The information available in this post is available as a PDF on Google drive. Remember, the internet is not forever and printing physical copies can be your friend. There are some ugly looking links in the PDF version, this is so as long as the Internet Archive survives you can find this information.
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If you are having trouble viewing full PDFs on your device, especially Apple devices take a look here
In 2005, Disney made two major changes to the series which, unfortunately, made things confusing for collectors. First, as part of the global celebration for Disneyland’s 50th birthday, Disney flipped where some of the pins would be released. Ten WDW pins would not be released at WDW, but would be exclusive to Disneyland, and vice versa. While the Disney checklist now refers to pins from this series as “Cast Lanyard Series III,” the original terminology was “Global Lanyard Series.” If you find that reference in an internet search, just know that Global Lanyard and Cast Lanyard III are the same series.
The second major change was the addition of the small silver Mickey Icon to the front of the pin. This change was to benefit both guests and the Cast Members who were being pestered by guests, “if they had any Cast Lanyard pins?” The Mickey Icon gave everyone had a visual cue. Disney announced this change in November 2004, after many of the first set of Walt Disney World pins were already on lanyards. The first order of pins, distributed in 4th quarter 2004, did not have a silver Mickey. Future orders, distributed in 2005, do have the silver Mickey. So yes, to be Cast Lanyard complete (by some people’s definition) is to have both copies of the WDW pins. But because Disney can make everything confusing, not every pin has two versions. Some sub-series only have a silver Mickey version, and the Pooh sub-series does not have a Mickey version (announced on Disney’s Pin website when they announced the change).
Let’s dive into the series. Checklists have been posted in the past, but whenever Disney changes their website format, they end up as dead links. Internet Archive links are included here to fend off disappearing websites. Unless the Internet Archive disappears, or DPF.com does.
WDW Cast Lanyard I (2002-2003)
WDW Cast Lanyard I (Dizpins Checklist)
Disney did not publish a checklist for WDW’s first collection of pins. Dizpins.com created their own and is linked via the Internet Archive. Ignore the final two pins shown, as those are “something else” and not part of the first series. The first wave debuted April 1, 2002, according to the Dizpins News archive. Dizpins also maintained a list based upon the Release Waves.
Release Waves (Dizpins)
In April 2006, a Purchase with Purchase (PWP) promotion revisited the Cast Lanyard Series I with the release of 10 Completer pins. For every $25 spent on pins and pin accessories at Disney’s Pin Traders, guests could buy one of these pins for $1. The pins were based on original 2002 designs that had been sampled, but never ordered. These designs had previously been shown at the 2004 Disney’s Pin Celebration.
DLR Cast Lanyard I (2003)
DLR Cast Lanyard I (Dizpins)
Disney did not publish a checklist for DLR’s first series. This is another link via the Internet Archive to Dizpins.com’s list. According to Dizpins News Archive, the first pins were spotted June 20, 2003. Eagle-eye spotters will notice that Chip & Dale are wearing the wrong Rescue Ranger costume. There were rumors that they would be remade with the correct costumes, but I’m not sure if that actually happened.
WDW Cast Lanyard II (2003-2004)
WDW Cast Lanyard II (Disney)
Cast Lanyard Series II pins debuted September 19-21, 2003 at the 2nd Disney’s Pin Celebration. Of note to this series, two of the Three Fairies did not have the correct color details for Merryweather and Flora’s dresses at release, and were corrected in a later batch. The original Merryweather had a green dress (corrected to blue in a later version). The original Flora has a yellow underskirt (corrected to light pink).
DLR Cast Lanyard II (2004)
DLR Cast Lanyard II (Disney)
Set to debut in March 2004, with four additional pins released every month, according to Dizpins News Archives, the first pins squeaked out a little early… on leap day February 29, 2004. This link is to the Dizpins.com page that tracked which not only notes the months of release, but provides the names given to the sub-series.
