10/6: Torch Relay Pins from Lloyds

Keeping on the Lloyds TSB theme, we have seen the Olympic Torch Relay pin from them last week, but there also appears to be a Bank of Scotland version of the pin too.

BOS0017

LLY0020

I hope to have issue sizes for all of the new Lloyds TSB pins soon.

5/6: Around the Rings Article - Olympic Torch Relay

Take a look at my recent article on Around the Rings for a review of the range of Olympic Torch relay pins.

Click here for the article.

27/5: Olympic Torch Relay Pins - Days 10 - 13

Here are the remaining 4 torch relay pins for May as the torch leaves Wales and heads back in to England.

Pin 1927 - Bangor

Pin 1928 - Chester

Pin 1929 - Stoke-on-Trent

Pin 1930 - Bolton

25/5: Coca-Cola Torch Relay Pin - Another Offer from Event Merchandising

Following on from last weeks offer for Olympic Torch Relay pins, I'm pleased to say that Event Merchandising Limited have returned with another offer for London Pins readers. This time for the 12 Coca-Cola torch relay pins - the 7 standard Coca-Cola OTR pins as well as the 5 city celebration pins that are only available at those venues

Remember that these pins are only available on the torch relay and 5 of them only at the city celebrations. So if you're not able to get to all 5 locations, this is one of the easiest ways of picking cup the entire set. Please note that these are 12 separate pins on cards. The offer from Event Merchandising is for the full set of 12 pins, you will not be able to order individual pins.

The price for all the pins will be £122 with free delivery in the UK.

As before, please contact steve@eventmerch.com with your order details.

Lastly, for all of you that contacted Steve last week regarding one of the original offers, he has confirmed to me that he will have answered everyone by Monday. Please bear with him as he's with the torch relay at the moment and as you can appreciate, that is taking up a lot of his time. If you haven't heard from him yet - he'll be in touch.

23/5: Olympic Torch Relay Pins - Days 6 - 9

Here are the next 4 pins in the Olympic Torch Relay set that will be issued over the next few days as the torch heads into Wales.

Pin 1923 - Worcester

Pin 1924 - Cardiff

Pin 1925 - Swansea

Pin 1926 - Aberystwyth

23/5: Coca-Cola Torch Relay City Celebration Pins

Last week, we saw the seven Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Relay pins (click here for the blog entry). At that time, we knew that 5 city celebration event pins would be issued for the 5 Coca-Cola hosted events around the country.

The first of those events is in Cardiff on Friday. Here is the pin that will be available exclusively at that event.

Pin 1668

This pin is limited to 2,012 pieces and should be available at the Coca-Cola party in Cardiff.

21/5: Olympic Torch Relay Pins - Days 4 and 5

Here are the next 2 pins in the Olympic Torch Relay set for days 4 (Tuesday 22nd) and 5 (Wednesday 23rd).

Pin 1921 - Bristol

Pin 1922 - Cheltenham

Looking at the official London 2012 shop this evening, it paperers that the first pin - Land's End is now out of stock. It's possible that more may become available, but at the moment it looks like this pin is not available.

20/5: Olympic Torch Relay Pins - Days 2 and 3

Here are the retail Olympic Torch Pins pins for days 2 (Sunday 20th) and 3 (Monday 21st).

Pin 1919 - Exeter

Pin 1920 - Taunton

The first 14 in the set are available to buy individually from the official London 2012 online store.

18/5: Torch Relay Pins - Offer from Event Merchandising

As the Olympic Torch Relay travels around the country, each evening it stops at a Celebration Venue. At these venues a fully branded and official London 2012 Torch relay shop will be present. These shops are being operated by Event Merchandising Limited and they are the only retailer selling official London 2012 merchandise within these celebration sites. They will have products that are exclusive and only available through that shop such as torch logo key rings, magnets etc.

They will of course, be stocking the Olympic Torch Relay pins and over the course of the relay will have all 75 designs. They are reaching out to the readers of London Pins with a series of offers for anyone who cannot make it to all 70 celebration venues!

Offer 1 : A complete set of individual pins

Order all 75 pins as individual pins (not a framed set) and Event Merchandising are offering the discounted price of £5 per pin.

Not only that, but they hope to send them to you in batches. That way, you will receive a set of pins for several days of the relay before those days occur. That way you will have the pin on the day of the relay. As the torch progresses you will be sent the next set of pins so you will always have them in advance.

