11/12: London Bridges

A new boxed set of 6 pins will soon be available. 'London Bridges' is a jigsaw set of 6 of the bridges across the Thames.

The six bridges are...

Albert Bridge

Pin 0455

Chelsea Bridge

Pin 0456

Westminster Bridge

Pin 0457

Waterloo Bridge

Pin 0458

The Millennium Bridge

Pin 0459

Tower Bridge.

Pin 0460

The river in each pin has a sparkle effect much like the London at Night set, but I'm not sure the Thames has ever been that blue!

The pins come in a boxed set and the mount card is a plan of the London Boroughs.

The pins are limited to 5,000 pieces each and my understanding is that they will not be available separately. The price for the set is £55 and will be available to all retailers from launch.

6/12: Aggreko Pin Removed From Catalogue

I have been asked by Aggreko, via a third party, to remove their pin from the catalogue listing.

Apparently, they are unhappy that collectors know about their pin and have contacted them to request pins. They do not have pins for collectors and will not be distributing them to the public.

I've tried explaining to them, that my site exists only to provide a comprehensive catalogue of all London 2012 pins. The website has never encouraged collectors to contact sponsors, not has it ever published information as to how to contact organisations.

Despite my arguments, Aggreko does not wish to engage with us and has actively sought to suppress information.

I should point out that at no time have Aggreko contacted me directly to discuss this or listen to my opinion.

Other sponsors have also been in the same position as Aggreko in that they are unable to issue pins to collectors, but these organisations have allowed their pins to be shown and managed the situation with a message on their website or emails to individual collectors. Unfortunately, Aggreko decided not to take this stance. There's is more of a "shoot the messenger" approach.

Apologies to collectors that, at the moment, I am unable to keep the catalogue as complete as possible, but I will endeavour to bring you as many pins as I can.

Should the pin appear on eBay, then I will republish the listing as at that time, I can consider the pin to be in the public domain.

5/12: Final Wellie Pins Issued

A few weeks ago, 6 wellington boot pins were issued. At the time, I mentioned that 2 more varieties were still to come. They are now available.

Pin 0975

Pin 0978

Both pins are limited to 2,012 pieces and price is £6.50.

2/12: More Countdown News

Some of you may have noticed, that when the 500 day to go pins were issued, there were only 3 varieties of the shard pin using combinations of the London 2012 brand colours.

These were pins 0480 - 0482. The combination of green shard and pink logo which should have been pin 0479 was never released.

Until now!

This pin will finally be released towards the back end of next week. But here's the important news. There will be less than 50 of them available for sale as individual pins. Overall, they are being limited to 1,000 pieces which makes them amongst the rarest retail pins, however as the majority are being held back for sets or have been sold to stakeholders, only a handful are available for sale. Not only that, but all of these pins are being sold by one retailer - Glamorous Living. 

So, my recommendation, if you want to get these pins individually, contact Glamorous Living as soon as their website launches them. These will probably be the most difficult pins to get so far.

Price will be £7

2/12: 200 Day To Go Countdown Pins - Updated

The next pins in the popular Countdown range have been announced. The 200 Day To Go pins will be available in early January, ready for the actual day on 9th January 2012.

There are 3 pins in the range - the standard shard pin and one pin each showing Wenlock and Mandeville. Mandeville's pin has the date 11/02/2012 as this is 200 days until the Paralympics.

No sooner are they announced, then one pin is out of stock. Yes, all of the Wenlock pins have been pre-ordered by retailers, so that means there are no more pins available to your favourite retailer once their initial allocation is sold. You may want to pre-order as soon as you can for this pin. Remember too, that previous countdown pins have been withdrawn form sale, so there is no telling how long this pin will remain on sale.

Pin 0927

Pin 0928

Pin 0947

Update: Each pin is limited to 2,012 pieces and the price of each will be £7

1/12: Message Board Issues - Updated

I'm getting reports that the message board has been corrupted and possibly hacked. I'm unable to check and investigate at the moment. Please do not attempt to access the message board until I have had a chance to take a look and post back on this blog.

The message board is hosted on by a free provider, so their levels of service are not fantastic. Please bear with me.

Updated 1/12/2011 @ 23:45

It looks like the board is unusable as I cannot access the administration section and many of you have seen the mess that comes up when you try to use the forum.

Although it's going to be inconvenient for everyone, I'm tempted to cut my losses on this forum and relocate to a new host. I cannot copy over the existing threads or user profiles. Anyone who wishes to continue to post (and I hope you do), will need to re-register on the new board. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I cannot see a way forward.

