Alton Towers Pop Badges

[eeyore220376]

Hello. I live near Legoland and some of you may be familiar with the pop badges that are issued there. Merlin have spread this to the Discovery Centre in Manchester and this year started badges at Chessington as well. I heard that Alton Towers were going to be issuing pop badges soon, presumably with the ride names on in a similar fashion to Chessington.

Do any of you know anything about this?

For those unfamilar with pop badges please take a look at the following link:

http://www.legoland.co.uk/badges

 

[JonoD]

I know that Alton Towers have been selling ride/attraction specific metal pin badges up until now (I have most of them!), but those pop badges doesn't sound like a bad idea either.

As I visited late in the season, some of the badges (namely the Air ones) weren't available, and when asked in the shop, they stated that things were due to go through a 'rebrand' of some kind. That may lend some credibility to this if so.

 

[Rob]

I'd rather Towers increase their range of pin badges than introduce cheaper looking pop badges. I've heard nothing myself about it though.

 

[djtruefitt]

I remember seeing these at Legoland last year, we got one when we bought a meal. I think the idea is you get them for free (or when you buy a meal, etc) and then you can swap and collect them. I seem to remember reading somewhere that staff members had rare ones, and you could swap your normal one with the staff members if you saw they had one you didn't have.

I think it's a nice idea for kids (and geeks), would be great if every ride around the park had different badges for you to collect.

 

[IanB]

They looked a little cheap to be something serious that you collect, but I think they are a good idea for kids, keeps them busy while they are in the queues. Free to collect as well, so no monetary value to it, so no worrying about your kids swapping a £50 badge for a £5 badge that you already have 20 of at home.


Ian

 

[eeyore220376]

Thanks for the replies. The pin badges I've seen on staff at Thorpe Park are really decent. Legoland don't sell these unfortunately but I'm sure they'd be very collectable if they did.

The pop badges are given away free with kid's meals and, for the kids they love swapping with staff members. The badges are extremely popular with collectors as well as the kids and it's not so much the 'badge' itself as the 'lego minifig' that makes them really collectable. They've been going for about 5 years now, this year they issued about 20 badges either with meals or on special days, i.e. Ninja Turtle badges, Star Wars badges, Lego Superhero badges etc...

Regarding the cheap value of badges, some of the rare ones are extremely hard to find and thus very hard to get hold of with lots of desperate collectors. Oddly some people will let their kids wear their treasured badges around the park and then complain when they've been lost or traded...