An evening with Disney royalty for a good cause

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. Things are moving along over here. Doing some writing, and trying to make more time for art. I did want to talk a little bit about a great event that I took the missus to at the start of October 2026. We don’t make tons of money, but we still like to support various charities, and fundraisers for our friends, and their kids. One of the organizations we’ve been supporting for decades is The Carolwood Society, and Carolwood Foundation. We don’t give them a lot of money, but we do donate our time on some of their fundraisers. In some cases our kid also volunteers time to help. The organizers are great people, and always kind to the volunteers, and staff. If you’re not familiar with them they work with the Disney Family, and the Disney Company to restore, and preserve the trains that Walt Disney owned, or operated at Disneyland.

In October they were in the process of restoring one of the four trains that used to operate at the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland. For the past 40 years it was left outside in the elements as part of a set decoration in Frontierland. This was the attraction that my wife wrote about in a MiceChat history article. It was a nine-minute trip around a makeshift wilderness that included a mountain, desert, and cave scene filled with animatronic animals. It was closed down in 1977, and where Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, and Big Thunder Mountain now currently reside. The event was hosted by Garner Holt Productions, and the Garner Holt Foundation.

The fundraiser featured both a silent auction, and live auction, dinner, and presentations by various people. The first person to talk about the attraction was Bob Gurr. Mr. Gurr was one of the few people that worked for Walt Disney that is still with us. He built just about everything with wheels at Disneyland. His recall on the Mine Train was amazing considering that Mr. Gurr was almost 95-years-old when he spoke. I hope to be as energetic, and sharp if I get to that age. The next group to talk were three of the actual ride operators from the attraction. They formed a club called the Red Handkerchief Society. It started with over 200 members, and there were still about 70 alive to share their stories.

The highlight of the event was a sit down with Joanna Miller, the daughter of Diane Disney Miller, and the granddaughter of Walt Disney. She talked about what it was like visiting the park with her grandfather, and what a blessed experience knowing that people cared enough to restore the train. She thought it was a lost cause considering how far the company had let the train deteriorate. She was certain that it would have to be scrapped. Then she saw the progress from Garner, and his team. She almost cried when she saw the transformation. It was hard to believe that he salvaged both the engine, and the ride vehicles. The train still had a way to go. The wheels, and cab were still being restored. The project would be finished around Feb / March of 2027.

The fundraiser was a wonderful event, but you had to have deep pockets if you hoped to walk away with anything from the auctions. The icing on the cake for use theme park fans was a chance to tour Garner’s actual company. The missus and I had actually visited it twice before when it was at its old location, just down the street. This was our first visit to his new location which must have been four times bigger. Plus the buildings he owned across the street where he hosted STEM workshops for students. The event happened in the middle of a heat wave. It was 109 degrees when we arrived and in the mid-90s when we left late at night. Garner Holt was a very kind man, and one of those people that could be ranked among the theme park greats alongside Walt Disney himself. He was bitten by the theme park bug as a kid when he visited Disneyland with his family. He dedicated his life to creating animatronics in his family garage. His mom let him turn the garage into a haunted house with his makeshift robots, which became better, and more popular every year. 

Garner dropped out of school to build full time. He then created a small company. The industry knew he was a force to be reckoned with when Wendell the animatronic unicyclist made his debut in 1989. The people at Disney said that they had been spending millions developing the greatest animatronics in the world, but they conceded that he spent a fraction of that creating an even more impressive animatronic. Garner’s small company eventually became a huge company that built animatronics all around the world for Disney, Universal Studios, and countless other parks. 

Garner never lost his love for all things Disney. He revered the imagineers, and sought out advice from Bob Gurr for many of his builds. Even those that were no longer with us he honored in one way or another. One of the things that stuck out to me was the impressive bust in his reception room of Leota Toombs. She was an artist that worked for Walt Disney Imagineering decades ago. She was known better as the original Madame Leota from the Haunted Mansion. Her daughter Kim Irvine reprised the role when the company redid the crystal ball effects for a Haunted Mansion refresh. Anyhow, I was amazed at how great the sculptors at the studio were in creating the busts of Toombs, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, and Abe Lincoln.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of most of his creative factory. There were tons of trade secrets, as well as projects for various theme parks that were still in the building stages. I’m sure that rival studios would have killed to get access to his technology, and techniques. As a lifelong theme park fan you could imagine how hard it was to play it cool as I walked past bins of fiberglass molds for items labeled Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Mystic Manor, and more. It I could have cracked off a piece of theme park history I would have, unfortunately there was a security guard walking behind the group making sure that we kept out hands to ourselves, and that our phones remained in our pockets.

