Characters in Times Square?

[miles1]

Sorry if I'm not in the right forum, feel free to move it.

Yesterday we spent the day in Manhattan mostly to see the 9/11 Memorial and the Intrepid Museum/Space Shuttle (a real fiasco). At the end of the day we walked up to that churning cauldron of insanity, Times Square, which was shoulder to shoulder with people. Amongst the chaos were a few Disney characters, including Pooh, Tigger and Minnie, milling about. I had a chance to rub elbows with Minnie briefly, when I was shoved into her by a guy panhandling for money to buy (ahem) herbs. (His sign even said so.)

I don't know how to say this, but those are some sorry looking characters. Does anyone know if they're placed there by the Disney Store? If they are, they're no great adverstisement for the chain or parks.

 

[wilkeliza]

They are not official characters and have nothing to do with the Disney store. They actually are suppose to stay a certain distance away from the Disney store and are all illegal pan handlers. They take donations and charge 5 bucks for you to be able to take a picture.

The funniest thing is seeing them all scatter when a NYPD officer approaches.

The Disney Store rarely gets the official characters but when they do have them they are 1000X better.

 

[ImagineerDude]

They have these cheap "Disney" characters in front of the Chinese Theater, nice Hollywood area, all across the street from Disney's El Capiton and the Disney soda fountain and gift shop. A red headed Cinderella skipping past shirtless street performers with a cheap Darth Vader in the only nice part of Hollywood wasn't too appealing. You will notice they look like old Disney park costumes (way old) with slight alterations. The snap of a picture will ricochet through those giant circular ears costing you at least $5. Do that 20 times and you might as well buy a Disneyland ticket. It's only down the road 45 minutes from there!

 

[Bolt]

The head off, smoking a cigarette with a dirty costume look is my favorite version of Pooh.

 

[maryszhi]

unfortunately, they are not authentic unless its a Disney sponsored event. the only place in nyc that would have the real characters ( because mickey, minnie, and the rest of the gang like to take vacations ) would be the disney store nyc.

 

[Bolt]

unfortunately, they are not authentic unless its a Disney sponsored event. the only place in nyc that would have the real characters ( because mickey, minnie, and the rest of the gang like to take vacations ) would be the disney store nyc.

And the NYC terminal for Disney Cruise Line

 

[maryszhi]

And the NYC terminal for Disney Cruise Line

i totally forgot about that

 

[Cosmic Commando]

The only real Disney characters you'll probably see milling about in Times Square are these:

 

[bubbles1812]

The only real Disney characters you'll probably see milling about in Times Square are these:

That was a cool video! I wish that had been in NYC when I visited. Ironically, I didn't even visit the Disney Store (just didn't get the time unfortunately).

And as others have said, none of the people on the streets are official Disney characters. They either made their costumes, or more likely, ordered them online. I'm sure you saw many other panhandlers too? Battery Park is absolutely full of them, if by chance you went there. (Like the people who deck themselves out in silver/green paint and pretend to be the statue of liberty and will only move if you drop money in their tin for example).

 

[tare]

They are not official characters--we saw some fake ones in la also

 

[jonesenon4]

my family and i were also in NY last week and no they are not real characters just a bad imitation.however they were in front of the disney store on several occasions.i did take pictures of them without paying but everytime they would see the camera they would turn thier backs on me.

 

[Timekeeper]

Times Squares' costumed entrepreneurs are officially free to ply their trade without fear of retribution. According to the Daily News, the NYPD has stopped the policy of ticketing the Elmos, Hello Kitties, Buzz Lightyears and Spidermen who take pictures with kiddies for tips. The entertainers are allowed to receive tips, but not charge for pictures taken with them in costume. According Girish Dani, who dresses up as Spiderman, Elmo still gets a bad rap: "A few Elmos chase people for tips…I heard one or two Elmos drink whiskey, and this could be an issue."

http://gothamist.com/2011/12/11/cops_back_off_ticketing_times_squar.php

 

[rsoxguy]

My sister-in-law recently traveled to New York City. There was a Minnie Mouse in front of a Toy Store. My sister-in-law placed my niece next to Minnie for the sake of a photo, and figured that all was well. As she said "thank you", the lady in the outfit shouted, "what, no tip?"
My sister-in-law said that she didn't know that a tip was necessary, and the lady proceeded to tell her that the costume was very hot and she wanted a tip. She then proceeded to tell everyone around her that the costume was very hot and she deserved a tip. My sister-in-law walked away while she could.

 

[MarkTwain]

Times Squares' costumed entrepreneurs are officially free to ply their trade without fear of retribution.

To say nothing of the obvious copyright violations.

 

[Timekeeper]

To say nothing of the obvious copyright violations.

If you read the article at the link that I posted, in full, it acknowledges other potential liabilities. This comment only pertains to NYPD's involvement.

 

[Joshua&CalebDad]

We did a trip to NYC back in November, during the Thanksgiving Holiday, to visit family. We took our 2.5 and 4.5 year old down into the city, downtown NYC, for a day trip to look around. As we were walking around, my wife and I saw the Disney Dopplegangers. We made sure not to let our boys see them and moved down the street as quickly as we could. It's bad enough thats these hoods in costumes are out there but we definately don't want to ruin the illusion for my boys.

On a side note, we live in Columbia, SC, where we are lucky enough to have a children's museum. Whenever Disney On Ice rolls, or some other Disney show, rolls into town the Children's Museum will host a family night where museum members have the oppurtunity to see a small part of the show and get to interact with performers and characters. This past year it was Phineas and Ferb and the kids got to meet with Perry. I was very dissapointed with the fact that Phineas, Ferb, and Agent P did not look as good as the counterparts in the parks. I know that their "friends" need to have the abiltiy to move for these shows so their attire must have some slight modifications, but I would have thought that the characters would have looked a tad better. To say the least, my wife and I decided that we would no longer come to these M & G's to ensure that the kids would not ask questions later.

 

[Mickey_777]

Love the "bullet hole" in Woody's trousers look. Yeah we've seen them out on Hollywood BLVD and Times Square too. Apparently Vegas has them also. Ghetto. Ghetto as ghetto can be.

 

[riverscu0m0]

These characters are so annoying, they hound you about money. I freaked out on of them once, because elmo's tip bag was seriously just like hanging at his crotch and he wanted me to open the bag and put the money in. Seriously though, it made me uncomfortable and his "cm" was like yeah just give it to him (this guy was running a bunch of them) and elmo was like put it in the bag so I just walked away and went into a store.
I'd much rather be approached by the people in Times Square that are like selling their own CD's than these characters. They freak me out, the thought that these characters probably haven't had any research done on their background and the fact that their really kinda not supposed to be there makes me uncomfortable. I don't know, I don't like clowns either haha. Honestly, I think the only place I actually trust the person in the costume is at Disney.