24/9: BT 300 Day To Go Pin

BT are the first sponsor to announce a 300 day to go pin ready for 1st October. This pin follows the design of their previous pins and hopefully will be followed by more 'hundreds' countdowns.

Pin BT0006

No word on issue size for this pin at the moment.

22/9: Partner Workshop Pin

The third version of partner workshop pins has been spotted. The workshop took place over the last two days and attendees were presented with this pin.

Pin LOC0017

No word on issue size at the moment, but the previous pins in this series were each limited to 300 pieces.

22/9: New Mascot Street Scenes

Two new ranges are being released which show Wenlock and Mandeville in a series of London street poses. The ranges have the same images, but are available in either enamel or printed versions.

There are 7 pins in each set and varieties of each are shown below.

Pin 0890 (Blue) or 0897 (White)

Pin 0891 (Blue) or 0898 (White)

Pin 0892 (Blue) or 0899 (White)

Pin 0893 (Blue) or 0900 (White)

Pin 0894 (Blue) or 0901 (White)

Pin 0895 (Blue) or 0902 (White)

Pin 0896 (Blue) or 0903 (White)

Pins are limited to 50,000 each and are priced at £5 for the blue printed variety or £6.50 for the white enamel variety. Some of these pins have had limited availablilty at John Lewis, but are now on general release.

19/9: 300 Days To Go Pins

October 1st marks the 300 day to go mark for the Olympic Games and November 3rd the for the Paralympic Games. To continue the countdown series, here are the pins that will be available. There are 3 pins in total, a shard and a mascot pin for the Olympic Games and a mascot pin for the Paralympics.

Pin 0925

Pin 0926

Pin 0946

As for the 500 and 400 day to go pins, these are limited to 2,012 pieces each. Recommended price of each pin is £6.50 each. Hopefully we can expect retailers to have these soon so that they are available before the actual day.

14/9: Retail Update

A few short bits of news today...

A new London 2012 shop opened in Jubilee Place in Canary Wharf today. I imagine the usual range of pins, plush and clothing. I'll probably visit on my next trip to Stratford and will try to post more information then.

The guards set (Set 0009) that was originally limited to British Airways is now on general release and has been termed the 'Deluxe Guards Set'

Finally, one of the Team GB pins issued last month is 'Sold Out'.

Pin 590 is now no longer available to retailers from the manufacturer. But before you panic, it's because all 50,000 pins have been bought up by a high street retailer and will be available through their stores.

13/9: New London 2012 Shop at John Lewis - Westfield, Stratford City

Today marked the opening of Stratford City Westfield and with it the new London 2012 shop within John Lewis.

The London 2012 shop is locate don the 3rd floor of John Lewis, and as you will know from the press release from a few weeks ago, overlooks the Olympic Park. It had a huge range of merchandise from clothes to household goods, plush, toys and of course collectables. The pin wall had a fair range of items from original logos up to all the latest Team GB pins. They had some of the mascot street scenes that are starting to appear and some London landmark pins in both blue and white varieties.

Interestingly, while I was there, there was interest in the white logo pin and the London Borough pins, neither of which were available. I think that the shop will adjust its range of pins when they see what's in demand. The staff appeared knowledgeable and approachable. I noticed that pins had been arranged in some cases by packaging and not by series, but I guess to the average customer it's not an issue. Collectors may find it strange though. Overall a welcome retail outlet for London 2012 collectors and Im sure it will be part of the daily run for those of us who hope to spend a lot of time around the Olympic Park in 2012!

My thanks to Sarah in the store who listened to my views on the pin wall and the store.

There is a meeting space behind the shop in the area which overlooks the park, and for today Panasonic were demonstrating their TVs and 3D technology. Far more important than that though was the fact they were handing out pins (if you asked)!

The pin shows Wenlock and a blue logo over the 'Panasonic' name. This is not a Honav UK pin, so will have the WWL notation when it is added to the catalogue.

