by Tim Larison
In our travel business we get a chance to meet lots of interesting people. Recently I talked to Dave Lukinuk of Victoria BC about his Antenna Topper Collection. Dave says he has 2500 to 3000 “toppers” in his collection with many from Disney.
FamilyTravelGurus: How did you get interested in collecting Disney antenna toppers?
I’ve been collecting all types of antenna toppers for several years, at first just picking up the odd one here and there, and usually grabbing a couple when we went to Disneyland. After a while I ended up with a couple of dozen different toppers stuffed into drawers and boxes at home and work. One day I was trying to clean up a bit, so I took all that I had, and stuck them all on crude display rack that I made, and I would then add new ones to it from time to time.
About four years ago, again while at Disneyland, I decided to buy any topper I could see that I didn’t already have. I ended up with about two dozen “new” Disney ones, and I figured I must now have “all” of them, until an employee asked “Do you have the Turkey Mickey?” No, I sure didn’t, so the hunt was on. This was at Christmas time, but try as I might, I never found one.
So, the next year I tried again, found lots of new ones, but still no Turkey. To make matters worse, we took a shortcut through the Disney “Cast Member” parking lot, and there were Disney toppers galore, most of which I had never seen before. Welcome to the world of “Cast Member Exclusives”. I knew right then that there was a lot more toppers out there than I had imagined, and wondered if there was somewhere I could find them all.
Eventually I entered into the world of eBay to see if there might be one or two toppers for sale there.
Several hundred toppers later, (not to mention several $$$ later) I have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2500-3000 (not counting the hundreds of duplicates) in my entire collection, . Many are from Jack-In-The-Box, Union 76, fast food and automotive related, but I am mainly focused now on the Disney collection. By the way, I did eventually get the Turkey Mickey, both versions.
FamilyTravelGurus: How many toppers do you have in your Disney collection and how many more do you need to complete it?
I have a “checklist” of all the different variations that was originally created by another collector. Myself and several others provide her with new information as we discover it to keep the list up to date. Of the 560+ different versions that we know of, I have managed to get all but 21, most of which are very early releases and limited editions. One of the harder to locate toppers was the College of Disney Knowledge Graduate Mickey that I recently received thanks to you, Tim.
FamilyTravelGurus: We were glad to help! Does Disney still make antenna toppers since most cars no longer have antennas?
Yes, they sure do! Disneyland and Walt Disney World usually put out an average of a dozen or so of their own unique versions every year. They usually correspond to seasonal events, but sometimes are just certain Disney characters, or are themed and released to promote a new Disney movie.
FamilyTravelGurus: What is the rarest Disney topper to get?
The single white ball (pictured above) is the very first Disney topper ever produced, released in 1991 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of WDW. It is undoubtedly the most sought after, and although the owner let me hold it, I do not have one of my own…….yet.
FamilyTravelGurus: If people are interested in more information on this hobby where should they go?
The host, JJ Johnson, is the owner of that WDW 20 “Magical Years” topper, and he brought it (and several others) to a Disney antenna topper “mini-convention” I helped to arrange in Anaheim last year.
(The photo below) is a pretty good cross section of my whole collection.
FamilyTravelGurus: Thanks Dave for providing us a glimpse into this interesting hobby!
