Disney Pin Review: Ken Anderson Bait Co. - Windows of Main Street - 2021 Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Fun pin filled with Disney history

Cons: I’m not dopey enough to list cons

The Bottom Line:

Window to the past

Honors a Disney legend

Dopey Cameo

I Was Baited by This Series

Every time I visit Disneyland, I swear I’m going to pay more attention to the windows on Main Street.  And every time, I walk right by them, looking at the shops as I walk through as quickly as possible to get to the rides.  Even so, as soon as I heard about the 2021 Windows of Main Street series, I knew I had to get these pins.

As many people know, the names on the windows of Main Street in the Disney parks are actually there to honor various Disney legends.  I love that they do this in the parks, and I wanted to have a bit of that in my pin collection.

These pins were originally alternated their release between Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  Thanks to the internet, I’ve been able to get them all. 

I’m starting off with one of the later pins in the series (mainly because that was the one I grabbed when I went to pick a pin to review).  The pin is for the Ken Anderson Bait Co.  The pins in this series are a bit thick because they have two layers to them (more on that in a moment).  This one features bricks around the outside with an arched window in the middle.  The window has a brown and tan striped shade over it.  We can see the name on the window in the bottom half.  I looked up pictures of this window online, and it looks very much like this, right down to the design of the logo on the window itself.

Who is Ken Anderson?  He started at Disney in 1934 as an animator.  He worked on many of the films over the years before starting to work on Disneyland.  He involved in both the original and the updated look to Fantasyland.  He was an avid fly fisherman as well, so the fact that he got a bait company on his window is a bit of a joke.

I mentioned the dual layers to the pins earlier.  That’s because the windows in each pin move to reveal a classic Disney character behind the glass.  In this case, the window slides up, and we can see Dopey behind it.  Why Dopey?  Ken had the ability to wiggy his ears, a trait he passed on to Dopey when he was animating that character.

And these are the types of details I love.  So many hidden jokes for us to learn about.  Yes, I bought the pin not knowing that, but doing the research to learn has made me like this pin even more.

I’m sure this series will appeal mostly to DisNerds like me, but if that is you, I highly recommend you start tracking down the Windows of Main Street pin series.  There is much more to learn about Disney Legends in this fun way.