I've set up a new board at http://londonpins.phpbbhosts.co.uk/index.php and have created the same forum structure as before. I have not set up the 'Wants & Traders' as we now have the pin trading lists or the 'Polls' as they haven't had much use for ages. If anyone would like to see either reinstated, drop me an email.

Please go ahead and re-register if you would like to and I will try to get all requests authorised as soon as I can. Hopefully before long, we will be back on our feet again.

Again, apologies for having to make you start again, but I cannot see a way forward on the existing forum.

Paul.

1/12: London Pins on Around The Rings

The world of London 2012 pins and collectables has spread a little further today. Around the Rings (ATR), the Olympic news website has asked me to write some articles about London 2012 pins. The first of these is published today - click here to read the article.

Although the site is subscription based, you should be able to read the full piece.

I was trying to summarise the 'story so far' with the pins issued (mainly the retail ones), and hope to follow this up with more features on their site.

I hope this will take our hobby to yet another new audience of the ATR readers.

29/11 - Sold Out Pins - Update

The kilt pin (0581) has now sold out, so the only stocks that remain are with retailers. This pin was limited to 2,012 pieces and has sold out in 3 months.

This seems a good time for a round-up of all the sold-out pins. If you need any of these for your collection, act quickly!

Pin No	Description	Issue Size
0127	Countdown - 3 Years To Go	3,000
0216	London Boroughs - Lambeth	3,000
0222	London Boroughs - Southwark	3,000
0230	Mascots - Wenlock (Launch Pin)	2,012
0231	Mascots - Mandeville (Launch Pin)	2,012
0232	Mascots - Wenlock	5,000
0233	Mascots - Mandeville	5,000
0535	London 2012 Shop	2,012
0581	Emblems of Scotland - Kilt	2,012
0586	Team GB - Logo (Gold)	2,012
0587	Team GB - Logo (Silver)	2,012
0590	Team GB - Square - White	50,000
0593	ParalympicsGB - Small Oval - White	50,000
0629	1 Year to Go - Wenlock and 1YTG Sign	1,000
0630	1 Year to Go - Mandeville and 1YTG Sign	1,000
0800	Countdown - 2 Years To Go	3,000

Remember too that all countdown pins have been removed from sale, although some can still be found on certain websites.

13/11: New Logo Set

Earlier this month, a new set of logo pins was produced. This one contains new versions of the familiar Union Flag and White logos, but in addition, the Paralympic logo is now available in white.

Pins 0689, 0444 and 0443

The pins are each limited to 1 million pieces and are larger than the original pins being 27x31mm. Although there are 1m of each pin, there's no word on how many sets will be issued. The pins are presented in a box with an orange base and black lid with logos printed on the box lid in silver. They went on sale on 1st November priced £20, but for now they are exclusive to British Airways long haul flights and the BA High Life shop. No word yet on whether these pins will ever be available individually.

13/11: Get Set Mascots

Earlier this year, LOCOG ran a competition under their Get Set programme for schools to design a look for Wenlock or Mandeville which represented their local community or region. You can read more about the competition here.

Those designs have been turned into pins which will be available from next week.

Pin 1024 - Wales

Pin 1025 - South West

Pin 1026 - Northern Ireland

Pin 1027 - East of England

Pin 1028 - East Midlands

Pin 1029 - Scotland

Pin 1030 - Yorkshire 

Pin 1031 - West Midlands

Pin 1032 - South East

Pin 1033 - London

Pin 1034 - North East

Pin 1035 - North West

Each pin is limited to 50,000 and initially they will be exclusive to John Lewis, no word on price yet.

11/11: 2012 Pin Meet - Number 1

Get your diaries out, we have a date for the first pin meet of 2012!

With support from John Lewis and Honav, we have been able to set up the first pin meet for the New Year.

Date: Saturday 21st January 2012
Venue: The Stadium Suite, John Lewis, Westfield Stratford City
Time: Still to be confirmed, but I'm hoping 11am to 4pm approximately

When the first concept images of the London 2012 shop in John Lewis were shown, a number of collectors commented that it seemed a good place for a pin meet. A few months later and I'm pleased to say that John Lewis are supporting the pin community by hosting a meet in their store.

Of course, this will be an 'open-door' event and therefore the public will be able to take a first hand look at pin collecting and join in if they fancy. John Lewis will be advertising the event beforehand and so I hope that we may get a good number of people to see what pin collecting and trading is all about.

