Confessions of a Disney Dork: The Convention

This is Mecca for the obsessed Disney fans.


I am a Disney Dork. It feels good just to be honest and say that. If you’ve known be for a few years, you’ve known about this and known that I am really not ashamed. The way I figure it, we all have quirky things and its better if we just own it rather than justify it. I’ve thought a lot about why I have this and there are some interesting theories about my personality and childhood and all that business. I won’t go into that here.

It became clear a few years ago that I wasn’t alone in this obsession when I attended my first NFFC convention. (NFFC: National Fantasy Fan Club, can’t have Disney in the title because of lawsuits.) My friend Dennis, another Disney Dork took me and Dann to this Mecca as he’s a member of the NFFC. The convention is a week long and has some fancy speakers throughout the week. I’ve only been on Sunday when all the vendors come out and the general public can get in for the low cost of $10. In years past I have dropped some coin and bought some cool stuff. (Well, I think its cool.) This year, in spite of the economy being “fundamentally sound” I didn’t have the cash to spend on trinkets. Instead I decided to go another route and have fun with friends.

Many of the Vendors at these events are a little over the top in their pursuit to sell you things you don’t need. To have fun I began to ask my very simple questions, acting like a novice. “So this thing is about Disney?” “Where can I find the Looney Toons Memorabilia?” I love playing dumb, especially when I really do know a ton of the trivia. Most of the people I encountered early on were so nice, and pounced at the opportunity to educate me. I would ask questions, trying to get Dann or Dennis to crack up. I never let on to the people that it was a joke. They all went home with a spring in their step that they got to educate a rookie.

I may be an uber-fan but I’ve never understood the appeal of pin trading. People have thousands of pins and are very territorial. I would offer $20 for all of them and they would scoff at me. Believe it or not my offer was genuine because that’s really what all of that stuff is worth to me. I was getting a little bit annoyed with some of the pin vendors and other people I was encountering later in the day. Their condescending tone was a little too much like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons; just out to make a buck and hoping make others feel stupid in the process.

When my frustration started to take over I spotted James & Kim. This was like the exact opposite of the annoying vendor. They are sweet and genuinely love them some Disney. They’ve spent the last 9 years working on an exact replica of Nature’s Wonderland Railroad. That is a ride that was replaced by Big Thunder Mountain in Frontier Land. They are not done, but still chugging away on their endeavor. I’d heard the stories of them recalling the hours they’ve spent building the ‘battling elk’ to the exact specifications according to pictures and even some schematics.

I would never spend that many hours on a project like that and can laugh at the minutia, but I have to be realistic. I’ve spent countless days in the parks, hundreds of hours reading books, and thousands of dollars on an annual pass for the last 14 years. Jim & Kim crack me up in an endearing way. They finish each other’s sentences and clearly love what they do. We all have our obsessions, some are more socially accepted than others but it doesn’t change the fact that we all geek-out. So next time you see someone that’s a little ‘dorky’ realize that it is just a passion that isn’t socially accepted. I dare you to engage them and ask them about what they love. It’s fun to be around passionate people, even if it’s just a passion about a ride that closed 31 years ago.

See you next year, Disney Dorks!

Some pictures from the event…

(left to right) Jim, Kim & Trent


This is one of the three rooms that house the vendors, selling anything and everything Disney.


they sell everything from Disneyland Hotel Hangers (over the top, I know.)


to some cool collectibles like the telephone from Walt’s apartment. (cheesy to a mere mortal, but I think its rad.)


All these items are sold by these hipsters. (This couple cracked me up and deserved a photo.) These people empty their garage and come out once a year to fill your garage with stuff you don’t need.