We were allowed to take pictures of his companies ride collection. He had an assortment of actual ride vehicles, animatronics, and set pieces from Disneyland. Some that he built, and some that he acquired directly from the company. In some cases he was simply gifted these items, the only catch was that he was responsible to pick it up, and transport it from the Disney warehouses. Which sounded easy but he said covering up just one of the items cost $3000. Disney does not allow anything to be identifiable when en route to a new location. So if it doesn’t fit inside of a transport, then it has to be completely covered. I am not at liberty to say what one of his most recent scores was until the “heat” dies down. I will say it was an impressive score. 

After our tour we got a chance to ask him all sorts of questions. Again he was very generous with his time despite it getting close to midnight. His foundation helped raise thousands just in auction items, not including how much the dinner tickets raised. We said our goodbyes, and drove back home in the heat as some happy theme park fans. I’d like to know if you’d ever attended a fundraiser for one of your interests. Tell me about it in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can sponsor me directly on Patreon. Or like and subscribe to my videos on YouTube. You can even subscribe to the Pink Monorail Podcast featuring my wife, and myself. 

 

Creating Disney images for history articles

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. Today I’d like to share some illustrations that I created for my wife’s articles. If you’re familiar with this blog then you might remember that my wife is a theme park historian. We co-host the Pink Monorail podcast on the Jim Hill Podcast Network, as well as on YouTube. She was a teacher of theme park history, and had also written articles on various sites for decades. She mainly posted on MiceChat.com yet there were some changes with that site, as well as the other theme park sites in the past few years.

A handful of litigious people had been going after any theme park website. The claim was that they were using copyright images without permission. That would normally be understandable, however these people had also been going after sites for using any pictures taken at theme parks. These lawyers weren’t necessarily working for or with the theme parks themselves. They were looking to settle with the most successful websites out of court. They were essentially claiming dominion over just about any picture that had ever come up in a Google search. These included images taken by guests years, decades, and in some cases more than a century ago. These were posted on free image hosts, and shared in public forums. It didn’t matter if the faces of people in the image was blurred if a theme park site ran the image. Unless the site actually took the picture, and could prove it then they would receive a cease-and-desist. This had really hurt sites that had been running history articles using archival photos, or even scans from the library. Even if a site did have the right to run the graphic, they would rather pull the article rather than have to fight in court. The ad money was not worth a fraction of the legal costs to simply pull an article.

To get around this MiceChat, and the other sites had updated their policy to only run images from their own photographers, or photos from the press team at the various companies like Disney, or Universal. The downside was that the press contacts did not necessarily have access to the archives, and the archive people didn’t have a searchable image library. So it made it difficult for my wife to write her articles. I suggested that we could run illustrations, and not photos with some of her articles. We could also freely use attractions posters. If the only posters available were faded, or damaged scans then I could recreate them.

I could also recreate things like aerial maps, and even make up my own posters as part of the articles. For example when my wife wanted to write about the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland I offered to create graphics for her. This attraction existed partly in the same place that the Big Thunder Mountain coaster sits today. Part of it also fell in an area now occupied by Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. So for her article I did a variation of the original attraction poster, and created a map for guests to visualize how large the attraction really was. I also found some concept art by Marc Davis, and turned it into an animated gif. All of these things were fair use.

The missus then wanted to write about the Skyway which existed in Disneyland many years ago. The buckets actually travelled through the center of the Matterhorn mountain. My brothers, and I had wonderful memories of this ride. So I recreated the poster for the attraction, and colorized some black and white images from the Disney archives. After that she wanted to do an article on the various changes to Tomorrowland. So I set about creating my own posters to highlight some of the rides from that era. These included the Monorail, Submarine Voyage, Rocket Jets, People Mover, Adventure Through Inner Space, and Rocket Rods. It was a great way to share history, without stepping on any toes.

All of the design work helped keep my illustration abilities sharp over the months, and allowed my wife the freedom to write about her favorite topics. It was a genuine win-win. Did you ever hear about a dubious legal action that hurt your favorite outlets? Tell me about it in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can sponsor me directly on Patreon. Or like and subscribe to my videos on YouTube. You can even subscribe to the Pink Monorail Podcast featuring my wife, and myself. 

