Coming Soon (Hopefully!): More Disney Infinity Power Disc

The past two days I finally played the Toy Box edition in Disney Infinity. All I can say (again) is WOW! There are some fun games in the Toy Box.

Without getting totally into, there's one feature I wanted to share because apparently no one has is the Hall of Heroes. Whenever your Disney Infinity figure earns medals in games, or you use any of the power discs, they become part of the Hall of Heroes.

The more you do in the Play Sets, as well as games in the Toy Box, the more your Hall of Heroes builds up.

When you put your discs in, they become part of the floor decoration in the Hall. Not only have I seen all the power discs that are currently out, but you can see others that must be coming in the future!

There were a few we've already seen in promotions, but I can't believe the Disney Infinity community has talked about these! Here are two that have me totally excited and hoping we may see a Fantasia Play Set!

There's one that my friend, Don, might be interested in seeing. Could this be the piece that gets him hooked? (Probably not!)

I also played the limited edition Crystal Lightning McQueen for the first time. I haven't really seen any pictures of the character on screen, so I'm posting a couple pictures of him. They are fuzzy because the character wouldn't stay in a front view and kept spinning around. But this gives you an idea of what the Crystal versions will look like. They have the same adventures as their 'regular' counterparts.

What you see in the background is the Castle background, but with both the Rapunzel/Tangled power discs. I really like the Alice in Wonderland discs!

Second Chance at Second Harvest Heartland Food Shelf

On Thursday, August 8, 2013, several coworkers and I volunteered for a 3-hour shift at the Second Harvest Heartland Food Shelf for our annual employee event. The afternoon consisted of sorting and re-packing food collected from food drives and donations; re-packaging bulk food such as pasta and cereal; and sorting bags of potatoes into consumer size packages for those in need.

I can't remember all the stats, but I do remember them saying one person in ten goes hungry in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. And to think how much I eat, how much we as a country/state/community waste food. They can make a dollar stretch, and with so many causes looking for money, this is one that really can help out a lot of people.

We had about 30 people from our office, but there were two other companies volunteering. Most of us went into the 'clean room', where we donned our lunch lady hairnets and surgical gloves. We started bagging pasta, moved on to bag granola cereal, and finished with bagging rice. Some of our group as well as the other companies bagged potatoes.

In our three hours of work, we roughly filled over 400 pounds of pasta, 500 pounds of cereal, and 800 pounds of rice. I think the potatoes were in the thousand-pound range. In all, we did enough work that would provide over 8,000 meals to families of four.

As a company, we bonded, and I got to learn a bit more about some of my coworkers. It was a great team building event and while we had fun, this activity serves a greater good.

I would do this again in a heartbeat and I highly recommend it to companies, groups of friends, or if you feel like you want to 'pay it forward'.

Pictures say thousands of words. Just look at all these happy volunteers. 
It says it all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2harvest/collections/72157631635829239/

Of course, in our group of bean counters, there are some who don't know how to smile. And look at how some awkwardly pose for pictures. That's never the case for yours truly!
(Click on the picture to view all those happy faces!)

But they say there's one in every crowd. Our office actually has two. Thank goodness for Greg!

Second Harvest and the families who receive assistance from the volunteers are very grateful for the help and the donations. Find a local food shelf today to support your community.

Disney Infinity Toys R Us Event

On Tuesday, September 3, 2013, I posted about the exclusive Disney Infinity Power Disc event at Toys R Us.

Well, I was ready to brave the crowds of kids and Disney Infinity geeks. Not wanting to be too early, I decided to show up a half hour early. [Insert chirping cricket noises here.]

To my surprise, there weren't any crowds. In fact, I was the first one there. The store team members were running around, so I asked a guy named Phil where I should line up or expect the event to be. He wasn't quite sure, so he checked with a manager, who told me they would be setting up a table as soon as another store event ended. So they would probably start a few minutes late.

I looked around the store to kill a little time, and came back to see someone ahead of me. Oh well, at least I was second in line. But of course you know how crowds get. As the clocked ticked away, a few more people showed up, and it was hard to see a 'line'. The panic meter was armed, but didn't go off yet.