This may take them a little while to arrange for the first few pins, but once we get to June they hope to have this delivery worked out.

BUT: These pins will be supplied from Event Merchandising's very limited stock. To ensure you get your order processed, they need to know numbers by 4pm tomorrow (Saturday 19th May) as once the Celebration Venue at Plymouth opens, these pins will go on general sale and may sell out. If you want to take up this offer, act fast.

Offer 2: The framed set

If you like the look of the framed set shown yesterday, they are offering this to readers for 10% off the recommended retail price. This set will not be delivered until the torch relay is complete and must be ordered by 30th June.

Offer 3: Multiples of a single pin

For those of you that are looking for multiple pins for a particular venue, then they can offer to supply them at £6 each, but they require a minimum order of 5 of a particular pin.

Notes:
Please be aware that Event Merchandising cannot supply odd pins here and there. To be able to offer these deals to readers they need you to commit to a certain level of order. Individual pins will be available at the Celebration Venues and through other retailers if any stock remains at the end of the Torch Relay.

To take up one of these offers, please contact Steve at Event Merchandising via email - steve@eventmerch.com.

Your items can be delivered free of charge to their London 2012 shop in Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf, or sent directly to you for £1.99 for a single order of pins, £5.99 for the regular batches of the individual pins (one-off, not per batch) or £4.99 for the framed set.

Payment can be in cash at the Canary Wharf shop, Visa or Bank Transfer. They will be able to tell you more when you place an order.

Don't forget this offer is just for the Torch Relay London 2012 pins.

I hope to be able to bring you news of the Coca-Cola Torch Relay pins soon and another offer from Event Merchandising next week.

If you plan to go to a Celebration Venue during the relay, make sure to visit the London 2012 shop while you're there.

Thank you to Steve and the team at Event Merchandising for putting these offers together.

18/5: Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Relay Pins

Thanks to the team at Coca-Cola, I'm able to show you some of the pins that will be available during the Olympic Torch Relay. All of these are retail pins that will be available from tomorrow along the Torch Really Route. I understand they will also be available at each day's Celebration Venue.

These seven pins show

• Wenlock and the torch with the Torch Relay logo and Coca-Cola logo
• a gold pin with a map of the UK, the torch and composite logos
• a slider pin which moves between the start and end dates of the Torch Relay
• 4 Coca-Cola vehicles used on the Torch Relay showcasing Move to the Beat and Future Flames.

The issue sizes are <=10,000 for the mascot pin, <=5,000 for the gold map pin, <=5,000 for the slider and <=2,012 for each vehicle.

On May 25^th in Cardiff, along with the pins shown, a city exclusive pin will also be available for sale. In addition, four other key city pins will also be available on the route. More information and visuals of these 5 pins to come in the next week.

In total, there are 12 retail pins in the Coca-Cola Torch Relay range, the 7 shown and the 5 city pins.

18/5: Olympic Torch Relay - Day 1 Pin

Tomorrow sees day 1 of the Olympic Torch Relay and the first 2 pins in the set of 75 that will be issued by London 2012.

Pin 1917 - Land's End

Pin 1918 - Plymouth

These pins will be available tomorrow at the Celebration Venue in Plymouth. The issue size for each pin is 2,012 pieces, but the number available to retailers is significantly less.

18/5: Torch Relay Pin Set

Here it is in all its glory - the 70-pin framed set celebrating the Olympic Torch Relay. Apologies for the file size, but it lets you see a lot of detail.

Click to view a larger image

Counting up the pins, you may notice that there are 75 in the set even though there are 70 days in the relay. There are 2 pins for the first day and I presume 2 for the final day, so somewhere along the route it seems that a few extra pins have sneaked in!

These can be ordered from a number of retailers during the relay itself, and then they will be dispatched once the Games start. Hopefully we'll get some news from the retailers soon.

I hope to have information on the size of the frame soon.

14/5: Olympic Torch Relay - A Pin a Day

As we draw closer to the start of the torch relay on Saturday, news today of the set of pins being issued to celebrate each day of the relay.

As the torch travels around the country, a new pin will be available each day. The design is consistent - a gold pin and logo with a pictogram type torchbearer, however the location name and date changes daily.

