Welcome to the latest edition of The Magic, The Memories, and Merch!, the longest running monthly look at the Disney Outlet Stores in Orlando. Today we’re going to kick off 2021 with a look at a whole bunch of merchandise before they make their inevitable way to the world famous Disney Dump. I, “Discount Derek,” have you covered in Florida while Christela “Clearance” McC is out in California checking out items at an outlet closer to Disneyland.

Let’s kick everything off by saying goodbye to last year with this 2020 branded snow globe. I thought the “2020” line of merchandise was bad, but if you’ve been to the Disney parks recently you already know that the 2021 branded merchandise somehow looks even worse. That doesn’t make any sense, but in the Mighty Marvel Manner I’m going to create a possible reason in order to earn a No-Prize. Here we go: apparently every creative person in Disney’s merchandise division was part of the 28,000 Cast Members who were let go, and this year’s designs were outsourced to the landscaping team. Landscapers used Adobe Illustrator for the first time and randomly selected color shapes and big numbers as the Disney logo. This was presented to Bob Chapek who approved it, saying: “Whatever. People will buy anything we put the Disney name on. Be sure to increase prices by $2 on every item.”

That’s the only thing that makes sense. Anyway, the snow globe was originally $14.99, now $4.99.

Disney themed face masks have started to take over the store. I only picked up the Enchanted Tiki Room one, and ended up going to Disney Springs afterwards to buy Captain America and Pizza Planet masks at full retail. Yes, you read that correctly, even after 8 years of doing this Outlet Report I still haven’t learned a single thing.

Here’s some more of the designs that are available, including some Halloween masks.

It was a big week for Jungle Cruise news, and just like online trolls goosing up GameStop stock to have some major LOLs at the expense of a billion dollar hedgefund, any time Disney news goes mainstream you see a run on product. When a shelf is almost bare like the one pictured below, it’s generally because an eBay pirate and their crew just gutted the stock. This shelf held a Jungle Cruise bottle with a fun “backside of water” gag. (The logo is printed on the inside of the bottle.) Originally $19.99, now $7.99.

Tons of Ink & Paint branded items arrived at the outlets this month, including this Magnetic Toothpick Holder Set. I really wanted to like this, but the toothpick holders themselves are all Mickey head shaped and it just looks weird. Originally $34.99, now $9.99.

This Ink & Pain paint box contained 20 different paint colors and two paint brushes. Originally $14.99, now $7.99.

I passed on the paint set, but I did buy this art set for the kiddos. It contained a whole bunch of stuff. This was originally $24.99, reduced to $9.99.

These “paint cans” contained one of five different Sorcerer mickey plush and they all look horrendous. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT THIS? Originally $19.99, now $5.99.

The next two items are Ink & Paint plates and bowls. They were huge and very heavy. Disney spared no expense on these. The plate was originally $19.99, now $7.99.

While the bowl was originally a whopping $39.99, now $19.99.

So many new pins at the outlets this month including this mystery box set featuring Disney characters done up in an 8 bit video game style. Love the style, but I despise mystery pin sets. I’ve never “collected” pins per se, just bought the ones I’ve liked, but I collect and have collected many things over the years and I just can’t picture enjoying any of them if they were sold in a fashion like mystery boxes. Imagine a comic book set where you open the package and the one you wanted to read wasn’t in there, but two other comics you had no interest in were. Or going to Toys R Us back in the day and buying a GI Joe or Star Wars action figure and not knowing which one is in the package. It just seems bonkers. Originally $14.99, now $7.99.

Gorgeous Flower & Garden 2020 Minnie Mouse pin. I know it’s just on the card and not the actual pin, but I love the pink Spaceship Earth. Pin was reduced to $7.99.

This Minnie Mouse Flower & Garden pin “flipped up” to reveal a picture underneath. I’ve seen many pins at the outlets over the years where you “open a door” or flip something up and none of them seem like something I would ever want to buy. Reduced to $7.99.

I was this-close to buying the Flower & Garden pin featuring the Animated Little You Know What Figment topiary, but ended up passing on it because I already have too many pins. “Limited Edition,” but there were a whole bunch just at the outlets alone. Reduced to $7.99.

Just said I have too many pins but like I wasn’t going to buy this awesome Tower of Terror set?!! C’mon now, you know me better than that. Originally $19.99, now $9.99.

This Tower of Terror pin was kind of cool, as you could slide a piece up and down to make it appear like Donald, Mickey, and Goofy were on the attraction.

Not a fan of this TOT bellhop pin. This pin and the ones following it were reduced to $3.99.

LOVED both of these pins, one featuring Mickey and the Tower of Terror and a super creepy Haunted Mansion one.

Also enjoyed this pin featuring the singing graveyard busts from the Haunted Mansion.

