PinnyPals Roundtable

NowHiringHenchmen

Hey, everyone! So, after recording the latest Podcast, @pureval and I came up with the idea to have a monthly roundtable article on the PinnyPals website, a chance for a bunch of community members to get together and share their thoughts on one question. Of course, we're going to need a cute, funny name for this, so thankfully Pedro has come up with Popular oPINion, and as for the questions, this is where everyone comes in!

What we're going to do is post a question each month and collecting everyones responses. After that's done, we'll jot (copy/paste) everything down in an article and then release it to the pinnypals website. In the future, we're going to need some questions from everyone, as we only have so many thoughts in our collective heads. For the first month, our question is going to be fairly simple:

Which pin is the most important to you? Which means the most to you?

Try and keep responses to 3-4 sentences, if possible, although if you have a lot to say, that's not terrible.

Insaneloon

The most important pin I own would have to be Hanna. She's the very first pin I owned and is the one that really triggered my interest in Pinny Arcade. I've acquired a couple extras and traded them off in the last year, but the very first one I owned is safely tucked away.

Ayefkay

No pin specifically, but there are a few moments that stick out in my mind as my most memorable during the past year of collecting.

DLC: Before this pin, i was committed to having a full set. After seeing the price tier on the kickstarter that had this pin, I struggled for a few days on whether i could justify paying that much. (spoilers, i did!) and am so happy i did.

Hanna: The first limited edition sold on the store, being in Australia, I was worried to death the whole week before, thinking i'd miss it due to time difference, I set my alarm back and woke up early to buy one, a very exciting moment, so glad i got up early after seeing Hanna sold out in hours.

PAX AUS pins: These would fit the question best though, first PAX in Australia, really the first convention of its kind of this size. Exciting for some, but an even bigger deal for me. I have mentioned before that i am on a Wheelchair, so actually getting there (flying interstate) let alone attending PAX, was quite the challenge, and a big deal for me as I rarely fly due to health issues. But I did, went to pax, got the pins, all in all a great weekend and cant wait to go again this year.

(getting late, off to bed, will edit length to make it podcast friendly)

TheAggroCraig

The pin that matters the most to me is my PAX East 2013 logo. It's the only pin I still have from my very first purchase at East 2013, so we've been through a lot together.

Cowpuppy

Leeroy. After the D&D event, I knew I had to find Leeroy or fail one of my Pin Pals. I darted around the Expo floor, refreshing #WheresLeeroy like a madwoman until I heard the muffled boom of LEEROY JENKINS. I sprinted toward the growing shouts until I rounded a corner and saw the crowd. I muscled my way to the front and waited for my chance. When Leeroy turned to my section, I let my voice linger--Jenkinsssss--so mine was the last voice he heard. He gave me one more shot and I threw everything I had into it, shouting so hard that I nearly fell over. I won my card and practically skipped to the Blizzard booth after.

I know there were a lot of problems with the Leeroy pin execution, but no other pin has a memory like that attached to it for me.

surette

My PAX East 2013 set. It was the first PAX with Pinny Arcade, so it's more or less what started it all for me. I also love the CTS/Zombie Tycho pins, as they gave me the opportunity to meet Mike and Jerry for the first time and trade pins with them.

grgemonkey

Lounge Gabe (East): Aus PAX being the first time I had any exposure to Pinny Arcade and word on the street was about the very very small amount of mythical "East Pins" that may be floating around.

I got to work on those quick smart, hounding PA Staff and especially annoying Jeff haha, though he was naturally still well mannered and continued to help me. Over the course of Friday I managed to snag 3/4 of the East set and was searching for the Gabe well in to the night (till close). I spotted a few and the appeal of the pin meant it fell in to the hands of many non-collectors, that's fine of course but it makes even heavily weighted trading impossible because they just love the pin for what it is, they don't care about more pins.

My dreams were pretty crushed, I managed to find out there maybe just one more Gabe floating around tomorrow and Jeff said he would try his best to secure it for me if I got to the merch booth early. So I did and I had 3 Merch pins (they were a big deal within the knowledge of that PAX) plus Aus pins to just throw at this damn thing. But it was not meant to be, there was indeed another Gabe but he was promptly snapped up by an Enforcer before I even had a chance.

At this point, I was defeated. I kept my eye out but largely it seemed futile, all the Gabes I saw were on the same faces I pestered already and there was no need to be that annoying. I ended PAX with a few Chandra Aus though, nothing I really even considered as valuable and certainly never considered that was going to be the pin that got me the Gabe. It was months and months after PAX, after a lot of dust had settled and a few more East go'ers noticed the scene had taken off a little. A kind fellow needed a Chandra Aus for his wife and had a spare Gabe, a match made in heaven

When I opened that package up and placed that Gabe to fill the gap, it was and is, without a doubt the best moment I've had with Pinny Arcade.

You can distill that down to something much smaller but I felt like reliving it

Duckie

My East '13 set means the most to me. The logo pin was the hardest for me to get and handheld lounge gabe is one of my all time favourite pins in terms of aesthetics (no justification, just is).

