Bates Disneyland Fabric - Tea Cups

I've had this fabric scanned and ready to post for a while, ever since the slew of feedsack and fabric posts back in August 2014, but I didn't know who made it so I held off on posting.  Today, we were finally able to make out the faintest copyright line in light pink(!) printing on the selvage, and it is in fact Bates like all the others.

The color of the fabric is not captured very well in this photo, it is really more of a very pale blue, but the pattern is pretty cool with old school tea cup ride decorations.  Sadly I don't have very much of it, and have never seen any more, would be cool to make a shirt out of this.

1963 Topps Temporary Tattoos

In 1963 Topps made a series of Disney character temporary tattoos that were printed on the inside of the wrapper of individual pieces of bubble gum, kinda like Bazooka bubble gum comic strips.  Oddly, the name of the gum was Tatoo Bubble Gum [sic] - I guess they felt that purposefully misspelling the word tattoo would prevent kids from getting real ones later in life.  We know these are from 1963 because the wrapper advertises the new Disney feature Summer Magic.

Currently I only have a March Hare tatoo, and it is amazing that even this one survived - after all why would you as a kid buy tattoo bubble gum if you weren't going to use the tattoo?  But I know there was at least an Alice and a Mad Hatter as well.  How do I know this?

Because I was fortunate enough to purchase the original art for all three of these tatoos from the Topps archive.  And tiny pieces of art they are too.

For more information on these Topps Tatoos, check out the amazing Topps Archive Blog (which I don't think is affiliated with the Topps Archive).

Swedish Trading Cards - 1000th POST!!

Wow.  I never thought I'd get to 1000 posts!  And it only took 7 years.  Let the fireworks commence!

I know essentially nothing about these, other than they appear to be Swedish (Alice i Underlandet), and that they are about the same size as a business card.  This first card has no number on the front, and the print of the copyright is totally different than all the rest, it might be from a different series.

This second card is fairly amusing, as it depicts Alice having a day of beauty with Minnie Mouse and Chip the chipmunk doing her hair and makeup.  You'd think she'd look better after all that work.  This is number 234.

Next is #315, featuring Alice talking to the Tulips.  I'm sure she could pick every one of them if she were her right size.

The Mad Tea Party with the Mad Hatter and March Hare is on #570, presenting Alice with her very own unbirthday cake.  You know today is my unbirthday too.

And lastly, #607, featuring art lifted from the Dell comic book Four Color 331.

I have no idea who made these, how many there are (although it appears to be a fairly huge number) and if they are all Alice or a variety of Disney characters, but in my 25 years of collecting these are the only 5 I've come across.  I welcome any information on these from anyone out there.

Blog Follower Needs Some Assistance

I don' t normally do this, but a follower of the blog who teaches English overseas is looking for some help to get to her next gig:  Thailand.  If you can, give her some help so she can continue teaching and maybe spread the Alice word to Thailand :-)

Alice and Cinderella Book by Collins of England

Whereas yesterday's Dean book is one of the prettiest Alice books, today's Collins Alice/Cinderella is perhaps one of the ... less attractive books.

First of all, why the combo book?  Was Collins short of funds and needed to combine two stories in a single book?  Secondly, who in the hell is the artist on this?  Alice looks like a cross between the big-eyed kids and a Tijuana black velvet painting - no offense to Margaret Keane.

The cover is nice, and that's about all I can say for it.  Surprisingly this book was reprinted in at least two other countries:  Italy and Brazil.

Alice in Wonderland Book by Dean of England

Possibly one of the prettiest books to come out of England during the original release (that didn't use Studio art) is the Dean book.

Released in 1951 it uses art that appears to be taken directly from frames of the film, with the exception of the cover and end papers.  It is difficult to find in good condition due mostly to the spine - which has a tendency to come off entirely.

In 2006 Disney released a reprint of this book in conjunction with the 55th anniversary of the film.  It looks just like the original, but with a few small differences.

1. The reprint comes with a dust jacket
2. The dust jacket has a big gold sticker on it that states this is a reprint from the 1951 original
3. The word Dean has been removed from the grass in the lower right corner of the cover.  
4. The lettering on the spine is totally different; the original has Alice in Wonderland vertically printed with the Dean horizontal at the base
5. The back cover has a UPC code - a sure indication that it is not from 1951 ;-)

Don't be fooled..

Alice's Sister Full Figure Cel

Cels of Alice's sister are rare enough, she has so little screen time, but full figure images are very tough simply because she's only on screen for a few seconds at the very end of the film standing over Alice trying to wake her up.  I recently acquired this full figure cel and it is quite lovely, wouldn't you agree?

Alice Animation Drawing - Watching the March of the Cards

Another cool - and large - drawing, this time just of Alice's head as she's watching the March of the Cards.  This scene was mostly animated by Hal Ambro, and Alice's head is really the only thing moving, the rest of her body was on a still cel.  Neat, isn't it?

White Rabbit Animation Drawing Sequence

Now this is really cool.  A sequence of drawings of the White Rabbit as animated by Bill Justice.  Bill was a good friend of mine, and it was me who reminded him on one of his birthday's, lo these many years ago, that he did in fact do considerable animation of this character.  This sequence of 14 drawings is from the scene where Alice has just grown huge in the White Rabbit's house, and he rushes off to get help.  While not a very long sequence in time - slighly more than 1/2 second - it is still amazing to see exactly how much detail is in each frame of animation.

Using a little Photoshop magic I have been able to create an animated GIF of these drawings above, so enjoy!  The full sequence of individuals follows.

Back on the Horse

Time to get back on the horse as they say, or in this case, start posting again dammit!  The new year has gotten far too far along with so very few posts, so I'm going to rectify that.  Oh, and I've got one, maybe two surprises coming up this year or next, so stay tuned for those :-)