 

Bookmark This Page; the hype, and crash of Garou Mark of the Wolves

If you love SNK fighting games, and want to find out how hyped I was about the return of the Garou series, and then ultimately disappointed then Bookmark This Page.

Garou Mark of the Wolves 2, the return of a legendary series.

Garou Mark of the Wolves, the manhua part 1

Garou Mark of the Wolves, the manhua part 2

Fatal Fury City of the Wolves, what we know about the Garou sequel...

Fatal Fury City of Wolves, a new game system, and new character revealed!

Garou Mark of the Wolves, how some characters evolved from concept art

The return of a wrestling icon in Fatal Fury City of Wolves

Mai Shiranui returns in Fatal Fury the City of the Wolves…

Why I'm not talking about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Did you ever play the original Garou Mark of the Wolves, or any game in the Fatal Fury series? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Pink Monorail Manufacturing the Magic Ep 27: Disney’s New Tomorrowland

Heya friends, I spent the summer of 2025 recharging my creative batteries, and working on side projects. One of which was to continue the podcast series featuring the missus. This podcast is designed for Disney fans, amusement park visitors, and history buffs. You’ll learn the roots of the multi-billion dollar theme park industry from ancient history all the way to today. The missus, and I worked hard putting these episodes together through 2024, until we had a family emergency and had to stop working on it for 7 months. We are back on it through 2026. Click on the picture or link to visit our streaming page hosted on Jim Hill Media. I hope you get a chance to listen, subscribe, and leave a review so we can climb the theme park podcast rankings!

The Pink Monorail Podcast Manufacturing the Magic Ep 27: Disney’s New Tomorrowland In the 27th installment of this educational series, Shelly and Noe Valladolid return to Anaheim. Where, during the mid-1960s, the Imagineers reimagined one side of Disneyland and added an attraction that has been a fan favorite for nearly 60 years now 

Over the course of this episode, listeners will learn about: 

• What three attractions were NOT affected by the closure and re-opening of Tomorrowland? 
• Which Disneyland attraction was originally supposed to be a wax museum? 
• How did Alice Davis prevent “Pirates of the Caribbean” from opening late? 
• What did Disney mean by “ … a world on the move? 
• Which iconic car model influenced the 1967 Tomorrowland Autopia cars? 

Are there any current or former theme parks, or attractions that you love? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My Rad Monster, or the story of a banned sneaker design...

Heya friends, I hope that you are doing well. I did some art recently that lead me down a history tangent. If you are familiar with my blog then you know that I am a huge fan of sneakers, and sneaker culture. With that said it isn’t easy being a sneaker freak. Not because there are too many options, but because I am tall, and have a big shoe size. Most sneaker companies only make shoes up to size 13 or 14. Anything above that wouldn’t be cost effective for them. There is no doubt that I would have had a massive sneaker collection if I were a smaller person. Because of that I collected sneaker magazines from Japan. I could only appreciate their designs, and long for shoes in my size. When I started working I didn’t spend too much money on shoes, Instead I focused on art toys, magazines, game books, and comics. Like many sneaker fans I have certain shoes that I wish I had. At the top of most collectors lists are things like the movie accurate Back to the Future II Nike Hyperdunks. Also from the movie Aliens the Alien Stompers from Reebok worn by Sigourney Weaver were peak hi-top fashion. I’d love to have those boots in my size. Aside from that I actually had regular sneakers are on my grail list.

I’m a huge fan of clean, and classic designs. Movie sneakers not withstanding there were two types of shoes that I wish I had in my collection. The first pair were nothing fancy, and didn’t have people camping outside of the sneaker shop days in advance. Nike released a design called the Sweet Lew around 1995. The name was more than likely based on Lew Alcindor the birth name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It was a retro-styled sneaker that was a nod to the classic Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers. It was interesting that almost a decade later Nike would actually buy their competition at Converse. I was absolutely smitten with the look of the Sweet Lew. The black version especially oozed style. In my eyes it was a peak example of classic fashion. Then there was the opposite end of the spectrum that appealed to me. There was the pair that could be considered closer to high art. It was the only artist collaboration that I wish I owned, or had actually came out. It was not a pair designed by Michael Lau, The Godfather or Urban Vinyl. Designer Jeremy Scott created a pair for Adidas. These hi-tops featured gray stripes, and purple nubuck. The standout features were plastic orange chains, and ankle cuffs. I just about lost my mind the second that I saw them back in 2012.

