Thursday, August 23, 2007

A Frightening Encounter!


In the last few weeks, I've had the opportunity to finally display some pieces that have been long boxed. Some were displayed and then packed to make room for something new and some were never displayed :(

Two that fell in the latter category are Maurice with Lumiere and Beast. These two sculptures displayed together are amazing! I created the image at right to show how I have mine displayed, definitely A Frightening Encounter!

In our discussion on Scene Completer: Special Request(s) for Missing Characters, Koen mentioned the Side Table with Cogsworth, something a group of us discussed when Maurice was released. This would be a perfect scene completer for this grouping! My new campaign? :)

Beast was a Numbered Limited Edition (NLE) of 4,000. Originally plan was to release this sculpture as the 2004 Spring Event Sculpture. After much consideration, it was decided Jessica Rabbit would be a more appropriate event vehicle and the Beast's appeal could be better maximized if introduced as an Open Edition item. Original event backstamp artwork was subsequently applied to the manufactured product. As a result, the sculpture has been produced as a Numbered Limited Edition (NLE). During manufacturing, a 'running change' to the backstamp was made to remove any reference to it being an Event Sculpture. Some early items will feature the event reference.

I couldn't help but marvel at this sculpture. Kent Melton did an amazing job in capturing the Beast's muscles within the folds of the fabric of his cape, making for a powerful and dynamic sculpture.

Maurice with Lumiere was released the following year, Limited to Production Year 2005. Maurice with Lumiere was sculpted by Dusty Horner.

6 comments:

Babette said...

Put Jessica between Maurice and the Beast pieces and then you'd really have a FUN scene!! Both of their expressions would work well with her sculpt!

DC Pop Fanatic said...

Only you Babs! LOL!

Unknown said...

Your staging ideas are SO great!! I don't have either piece, but now wish I did. Which led me to an unhappy or hopefully, happy place. Don, do you know of a place where the entire WDCC collection is displayed? It would just blow my mind. I don't know if children today are as charmed and mesmerized as we were growing up, but I do know that these characters have been a joy to me throughout my long life. I am a 54-year-old gay man with heirs that do not understand my penchant for my collection. Sad for them, but a quandry for me. What happens to my collection? More than likely, auctioned off piece by piece, or eBay. What I really would love is for us Disney angels is for our collections to end up in Children's Hospitals, especially those where they may never leave. I would love for those of us who have derived such happiness from this collection to pass it on to places that would bring moments of happiness to kids who may not know many. I have no idea how to go about making such a thing happen or if the logistics are unrealistic, but I would love the thought of my collection bringing happiness to kids who really need some. What about a Duckman collection, where we build a collection for donation to a children's hospital like St. Judes?I know this is a heavy subject for such a kind, happy website, but I really would like us to find a way for our passion to brighten the lives of those who might really need it. I love you, my fellow Disneykins.

Kushal Ruia said...

Thats a great thought Bill.
Though i am 29 years old, and hopefully have a few more years to enjoy my various collections...i have moments too where i wonder what would happen to my prized possessions. Who would appreciate them? Though i know many would, but how to get it to them?
And i don't mean JUST WDCC...i have an amazing collection of Animation and Film related Books, Posters,LaserDiscs, DVDs etc etc.
To the point, where i feel i indulged too much!(Guilt)lol
So yes...am on the same page with u...and would love to know of options to do something meaningful with my collections after am done!:-)

DC Pop Fanatic said...

Hi All .. Sorry for the delay in responding back. Was away this weekend moving Amanda back to college. It was like yesterday we moved her back home for the summer. These past four months seemed to fly by :(

Thanks Bill! Yes, they are two amazing sculptures and glad I was finally able to get them out of their boxes. I don't believe they're entirely sold out. Maurice is listed as on alert, meaning he is near being sold out at the distribution center.

To my knowledge, there isn't a place where you can view the entire collection in its entirety (unless at Enesco's Burbank Office). The only time I saw the collection in its entirety was around 1999-2001 (not 100% sure on the timeframe) when WDAC used to be part of the ICE Shows and part of their space included the entire collection up until that time. It was both awesome and impressive to walk around all the cases and see each and every piece.

Bill, you bring up something I think we all have thought of from time to time. Investing a lot of time and money into our collections, you can't help but wonder what will happen to them upon our demise? Will family members and/or friends pick that favorite character or film leaving the rest to be sold (eBay or worse yet, a yard sale) or could there be somewhere to donate them that they can be truly appreciated?

It can be a depressing thought but it is something you can't help but think about. I had no interest/real inkling about Disney growing up and it was through Amanda, I became familiar with the films, appreciated the artistry and began collecting the Walt Disney Classics Collection (My wife joined me into the Society as a Christmas gift in 1993 and I had no clue as to what it was). Disney is a family affair for us, so even I'm not sure what will happen to our collection. My wife has some Harmony Kingdom (both Disney and non-Disney) and now I have my Disney Pixar Cars die-cast cars, other than that, the crux of our Disney collecting is WDCC.

The suggestion of the Duckman Collection is quite flattering but not really sure how you could (or would) go about setting up a collection as a donation.

Unknown said...

Thanks Don,

Was just feeling a little reflective about the future of my collection. Glad to know others consider it also. I'm sure we'll all figure it out.