Disney Heroes vs. Villains Designer Collection

Hearing Elsa and Hans are D23 exclusive makes me wan to cry. There will be fewer than the SQ Elsa and about as many as Wedding Cinderella. Geez, it'd almost make the price of air fare, hotel, D23 tickets, waiting in line for hours on end and time off work seem like a bargain to get it. This really makes me disgusted with Disney. I was just reading an article about how Disney prices out the middle class. I hope they at least have another version of the Elsa and Hans that are nice and not exclusive like they did with the previous D23 exclusives. If so, I wonder how they differ. Maybe the accessories won't be included? Because I can't see how the colors would be different. I actually thought the regular versions were nicer than the exclusives on the previous releases. Ah well... there are worse things in the world to gripe about than dolls....

All and all, though, I am getting really excited for these releases. I still haven't been able to save enough, and I need to replace my fence, but I'm not mature enough to make that a priority over the dolls. I'm really hoping for the Evil Queen with Snow White instead of the Hag, but I'll buy it either way. I love Ariel and Ursula. I agree they look too cramped, but it's be odd if they posed too much like the couples.

Attending d23 expo for the first time this year and I'm overly excited already! Have some questions for fellow collectors who has been to the expo in the past (apologies if another thread exists for this):

- I'm reading there are 3 different stores (disney store, dream store and imagineer glendale?) if I'm looking for limited edition dolls and d23 exclusive items which store should I be going to?
- how early do people usually line up? I'm reading somewhere they don't let you queue up until 5am or sth but do people queue up elsewhere prior?
- does being a d23 gold member/entering an hour early make a huge difference? I know the sorcerror package gets the most dibs but wondering if it's worth $80 for the gold membership?

any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

D23 always gets a variant - I can't imagine that Disney would actually have an actual part of the line exclusive to D23.

I'm glad there is something to read about in the forums about the new dolls for D23 Expo!
Though I really thought there would be a brand new line instead of continuing the "Designer Fairytale" line since it's going off in weird start with already two opposites in a small box.
To be honest, I would've actually like them in the 17" bigger box and seeing how Merida and Queen Elinor looked with the two of them in their boxes.

I can't really say if I'm head over heels for this set (though it's no lie I'm love with the idea and the two pairs that's been announced so far) but I want to wait until they fully announced all the details and pictures of the entire set itself.
Already I'm in love with the artwork, the dolls not too much. But again, I want to wait until I see the whole thing all together and then have all my emotions and notes as a whole.
But I'm looking forward to TheDisneyFanatic's point and see the pairs that you usually don't see dolls for like Belle and Gaston and Jasmine and Jafar (which is the only dolls I'm hoping they add).
What I'm sort of freaking about is the pins itself for this set and how low the LE are. This is also my first D23 Expo and have to prepare what stores in the expo to go first.

I have to agree with the above a bit.... I find both sets kind of, lackluster? They don't look much different from earlier dolls and their posing is odd to me since they are heroes/villains I would expect a not so friendly pose. Hmm, maybe if there are more (like an Aurora/Maleficent) I'll like those better. So far I'm a bit disappointed.