Throwback Thursday - LEGO lapel pins
Posted by FlagsNZ,
Today's Throwback Thursday highlights one of The BLOCKS Collection's quirky collectables - LEGO-branded lapel pins.
While this article showcases this usual collection, it is also an opportunity to source any helpful information from the Brickset membership regarding these pins.
Read on and have a look at this extensive range of lapel pins which also has a twist at the end.
LEGO branded lapel pins
The BLOCKS Collection's range of LEGO-branded lapel pins are conveniently arranged on a cardboard sheet.
From the image below, you can see there are single and multicoloured enamel characters and also pins with simple enamel LEGO logos.
The characters are wearing LEGO-branded bib overalls.
Little information
There is very little information about these pieces of jewellery.
- A search on Bricklink for Cast Metal returns this result.
- A search on Google for Vintage LEGO Lapel Pin returns the following results.
- An entry at Brickipedia Fandom indicates that these pins may have been manufactured between 1959 and 1973.
The team at The BLOCKS Collection would really like your help and if you could add or correct any information found in this article they would be grateful.
Multicoloured badges
Some of the badges include several colours in their design.
Monochrome pins
A selection of the pins and badges have only one colour applied to the base metal, giving them a monochrome look.
LEGO branded nickel silver spoons
The BLOCKS Collection also has these three LEGO-branded nickel silver spoons.
A closer look at the badge at the top of the spoons.
The design and colours match some of the lapel pin designs.
Reverse
Two of the spoons have markings on the reverse. One spoon has "sola" while the other indicates that it is made of nickel silver.
There are two European cutlery manufacturers that use the brand name "Sola":
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Sola Switzerland - Cutlery creator since 1866, and
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Sola Netherlands - Starting as an Amsterdam jewellery store, which grew into today’s Sola Netherlands in 1922.
Without any other information, either of these two companies could have manufactured these spoons under licence from LEGO.
Furthermore, due to the matching enamel badges of these spoons to the designs of the lapel pins, the same cutlery company is likely to be the manufacturer of the lapel pins, too.
Your feedback
Please add your comments below if you can shed light on the origin and details of these metal pins and spoons.
The team at The BLOCKS Collection have really enjoyed reading all your comments on the previous articles I have written and would welcome your help on this topic today.
If you are in Auckland, come and visit The BLOCKS Collection
The BLOCKS Collection is located in central Auckland, New Zealand.
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27 comments on this article
These are so awesome. Nowadays they only made key chains
That character exemplifies how I imagine Lego employees react when you explain that the colors on their toys don't match.
3rd party lapel pins today focus on theme logos, the most popular being the classic Space logo.
These types of items are always most interesting to me, I find it fascinating that they even made spoons. I could imagine a christian child on their baptism receiving a LEGO spoon :p
Thank you for highlighting these!
Nice jump scare with that main picture.
These pins are an interesting subject to me, as they were produced close to the city I was born in (at least the mono-coloured gnome, but the logo probably as well). One has to understand that especially in the Netherlands collecting pins was a huge craze during the 60s and 70s, so basically every major company had pins made of their logo. These specific ones were made by the following company:
Ferd Berentzen, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Unfortunately, both the spoons and the colour variations shown in the article are fakes, made by a rather dubious dealer from the Netherlands a few years back, and then sold on Catawiki I believe. One way to tell that they've been repainted is that the paint is glossy and quite thick as well, and goes up to the edges of the metal. If you look at an original, you can see that the paint is actually sitting between two layers of metal.
Here are a few of my originals, which I found a few years ago in Maastricht:
https://flic.kr/p/WX4c8i
Interesting how the arms up/tilted face resembles that obnoxious -\_:)_/- "I didn't really try" smiley so commonly seen nowadays.
@StyleCounselor said:
"That character exemplifies how I imagine Lego employees react when you explain that the colors on their toys don't match. "
"Oh, that's just our super-special and rare "Berry Maroon" color, it's not like it was supposed to be "New Dark Red."
@Maxbricks14 said:
"These are so awesome. Nowadays they only made key chains"
Even the keychains kinda suck now. They used to have LEGO logo on the minifig, so they were a bit special. Now LEGO just takes a standard minifigs, stabs it in the head with a pin, and attaches a chain to it.
I live in the next town from Sola in the Netherlands and the font on the back of the spoons is the same as my silverware. does that help?
While traveling the Continent a number of years ago, I came across a boot sale where I saw one chap with a few. I picked up a red one from row 07. It's a nice part of my collection.
Company pins and spoons: a trip through memory lane! My grandparents had a lot of them. Companies with great logos, nature stuff or royalties on them. Maybe they also had the Lego ones. What sticks to me the most is that you always ended up getting stung by all those pins when going though a box
Are they worth anything? I think i still have a small part of their collection somewhere
The so called "character" is more correctly referred to as the LEGO Gnome. The Gnome was used as the company mascot from 1954-1960. The Brickipedia article is incorrect on the dates. The author assumes the 1959 to 1973 dates because this is when the open O logo was used. I don't have an exact date, but the pins were likely discontinued in the early to mid 60s.
