Ep. 735: Disneyland's 70th, Star Wars Beastiary, collecting Disney
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You're listening to Mousetalgia for the week of Monday, January 13, 2025. Hang on to them hats and glasses, because this here is the wildest podcast in the wilderness. This is Mousetalgia. Carpe Kingdom, seize the magic.

Welcome to Mousetail, to your podcast about Disneyland, Disney history, and living the Disney life. My name is Jeff.

Welcome to the show this week. I want to start by not forgetting to mention that we are sponsored, as we always are, by MEI, Mouse Fan Travel. So if you are planning any kind of Disney anything and you just need to get away or you want to take a Disney vacation to the East Coast or stay here on the West Coast or come to the West Coast, if you're on the East Coast or go take a Disney cruise or venture by Disney, any Disney kind of vacation, go to mousefanchravel.com. Get yourself a no-obligation quote and see what they can do for you. Mousefantravel.com.

Okay. We're not gonna have a charcuterie or anything this week. I did want to briefly mention, um, something of concern to all of us and something of significance. And this is of course, the Palisades fire down in Los Angeles. There's a bunch of wildfires actually right now. Currently, I think there's four, four of them burning. Um,

In fact, right now, I'm at home. It's Thursday night. I'm recording because I was supposed to be in San Francisco at the Walt Disney Family Museum for a Moana screening and panel discussion with the directors and some of the art, some of the people associated with the

of this film, but they did not come because of the fire, right? Fires are really affecting a lot of people right now, and especially a lot of people in the Disney community. Disneyland is not really at threat of these fires that are powered by the Santa Ana winds down there in the hilly kind of desert area of Los Angeles. But that's not desert area. It's, you know, Los Angeles has been converted into quite an amazing suburban and urban area

kind of destination, right. But it is kind of a desert climate and, um, Disneyland's not threatened by that, but the production areas of Los Angeles are threatened. And a lot of people associated with the Disney company, um, a lot of celebrities that have worked with Disney, a lot of people that just live down in Los Angeles and are associated in one way or another with the company, uh, you know, work down there and live down there in that area. And, um,

Just our thoughts and my prayers are with these people. You know, this morning I reached out to my buddy Craig and his wife, Julia. You know, I've talked about Craig, my best man. He's a cameraman working down in L.A. And they live in the hills down there, right? And so they fortunately, thank goodness, they're

are safe as of now. The fire did come around them on one side and it was then on the other side, but the Santa Ana winds were dying down a bit by the time the fire made it out towards somewhere near there. And so they, at this point they've been spared right in there.

doing okay. So I'm grateful for that. But a lot of people that work in the industry are struggling. Either they've lost everything or they've lost work, you know, like things have stopped or they have friends that are in peril, like a lot of trauma happening down there right now. And it's, uh,

just something that I wanted to keep in mind. And, you know, we feel for all of our friends down in Los Angeles area. I have a lot of listeners down there, a lot of you down there. I know, even if you're not really in a threatened area, just the, the drama of being so close to and adjacent to something like this. I mean, I can tell you, I was in new Orleans this holiday season, and maybe I'll talk about that more on the doom buggies podcast, but, um, like we, we came home, uh,

a couple of days before there was a kind of a terror event in new Orleans. And we, that was right where we were. And, you know, so it's, it's just weird to be, even if you are not directly threatened by these fires, like if you're adjacent to them or no people affected by them, um,

Or even just watching the news and, you know, this something traumatic like this is happening. It can have a really dramatic effect on your your mood, your personality, your outlook. You know, I didn't ever think I'd really live to see an urban forest fire like it seems like a week that can't happen. We have.

And here we are.

So, um, I just wanted to start the show by saying my thoughts are with all of you out there listening in that have been affected by this, that are in the Los Angeles area that know people affected by this. And I know there's a lot of you that know people affected by this. And I know there's a lot of you out there listening that are in this industry and my thoughts and prayers are with you all. And, um,

You know, I was listening to actor James Woods on the radio a little bit, a little while ago. And, you know, he's the voice of Hades, of course, from Hercules, Disney voice actor. He lost his home. He lost his home in the Palisades fire. And he was just talking about how, you know, they found out it was time to go. And he had time to grab his thyroid medicine and his three Emmy Awards, his Golden Globe, his Oscar nomination plaques.

And it was kind of touching. And he grabbed his Hades maquette.

And he's so proud of that. And he was, you know, it's one of only two, you know, they make the production maquette and they make a copy for the voice actor, I guess. At least that's what they told him. And he had it and he went to, he wanted to save that, right? That was one of the things most important to him. And then he ran back into the house to get a watch that his mother who recently passed away had left him. Other than that, that's all he has left in the world. Like that's all that's left from his home.

at least his home. What he did go on to say more than that is that that's really not important stuff. He realized like what is important is that once they were out and found out their house was gone, he just started getting tens and dozens and hundreds of texts and phone calls. And he just had this recognition that that, that is what's important to him, that there are people that care that he has love and care in the world. And that's much more important than stuff.

which was a refreshing perspective, but so many people have been affected by this. So if you count yourself among those people, and that can be anyone in the country, even that's just watching the news. If you've been affected by this, my thoughts are with you.

And that's all I have to say about that. Right. So we're going to try to turn around a little bit and have a happy episode here. Talk about Disneyland a little bit. Talk about collecting stuff and, you know, our usual nostalgia stuff with the usual nostalgia gang of idiots, which would be myself. And I don't think I want to include Julia in that. But I just wanted to start by saying, like, yeah, this is important. And it's affected a lot of people in this industry. And my thoughts are with you all. Thank you.

Here you leave today to hear a podcast from the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. Nostalgia. Carpe Diem. The Magic. The Magic.

All right, it is super to have Julia here again this week. Julia, thanks for stopping by to help me out with Mastalgia. Well, thanks for having me, Jeff. Of course. Always a pleasure. So I think this week we're going to talk about Disneyland a little bit because that's what we do. And it's Disneyland's 70th birthday this year, so that's always exciting.