Long version: Aus last year was my first PAX and my partner mentioned the pin thing to me the day before we left as something that might be fun to do. Within about 3 hours of arriving I had collected 17 out of the 18 existing pins and was only missing the East logo pin which eluded me for the remaining 2.5 days.
I remember standing in the handheld lounge and noticing Erika, Jeff, Levin and a few others hanging around near the merch booth and I went up to chat with them and trade for the staff (pinny arcade) pin and they were so nice and excitedly explained what I should hold on to & what I should look for and Erika gleefully telling me to trade Levin for his East Kemper. A little later I ran into Khoo outside one of the panel rooms and traded for HL Gabe, he was a hard trader and would only do one trade with me but he let my partner trade him so I could get his Chandra1 ^^

... It wasn't until Aus was over that I found out about the DLC pin. Since I was already twitchy at not having an east logo I think that that was the point at which my squirrels kicked into overdrive and wanted all the pins ever and for some reason my logical next step was to start year variant collecting too.

While I'll always be fond of my Aus set because it's a memory from my first ever PAX, the East set means so much more because I had to trade to get those pins and all except the east logo were trades with the staff and I really loved getting to meet them all in person and have something to talk to them about.

sanchx32

Mine is my DLC pin, not cause of the rarity but cause of how I got it. I ran into Khoo at Prime and was telling him how I was missing 2 pins to have all of them. He pulled the DLC out of his bag and said is this one of them? I said of course, he said make me an offer. I offered all my pins on my lanyard(maybe 10 or 15). He agreed and told me he did not wanna see it on ebay. Its proudly displayed in my case with all my other pins.

Nefily

My Aus chandra pin, We didn't have much to collect and everytime I went to demo MtG they where not giving them out, I finally got it on the last day but I also really enjoyed playing MtG for the first time!

Diffusion

Easily my Ben Kuchera pin. Went to Prime 13 just to go to Prime like I do practically every year, not caring at all about the pins with the exception of the Strip Search pin. By the end of day 1 however, the Squirrels had gotten me. However, had a packed schedule over the entire 4 days and getting some of the pins were really troublesome. By day 4 though all I was missing was Ben, and after talking to the Staff at the impromptu trading event at Beneroya, I knew he'd be in panels practically all day. My only window of catching him would be at the Parenting and Gaming panel near the end Monday. My girlfriend (now fiance) and I are in no way ready for kids, but we figured, what the hell, and went anyway. Learned a few things, but due to our lack of non-interest, it was semi trying. Thankfully, was able to catch Ben on the way out (Dude was a rockstar BTW, he had a crazy packed schedule that day too and had to run right out of the panel to his next appointment while having Pax Pox) and traded him for my last pin for the complete set.

Beker

My fist Strip Search pin. I had heard all the stripsearchers would be at Prime and have 100 each, I approached Abby and asked how I could acquire a pin from her. She had a couple options, one of which was to bring her a drawing of a dinosaur (a proper one, with feathers). Not being an artist, I wandered over to Scott Kurtz's table, and since no one was in line I asked if he would sketch me a dinosaur. He was hesitant, but when I explained what I needed it for he happily agreed. Brought it back to Abby who was pleased and walked away with my pin.

The thing itself.

But beyond that it is the interactions I enjoy much more then the pins themselves.

akl3in

Probably my 2014 logo pin... I met mike and jerry, and with only three pins on my lanyard, I traded for the Broodax Gabe, Helmet Tycho, and the 2014 Logo. Something about the pin just feels really nice to hold.

mightyh0bbes

Definitely my PRD pin. As a first time Enforcer at SAX she was super cool to talk to while doing the drone chore of prepping bags for PAX Prime 2013, brought me a gift of a Vault Boy hand puppet after hearing my tale of woe from PAX 2008 and was instrumental in getting me a career opportunity at a company I LOVE! The fact that I got it straight from her instead of a trade from some other pin collector is icing.

mightyh0bbes

Also; HAIL HYDRA!

Ayefkay

mightyh0bbes wrote: »

Also; HAIL HYDRA!

DUDE NOT SO LOUD......there are spies everywhere....

Vaanrose

I'd have to go with Aus Gabe and Aus Tycho, as these two pins fundamentally changed the way I approached pin trading. I didn't learn about the pins until a few weeks before Prime 13, when Mike wrote his post showing all the new pins. I lurked on the forums for a bit afterward and convinced myself to pick up some of the pins, just as a passing hobby. I was under no illusions that I'd ever get my hands on an Aus set or any of the pins therein.

But early morning on the first day of the event, I spotted an Aus Gabe hiding underneath Jeff's lapel, and that became the first pin I traded for. At this point I considered it a lucky fluke, and still wasn't fully invested in collecting pins. I grabbed a few more of the Prime pins, but mostly didn't go out of my way to get them.

A few weeks after Prime, though, I started popping in to the forums more, and managed to secure a trade for an Aus Tycho (thanks, @Versuserik!), and that was it. Suddenly I was hooked and I've been here since. My last count put me at 74 unique pins, which I never would've thought I'd have half a year ago.

teeketch

I would say my helmet Tycho as it was the first time I met Jerry and actually had a conversation with him (be it brief) after that I'd say my East 2013 set as it kicked off his whole thing for me haha.

miker525

I'd say either my LEEROY JENKINS pin or my Helmet Tycho pin. I'd spent just about an hour (Which was the only free time I had due to plenty of obligations) looking for him with no luck and decided to give up as it wasn't worth it. As I was walking through the expo hall I conveniently bumped into him just before a huge crowd hit him and managed to get my pin . My Helmet Tycho pin was super cool because I got it from Jerry as PAX was closing and got to have a really nice 10 or so minute long conversation with him, which was super cool considering I'm sure he had somewhere to be.