Early this Sunday morning, I left New Hampshire in the middle on a snowstorm. After a quick plane change in Detroit (where — at that time — it was a frigid 6 degrees), I caught a flight out to Los Angeles. Where — as soon as my plane landed at LAX on Sunday afternoon, I grabbed my bags and then hustled out to curbside. Where I then jumped into a car that was headed to Garden Grove.
"And what was out in Garden Grove?," you ask. Well, this was where the Disneyana Fan Club …
Photo by Jim Hill
… was holding its Disneyana Collectibles Expo. This past Sunday, the convention space towards the back of the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort was filled with row after row of rarities.
Photo by Jim Hill
Where — if you kept a sharp eye out — you could discover genuine pieces of Walt Disney Company history like this MAPO sign …
Photo by Jim Hill
… or fun but funky pieces like this Disney / Star Wars mash-up Big Figs. Which put Minnie in Princess Leia's slave costume as well as reimagining Goofy as Jar Jar Binx.
Photo by Jim Hill
What's that you say? You're not all that enthusiastic when it comes to shopping. Not to worry. There's still plenty of stuff for someone like yourself to do at a Disneyana Fan Club event like this past weekend's Collectible Expo. You could have gotten Leslie Ann Warren or Johnny Whitaker's autograph …
Photo by Jim Hill
Or better yet gotten the chance to chat with Tinker Bell herself …
Photo by Jim Hill
… the always lovely Margaret Kerry.
Photo by Jim Hill
And thanks to the nice folks at PinPics.com, there were some pretty spectacular displays of rare Disney pin scattered around the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort's convention space on Sunday.
Photo by Jim Hill
I wish that I had had more time to shop and explore at this year's Disneyana Collectible Expo. But given that I didn't get to Garden Grove 'til 3:15 p.m. and the Expo closed at 5 p.m., it was kind of a whirlwind visit. Even so, it was nice to get the chance to touch base with old friends like Sam Gennawey (who — FYI — has a terrific new book about Disneyland Park coming out in July) before it was time to once again hit the road.
By the way, if Sunday's Disneyana Collectibles Expo sounds like the sort of event that you might enjoy attending, please keep in mind that the 2013 edition of DisneyanaMania (i.e the Disneyana Fan Club's annual convention) is being held at this very same Garden Grove, CA. hotel Thursday, July 11th through Sunday, July 14th. And if you'd like to learn more about this annual event and/or the Disneyana Fan Club itself … Well, then I suggest that you drop by the official DFC website and do some poking around.