15/8: Team GB and Paralympics GB Pins

The first pins to support Team GB have been released. These pins mix red, white and blue with the team logo to form an impressive set of pins. Here are just a few of the pins on offer.

The pins come in a variety of shapes and colours, some are printed and some enamelled. Some are limited to 2,012 whereas others will be issued as up to 100,000 pieces.

13/8: ODA 'Black Hat' Pins

A new ODA pin was spotted today. Based on the existing 'Builder's Hat' pins, this one represents the Athletes Village construction supervisors (foremen) who wear black hats for ease of identification.

Apologies for the quality of the photo. The pin consists of a black builder's hat with the words 'Black Hat' written across it and a blue logo. The hat is shown in front of a shard which contains the words 'Athletes Village'.

Thanks to a reader for this information.

11/8: Future Pin Designs

As some of you may know, there was a huge Olympic Collectors Fair in Chicago last weekend. Honav were in attendance and were promoting their London 2012 collection. They displayed a vast number of pins - some of which we haven't seen over here yet. A collector who attended was kind enough to pass some photos to me (via an Olympin club member) of the Honav displays.

Thanks to Brad Frank for these photographs and he retains the copyright of all images.

The pins were displayed in a number of frames and I have reproduced images of the frames here with my comments as to what I think I can see.

This frame appears to contain pins that have already been issued

Again, this frame appears to contain pins that have already been issued

Once again, all pins in this frame have been issued, but interestingly, the Aquatics stamp pin is on display (second row from bottom, right hand side)

This frame contains the table tennis stamp pin that has not been released by Royal Mail (top row), the new 'pewter' pictograms and the alphabet pins. Notice however that there is a lower case set of alphabet pins too.

This frame continues the lower case alphabet pins. Then in addition to existing pins such as Lord Mayor, birds and guards, has printed version of the mascot pictograms (rows 5-8).

This frame seems to contain coloured logos in new sizes, a jigsaw set of the Thames and its bridges. In addition there are some existing sets, such as crowns, seaside and 500 DTG pins

This free contains more printed mascot pictograms and new Team GB pins (rows 5 and 6)

In this frame we can see more of the Icons of... series such as the kilt and bagpipes for Scotland. Then there is a whole set of Team GB and Paralympics GB pins. Finally at the bottom seem to be variations ont he Union flag in London 2012 colours as a dangler below a logo. I can't tell what the variations might be to create so many pins.

This frame starts off with more of the Union flag dangler pins. Then we can see the dogs. Row 6 seems to have pins marked 'pub quiz' and a dartboard. There's a rainbow with Wenlock holding an umbrella which looks like a slider pin. Following this are the different sized Union flag logo pins. Finally in this frame are what appear to be historic Olympic poster pins (London 1948 is on the bottom row, 3rd from right).

More historic posters, possibly in printed and enamelled as I can see 3 of one design (e.g. Tokyo)

This frame starts off with some type of flowers which we haven't seen before. This is followed by more mascot pictograms (enamelled and printed). Row 8 seems to contain Christmas pins (a Christmas stocking hanging from a basketball hoop).

This frame shows two varieties of London landmark pins which appear to fit together. They use the London 2012 graphical lines style and appear to be in a day and night version. These are followed by the mascot street scenes, seen only in John Lewis for now. Then comes some more Icon... pins. This time for England I suggest. Row 7 and 8 contain more Team GB and Paralympics GB. Then in the bottom 2 rows, we can see countdown pins for 300, 200 and 100 days in shard and mascot varieties. The frame finishes with some cat pins.

This frame continues the cat pins and then adds a rabbit and some birds, so I think we're looking at series of pets. These are followed by more countdown pins. Then comes a school set showing a blackboard and a lollipop man. There are more varieties on Union flag and London Landmarks in rows 3 and 4. Row 5 seems to show musical instruments. Row 6 has a series of Wellington boots. I think row 7 contains Icons of ... Wales (daffodil and Welsh dragon at least). Row 8 contains pantomime pins - horse, ugly sisters. Finallly the bottom two rows contain the new Team GB mascot - Pride the lion.

All in all, quite a set of pins! Lots of new designs. Remember, some of these may be concepts and not be manufacturers. I'm not saying all these will be real pins. All we do know is that they were shared with the public at the collectors fair.

Something else that was on display at the fair was the 'London 2012 Complete Lapel Pin Collection'. This is a set of all 2,012 retail pins issued in two cases. There will be only 500 of these sets issued worldwide. The image below shows the outside of one of the cases. I believe the pins will be issued in frames like the ones shown in these photographs.

Once again, thank you to Brad Frank for sharing these pictures with us.

10/8: Mascot Sports

More of the mascot sports pins are to be released.

Wenlock is shown trying the following sports... Volleyball, Beach Volleyball, BMX, Eventing, Mountain Biking, Modern Pentathlon (best pin yet?) Cycling, Running, Taekwondo, Trampoline and Triathlon.

