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. 

 

Some of my favorite Disney illustrations from 2026

Hello friends, I hope the year has been good for you. When I last posted I was getting out of my art block because I was doing some pieces featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Here’s a continuation of those pieces, including a rare drawing featuring both Oswald and Mickey.

I had an idea about putting Mickey in a race car, and having Oswald be his mechanic. I put Oswald in the uniform from his Service Station which was featured at Disney’s California Adventure. This was the sister park across from Disneyland in Anaheim.

The thing I love about working in Adobe Illustrator is that I can adjust colors, and gradients easily, and separate the characters so that I can place them exactly where I want to. This worked for me much easier than painting in different layers in Photoshop. For example here was how Oswald actually looked while standing behind Mickey’s race car.

After doing an Oswald and Mickey drawing I got an idea for another one. I was wondering how they would have gotten along as kids. I imagined Oswald was the big brother even though he was only a year older he took his job seriously. He decided he would show Mickey the ropes. One day he took him to the old fishing hole where they saw a giant butterfly along the way. One of these days I'd like to do a children's book featuring the two visiting Disneyland.

Since the summer had wound down I was in the mood for the holidays. Of course I started with the most important fall event. I wanted to do a witchy Minnie, but not with the pointy cap, or cape like she would wear in the official Disney art. So I went with her classic bow, and dress, but moons, and stars instead of polka dots. I think my version worked very well. What do you think?

As long as I was putting Minnie in costumes I had an idea for a game. One of my favorite Genesis games was Valis III. It was one of the rare anime games translated for the US. I was wondering how it would be to reboot the franchise, but swap out Minnie, and make her the fantasy warrior. I could almost see it now! Have you ever done any Disney fan art? 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; Street Fighter 6 is a master class in game design

Street Fighter 6 was a revelation when it was released in 2023. My deep dive on the game almost sent me to the hospital. If you want to find out why I called it a master class in game design then Bookmark This Page.

The Street Fighter 6 master class index

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 1

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 2

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 3

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 4

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 5

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 6

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 7

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 8

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 9

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 10

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 11

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 12

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 13

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 14

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 15

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 16

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 17

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 18

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 19

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 20

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 21

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 22

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 23

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 24

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 25

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 26

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 27

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 28

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 29

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 30

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 31

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, final part

What was your impression of Street Fighter 6, was it the best game in the series or not? 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!

Skeletons, Disney, and Oswald break me out of my art block

Hello friends, I managed to get some more art pieces done in ink, and even illustrator. The going is slow, but I feel good after each piece in the sketchbook. I started with the reliable skeleton drawing, but this time switched it up to a surfer, instead of a skateboarder. I think it came our very well.

I shared a number of my illustrations on Reddit. I had never really used that site before, but decided to post my drawings there, as well as on DevianArt. I was surprised with how responsive the community was to my art. I dug up my old skate skeleton drawings there as well, and got a huge response. It was very affirming to hear the words of positivity. I had a few people reach out asking about a commussion or art trade, but I had to decline. I am very sporadic with my drawings. I can literally go years without touching my sketchbook. So I never want to commit to something unless I really am passionate about it. I did promise one Redditor a drawing from my sketchbook because he asked very kindly. The one doing an ollie over the slippery signs below is what I sent out. 

Skating skeletons were always a surefire way to get me to draw. I even found time to do one of the old Neversoft eyeball monster from the Tony Hawk video games. A lot of people were commenting on how great my art would be on a tee shirt. A few even said that I would make a sick tattoo artist. That was high praise, but I think I'm too old to start tattooing. With that said one person did reach out and ask if I could design a tattoo for him. I messaged that I never did commissions or requests. However the idea of designing a tattoo did catch my attention. The person asked for a skull and skate crossbones, similar to the old Four Star / Crailtap logo, but in the Vernon Courtlandt Johnson style. I said that sounded like a request right up my alley. I accepted the request and came up with this drawing. Do you think this would make for a good tattoo?

Then I got into a Disney rhythm, and did a drawing of one of my favorite classic characters. I love Horace Horsecollar. He is one of a handful of characters that I would give a team to in a Disney Sports Soccer reboot. I could just imagine him having different galloping animations each time he scores a goal in the game. I’d give a team to Oswald of course, or possibly have Oswald and Horace on the same team. I’d give a team to Ian the ghost from Epic Mickey. I’d also have Panchito Pistolas be a hidden character, and the hidden team would be the Three Caballeros. It would feature Donald Duck, Jose Carioca, and Panchito.

Once I was in the rhythm of drawing I was able to crank out two illustrations on back-to-back days. Three years ago I did a piece celebrating Oswald’s 98th birthday. Then I wanted to do one for his 99th, and 100th. The first cartoon that was finished featuring Oswald was “Poor Papa.” This was a lost cartoon that was rediscovered in 2016, and a special concert was put together to celebrate the discovery. I talked about it previously on this blog.