I instantly recognized the inspiration behind the sneakers. These Adidas shoes were an homage to the toy line from the ‘80s called My Pet Monster. American Greetings were known mainly for their plush figures which could be located in the greeting card aisle of any store. Their most successful line were the Care Bears. The company recognized that there was an untapped potential for stuffed toys for boys. Rather than make a manly Care Bear they invented an entirely different line that would appeal to the rough and tumble, and sometimes gross world of boys. Around 1986 they introduced us to a large plush character with dark blue, and purple fur, massive teeth, and orange handcuffs. The cuffs had a breakaway action, and were large enough for kids to wear as well. I thought it was a phenomenal toy back then, and still think it was one of the greatest toys ever made. I never owned one of the Pet Monsters, and I could have if I had asked my parents for one. It was an expensive figure back in the day, and mint editions go for hundreds today, if not a thousand if they are in the box. With both of my parents working it could have been a birthday or Christmas present.

Yet when the figure came out I was getting older, and I knew that I had to be selective with my present requests. So a BMX bike was at the top of the list, followed by monster truck toys of all sorts. I got the bike, and over the years I was gifted some amazing Hot Wheels, and monster truck toys. I gave away my bikes, and most of my Hot Wheels to my younger cousins. I held onto a few monster truck things, until a storm destroyed my magazine collection. On the blog I talked about losing my monster collection, and spending more than a decade getting it back. During that time I never forgot about how cool the My Pet Monster toy was. When the collaboration with Jeremy Scott was announced I was super hyped. Even if they didn’t make the sneakers in my size I wanted to buy a pair just to have, and appreciate. It joined my love of the toys, and sneakers. To me it would have been an art piece. Sadly the project was cancelled because critics said that the ankle cuffs were akin to slave chains. They didn’t even ask the artist what the influence was, they just ran with the narrative that he was mocking Black culture. It was the dumbest possible take, but it got the press, and public to force Adidas to cancel the project. I would forever be mad about it.

The entire reason I started thinking about those sneakers from years ago was because I had been watching YouTube videos on retro toy collectors. Several of them would feature rare Monster figures on their channel. Watching them do the toy hunting rekindled my love of the character. I began thinking about what I would do with the Monster if I were to reboot the line, or do a collaboration. The first thing I immediately thought of was making a skate version of the monster. So I came up with an ink drawing called My Rad Monster. It was essentially the classic toy holding a skateboard. Then I began thinking about how my version would be a different color, and even have different accessories. I’d give my version a helmet, torn sneakers, and put the cuffs on his ankles instead of his wrists as a nod to Jeremy Scott. I’d even give him an open mouth with a green tongue. The original version had a closed mouth.

My first illustrated version had bold flat colors. It looked very much like the graphics we would have seen in the late ‘80s / early ‘90s. It had no highlights, shadows or anything else. It looked good to me, but I thought it didn’t really capture the feel of a fuzzy plush figure. So I went and did an updated version with more of a fur look to it. I made his eyes a little bit bigger as well to make him look more cartoonish. I even used my rainbow checkered skateboard that I had created for a different retro illustration. I think it did a better job of looking like the kind of toy that would have hit in the ‘80s. What do you think?

If I had lots of money I’d commission a toy maker to build me a figure. At least my illustration captures the heart of what I wanted to see in a reboot. I’d like to know if there was a toy from your childhood that you always wanted but never got. Would you collect it today if you could, or would you rather reboot it? Tell me about it in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can sponsor me directly on Patreon. Or like and subscribe to my videos on YouTube. You can even subscribe to the Pink Monorail Podcast featuring my wife, and myself. 

 

Bookmark This Page; The roots of street basketball, and freestyle culture

I like basketball, and I especially love street aka playground basketball. If you want a history on the legends then Bookmark This Page.