Release Waves (Dizpins)
WDW Cast Lanyard III (2004-2005)
WDW Cast Lanyard III (Disney)
The first wave of this series debuted at Disney’s Pin Celebration September 10-12, 2004. As explained in the introduction, ten WDW series pins were released exclusively at Disneyland. A Sabor Villain “Wanted” poster was previewed at Disney’s Pin Celebration, but was replaced by Maleficent in the actual release. Another historical tidbit is that two of Daisy’s nieces (I think May and June) were mostly exclusive to teal lanyards, which meant only kids could trade for them. And don’t forget about the Mickey versions.
DLR Cast Lanyard 2.5 (2004)
DLR Cast Lanyard 2.5 (Disney)
This weird, small series debuted in November 2004 (despite an erroneous title on Disney’s website calling it the 2003 series). It was called “2.5” because the third series, the Global Lanyard Series was already releasing at WDW, coming to DLR in 2005, and it had to be squeezed in, sequentially. Look at the name of the URL, that’s really what it is. Years later, these pins made a reappearance on DLR Cast Member lanyards as if Disney cleaned out its closets. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the year.
DLR Cast Lanyard III (2005)
DLR Cast Lanyard III (Dizpins)
Disney’s website erroneously updated their Cast Lanyard / Hidden Mickey checklists and mis-linked 2005 pins to the 2006 series. Thankfully, Dizpins.com and the Internet Archive to the rescue. According to Dizpins News Archive, it appears they finally started dropping at a Featured Artist Event April 23, 2005.
WDW Cast Lanyard IV (2005-2006)
WDW Cast Lanyard IV (Disney)
As tradition, the first wave of Series IV debuted on trading boards at Disney’s Pin Celebration September 9-11, 2005.
May 23, 2006, Disney released five pins to complement some sub-series from this collection, and five license plate pins in June 2006. However, these are not the Completers you might be used to. These match the Cast Lanyard pins, but they are a larger size, and were sold on a pin card for $6.95. And with a hint of what was to come, a box on the back of the pin, “Hidden Mickey Collection.”
DLR Cast Lanyard IV (2006)
DLR Cast Lanyard IV
DLR’s first wave of six pins, debuted January 27, 2006. The original checklist was ordered differently so the first batch were originally called “Collection 6.” I suspect they were reordered to arrange by release period, as that became the trend for several years.
Get to Know Cast Lanyard.pdf
drive.google.com
If you are having trouble viewing full PDFs on your device, especially Apple devices take a look here
Get to Know: Cast Lanyard Series
In April 2002, addressing concerns of poor variety on cast member lanyards, Disney introduced the Cast Lanyard Series at Walt Disney World. The program expanded to the Disneyland Resort in June 2003, and WDW’s second series debuted at the annual Disney’s Pin Celebration event at Epcot in September 2003. A tradition that would continue through 2008’s Disney’s Pin Celebration.
In 2005, Disney made two major changes to the series which, unfortunately, made things confusing for collectors. First, as part of the global celebration for Disneyland’s 50th birthday, Disney flipped where some of the pins would be released. Ten WDW pins would not be released at WDW, but would be exclusive to Disneyland, and vice versa. While the Disney checklist now refers to pins from this series as “Cast Lanyard Series III,” the original terminology was “Global Lanyard Series.” If you find that reference in an internet search, just know that Global Lanyard and Cast Lanyard III are the same series.
The second major change was the addition of the small silver Mickey Icon to the front of the pin. This change was to benefit both guests and the Cast Members who were being pestered by guests, “if they had any Cast Lanyard pins?” The Mickey Icon gave everyone had a visual cue. Disney announced this change in November 2004, after many of the first set of Walt Disney World pins were already on lanyards. The first order of pins, distributed in 4th quarter 2004, did not have a silver Mickey. Future orders, distributed in 2005, do have the silver Mickey. So yes, to be Cast Lanyard complete (by some people’s definition) is to have both copies of the WDW pins. But because Disney can make everything confusing, not every pin has two versions. Some sub-series only have a silver Mickey version, and the Pooh sub-series does not have a Mickey version (announced on Disney’s Pin website when they announced the change).
WDW Cast Lanyard I (2002-2003)
WDW Cast Lanyard I (Dizpins Checklist)
Disney did not publish a checklist for WDW’s first collection of pins. Dizpins.com created their own and is linked via the Internet Archive. Ignore the final two pins shown, as those are “something else” and not part of the first series. The first wave debuted April 1, 2002, according to the Dizpins News archive. Dizpins also maintained a list based upon the Release Waves.
