Marvel Pin Packs Return for NYCC and That’s Going to be a Problem

At San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, Marvel unveiled its first ever collectible pins. Given the Disney connection, it was only a matter of time after Marvel was acquired by the Mouse House that it too would offer its own versions of the tradable pins that had been a mainstay for Disney fans for over 15 years. Yes, pins were at Disney well before the year 2000, but the pin trading collective really only got its start during the Millennium Celebration at Disney World. Pin trading had also found its way to other geeky conventions, like PAX, where it's been steadily expanding, but now that comic cons are getting in on the fun, there's almost nowhere you can go to escape.

I promised myself (and ComicsAlliance EiC Andrew Wheeler) that I wouldn't fall prey to pin collecting now that Marvel was in on the action. I bought a few sets at SDCC, but one set was for friends who couldn't make it, and the others I thought I'd pick up for my wife. She's only ever looked at them, as they've become part of my own collection now. I have become the thing I said I never would; I am a pin collector now. I thought maybe I'd only have to deal with my addiction once a year at SDCC, but Marvel's announced a new collection of pins to debut exclusively at New York Comic Con this coming week, and that's going to be a whole new problem for me.

Featuring the art of Skottie Young, the Marvel Pin Packs were a massive hit in San Diego. Many of the exclusive pins sold out within the first two days, with the rest barely staying in stock throughout the whole weekend. That's likely to happen again at NYCC, especially given the selection of characters in these new pins.

There will be three different bundles available, with one set of three for Iron Man (Iron Man, Tony Stark and Hulkbuster) and Captain America (Cap, Sam Wilson Cap and Winter Soldier), and one two-pack for Spider-Man (Spidey and Mary Jane). Ten other pins will be available in blind box two-packs featuring Angela, Blade, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, Drax, Gamora, Medusa, Deadpool, Star-Lord and Thor. Additionally, a Director Coulson pin will be available with purchase of a lanyard, and three special pins (Daredevil, Punisher, Spider-man Unmasked) will be available with purchases of more than $30 (one pin), $65 (two pins) and $90 (all three pins) at the Marvel store.

Prices for the pins haven't been revealed, but if the SDCC pricing holds true, the two-pack blind boxes will run $12.50 a pop, the Coulson lanyard set will be $15, and the Daredevil, Punisher and Unmasked Spidey will be $10 each on top of the price requirement barrier. The themed packs at SDCC came in sets of four for $25, so the Iron Man and Cap sets should be somewhere between $12.50 and $25 to pick up, with the Spider-Man set hopefully only being $12.50, too.

If the fanbase of collectors is anything like it was in San Diego, you should be able to find people to trade with relatively close to Marvel's booth. At that convention, there was almost always a huddled mass of people swapping characters left and right to try and complete a set. I wasn't that hyped up to buy all the pins, but I did manage to trade for a Captain America and an Iron Fist, which were the only two I really, really wanted.

Marvel will also have t-shirts for sale, but I've got enough of those as it is, and they aren't nearly as fun to swap with other people. You can check out the full list of what's available here. Be prepared to give up at least an hour of your day (especially on Saturday and Sunday) to get to the front of the ordering line, and good luck.