I mean this pin is nuts right? You have a 15th anniversary pin for The Incredibles, which is already a kind of odd anniversary to celebrate for a movie. Okay, that’s weird enough, but the pin features Mr. Incredible and Mirage? Like this was an important moment in the movie?! WHAAAAAAAAAT?

Master Sorcercer pin, which I like to refer as “stolen valor” for the the true heroes of the theme park wars: bloggers.

Love Wilderness Lodge. LOVE IT. Recently, a huge smile came to my face when the hotel appeared for a brief moment on the Disney Sing Along Series – Campout at Walt Disney World. One of Disney’s best hotels. Not a fan of either of these two pins though.

Black Spire Outpost pin from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Originally $9.99, now $4.99.

Going to start a pool on what year we will stop seeing Disney trying to unload all the Galaxy’s Edge grand opening merchandise. These two pins were reduced to $4.99.

You may remember Zorri Bliss from The Rise of Skywalker.

Sometimes you’ll see an item with no price for it. Sometimes that’s because there isn’t one and I don’t want to actively search for it. However, most of the time it’s because my picture of the price  looks like the one below.

Okay, so we’ve seen a lot of the Star Wars: The Black Series line of action figures, like Zorii above. This is a high end line meant to appeal to collectors. Last month we saw the Star Wars Toybox line of action figures. This month another line was available featuring C-3PO and Finn in what looks kind of like the Toybox line, but also like thet were part of some sort of animated series that doesn’t exist. Even stranger, the Finn action figure has The Rise of Skywalker label, but C-3PO doesn’t. All of these and then you have the normal carded Star Wars action figures at stores like Target and Wal-Mart. Collecting Star Wars action figures was maybe one of the most fun things I did when growing up, but today it sounds exhausting. These figures were $10.99, which may be their normal full retail price.

Whatever line that C-3PO and Finn are a part of also has this First Order Treadspeeder. Pretty cool, especially because it has an action where  you can make it crash and toss off the stormtrooper. The toy was $19.99.

Lucasfilm and Disney food keychains. I don’t really understand the food one, but maybe it’s part of a line and another keychain uses “churro” and “a Dole Whip” instead. Who knows. Both reduced to $2.99.

Last month we saw that weird Stitch keychain, and this month there was a Donald Duck version.

Goofy too. Both of these were $3.99.

Disney antenna toppers which definitely would have fit in well for Flower & Garden merchandise. Reduced to $3.99.

This may be the best Disney patch I’ve ever seen. Adorable. Originally $9.99, now $3.99.

A spirit jersey. For dogs. Who would buy this?

YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT I BOUGHT IT.

Bacini – the official dog of DisTwitter – is now a verified Disney Influencer and gets all the perks that come along with that title.

These photo frames featuring Disney Dogs was reduced to $5.99. I bought four of them. One for us, and three more to give away as Christmas gifts with a Disney Influencer Bacini picture.

I can’t be the only one to realize how STUPID any photo would look in the shape of Space Mountain, right? Try to imagine four of your family’s favorite vacation photos put in these spots and how insane it would look to someone else seeing them. Originally $34.99, now $12.99.

So here’s a little “Inside Baseball” for you. Before the SATURDAY SIX and the Outlet Report is released to the public, it is sent to an elite trusted blue-panel ribbon of advisors to help be a firewall and protect you from typos and other non-sense. Well, one of them read a preview and sent back the following photo from their living room…

Now this photo frame before is much better. I’m getting Port of Entry vibes from it, and that’s high praise. Originally $29.99, now $9.99.

MagicBands! Get your Flower & Garden MagicBands here!

Flower & Garden MagicBand.

Flower & Garden MagicBand featuring Figment.

The Flower & Garden MagicBands were a limited edition of 2,000. Behind the counter at the Outlets was this MagicBand themed to Father’s Day featuring Nemo and his dad, Marlin. This was a limited edition of 1,000. This was originally $34.99, reduced to $8.99 and I bought one. I don’t collect MagicBands. There is no reason for me to have purchases this whatsoever barring a deep psychology study.

Disney iPhone cases. Originally $29.99, now $7.99.

Magnets featuring a particular letter, reduced to under a dollar.

Nemo and Dory magnets, reduced to $3.99.

My blurry picture doesn’t do this Mickey Mouse magnet justice. I like this one. Reduced to $1.99.

Set of 5 Mickey head magnets. Reduced to $5.99.

Speaking of Mickey, here he is on a piece of artwork. Originally $39.99, now $19.99. Did not buy this.

But I did buy this one! This is the Toy Story characters as drawn by one of my all time favorite comic book artists, J Scott Campbell. You may remember a few months ago when the outlets had postcards featuring this drawing and I lost my mind. This was even better. Couldn’t believe it!

