Round Pegs in Square Holes...

One of the things that we can always be sure of when it comes to Disney is that they love to do things differently. While I have seen nonstandard license plates occasionally in my day to day driving experiences, I really didn't know what to think when Disney started churning out these oval shaped plates. To the best of my knowledge (which is suspect more often than not), Disney has not released any nonstandard plates to the general public, which means that once again the cast members get all the fun. There have been several of these oval shaped plates issued, all cast member only, covering subjects from anniversaries to charitable causes, as well as the first one listed here, which is basically a license plate recreation of a cast member name tag.




But the fun doesn't end there...nay nay I say. Disney also went ahead and issued variant plates among all this oval shaped goodness. The first one below isn't so much a variant because it was released concurrently with the tan one above, maybe because they wanted to give CMs a little variety or something. The second Disney Hand one is most definitely a variant, and I believe that there is another variant of it out there, but I don't own one and don't have a scan of one so you'll just have to take my word for it.




I really enjoy it when Disney shakes things up a little bit and throws a curveball out there. It keeps us collectors on our toes and gives us some good variety in our collections (and makes us spend a lot more money in the process). Till next time I hope you all have a terrific week, keep those prayers for Jordan going, they are definitely helping, and I want to wish you all a wonderful Disney Day!

Diamonds in the Rough...

In a previous post I talked about mistakes that have been made with some of the license plates that have made their way into the hands of the general public. The most notable ones have been the mistakes that were made on the 1970 WDW pre-opening license plates:



These are just two of the error plates that made their way into circulation. There are others such as the green mis-cut, which has no white printing and is a little longer than the plate above with the edge of another plate attached to it. There is also a double plate that has been found as well as several other mis-cuts. Steve Garner has some great pictures of these errors on his website if you would like to see them.

The main subject of this post, however, is a little gem that was discovered by my younger brother while searching for license plates on one of his WDW vacations. We have developed the habit of looking through literally every single license plate on every rack we come across just in case there are any variants in the pile. It was during one of these searches that my brother ran across this plate:


For the sake of comparison, here is what it's supposed to look like:


The error on my brother's plate, although pretty obvious, is made all the more interesting when it's observed first-hand. Not only is there an error on the Mickey, but all of the black print on the license plate is shifted over to the left. This being an aluminum plate, all of the lettering is raised when the plate is stamped, and the lettering for the word "STUDIOS" is shifted in such a manner that the lettering itself sits on the flat of the plate while the raised sections remain blank. In my opinion this plate is truly a rare find in that it's one of those errors that's just a glitch in the printing process that may not have been duplicated more than a couple of times, making this license plate a true "Diamond in the Rough."

Now, as a bonus for making everyone wait so long for a new post, I want to share another Disney MGM Studios license plate. This was a cast member only issue many years ago. The special thing about this license plate is not that it was only issued to cast members, but that it was also issued with a letter from Dick Nunis thanking them for all of their hard work. This is not by any means the norm with Disney license plates, cast member or otherwise. Normally they are simply issued en masse to the public or the cast members or to the appropriate group in the case of opening team and other exclusive commemorative plates. This plate is one of the true gems of my collection as I was able to not only acquire the plate but also the original copy of the letter that was issued with it:





I truly hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that I can get back to a somewhat regular posting schedule again very soon. Till next time, Have a wonderful Disney day!!!

Even Cast Members Get Left Out...

As I've posted here before, there have been many license plates that are produced specifically for cast members. These license plates are not available to the public except through auction sites like ebay, and sometimes through more esoteric channels (a friend of a friend of a friend knows a guy...). Some of these license plates are very highly sought after and the prices of these plates have soared into the hundreds of dollars on very regular occasions.

There are times when being a cast member isn't even enough. Disney has, on numerous occasions, gone even deeper and separated specific groups of cast members from the rest. These specific groups have, much to their good fortune, been the recipients of some very hard to find license plates. Who are these cast member groups? What makes them so special?