It's still in the early days of planning so I've no idea what, if anything, may be on offer on the day. I will however be talking to our favourite sponsors to see if they may be able to support us. If anyone has any ideas for the day or is able to generate some interest (or pins) from their sponsor contacts, please feel free to pitch in.

So, please put the date in your diaries and as usual let me know if you plan to attend by dropping an email to info@londonpins.co.uk. As usual any freebies from sponsors that are limited in number will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, so get your names down. Even if you're a regular or have said you plan to come along to the next meet, please drop me an email.

Let's see if we can get the number of pre-registered collectors up into the 30s or 40s this time.

11/11: New ODA Park Pins

On Wednesday, 2 more in the ODA Olympic Park series of pins were released. These pins recognise the Structures, Bridges and Highways (SBH) team.

Pin ODA0029

Pin ODA0030

As with previous ODA Park pins, they come in Olympic and Paralympic varieties and show a cross section through a bridge (I think - Pippin help me out please!). They were issued at a 'Thank You' event on Wednesday. There are a number already on eBay!

10/11: All Countdown Pins to be Withdrawn from Sale

Honav have announced this afternoon that next Tuesday (15th November) ALL countdown pins issued to date will be withdrawn from sale. This includes all 'Year To Go' and 'Days To Go' pins and also covers the 'Shard' and mascot versions. Not only will no more be sent to retailers, but also any existing stock that is with the retailers will be returned. This means that if you still want to buy any of the countdown pins issued so far individually, you have until the close of business on Tuesday to get them.

The 3 YTG, 2YTG and 1 YTG 'Peep' pins have already been marked as sold out, but there are still some left with retailers. From next Tuesday, these will be unavailable too.

This is not the last time you'll ever see these pins as I understand that full countdown sets may be available at some later date, presumably once the Games have started and there's nothing left to countdown! But if you need to fill a single gap in your collection, act before next Tuesday.

7/11: More Sell-Out Pins

News from Honav today that 3 more pin styles have sold out.

The 1 Year to Go Mascot 'Peep' pins (0629 and 0630) and the gold Team GB pin (0586) have all now sold out. There were 1,000 of he countdown pins issued and 2,012 of the Team GB pin,

Please remember that 'sold-out' in this case means that there no further stocks with the manufacturer, that's not to say that there is not remaining stock with some retailers.

3/11: Olympin 2012 Pins On The Way

The guys at Olympin tell me that for all those UK members signed up for the 2012 membership year, the club pins are on the way. They were mailed earlier this week, so should be arriving soon.

They have also confirmed that the 2 year offer made back in May has now closed and that the price for UK collectors for the 2012 membership will be US$20. This will get you the 2012 club pin and the 2012 membership list.

Those interested can sign up here -  Click here for an online application form in Google Docs.

3/11: More John Lewis Promotion Events

Following on from last weeks successful promotion in their store on Oxford Street, there are further events in 2 more John Lewis stores over the next week.

Saturday 5th November - Welwyn Garden City
Saturday 12th November - Liverpool

The format will be similar to the London event with the promotion of some of the pin ranges and the chance to win a pin by answering some quiz questions. Both events run from 11.30am until 2pm.

If you get a chance to visit either event, please fell free to leave a comment on this post to let us know how it went.

Just for the record, I'm not receiving any payment for promoting these events, not even a set of John Lewis pins :-), and I know they read this blog!

31/10: Coca-Cola Pin Trading Centres - Request for Volunteers

As you may be aware, during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Coca Cola will be hosting the official pin trading centres. These are venues where pin collectors can come together and trade Olympic pins. The centres are manned by volunteers and Coca Cola staff who ensure that everyone has a great experience. They are there to explain the process to new traders and to make sure that everyone has a fair chance to display their trades. At present, the plan is to have two centres, one located inside the Olympic Park and another in a central London location. The Olympic Park venue will be open during the Olympic and Paralympic Games and accessible only to those with tickets which allow entry to the Park itself. The central London venue will be open from approximately a week before the opening of the Olympic Games right through until the end of the Paralympic Games and will be open to all.

If you are interested in volunteering to help staff one of the centres, then Coca Cola would like to hear from you. I have offered to collect the details of people who would like to be considered for a volunteer role in one of the Coca Cola Pin Trading Centres (CCPTC). At this stage, this is just a registration of you interest. There is no commitment and no guarantee that you will be chosen. We would, though, like to find out the numbers of people interested in helping out.

If you have been to one of the pin meets and given me your name, there is no need to email me, you're already on the list!

