While Buzz, Woody and their friends Slinky and RC Racer are not yet ready to welcome guests to the Toy Story Playland in the Walt Disney Studios (see our latest reports about the construction progress and the official opening date) they are getting out in force all over the resort anyway. As some of the central characters of this year’s “New Generation Festival” they are certainly prominently featuring on all new merchandise and are also even more frequently than usual greeting guests in both parks. However, with the immanent release of the all new “Toy Story 3″ (in 3D!) to the cinemas all over Europe their presence in the resort’s shops has been increased another notch.
The photo above was taken in the Hollywood Pictures boutique in the Disney Village and shows the already impressive selection of “Toy Story 3″ merchandise that has arrived in the resort even prior to the movie’s release in France (after breaking records in the US). The Hollywood Pictures boutique currently features the largest selection of Toy Story 3 merchandise but products are being added to the other shops as well. Speaking of adding products on the shelves: it seems the resort has made a major change to its merchandise concept.
In the past the resort created a new range of products for a festival (such as the current “New Generation Festival”) rather early during its run and placed all of it in the stores at once (if possible). The result: once all new products were available frequent guests didn’t really feel any need to browse the shops until the next season came up unless a sale was on. However, this year there is a constant influx of new “New Generation Festival” related merchandise and other products since early this year, enticing frequent guests to go back and browse in the shops more often.
Toy Story 3 might not have yet opened all over Europe (even so it already broke several records in the US – link to the Mousekingdom report) however the TS3 merchandise already arrived in several locations in the resort. Seen here is the Hollywood Pictures boutique in the Disney Village. In a change to prior years there is a multitude of new merchandise that has been added to the shelfs in the recent weeks. While DLP traditionally added all its new merchandise for a season in a rather short time window this year new merchandise seems to have been spaced out over a longer period so that regular guests find new items frequently.