Sample 2017 Little League World Series Pin (LEGO Jabba the Hutt)

Sometimes things appear on eBay that I had no idea even existed. Before this item cropped up, I didn’t even know that Little League pins were a thing, but after doing some research it seems that individual teams have them made and then trade them with other teams at the Little League World Series. This one is obviously based on the LEGO Jabba the Hutt included in the new Jabba’s Palace set, but it includes some things that are not in that set, like the Jawa and the differently shaped hooka pipe. A little poking around Google Image Search revealed that they based this on a photo from Flickr, which you can see below, although they did make a few changes. My hunch is that they just traced it in Illustrator to make the design for the pin.

There are a couple of interesting things about this pin. First of all, it is absolutely gigantic. Although the auction had listed the sizes in inches, I didn’t really understand how big and heavy it was until I had it in hand. This would be an absolute monster of a pin to actually wear. The “FL 12” and “MI 9” numbers on the pin presumably refer to Florida and Michigan, but I’m not entirely sure what their significance is. Are they scores? Team numbers of some kind? I’d be interested to hear if someone knows more.

You can see by the number of posts in the back just how big this is.

You can also see that this is marked as a “sample,” which is the other interesting thing about this pin. This particular pin is different from the ones that would have been traded, although I’m not sure if the size and coloration are different. The magenta coloration seems to indicate that this was not the final color scheme, and the fact that the same seller later put up two other color variations (pink and black & white) tends to support that idea. I’d like to see what the final version of the pin looked like, and maybe even get one (although I understand that they were not produced in very high numbers at all).

[EDIT (4/22/2020)] I did finally manage to track down what I assume is the “real” version of this pin with the actual colors: