Jay's Wicked pickups

 So, a whole Oz movie came, went, I recorded a podcast about it and forgot to post here.

(I might have gotten promoted to a shift lead manager at work and wow, there goes a ton of my energy and free time...)

However, I did manage to pick up a lot of Wicked merchandise tying in with the films. I did collect the Mattel fashion dolls, the only release I missed being the "For Good" music box Mattel Creations exclusive, and the "Shiz Sleepover Set," which has yet to come stateside. (Apparently it's available in Mexican Sam's Clubs? If anyone can help me out...) I also got the stuffed animals the Noble Collection released.

It did cause me to invest in a cheap shelf to display my Oz dolls on, featuring Mattel dolls based on MGM's The Wizard of Oz and the Disney Store and a few Tollytots dolls based on Oz the Great and Powerful, as well as a Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return doll and my original custom dolls.

I already need a second shelf as I have more Oz keepsakes to display, but that first shelf is full.

I picked up the soundtrack CDs from Target, sadly the score albums didn't get a CD release stateside. Apparently they got released in Japan.

I also snagged one of the Dunkin' Donuts tins tying in with Wicked: For Good and now use it to store most of my swag from going to the Alamo Drafthouse movie parties for both films as well as my Oz pins, including a set of Alamo Drafthouse pins for the first film. 

It's been a little over a week since Wicked: For Good came out on physical media, and largely, my comments about the first film on physical media carry over, except the exact special features. We do get another round of deleted scenes, but two remain exclusive to the digital copy release. There's another nearly hour long documentary, more featurettes, but only John Chu provided a commentary for the second film.

ANYWAY, the big thing I wanted to cover here is the books! In November, Insight Editions, who have released a number of Wicked tie-ins, did a 40% off sale, and I took advantage to finally order some books tying in with the first film and preorder ones for the second film I wanted, and then went ahead and got some other books that had come out I wanted.

The Grimmerie Journal is a rather affordable prop replica a lot of Wicked fans added to their collection or should, and should be a must for anyone who cosplays the film version of Elphaba. It is essentially two journals hinged together that each open into a six-sided shape. There's two spreads that replicate spell book pages from the film, but most pages are just regular lined pages for writing in. One could use it as a journal, or if you wanted a place to stash some paper memorabilia or mount some stickers, you could use this. It comes in a box that you can display or store it in. You could also display it outside of the box or open if you're a little creative.

The Story of Oz & the Wonderful Wizard is another Insight Editions prop replica, featuring the propaganda pop-up book seen in both films with three pop up spreads showing the Wizard arriving in a balloon, him ruling the Emerald City, and in a third one revealed in the second film, Elphaba herself added to a revision, flying over the Emerald City. The story is told in rhyme and even mentions the past king of Oz, Pastorius. It was charming to see books in Oz being so whimsical.

Wicked: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book features only four pop-up spreads, depicting four landscapes around Oz: Munchkinland, Shiz University, the Emerald City and Kiamo Ko, the Winkie Castle Elphaba makes her last stand in. There's also pulls tabs and opening flaps showing elements of the story of the films, though the first film takes most of the book with For Good mainly being on the Kiamo Ko spread. In a very interesting move, the spine is held on with a magnet that can be pulled apart and you can lay out the book with all four spreads out at once. This one definitely fed my inner child, but with just four spreads, was over a little too quickly.

Insight Editions also presented picture books featuring the lyrics of Defying Gravity and For Good with artist Elena Iarussi offering a very interesting stylized take on the scenes from the films as well as creatively depicting elements suggested by the lyrics. I almost skipped these, but I'm glad to have them. They come separately and as a boxed set. (I got them separately.)

The final Insight Editions book I picked up (there is a forthcoming paper doll set I also preordered) was Wicked: The Screenplay, which if you wanted a coffee table book tying in with the films, this is one of the better options. It prints the film's screenplay (which has been released online) illustrated with images from the film. Images are on separate pages from the screenplay, so the screenplay pages still look like a standard screenplay. This is only the first film's screenplay, so presumably we'll be getting a For Good companion volume at a later date. Note that this does include deleted scenes and bits of dialogue that didn't make it to the final film.

All of the above mentioned books are hardcover.

I also grabbed the Wicked Tarot deck, which has some nice artwork by Cinthya Alvarez tying the characters and iconography of the films to Tarot. It's my third Oz Tarot deck so far. Even if you're not exactly into Tarot, the artwork makes it a nice addition to a collection.

I'll mention that Insight Editions also offers Wicked stationery, standard journals and bookmarks, but these didn't interest me.

I picked up the box set of the Wicked Little Golden Books: I Am Elphaba, I Am Glinda, I Am Fiyero and We Are Shiz. The first two books tell the story of the first film for young readers, each from the perspective of the title character. The third book goes into Fiyero's side of the story, getting into the story of Wicked: For Good, though it does end vaguely. The last book highlights Shiz University. All four books are by Mary Man-Kong and illustrated by Hollie Mengert. They are available separately and in boxed sets, both as standard editions and as "Ultimate Fan Editions" with sticker sheets and activity pages added. I went for the standard box set.

Target offered an exclusive coffee table book, Wicked: The Official Visual Companion, which centers on just the first film featuring images from the film with tiny quotes from the film here and there. Largely, if you really love the look of the film, but don't want to pause and stare at the film, here's a book for you. This got released in the lead up to For Good, making me ask when we're going to get this for that film.

Finally is the book The Faces and Places of Oz, which doesn't credit an author. Highlighting the areas of Oz and the characters of the films, this is probably the most behind the scenes book we got, also showing maps and notices so you can examine them without squinting at a screen.

While it's a bit late, the interest in Wicked is still high, so these offerings should be available for a bit longer for decent prices. As the years pass, they will go out of print and potentially become harder to find without shelling out more. As such, I'd encourage anyone interested to go ahead and pick up what they're interested in.

I will say it's disappointing that there wasn't a proper Art of Wicked or Making of Wicked book featuring set and costume designs, showing the design evolution to what we got in the films and other ideas we didn't get.