• Guest, Help The DPF Community Thrive - Join Our Donation Drive Today!

    We're launching a special DPF Donation Drive to ensure our beloved forum continues to flourish. Your support is vital in helping us cover essential server costs and keep our community running smoothly — This is more than just a donation; it's an investment in the future of our community.

    Join us in this crucial drive and let's ensure our forum remains a vibrant and dynamic place for everyone.

    Please visit the DPF Donation Drive Thread for details and instructions on how you can make your donation today!

General Decline in Pin Quality

Status
Not open for further replies.
General Decline in Pin Quality
O

Orph

New DPF Member
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Messages
37
Hi Everyone,

New member here, but have been an avid pin-buyer for spouse for a while. As a general question/discussion, anyone noticed a general decline in pin quality/image in recent years?

I am referring to the beautiful pins that were once produced by DisneyAuction/DisneyShopping. They original images and vibrant colors. An example of that is a beautiful pin I was able to acquire, Pin 64917 on pinpics. It has original image of Ariel/Belle/Cinderella with vibrant colors. Yes, Cinderella's image is re-used with the same pose, but at least it has the vibrant colors and extras with detail to tie it all together.

Mickey pins like the Scoop series also features originality. Pin 58998 is beautiful and detailed.

Currently, the pins being produced are...meh at best. It is constantly using the same images over and over again.

Anyone noticed that?

What really happened with DisneyAuction/DisneyShopping anyways? I know it turned into the DisneyStore, but there is no reason why quality pins can not be produced. Any thoughts?
 
I DEARLY miss the DS.com pins that came out on a regular basis. My credit card is happy, of course. I bought something from DS, and they sent me a survey. I know the people reading the site probably have no say in what is being sold, but I told them that the reason they only see me occasionally since 2011, is b/c the DS pins are mostly gone :-(
 
Quality has gone down in production because like many things in any business, they want to get as much profit as possible. Pins are already very, very cheap to produce and have a huge markup. But every penny counts when things come to profit for a company, and unfortunately Disney is no different. Cheaper production is more profit for them. They're generally not HORRIBLE, but the quality definitely isn't what it used to be.

Artwork wise - this is something I deal with in my own profession. I design packaging, displays, ads, etc. The client I do the most work on uses very recognizable characters. In recent years our ability to customize these characters has been limited more and more. We used to be able to pose then any way we needed, dress them up on occasion, etc. We've been limited for several reasons. First, the care other agencies give on their work is... lacking. They were getting bad with just throwing crap out to get produced. Limiting what we can do assures more faithfulness to the character and quality. Another reason is everything must go through legal. Legal is already busy with a ton of other stuff. When they don't need to check over and approve everything we do it saves them time and money. Another reason, of course, is MONEY. Pulling from a bank of already designed and approved characters and poses saves a TON of money. Unfortunately it also tends to make things stale looking to people actually paying attention to what's out there on packaging, displays, pins, etc. There are plenty of other reasons they stick to the same character illustrations but these are some of the major points.
 
The other issue in pin quality is that it seems, at least to me (and I admit my ignorance), that the factories producing the pins are lowering their quality in general (as in more errors and flaws) while outputting many scrappers or even whole runs using the same molds. That leaves lower quality authorized pins and higher quality scrappers (from what they had been), making both about equal quality.

If a “real†pin and a “scrapper†cannot be distinguished from each other, is there a difference? It will end up that the only trustworthy pins are the ones you yourself purchase at a Disney site.

This is just imo.

That being said, while there are some very beautifully designed pins still coming out, there are many repeat-designs. A pin-on-pin series with the same background pin but a different character on top? Pure profit.
 
a4matte said:
Quality has gone down in production because like many things in any business, they want to get as much profit as possible. Pins are already very, very cheap to produce and have a huge markup. But every penny counts when things come to profit for a company, and unfortunately Disney is no different. Cheaper production is more profit for them. They're generally not HORRIBLE, but the quality definitely isn't what it used to be.

Artwork wise - this is something I deal with in my own profession. I design packaging, displays, ads, etc. The client I do the most work on uses very recognizable characters. In recent years our ability to customize these characters has been limited more and more. We used to be able to pose then any way we needed, dress them up on occasion, etc. We've been limited for several reasons. First, the care other agencies give on their work is... lacking. They were getting bad with just throwing crap out to get produced. Limiting what we can do assures more faithfulness to the character and quality. Another reason is everything must go through legal. Legal is already busy with a ton of other stuff. When they don't need to check over and approve everything we do it saves them time and money. Another reason, of course, is MONEY. Pulling from a bank of already designed and approved characters and poses saves a TON of money. Unfortunately it also tends to make things stale looking to people actually paying attention to what's out there on packaging, displays, pins, etc. There are plenty of other reasons they stick to the same character illustrations but these are some of the major points.
Click to expand...

I believe these are all very good points. And mostly true, and while I HATE reposes on major characters everything has them. There's a yearly board of people who do themes for each year (gold princesses, sparkle princesses, designers 1, couples,) and they do their best to bring new things.