The spoons would generally be referred to as souvenir spoons.
These are really cool, and definitely beat any keychain TLG has made recently. Lego spoons should be brought back as insider rewards
@FlagsNZ The Sola company still exists in The Netherlands: sola.nl
There's quite a tradition of Dutch silverware with company logos, especially spoons. Silverware factories produced a lot of spoons for all kinds of companies, either for promotional purposes or as corporate gifts. At some point during the last quarter of the 20th century that trend seems to have died out, probably due to the then-current recession, and much-cheaper-to-produce ballpoint pens with printing came in vogue. I recently ordered something from a company and they gifted me a full set of promotional pens. I rarely ever have to buy any pens... :'-)
Wow! I'd never seen some of these before! Thanks for this fascinating overview.
I learned a lot from this article. For one, I had no idea company logo pins were once a thing, let alone in my own country! Cool!
@Maxbricks14: Not entirely true; they still make pins, but...accessibility to them is negligible; as as in: you have to go to a Legoland OR have a Legoland that ships within your country...Canada has neither, not even our ONE Discover Center (in Toronto) has an online store...
I have a couple of these pins in my collection that I found in an antique shop near me. They were reasonably priced so I couldn't resist them.
EDIT: Yikes! I just looked up what these have sold for on ebay and am happy to say I paid nowhere near that much. :)
The cutlery was likely done by the Netherlands Sola, the logo matches their logo from that time frame ( https://sola-cutlery.com/retail/history/ ).
@brick_r said:
" @Maxbricks14: Not entirely true; they still make pins, but...accessibility to them is negligible; as as in: you have to go to a Legoland OR have a Legoland that ships within your country...Canada has neither, not even our ONE Discover Center (in Toronto) has an online store..."
Do they sell them in the gift shop, or somewhere else? I didn't see the pins when I was at Legoland Malaysia, but that one also kind of seems to be the forgotten stepchild of Legolands. Would love something like this to stick on the backpack
@gylman said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"These are so awesome. Nowadays they only made key chains"
Even the keychains kinda suck now. They used to have LEGO logo on the minifig, so they were a bit special. Now LEGO just takes a standard minifigs, stabs it in the head with a pin, and attaches a chain to it. "
Not quite. The keychain minifigs switched to a different style of body, and most people didn't even realize it. The current version has a neck post that's molded into the hips, and the torso has a hole through the neck that slides down over this post. This means they no longer need to glue the torso to the hips, as the head acts like an oddly shaped cotter pin. I discovered this when I was yoinking the head off a keychain that was intended to look like 5000022 (ironically, the prints don't even match, as one has black muscle lines, and the other has dark-green).
The red/silver 1"x1/2" lapel badges were available in the UK from LEGO dealers in the early 60's for 6d each. They were provided on a display of 50 badges counter standee. (6d is 'old money'; now equates to 2 1/2p).
@Zackula: Yeah...I probably 'overreached' on my comment...but I mean I found this:
https://shop-newyork.legoland.com/collections/lego-minifigures-and-awesome-stuff?page
Hope that worked...but if not copy/paste in the address bar...
And the point is; they are 'there' (New York L.L. at least)
Personally, I'd like to get: the Knight, and the Unicorn Girl, but the rest look fun too.
Have a look at this post about Lego and "The Dutch Pin Craze of 1963-1965": https://flic.kr/p/2pUWh1y
I started collecting the vintage pins about two years ago. I've got most of the colored pins in this article. Paid over $100 US for some, and then others only a few dollars. I'm trying to put together a digital collection to keep track of them all now. My criteria has spread wide too. I now collect any pin (vintage or not) authorized use of the LEGO name, including Employee pins, LEGOLAND, First LEGO League, Youth Enrichment LEGO League, SDCC, The LEGO Club, The LEGO Builders Club, Mall of America, Piece of Peace, Humblebis Grashoppers, Monkie Kid, Friends, Dacta, Education, Bilofix, Galidor, Bionicle and a few custom ones my wife made.
@Norikins said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
"That character exemplifies how I imagine Lego employees react when you explain that the colors on their toys don't match. "
"Oh, that's just our super-special and rare "Berry Maroon" color, it's not like it was supposed to be "New Dark Red.""
Crazy cranberry? Madness maroon? Sad red? Bad blood (will out)? Blase' brick? Whiny wine? Madness mahogany? Embarrassed blush? Crab apple? Rad ruby? Lame lipstick? Crap jam? Sad sangria? Cruddy crimson? or cringy cherry?
Lego has more shades of not-red than they have in the entire rest of the color wheel.
Look at 75401 (4 shades of darkish red) or 75402- JANG's review.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SmH-2Z0z04k