29/10: Rio Logo Pins - Olympic and Paralympic

For those of you looking for a range of Rio logo pins, Gary at Tragar Collectables has the following pins available

Rio 2016 Olympic Logo

Rio 2016 Paralympic Logo

Rio 2016 Olympic Logo - Gold, Silver, Bronze

Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Logo 

Rio 2016 Olympic - 4 Years to Go

These are all official merchandise and are prices as follows...

• Olympic Logo - £5 each or full set of 6 for £25
• Paralympic Logo - £5 each or full set of 6 for £25
• Olympic Logo - Gold, Silver, Bronze set of 3 - £15.99
• Olympic and Paralympic Logo Twin Pack - £10
• 4 Years to Go - £5

Postage is £1.90 regardless of order size.

You can contact Gary via email - tragar@blueyonder.co.uk

21/10: New Team GB Pin Update

Here are a couple more details about the new Team GB pin launched last week.

TS001 on card

The pin is mounted on a white card with Union flag detailing. The card and in are enclosed in a clear cellophane wrapper to prevent damage to the pin.

The pin is approximately 32mm x 10mm and the card 55mm x 85mm.

The pin is marked on the back: Circulation = 500 TS001.

The back of the card is also printed with 'Limited circulation of 500 pieces'

30/1: Sailing Pin Error

Gary from Tragars Collectables has contacted me to point out that the pin sets for Sailing sold during the Games contain an error. The date printed on the venue pin (1270) is '29/08 - 11/08/2012' whereas the correct dates were 29/07 - 11/08/2012.

It seems that all the sets sold at the time have the error. I've checked my set and the website photo and they are both wrong!

Pin 1270 - Original version with incorrect date

Pin 1270 - With correct date

It appears that the incorrect pin was the first version, Honav spotted it and had the reprint made, but these never made it to the sets.

Gary has a few of the correct version if you are a completist who needs to have the correct version!

Contact him at tragar@blueyonder.co.uk

23/10: Sports Pose Pin - Greco-Roman Wrestling

Scanning eBay this evening, I came across a pin which was rare to say the least during the Games. I think I only know of about 3 or 4 in the hands of collectors.

It's one of the sports pose venue pins - Greco Roman Wresting (1916)

This was one of the pins that seemed to appear at the Olympic Park for one afternoon in 2012 and was never seen again. I always thought that boxes of pins had been hidden at the back of a cupboard during the Games - maybe it was true!

Take a look at Tragars Collectables on eBay if this is one that you need for your collection. I see that the Archery pose in is there too - another rare one.

9/2: Team GB Pin for Sochi 2014

For those of you London 2012 collectors who, like me, also collect Team GB pins, you may be interested to know that a new retail pin to support our team in Sochi has just been released.

Image reproduced from Team GB shop website

The pin is available from the Team GB shop (click here for the link) for £5. Whilst it is a retail pin, the style looks identical to the internal pin TGB0004 issued for London 2012. Presumably, the athletes in Sochi have a different design as their 'team pin'.

As far as I know this pin is only available in the gold colour with no silver variety as we saw in London 2012.

The back of this pin is marked GBBPINS14 I believe - the same as the product code shown on the shop website.

26/1: National Flag Pins

I'm pleased to say that, thanks to the hard work of one of the London Pins readers - Mike, all the 204 national flag pins issued to mark all competing countries at London 2012 are now on the catalogue. Mike has taken and edited photos of every pin and sent them to me.

You can view the entire set by clicking on this link for the Flags page.

Some of the pins were available individually, but the vast majority were only available as a framed set.

14/5 - Poster Pins Set

At the recent London 2012 sale and auction in Coventry, one reader managed to pick up a set that was never released even though the pins form part of the 2,012 designs that were initially planned.

Pins 705 - 731

The pins are a set of IOC posters from previous Summer Olympic Games from 1896 - 2008. The pins are numbered 705-731 and are the same posters as pins 732 - 758.

The slight differences are that...

• the new pins are 22mm x 30mm and therefore a little smaller than the original pins (25mm x 35mm)
• they were only available (or not available as it turned out) as a framed set in an IOC Olympic Museum branded box (see image below
• The Mexico 1968 and Los Angeles 1984 designs are slightly different (images below)

IOC Olympic Museum Branded Packaging

Pin 0748 - Mexico 1968 Poster
(individual pin)

Pin 0721 - Mexico 1968 Poster
(from set)

Pin 0752 - Los Angeles 1984 Poster
(individual pin)

Pin 0725 - Los Angeles 1984 Poster
(from set)

1/10: More Venue Pins at Glamorous Living

It seems that more of the elusive venue collection pins have appeared at Glamorous Living today. Thanks to a reader, news that some Gymnastics sports poses pins are now on sale.

The 5 pins in question were not widely available during the Games but have now appeared on the Glamorous Living website.

I would imagine that there will not be many of these sets available as the pins were limited to 2,012 each and potentially SOME were sold during the Olympics.

19/9: Picnic Jigsaw Set

You wait ages for a jigsaw set to appear, and then two come along at once!

Another new set of pins has been released. This time 3 pins join together to form a picnic rug complete with basket and food.

Click on image to enlarge

The 3 pins are numbered 1802, 3 and 4 and are each limited to 10,000 pieces. Although they form a set, they are each on their own card.