So let's start with some Disneyland news. Now, do you have, why don't you walk me through the latest with Disneyland and we'll talk about a few things. I do have things to say about the Haunted Mansion. So what do you got? Well, it looks like for Disneyland's

70th celebration. They are bringing back paint the night, which I know people are very excited about, which is their nighttime parade with lots of dazzling lights and favorite characters. Um,

Wondrous Journeys, their fireworks show, is also coming back. Better Together, Pixar Pals Celebration Parade will be coming to California Adventure. So all things that have already existed. So far, their big announcements for the 70th anniversary is we're doing all our old stuff again. Which, to be fair, is some favorite things. So I would say bringing back Paint the Night...

Is kind of news, even though it is something they did for quite a while. You know, people did like that parade. It was a good enhancement to their Main Street Electrical Parade. So, you know, people were very anxious about replacing that because it was iconic and adored. But people pretty much...

Took to the Paint the Night Parade. Not in any small part due to the Owl City dude. What's his name? The guy who wrote the theme song? I don't know his name other than he's in Owl City. Yeah, he is Owl City. But it really is a good song. Like, it really worked well as a kind of an update to the Electric...

Main Street Electrical Parade. Because you know how sometimes in parades, and I'm not hating on the Christmas Fantasy Parade, whatever it's called, that song 16 times in a row is not... It's very short. Right, yes.

So this song is, you can listen to it the entire length of the parade, not be bored about it. Yeah. And also this song is similar to the Main Street Electrical Parade in the sense that they change it for all the different floats. So the Main Street Electrical Parade

It was even shorter than the Christmas parade, like the fantasy parade. It was like just a little da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. But they were very ingenious to change it for every segment, right? So the Christmas parade is just kind of the same thing over and over again. So, you know, it's a different kind of focus on either one of those parades. All right, so Wondrous Journeys, the fireworks show, is...

Lovely. And then this is all starting on May 16th. The first day of the 70th celebration. That does not mean that they won't have something special on July 17th, but

The length of the celebration is extended beyond. Yeah, I don't know if we care much about July 17th itself yet. They certainly haven't announced anything about that. And Disneyland, other than giving out a button or something, they really don't often...

make the biggest deal out of actual days. They prefer to celebrate years or seasons. You know what I mean? So we'll see what happens with that. Not super concerned about July 17 right now. I will say wondrous journeys. I consider that a firework show, but Disneyland's actual like information source about their 70th anniversary, like their press information says that,

Wander Journeys is back, talks about it, says the show features state-of-the-art projection effects that transform Main Street USA, Sleeping Beauty Castle, It's a Small World, and the Rivers of America. On select nights, the show will be enhanced with fireworks. So I am wondering if that means, like, I can't imagine they will go a summer season.

Mm-hmm. Interesting. Yeah.

You know, they're not going to solve any problems. They can't just point to their press release and say, well, we said it would just be enhanced. Like, this is not an excuse. It's weirdly they chose to write this. Do you know what I'm saying? So...

Like yesterday, my school principal had a state of the school address for the whole campus, which was great. We all listened to her talk. And one of the things she said was, you know, the governor has signed a law. So we're going to be looking at the use of cell phones next year. And we're going to be trying to figure out how social media and your devices work best with your education. So she was trying to basically gently say,

introduce the idea that, you know, you're not going to be able to have your cell phones in school next year because California is going to make that a law. I think a law for schools. So I feel like Disneyland is trying to, like, we might enhance Wonders Journeys with fireworks sometimes. What are they trying to ease us into here? I have...

Yeah.

Okay. So, you know, we'll see. Hopefully they do not skimp on the fireworks for the 70th anniversary. I don't know. You know, and also Disneyland, every 10 years, of course, they celebrate. But, well, every five years they celebrate to some degree. Yeah.

The 10-year marks are fairly significant, although they might be thinking, no, but we got to go with 75 because that's more of a benchmark year. Do you know what I mean? Than 70. So perhaps they are kind of holding off a little bit so that in five years they can really unleash the Kraken. They might be because they're not labeling this as like, because the 50th was the golden, 60th was the diamond, 70th isn't.

labeled with anything. Yeah. Okay. Either way, I'm excited about it. So, you know, on the Disney's press release here, and I think the Parks blog also has some information about the decor. Looks like they're going with a magenta, teal, and royal blue theme, which is cool. Yeah. So kind of like a twist on Disney.

Primary colors. They're like the neon version of primary colors. So their banners, they look pseudo patriotic. Like they kind of have where would be red, it's magenta. And what would be like navy blue is kind of the royal blue. And then instead of white stars, there's gold, little gold sparkles. So that's interesting, right? Disneyland, you know, and I don't know that they really...

If there's any big deal about whether or not they have any patriotism in them or not. But it's interesting that they kind of are using... It looks like they're kind of using a patriotic theme as kind of a basis thematically for their design. Do you know what I mean? Which is interesting, I think. But it's cool colors. They're pretty neat. So kind of standard party colors. But hey, cool.

They're standard because they work. They're fun. Yeah. All right. So I guess the long and short of it is other than a cavalcade, Mickey and friends celebrate happy.

That's a new announcement. Yeah, there's also World of Color Happiness, who we talk about. There's a new World of Color. Okay, and a new World of Color. So those are new things for the 70th. So that's pretty cool. So we'll see. There haven't been a lot of actual, here's new stuff we're announcing yet. Yeah, there's also going to be starting on May 16th.

