"Odd" Disney Pins

[nicki.momof3]

They are a "large" (3-5 inches) metal piece in the shape of a character, etc. that hangs at the end of a pin lanyard. They are heavy enough to keep lanyards from flapping around a lot. They have tons of designs!

OK - I know exactly what you are talking about - thanks

 

[shalom]

If they are less than ONE DOLLAR per pin you can bet they are made in China fakes.

Not true. I have bought a lot of $1 at Disney outlet stores (i.e, authorized pins). And all mass produced "collectibles" go down in price on average anymore, as do a lot of limited edition (when the producer mis-guesses the appeal - some of the ones I bought for a buck from Disney were from limited runs of 1000). The collectibles that go up in value are rare, hard to predict, and often lose value along with the rest when the fad passes. I see no reason to assume Disney pins will hold their value when nothing else does, meaning a lot of the $1 pins are probably legit.

OTOH, I seem to have quirky tastes; I get the impression that people who collect the popular stuff end up with a lot more counterfeits. And some of the pins I buy for a buck or two at Disney's official outlet stores end up on E-bay for a lot more (see the 1st Day of Autumn pin below).

Your post has made me wonder how you can tell if eBay pins are official?

The only possible way to know if most pins are "official" is to buy them direct from Disney. Disney has publicly declared that they never released this or that design, and PinPics or other collector sites sometimes know that a pin was on the market before being officially released, but aside from those occurrences there's no way to know how likely it is if a pin is official or not. Some fraudulent pins are really poorly made but apparently most are indistinguishable from the official pins.

To get back to the original intent of the thread -- I'm not into the weird shaped pins but I have run across some I find really odd. First, I think this one is just strange because of the hearts and the subject of the dangle:

Daisy's nieces couldn't have done the job? Ariel's sisters? If it weren't for the hearts I would have assumed they were recognizing how annoying sisters can be or something, but with the hearts it's just strange.

Second, it's hard to see in this picture, but I own the actual pin, and if you look at the tree it's got two upraised branches with three "fingers" and a "thumb" off to the right side, then the yellow leaf and a branch pointing off to the right make a kind of beaked bird head in between them, add in the various horizontal lines the could be sleeves and a collar, and the tree looks like this priest to some weird nature god doing homage to something off stage, which I find freaky and could not "unsee" once I saw it...

http://www.dizcollect.com/collectibles/pins/first-day-of-autumn-chip-and-dale/

 

[jessyj1977]

I LOVE collecting weird pins!!! It started by me getting a pin with a coffee cup and Minnie Mouse and now I am obsessed with collecting coffee cup pins! DH thinks I am extremely weird but I think its a conversation piece!!

 

[FigNewton]

Watch out OP.

People on these boards are being down right mean tonight. I got slammed earlier today for some typo's that I typed from my phone (hate auto correct).

People should follow the old advice - if you can't say something nice, don't say it at all.

OP - go ahead and trade any pin you want. What you do is your business. happy trading.

Hah, well let's be fair. One person on this thread said something that was maybe kinda sorta mean-spirited. The rest has been pretty even handed point-counterpoint about a rather touchy subject. All in all, fairly mild.

 

[Leajess99]

I personally like some of the odder pins. The set I am working on has villains in bowling pins. Who thought it was a bright idea to put villains and bowling pins together? I am collecting them despite the oddity though.

My girls had some of these. They were neat but my middle daughter was collecting all the cute Donald Duck pins she could find.

Personally, I hate pin trading as it took too much time and the stupid backs never stayed on. Even the backs with that tool managed to fall off.

 

[Mama Who]

When y'all are done bickering, I'd actually be interested in getting back to the original topic. We like weird and unusual pins, and we don't really care so much about if they're "real" or not. We don't trade, just collect.

We love odd pins and obscure characters! There was a series a little while back of character bowling pins that was fun.

 

[DavidH]

It was several years ago when my daughters traded around for their first lanyard of pins. They were maybe 10 and 12 (maybe younger). One wanted princesses and the other baby Mickeys (I think). I explained the rules as best I could - don't touch, don't interrupt, please and thank you, put the back on.... We would help them look, but they had to do the talking. I told them that CM's had to trade, but that other guests did not. Oldest DD was afraid that CM's would be mad because she "took" their favorite pins Had to explain several times, those are not their personal pins.

They traded lots that first year, but a little less the subsequent years. Now they hardly even wear their lanyards. In a couple of weeks, we are doing a short trip with my in-laws (love them), which we haven't done in a bunch of years. DD(17) will be off to college next year and while I know she will go to Disney with us again, it won't be quite the same.

I got them some "starter pins" and new empty lanyards to trade again this trip. I started this whole nasty thread because DD(15) was looking through her bag and commenting how really weird some of them were. She was trying to decide on this year's theme and thought she might look for "Weird Pins".

I posted earlier that I have a friend that is a Disney Artist and has designed a series of pins (that is what I look for). I am going to ask him where the idea for some of these odd pins came from.
David

 

[Babbletrish]

INT: DisBoards, Morning

Trish sees the topic "'Odd' Disney Pins", gets excited. As she logs into it, she plans on talking about he favorite weird pins in her collection: the five-legged sheep, the pin about pin trading, the ones that acknowledge "The Black Cauldron" and other obscure/unpopular Disney movies happened, the one where Figment sends a Valentine to Dreamfinder...

Trish reads thread.

She sees it go off into a Real Pin Traders / Real Pins vs. Just For Fun Pin Traders / Scrappers argument in record time.

Trish leaves the thread and gets a strong drink...

 

[TheAceOfAces]

he favorite weird pins in her collection: the five-legged sheep

There's a pin of the five-legged sheep?! Where can this be bought? (I know the Contemporary is a given, but I'm wondering if they have/had it anywhere else.)

Back to your regularly scheduled discussion. (Although the one Trish just sparked is a lot more interesting, if you ask me...)

 

[DavidH]

There's a pin of the five-legged sheep?! Where can this be bought? (I know the Contemporary is a given, but I'm wondering if they have/had it anywhere else.)

Back to your regularly scheduled discussion. (Although the one Trish just sparked is a lot more interesting, if you ask me...)

I happily yield the thread to the Lady from Boston
A five-legged sheep is WAY BETTER than a bottle of Pluto Root Beer.....
Perhaps....if the sheep was drinking the root beer

 

[Kaewin]

Trying to stay on topic, I like the Jack Skellington holiday pins, some are just weird. I think the weirdest one I have is a vinalymation bear/Chewbacca thing. Got it off a cast member two trips ago.

One a side note does anyone else ask the CMs to pick their pin? I notice some will but others look at you kind of strange.



Oh the slave Leia/Minnie is a bit weird.

 

[DavidH]

I was telling one of my CM buddies how I had unintentionally started a Throw Down on here about pins. He has a lady in the Entertainment Office that hands out their pins and "trades" fresh ones with them.

My friend has been at WDW over 20 years and said there were times he just didn't feel like fooling with pin trading that day. He would load his lanyard with the most misfit pins he could find, hoping no one would want to trade with him He has always been a little sneaky.....

 

[Babbletrish]

I happily yield the thread to the Lady from Boston
A five-legged sheep is WAY BETTER than a bottle of Pluto Root Beer...

Aww, thanks!

I haven't the slightest idea from what set the five-legged sheep originates. It is obviously based off the five-legged sheep in the Mary Blair mural over in the Contemporary, but I don't now if it's exclusive to the Contemporary or a limited edition or what.

 

[FigNewton]

There's a pin of the five-legged sheep?! Where can this be bought? (I know the Contemporary is a given, but I'm wondering if they have/had it anywhere else.)

Actually it's a five legged goat. ^_^

The pin was part of the Hidden Mickey Series a few years ago - Hidden Mickey pins, for those who don't know, were originally called Cast Lanyard series because they were not available for sale. You could only obtain them by trading for them with Disney Cast Members in the parks.

Later Disney did also begin to sell Hidden Mickey pins in mystery bags at pin shops/stands. The bags were color coded to tell you which sub-series the bags contained, but beyond that which pins you actually got were really a mystery!

I'm not sure if the sub-series containing the five-legged goat was ever sold in mystery bags (edit: it was!), but if they were I would guess they are gone by now anyway since it was part of the 2008-2009 series.

Ironically, the cast lanyard/hidden mickey series are one of the biggest sticking points in the whole scrapper debate. They are some of the most widely scrapped/"third shift run" pins that come out of the chinese factories. And since the primary way of obtaining them is to hunt for them on Cast Lanyards, being sure you are getting an authentic one is nearly impossible (unless you happen to get lucky and find what you want in the mystery bags).

I'm FAIRLY sure that my five-legged goat is authentic, so it sits happily in my collection. Definitely one of my favorite cast lanyard pins ever since it's just such an unlikely piece!

 

[Andrew015]

I have an original 5 legged goat as well. One of my favorites.

 

[FairydustyPrincesses]

Actually it's a five legged goat. ^_^

It's a goat not sheep? So the Bostonian with the five legged sheep has a fake or just lack of barn yard knowledge? Either way you're a mean mean DISser criticizing her and her sheep pin

So those pin boxes the cm in stores bring out - do they really have all the Junkers like a pp said? My dd traded for about 10 minutes out of the box in the emporium in september. Not a huge deal if they are junk because I had the locking backs on all her more expensive pins so she didn't trade anything exceptional but it seems odd they'd knowingly put all fakes in one place.

 

[DavidH]

I think I spoke of "the box" earlier. I was using the term figuratively, meaning they would go backstage and trade off the less "popular" pins and reload their lanyards...they left the odd pins in "the box". The box is really an admin person sitting in an office who manages the inventory of pins for the CM's.

This thread was never intended to discuss fake or counterfeit pins, but real pins depicting unusual subject matter. There seems to be a zillion authentic Disney pins out there that the average guest would not want. The real collectors know and love these misfit pins....

While my Pluto Root Beer Bottle may be part of an Exclusive Cast Member Beverage Series , it is a goner as soon as I spot a CM with a castle pin...or maybe something to do with a monorail......

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

If you can't afford to or won't spend the money to purchase real pins, you have no business collecting or trading them.

Oh man, I think someone owes me a new laptop because I just sprayed water all over my monitor laughing at this ignorant statement.

 

[stacyalisa]

We have one of those cabbage Mickey pins now because my son traded for it with a CM last November. He thought it was camouflage Mickey. I didn't have the heart to tell him any different and he still loves his "camo" pin.

 

[TGM]

Yup, there are some strange ones. I have one that looks like a rock, with Mickey ears!