I appreciate that many readers live outside London and have other commitments, so if you could indicate your approximate availability that would help with assessing your interest.

If you would like to volunteer or know more, please drop me an email with your details to info@londonpins.co.uk.

30/10: New Christmas Pins and White Logo Pin

New Christmas pins were announced on Friday along with a new version of the white logo pin.

The Christmas pins show Wenlock slam-dunking a present into a stocking (similar to the US version), Mandeville carrying a snowball and a printed version of the snowman pin released last year.

Pin 0854

Pin 0855

Pin 0288

The mascot pins are limited to 2,012 pieces each and the snowman is limited to 50,000 pieces. These pins are already available from Glamorous Living but most likely be available from all the main retailers.

Also announced last week was another version of the white logo pin. 

Pin 0445

This one is limited to 1.5 million pieces and is aimed at the mass market via high-street retailers rather than collectors. The main difference between this pin and the original is that the spaces between the digits are filled rather than cut through.

24/10: Pin Event - John Lewis, Oxford Street

This Friday - 28 October 2011, Honav and John Lewis will be hosting a pin promotion at the John Lewis store on Oxford Street, London. They will be promoting the Royal Parks, Icons of England and London Landmarks pins. There will also be some Mascot Special poses pins to be won.

The event runs from 11am until 2pm on Friday.

24/10: IOC Poster and Logo Pins

At the pin meet on Saturday, Honav announced the latest set of new pins. These are a series of pins which replicate the posters and logos of previous Olympic Games. They use artwork from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Museum in Lausanne.

Pin 0735

In total there will be 27 pins in the poster set each limited to 10,000 pieces showing posters stretching back to Athens 1896 through to Beijing 2008. Each pin is printed so that the detail of each poster can be reproduced. No details of price at the moment.

Pin 0789

The logo series is a little smaller consisting of 20 pins from Paris 1924 to Beijing. These pins are enamel. The first release in this series consists of 10 pins. More will follow. This series is limited to 5,000 pieces each. Again, no word on price at the moment.

These pins are mounted on a new version of backing card. The card is themed to match the posters and contains text inside which mentions the IOC Museum

Backing Card - Front

Backing Card - Rear

Backing Card - Inside

Retailers will be receiving details of these pins this week, so please be patient if your favourite retailer doesn't have details until later this week.

23/10: 4th Unofficial London 2012 Pin Collectors Pin Meet

Yesterday saw the 4th pin meet for the London 2012 pin collectors. Our number grow steadily at each meet and this time we had 23 attendees of whom 11 were 'first-timers' to one of our meets. Collectors from Land's End and Calgary attended as well as those that live near the Olympic Park. There were a few familiar faces that were not able to make it, so let's hope that they will be free for the next meet.

Many of the collectors enhanced their collections and made some very good trades. Those that attended for the first time were welcomed into the groups and all of them were bitten by the bug I think. Speaking to them towards the end of the meet, I think they will be back for the next meet with traders in hand!

We were joined by two representatives from the London 2012 team at Coca Cola who shared some information with us about the plans for the Coca Cola Pin Trading Centres and listened to our ideas for designs for their range of Coca Cola pins that will be available next year.

Honav attended and announced their new range of pins which show posters and logos from past Games using artwork from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) museum's collection. You can read more about the new pins in a following post.

Originally we had hoped that a film crew from London 2012 would be joining us to record the event and make a small video promoting pin collecting and trading for their website. Unfortunately they had to cancel at the 11th hour, but have promised to join us at the next meet. They are fully committed to publicising pin trading to their readers.

We discussed plans for future meetings and the general consensus was that we will aim to get together next year in January and then once a month from March until Games time.

Thank you to everyone that attended and continue to make these meetings a success. As soon as I have details for the next meet, I'll post on the blog.

Finally, thank you to Jan and her team at the Railway Tavern in Stratford. Not only does she allow us to use the pub conservatory for our meets, completely free of charge, but she and her staff always make us feel welcome. We really do appreciate your support.

So, in summary a thoroughly enjoyable day. Not only a chance to trade pins, but to meet other collectors and see pins you have only seen pictures of before. I'm looking forward to Pin Meet 5 already.

20/10: New Pantomime Pins

In readiness for the festive season, London 2012 continue their British Life series with a set of pins based on Pantomime.

The pins come as a boxed set of 6 and show a dame, princess, pantomime horse, pair of ugly sisters, a leading man and a "Oh no it isn't! Oh yes it is!" speech bubble. The packaging for this set is a little different and very well thought out. From the outside, it looks like a standard London 2012 pin set with the pink box and black lid combination. On the inside, however, the normal plain backing card has been replaced with a printed theatre curtain effect card. This sets off the pins very well indeed. Let's hope other future sets continue this idea.