It says, Walt Disney, A Magical Life. This attraction will feature a cinematic presentation of Walt Disney's journey called

culminating in a visit with Walt in his office, brought to life for the first time ever through the magic of audio animatronic storytelling. And we did talk about this on the Pal-A-Round podcast. So if you all want to go check that out, we did kind of discuss this. I guess I haven't actually addressed this on Mousetail Show, so maybe I should. The Walt Disney Family Museum actually did come out and present

a statement from at least some of Walt's family. Right. So, um, it's interesting if you're at all in social media, you know, that, um, Walt's granddaughter, Joanna Miller has been pretty vocally against this whole, um,

you know, Walt Disney as an audio animatronic. And it's pretty, I would say obvious if you knew Diane Disney Miller and heard her talk a lot, she probably would have not been very supportive of this herself, but Ron and Diane had passed away for a while. And the grandchildren that are associated with the museum board, they are supportive of this project. So let me just read quickly the,

what the Walt Disney Family Museum has said officially about the Walt Disney Audio Animatronic figure. So they have said, the Walt Disney Family Museum would like to express our support and admiration for the work that the Walt Disney Company is doing to create an audio animatronics figure of Walt Disney as announced at the D23 Ultimate Disney Fan Event in August 2024. They did not include presented by Visa, which... Oh, man. But that's all right. What an oversight. If I had known, I didn't have to do that. Oh, man. Yeah.

Okay. Would have saved a good millisecond. Let's get back to the press release. The Disneyland and Imagineering teams invited members of the museum's board, which includes five of Walt Disney's grandchildren and three of his great-grandchildren, to view the current progress of the project in July 2023. So almost like a year and a half ago, they saw what was going on.

They say, So then...

Another grandchild chimes in. So the addition of the auto animatronics figure of our grandfather to the park's attractions complements and enhances the museum's mission to educate people about who he was, added Tamara Miller, Walt Disney's granddaughter and vice president of the museum's board of directors.

We believe that our grandfather would have been enthusiastic about the project and fascinated by the advancements of the audio animatronics technology that was first developed during his days at WED, now Imagineering, a technology that he was always passionate about, as evidenced by great moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Enchanted Tiki Room.

A little bit more. So now the museum says, for over a decade, the Walt Disney Company and the Walt Disney Family Museum have been collaborating on various projects. The company has been endlessly generous in providing the museum with historical information, loaned objects, and support for our initiatives. And the museum team has been pleased to be able to provide the company with research, visual assets, and loans for exhibitions. We are deeply grateful for our collaborative relationship, said Executive Director Kirsten Komoroski.

We are enthusiastic about and grateful for the company's efforts to create this exciting new attraction that will allow people to experience Walt Disney, the man behind the magic. Okay, so they almost, they don't quite, but they almost come right out at the end there and say, basically, we are all in a big, friendly, collaborative relationship. So of course, we're not going to say anything but how excited we are about this project. Like, they don't quite say that.

But it kind of feels that way, which is fine. I mean, my opinion, which is just my opinion, we all have opinions and this is mine, is that, of course, Walt Disney would think this is cool. He might be embarrassed by it and turn it down out of a sense of, like, I'm just a guy that does this stuff. We don't have these things about me. He might be, but he was definitely not...

a shame to get up there and be on TV every single week. Like he knew people wanted to hear what he had to say. Yeah. Yeah. So it's hard to say, but I do not think he would be mortified about the idea, you know, looking back at what's going on here. He certainly had great admiration for Mr. Lincoln. And that's part of the reason he chose him to be one of the first great audio animatronic projects. So I, it's interesting. I get it that, um,

Some of his family members, including his daughter, probably thought like you can't like this is not how you memorialize. Yeah, that's why she made the museum. Right. Yeah. Didn't she say like she was always asked why she didn't write like the ultimate biography about her dad. And she said, well, my book is the museum. So, yeah.

I mean, she did write a biography about her dad. She did, but it wasn't. Yeah. It's not what she hoped. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, okay. So, at any rate, there it is. We threw that in there. Now you know at least part of the story. And it's opening in May. And it's opening in May. And it's going to be what it is. Yeah. What I'm most interested in is how...

How it's going to work, because they're still going to show Mr. Lincoln. Well, I think, haven't they kind of said it's going to be on a cycle? Like, first it'll be this, then it'll be Lincoln, then it'll be this, then it'll be Lincoln. Do you mean like in a day or for like a period of time? Well, I'm not sure, right? Because...

It depends how, if they've built him in a totally different part of the stage, I don't really see any reason they can't run both of those shows simultaneously. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And I can't imagine they would have made a show that they have to actually change anything out. Right. So. Yeah, that's just the logistics of it are interesting to me. Mr. Lincoln is to some people like a.

part of Disneyland's history. Like, I don't know that they would run the 70th anniversary without having Mr. Lincoln there. So perhaps it is every day you can choose, you know, you can go through the cycle. Maybe like they do in front of the Animation Academy, they'll say Lincoln at these times, Walt Disney at these times. Perhaps. Or they just keep running. They'll just keep running. Yeah, we'll see. I'm intrigued. My initial response was, what?

I'm intrigued. Yeah. Yeah. I think it'll be really... I'm really excited to see what they did. I fully anticipate feeling like, oh my word, this horrible robot. No! But I feel that way about most audio animatronics. Like, I admire and respect...

what they're doing, but they are in no way lifelike. They're as robots. It's really amazing technology. Like it's, it's super cool. And I love to see them. It doesn't make them real. And I don't know that they will ever really look real at all. I don't know if I want them to.

Well, it would be a little creepy, right? You kind of want your robots to be robots and your people to be people. But I still really love audio animatronics as a cool thing that people try to do and as representative of specific things. I think perhaps this is why I really don't care so much about the Walt Disney thing the way some people do. Like, it's not going to look like him. Right. It's going to resemble, but yeah, no, it's not going to be, oh my God, Walt Disney is standing in front of me. I know.

I know. And no one's going to be confused or think whatever this robot thing does somehow means like, well, this is how Walt Disney talked and walked. And you know what I mean? As much as they want it to be that way, it won't. Right. And for some people, especially like younger kids, like this might be their first introduction into Walt Disney. Yeah. Like, who is that guy? So I'm pretty...

pro this whole situation. Maybe not for the reason that the museum and their super collaborative relationship with the Disney company. Maybe not for that reason. But I just, I just agree with, I think what Chris said that Walt would probably dig this. Like he was into this stuff. He would probably dig it. So at any rate,

That's Disneyland's 70th anniversary. Let's talk about one other thing. So for a hot minute last week, people were excited that, hey, they're going to do something special for the Haunted Mansion at Halloween time because they announced that they would be changing the Haunted Mansion to Nightmare Before Christmas at the beginning of Christmas season, November 14, which is the official start to Christmas. They announced that they're going to begin. Right.

