In Which Jenn Digs Up Vintage Figment Merch

What is it with my parents and hiding amazing vintage Walt Disney World souvenir banks from me?! 

Back in the end of May there was a pretty serious series of rainstorms in my area, which brought flooding with it. My parents, in their place in NC at the time, were concerned about the state of the basement in their Maryland house, so they called me up and asked me to drive over and have a look.

There I am, stomping around the basement looking for puddles, my cell phone flashlight on because the bulb in the hanging light has burned out. I have my dad on speaker so we can discuss any damage I’m witnessing… and I see it on my dad’s model train table. 

“There’s a Figment bank down here!” I shrieked. 

“Oh, yes,” my dad replied nonchalantly. “You want it?”

Figment is a through-line of my Disney experience. I loved his ride in 1998 – you know, the good version, with Dreamfinder and the dirigible and the extended post-ride ImageWorks and all that jazz. Even in 1990, when I was barely old enough to remember a darn thing about WDW, I have shadowy recollections of riding this ride and being all about it. You could say that Figment is the personification of all my nostalgic love for Walt Disney World itself. 

And I guess my parents recognized that – or maybe toddler me picked it out myself? – because they brought home this Figment bank, which I suppose has been waiting for me all this time. The bottom declares a copyright date of 1982 (although I didn’t exist then so this particular bank can’t be that old). The pot of gold my little imaginary friend is clutching features the original EPCOT Center logo. He is, disappointingly, exclusively filled with pennies.

Similar to the Big Al bank, I don’t think this particular bank is valuable in a monetary sense. But I took my dad up on his offer to take him home with me all the same. After all, how can you put a price on imagination?

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