Streetball: The Big Picture, Part 1 - A 1UP classic from May 26, 2005

Streetball: The Big Picture, Part 2 - A 1UP classic from May 27, 2005

Streetball: The Big Picture, Part 3 - A 1UP classic from May 29, 2005

Streetball: The Big Picture, Part 4 - A 1UP classic from May 30, 2005

How freestyle became high profile - A 1UP classic from January 8, 2009

Who do you think you are? The Abbas Farid interview - A 1UP classic from January 9, 2009

The Best There Ever Was, Part 1 - A 1UP classic from March 10, 2005

The Best There Ever Was, Part 2 - A 1UP classic from March 15, 2005

The Best There Ever Was, Part 3 - A 1UP classic from March 16, 2005

Were you a fan of basketball, or freestyle culture? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Pink Monorail Manufacturing the Magic Ep 26: The Beginnings of Busch Gardens

Heya friends, I spent the summer of 2025 recharging my creative batteries, and working on side projects. One of which was to continue the podcast series featuring the missus. This podcast is designed for Disney fans, amusement park visitors, and history buffs. You’ll learn the roots of the multi-billion dollar theme park industry from ancient history all the way to today. The missus, and I worked hard putting these episodes together through 2024, until we had a family emergency and had to stop working on it for 7 months. We are back on it through 2026. Click on the picture or link to visit our streaming page hosted on Jim Hill Media. I hope you get a chance to listen, subscribe, and leave a review so we can climb the theme park podcast rankings!

The Pink Monorail Podcast Manufacturing the Magic Ep 26: The Beginnings of Busch Gardens In the 26th installment of this educational series, Shelly & Noe Valladolid takes us back to Tampa, Florida in 1959. Which is where a bird sanctuary built next to a brewery hospitality center eventually turned into thrill ride central. 

Over the course of this episode, listeners will learn about: 

• Where was the first Busch Gardens located? 
• How did Busch Gardens in Tampa react to the opening of Walt Disney World? 
• What happened to the wooden coaster Gwazi? 
• What American dynasty backed Colonial Williamsburg? 
• What became of Busch Gardens Houston’s Orient Express railroad? 

Are there any current or former theme parks, or attractions that you love? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Oswald cards come home, or why I really hate scalpers!

In the previous blog I talked about the cards that were given away during the D23 Expo in Anaheim this summer. I mentioned how I would likely never open the cards that my friend Erin gifted me. That was until another friend reached out with a free pack as well. My family knew Jeff from the Disney community for years, and years. He went to the presentations in the Honda Center with his friend Darren, who was actually visiting from the UK. Darren didn’t care for Oswald, and gave Jeff his pack. Jeff said he would find a good home for it, and reached out to gift me the pack.

He said the scalpers were acting like complete idiots after the show. He said there were boxes at the exits, with employees saying please only take one, but people were grabbing handfuls, and walking out. Then they would circle around to the next exit and grab more. Literally kicking the empty boxes over in the lobby. They left hundreds of attendees without cards. To add insult to injury these people were walking around the parking lot trying to sell these freebies for $50 each.

I didn’t care much for scalpers, and resellers, and had even less respect for them after hearing similar stories. I told Jeff that If I opened the packs that I would scan the cards, and share them for the fans that couldn’t get to the D23. I said the most important part was the QR code. Once you had that it would load a SnapChat filter or webpage that they could visit. Then all you had to do was point your phone at the cards to see the animations. So if you had a computer monitor then you would still be able to see the effect. I decided to open the packs so that I could share them here.

The animations were very clever loops. Oswald danced around in front of a Disneyland landmark. The song playing in the background was a jazz standard from over 100 years ago called “I’ve Found A New Baby.” According to Wikipedia the song was written in 1926 by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams, and first performed by Clarence Williams' Blue Five. Yet there was a recording from 1925 by Ethel Waters, so I’m not sure who to believe. Either way it was a great detail. Oswald was created in 1927 so the music was period appropriate.

The two packs that I got only had only two repeat cards. Which meant that I managed to get six out of the ten possible cards. I was going to gift my doubles to the kid of my friend. He was also a big Oswald fan. I planned on waiting for the remaining four to show up on eBay. Or if someone was selling a pack for not a lot then I would get it. I was very good at waiting out scalpers, and hunting for a deal. Even if it took me years I would collect the set without breaking the bank. In the meantime I would like to share the ones I got. Open this blog up on your computer, scan the QR code with your phone, and scroll over the cards to see the animations. I hope that you enjoy them.

In the meantime I was able to find some good pictures on Reddit that I could use on the blog. Based on the people trying to trade for cards online it seems that the four missing cards for me also happen to be the four most rare cards. Of these cards the Indiana Jones temple is the more common. Less common than that is the Monstro the Whale card. The second most rare card appeared to be Oswald stuck in a popcorn cart.