Haunted Mansion Holiday then. So everyone got super excited and with reasonable expectation, a lot of people figured, well, they must be doing either something special for Halloween or just keeping the original open through Halloween because it's the 70th birthday and they want to have that original Haunted Mansion there as long as they can.

It was a typo.

I'm just a Doom Buggies guy that talks to every Haunted Mansion fan of any significance. Including Patrick Harris. So, you know, I do. I think if they would find the chutzpah, is that the right word? To make a Halloween...

Not even an overlay. A Halloween enhancement to the Haunted Mansion for the Halloween season. Whether it's actually live actors, which they've done many times in the past. Or whether it's something different, but like a different soundtrack. Or something that makes it spooky. I want, I want, I want. This would be the most popular thing. I know what I want. This would be the most popular thing they have probably, initiative that they probably ever launched. Like it would break the...

break, what would it break? It would break something. Doom buggies. So if they did that, I will say they are probably correct that Haunted Mansion Holiday remains super popular. And so when they launch it during Halloween time, people still get super excited and ride it. So they're not wrong that, hey, people want this. So we're going to put it out there as long as we can. But what I think they don't realize is

Maybe they don't care or maybe they don't even need to, but they could enhance this for Halloween, which would be more appropriate because it's a haunted house. It's not a gingerbread house. It's a haunted house. And it would dwarf like anything else they're doing for the 70th anniversary in terms of people talking about it and like drumming up, you know, whatever kind of haunted mansion goodwill that they could ever want to drum up. Um,

So that's just, it is what it is. But apparently that's not going to happen. We're going to get Haunted Mansion Holiday again, which is great. Like, we all like Haunted Mansion Holiday. I feel like it's an awful lot of the Haunted Mansion operating season is Haunted Mansion Holiday. More than it needs. But, you know, it is kind of what it is. With the extension of Halloween now into August, yes. It's a significant amount of time. Yeah.

They're giving the people what they want. So I will say that one last little thing here. So there's been a lot of scuttlebutt about the bride, some blogs, different blogs, getting leaks and things about what they hear about the Haunted Mansion story.

The bride, the new bride. The sipper that they have released pictures of and was supposed to go on sale this week, but is now, of course, delayed. Who knows why? Maybe it wasn't. Maybe there's shipment problems or who knows. But the sipper looks more or less like the classic beating heart bride. There's a red heart inside. And she's blue. And she's blue. And so is the current bride.

Yeah. So we'll see in about a week or two when they open the Haunted Mansion. It's supposed to open the 18th of January. So hopefully this goes out before... I'll be there the weekend of the half marathon. So I'll look at it for you. You can take some pictures, but hopefully...

Something exciting happens here with the bride. Like, I think it would be super cool if they update the original bride and then bring in some. And there are some bride pictures inside of the new Madame Leota's gift shop, which did open a couple weeks ago. And it doesn't really look like Constance. Like, it looks like they're trying to tell a little bit different story here. So the last the latest kind of rumor that I've heard is that they're going to put a window in the attic somewhere.

So they've added a window kind of behind back where the hatbox ghost is, but they also kind of put him on the patio so it's outside. Right, he's not really inside, yeah. Yeah, but by putting a window on the bride's side, it gives the attic a little bit more dimension. Like you can feel like, oh, we are up at the top, the thin attic area. It's not really as...

You know what I mean? So that could be interesting. And if they do change Constance, I'm wondering if all of that thick story about headless people and wedding cakes and gemstones and jewelry and all of that decor, I wonder if that disappears. I mean, honestly, because you and I and many other people are super fans, I wonder how much of that is actually...

lost on just a regular i'm just going on haunted mansion to go on the haunted mansion

Do you know what I mean? Well, I mean, I mean, it doesn't. Yeah. Well, some people don't. Most people, I would say, probably don't really care about the story behind an attraction. And Walt would say, like, that doesn't that doesn't matter. Like, we want them to not have to worry about whether they care or not because they feel like they're just immersed in a different place. Right. So so he would say, like, you should have it so that maybe they go on it again. And they say, like, hey, I never saw that. Right. Did you see that guy's head? Wasn't there a head on the thing last time I came? So that's kind of was Walt's.

Like Vision for Disneyland. I've always felt weird about the attic becoming a museum. Like, do people really do that? Like, maybe I would. So maybe people do. But it doesn't feel like an attic. I mean, maybe in that time period. I don't know. I would have a lot of boxes and junk in my attic if I had an attic. And the original attic did have a bunch of junk. So I have...

about whether or not it really feels like an attic as it is or has been. So the idea that the bride is going to be different, I'm kind of... Intrigued. I hate to say hoping, because I do find it to be kind of cool the way they've set up the attic, but it really doesn't feel like an attic. It feels like some kind of weird...

display like museum display right and i i feel like let's make it a spooky attic again so let's see like we can see what happens um you know it would go great in there what the uh bat cage you're actually really right about that there used to be bats flying in the circle opposite the the bride like they could put the cage and bats like trying to get their friend out

Like trying to free him. So the $35 sipper maybe has, maybe it's pointing to something, maybe not. It looks really cool though. I'm excited to get my hands on one of those. If you, if they're for sale, when you go, even though I'm going the next week. I will see. I will. Would you? Yes. Cause you never know. These things sell out. You never know. If you, if you have, if you got my luck, it's usually the day before you're going to. Yeah.

Yes, this is true. So that's enough Disneyland talk, I think, for right now. But exciting things hopefully coming for the 70th anniversary, birthday. What do they call it? An anniversary or a birthday? A celebration. Although mostly so far they've just announced bringing back stuff that already existed. But a couple new things. And so we'll see what there is yet to come. I'm sure there'll be plenty more announcements on the way. Yes. Oh, yeah.

