Pin Collecting Outside the Box

[TheTwins]

“I resent the limitations of my own imagination.”  ~ Walt Disney

 

Today, we’re going to think outside the pin box. Walt Disney was all about imagination, and his art and vision gifted the world with opportunities that let our imaginations pick up where his left off. Disney art has given that gift to people for a century now, and pins allow us to enjoy it and use our own creativity to add personal touches to our collections. In this day and age, when life is crazy and things go so quickly that there never seems to be time to take a breath, pin trading and collecting can serve as a very happy place. I’ve been going through some posts here on the PinPics forum lately and been reminded of some particularly creative “spins” on pin collection themes and thought it’d be fun to talk about thinking outside of the box. More specifically, collecting outside the box.

Sis and I have never been very conventional in our collections (which are many) and certainly not completists. We can thank Mom, because she did a great job making our imaginations grow and run wild. She didn’t let us have battery-powered toys. We had tons of reading  time, very limited VHS viewing, and lots of playing. Our toys didn’t make noise unless we made the noise. Our dolls and plush didn’t talk unless we talked. You know, it was great. And it’s still great. There’s nothing more fun than using your imagination!

Defining a pin collection generally comes down to specific categories (e.g. Toy Story, Marie, Stitch, Star Wars, Christmas pins, etc.), and sometimes it can feel daunting to figure out a way to narrow down your collection, or to decide exactly which pins to add to it. But it can be fun! There are so many cool pins out there, right? Let’s take a look at some very imaginative displays with unique themes that really think outside the box.

 

A Royal Idea
Whenever the topic of pin displays comes to my mind, the first thing I think of is the coolest board by @Vally. Before checking it out, we’ll start with a question: How can these pins turn into a themed collection?

 

Well, you can start with King Mickey’s profile and the Club 33 Disney Family Crest, then add in some more crowns, and finish it off with a circle of Global Security pins. Now you have King Mickey and his Crown Jewels, with the security pins forming a grand Security Detail of protection!

 

 

 

By themselves, these pins are hard to fit into the normal “collection” lists, but putting them together like this makes for one of the coolest displays you’ll find! Check out the forum post about these here:

https://pinpics.com/forums/topic/445-king-mickey-and-the-crown-jewels

 

Characters in Peril
Another great example of thinking outside the usual pin parameters is the collection by @swim2sea showing characters in peril. They’re not just frightened, but they have to be in a sort of life-or-death situation. Hopefully, this brings a lot of images into your imagination, as there’s no way I can create a graphic to do this one justice. Check out Margaret’s thread on her collection here for a lot of fun thinking outside the pin box:

https://pinpics.com/forums/topic/1572-disney-characters-in-peril/

 

 

 

Combining a Voctave Medley with Pins
So, I’m going to share a current little thing that Sis and I are working on that’s definitely required a bit of imagination to fit into pins. We love Disney for the art and the music and don’t actually watch a lot of the films (gasp!). Growing up in that great Renaissance-era with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast¸ and The Lion King, the songs were a huge part of the appeal. There were those most fabulous Disney Sing-Along VHS tapes that we wore out ‘til the film literally broke. Naturally, we’re still crazy (in more ways than this) about the music. I mean, will anything ever beat the sound of Jodi Benson singing Part of Your World as the waves crash around the rocks and Ariel’s hair blows in the wind? Nope. But we recently discovered something that comes close.

 

About a year ago, a friend introduced us to the Voices of Liberty a cappella group at the American Pavilion in EPCOT. Life changed. Honestly, if you have never heard them sing Golden Dream during the finale of the animatronic show there . . . well, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s truly life changing. After coming home, we started looking up videos of their performances, recordings, etc. Talk about a rabbit hole! As it turns out, some of the performers who’ve appeared with that group are also part of an eleven-member a cappella group called Voctave. The first recording we came across was a “Disney Princess Medley”, featuring five hit songs from some of the most classic Disney films. And since that’s what our current project is about, I’m including the music video here and recommend watching it before reading further.

 

 

 

 

Sigh.

Okay, so there’s no Voctave pin available. Too bad. And since we can no longer hear any of these songs without thinking of this medley, we decided that we have to combine this, somehow, with pins. Right now, our goal is to collect a pin for each of the five songs and then find a fun way to display them!

A couple of the songs were easy . . . we already have Part of Your World and Colors of the Wind. They were released in the “Songs We Grew Up With” series at D23 2024 in beautiful 3D-sculpted designs.

 

 

 

Mulan’s unforgettable song, Reflection, is also featured in that series and will certainly be finding its way here in the (what we hope to be very near) future. If anyone reading is trading #166508, then please send us a PM!

What’s really surprising is that the first two songs in the medley, Someday My Prince Will Come and Once Upon a Dream, don’t appear on many pins. Such classic songs, but not very many choices. In fact, considering that it was Walt’s favorite, I can only find Snow White’s song featured on three pins!

 

 

Poor Aurora fared no better, though we can all admit that her song doesn’t have the same status generally accorded to other Princess songs. Interestingly (and just to throw in this random fact), despite being an open-edition DLR release, the third pin is very difficult to find. If anyone has it and would like to submit a replacement image for the database, we’d be extremely grateful.

 

 

 

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It’s always fun to let our imaginations run loose, and pins are a great place to do it. Thinking outside the box when it comes to collections also presents a great opportunity for discovering pins that you may not have seen before. Tens-of-thousands of pins have been made, and it can be refreshing to concentrate on pins which aren’t necessarily dropping next Tuesday in the latest release.

 

Sometimes, coming up with ways to enjoy just a few pins that offer happiness points by reminding you of something cheery can turn them into a display worthy of a pride of place.  If you’d like to share any of your “out of the box” collections or displays, please reply here. There’s no better way to get inspired than to share ideas!

Stay warm during this cold weather, and happy pin trading!
Sarah

[ViciousLady]

I love seeing unique and out of the box collections and clusters of pins, people's imagination and creativity can be so impressive!

Thanks for sharing these with us!

[mbyrne126]

I love seeing unique collections!
Here is my little collection of characters with their moms

[DaleNChip]

There are some really cool & creative pin collections out there.

 

I agree that Voices of Liberty are awesome!  I always enjoy visiting the American Adventure pavilion to listen to them every time I go to Epcot.  I’m going to have to look through some of my WDW photos / videos this weekend…

[WaltFan1928]

I just wanna say those voices are amazing. I can listen to that all day. Voice a celebrity wow.

[Vally]

Great idea for a discussion. I love seeing the creativity when people put their pins together. Thanks for showcasing my board. 

[TheTwins]

@mbyrne126 What a fabulous collection of characters with their mothers. I love the theme! The pin of Simba and Sarabi is adorable. 

 

@WaltFan1928 Once you start listening to Voctave, it's addictive. Their music is so amazing. Here are links to two more that I think are so fabulous. This first one is a medley of Under the Sea, I Just Can't Wait to Be King, and Be Our Guest. This one really spotlights some of the other singers in the group, too, which is cool. It was recorded the same day as the Princess Medley.

 

 

 

And while this one is not a Disney song, you'll never be the same once you hear it. 

 

 

[AshasRoyalWish]

I love this post! Everyone always asks what pins I collect and I never know how to answer the question or how to send pictures of my collection to people because I have my own organization system that makes no sense to anyone else.