Another sponsor had new pins out at Westfield today. Lloyds TSB had new pins being worn by their staff which showed the sort-code for the branch (will will be the nearest customer facing LTSB branch to the Olympic Park) along with the composite logo. They weren't available to the public though. I hope to have photos soon.

12/9: Latest Stamp Pins Issued

The final 10 stamp pins in the set of 30 have been issued (ignoring the fact that 2 pins are missing from the earlier releases at the moment).

These final 10 pins contain images of the stamps issued at the 1 year to go milestone earlier this year. The cover the sports: Sailing, Field Athletics, Volleyball, Wheelchair Rugby, Wrestling, Wheelchair Tennis, Fencing, Gymnastics, Triathlon and Handball.

Some interesting observations...

The pins are numbered 1014 to 1023, which puts us in the second half of the issue numbers with still many of the lower numbers un-issued.

The backstamp has the text TM (C) LOCOG 2009, whereas the earlier 20 stamp pins were dated 2011

The final line of the backstamp is marked 'Honav' whereas the first 20 were marked 'Royal Mail/Honav'.

Nothing earth-shatteringly important I know, but just something I noticed!

The pins are available now from the Royal Mail packaged with the corresponding stamp in a pack.

10/11: New Partner Pins

Here's a round up of new partner pins that readers have spotted recently.

Firstly BAA, who were recently signed up as an official supplier

British Airports Authority (BAA) - First Pin

Next a pair of pins from BP supporting Team GB and ParalympicsGB

BP0008

BP0009

Next the first London pin from the worldwide sponsor Proctor & Gamble - a 1 YTG pin

P&G0001

Another boxed set from Samsung. This one contains a composite logo pin (possible the one seen when the Torch relay was launched) plus 3 'icon' pins representing London.

Samsung set of four

Composite logo

House of Parliament

Double Decker Bus

Guard

Finally another composite logo pin from Visa.

Visa

Thank you to Pinmaster, Bryan, Bonwusah, Robert and Andree for the information and photos. I will add these pins to the catalogue soon.

8/9: Media Retail pins

Some new pins today issued by US broadcaster NBC, but available for retail in the USA. They follow on from the 5 NBC pins already in the catalogue. These ones mix London landmarks together with 2 pins that are part of a set of 20 depicting Olympic sports.

Thanks to pin-architect for this piece of news.

6/9: Retail Pins Updated in Catalogue

I've now updated the catalogue with all the recent retail pins issued. You can check the New Issues By Date page to see the additions.

In summary, there are now entries for...

Emblems of England

Team GB and ParalympicsGB

Mascot Street Scenes

Mandeville Sports

Back to School

Mascot Poses

5/9: Sid Marantz from Olympin in London

Sid Marantz from the Olympin pin club has asked me to mention that he will be in London later this week and would like to meet up with any club members or potential members.

You can email him at sidmarantz@aol.com as soon as possible if you would like to meet up with him. He'll be around on Friday and Saturday this week.

4/9: Normal Service Resumed

As some of you may have known, I have been away on holiday with my family for the last few weeks, so apologies of the lack of news updates. It's been a busy time in the pin world and there's been plenty of chat on the message boards.

From what I can tell, we have seen

Retail - Paralympics GB, English & Scottish icons and mascot sport pins - especially Mandeville
Sponsor - Samsung, P&G, EDF, UPS, BAA

If you think I have missed anything, please feel free to comment.

There should be a lot to talk about at the next pin meet in October.

I hope to get some images and more information soon, so bear with me. Ill have the catalogue up to date as soon as I can.

Paul.

2/9: Mascots Go To School

To celebrate (!) the kids returning to school, London 2012 have released 6 pins which show Wenlock and Mandeville getting ready for the new term. The pins show Wenlock with a blackboard, as a lollipop patrol and working at a desk. Also, Mandeville in a backpack, reading and with his lunch.

Pin 0949

Pin 0950

Pin 0951

Pin 0952

Pin 0953

Pin 0954

Issue size for these pin is 2,012 pieces each. No word on price or retailers yet.