The groups that I am speaking of are the Opening Teams. Cast members who are in some way associated with the opening of a new resort, attraction, or even a park. Disney has established a history of producing Opening Team license plates which are distributed only to these cast members. This means a limited number are produced and distributed, oftentimes making these license plates more valuable than even other cast member plates. If you are a collector and you have to good fortune to run across one of these for a decent price, buy it, they don't show up very often.

Round and Round...

Who says a license plate has to be a rectangle? Apparently Disney doesn't feel that way, as they have released a number of oval shaped license plates. Unfortunately these license plates have not been made available to the general public for sale, but they can be found on ebay pretty regularly. These oddly shaped plates have shown up to commemorate a number of different events, and at least one was made to resemble a Disney Cast Member name tag (look at the bottom of the page!). I really think these are some of the most original license plates that Disney has produced, and I'm really hoping that they produce more of them. Once again, these are not all of the oval plates I own; I actually have plans for posts involving some of the others.




This is definitely one of those instances where Cast Members have been treated to a nice little bonus that us run of the mill Disney Nuts missed out on!

World of Motion Reborn

The ceremonial last ride of World of Motion in 1996 marked the beginning of what amounted not to a dramatic 2 year refurb, but instead to a complete rebirth of one of EPCOT Center's original attractions. Test Track, due to many different issues during its construction, missed 2 opening dates, and finally opened to the public on December 19, 1998. I can remember many trips during the construction where we would see ride vehicles screaming around the exterior track but no one being allowed in. There was a lot of speculation about what the experience would be and when it would finally open. As an "EPCOT Center purist," I can't say that I was totally disappointed, but I was not 100% happy with World of Motion's replacement. Rather than the whimsical history of transportation that was both fun and informational, and also a great nap spot for my dad, we were now transported inside of GM's proving grounds to experience the rigors of automobile testing. Although they tried to keep the mood somewhat light hearted, I more often find the interior stark and kind of slapped together. Long waits and even longer downtimes might have had something to do with the overall experience, as well as the industrial look of the queue area which just seems to lack the normal level of imagination seen in other attraction queues. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy this attraction, but I often wax nostalgic about the predecessor of this technological marvel. One of the really good things about the change to the attraction was that it sparked a pretty good number of license plates. There was a cast member plate:


The public, however, was not left out this time around, and we were graced with several license plates fit for public consumption:





There have been several other license plates issued since this first run was produced, and I will cover those in another post. I would also like to reiterate that I think this is a fine attraction, I just happen to be one of those people who is a sucker for the "vintage" attractions.

(updated) Welcome to the Wonderful World of Motion...

When EPCOT Center opened on October 1, 1982, one of the few Future World attractions was the transportation based World of Motion. This attraction, sponsored by General Motors and housed in The Transportation Pavilion, presented a history of transportation from the days of foot power all the way through futuristic methods such as the Lean Machine. The attraction was basically broken into two parts: the ride-through attraction and the TransCenter, which was presented in a walk-through format.

What set this attraction apart from its Future World counterparts was its approach to the subject matter. Unlike other EPCOT Center attractions, World of Motion was "the funny one," opting for a fun and whimsical approach over the more serious, sometimes even stern approach taken by its counterparts. The ride scenes, designed by Marc Davis, presented what would have otherwise been very serious fare in a most entertaining tongue in cheek fashion. Among the jokes were the invention of the wheel, used chariot sales (including a hidden Mickey), and Leonardo da Vinci ignoring a rather perturbed Mona Lisa so he could instead design flying machines. Also included was an effect somewhat akin to the hitchhiking ghosts at the Magic Kingdom, only this time the entire ride vehicle was made to look like a streamlined futuristic car.

Once your ride was over you were invited to explore the TransCenter, the walking part of the attraction. This part of the attraction was accessible both via the ride and through an exterior entrance, so you didn't necessarily have to ride to experience this part of the attraction. Numerous static and dynamic displays were included in this section as well as some "mini-attractions" like The Bird and the Robot and The Water Powered Engine. Among the static displays was a futuristic looking car, a magnetic powered train, several prototype GM designs, and various GM production vehicles.