Who's the team behind the show you're listening to today? M-O-U-S-E-G-A-L-G-I-A. You're listening to Mousetalgia. Hashtag Carpe Kingdom. Hashtag Seize the Magic. All right. So lots going on at Disneyland coming up, hopefully. But I do want to talk to you, Julie, today about a couple other things. You know, Mousetalgia, a big part of it is...

merch and collecting and living the Disney life, as we like to say. So I thought we'd talk about a couple of new books today, old school, nostalgia style. Let's talk about Disney books. And just a couple of random ones we're going to choose. I know you have a new book that's just hot off the presses. I have a book that's actually pretty recent, too, that we're going to talk about here. So let's start with you. So what are you going to bring to the table? I'm bringing to the table one of my

favorite things is a little golden book. All right. And they have been doing for a while now, but, um, they have been doing a line of biographies, um, and just recently published this year, in fact. So how many days in are we? Not many. Um, this year they released the little golden book biography about Dick Van Dyke. And it's,

has a photo of Dick Van Dyke on the cover dressed as Bert in the Jolly Holiday scene with a little tuxedo penguins around him. And it is written by Christy Webster and illustrated by Holly Hibbert. And it is great. I have collected a few of these biographies, including there's one for Julie Andrews. So obviously I had to get Dick Van Dyke to go with that one, right? Mm-hmm.

And it is just a very simple to the point biography about Dick Van Dyke and how he got into television and movies and really just became America's perennial sweetheart. Okay. He's just iconic. And I love on the very last page has a quote from Dick Van Dyke about Dick

that you need three things to enjoy a long life, something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for. And he says he had all of those and more. And just honestly, this man is just a national treasure. And I'm not going to lie, every time I see his face pop up in my feed somewhere, my heart skips a little beat because I will not be prepared. Yeah. Well,

We like to say on Nostalgia, without irony, with sincerity, that every day is a gift. We've both met Dick Van Dyke for a moment in time. We both, at different times, took photographs with him. This year, he was doing a signing. He does those things.

Somewhat frequently. So if you want to get Dick Van Dyke's autograph, like no time like the present, but I sent in the photo. I do have one of his books signed by him. So you can find those too.

Yeah, I have a few books, a few Dick Van Dyke autographs here and there. But we wanted to get the picture signed. So before Julie and I were even dating. You were barely even acquaintances. Yeah, she was a listener. She knew that I collected autographs and did pictures because I think I'd done a couple with you and some other people. And I talked about it on the show. And so she knew that I took pictures and paid. So she just wrote and said, hey, I don't really have enough money to pay for Dick Van Dyke autographs.

you know, photo op myself, but would you want to pair up? And I thought, well, you know, it was pretty, you know, I, I like, um,

to get to know my listeners. And so I said, sure. So we have that picture. And so then we thought, well, you know what? We should send that to Dick. I can get it signed. So give us the details about the book. Who, who did the illustration? The illustration is by Holly Hibbert. Okay. And it was written, the words were written by Christy Webster. I don't think this one is specifically like a Disney one, other than it's got a Disney tie in that it has a page about Mary Poppins and

And Mary Poppins Returns. And Dick Tracy. So it's part of their biography series. So it's not one of the like Disney specific books, but he is a Disney legend. So yeah. Yeah. I thought it'd be appropriate. And the illustrations are beautiful. Obviously, that's really one of the things I love about Little Golden Books is the artwork is always just very pleasing and

But yeah, I would recommend putting this in your collection and picking up any of the ones about any of the celebrities that you're interested. And the Julianne Scherz one is also very good. Super. Okay. Good recommendation. I imagine it's reasonably inexpensive. I think it is $4.99 on Amazon. Reasonably inexpensive. Okay. So I'm going to go talk about another book that's not that inexpensive, but it's...

I think it's a good book to add to your collection if you're a Star Wars fan. Star Wars fan. So let me first say about Star Wars books. So I got to say, I do feel like Disney has a bit of a cash grab with Star Wars sometimes. The books are plentiful with varieties of.

I would say to the book, some of them are padded up and, you know, to be a little bit more than they are. And then, you know, here's a book about star Wars. So, so, you know, anyone will buy this because I've got stars on it. You know, this is a star Wars book that just came out for the Christmas season. So it came out the end of 2024. This one is, is,

Amazing. So I'm excited to tell you. I can't wait. It's by Inside Editions, as are many of these Star Wars books. Nice hardcover book. So it's called Star Wars Bestiary Volume 1. Love it.

On Amazon, there's a subtitle. Yeah, Creatures of the Galaxy. But that subtitle doesn't really appear much on the book. Like, you have to get all the way in a few to the title page before you see that subtitle. So the back of the book says, Explore the creatures of the Star Wars galaxy with the first in a series of beautifully illustrated guides to the wondrous creatures of a galaxy far, far away. From Hoth to Naboo,

Thank you for watching.

That's awesome. This is a must-have comprehensive guidebook for any Star Wars fan who wants a deep dive into the beasties from this beloved universe. And it's a pretty thick, good, hefty encyclopedia-style book, right? Nice. So there has been a Star Wars bestiary-type book before. I think it's called Creatures, maybe Star Wars Creatures or something like that. Yeah.

This one, so it's written by S.T. Bend or Bendy, I'm not sure how you say it, and illustrated, which is a significant heavy job because it is thoroughly illustrated. It's really a picture book. Illustrated by Iris Compier, I think is how you say Iris' name. So it's interesting because this book is...

isn't just generically written to describe Star Wars animals. It has a personality, right? So it's written as if there's someone studying the flora and fauna of the Star Wars universe and Star Wars, or I guess the Star Wars galaxy. And, um,

It has a personality. So like a lot of the book is written in first person. Like this is what I think of this. And oh, I was worried about, I was scared of spiders. So you can imagine I wasn't really thrilled to talk about these animals. You know what I mean? So it's like, it's written in the person's voice. That's interesting. So in a sense, there's new Star Wars canon characters created by this book. At least two. There's a robot named B-8-T-5. So Bait is the...

