Disney was today forced to shut its flagship London store amid ‘carnage’ before the launch of a new limited-edition set of Lorcana trading cards.
Police were called to Oxford Street as collectors claimed gangs of ‘scalpers’ – slang for non-fans trying to profit from rare items – had tried to storm the Disney Store after jumping the queue.
Fans of the trading card game began setting up camp outside the shop yesterday, only for the release to be cancelled around 15 hours later amid chaotic scenes outside.
Witnesses claimed gangs of young men had jumped the queue and tried to storm the Disney Store, one of only five places in the world where people could buy the Lorcana Curator’s Collection: Heroines Edition.
Fans were desperate to get their hands on six rare Lorcana cards featuring some of Disney’s best-loved female characters, which are around £100 per set.
One witness shared pictures of the carnage and said: ‘So we’ve gone from a single-file queue to complete chaos [and] gangs threatening to storm the store.’
The sale of a new collection of Lorcana cards turned to chaos when gangs tried to storm the store
Fans had said they waited for more tan 15 hours only for ‘scalpers’ to jump the queue
Police had to be called and helped security staff disperse the crowd
The queue got told to go home. Some were disabled, others had travelled from all over the UK
But amid the scramble to get them, fans who had waited outside overnight were left disappointed and ‘terrified’ when the store was shut for safety reasons.
Another disappointed collector said: ‘I went from work to Disney Store for 12 hours, back to work, to get 0 product because of these gang members.’
A third person in the queue said they had begged Disney to issue tickets to people waiting outside to avoid scalpers taking over.
She said in a tweet to the Disney Store: ‘Why did you not give out tickets for the Lorcana drop when we asked you to in the middle of the night? Your manager well and truly f***ed over the Lorcana community. You also now won’t sell thousands of pounds worth of product.’
One fan in the queue said: ‘Highly disappointing. Absolutely crushed that scalpers were allowed to jump the queue. The police had to be called. We warned about this and security did nothing. So that’s a 3.5-hour trip and nearly 12 hours waiting for nothing.’
One fan said it had been a ‘sad day’ for Lorcana collectors
Another, who travelled from Edinburgh, said: ‘I was there with two wheelchair users as their carer and we ended up in a dangerous situation … thanks to crowd mismanagement. Trying to follow the order to disperse through a group of hostile scalpers was terrifying.’
Disney shut the store until further notice
Disney failed to apologise for the problems on Oxford Street today, but thanked those queuing for their patience.
Announcing the store closure on social media, it said: ‘Today’s Lorcana Special Edition release at our Oxford Street store has been postponed and the store has been closed until further notice.
‘Further information on how guests will be able to purchase this product will be shared as soon as possible.
‘Thank you for your patience and understanding.’
The Lorcana set was only due to be sold in London and four other locations: World of Disney at Disney Springs in Florida, Disneyland Resort in California, Disney Village at Disneyland Paris, and the Disney Store on Grafton Street in Dublin.