Once again I am unable to confirm stockists or availability at the moment.

18/9: Map of the UK Puzzle Set

The Games may be over, but one of the best sets of pins we have seen (in my opinion) has been released - a puzzle/jigsaw set of the UK.

Click image to enlarge

This collection of 10 pins forms the map of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with icons for each region picked out over a Union Flag design.

The individual pins, numbered 1115 to 1124, are

• Highlands
• Scotland
• North East
• North West
• Northern Ireland
• Wales
• Midlands
• East of England
• South West
• South East

Each pin is limited to 10,000 pieces and they are on individual cards.

I have no details of availability or stockists.

7/9: Venue Sets at Glamorous Living

Thanks to a reader, news that some of the venue boxed sets are now available at Glamorous Living. They appear to have a Marathon Swimming set (3 pins) and Equestrian Pictograms (3 pins)

Images from Glamorous Living

Click here and go to the bottom of the page.

This raises the question if other sets will appear soon as well as whether other retailers will start to stock these sets too. If you see any others, please get in touch.

30/8: Paralympic Sports Poses

Following on from the range of sports pose pins available for the Olympics, London 2012 has issued a range for the Paralympics too.

The pins available (in the Olympic Park stores) were...

Athletics - Sprint

Athletics - Sprint (Visually Impaired with Guide Runner)

Athletics - Wheelchair Racing

Athletics - Shot

Athletics - Discus

Athletics - Javelin

Athletics - Long Jump

Atheltics - High Jump

Wheelchair Rugby

Wheelchair Tennis

5-a-side Football

7-a-side Football

Shooting

Swimming

Wheelchair Fencing

Wheelchair Basketball

Equestrian

Wheelchair Archery

Sailing

Judo

Road Cycling

Track Cycling

Table Tennis

Rowing

Goalball

Boccia

Apologies for the descriptions - they are mine and not whats printed on the pins!

I could not find pins for Sitting Volleyball or Powerlifiting although I imagine they must exist.

It looks like each pin is limited to 2,012 pieces.

There are also two new 'Venue Collection' pins relating to the Paralympics

Pins 1091 and 1094

These pins combine the ParalympicsGB logo and the Agitos and mirror those issued for the Olympics. These pins are limited to 3,000 (blue)  and 5,000 (gold) pieces.

24/8: Paralympic Opening Ceremony Pin

The Paralympic Opening Ceremony pin is now available. This pin complements the Olympic Opening Ceremony pin in that it too has an array of coloured banners exploding from the Olympic Stadium and uses a white logo.

Pin 2011

This pin is limited to 5,000 pieces, half of that for the Olympic version, and given how quickly that sold out, I would imagine this pin will be popular too.

The pin will be available from some retailers from today and from the official London 2012 shop next Wednesday.

23/8: Chalk Hills Pins

Even though the Olympic Games have finished, London 2012 have released some more 'British' pins. The latest 5 pins depict chalk carvings on hills.

Pin 1795 - Fovant

Pin 1796 - Osmington Horse

Pin 1797 - Long Man of Wilmington

Pin 1798 - Whipsnade Lion

Pin 1799 - Wye Crown

The pins fit together as a puzzle set and each is limited to 2,012 pieces. They are available now.

10/8: Closing Ceremony Pin

As the end of the Olympic Games draws near, the Closing Ceremony pin will be on sale from later this evening.

Like the Opening Ceremony pin, this one is limited to 10,000 pieces and will probably sell fast too.

30/7: Coca-Cola Pin of the Day 4

Today's Pin of the Day is the UK map and Union Flag. This pin celebrates the fact that London 2012 includes the whole country with venues across the UK and a torch relay that touched every part of the country.

29/7: Coca-Cola Pin of the Day - 2 and 3

Here are the next 2 pins in the series.

The day 2 pin highlight's Coke's 'Move to the Beat' programme showing a Coke bottle crowd surfing!

The day 3 pin recognises the sailing venue at Weymouth and Portland.

27/7: Coca-Cola Pin of the Day 1

Here is Coke's first Pin of the Day. Released at the Hyde Park Official Pin Trading Centre this morning...

The first pin is a slider which shows the London 2012 logo moving across the London Skyline with the words 'Opening Ceremony'.

26/7: Daily Update (D-2)

Probably the easiest and quickest way is for me to 'brain-dump' anything I found each day. Photos will be added where possible, but for now consider that the catalogue will always be out of date. It WILL catch up eventually.

So here's the news for Wednesday 25th (D-2)...

I was lucky enough to get into the Olympic Park today and even luckier to get into the Media area thanks to the great team at Around the Rings.

As well as lots of media (press and broadcast pins)

 I also saw the venue specific media pins - 3 in total.

and 2 Team GB venue pins. The team GB ones are not specific to the Media Centre as I saw them in one of the superstores on the Olympic Park.

I also managed to get a Coca-Cola venue operations pin from one of the army personnel.

There are also new pins from Visa, McDonalds and a great torch pin from BP

24/7: Opening Ceremony Pin

By now, most of you will have seen the Opening Ceremony pin appear, disappear and then reappear at an online store.

Pin 1992

This pin is limited to 10,000 pieces.