Disney Mug Shots

 No, I'm not talking about the Beagle Boys or Mr. Toad's weazles...or Mr. Toad himself, for that matter. I'm talking about a few drinking mugs (and a tumbler) that I picked up from an online auction years ago, and then kind of forgot about. You see, I was mainly interested in this one...

So I think I bid a dollar on it. When I went to pick it up (it wasn't eBay- we actually had to drive there) I found that three more were included with it. Here's the whole family...

Now, to be honest, I wasn't particularly blown away by them. They seemed kind of new and kind of cheap. Even the rocket mug turned out to be made out of a kind of "hardened styrofoam" that I wasn't crazy about. So I stuck them on a shelf and forgot about them. 

Until today.

I happened upon the rocket mug and that lead me to the tumbler, which lead me to the other two, which lead me to wonder "When were these things made, anyway?" THAT lead me down a rabbit hole that lead me to this blog post! Lucky you!

Please allow me to take you with me on my journey of discovery! Here we go!

First, I researched the rocket mug, since it's my favorite of the four. I kept coming across people who said it was from the 60s. That sounded ok, except that it was grouped with Walt Disney World items. WDW didn't open until 1971, so that suggested that it might be newer. Then I found these pictures:

Do you see it, Attic Detectives? A BARCODE! Now it didn't take long for me to discover that barcodes weren't commonly used until around 1974. That moved the date out of the 60s for certain. 

Then, I focused on the Walt Disney World logo. I knew that the logo on the tumbler was the first that was used at the park. Here's another shot of it...

The mouse ears in the D was a day one logo, but how long was it used? Well, as It turns out, all the way until 1996. That really didn't narrow things down much. But then, I found someone on Redit who was looking for information on their tumbler. Someone responded, and a mystery was solved!

Here are more pictures of it...

These were made in 1985. They were sold until around 1990. By the way, apparently Walt Disney World had tumblers while Disneyland had mugs of the same design. 

So, one of the three had a confirmed date, and another one had a sketchy date. Did I dare continue? 

Sure, why not?

I turned my attention to the Mickey Mouse Club WDW mug. It was made by Deka. I did a lot of digging around and although one person said it was from the 70s, most said the 80s. Therefore, I'm sticking with that.  Here it is...

That leaves us with only the tiny Goofy and Mickey cup. Here it is...

This one is a real mystery. It actually looks older than the rest, but as I said, it was in the same lot. The real mystery is that I was only able to find one more on the internet- and that one was marked "Made in Italy." The person that had that one said they couldn't find any more. 

Mine is NOT marked "Made in Italy," but other that that it is very close. The graphic is exact, but the handle on the Italian one is ever so slightly more rounded. So, this one helps our quest not at all. 

So, what have we learned? Well, first of all, Stu has way too much time on his hands. But, other than that, I summize that all of these are from the late 80s, purchased at Walt Disney World. Why is that important? It absolutely isn't, but it was kind of fun digging. And, really, that's one of my favorite parts of collecting.

By the way, it seems that I got a good deal, but only because I only spent about a dollar. I'm pretty sure you can buy the whole lot for under 20 bucks. 

So there you have it! If anyone has any additional info, I'm always open to hearing it! Until next time, keep searching for treasure!