The Disney Collection Screen Saver

 Back in October of 1993, I received my copy of The Disney Collection Screen Saver for Macintosh, and boy was I excited. I was a huge Mac fan and a huge Disney fan, so this was made for me! After installing in onto my my Macintosh LCIII from the 4 discs included I had all kinds of Disney fun right on my computer screen. I already had After Dark installed on my Mac and enjoyed the Flying Toasters screensaver, but now I could watch Goofy pushing folders around my screen, Donald Duck painting all over my screen. and ever a fireworks show over the castle. This was back before Apple started including built in screensavers with Max OS X in 2001. I happily shelled out the $53.95 to install these fun Disney screen savers on my Mac. Today those old floppy discs are pretty much useless, but with a few clicks on the big old world wide web I found a free way to get all those fun Disney screensaver onto my current iMac. Just visit https://morphing.cloud/afterglow/ and you can download Afterglow and then use their built in search of the Internet Archive where they have many old screen savers including Simpsons, Star Trek and the Disney Collection Screen Saver.

Virtual Pokemon Go Disneyland Postcards

I was late to the party, but on July 11, 2024 I started playing Pokemon Go, and have virtually walked 5642 km (3505 miles) since I started playing the game, and caught 82,043 Pokemon. And at some point while playing I made a virtual friend in the game who sends me Disneyland Resort postcards every day! When I received the first one, I was pretty excited as I had never seen a Disneyland (or other Disney park) postcard in the game. I then went looking online and found that every Disney park worldwide has many pokestops with all kinds of great postcards. As a huge Disneyland (and Disney in general) fan and collector, these have become fun new additions to my collection. Each day when another one shows up, its my little bit of Disney pixie dust for the day!

Here are some of the cards I have received.

 

Do you play Pokemon Go and collect Disney postcards in the game?
Do you have Disney postcards to you're willing to share, lets become virtual friends.

Family Circle Magazine December 1956

 Here is the Family Circle magazine from December 1956. It has a very nice Christmas story by Pearl S. Buck and visualized by Walt Disney and staff.

Walt Disney's The Adventures of Mr. Toad

I picked up this book recently at a thrift shop. I love the artwork inside and decided to scan a few of my favourites including the inside front cover (also inside back cover) two page spread of a map of Toads adventures, and also the title page with a great image of Toad Hall. Enjoy!

Hitchhiking Ghosts in 3D... Kinda

I have been playing with the DittoPro 3D printer we have at work. When I noticed one of the colours of filament we had was a semi transparent aqua, it immediately made me think of a ghost, and of course that lead me to looking for a Haunted Mansion ghost that I could print. I found was this Hitchhiking Ghosts silhouette file which I printed out and it now lives in my collection along with my faux Sleeping Beauty animation cell and Tinkerbell in a lantern.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Special Edition 2007

Back in my post on June 6, 2009, I showed two photos of Oswald items created by Kevin Kidney, and said how much I wanted both! Last month, I was finally able to add this amazing 2007 Disney Store exclusive Oswald the Lucky Rabbit hand finished soft microfiber figure to my collection. The box is 17 inches tall and Oswald's ears stick out of the top of the box, so this is a fairly large figure. Part of me wants to pull him out of the box and display him, but the box is really cool, and I love that his ears stick out the top, so he will probably stay in the box. I love the look of the Oswald, but its a bit distracting that there is a line just above his nose and below his eyes where the top and bottom part of his face is joined. It would have been so much better if they could have done it without this right thought the centre of his face. But, other than that, he looks awesome! 

There was a mini big fig (is that a thing?) for sale at Disneyland back on my last trip in 2015 that I didn't buy because I didn't have room to bring it home in my luggage. Been kicking myself ever since. But that one was more similar to the image that Disney is using for Oswald now, and I much prefer the vintage looking one that Kevin created. so, I'll keep my fingers crossed for an Oswald big fig based on the sculpt Kevin did back in early 2000. 

Pluto and the 37th Recon Co.

I saw this logo online featuring Pluto for the 37th Recon Co. created by the Walt Disney Company during World War II. I really liked the logo but wished there was a better version online. After looking around, I didn't find any that looked much better, so I decided to make one myself which now pops up every now and again in my iMac's screen saver. Along with the logo I made, I decided to make a second one that looks older and distressed as if it was actually used. The bottom logo is the original and the other two are the ones I created in Photoshop.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in "Ye Olden Days"

Here is another faux Oswald the Lucky Rabbit poster I made for myself. I always liked the poster for Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in "Ye Olden Days", so I decided it would be fun to re imagine the image as an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit animated film. Here is my faux Oswald poster, along with the original poster. I hope you enjoy!

KING-TVs famed mascot designed by Walt Disney studios

I recently saw a picture of Walt Disney with a drawing of KING TVs mascot King Mike, and it reminded me that in 1998 when KING TV celebrated their 50th anniversary, I wrote to the station asking for anything with King Mike on it. I don't remember if I actually new at the time that it was designed by Disney, I think I just thought it was a rally cool retro looking character. They were nice enough to send me a 50th Anniversary mouse pad with King Mike on it. More recently I found that he was actually created by Disney.
King Mike, the first KING-TV employee and mascot, was created by Walt Disney's studios in 1951. When Dorothy Bullitt created Channel 5 in 1948, she changed the call letters to KING. And soon after, she reached out to her good friend Walt Disney who lent his artistic flair to help her get the station off the ground by created King Mike.
The Disney company confirms, although Walt Disney himself was involved in the design, that it was one of his artists who actually made the rendering. The cost of the design and work: $75.
It's believed that King Mike is the only word that Walt Disney commissioned outside of the Disney studios.
To this day, KING Mike has been used in promotions and logos.

Mickey Mouse and th Perilous Jungle Cruise

Recently while visiting one of my favourite Disney sites, I saw some great faux Disney movie posters that are displayed at the character meet and greet at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. They were all really cool, but I especially liked the one for "Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in The Jungle Cruise". A day or two later I saw the cover of a 1947 comic book, "Mickey Mouse and the Submarine Pirates", and immediately imagined it as a Jungle Cruise themed picture. So, a little bit of Photoshop magic and, voila, it's Mickey Mouse and the Perilous Jungle Cruise.

Little Golden Book Monday #181

While at the thrift store the other day I found two copies of the Little Golden Book, Donald Duck's Toy Sailboat. Once I had both in hand, I realized the covers were actually slightly different. I prefer the Donald on the newer edition, but think the chipmunks on the older one are much better. What do you think?

Here are scans of the covers as well as the inside page from both versions.
The first one is the Fourteenth Printing from 1975. The second one is from 1990.