New Adventureland Mug - Collecting Tiki

M Miehana Member Los Angeles Joined: Apr 03, 2002 Posts: 27	M Miehana Posted posted on Fri, Nov 10, 2006 2:50 PM Hi everyone, I just wanted to contribute some facts to this conversation, with advance apologies for the length. The new Disney"land" mugs were designed by Kevin and I for the parks 50th, hence all of the metallic gold decals. The original assignment was to create "Tiki" mugs for each of lands to capitalize on the great sales they were enjoying with the previous" Tiki Room" mugs that we had desigined. It took me a while to convince them to do only the five original lands (excluding "New Orleans Sq., "Critter Country" and "Toontown"). Instead of the land icons (such as Splash Mountain) being sculpted in Bas Relief against a standard cylindrical shape I thought it would be more interesting to let the actual icons be the mug. I will admit that this decision was entirely based on visual aesthetic rather than Rum consumption practicality. I believe all of the mugs were planned to be sold as a set together and were designed that way. That is why there is a limited color palette for each of the five but together on display they are sheer TECHNICOLOR. Other than my personal standard gripes about quality consistency on mass produced collectibles I am pleased with the end result. I like the hot metallic bottom stamps Kevin did using the original land fonts and that I was able to add the old Oceanic Arts Tiki panel that is still on the Adventureland entry way to this day (at least it better be). If there is one thing I have learned from designing Disney collectables is that you generally can not please everyone. If you don't like a particular item or are unhappy with it's quality then don't buy it. I am sure that our former Disney bosses would have loved Kevin and I to only produce the items that EVERY Disney collector would want ( in their eyes that would be Princesses, Tinker Bell and "Fantasia" Mickey). With that logic there would be no room for Mr. Toads, Monorails, Barker Birds or Tiki Room drummers (and how could we live with that?)! for those that are pleased...enjoy, Jody (the generally silent half of Miehana)

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to contribute some facts to this conversation, with advance apologies for the length. The new Disney"land" mugs were designed by Kevin and I for the parks 50th, hence all of the metallic gold decals. The original assignment was to create "Tiki" mugs for each of lands to capitalize on the great sales they were enjoying with the previous" Tiki Room" mugs that we had desigined. It took me a while to convince them to do only the five original lands (excluding "New Orleans Sq., "Critter Country" and "Toontown"). Instead of the land icons (such as Splash Mountain) being sculpted in Bas Relief against a standard cylindrical shape I thought it would be more interesting to let the actual icons be the mug. I will admit that this decision was entirely based on visual aesthetic rather than Rum consumption practicality. I believe all of the mugs were planned to be sold as a set together and were designed that way. That is why there is a limited color palette for each of the five but together on display they are sheer TECHNICOLOR.

Other than my personal standard gripes about quality consistency on mass produced collectibles I am pleased with the end result. I like the hot metallic bottom stamps Kevin did using the original land fonts and that I was able to add the old Oceanic Arts Tiki panel that is still on the Adventureland entry way to this day (at least it better be).

If there is one thing I have learned from designing Disney collectables is that you generally can not please everyone. If you don't like a particular item or are unhappy with it's quality then don't buy it. I am sure that our former Disney bosses would have loved Kevin and I to only produce the items that EVERY Disney collector would want ( in their eyes that would be Princesses, Tinker Bell and "Fantasia" Mickey). With that logic there would be no room for Mr. Toads, Monorails, Barker Birds or Tiki Room drummers (and how could we live with that?)!

for those that are pleased...enjoy,
Jody (the generally silent half of Miehana)

Post #265792 by Miehana on Fri, Nov 10, 2006 2:50 PM