The rarest card based on the demand seems to be Oswald dancing on top of the Golden Horseshoe Saloon sign. I’d like to know if you ever had to deal with scalpers to get something that you wanted in your collection.

Tell me about the rarest thing that you had to search for in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can sponsor me directly on Patreon. Or like and subscribe to my videos on YouTube. You can even subscribe to the Pink Monorail Podcast featuring my wife, and myself. 

 

Bookmark This Page; Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters. The Capcom wrestling games deep dive.

Did you know that Capcom had a wrestling canon that was connected to the Street Fighter universe? If you want to learn how the creator of an influential manga built this world then Bookmark This Page.

Muscle Bomber - the Capcom wrestling series, part 1

Muscle Bomber - the Capcom wrestling series, part 2

Muscle Bomber - the Capcom wrestling series, part 3

Did you ever play any of the Saturday Night Slam Masters games in the arcade or home console? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Oswald gets an exclusive trading card set thanks to D23

Hello friends, I hope that you have been doing well. I’ve been on an Oswald kick all year long, especially as we are rolling into his 100th birthday. One of the things that I had been searching for was any footage or news on the television show that was announced for Disney+. I talked about the cancelled cartoon a couple of times on the blog, and the long development cycle for the live action show. The first public reveal for the new series happened during the D23 Disney Community event in Anaheim this past August 14-16, 2026. Director Jon Favreau said he was doing the reveal early because the next D23 event would have passed after the TV show had already come out. I watched the panel as it was streamed online.

To celebrate the reveal Mr. Favreau announced that all of the attendees in the arena would receive a free pack of trading cards. These had special AR features that you could activate with your phone. They showed Oswald interacting with several of the iconic locations within Disneyland. When I saw this I lost my mind. My family hadn’t attended a D23 event in more than a decade. Tickets were prohibitively expensive, just as going to Disneyland had become. My family was pretty much priced out of going anywhere near Anaheim. We used to cover the convention for the press, but it had been a long time since we could apply for that. With that said I needed to track down the cards for my collection. I jumped online to see if anyone was selling them on eBay. 

Unfortunately they were, and they were asking insane prices for the free cards. Packs quickly jumped from $40 for a set of 4 cards to $50 for a single card. Eventually they started asking $300 or more for a single pack. There were thousands of people that attended the show, with possibly 20,000 packs or more given away that night. The fact that a handful of them turned into scalpers wasn’t a surprise. Flippers had ruined just about every collector community in recent years, especially the trading card community. Original Paradigms did a YouTube video talking about how sneaker resellers went broke with their absurd levels of greed. With the Oswald cards in mind he did a separate video on how scalpers and resellers had ruined everything.

Mind you that I was a prolific collector of many things. Toys, comics, and magazines included. I had a large collection not because I was rich, but because I was diligent. I had a tight budget (often less than $50 a month), and stuck to it. It sometimes took me months to save up enough for a single purchase. I would keep an eye on rare items on eBay, and international shops. Sometimes I would wait years, if not decades until I could justify a purchase. For example I waited 36 years to buy a toy that I had always wanted.

Even when I had the money I needed to justify it to myself. There was no way that I could defend  hundreds of dollars for essentially free cards. As much as I loved Oswald, and as great the cards would be in my collection I simply couldn’t afford the ridiculous markup. I knew that I had friends, and contacts in the Disney community that I could reach out to. So I asked on social media if anybody had a lead on the cards. I was willing to pay a reasonable price for some cards. Right away a friend that had attended the convention reached out. I had known Erin from the days of the 1UP community. This was about 20 years ago. She moved on to work at many big companies over the years. She was always super-cool, and we remained friends online. She was happy to give me the cards, adding that the pack was in better hands with me. A couple day later it arrived. I was so happy with the gift that I drew a thank you illustration for her.

I don’t think I’ll ever open this pack as it meant too much to me. Perhaps in a year or so I might be able to get all the cards online for cheap. If Disneyland ever sells the cards in the future then I’ll be glad they destroyed the resale market. I was grateful to Erin, and wanted to share this story on the blog. I was blessed that a lot of my friends actually reached out to their contacts as well in a hunt for the cards. I hoped that there were people in your life that were as generous. I’d like to know if a friend ever did something very kind for you, how did you thank them? Tell me about it in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can sponsor me directly on Patreon. Or like and subscribe to my videos on YouTube. You can even subscribe to the Pink Monorail Podcast featuring my wife, and myself.