Sheriff Woody plush. Originally $26.99, now $12.99.

Big fan of this style of cute plush. Apparently it’s from a line of “Big Feet.” Cheshire, Thumper, and Dumbo were available. All reduced to $7.99.

In fact there was a whole bunch of other plush around the store and they were all reduced to $7.99. The Pluto and Minnie Mouse plush below are called “crafted,” which is apparently a line that is themed around the idea “what if you bought plush that looks like it was made 100 years ago?”

L’il Moana plush.

Stitch and Pink Stitch (AKA “Angel”.)

At first I thought this cat was from Secret Life of Pets, but realized that’s a Disney movie. I  then thought this cat was from Soul, but when I watched Soul I realized that was a different cat. Took a while but found out this guy was from Big Hero 6.

I’m guessing this Groot was one of those magnet gimmicks where it can sit on your shoulder. Originally $12.99, now $4.99.

Princess plush based around the Disney Animator’s Collection style.

This toy featuring Jasmine is also based on the Animator’s Collection. I love that style and it works on stuff like this much better than the plush above. Reduced to $9.99.

I was just thinking about these style of pens back in the day that had like 10 different colors in them. Mickey Mouse pen was reduced to $2.99, while Minnie Mouse was $3.99.

I bought this Pixar crayon set, because I didn’t look closely enough and thought they were pens or markers. Originally $19.99, now $7.99.

The VHS-style notebooks returned with The Emperor’s New Groove. Reduced to $7.99.

These notebooks seemed much thicker than the original run which featured movies like The Little Mermaid and Lion King.

Haunted Mansion notepad set. Originally $9.99, now $4.99.

The art design on this Haunted Mansion “thing” is incredible. The skull being made up of the hatbox ghost drawing and graveyard is incredible. Have no idea what it would be used for though. Clip it to a backpack? Originally $17.99, now $7.99.

The Toybox set below featuring Captain America and Winter Solider is easily in one of the top 6 items I have ever bought at the Disney Outlet Store. Maybe I should do an article on that one day. Write in the comments if you would want to see a “Best of the Worst” writeup of my favorite things that I’ve purchased at the Outlets over the years. This set was originally $39.99, now $10!!!

Black Panther gloves. Originally $29.99, now $9.99. I mentioned earlier that after I left the outlets I went to Disney Springs. Well, at the World of Disney store they were selling these gloves at full retail.

While I was at the Outlet Store, someone alerted to me to this tweet.

Speaking of Disneyland, the Matterhorn Boblsed Funko Pop came to the outlets. No surprise there as I’m pretty sure every parks related Funko Pop has come to the Outlets. Reduced to $19.99. Don’t ask me why, but I bought one.

Speaking of Disneyland, what a perfect time to head on out to California and see what Christela McC has found at the Outlets on that side of the country.

First up is a Disneyland Resort spirit jersey that is from the Ink & Paint line of merchandise we were swamped with in the Florida outlets. I love the “concept” of this style, with a character half sketched out and half colored, but on this spirit jersey it just looks horrible, in my opinion. Too “busy.” Originally $64.99, now $27.99.

Here is the front of the spirit jersey.

This 2020 hoodie was originally a bonkers $64.99, now just $9.99.

The back of the hoodie does have a nice design.

Haunted Mansion shirt. Originally $24.99, now $7.99.

Lots of puppy spirit jerseys out in California too. They were all priced at $12.99 or $13.99. The Disneyland t-shirt was reduced to $7.99, and Christela has picked up one for Bacini, so we’ll post a picture of him wearing that in this fine blog series in the near future.

Not a bad looking Disneyland tote bag, especially since Sleeping Beauty Castle is 1:1 scale and the actual one could be put into the bag. Originally $49.99, $16.99.

Disneyland Resort canvas tote featuring Mickey Mouse. Originally $49.99, now $14.99.

This is interesting. An Ink & Paint backpack which comes with markers to color it in. Originally $34.99, now $16.99.

Disneyland Resort water bottles. You can fill them up with all the tears from the “former” Annual Passholders. The bottle on the left was originally $22.99, now $11.99 while the blue bottle on the right was originally $27.99, now $13.99.

Pair of Yoda ears that for some reason are branded Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Originally $29.99, now $12.99.

Gaudy Disneyland Resort ballcap. Originally $27.99, now $6.99.

Thanks Christela! Let’s head back to Florida and check more crap. First up, well, what do you know, we have a gaudy ballcap of our own! WDW’s version was reduced to $7.99.

These gold and silver hats are certainly going for “a look.” Mickey hat here was originally $27.99, now $7.99.

Pizza Planet hat. Originally $27.99, now $14.99.

