Month: December 2020

Merry Christmas 2020

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

This has been a unique year we have all experienced together, and the Holidays are no exception.  Hopefully, you are able to spend some time with your family and friends either in person or virtually as has become a bit of the norm lately.

To try and help spread a bit of Holiday cheer today I wanted to write real quick about a couple new pressed pennies I was able to purchase from our friends over at The Penny Depot.  The first penny is called Santa’s Reindeer names.  It has a nice reindeer silhouette in the middle and of course all of your favorite reindeer names around the border.

The second penny is not just a reminder about the Holiday spirit, but in my mind, it’s also a mantra for the upcoming year.  I chose to Believe we will get through this together, it may take a little longer than we would like or hope, but we will get there eventually.  Both of these pressed penny designs are available through The Penny Depot online shop and you can get them in either Zinc or Copper, and can even have a hole punched in it to make a charm.  They also have many other fun designs to celebrate different holidays, life events, or just some fun unique designs to add to your collection.

Please be sure to stay safe and have a Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas!!

Wreck-It Ralph 2 NEW Pressed Penny Set – Epcot

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Just a week or so ago I headed over to Epcot for one last visit to the International Food & Wine Festival.  I had tried most of the items but there were a few that topped my list so I wanted to go back one last time and indulge.

After our tour around the World Showcase, we were heading back towards the front of the park and headed along the pathway just near the Canadian Pavilion.  As we walked my daughter asked, “Isn’t the Figment rides near here’s?”…Ugh!

She was referring to of course the Journey into Imagination attraction featuring a purple dragon called Figment.  Now I will admit I’m not the biggest Figment fan.  I do enjoy Figment as a character but the ride is terrible and in my opinion, he’s pretty annoying.  My fingers are crossed that they will “eventually” change this ride.  In the meantime, I indulged my daughter and went on the ride with her.  Thankfully it’s not a long ride but I always come out of there humming that song.

After exiting the ride you find yourself in the ImageWorks area of the pavilion.  Pre-Covid days this place would be packed with kids enjoying some of the interactive exhibits or more than likely to meet some characters like Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope.  Unfortunately for now there is nothing going on inside this space.  Guests just walk right through it into the gift shop and then back outside to the park.

For no apparent reason, we decided to just take our time in this area and enjoy it with no one around.  Eventually, we did head out towards the gift shop and I noticed that a new penny machine was placed here.  This location used to have a 3-design electronic machine but that had disappeared a couple years ago.

The designs of this design are all themed around the Animated movie Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.  This would match a little better in this area if Ralph still had a meet and greet here, but currently, he is not here so the machine seems a bit out of place.  They have started to renovate a pavilion on the other side of Future World that will become the Play Pavilion and seems to be themed around movies like Inside Out, and Wreck-It Ralph so I would think this machine will be relocated over there once construction is completed.

Just on a quick side note, for anyone that would rather skip the Figment ride you don’t need to go through that to get the pennies.  Just walk around the side of the Imagination Pavilion and you will find the exit/entrance to the ImageWorks gift shop.  Head inside the penny machine is just past the merchandise area.

I do like this set and think the designs are cute, but find it kind of strange that this is the movie they are opted to released penny designs for.  Are there any other pennies with designs from another movie sequel?  I’ll have to think about that but I don’t think so.  Leave me a comment if you can think of one.

Thank you for checking in this week and I hope you had a fantastic holiday last week.  Enjoy, stay safe, and as always Keep on Pressing!

Harry Potter Pressed Pennies – Universal Studios Florida

/ davidscointravels / 7 Comments

Click here to watch our video on these new machines.
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Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m a Harry Potter fan.  Not a super fan, but I do really enjoy that whole world that surrounds Harry.  I remember watching the first movie and just needing to know what happens next so I ran out and brought books 2 and 3.  Read those, then went back to read book 1 because the book is always so much better than the movie.  Then the waiting started, for each new book in the series to be released every couple of years.  I would pre-order my book and get to the start for the midnight release.  Dressing up in character was not my thing, but I just wanted my hands on that new book and would have it completed in a few days.  That was me trying to take my time.

Eventually, the entire story came to an end, but with Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Diagon Alley, I could experience it in a whole new way.  Now I have visited every nook and crannies of both Harry Potter areas of the parks, drank my share of Butterbeer (Hot is my preferred version, followed by Frozen, and then Cold) drinks, ice cream, and fudge.  I’ve ridden all the rides except Dueling Dragons which is now closed.  All sorts of merchandise adorn our house, oh and by the way, my wife and I are both Ravenclaws in case you were wondering.  Basically, I’ve done almost everything there is to do here around Harry Potter.  But one thing I never thought I would be able to do is Press some special Harry Potter-themed pennies!

