A long strange trip to Disney Paris
Jan. 14th, 2008 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tikistitchSo, we're going to ramble on a bit here, partly because we have a lot of pictures, but also partly because we want to tell this tale in full, since it's kind of about collecting, and why we do it, and what you learn without intending to.
Andway, it all started with a picture of this toy:
A friend of Mr. Tikistitch, who knows of our obsession, was visiting Disneyland Resort Paris just before Halloween last year, and stopped to snap a photo of some Stitchie plush pumpkins.
We hadn't seen them before. One of the many charms (as well as hazards) of collecting Disney items is that each Disney park around the world is allowed to furnish itself with unique merchandise.
Anyway, we wrote back that we hadn't seen these items before, and asked if he'd mind picking them up on his next trip? He kindly agreed. He was in fact planning to return just after Halloween, on November 1st or 2nd.
However, when he got to the park, the Stitch pumpkins had all been put away. Moreover, they refused to take any out to sell to him.
We were a bit frustrated, but also, oddly, charmed. It seemed somehow very French to refuse to sell an item after the appropriate date had passed! Like, walking the streets in an un-chic outfit, eating day old bread. Just not done.
So, undaunted, we sought out eBay. Just about anything you want, they do it, eBay! Right?
Or, not. Frustrated, we also looked to eBay.co.uk, where some sellers offered Paris park merchandise. Unfortunately, 99.5% of it was pins.
Undaunted, we waded into eBay.co.fr. And voila!! Not only punkin Stitch, but devils and angels and everything in between! The trick, of course, would be to convince at least one of them to take the plunge and ship overseas.
We finally found a dealer who was excited about actually selling stuff. She was, in fact, a veritable treasure trove of Stitch, offering an entire catalog of items we'd never heard about previously.
We finally agreed upon a pile of stuff, and she wrapped it up and mailed it the first week of December, hoping, she said, that the giant Pere Noel Stitch would make it to Casa de Tikistitch by Christmas.
Then, we waited.
And waited.
The dealer wrote us just last week, a little frantic, wondering why she hadn't heard from us. By that time, our French tracking number, which had never conveyed any information other than, "The post office is preparing to mail this item," had actually expired. Yes, French tracking numbers are only good for 30 days, which would be of no mind if their post office actually bothered to dispatch their items within that timeframe.
Finally, this weekend, just over a month after dispatch, the broken box arrived on our doorstep, held together by several reels USPS tape.
It's been nearly three months since our friend first sent us an image of a Pumpkin Stitch. It's now to late for Halloween, and even too late for Christmas. But it doesn't really matter, because living at Casa de Tikistitch, it's always Halloween, and every time we get a box, it's Christmas again. We're a happy little collector, and more than that, a bit smug, as we feel we managed to actually wrest these particular items from a very reluctant universe. Nothing defeats a tiki. Not even French postal workers.
NOTE: The magnets pictured above are not from DLP. They are in fact, probably bootlegs, based on some unlicensed Chinese posters from a few years back. The picture puzzle is licensed, but is also not from the park.
Andway, it all started with a picture of this toy:
A friend of Mr. Tikistitch, who knows of our obsession, was visiting Disneyland Resort Paris just before Halloween last year, and stopped to snap a photo of some Stitchie plush pumpkins.
We hadn't seen them before. One of the many charms (as well as hazards) of collecting Disney items is that each Disney park around the world is allowed to furnish itself with unique merchandise.
Anyway, we wrote back that we hadn't seen these items before, and asked if he'd mind picking them up on his next trip? He kindly agreed. He was in fact planning to return just after Halloween, on November 1st or 2nd.
However, when he got to the park, the Stitch pumpkins had all been put away. Moreover, they refused to take any out to sell to him.
We were a bit frustrated, but also, oddly, charmed. It seemed somehow very French to refuse to sell an item after the appropriate date had passed! Like, walking the streets in an un-chic outfit, eating day old bread. Just not done.
So, undaunted, we sought out eBay. Just about anything you want, they do it, eBay! Right?
Or, not. Frustrated, we also looked to eBay.co.uk, where some sellers offered Paris park merchandise. Unfortunately, 99.5% of it was pins.
Undaunted, we waded into eBay.co.fr. And voila!! Not only punkin Stitch, but devils and angels and everything in between! The trick, of course, would be to convince at least one of them to take the plunge and ship overseas.
We finally found a dealer who was excited about actually selling stuff. She was, in fact, a veritable treasure trove of Stitch, offering an entire catalog of items we'd never heard about previously.
We finally agreed upon a pile of stuff, and she wrapped it up and mailed it the first week of December, hoping, she said, that the giant Pere Noel Stitch would make it to Casa de Tikistitch by Christmas.
Then, we waited.
And waited.
The dealer wrote us just last week, a little frantic, wondering why she hadn't heard from us. By that time, our French tracking number, which had never conveyed any information other than, "The post office is preparing to mail this item," had actually expired. Yes, French tracking numbers are only good for 30 days, which would be of no mind if their post office actually bothered to dispatch their items within that timeframe.
Finally, this weekend, just over a month after dispatch, the broken box arrived on our doorstep, held together by several reels USPS tape.
It's been nearly three months since our friend first sent us an image of a Pumpkin Stitch. It's now to late for Halloween, and even too late for Christmas. But it doesn't really matter, because living at Casa de Tikistitch, it's always Halloween, and every time we get a box, it's Christmas again. We're a happy little collector, and more than that, a bit smug, as we feel we managed to actually wrest these particular items from a very reluctant universe. Nothing defeats a tiki. Not even French postal workers.
NOTE: The magnets pictured above are not from DLP. They are in fact, probably bootlegs, based on some unlicensed Chinese posters from a few years back. The picture puzzle is licensed, but is also not from the park.
