News / Vinylmation

It can be a beautiful piece of Disney architecture and filled with fun facts and details, but a shop is ultimately only as good as the merchandise its sells. How does World of Disney compare? DLRP Today.com reader Maarten has kindly captured a lengthy photo tour of the new store, showing us what’s on the shelves of this new flagship location for Disneyland Paris merchandise.

Though the store largely presents a kind of “best of” collection of merchandise available at an array of stores across the resort, organised largely by product type through hats, mugs, towels, and so on, it does also introduce a few of its own exclusive ranges. These displays, signified by special “World of Disney – Produits Exclusifs” placards, include items from the colourful Disney by Britto range, designed by pop artist Romero Britto.

One of the main benefits of World of Disney, besides perhaps not having to visit several stores to buy the merchandise that’s taken your eye, is that the aisles between the actual shelves are much wider and more spacious than in any other store at the resort.

Continues with 46 more photos… Read More…

So you just have to get your hands on some of the 20th Anniversary merchandise, but don’t have a trip to Disneyland Paris planned any time soon? First of all: why not?! Second of all: help is at hand! A special “Disney Parks Collection” holding page has been added to both the Disney Store UK and Disney Store France websites, promising that a range of products from the resort’s new merchandise collections will be available to buy online. The page is notably absent from the German Disney Store site.

The page reads: “From April 1, 2012, Disneyland Paris invites its guests to celebrate its 20th anniversary, in sparkling and magical style. Lots of surprises and new features have been imagined, to provide an explosion of magic, lights and colour. For all of us who love shopping in Disney style, there will be great new Park exclusive products: T-shirts, mugs, toys, collectibles, clothing, hats and souvenirs… Stay tuned and sign up for our emails to be the first to know about the brand new 20th anniversary Disneyland Paris product range.”

Previously, your only hope of ordering souvenirs from Disneyland Paris outside of the resort was to personally email their own mail order department. Such a tie-up with Disney Store is an interesting move; while the US store has long stocked a wide range of Disney Parks merchandise, the slightly detached nature of Disneyland Paris from the Disney empire, in corporate terms, has presumably made this a more complicated deal. It could be expected that while Disney Store will benefit from new sales, particularly from lucrative fans and collectors, Disneyland Paris itself will benefit from the increased exposure alongside the store’s hundreds of general Disney products.

You can sign up on the preview page to be notified when the Disney Parks Collection arrives in from Paris, which is expected to be from 1st April onwards.