Years ago I remember asking someone about pressed pennies in these areas of the park but was always told it was something J.K. Rowling didn’t want in the parks.  I have nothing to back that up with other than just internet rumors.  But it did seem to hold true for a long time and I had pretty much given up on ever seeing them.

Then all of a sudden a few weeks ago I received a message on Facebook from a fellow collector Les G. who told me that new Harry Potter penny machines were being released at Universal.  I thanked him for the info, and immediately started checking other resources for confirmation but couldn’t find anything.  Then I received a message on Youtube from Kimmy M stating the same thing.  Now my interest was really piqued and decided what the heck, let’s go to Universal and check it out first hand.  I started over at Universal Studios and immediately went back to Diagon Alley.  Walking everywhere I could think of, in every store, around every corner, in the Leaky Cauldron but couldn’t find the machine.  Then I had a crazy idea that maybe the machine wasn’t in this area of the park due to that long ago rumor of J.K. Rowling not wanting them here, but maybe the workaround was to have the machines nearby.

I checked all the usual places and eventually headed into the main Universal Studios Store up near the front of the park.  Inside the store are different areas for all the different merchandise like The Simpsons, Trolls or The Secret Life of Pets and of course there is a big area of Harry Potter items.

Everything was pretty standard stuff, but I didn’t see a penny machine right away but after weaving in and out of the aisles I found it.

Thankfully I had come to the park pretty early so this store wasn’t too busy, and I was able to really take in this moment.

The machine had a nice wood cabinet that fits this area of the store, but in my mind just wasn’t quite as Harry Potter-esque as I would have thought/liked.  It would have been fun to see this slanted to one side as all the buildings in Diagon Alley or may be covered in wands or the Hogwart’s House Shields.  But that wasn’t going to stop me from getting these coins.

The designs in this set include each of the Hogwart’s House Shields (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin), a Snitch, the Nimbus 2000, a Dementor, and Fluffy the 3-headed  dog.

Some of the information I had gathered prior to visiting was that there were to be three penny machines in total, one at Universal, one in Islands of Adventure, and the third in CityWalk.  What better way to get from Universal to Islands than to enjoy the Hogwart’s Express.

After departing the train, I entered the Wizarding World of Harry Potter but knew in my mind that the machine wouldn’t be back here.

However, that didn’t deter me from walking through anyway just to enjoy this place.  It’s really amazing and so much fun just like you are walking into the movies.

The machine was eventually found up at the front of the park in the main gift shop called the Trading Company.

Head inside and just make your way to the Harry Potter section.

The machine is situated near the School Robes up along one of the walls.

This second set of pennies has designs of the Nimbus 2001 Broom, The Tri-Wizard Cup, a Phoenix, a couple Dragons, the Golden Egg, and the Mirror of Erised.  These are definitely images that you would need to be quite the fan to recognize.  While I was pressing my pennies one of the team members came up and asked if I worked for the machine company because of all the pictures and video I was taking.  I said no just a collector and she was very nice to let me know about the other machines.

I mentioned I had the Universal set already and was heading to CityWalk next but she informed me that the third machine wasn’t available yet.  I thanked her and headed out but wanted to double-check CityWalk just to make sure, and she was absolutely correct.

Skip forward a week or so and I come across a post on Facebook in a Universal Passholder’s group mentioning the Harry Potter pennies.  In the comments someone mentioned that only 2 machines were available, but as the comments kept rolling in suddenly someone posted that the third machine was just released that day.  Well, that’s all I needed to hear and headed over after work.  Once I passed through security I headed directly to the Universal Store.

The Harry Potter section of this store kind of takes over about half of it.

Near the check out register area is a wall of Wizard Wands and the penny machine was just tucked away in that area.

As you might have guessed the wands are a hot item and this little area of the store got quite crowded shortly after I started using the machine.  This machine had the same cabinet design as the other two but in a lighter color.

As much as I liked the pennies with the Hogwart’s School Shields on them, this set overall was my favorite.  It just had a great selection of designs including Harry’s Glasses and Scar, the 9 3/4 Platform, the Deathly Hallows, the Sorting Hat, a Wand, the Firebolt Broom and of course Dobby the (Free) Elf.

I truely never thought I would see the day when Harry Potter pressed pennies would be released, and not just one set but three intotal.  That’s huge!  Of course I wish the machines were a little more themed, I would have loved to use my wand to active the machine, but I really don’t want to complain.  I’m so happy they were able to get these released and I know collectors and just casual park guests are going to love these.  Hopefully if they are as popular as I’m assuming they will be, we may see more in the future.

Have a great week and Keep on Pressing!