And that's the robot that kind of goes around luring the characters out so that the biologist, I guess, or the creature cartographer, Andy Santeca, so that they could describe the flora or the fauna of Star Wars. They pretty much dive pretty deeply into the storytelling aspect of who this guy is, or I think it's a, I don't know if it's an alien. I don't know if they picture him.

Um, artists actually, I don't know. I don't, I can't tell if he's he or she or it is pictured anywhere. Um,

But anyway, so there is a character that has a voice. So I'll just, like, for example, let's talk about my favorite Star Wars creature, which is the Krayt Dragon, on behalf of the Krayt Vertebrae that I own in my collection. So I'm going to open to that page. So this is what's interesting about the Krayt Dragon. I've had a problem with the modern version of the Krayt Dragon. So the Mandalorian revived the Krayt Dragon, right? Mm-hmm.

Up until recently, it had been nothing but a skeleton in the distance behind C-3PO. And somehow we created a whole mythology... Not mythology. Star Wars created a creature that roams the sands of Tatooine called the Krayt Dragon. And that was supposed to be its skeleton, which looked suspiciously like a Brontosaurus skeleton because...

I think that's what it was from another Disney movie. I think it was a, what kind of creature was that? It was a dinosaur with a long, long neck, right? And a small head. But the crate dragon that you see in the Mandalorian is this giant lizard looking dragon. It's more lizard or traditional dragon looking, not serpent looking like the neck of the crate dragon that you saw on Tatooine in Star Wars episode four. Yeah.

I've just kind of had a problem with this for a couple of years now. Like, wait a minute. Why did you tell us a Krayt Dragon is this long neck thing, but here's what you've redesigned it as? Well, don't worry. It describes actually that there are three different versions of Krayt Dragons on Tatooine. So we can work now with the variations between...

And what looks like would be the structure of the dragon that's in the Mandalorian, which are two very different styles of Krayt Dragon. That's just an example. So reading about the Krayt Dragon, it says Tatooine's apex predators are Pothos.

And exactly how large they can grow remains to be determined. Their elusive nature and strong survival tactics mean that few have been captured and even fewer studied. One does not, after all, approach the lethal crate dragon to inquire of its measurements. These carnivorous reptiles produce a poison known as crate venom that they spit across great distances to ward off assailants. Contact with this venom is lethal. The highly acidic substance swiftly dissolves organic tissue.

When retained internally, the dragon's venom serves as a digestive aid in breaking down its food. Similar to human beings, I guess.

Um,

Their location also protects Krayt dragons from would-be hunters. Sentient species track the creature in hopes of capturing the elusive pearl that grows within its stomach. Several species of Krayt dragons exist, including the 16-limbed, venom-spinning Leviathan Krayt dragon, which I don't think we've seen that. I don't think the one in Mandalorian was 16-limbed. I'm not...

I don't remember. Do you think it's something coming? I don't know. See, that's why this book is interesting, right? Then it says the large greater crate, which could be the one in the Mandalorian, and the smaller canyon crate, which is what I presume they would say the skeleton behind C-3PO was. Mm-hmm.

Right.

So, there's probably close to 60 or 70 different creatures listed and described and illustrated in this book. It's super cool. It adds a little bit of story to what's going on in the background in Star Wars movies, which I like. It's very well illustrated, which I like. And it either pretends or is the beginning of a series of books, which is also super cool. Although I don't know what the other bestiaries would be. This feels...

Pretty complete to me. So I don't know if that's just a part of the fiction, you know, like this is or what. But it's super interesting. So Star Wars Bestiary Volume 1, written by S.D. Bende, illustrated by Iris Compier, available at any bookstore, probably any bookstore near you, or for sure, go to Amazon.com. Before we get away from Star Wars, I have a question for you. Yep.

Have you watched or do you plan to watch Skeleton Crew? Yeah, we've been watching it. Is it anything like Captain EO? Because I got super big Captain EO vibes seeing the trailer. Well, this is kind of a weird conversation because most Mastodon listeners, I presume, have either watched it or, well, maybe not. Maybe if there's someone like you, you're a Mastodon listener. So it's Goonies vibes. Okay. Yeah.

So if you like the Goonies, you will love Skeleton Crew. If you hate the Goonies...

Maybe try something else. It's similar. But it's very similar down to the plot. Now, of course, I'm not sure if it's done yet as of when this show goes out to launch. I haven't seen the last episode or two. I don't want any spoilers or anything. Yeah. So I don't know exactly. I'm just curious what you're thinking of it. Yeah. So I don't know exactly how it turns out, but it is so far even down to the plot, similar to Goonies. Are you enjoying it? Very similar.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it. It's probably a little less adventure because it's dealing with children, right? So they're not going to imperil them super. Well, I guess they have. It's just not very dream. I'm getting kind of used to a specific Disney drama for their Star Wars that isn't this. It does have a lot of good old school stuff.

Star Wars stuff in it. Like you, you see little bits of this and that here and there like, Oh, there's one of those. And there's one of those. Um, it has a, a few, like for instance, the Captain EO, little flutter by guy, what's his name? The little, you know, I don't remember his name. The little orangey. Yeah. Little, little, the, the, the, so those as a species exist in Star Wars now because there's, there's some cages of those things. So, um, you know, it's, yeah, it's,

Cool. It's fun. Okay. It's fun. Great. It's not my favorite Star Wars. No. Better than the Acolyte, I would say. When you don't like something, you don't mince words either. Yeah. It's better than the Acolyte for sure. It makes more sense to the Acolyte. Did you like Obi-Wan? You know, Obi-Wan was all right. The story of Obi-Wan was unnecessary. Like trying to stuff some Darth Vader stuff in there between his conversion and his

his kind of lordship of the Empire, there's not a lot of room there for the way they describe the story in Star Wars. So they kind of...

some stuff that really doesn't work with the way Obi-Wan described Darth Vader as like, boy, I haven't seen you since, you know, you changed. It's the implication in Star Wars. But now he means, oh, I haven't seen you since that other time we fought. You know, it's not really, you know what I mean? Like, it kind of messes with that a little bit for maybe good reason. Like, they really wanted to get this story in there.