So then another team member arrived with this tiny box. She opened it up and started counting. I could hear her say to Phil and the manager, "They only sent us 19 packets for the event. Why only 19?" She did the same thing I started doing: counting heads in the crowd. Turns out there were 10 of us and 19 packets, but now the panic meter did go up. Would they limit the amount of discs to be distributed?

Phil could probably sense the look of panic on our faces and in our eyes, so he did a great job calming us down. 2 minutes to go. The lady said something to us that made it sound like these were free. Some people cheered, but then Phil and the manager corrected her by saying we'd have to pay for it. That's okay.

1 minute to go. This guy in the crowd asked the Toys R Us crew how they wanted us to line up. They didn't answer, but he said to me,"I think you were ahead of me." I was and I appreciated the fact that he knew that and didn't try to jump in like some other collectors.

30 seconds. Would they limit the discs? Like sprinters at the Olympics, we all took our places. 10 of us and only three of them. We could take them on. Now they had the look of panic in their eyes. The manager finally said, "Okay, we're only going to give out one packet per family!", and we collectively relaxed our stance. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2...

The exclusive limited packets started to be handed out to us. We were calm and they were too. They also gave us a Power Disc Checklist and a bunch of coupons good for Disney Infinity merchandise. Since I have all the figures, I went for the 40% off all other Disney Infinity merchandise. I could pick up a few extra things like another exclusive Power Disc album.

Then I spied the messenger bag to hold figures, discs and the base. I really wanted this, but why? I don't have a system that's portable. But hey, it's a bag, and at 40% off, I could find a use for it. Into the cart it went.

Distracted by shopping, I momentarily forgot about my disc. I overheard someone say something about getting a Mike's Car disc.  Oh oh. Maybe the 19 packets they received weren't all Tron disc. I quickly made my purchase with Phil, and made my way outside of the store.  Fumbling with the packet, which disc would I possess?

See for yourself.

Next time I will show up early and stay in line. People probably got wise that the two-hour event was over in seconds.

A Broom for the Shaft and a Brush for the Flue

It's flu shot time again at work. I can't believe a year has gone by already.

I always feel a little sore after that shot. I think my coworker will have a harder time with his shot than I will.

Hot Day: Annoucning Frozen and Toy Story Play Sets

Just when I thought I posted my Disney Infinity news for the day, The Disney Store has announced pre-orders for two new Disney Infinity Play Sets: Frozen and Toy Story. They are also releasing Series 2 of the Power Discs.

So please meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen.

 

Of course everyone knows Jessie and Buzz from Toy Story.

You can reserve any of the above now on The Disney Store website. Items are expected to be available by November 26, 2013.

**UPDATE**
Since posting this, the Disney Store has announced the Frozen Play Set has sold out and removed it from its website. There are conflicting stories that the release will be delayed.

The Obsession Continues: Tron Disney Infinity Power Disc

If you've been reading my recent posts, you'll know about my latest obsession: Disney Infinity.

There are a couple of things I wanted to share with you. First, thanks to my Google Alerts, I stumbled across a new blog for me that I am now following: Jim Valeri Design (and I've added that to my blog roll on the right).

Take a look at his August 23, 2013 post. Someone elsewhere posted that Jim's designs really could be used for Disney Infinity. Can you imaging that Play Set? That would be awesome! Think of all the characters and locations that could be added!

Below is a mash-up of two of my favorite Muppets and designs Jim posted on his website. I hope we get to see these in a future release!

 

Looking at other posts on Jim's blog, I see other familiar works of his, including Disney Store catalog covers and even some merchandise (hoodie) I've purchased. Be sure to check out the July 26, 2013 entry as well if you want a laugh.

Moving on to some solid Disney Infinity news. Any true science fiction fan will tell you Tron is one of the best and underrated sci-fi movies around. It took almost 30 years to spin off a sequel, as well as an animated series. Based on the animated series, Disney Infinity is introducing two exclusive Power Discs based on Tron.

The first will be released this weekend on Saturday, September 7, 2013 at an exclusive Toys R Us event from 12:00 - 2:00 PM. 

The new Tron themed User Control Power Disc will only be available from Toys R Us and works in conjunction with other power discs to grant the character a 10% boost. This means you have to do less to gain the same reward and you will upgrade more quickly.

For the record, I will not be standing in line the night before. I'm not that obsessed! (Some will beg to differ).