30/6: Sports Mascot Pins - Another 8 Sports

More sports mascots pins have been announced today and will be available from July 1st.

This time Wenlock is trying out Rhythmic Gymnastics, Artistic Gymnastics, Javelin, Hockey, Basketball, Shooting, Fencing and Weightlifting.

Pin 0504 - Rhythmic Gymnastics

Pin 0506 - Artistic Gymnastics

Pin 0507 - Javelin

Pin 0510 - Hockey

Pin 0512 - Basketball

Pin 0513 - Shooting

Pin 0514 - Fencing

Pin 0519 - Weightlifting

As for the other sports mascot pins, the issue size of each is 10,000. Price is £6.50 apart from the basketball pin which is £6. No retailer news as yet, but I guess Glamorous Living will have them soon.

28/6: New Mascot Poses

Looks like the official online shop has launched some new mascot pins today. A quick look through the site reveals the following

• Two individual mascots in Union Flag colours (soft enamel) - £6.50 each
• A pair of Union Flag mascots (printed) - £7.50 the pair
• A boxed set of Union Flag mascots (soft enamel) - larger than those above - £20 boxed

Pins 0686 and 0687

• A boxed set of police mascots (soft enamel) - same size as the boxed Union Flag mascots - £20 boxed

Pins 0828 and 0829

• The boxed set of mascot guards that was released a week or so ago.

I understand that the London 2012 shops have exclusivity on the Union Flag and police boxed sets for one month. I'm not sure about the pins on card.

At the time of writing, all but the individual Union Flag pins are marked as 'out of stock'

26/6: New Retail Outlet at View Tube

I was up at the View Tube this afternoon and spotted that a couple of the units now contained a London 2012 shop.

New London 2012 outlet at The View Tube - click to enlarge

The range is fairly good given the available space and the lady on duty was very friendly. Don't forget to take a look next time you're down there. The range of pins was modest, but they did have a very nice Paralympic pictogram lanyard.

24/6: Mascot Sport - Tennis, Badminton & Table Tennis

More new pins today. This time Wenlock is playing racket sports - perfectly timed with Wimbledon.

Tennis

Badminton

Table Tennis

Each pin is limited to 10,000. Tennis and badminton are priced at £6 and table tennis at £6.50. Again, these are available now.

24/6: Taxi Pins

Today sees the launch of 3 new London Taxi pins.

Each pin is limited to 50,000 pieces and RRP is £7 each. They are available now and should be with your favourite retailers soon.

More new mascot pins to come later...

21/6: Sponsor News - Eurostar and Airwave

Eurostar
I came across a press release today from Eurostar. It appears the first of 3 pin badges they plan to release has been announced. There was an internal competition to design the pin and the competition was won by the daughter of a Eurostar employee.

Here is a drawing of the pin taken from the press release.

Click here for the official press release.

Airwave
A reader pointed out a section of the Airwave website aimed specifically to pin collectors.

The page reads...

Airwave is delighted to be a partner of London 2012 but as a tier 3 provider, we are limited in the design scope for Airwave branded London 2012 Pins, which means we are unlikely to produce more than the one design we have, and we will limit the quantity manufactured. The pins we have produced are intended for our employees to promote the Airwave role in London 2012, and as we are bound by the tier 3 rights of our association with the London 2012 Organising Committee we may only use London 2012 pins for internal distribution which prevents us from trading with the general public or the pin trading community.

As there has been in previous Games, there may be an opportunity for you to trade directly with Airwave pin recipients through an official pin trading centre should Airwave employees wish to trade (Airwave will not be setting up or running any such centre/site). However, the Airwave policy is to not serve requests from interested parties directly either before or during Games time. We regret we are unable to help individual collectors but wish you the best of luck in your pin collecting and hope you enjoy London 2012.

It's good to see Airwave explain to pin collectors what we can expect from them and why they cannot send pins. It's a much better solution that those sponsors that do not bother to return emails or letters. There's a glimmer of hope that Airwave employees may trade during the Games at the pin trading centre - here's hoping.

Click here for the statement on the Airwave website.

19/6: Boxed Ses of Mascot Pins - Sales update

Following on from the post about the boxed mascot pins and then some other sets appearing on eBay, there has been some speculation about exactly has been released and where it is available.

The official position is that, at this time, the ONLY set that has been released is the mascot guards which is available from all retailers that choose to stock it. The police and Union Flag mascot sets have not been released. They will be coming shortly and when they are released they will be exclusive to the London 2012 shop for 4 weeks. No other outlet will be selling them during this period.

17/6: New Olympic Stamps for July

Whilst this is not strictly pin news, it is 'collectables' news, and these images will become pins eventually.

Royal Mail has kindly shared the images of the new Olympic stamps that they will be issuing in July on the 1 year to go day.

Click to view larger image

These 10 stamps are the last in the three sets of 10 stamps that have been issued since 2009. As usual the stamps come in many different forms such as mint, presentation packs, coin covers etc. There is one collectable though that is unusual. All 30 stamps from this set have been printed in one sheet over a background of the Olympic stadium at night (one of the original renders).

This item is priced at £13.80, and whilst it's not a limited edition, I don't remember when the Royal Mail have printed stamps from such a large programme in one sheet. If anyone knows better, please feel free to correct me in a comment.

Image of 10 stamps reproduced with permission from Royal Mail.

