes Welsh !
Each of the WINNERS from this year’s Urdd Eisteddfod will get the chance to take part in a Welsh Festival at Disneyland Paris.

Mickey Mouse came to Cardiff yesterday to the festival to announce an exciting deal between the Disney organisation and the Urdd.

Five of this Eisteddfod winners will be offered the opportunity to jet off to Paris next March to take part in the Welsh Festival at Disneyland Parisl.

Eisteddfod Director Aled Siôn said the finalists will be selected from the best of Wales’ performers participating in song, drama, dance, poetry and arts.

As Mickey Mouse was mobbed by exited children on the Eisteddfod

For the past four years, Disneyland Paris has celebrated all things Welsh at its annual Welsh Festival, where Mickey and Minnie appear in their traditional Welsh outfits, St David’s day fireworks lighting up the sky over Sleeping Beauty Castle and guests can have their face painted whilst enjoying an extensive array of festivities over the three days.

The Urdd have organised trips to Disneyland Paris for several years.

Yesterday’s Disney announcement marked the most successful international Urdd Eisteddfod for years.

Mr Siôn revealed the Urdd are expecting competitors from as far away as Singapore this year. A regional Eisteddfod for competitors outside Wales was held at the end of March with preliminary rounds for those wishing to compete in the National Eisteddfod.

The full report of the festival is here :
http://www.dailypost.co.uk

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse To Watch on your computer !

 

 

http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/mickeymouseclubhouse/stories/ohtoodles/index.html

Disney Character Fun

What a Lovable Minnie Mouse Plush DollShe makes you want to cuddle her all the time !

You can see more about Minnie at  Amazon .

A rare Mickey Mouse advert from Youtube

Mickey Mouse Radio

In 1938 Walt did the voice for Mickey Mouse for the first 4 episodes of The Mickey Mouse Theater of The Air
It was originally a musical variety series for Children.
Sponsorship came from Pepsodent and the program was broadcast from the Disney Little Theater on the RKO lot.

Music was provided by the Felix Mills Orchestra,The Donald Duck Swing Band and The Minnie Mouse Woodland Choir.
It was a Sunday afternoon program.The program promoted the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney movies.

After the War Walt grew the Disney business using Radio, Movies and eventually televison as part of a comprehensive plan
to widen the acceptance of Disney entertainment.

The Walt Disney Family Museum will open in the Fall of 2009 and it is located in The Presidio of
San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
It is renovating and upgrading three existing buildings on the Presidios Main Post.
The principal building, at 104 Montgomery Street, faces the Parade Ground.

There is a series of dvds called Walt Disneys Treasures which has some radio broadcasts of the tim (but is mostly movies).
These include a Tour of the Disney Studio: This is a rare half-hour radio broadcast from Australia in 1946,
in which studio personnel Homer Brightman, Harry Reeves, Eric Larson and Walt himself offer general
information on the making of the animated films at the time.
So Mickey has been popular through the bulky radios of the thirties and Forties to the valve radios of the Fifties
(I remember my father building me on of the first Transistor radios - I was so Thrilled !)
Disney soon brought out their own range of vintage Mickey Mouse Radios and collectors even today love them

Mickey Mouse Transformers

Disneyland Paris best Vintage Mickey Review

I visited Disneyland Paris last Week and was delighted to see all the kids who had dressed up for the day !

Most small girls had dressed as either a Princess or as Alice and fairy wands were waved at just about everyone.

Boys mainly had Mickey Sorcerer Hats (and that included many boys of around 18 to 59 by the way !) or as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.- I did not know there were that many pirates around nowadays...
The Pirates of the Caribbean is a great attraction – unmissable in my opinion.

Lots of the girls waited in line to meet their favourite Princess (with Cinderella and Prince Charming being the hot favourites)
Almost all were themselves in costume and there was great competition to get a full Princess makeover including dress, shoes and wigs.
It certainly made those girls have a very special day indeed.

They have seriously extended Disneyland Paris since I last visited and I was pleased to see that (when it started it was looking a little on the Spartan side)
The Pirate area is much bigger and Captain Jack was signing signatures (but he did seem to have a problem deciding which was the working end of a ball point pen !)

There are now lots of restaurants and a huge cowboy BBQ which was one of the most popular eating places.There is even an evening dinner show at Buffalo Bills WIld West show - 6.30 pm and 9.30pm

The most popular attractions were Sleeping Beautys Castle with a GREAT dragon in the dungeon..Followed swiftly by The Haunted Manor (the haunted House ride) ,Idiana Jones and the Temple of Peril (A great action rollercoaster-style ride)
All of the oher popular rides were there plus the upgraded Space Mountain where get get Fired from a gun (Jules Verne Style –well it IS in France !) on a dark rollercoaster ride.

The only thing I did not like was the entrance with dozens of ticket booths with only a few manned – and the fact that only a dual park ticket was shown on the entrance fee boards whereas you can actually buy a ticket for one park alone (although I did get the 2 park ticket I thought this was a bit misleading by Disney and should be changed)
The Fastpass ticket system is in operation so please take advantage of that.
Although there were 15 or so characters roaming around the park to give authographs and happy to be photographed,I found that the main characters are only to be seen at the Disney characters Eat n Greet restaurants

You really do need a two day visit with an overnight stay at Disneyland Paris as there is now SO MUCH to see and do – especially with the Walt Disney Studios Park as well – that is where the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attractions is sited. .
There is lots of evening entertainment to see as well. I wished I had stayed for the two days.
Instead I stayed in Paris and visited Disney on the RER railway (well signposted and only about 17 Euro return fare).It drops you right at the entrance gates of Disneyland Paris and you do not have an extra journey to the park like in the Parks in America – you just walk right in.

How did I rate Disneyland Paris - 5*****
The problem over buying tckets was soon solved but they DO need more tcket booths to be open.
Did I have a good time in Disneyland Paris – you bet !

Disney Savings Banks

Walt Disney produced many savings banks for children.
These were mainly based on Disneys cartoon characters.
Mickey and Minnie of course were the big sellers .
Other known character banks include:
101 Dalmatians
Buzz Lightyear
Disney Castles
Cinderella
Country Bear
Disneyland Paris
Donald Duck
Dopey
Eeyore
Flounder Bank
Lady and Tramp
Mickeys Car
Mrs Pots
Original Princess
Pinocchio
Pluto
Pocohontas
Princess Belle
Princess Jasmine
Rocket Banks
Simba
Sleepy
Snow WHite and 7 Dwarfs
Stitch
Tigger
Tinkerbell
Winnie the Pooh
Uncle Scrooge
Zurg
The early metal Banks are the ones to look for (especially those with a combination lock) Cast Iron and Tinplate banks are also popular with collectors
but later banks are known in Glass,Plastic and Ceramic
There are also Disney Banks with Gumball machines,moveable arm models,
alarm clock models and other imported models.
Banks were of course originally designed to encourage Children to save regularly
and very early ones had to be broken to get to the savings.
A novel idea was the automatic savings banks which were usually made of cast iron and the simple action of placing a coin the the mouth or hand of the character triggered a mechanism which moved an arm or other part of the character and deposited the coin inside the savings bank.