World of Motion was in operation until January 2, 1996, when the ceremonial last ride was taken. The attraction underwent a major overhaul, reopening as Test Track on December 19, 1998.

So you're probably asking yourself, since this is a Disney License Plate Blog, is there a license plate involved somewhere in all of this? As a matter of fact there is, and as far as I've been able to find, it's a pretty rare one.

I don't know a great deal about this license plate (I'm sure you're getting used to hearing that by now), but from the information that I've been able to find it was issued only to GM employees and cast members who were involved with the construction and opening of the World of Motion attraction. To date I have only run across two of these, one on ebay, which cost me very dearly to purchase, and the other as a part of Steve Garner's collection. I know there have got to be more out there, so if anyone has one or has better or more accurate information about it please let me know and I will update appropriately.

I want to thank Steve Garner for the following information. In an email this morning he shared with me the information that he has on this plate.

"Discovered on e-Bay January 2003. Seller states that it belonged to a family member who oversaw the setup of the World Of Motion exhibit when Epcot opened. World Of Motion was a pavilion in Future World and opened October 1, 1982. The attraction was a ride through the history of the automobile. It was closed January 2, 1996 and was replaced by the Test Track attraction that opened in 1998.

A June 2005 e-Bay seller notes that the plate was only available to General Motors Public Relations staff and as a gift to the original test and adjust team with Epcot maintenance."

Judging by this it would seem that the plate is even more rare than I originally thought given the limited distribution.

Steve also gave the auction history from ebay, and it appears that I kind of got the short end on the auction block. I bought the second one that had shown up and paid the second highest auction amount for any of the ten auctions. One thing I can say for sure though is if I had it to do all over again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

EPCOT Turns 10...

In keeping with the widespread talk about Epcot's 25th anniversary, I'd like to take a look back at the last major celebration the park and the some of the license plates issued during that time. EPCOT Center (that name was so much better than just Epcot) turned 10 in 1992. As I remember it there really wasn't a huge celebration like the ones that were held to commemorate the anniversaries of the WDW Resort as a whole. We were, however, given more license plates to add to the collection. In my case I have one from general merchandise and one cast member only plate:


The plate above was available to the general public, but I did not buy it during the celebration. This is yet another of my ebay finds, this one being a lot more affordable and not nearly as heavily contested as some other plates.


The second plate is the cast member only issue for the celebration. Once again, this is an ebay find. I first ran across this plate on Steve Garner's Site and instantly had to get one for myself. This one actually came to me through my father (I will explain more about this later), who had purchased the plate on ebay. I think this license plate really does a great job of capturing the feel of the original EPCOT Center. It's not a flashy plate, and I really think the beauty of this plate lies in its simplicity of design. I also love the way they incorporated the original EPCOT Center type for all of the text.

There are other anniversary plates out there, and I will update as I am able to acquire them. Till next time, PARTY ON! EPCOT 25 is right around the corner!

Cast Members Get All the Best Stuff!

By far some of the best looking license plates I have seen are those reserved for cast members, especially the anniversary plates. They also make for some pretty hard searching when the general public tries to get their hands on them.


You'll notice quite often that I come up short on the history department where it applies to many of my license plates. The reason for this is that Disney does not keep any records on their license plates. They're considered general merchandise and are not tracked beyond the identification numbers on each different plate. I wish there was more that I could tell you about these but there really isn't much that I know about them beyond that they were cast member only issues for the 20th and 25th anniversaries.

Of course the general public got their own plates for these celebrations, but in my opinion they pale in comparison to the cast only ones.


All this talk of anniversaries and parties has gotten me looking through my collection for all of the anniversary stuff I have. In the next installment I'll be showing some of the stranger stuff that I happened to acquire during the anniversary celebrations.