Overall there will be 70 pins available individually or as one complete set. The individual pins will be sold at each day's Celebration Venue and if any stocks remain after the torch relay, there will be a chance for other retailers to sell them. However, given that the issue size for each pin is 2,012 pieces, I think it is highly likely that a number of the locations will sell out each day. As for the complete sets, I think it's unlikely that there will be any more than 100 made available to collectors. The complete set will contain all 70 pins on a background map of the UK. I'm hopeful that we may see this set at the June pin meet.

So, when you consider that 500 of each pin will be held back for the complete 2,012 pin sets and that 100 may be held back for the torch relay framed set, that means that a little over 1,400 pins will be available at the Celebration Venue each day. For some of the sites or key dates, I think demand will be higher than this.

At the moment, I have no details on whether the pins can be purchased along the route each day. I hope to get some more details on the plans for each day's Celebration Venue retail outlets soon, so keep watching.

13/5: Olympic Torch Relay Logo Pins

Some of you may have spotted the two Olympic Torch Relay logo pins that have been listed on eBay and appeared at a retailer. These pins will be officially released this week to coincide with the start of the torch relay in the UK.

Pin 1130

Pin 1131

They should be available from your favourite retailer some time this week. The issue sizes are 100,000 and 50,000 respectively.

25/4: Logos, Mascots and Hearts (Oh My!)

This week sees the release of a large number of pins covering a few different subjects.

Logos

The existing London 2012 logo pins are joined by 8 new varieties...

• Mini White Olympic
• Mini White Paralympic
• Mini Gold Olympic
• Mini Silver Olympic
• Mini Bronze Olympic
• Mini Mirror Olympic
• Mini Mirror Paralympic
• Union Flag Paralympic

Pin 1128

Pin 1036

Mascots

Following on from Mandeville printed sports last week, this time it's Wenlock's turn. There are a full set of sports pins being issued as well as the Wenlock Olympic Torch pin seen at the meet in January. The torch pin is available in both enamel and print versions.

Pin 0552

Pin 1006

Hearts

Paralympics GB issue two team pins for retail this week, one in the shape of a heart and the other as a star.

Pin 0659

Pin 0657

These pins appear to have a pitted/shiny appearance and seem to come in gold and bronze colours.

All of these pins should appear by the end of the week from your favourite retailers I presume.

4/4: Internal Torch Relay Pin

I spotted an Olympic Torch really pin on eBay today which is advertised as internal to LOCOG.

This pin uses a 'flame' version of the logo over a gold shard with the text 'Moment to shine'. There is no pin number on the back, but it does have TM and manufacturer details which means it mirrors the backstamp of the regional pins.

The auction finishes on Easter Sunday - click here for the eBay link

Thanks to 12e01a68m, for allowing me to use the image

20/3: Exclusive Torch Bearer Pin

An exclusive Torch Bearer pin has been spotted. The pin will be available only to those who have been selected to run with the torch.

13/12: Coca Cola Update

A brief update from Coca Cola with a few more details about their plans for both the Coca-Cola Pin Trading Centres (CCPTC) and Olympic Torch Relay (OTR) next year.

Pin Trading Centres
The locations for the Olympic Park and Central London venues are almost finalised and they hope to be able to announce details in the New Year. There will also be a pin trading opportunity within the Athletes' Village. This will be a low key area in one of the spaces within the Village with access limited to discrete times of the day for a few pin traders.

Plans for the volunteers are still being finalised by Coca-Cola, but they have confirmed that there will be interviews next year to determine who will be offered a role as a Coca Cola pin ambassador. Successful ambassadors will be provided with a uniform for the times they are in the CCPTC. Initial thoughts are that trading hours will be around 10am to 10pm in the park and 8am to 10pm in London, so there should be plenty of volunteering opportunities. Coca-Cola will be working on more detailed plans for the centres next year and at that time will be talking with representatives from pin collectors in the UK and overseas in order to canvass their opinions on pin trading centres.

Olympic Torch Relay
As for the Olympic Torch Relay, there will not be a Coca-Cola retail pin for every stop on the route, but there will be pins to mark five locations where Coca-Cola are hosting an event on the relay. Merchandising and pin plans are still being discussed within Coca Cola, but the thinking seems to be that collectors will be able to pick up a full set of retail Coca-Cola OTR pins without touring the country. How and where the pins may be purchased is still not confirmed.

The first internal Coca Cola OTR pin has been issued (COC0007) and it is only available to certain employees, it was not distributed company wide.

COC0007

Finally, Coca-Cola hope to attend the pin meet in January to update us on their plans.