My history with Planet Studio's​ pins

 

In the late 1980's I had a hobby, it was collecting comics.  I'd save up every month and then go to the Forbidden Planet on New Oxford Street in Central London.  While I queued at the counter, I would look at the pin box display they had on the wall. It seemed to change every time I went. There were normally about thirty and they looked so good. It was only the price put me off, they were between £3.99 to £4.99 - it was way to expensive for someone who had just blown his wages on 75+ comics.  But occasionally they would have a few in a box at the tills that had not sold or were the last of that batch, and they needed to the space to refill the display.  These went for 99p and while the assistant was counting the comics, I would rifle through the box trying to find a good pin.  Slowly through the 1990's these pins seemed to get less and less until finally the display case disappeared.
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  Moving forward to the early 2000's, I was getting tired with comics - I'd witnessed one too many resets where they had taken a beloved character and just thrown out all the storyline from the past few years just because some hot artist/writer wanted to have a go.  I was also finding that a lot of the comics no longer interested me and I had a lot of new bills to cope with like a car, mortgage and other stuff.  So I went cold turkey - no comics, nothing, not even 2000AD.  After a while, the collecting craving came back.  I'd brought about a dozen pins from the Forbidden Planet bargain box, which I'd always like pinning to my coat lapel to prove my comic roots.  And while browsing eBay, I found some Marvel Comics pins being sold, and I haven't stopped.