AG Grin Pins

[AGTeacher]

Well, I got a nice gift from someone at Camp today! One of the older ladies gave me a American Girl Grin Pin canvas, with 117 Grin pins!!! I have never seen one Grin pin in person! they are cute! But how did they get them? meaning, did AG sell Grin pins separately? and when was this? thanks! I need now 23 pins that are missing, but how can I find out which I need? [img]confused.gif[/img]

[Sakurako]

AG grin pins were included when the AG of Today was first introduced in 1995. I bought 3 AGoT dolls as soon as they were in the catalog -- no internet back then and no AG Places, either! -- and started getting packages of grin pins with every order. Plus the AGoT outfits also came with doll-sized grin pins. Then there was a "Design a Grin Pin" contest card which came attached to a new AGOT doll, along with her hair care instructions. I'm not sure when they stopped including the girl sized pins, but the small doll-sized pins were included at least through 1998 or 99, after Mattel took over. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've been painting over the girl-sized pins. I use AG stickers or other small pictures to decoupage the pins for my dolls to receive as rewards for completing a project! Do you know which pins you're missing? I know there was a banner sold for them at one point but I didn't know there were specific pins listed to be collected.

[moderator]

The little pins for dolls were actually raised stickers (like fake stick-on earrings for little girls)...not really real pins, but they were still cute! [img]smile.gif[/img]

A little off the topic, but I found another use for the grin pins since I'm not a big fan of pins. I removed the pin section (be careful, the metal can splice your finger), added a circular piece of magnet, and then hammered the edges down. This turned them into very nice button magnets for the fridge.

I found it ironic that free pins were included in orders from American Girl, especially since they were sharp!

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ August 10, 2004 01:24 PM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

[glittergirl08]

Hmm, I still get the doll grin pins. As a matter of fact when I bought Kit this year, I also got the new AGT Valentine PJ's and Warm Up outfit and I got doll grin pins.... I don't use em tho. [img]graemlins/girl.gif[/img]

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When the AGP first opened in Chicago, whenever you bought something, your receipt was put into a small red envelope along with a girl-sized grin pin. That way you got free pins that you could add to your collection.

I have the banner and started to put the pins that we got with purchases on it, and then they stopped doing that before I got it filled. They also sold packages of grin pins in the store. They still do, but I think that the new ones may be larger than the old ones were.

As I recall, there weren't specific pins for specific spots on the banner--just suggested general topics for each area of the banner. Then you could decide which pins to put in each area, as they fit the topic generally.
Joy

[mom_to_an_americangirl]

I love the grin pins and you can still get them at the NY store. I found last year about 50 bags of pins at goodwill for 10 cents each and bought them. They are on ebay all the time for good prices too. Just keep checking. They are great incentives for the kids too. I do file the tip of the pin down with an emery board though.