Pin 0830

Pin 0818

Pin 0826

Pin 0825

Pin 0824

Pin 0832

Pin 0819

Pin 0518

Pin 0821

Pin 0820

Pin 0823

Not to be outdone, Mandeville appears in two new sport pins - rowing and swimming

Pin 0846

Pin 0847

As for all the other mascot sports pins, these are all limited to 10,000 pieces and priced at £6.50. Pins should all be available in the next day or two. They've been shown on the John Lewis website for a while, but listed as out of stock. These should be available at all the usual retailers.

10/8: Paralympic 1 Year To Go Pin

A pin is being issued for the Paralympic 1 Year To Go milestone on 29th August. This is the first and therefore only 'year' Paralympic countdown pin.

Pin 0688

Issue size is 3,000 and the price is £6.50. It will be available in the next day or two.

9/8: More Retail Pins from USA

Another set of pins from Aminco have surfaced in mailings and on eBay. There are 8 pins as well as the 1 Year to Go pin announced previously. These new pins feature Wenlock, British icons and flags.

This from a reader...

Click to enlarge

Once again these pins are made for the US market only and cannot be sold outside the USA.

9/8: More 1 Year To Go Pins

Two more 1 Year to Go pins have been spotted.

Firstly, thanks to a reader, a pin from Adidas.

Pin ADI0005

This is pin ADI0005 and is manufactured by Honav.

There is also a pin from Dow (spotted on eBay)

Pin WWL-DOW0001

This pin has been manufactured by Aminco under their licence and so I have given it the reference WWL-DOW0001.

7/8: 4th Unofficial London 2012 Pin Collectors Pin Meet

I'd like to officially announce the next pin meet and invite you all.

Following on from the comments and feedback from the last set of attendees, the details are as follows...

• Date: Saturday 22nd October 2011
• Time : 2.30pm
• Venue: The Railway Tavern, 131 Angel Lane, Stratford, London, E15 1DB
• Venue Website: http://railwaytavernhotel.co.uk
• Cost: Free (but please see note below)
• Nearest Transport: Stratford Station (National Rail, Central Line, DLR)

As for the previous meets, the pub is not charging us for the hire of the venue, so please consider buying a drink or even your lunch from them. I can recommend the food!

As for the previous meet, I hope that a sponsor or two may be able to attend. I have no offers of any pins for the attendees yet, but I will be approaching some sponsors to see what may be available. I can't promise anything except that the earlier you register, the more chance you have of receiving anything on offer!

Hopefully we can get as many people there as last time, if not more!

If you plan to come, please drop me an email to info@londonpins.co.uk to confirm you attendance and that way if there are any changes to plan, you will be kept informed.

Hope to see lots of you there.

5/8: National Flowers - Jigsaw Image

Here's an update to the National Flowers set information - an image of the boxed set showing the pins in their jigsaw arrangement.

National Flowers of the UK set

5/8: Another Mascot Boxed Set

Wenlock and Mandeville are appearing in their standard pose for a new boxed set. This time the pins display their name using the mascot's logo

Pin 0533

Pin 0534

Boxed set with inlay card

The pins come as a boxed set with a details card. I understand the pins will not be available individually. The issue size is 3,000 for this set and the price is £20.

5/8: National Flowers of the UK

London 2012's first jigsaw set has been released. This attractive set combines the national flowers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with each countries shape to form a complete set which shows the UK.

Pin 0680

Pin 0681

Pin 0682

Pin 0683

England is represented by the rose, Scotland by the thistle, Wales by the daffodil and Northern Ireland by the shamrock. Pins are not shown here to scale, in other words the Northern Ireland pin is not the same size as the England pin. To give you a sense of scale, the logo on each pin is the same size.

The pins are only available as a set which is limited to 3,000 pieces and the price is £35.

5/8: Latest Mascot Sports Pin

Wenlock tries his hand at cycling in the latest mascot sport pin.

Pin 0505

As for the others in the series, the issue size is 10,000 pieces and this one is priced at £6.50. It is available immediately.

3/8: Media Pins

It seems as if the media organisations are now starting their pin programmes. This week, 4 media pins have been spotted.

The first comes from Eurosport and combines their logo with a pale blue London 2012 logo and the words 'official broadcaster'

The other 3 pins all come from NBC, the principal USA Olympic broadcaster. At the moment I don't have any images I can use, however the pins are...

• Standard NBC blue rectangular pin with 'NBC', peacock logo, Olympic rings and words London 2012
• NBC London 2012 shield logo
• NBC London 2012 shield logo on a red telephone box

3/8: Lloyds/Bank of Scotland 1 Year To Go Pins

More 1 Year To Go pins have come to the surface - this time from the Lloyds Banking Group.

They have issued 4 pins to mark the milestone date - 2 under the Lloyds TSB brand and 2 under the Bank of Scotland brand.

Pin LLY0011

Pin LLY0012

Pin BOS0005

Pin BOS0006

In each pair of pins, there are 2 varieties of the figure '1'. It either has a translucent infill in the colour of the brand or a 'hollow' centre. These make an interesting difference to the normal countdown numbers. Also seen for the first time on their pins are new varieties of the Olympic logo. Previously the logos were in outline the colour of the brand, but this time the logos are solid in green and blue. The final difference is the strap line on the BoS pins. Previously they used the same 'official partner' wording of the LTSB pins. This time however the strap line is 'proud partner for Scotland'. I'll post issue sizes for these pins soon I hope.