Image of the stamp sheet reproduced without permission from Norvic Philatelics website. If you collect GB stamps, you must use http://www.norvic-philatelics.co.uk - the best GB stamp site on the web. Norvic also contains full details of this Olympic stamp issue - click here.

16/6: New version of Mascot Guards and Packaging

Today sees Wenlock and Mandeville re-appear in their guards uniforms, but a little larger and in new packaging.

Pins 0684 (W) and 0685(M)

These pins are the same mascot poses as pins 0489 and 0502, but are slightly larger - 18x35 mm instead of 15x30 mm for the Mandeville pin as an example.

A new form of packaging has been used for this pair of pins. This time they are not on card but in a 'twin pack' box-set. The box measures 110 x 75 x 25 mm approximately and is branded in the mascot guards images of Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London used for the original pins and the printed versions (0539 and 0542). Those backing cards have been classified as Version 5 cards on the London Pins website. I understand that these pins will not be available individually on card as all have been boxed.

The issue size of these pins is 10,000, so more limited than the 200,000 of the originals and 500,000 of the printed versions. The price of the boxed set is £20. No word on retailers at the time of writing.

Update 17/6: A couple of readers have contacted me about other mascot pins in boxed sets that have appeared on eBay. The only new mascot pins that I am aware have been released at this time are the guards pins shown here. I imagine that other mascot boxed sets may be coming, but at the moment the guards boxed set is the only one officially available.

9/6: More New Mascot Pins

London 2012 have announced some more mascot pins for immediate sale. These pins show Wenlock trying four new sports, both mascots carrying the flag and 4 pins combining a london bus with mascots, flags and logos.

Pin 0520 - Judo

Pin 0521 - Equestrian Jumping

Pin 0522 - Wrestling

Pin 0525 - Handball

Pin 0497 - Wenlock & Flag

Pin 0484 - Mandeville & Flag

Pin 0632 - Bus & Mandeville

Pin 0634 - Bus & Paralympic Logo

Bus and Games Logo

Bus & Wenlock

The Sport pins are £6.50 each and limited to 10,000 pieces each.
The Flag pins are £6.50 each and limited to 200,000 pieces each.
The bus/logo pins are £6.00 each and limited to 100,000 pieces each and the bus/mascot pins are £6.50 each and limited to 200,000.

For those of you with a passion for Red, White and Blue, yes, the flags being carried by the mascots are in pale blue and pink and pale green and pink. However, the bus is a lovely shade of red!

All pins are already on sale at Glamorous Living and expect Pins & Things and the London 2012 shop to have some or all of them soon.

It's also worth noting that the 400 Day to Go pins have also been released for sales, so you should be able to get them in good time for June 23rd.

8/6: Pin Meet - An Update

The following for the 3rd Unofficial London 2012 Pin Collectors Pin meet is growing with 4 more people since the beginning of the month.

We are now up to 16 confirmed attendees and may possibly have a sponsor and manufacturer present.

Thank you to all those who have signed up so far, and anyone who's still not sure, please give it a go. We have some people coming who are new to pin collecting and don't have a lot to trade, but hopefully they'll get to meet other collectors, share stories and start to form friendships to last into the Games and beyond.

So if you haven't contacted me yet, there's still time. Drop me a line to info@londonpins.co.uk.

5/6: Another Sponsor Supports the Pin Meet

Another sponsor has agreed to support our pin meet in July by offering some of their 1 Year To Go pins for attendees.

BT has very kindly offered to let me have some pins to hand out at the meet. No word on numbers, but they will try to send what they can.

To date we now have 13 confirmed attendees and 4 'possibles'. That's over a 100% increase on the 2nd meet, so thank you to all those that have let me know they are coming or might be there.

For those that still aren't sure, you can find details at:
http://londonpins.blogspot.com/2011/05/115-3rd-unofficial-london-2012-pin.html

Remember, the first ones to sign up and attend will be able to pick up a Coca-Cola 1 YTG pin and also a BT 1YTG pin (supplies and production timescales permitting). I'm still hoping one more sponsor may be able to sort something out for us too, but more on that if it happens.

Once again, thank you to BT and Coca-Cola for their generous support.

2/6: I Love London 2012 Pins

More new pins coming soon. This time the simple message "I 'Heart' London 2012" in both Union Flag and Paralympic Logos.

Pin 0619

Pin 0620

Pins are limited to 10,000 pieces each. No news of prices yet.

2/6: Wenlock Sports Pins - Water Sports and Aquatics

Wenlock appears in his first sporting pins this week. 6 pins are being released around the theme of water sports and aquatics.

Pin 0516 - Rowing

Pin 0517 - Sailing

Pin 0524 - Canoe Slalom

Pin 0515 - Swimming

Pin 0523 - Synchronised Swimming

Pin 0527 - Diving

Each pin is limited to 10,000 pieces, and RRP is £6 for the first 4 and £6.50 for the Synchronised Swimming and Diving.

No word on stockists at the moment, but feel free to post a comment or send me an update if you see them on sale.

1/6: Countdown Pins - 400 Days to Go

Two new pins have been announced to mark the 400 days to go milestone which occurs on June 23rd.

These pins follow the style of the 500 days to go pins and are available in 'standard' or 'mascot' version

Each pin is limited to 2,012 pieces and RRP is £6.50. I'm told availability will be 'mid-month', so hopefully we will be able to buy these a little ahead of time and have them for the day.