Snowman hats.

Stitch ears. Not bad. Originally $19.99, now $7.99.

Lightning McQueen ears that are nowhere near as cool.

Rainbow ears down to $1.99.

There were a lot of these “character head bands” around the store.

Before we get to shirts, there was an actual deal going on for them this month.

First up is this WDW entrance sign shirt. This is pretty cool.

Close up on the design.

Back in December, when we did the 2020 Theme Park Turkeys of the Year awards, the entire design was based around this entrance sign.  You’ll see on the brick column on the right, “paint by numbers” that was referencing the castle in Disney’s Magic Kingdom being repainted, but also there because this sign was in the process of being changed over (hence why the old design is now at the Outlets).

I really like this Food & Wine shirt featuring Minnie and Mickey as chefs. Originally $36.99, now $7.99.

Not a bad looking Pizza Planet spirit jersey if I do say so myself. Reduced to $29.99.

Minnie Mouse and Jasmine hoodies. Minnie was originally $54.99, while Jasmine was $50, both reduced to $19.99.

While in the process of writing this article, @bioreconstruct took a picture of an article of clothing which will soon be featured in these very pages.

These Flower & Garden shirts were originally $29.99, reduced down to $2.99. Love that price, and enjoy both of these designs, but only some really big sizes were available for most of them.

Retro shirts featuring “1971,” the year WDW opened. Both were originally $34.99, while one on left reduced to $9.99 and one on right down to $12.99.

Kid’s shirt featuring Cinderella Castle with the sequins gimmick. Originally $34.99, now $14.99.

Sometimes I take pictures at the outlets that I feel may put me on a Watch List. This is one of those photos.

Food & Wine Festival water bottle. Originally $27.99, now an oddly priced $19.59.

Food & Wine coffee cup which I guess is supposed to be a chef’s hat upside down. Pretty weird.

On the bottom of the mug though was a pretty nice surprise.

Haunted Mansion-themed plate. Originally $14.99, now $7.99.

Haunted Mansion ornaments. Originally $14.99, now $2.99.

Very large ornament, that appears extremely breakable. Originally $29.99, now $5.99.

Santa Mickey ornaments. Originally $16.99, now $2.99.

Christmas tote.

Nightmare Before Christmas wreath. This was so bonkers I had to buy for a friend who LOVES Halloween. Originally $44.99, now $4.99.

And we’ll close with the least surprising item of all, another piece of merchandise from Pandora: The World of Avatar. This Shaman of Songs figurine was originally $29.99, now $9.99. I think this would make for a neat water fountain-like item, but as just a figurine it seems like an elaborate door stop. Originally $29.99, now $9.99.

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

BEFORE YOU ASK: There are actually two Disney outlet stores in Orlando. Both are in Orlando Premium Outlets shopping complexes, and they are called Disney’s Character Warehouse, presumably because The Land Of Misfit Toys was already trademarked. There is one Character Warehouse located on International Drive close to Universal Studios (4951 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32819), and the other is on Vineland Avenue, right across I-4 near the exits to Disney World (8200 Vineland Ave, Orlando, FL 32821). They do not ship. There are items at the Outlets that you can buy both in Disney stores along with the Shop Disney Parks app, but you will be paying full retail for the items. For our CALIFORNIA OUTLET trips, @ChristelaMcC goes to the Las Americas outlet in San Diego. It is located right off the last U.S. exit.

I often get asked “which store is better?” That depends. Vineland is close to Walt Disney World, while the I-Drive location is a hop, skip, and jump away from the Universal Orlando Resort. The Vineland Disney Outlet Store is much, MUCH bigger than the I-Drive location. However, the Vineland outlets in general are much, MUCH busier than I-Drive. Each have their pros and cons, and ultimately they carry much of the same items. For a Disney Outlet Store FAQ, check out this SATURDAY SIX Presents: Everything You Wanted To Know About The Disney Outlet Stores (But Were Afraid To Ask)

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Very Special Editions & Milestones: Tribute to O.O.G.; Four Year Anniversary Special; First Pandora Items; Five Year Anniversary Special & Outlet Hall of Fame; Major Changes Come to the Outlets; Camera Hat; the Outlets Reopen after Coronavirus shut down

We also did an edition of Magic, Memories, and Junk for a non-Disney owned Outlet Store, and for you merch addicts like myself, you may also enjoy a look at the official Disney merchandise available on the Disney Cruise Line, Castaway Cay, and at the Orlando International Airport. Want to see our favorite WDW resort-specific merchandise? Well, CLICK HERE!

If you liked what you read here, you may enjoy THE SATURDAY SIX articles every week on the TouringPlans.com blog and you can follow your humble author on Twitter (@derekbugan).

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