The world's largest Disney exhibit at an airport is in Vancouver (PHOTOS)

Feb 9 2023, 12:07 am

Where is the world’s largest exhibit of toy figurines of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and their friends at a major international airport?

Not at Orlando International Airport, the gateway to Walt Disney World Resort. It also is not located at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), nor is it at John Wayne Airport (SNA) near Disneyland Resort.

Apart from airports with a Disney Store, the only scenario that may come close, the largest known collection of any sort related to Disney is actually at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), and for about a decade it has been a staple, permanent fixture of the range of art on exhibit at Canada’s second largest airport.

And it is indeed a very big collection.

Ken Stephens, the owner of the toy figurines, told Daily Hive Urbanized that officially on record, there are about 400 items. Unofficially, after repeatedly adding to the collection over the years, he says he would be surprised if it is not in the thousands — and it is possibly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They can be found in a series of locked museum-like glass cases along the long glass-walled corridor that links Pier B and Pier C in the domestic terminal after security — also visible behind the glass wall of the domestic food court before security.

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Its longtime presence, its home, at YVR has much to do with how popular the collection has been for travellers passing through.

They were moved to their current location in the domestic terminal in 2016. Prior to this location, they were located in the US transborder terminal, next to the waiting areas for boarding gates.

“The original location in the US departures was the perfect venue for it because so many depart there to go to Disneyland and Disney World,” Stephens told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview.

“You get a lot of people peering through the glass across every age, including lots of parents taking their kids to Disneyland. It was a great introduction for kids and their families while they were waiting for the plane to see this huge collection of Disney characters.”

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

But how did all of this find its way to YVR?

Stephens has had a long relationship with the airport, specifically handling its vast art collection, which helps enrich the experience of travellers. YVR has one of the world’s most robust art programs overall, and when it comes to art, it is perhaps best known for its large collection of Indigenous art, which adds to the airport’s West Coast design motifs.

He sold his art service company, Denbigh Fine Art Services, in 2019, which performed extensive work handling YVR’s art collection over many years.

He says the airport’s exhibit began when Rita Beiks, the curator and art program manager for YVR, took particular interest in his Disney collection. Although YVR typically likes to change up its exhibited art every now and then, they decided to keep the Disney collection, because it was very popular, but relocated from the US transborder terminal. And there were a number of large glass cases from a previous art exhibit that could be used for the Disney figurines.

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Over the years, says Stephens, an overwhelming number of travellers who enjoyed the Disney exhibit have contacted him — even highly positive feedback from Disney employees.

“I’ve had my email attached to one of the cases. I got so many people reaching out because everyone had time to look at these before boarding, especially when it was in the US departures. People emailed me how much they loved the collection,” he said.

Enclosed in the cases are primarily toy figurines of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto — five major characters Stephens and his family amassed over the decades. There is a wide mix of figurines dating between the 1930s and 2000, with most considered vintage, including many early items from the 1930s and 1940s.

Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded their company in 1923 originally as an animation house, and they created Mickey Mouse in 1928 — the same year the “Steamboat Willie” short film came out.

Stephens says his collection of toy figurines and accessories in general began when he was raising his three kids in their first house in Burnaby. They began by visiting local garage sales to pick up toys for them, and one day they noticed Disney figurines.

By accident, they started with 10 figurines of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and their friends on one of his kid’s shelves. They then collected more Disney figurines for another child.

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

His family had so much fun collecting the figurines that they eventually outgrew the available space in the bedrooms. It spilled out into the hallways, and then into the cabinets throughout the house.

Later on, when he started his own business, he packed it all away in a storage space.

What is exhibited at YVR accounts for just a fraction of his total personal collection, which he says numbers in the thousands. While Disney merchandise and memorabilia account for a substantial proportion of his collection, he also has other non-Disney toys and items.

The visits to garage sales transitioned into trips to local toy antique and collectible shows and then to making cross-border trips to the numerous antique malls in Seattle, as well as shows in Portland, San Francisco, and New York City. His family even travelled as far as Europe, where they went to flea markets and found items such as Disney toys made specifically for the European market.

“I started to find more collectible and older ones and started learning more about them. I started picking up older ones, and I’d always find good bargains,” he said.

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Now 70 years old, Stephens says he wants to find a permanent home for his collection, such as a museum where they can be enjoyed by the public. Although there has been interest, the organizations he has approached have found it too challenging to take on such a vast collection.

“I’m at a dilemma right now on where this toy collection is going to end up,” said Stephens.

The Walt Disney Company turns 100 years old on October 16, 2023, and it recently kicked off its year-long “Disney100” celebrations at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.

YVR is well connected to the Happiest Place On Earth, with multiple year-round, round-trip, non-stop flights daily serving LAX — operated by Air Canada, WestJet, American Airlines, and Flair Airlines. Air Canada also operates a non-stop flight route to John Wayne Airport (SNA), which is closer than LAX to Disneyland Resort.

In fact, YVR is connected by non-stop flights to every Disney resort on the planet, including its theme park resorts in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Orlando, which is also the gateway to Disney Cruise Lines’ major Caribbean offerings, as well as Hawaii, where Disney’s Aulani hotel and spa resort is located.

And Vancouver is also a global gateway for Disney’s magic on the seas. For many years, the Canada Place cruise ship terminal in downtown Vancouver has served as the homeport for the Disney Wonder vessel, which is dedicated to Alaska itineraries between May and September of each year. In 2022, for example, the Disney Wonder completed 20 round-trip sailings over this spring/summer period. At the time of writing, the Port of Vancouver has yet to release its final cruise schedule for 2023.

mickey mouse disney yvr vancouver international airport

Vintage figurines of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse and their friends at Vancouver International Airport. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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