Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 Year End Review

ImNotBad.com had gotten off to a very slow start when the site first opened in 2008, but this year there were over 100 posts, 7 artist interviews, and 19 merchandise reviews.



The Jessica Rabbit merchandise news had slowed down a lot since there was a huge cut-back in DisneyStore.com pins. Only 36 Jessica pins were released in 2011, 6 of which came from DisneyStore.com (that is a huge difference from the over 100 Jessica pins released in 2007.) The remaining 30 Jessica pins released in 2011 came from the parks or The Disney Soda Fountain Studio Store. There was no Halloween or Christmas series either, which had many people asking why this happened. Disney pins as a whole seemed to be scaled back considerably, with not only Jessica, but many fan-favorite characters going missing throughout the year.

The Jessica Rabbit Premium Format Figure had long been rumored by Sideshow Collectibles - creating other Disney characters like Maleficent and Captain Hook down the line. Finally Jessica was revealed just before the San Diego Comic Con in July, and had everyone drooling. Sadly, the lack of an exciting Exclusive Edition and high limited edition size put people off - although as of now the Exclusive Edition is still sold out and everyone seems to agree it will be the best and most accurate Jessica Rabbit statue ever. With every company on an 80's kick, you would think there would have been a big resurgence in Roger and Jessica merchandise. That surely was not the case. Thundercats, He-Man, Ghostbusters, Smurfs, and soon even Jem, are all getting back in the public eye - so why not Jessica?

Disney Parks did have some offerings besides pins this year. A new Jessica Rabbit art print by Darren Wilson was released during the last quarter of the year, and back in the beginning of the year, I'm not bad... I'm just drawn to chocolate candy was released with an image of Jessica on the box.

It did seem to be a year of celebrities drawing inspiration from Jessica. Angelina Jolie, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, and more donned a look very similar to that of Jessica - and a tight red dress was a hit for many women at different events, and Jessica Rabbit became a popular costume for Halloween.

We had some fantastic interviews from different Jessica Rabbit artists found only on this site- including the creator of Jessica Rabbit, Gary K Wolf. Pin designer, Wendy Gell, told us which real life Princess received one of the first ever Jessica Rabbit pins, while doll designer, Lisa Temming, explained exactly why the look of the Mattel Jessica Rabbit doll was changed at the last minute.



The biggest news was discovering that Jessica Rabbit was one of the characters in the Disney On Ice Show - unfortunately that was was back in 1990, and as of now I have not seen any photos of her in the show. Another discovery by this site was that the building which housed the Jessica's store was home of the Dick Tracy Store first. That meant the Jessica Rabbit store could have only been open for about a year and a half. The sequel film to Who Framed Roger Rabbit may have stalled, but this Jessica Rabbit website is still going. Hopefully, there will be many more exciting interviews and developments over the next year. Stay Tooned!