Quality of Disney Merch?

[jenrose66]

Hi All! I've been meaning to start a thread on this for a while but I just haven't gotten around to it.

So I love buying stuff at Disney (who doesn't?), but does anyone think the quality of their souveniers have gone done in the last year or so?

I have examples. They sell those light up balls that make noise. I've seen them in Epcot (can't remember the store) and also at I think Star Traders (the store buy Cosmic Rays in the MK)...that's where I bought mine. Anyway I got 3 of these balls, one for each son and one for my brother and all three light up still but they have stopped making noise. I bought them late January and they lasted at home about a month. In contrast I had two of these balls that I bought at POP Century for my son in 2007 that still work perfectly.

Also my mom bought a magnet, just a Mickey Head one. When she got it home and unwrapped it, the actual round magnet came unglued from the plastic Mickey Head.

I bought my other son those friction powered buzz lightyear cars. They are really sluggish compared to other brands of toy cars that do the same thing.

I'm not going to stop buying things from Disney. I'm just a little leary now seeing as how a lot of the stuff I purchased broke or just seems defective. I know stuff doesn't last forever but I would think they'd last longer than a month or two.

I will say I did buy a new Mickey pen this last trip that is still working great and my husband loves his new Mug

If anyone would like to chime in with their experiences feel free, thanks!

 

[Absolutely Disney]

Well, things do break, but I have never had trouble with Disney Merch.

 

[breakin2]

I agree in many respects. I found the castle for the monorail playset to be brittle garbage, especially for the price. The monorail itself wasn't much better because the little connector that keeps the cars together broke off in one car after a day.

 

[coconutprincess]

I bought an umbrella once in a pinch. It was a piece of crap!!!!!! I love the zip up hoodie sweatshirts too. The quality is great but they really shrink really really bad! I always think I'm extremely careful washing them but obviously not careful enough!!!!

No problems with anything else (and I spent a ton of $$$ there)

 

[luckyfin]

If you are not satisfied with the merchandise try returning it. We bought a Mickey Mouse tie and when we got hom we noticed that the print had a flaw. We brought it back on our next trip a year later, without a reciept, and they exchanged it without hesitation. It had never been worn, of course. Unless it is a seasonal item or has the year on it, the merchandise does not turn over very often.

 

[Tink888]

I think it really depends on what it is. Photo albums, hoodies, beach towels and kitchen items still seem to be good quality IMHO but I have seen a definite decline in the quality of the t-shirts over the past few years.

 

[Micca]

We've been going to WDW since the late 70s and I am certain the general quality of merch has gone downhill. I have merch from 20+ years ago that is still intact and looks great. I have bought stuff over the past couple of years that hasn't held up. This includes most Disney merch, not just the stuff at the parks.

 

[shalom]

I have seen a definite decline in the quality of the t-shirts over the past few years.

I was shocked at the poor quality of the last t-shirt I picked up once I got a good look at it. Not just thinner material than I expected (which I realized before I bought it and I was fine with), but the print is badly flawed - the material had some creases in it when printed so when I shook the shirt out there were gaps in the pattern near the edges. I wear it around home but would never wear it anywhere else. OTOH, the sweatshirt I got for middle daughter about the same time is very good quality and I'm quite happy with it. I'll definitely be looking future purchases over a lot more carefully.

 

[peekinglemer]

This past Oct. we bought my ds (4 y.o.) the Mickey Pirate ship for $45.00. One of the characters arms came off the first time he played with it. We just popped it back in but it keeps coming out. The boat itself is very brittle and parts broke off very easily. After playing with it fo just a few weeks it looks like the poor ship has seen the wrong end of a fierce battle! I guess it just adds to the authenticity right? Right?

My son also got a Vadar costume to wear at MNSSHP. The back where you tie it ripped out during the party and when he went to wear the mask at home for trick-or-treat the elastic that holds the mask on came off one side We had to rig it so he could wear it. Not the best quality there!

 

[iheartdolewhips]

I bought a shirt last month. The material is pretty thin (which unfortunately seems to be a growing fad), there's a small hole under the arm where the tag was placed, and the print on the front had a piece flake off the first time I wore it. I still love my shirt, but I am disappointed with the quality. I'm afraid it won't last long at this rate.

 

[Ela1972]

We have had similar problems:
March 2009 bought those light up dancing ropes at EPCOT - work for 5 minutes then stop. You have to remove the batteries leave them 30 minutes then put the batteries back and they work again for 5 minutes - drives me mad!

February 2010 - bought the tote bag you get cheaper with purchase. This was because we bought too much there. Put just a few light items in and the handle broke before we even got home.
Bought a hoodie sweattop love it but the blue dye came off on my neck - took me a short while to discover why I was an odd colour

These were fine but I would be very careful what I bought in future! The less technical the last chance of problems.

Also 1 thing that really annoyed me we bought our youngest daughter the bubble blower but couldn't get a refill anywhere and she had used all the bubbles in 1 night!

Love disney though

 

[tweedlemom]

The Mickey post-it notes we bought were not sticky at all. They would just curl up after you peeled them off. Cheap.

 

[Tiger926]

Most all Disney merchandise has seriously gone down in quality about the last 5 years or so. We stopped buying stuff, but had to purchase a few things here and there last month as it was cold, and I bought bigger sizes as I know the quality is horrible.

Shirts that are paper thin, screen printing graphics that fall off, shoes that break, toys that break, inconsistent sizes and fabrics that shrink and fade. We have a very expensive HE washer, so everything in cold on delicate, hung to dry, and still garbage quality. The only thing thus far that we haven't had problems with are hats, so we usually buy new hats on our trips, but that's pretty much it. As well as kitchen stuff, beach towels (soe of them are very thin though, you have to be careful) and picture frames (wooden ones). Hoodies, shirts and toys are really bad.

Disney is about making money, pure and simple, so they cut corners, and they do this with slave labour in other countries. This is one of the main reasons we stopped buying too, as we aren't comfortable with this.

If you need to buy Disney merchandise, just buy it online at Disney Shopping, as they have sales all of the time, so you can get shirts for $5.00, and so you don't mind if they don't last as long. Used to be that park merchandise was excellent quality, but not anymore.

Tiger

 

[duketennisgal]

I bought an umbrella once in a pinch. It was a piece of crap!!!!!! I love the zip up hoodie sweatshirts too. The quality is great but they really shrink really really bad! I always think I'm extremely careful washing them but obviously not careful enough!!!!

No problems with anything else (and I spent a ton of $$$ there)

I bought the zip up white hoodie with pink plaid disney world on it last year. Love it but it shrunk up really badly, thankfully I bought it big in the first place. The material is really thin, but that's what I was looking for when I bought it because it was May and I didn't want something really heavy.

I think the beach towels are good quality, I have several and they all still look great. I don't really buy much else, except for the occasional mug here and there.

 

[RadioFanatic]

I disagree to an extent. For example, at Epcot in late September 2009, we bought one of those lightsaber like toys during illuminations. My DS uses it CONSTANTLY and is very hard on it and even leaves the light on for hours at at time by mistake and it still works great, not even a battery change, 7 months later. Best $10 I ever spent.

I also find their tshirts to be good quality - but at the prices they charge - they should!

 

[Disney*Dreaming]

I bought the zip up white hoodie with pink plaid disney world on it last year. Love it but it shrunk up really badly, thankfully I bought it big in the first place. The material is really thin, but that's what I was looking for when I bought it because it was May and I didn't want something really heavy.

Yikes! How bad is bad? Like if someone (me) wears a medium, should I buy an extra large instead so that it shrinks to a medium? Or would that be too big? Thanks.

 

[cvjw]

I bought a very expensive tee in November - blue shirt with a picture of the castle on the front, covered in a little glitter - very cute. Washed it in the washing machine in my BWV villa and did not dry it. It shrank up so short that it didn't even reach my waist when I tried to wear it again. Guess what Disney said about it - it can't be returned after washing! No more expensive Disney tees for me - I will just buy the cheap Disney store ones that have never shrink.

 

[izzie-wizzie]

I only had one problem - i bought a charm for my charm bracelet from the jewller on main street (not one of the cheaper charms, was about $28 or something) - when i got home and put it on my charm bracelet, wore it and when i looked down it was gone , so the clasp must have been faulty.

i really cannot complain though - as I had contacted Disney and they sent me a new one - but i will be heading to my local jeweller in the near future to try get it properly secured!

 

[3floridarays]

I have 2 special light-up pins that I bought in 2002 - and they still work! I also bought 2 embroidered t-shirts on that trip and they are still in excellent condition, even though I wear them almost every week. They have thick material and have never shrunk, faded, puckered around the embroidery, etc. My DH and I got matching embroidered hoodies on that trip as well and they are practically like new, but have been worn and washed many, many times.

On the other hand, the t-shirts and hoodies I've bought lately just aren't cutting it. They have shrunk, faded, embroidery puckers, stitching unravels...just not the same quality as before.

I realize Disney, like most companies, is looking to save money, but this discourages me from wanting to buy new items on our trips. We spend anywhere from $300-500 per trip on pins, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc., but will be reconsidering this on our future visits based on recent purchases. Considering we have already been twice this year, have 2 more trips booked, and will probably visit at least 3 more times on top of that this year, that's a lot of money that will NOT get spent at the parks if the quality doesn't improve.

 

[bluejasmine]

On our honeymoon we bought this christmas tree ornament that was a big glass ball that had a glass castle in it, we put it on the tree and a few days later the glue seperated from the hanging thingey and the ornament crashed to the floor and broke in about a million pieces we were sooo dissapointed, last Sept we were at the same Christmas store DTD and told a CM about it who went and got the manager who promptly walked over handed us another one free of charge. We were shocked! It plugs into a christmas light on the tree so this time we are sure to unplugg that particlar light each night so that the glue doesnt come undone again..Im sure it would happen to any non disney ornament too.

I have about 20 other disney ornaments that are just fine some aleast 5 yrs old

I have a light up tinkerbell you get on a drink from 2008 that still works

We have several cups that we use around the house from getting smoothies, or from DQ, my mom has a popcorn bucket from MK from 2003