While this year has been unconventional to say the least, we still got plenty of pin releases. Let’s take it to a vote... which retailer ruled 2020 with your favorite releases? Some highlights: WDI - Film Strips, Best in Show Dogs, Couples Crests, Cinderella/Pinocchio Anniversary DSSH - Character Blocks, Villains Playing Cards, PTDs, Cuties, Anniversary Pins DEC - Character Names Aristocats, Pluto’s Corner ShopDisney - Film Anniversary Series, Anniversary Sets, Keys, Castle Collection, Alien Remix Disney Parks - Minnie Main Attraction, Enchanted Emblems, I Collect, Trading Cards, Scratch and Sniff Loungefly - Blind boxes, Funko Pop Jumbos, 65th Anniversary Puzzle, $25 Jumbos. Other - List your other highlights below!
I’ll start it off with DSSH being my #1 and Disney Parks being a close second. Loved the MMMA and it kept things exciting during the down months, but DSSH came back strong at the end of the year.
I gotta give it to WDI for this year. I was really impressed by how well-designed and large the Pinocchio and Cinderella anniversaries came out. I say this because lots of the DSSH LE pins this year were... tiny and that made me underwhelmed when I saw the pins in person. Same with lots of the 20 Years Pin Event pins. I wasn’t blown away by most of them except for the framed set. I wasn’t super impressed with the WDI couples crests though. I guess for how hyped up they became relative to everything else WDI put out, I expected better. Wish we got to see more from DEC. I think they could have done better than WDI if they had the chance to release more pins. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sooo agreed. DEC was my #1 last year but they didn’t get the chance to release too much this year. I’m hoping they have some waiting to release once things get better
All things considered, Disney Parks could almost be considered ShopDisney for half of this year but pretty much bots/resellers/merchpass killed any enthusiasm for me. Loungefly interested me a bit and was pleasantly surprised that their LE’s usually stayed in stock for a while. I think the ultimate winner were DSSH’s surprise online queue’s even though the eventual releases were hit/miss for me; what was awesome that they were available to non locals for once...
In general, this wasn't a good pin year for me. If the WDI release had happened in June, it might have been a different story. So while my vote for overall quality will usually go to DEC or WDI, I have to sidestep and give favorite retailer to Loungefly this year! Despite some concerns about overall quality (will we see yellowing in 5-10 years?), Loungefly really saved us this year! While Disney was busy trying to figure out how to navigate the pandemic, Loungefly kept up a steady flow of releases, and introduced us to some wonderful new jumbos! And their blind boxes are always fun to collect. Runner up for me was DSSH. Although I didn't get lucky with the wave I did like (The rainbows and waves), I did manage to get the latest ones, and I'm excited to see them!
I’m going with parks pins, love the I collect, Disney scents and park cruisers sets! Runner up would be dssh for me.
Shall we cross off ShopDisney solely for the level of packaging we've seen this year or am I just a little too bitter about that.... I thought Disney Parks did a fantastic job with MMMA though, super cute sets. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Pretty sure MMMA is a Disney Store monthly series. Not sure why it was released in parks, but I am chalking it up to this weird year.
Best open edition pins: Disneyland Paris - they consistently make large beautiful rack pins Best park-specific pins: HKDL - their Marvel pins are some of my favorite pins being released overall **this is pretty much an honorary win as I don't think they really had the chance to release anything this year, but I have faith they'll bring it again next year! Best licensee: ReedPop/Comic-Con - Skottie Young pins are consistently fun and the boxed ReedPop Skottie set which included a collection of Skottie pins, along with comics and a journal in a fantastic illustrated box was the best presentation I saw this year in terms of one overall offering - but runner-up I think the Loungefly LE jumbos were surprisingly impressive, too Best LE pins: Year in and year out - the only pins that come close to the quality of the greatest pins ever released (Disney Auctions) are WDI pins. Best of the year: WDI
Thinking... with the receipt of my Cheshire with balancing tea cups and the Amazon exclusive Manolorian pins... I am in agreement with Abyssinian28's assessment. I would like to change my vote to Loungefly.
I will vote for Soda fountain. They have some of my favorite releases of the year. Mother’s Day/Father’s Day, Christmas and rainbow pins.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