The set is limited to 2,012 pieces, priced at £55 and is available now.

Pin 0988 

Pin 0989

Pin 0990

Pin 0991

Pin 0992

Pin 0993

No word on retailers yet, but feel free to post a comment when you see it on sale anywhere.

17/10: Sainsbury's Pin

A new pin from Paralympics Sponsor - Sainsbury's has been spotted in at least two stores.

The pin has a blue background with a stylised portion of the Thames and a basketball and football to form the word 'London' along with a London skyline which helps form a '2012'. The paralympic logo is displayed on a gold background.

There's no obvious reason for the timing of the release. Perhaps it's to coincide with 300 days to go the Paralympics which falls on 3rd November.

Thanks to a reader for the photograph.

14/10: Pin Meet - Saturday 22nd October

A reminder to you all that the '4th Unofficial London 2012 Pin Traders Pin Meet' takes place next weekend - Saturday 22nd October. Once again, we'll be meeting at The Railway Tavern in Stratford thanks to the generous owners who let us use the conservatory. Start time is 2.30pm.

Currently we have 25 confirmed attendees, so once again an increase in numbers on the previous meet.

According to TfL, the Jubilee and Central lines are operating around Stratford, so hopefully there should be no issues with transport.

For anyone who hasn't registered their interest yet, please drop me a line to info@londonpins.co.uk if you would like to come or would like more information.

A special invitation to those who are just starting out with their pin collection and feel they may have nothing to trade. Please don't worry. OK, so you may not walk away with lots of new pins, but you will meet lots of enthusiastic and friendly collectors and be part of a group that is growing month by month. You'll make some very useful contacts and get yourself known in trading circles. It doesn't matter whether you have nothing to trade or have the complete collection (you know who you are!), you will be welcome. Drop me an email, we can chat beforehand if you would like to.

I have contacted a few sponsors regarding the possibility of some pins for attendees. At the moment I cannot promise anything. We were very lucky last time, so please don't be too disappointed if you don't each walk away with 3 new pins this time!

And now for some exciting news about the day...

London 2012 would like to come and join us and film the event in order to make a short video for their website which promotes pin trading to their fan-base. We all know that pin trading is the greatest spectator sport at the Games, and London 2012 would like to spread this news to their readers.

They are keen for me to point out, that no-one will be filmed or approached if they do not wish to be. Please don't feel that you have to be 'on show', but if you would like a chance to promote the hobby - here it is.

So, it should be an interesting day. If you've been before then I'm looking forward to seeing you again next week and if you haven't but think it might be for you, then please join us.

You can see the original invitation here (includes a map)
http://londonpins.blogspot.com/2011/08/78-4th-unofficial-london-2012-pin.html

13/10: Wellington Boot Pins

A new series of 6 pins has been issued to celebrate the Wellington Boot. Each pin shows a pair of wellies in a different pattern with a complementary London 2012 logo.

Pin 0972

My personal favourite is shown above  - the Union Flag logo, but the other 5 pins show wellies with blue spots (0973), green spots (0974) and 3 varieties of tartan (0976, 0977 and 0979).

For those of you who like pins in the full range of London 2012 colours, pink spots (0975) and another variety of tartan (0978) are still to be issued making 8 pins in total.

These pins are limited to 2,012 pieces each. I wonder if some of these may be a sell-out in a short time?

These first 6 pins are already on order at Glamorous Living.

13/10: New US Retail Pins

It seems there's lots of activity in the US with new retail pins being launched. 8 new pins have been announced due for release shortly.

These pins use many of the themes we've seen already such as the crown and weather however the Stonehenge and Downing Street pins are a welcome addition to the range.

As for all the other US retail pins, these are only for sale and distribution within the USA.

7/10: Two Sets of US Retail Pins

A quick scan across the internet today has revealed 2 more sets of pins being issued in the US for their retail market.

The first is a set of 2 pins available now to mark the Christmas period or Holiday season as its termed. The 2 pins show Wenlock slam-dunking a present into a basketball hoop (the same image used in LOCOG emails last Christmas) and another version of the snowflake design used in two separate pins in the UK last Christmas.

The other set of pins are 16 pictogram pins which are advertised as being available from November.

These are the first London 2012 pictogram pins to display the logo also.

As for the previous US retail pins, these are only for sale and distribution within the USA.