Unfortunately the cartoon wasn’t enjoyed by the Universal Studios Producers Mintz, and Winkler, so Walt Disney went back to the drawing board. The first cartoon that was actually released in theaters was Trolley Troubles in 1927. I did a version of that Oswald for the 99th Birthday. Then I wanted to do something special for his 100th birthday. I wanted to include three historically important rabbits to be celebrating with him. Bugs Bunny was the first choice. Bugs debuted in 1940. The second would be Roger Rabbit, whose film came out in 1988, but was based on a story from 1981. I was on the fence for who would be the third character. I didn’t think Rabbit from Winnie the Poo was big on celebrations. I thought Max from Sam & Max would be too chaotic. I wanted another classic character. Bre’er Rabbit from the 1946 film Song of the South was my choice. Unfortunately he was tied to a culturally insensitive film by Disney.

Just about any trace of the characters from Song of the South had been scrubbed from Disney history, these included the parks. I decided he should still be a part of the celebration. In my book these classic characters should always be remembered. I’m grateful that the global community never forgot Oswald. After a century he was finally getting the spotlight that had been taken from him. I’m certain Walt would be happy to know how beloved the character was. I’d like to know if you had a favorite character, and if you created any art to celebrate 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. 

 

The cancelled Oswald cartoon show, and the cameo in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Heya friends, I just wanted to talk a little bit about my favorite cartoon character today. As you may know I am referring to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He’s been on my mind a lot recently. In addition to doing some illustrations featuring the character I began thinking about the projects that could have been. Like another entry in the Epic Mickey series, which was sadly cancelled by Disney. Warren Spector, and the team at Junction Point deserved much more support from the parent company. Great games take time to create, they aren’t anything at all like animated films, or live action projects. They require a unique set of skills, and the right kind of leadership.

They only thing that breaks my heart more than a cancelled game featuring Oswald was the cancellation of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon show. I had actually talked a little bit about this show way back in 2025. This cartoon series was scheduled to debut on Disney+ in December 2021, but was postponed several times. It was eventually cancelled. A live action show produced by Jon Favreau was announced for 2025, but got pushed back to 2026, and eventually 2027.

A ton of art was revealed about the project while it was still in development. I thought it was very interesting that Oswald was wearing the single strap similar to his redesign by Universal Studios in the late ‘90s. A couple of drafts were proposed, the suspender was cut, and eventually he appeared very similar to the way he did in Epic Mickey.

Various locations were proposed for the series, including his service station. This was based on the service station that actually exists in Disney’s California Adventure. The sister park to Disneyland in Anaheim. A good portion of the first merchandise available in the USA featuring Oswald was exclusive to the service station.

The big city that Oswald would eventually find himself at was Coneyopolis. It was an Art Deco metropolis-meets-Coney Island. Which would have been very appropriate for the era that he was created in. Walt Disney, and his brother Roy founded their studio in Hollywood during the peak of the Roaring 20’s. Oswald made his debut for Universal Studios in 1927, and a year later Walt lost the rights, and created Mickey Mouse for his own company. Thankfully he was successful, and the rights to the rabbit eventually ended up with Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker. Disney, and Lantz were friends, and he was grateful that he kept the rabbit around in his cartoons, and comics through the ‘50s.

The animation concept art featured all sorts of locations, vehicles, allies, and villains as well. It was a shame that we wouldn’t get a proper cartoon from Disney’s original animated star. Animation fans had been hoping that the success of the Oswald live action show might lead to the studio revisiting an animated series. The only downside is that most of the animators that were at Disney were let go, or went to different studios after the project was cancelled. So in typical form Disney would have to start from scratch. You would imagine how losing key animators, and storytellers, and starting with inexperienced team members wouldn’t make for a better project. But I digress…

Oswald did manage to turn up in a few game cameos. One of the better ones in the past few years was Disney Dreamlight Valley. The MMO was released in September 2022. The game allowed players to meet characters from across the massive library of Disney films. As with other MMO’s the players were tasked with missions all over the game universe. They could customize their own avatar, and could collect items to build their homes.

Oswald had an amazing design. The rabbit model was designed by Francois Bouquet. He was small, and round, with shapes even more pronounced than the original designs by Ubbe Iwerks, or the modern designs of Eric Goldberg. He was also filled with tons of classic animation gags, the kind you would expect to see in a rubber-hose style of character. In the initial encounters he didn’t speak, which was the way I preferred for the character to be. This meant that he had to do a lot of pantomime in order to communicate. Eventually you could unlock his voice so you could finally clearly understand him. Even then he spoke with a lot of 1920’s slang.

Players could complete side missions in order to unlock his home. A theater popped up out of the ground, with Oswald’s name in the marquee. The inside was actually a very classy jazz club. There were tables, and a coffee bar. There was even a stage with an old-timey microphone. Seeing this building made me wish for the days of classic toy playsets. I’d buy Oswald’s home, and an Oswald figure to go with it in a heartbeat. At the very least the design by Mr. Bouquet definitely deserved to be recreated in physical form. That’s about all I wanted to talk about today. I’d like to know if there was a cancelled film, cartoon, or game that you wish had come out. 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 best of Capcom-Unity, and Street Fighter manga

I miss the old Capcom-Unity live events. If you want to see some of the best stuff I posted on the old site then Bookmark This Page.