On one hand they make a good basic design that can be reused ON PURPOSE, it saves money, but then you have lots of OTHER items that come out, from here, other countries, and it's all new. There is always good with the bad.

There is also something to think about and that's that not everyone will have the same le 100. I die a little on the inside knowing I'll probably never have the Lion King Stampede pin or the pin of Mufasa in the Clouds. There has been NO representation of these pins ever again, and that's a HUGE shame for Lion King collectors. While not reposes of the same pose aren't fun, there should be some, and there should be some "reprints" if you will.

The last couple of years because of the anniversary's going on I think have done some really nice things for pins. The Soda fountain having 3 different teams of artists means you get a ton of reposes, but then you also get some realllly nice pins too! Like these:

3074.jpg

619.jpg

34.jpg


And right now DSF and WDI are the equivalent of DS auction pins in terms of low size and quality.
 
All very good points. I can see from a legal perspective how it is cost-efficient to just re-use certain images, however from an artistic and approval perspective, I am struggling with it. WDI already has "images" or characters in certain poses approved, thus it really isnt an approval process but a willingness to use it. Its like being in Art of Disney store and asking for a sketch on demand. Poses or characters and etc has already been approved by WDI and are already available in the book to choose from. From an approval perspective, much like the sketch books, there should be a variety of poses available, just waiting to add in other elements.

I 100% agree that QA has been severely lacking with pin productions. During my last WDW trip in Dec, rack pins look almost like scrapper pins. The waffle pattern at the back might not run to the edge of the pin, pain is chipped (althogh that can be from customer dropping them) and the enamel is worn and doesnt have the old shine. QA is definitely lacking. Its not like they are producing new pins every month. There are pins from 2 years ago still sitting on the racks, and new pins are being released VERY slowly. There is no real justification for the low QA.

DSF and WDI pins are now the new "DisneyAuction"/"DisneyShopping" pins. However, they suffer the same problems as rack pins and highlights the issues.

Look at the Mulan and Ariel pin picture posted....Its the same formation! Using stock poses and etc that is available, they just combined it together to call it a pin. It doesnt have the same flair and design as the older Auction/Shopping pins. Lastly, DSF and WDI pins are so hard to come by for those in the East cost unlike Auction/Shopping.
 
1152.jpg
WDW LE
7892.jpg
DisneyAuction
12242.jpg
DSF

As a comparison......Ariel...almost similar pose....BIG difference in attractiveness

Again as comparison

3464.jpg
DisneyAuction
11034.jpg
DSF
 
Last edited:
I don't think anyone is arguing that there aren't beautiful pins still being produced, but moreso that the general pin quality has begun to decline....and honestly I agree with that as well.
 
Orph said:
1152.jpg
WDW LE
7892.jpg
DisneyAuction
12242.jpg
DSF

As a comparison......Ariel...almost similar pose....BIG difference in attractiveness

Again as comparison

3464.jpg
DisneyAuction
11034.jpg
DSF
Click to expand...

the last one is not DSF it's surprise release from DLR.

omgerd disney auctions are so original.

pin25457
pin10196
pin35271


So these top three don't have the same kind of attractiveness? That first one, dem lips.

pin28715
pin33920
pin34701


Even the pose you posted with her name has duplicates within the auctions pins.

orph said:
""Look at the Mulan and Ariel pin picture posted....Its the same formation! Using stock poses and etc that is available, they just combined it together to call it a pin. It doesnt have the same flair and design as the older Auction/Shopping pins. Lastly, DSF and WDI pins are so hard to come by for those in the East cost unlike Auction/Shopping."
Click to expand...

REALLY. You don't think maybe those pins might be part of maybe a theme or style? Even if they didn't finish the set following the same theme doesn't mean it's unoriginal...because HALF or more pins from Auctions were from sets.

ALMOST EVERY PIN FROM AUCTIONS WAS DIRECTLY PULLED FROM THE MOVIE, CLIP ART OR FROM PRE PRODUCTION DEISGN WORK.

pin20900
pin20784

pin38203
pin39944

pin40912
pin48625
pin54280
pin64709
pin68044

pin30556
pin5215
pin13345



The lack of "creativity" has always been there. And when I ASSUME you guys are always talking about "omg DS AUCTIONS!!!1one!" I think you are ONLY talking about and while there are some very nice ones there is also very horrible ones too.

I really think it's preference.
 
Im not sure if its true, or if it really happened, but I remember maybe two years back there were talks and posts about petitioning Disney for better pins....did it ever happen or am I dreaming?
 
I want that Aristocats card set. Where is that from?:tigger:

Anyone who posted or re-posted that picture of the nightmare inducing Magic Kingdom Tinkerbell is NOT allowed to post another picture for ONE MONTH! :lol:
 
Orph said:
maybe turn this thread into the worse quality pin you can find?
Click to expand...

There is a thread somewhere on here called something like "What's wrong with your ffaacceee?!" and it's pretty good if you want to laugh at some awkwardly designed characters on pins.

Edit: Found it. Some of the older pics are broken, but there's still a lot there.
 
Last edited:
I've noticed a decline in pin quality in general. I've had to return several pins due to scratches or production errors, including the pin posts being bent or extremely loose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top