I don't know. I don't know that it enhances your perspective on who Obi-Wan Kenobi is at all. Um, so yeah, it was cool because it was, you know, more lightsaber fighting between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is pretty much the draw. Um, but you know, I don't know. That also wasn't my favorite and, or probably my favorite Mandalorian is close, very close. Um, and then of course the book of Boba Fett and that's basically part of the Mandalorian series. And, um,

Yeah. Awesome. Did we get off track a little bit here? A little bit. That's okay. But yeah, you'll like it. I think Skeleton Crew will fit in your kind of what you like about Star Wars. I think it'll fit there. Great. It's well- Cast. It's well-constructed. It's well-cast. There's some cool, definitely some cool special effects and things and cool Star Wars elements. So yeah, it's good. Awesome.

All right. So before we go, we have to have a collectibles report. I know that you and we talked about this a little bit on the Pal-O-Round podcast, but we're going to amplify it a little bit here because mostly just because I think it's really cool. So you are a Disney collector. I am a Disney collector. We are both in some ways similar, but in some other ways, very dissimilar collectors. Right. So why don't you describe yourself as a Disney collector? Like, what are you?

Oh. What is your collection about? My collection, really, I'm looking at my case right now, is kind of all over the place. Like, I am not against having, like, a new...

little something in there. You kind of are, depending on what it is, but you won't go to like Miniso and put your little blind box trinkets in there. Mine are mixed in. But I do have some kind of

- Focuses, if you will. Like I like to collect Mickey Mouse things. I like to collect Sleeping Beauty things for sure. But really things that catch my eye and I don't feel, if the price of whatever it is doesn't give me anxiety, I will buy it. - Okay. So that's a limitation to you to some degree. What's the most you've spent on a collectible?

Oh, that's a really good question. I'm not sure. Again, it would depend on what it is, but probably I haven't bought anything that's more than, certainly not more than $150, which is nothing to you in some cases. So, and part of that could be...

you might stay there. That might be the value you put a collectible at in your mind, right? Or part of it might just be a natural form of working up a collection. Like most collectors that have it in their blood can start anywhere. Like you can start small. Maybe that's all you can afford, right? But they usually end up, whether it's by selling stuff or cycling up...

they usually end up kind of edging up their collection. I, I lie. I didn't buy this for myself, but my boyfriend spent more than that on a 19. When did three little pigs come out? Forties. Maybe. Yeah. Somewhere in there. He bought me a, a, um,

Alarm clock. With the big bad wolf on it. Yeah. But I didn't buy it for myself because the price gave me anxiety. He was just nice and went and got me a nice Christmas present. He knew you wanted it. Yeah. So, yeah. So, that's okay. Like, for many years, $100 would have been... A lot. Like, hard for me to come up with. Yeah. Like, I think...

I was probably about your age when I started to be able to afford more than that. Now I know you, now you're kind of at the point where you can choose and decide. Okay. So that's, I'm interested. So you have a lot of, so working within your budget, I feel like you have a lot of good things and listen, some of my very, very favorite things in my collection are,

In fact, I'll even go so far as to say one of my favorite ways to collect these days is to go on eBay and see, like, where can I find, like, an old button or a really rare postcard or something, but I can get a good deal or I can find it for $5 or $7. Like, some of my very favorite things were less than $20. So it's not really about how much did you spend, but it is kind of a little bit of a sign as to where you're at as a collector. Yeah.

Julia and I also collect and she collects different than me too and different than you all three of us have very different styles of collecting so tell the people what your latest thing that you bought was because I was jealous when we were in we both we do go antiquing together yeah you and I and Tina yeah there's always there's always the risk that we will all want something we have never fought over anything so usually it's well I think we all know it's finders keepers yeah

Um, so we were antiquing over the Christmas season in Niles, which is down by Fremont. And I just happened upon... So really what drew me to this case to begin with was you were specifically looking for something Charlie Chaplin because Charlie Chaplin has ties to that area. So you were thinking you wanted to add something Charlie Chaplin vintage to your collection. And there was a, um...

kind of larger Charlie Chaplin doll in this case. So I was stopping to look at that and see if it might be something you would be interested in, but it was not really what you were looking for. But next to it was this little doll that just kind of made me stop and look at it. I was like, that kind of vaguely resembles a Babes in Toyland wooden soldier. It's not made out of wood, which is why I was like, is it?

Um, so luckily it was in a glass case that I could get a good look at it in pretty much every direction and I could see the tag on it and it did say that it was a Babes in Toyland soldier. So I had to go get the store...

person and she took it out for me and it was $48, which I thought was pretty, a pretty good deal. And you did, you did a little fast look up and looked like it was a pretty fair price, um, compared to some of the other ones you found online. Um, so I bought it.

That's good. I often kind of get questions. People email me and say like, hey, look what I found or what do you think about this? Or often people will send me like they're somewhere in a store or something and they'll see something and they'll text me and say like, hey, do you want this? That kind of thing, right? So I will say, I would say $50 is about the line for something to say. The question is not really, is this worth $50? It's more like,

Is it worth it to you to pay up to $50 for this thing? Over $50, you might start to want to be careful that it's worth the amount of money. But under $50, like if you really want that right now, $50 is not an unreasonable price to pay for something that, hey, maybe you could find it on eBay next week for $25. But you know what I mean? So-

$50 is about that line. So I think your thing is worth more than $50. So I think you got a good deal for that because of the condition. So it's a gun toy and gun to make all kinds of rubber-headed Disney characters, dolls, puppets, plush things in the oodles in the, I think, late 50s, 50s, but for sure in the 60s and 70s.

And this is one of those. It's really good condition. It's kind of obscure, right? These days. If I didn't have such affection for the toy soldiers from Dave's in Toyland, I probably would have walked right past it.

Yeah. Yeah. In fact, the store owner store owner didn't know it was a Disney thing. Like when they put it out, they looked at the tag. They're like, oh, it's a Walt Disney. She was like, I just had somebody in here asking, but we had Disney in here and I had no idea we had this. So, yeah. So you got a, you got a really great thing. So that was really cool.

I'm kind of using it as a springboard just to talk about collecting. So I did not have as successful a trip then for antiques. But one thing I want to draw people's attention to, kind of the latest thing I've bought Disney is not actually here yet. So what I bought was Ron Howard's

on my Haunted Mansion record album that Pete Renaday signed for me before he passed away. Oh, that's awesome. Right? So, official picks. So, you can still get in on this, listeners, up until the end of the month. So, if you really would like Ron Howard's autograph on something Disney-related, go

Haunted Mansion CD or Haunted Mansion record, you can go to officialpix.com and get the information there. So he's doing a signing. I think he's going to be in Texas or Florida, maybe.

um at a convention it's gonna be all actually all of the happy day or no not happy days yeah i think a lot of the happy days celebrities are gonna be there plus the howards are gonna be there so bryce dallas and ron and his brother who's in the grinch what's his name uh you know i see his face yeah the other howard um shoot i'm sorry i forgot your name other howard um i just have ron howard on my mind but

Ron Howard's brother, yeah. So they're going to all be together at this convention. But Official Picks is doing a specific signing with Ron Howard. So it's about $160, $170 all told. So not the cheapest thing, but it's also, you know, depending on what you're in the mood for. He's kind of a big deal.

Well, especially if you're a Haunted Mansion fan and you loved that Haunted Mansion record. I mean, he's the star of that record apart from Pete Rennaday. And I was lucky enough last... Was it last year? Maybe the year before. Late the year before to have Pete Rennaday sign for me a copy of the Haunted Mansion record album. And so I'm super excited to add...

Ron Howard to it. And that actually completes my Haunted Mansion autographs collection. So now I can decide if I want to make a big, giant, beautiful presentation piece with all these autographs or not. I think the answer is yes. Well, I don't have anywhere to display it is the problem. But if you make it, you'll find a place. Maybe it's time to move something. I just made a big autograph presentation piece that I have absolutely nowhere to put anything.

But I do have a so Ron Howard, of course, has been a little bit difficult. Like I've had his autograph for a little bit. I bought a couple copies of his signed book last couple years ago, just to make sure I had his autograph in case I needed to, you know, someday do a cut.

But I'd much rather have it on the record, of course. And then Pete Renaday, of course. And then Thurl Ravenscroft. I wrote to him when he was alive back in the 90s, and I have his autograph. Amazing. Eleanor Audley is hard to find, but I do have her autograph. So I have it really attractively displayed as Madame Leota. So I'd have to dismantle that. I mean, she's still Madame Leota, but to put it in with the record. And then the hardest autograph, I believe, is Roby Lester. And luckily...

Roby and I sort of became almost friends a little bit right before she passed away. I didn't write her enough to actually become friends, but she would sign, I think, the two letters that she wrote to me, your friend Roby. She was among the class of Disney workers that just was happy at the end of her life to keep being remembered. You know what I mean? So she shared a couple letters with me and a bunch of pictures. So I have...

I didn't even ask for her autographs. I have a letter that she signed to Roby. So that would have to be her cut. But I do have all the players from the Haunted Mansion record now, so I could make a display. So we'll see. Considering how important that record is to your life, I think you have to... It does seem like a no-brainer.

It seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it? Yeah. I think you're right, Julia. So you may have just pushed me over the edge. So we'll see. But first, we have to make sure this actually happens. So just because I bought...

Ron Howard's autograph potentially on this record doesn't mean it's going to happen. I have a good feeling. Official Picks does have a good reputation with this stuff, and so I think it'll work out pretty well, but we'll see. I have to remember to ship it to them. If nothing else, as long as your record comes back to you. But if you out there are interested in this, go to officialpicks.com. You probably still have time quick to buy his autograph and send in whatever you want to get signed.

Or if you're just an Opie fan or a Ron Howard fan, I'm sure they have a bunch of pictures of the things he's worked on that you can buy for less money signed. So take a look at what they got.

So that's coming up. I think that's all I'll talk about collecting today. A little bit of autograph collecting, a little bit of your backstory. That's enough for today, right? It's enough for today. It's an ongoing topic. It is an ongoing topic. All right. So with that, Julia, you want to help me wrap up the show? Let's put a bow on this show. If you want to support Nostalgia...

Always welcome. Your support is always welcome. Just go to Mousetalgia Plus. And it's always appreciated. It is always appreciated. Go to MousetalgiaPlus.com and you can see my Patreon account and decide if you want to take part in that. If you want to get in touch with me, comments at Mousetalgia.com. If you want to leave a message for Julia here, I will pass that right along.

If you want to leave a message for Kristen, I bet she still sneaks in there and checks it because she still can have access to Mouse Dodge's email. So she may get your message on her own or I can make sure I pass it on to her too.

I think we even still have voicemail. You could try it. What is it? 1-888-5. No, that's five hot boxes. That's do muggies. It's what is. Oh, geez. Okay. Call our toll free hotline at 1-888-29. Oh, boy. Look, folks, it has been that long since I've given you since I've given you the hotline number. So maybe don't use it.

it it really sends us these really jinky like actual telephone line messages better just to make a voice message 798-9298 there it is 1-888-798-9298 is that what you said that's what I said

1-888-798-9298 and leave us a voicemail. That sounds like what Dave used to say. I hope that's right. You can try it. Yeah, try it. Someone try it so I can see if it's still working. I do still get plenty of great recorded political voicemails. Just whatever Dave needs. Very excited about that. Although it's really not worth my paying the money to get there. Because I have to pay them for their stupid messages. Oh, it's a scam. Well, I don't pay them.

What I'm saying is I have to pay for pay the phone people to get their stupid messages. So make it worth his time. Hopefully that's what it is. It is what it is. 1-888-798-9298. And leave me a voice message or just record yourself on your handy dandy phone device and forward it to me at comments at mousetagel.com, which is really the main way to reach me. All right. That's enough jibber jabber. I will see you all soon.

Happy New Year. Happy New Year, everyone. Go out and have a great week. And Carpe Kingdom, seize the magic. Bye, everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

so