Street Fight Club: Special Weekend Posting!!! - A 1UP classic from July 19, 2008

The Street Fighter X Tekken Event Coverage! - A 1UP classic from March 2, 2012

The Street Fighter 6 Original Soundtrack Release Event

Another Rufus blog... A 1UP classic from May 15, 2008

Bengus, the Vampire Savior - A 1UP classic from May 9, 2008

Ryu Final, the real Street Fighter III and IV - A 1UP classic from January 30, 2008

Ryu Final, the real Street Fighter III and IV, part 2 - A 1UP classic from January 31, 2008

Were you a member of Capcom-Unity? 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!

Fan art for NiGHTS into dreams... 30th Anniversary

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. In the past few blogs I talked about working through my art block. Drawing skateboarding skeletons, led to drawing Disney characters, led to drawing Disney illustrations for news articles. The next thing that I drew was in celebration of my favorite game of all-time. NiGHTS into dreams… for the Sega Saturn was celebrating its 30th anniversary on July 5, 2026. I was so happy to grow old with the character that I had to create an illustration on the day.

That drawing lead to a lot of new people following me on Bluesky, and even a few more reading the blog. I did an updated version of my Metal NiGHTS illustration featuring all the robot characters that I had created previously. I shared this illustration that day too. It made a lot of fans happy. It made me start thinking that I had to create the missing Nightmaren bosses in robot form; Puffy, Clawz, and Gillwing. I might eventually get around to them, and share them here.

The last thing that I shared on the anniversary was a photo. It was the first time I actually spread out the items that I had been collecting over the past three decades. I didn’t include the comics, games, plush, or my wedding ring in the photo, but you could tell that this game, and especially this character meant a lot to me. The massive NiGHTS object on the right side was actually a pillowcase. It was an early present from my wife after we got married. It is a super rare item for collectors. It hardly comes up in US or even Japanese auctions, the fact that she got one absolutely blew me away.

My art block was improving little by little. My love of skateboarding, Disney, and NiGHTS were helping me break the cycle. I’d like to know if there was anything that inspired you to create art. 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. 

 

Disney characters help me break our of my art block

Hello friends, in the previous blog I talked about how I’ve been working through summer of 2026 to break out of my mental block regarding drawing. I like to draw but am very hard on myself. To help get me out of the cycle of avoidance I forced myself to do sketches, the ink them. The ideas that I could draw no matter how I felt were skateboarding skeletons. Growing up in the 1980’s these were subjects burned into my brain. The best skeletons came from the pen of Vernon Courtlandt Johnson. After four days, and four drawings in a row my friend Ralph asked for a skater doing an Indy Nosebone. Rather than another skeleton I did one featuring Mickey Mouse.

I played Disney Sports Skateboarding but it wasn’t really that good. With that said I still unlocked everything in the game for the GameCube. I didn’t enjoy it near as much as I play Grind Session, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on the Playstation. With that said the Disney characters in a skate game was a great idea. The levels were memorable, and special moves truly unique. The control wasn’t there, but the character models were amazing. I used Mickey’s costume when creating my piece.

As long as I was at it I did another Disney drawing. This time featuring Chip and Dale. The chipmunks actually appeared in Disney Sports Snowboarding for the Game Boy Advance. The duo were capable of performing all sorts of tricks on the snowboard. They were spaced apart as if they were the boots on a snowboard. It was a clever mechanic. I wondered how they would have appeared if they were in the GameCube game instead. I’m sure they would have been a blast to play. I was in a full Disney mood at this point, so I decided to draw a very rare character just vibing. Ferdinand the Bull was an Academy Award winning movie from 1938. It was a lovely story about self acceptance. There are some days where I just want to sit under the shade of a cork tree and smell the flowers too.

With a few days of drawing under my belt I decided to go for a color illustration. Still in a Disney mood I did a piece in time for the 4th of July. The 250th anniversary of the USA was a bit of a let down, but that didn’t stop me from putting forward something patriotic. I don’t draw Oswald nearly enough, but this one with Ortensia came out kind of cute. If you are a regular on the blog then you know that I am the co-host on the Pink Monorail podcast. The missus is a theme park historian, and she was doing a write up on The Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland. This was an attraction at Disneyland that was eventually turned into Big Thunder Mountain, and the remaining land became Star War’s Galaxy’s Edge many years later.

Over the past few years some unscrupulous people have been suing the various Disney Fan sites claiming that the photographs they were using were their property. So unless you could prove you took the picture, or used a photo from the Disney press people then it was hard to get any story posted. Especially for retro attractions. So the missus asked me to create illustrations that she could run that wouldn’t step on any toes. I did a few for her write up. One of which was based on the original attraction poster.

I’m actually in the process of creating other illustrations for future articles. It’s a great exercise to create art for her that keeps me engaged. I’d like to know if you had ever drawn anything from a favorite game, or in this case Disney attraction. 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.