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Waffling in Disney Pins

Today we're going to talk about waffling. Not the delicious Mickey waffles you may have had during your stay, but the design on the back of lots of official Walt Disney pins.

Waffling on Disney Pins


When you hear a pin trader talking about waffling, what they mean is the repeated design imprinted on the back of the majority of official Walt Disney pins.

Most of the time, the waffled design is a mickey head. The easiest way to explain this is with an image.
Waffling on the back of an official Disney Pin
Waffling on the back of an official Disney Pin
You can see the Mickey heads go all the way to, and past the edge of the pin, and that they are all uniform in shape.



Not all pins have waffles


Not all official pins have waffling, some, like the recent batch of Haunted Mansion pins, have no waffling but are official Disney pins and can be traded as such.

A back of an official Disney pin without waffling
A back of an official Disney pin without waffling
This pin is completely official and can be traded, but Disney decided to use a speckled background on this pin instead of the more well known Mickey head waffling.

Waffling can be missing or broken on fake pins


Having just said that not all official pins have waffling doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep an eye out for the waffling. A lot of fake pins will look pretty darn close to real from the front but will have some give away signs on the back.

Fake pins will either not have the waffling, or the waffling will be imprinted on and have a gap between the waffle effect and the end of the pin.

With official pins, unless there was a printing error, waffling will happen to the edge.



Do you know more about waffling?


If you have something you'd like to add about waffling, let us know in the comments below.

Written by tosbourn - Saturday 12 October 2019

This article was last updated on Monday 07 November 2022.

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Comments

  1. Waffling can be a problem at DLP as when I took some traders with me, some cast members will only swap ones with the waffling on the back.(I had loads without waffling as they were quite old pins)

    MammaPuggleDuck MammaPuggleDuck - 12 Dec 2019 1:26 PM
    1. This is great to know, thanks!

      Ironically I've seen plenty of pins come out of DLP that are brand new and have poor waffling on the back, like it doesn't go to the edges.

      tosbourn tosbourn - 12 Dec 2019 1:28 PM
      1. I think it's hard for them to do tbh. Unfortunately it's difficult to tell between genuine & fake. Personally I'm not bothered if I get a fake because I like the pin for the pin & not because it's a genuine.

        MammaPuggleDuck MammaPuggleDuck - 12 Dec 2019 1:50 PM