Release Waves (Dizpins)
In April 2006, a Purchase with Purchase (PWP) promotion revisited the Cast Lanyard Series I with the release of 10 Completer pins. For every $25 spent on pins and pin accessories at Disney’s Pin Traders, guests could buy one of these pins for $1. The pins were based on original 2002 designs that had been sampled, but never ordered. These designs had previously been shown at the 2004 Disney’s Pin Celebration.
DLR Cast Lanyard I (2003)
DLR Cast Lanyard I (Dizpins)
Disney did not publish a checklist for DLR’s first series. This is another link via the Internet Archive to Dizpins.com’s list. According to Dizpins News Archive, the first pins were spotted June 20, 2003. Eagle-eye spotters will notice that Chip & Dale are wearing the wrong Rescue Ranger costume. There were rumors that they would be remade with the correct costumes, but I’m not sure if that actually happened.
WDW Cast Lanyard II (2003-2004)
WDW Cast Lanyard II (Disney)
Cast Lanyard Series II pins debuted September 19-21, 2003 at the 2nd Disney’s Pin Celebration. Of note to this series, two of the Three Fairies did not have the correct color details for Merryweather and Flora’s dresses at release, and were corrected in a later batch. The original Merryweather had a green dress (corrected to blue in a later version). The original Flora has a yellow underskirt (corrected to light pink).
DLR Cast Lanyard II (2004)
DLR Cast Lanyard II (Disney)
Set to debut in March 2004, with four additional pins released every month, according to Dizpins News Archives, the first pins squeaked out a little early… on leap day February 29, 2004. This link is to the Dizpins.com page that tracked which not only notes the months of release, but provides the names given to the sub-series.
Release Waves (Dizpins)
WDW Cast Lanyard III (2004-2005)
WDW Cast Lanyard III (Disney)
The first wave of this series debuted at Disney’s Pin Celebration September 10-12, 2004. As explained in the introduction, ten WDW series pins were released exclusively at Disneyland. A Sabor Villain “Wanted” poster was previewed at Disney’s Pin Celebration, but was replaced by Maleficent in the actual release. Another historical tidbit is that two of Daisy’s nieces (I think May and June) were mostly exclusive to teal lanyards, which meant only kids could trade for them. And don’t forget about the Mickey versions.
DLR Cast Lanyard 2.5 (2004)
DLR Cast Lanyard 2.5 (Disney)
This weird, small series debuted in November 2004 (despite an erroneous title on Disney’s website calling it the 2003 series). It was called “2.5” because the third series, the Global Lanyard Series was already releasing at WDW, coming to DLR in 2005, and it had to be squeezed in, sequentially. Look at the name of the URL, that’s really what it is. Years later, these pins made a reappearance on DLR Cast Member lanyards as if Disney cleaned out its closets. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the year.
DLR Cast Lanyard III (2005)
DLR Cast Lanyard III (Dizpins)
Disney’s website erroneously updated their Cast Lanyard / Hidden Mickey checklists and mis-linked 2005 pins to the 2006 series. Thankfully, Dizpins.com and the Internet Archive to the rescue. According to Dizpins News Archive, it appears they finally started dropping at a Featured Artist Event April 23, 2005.
WDW Cast Lanyard IV (2005-2006)
WDW Cast Lanyard IV (Disney)
As tradition, the first wave of Series IV debuted on trading boards at Disney’s Pin Celebration September 9-11, 2005.
May 23, 2006, Disney released five pins to complement some sub-series from this collection, and five license plate pins in June 2006. However, these are not the Completers you might be used to. These match the Cast Lanyard pins, but they are a larger size, and were sold on a pin card for $6.95. And with a hint of what was to come, a box on the back of the pin, “Hidden Mickey Collection.”
DLR Cast Lanyard IV (2006)
DLR Cast Lanyard IV
DLR’s first wave of six pins, debuted January 27, 2006. The original checklist was ordered differently so the first batch were originally called “Collection 6.” I suspect they were reordered to arrange by release period, as that became the trend for several years.
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