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AMF Tournament Bowling Pin

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    Posted 10 years ago

    Ginseng108
    (46 items)

    Another variant of this diverse pin type. In this case, it is a mint condition, Tournament pin, not registered, no Amflite branding. I'm still trying to work out the genealogy of this mixed group. I suspect with enough specimens and versions of Amflite branded or not, meatball logo size, and registration status, I could work out a timeline. Very common two-stripe neckband on these pins. In this era, the crown neckband seems to be exclusive to Brunswick. About 15" x 4.5"

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    Comments

    1. brunswicka2, 9 years ago
      So you trying to figure out the chronology of the AMF pins. There were two primary makes, Tournament and Amflite coming out beginning in 1960. So you have have the big meatball logo pins which was the Chemweld, which is permit 42 and if you look at the other two pins that are labeled tournament, you will see they are also permit 42. They stopped production of the tournament when the Amflight 2 began production. The only tournament pin your missing is the big meatball logo one. It look like your chemweld, but has tournament on the neck. The amflight began in sometime in the 60's and there were three versions of this pin. You have the early version and it says amflight registered. The second version looks like the early version except it has gold stamping over the red on the label. It is extremely hard to find one in new condition. The last version was made in the 1970's prior to the amflight 2 and this version looks simular to the 1970's tournament except that it says amflight registered in the triangle. There was another amf pin that was made during the late 50's and early 60's called the tuftex, these again are very hard to find in good shape. but they have an even earlier permit number. I think it is 26 off hand. The permit numbers on pins should give you a good idea of their vintage.
    2. Ginseng108 Ginseng108, 9 years ago
      Brilliant! Thank you for that insight. Is there anything that can be inferred from the size of the AMF "meatball?" In other words, did it start large and then get smaller until it disappeared altogether? I've been trying to piece together a genealogy of the pins and have been looking for features or markings that evolve smoothly. Of course that might be a bad assumption. Design changes might be abrupt. Permit numbers show time progression, but in a given year, there might be quite a few numbers issued, correct? If so, it's only roughly chronological though precisely serial by the issuing authority.
    3. brunswicka2, 9 years ago
      I think the meatball logo you refer to was just the way that AMF designed that particular logo, eventually the term magic triangle became the phrase they were known by and thus the company changed things up a bit. The triangle remains even to this day. The permit numbers actually really didn't change much. For Example The Original Dura King was permit 5 and permit 5 remained on Brunswick Pins right through Mixer, or Red Crown.
    4. Ginseng108 Ginseng108, 9 years ago
      Magic Triangle. That's pretty catchy. And you're right, the triangle motif is carried on in today's QubicaAMF Amflite II pins. Pretty amazing that the number 5 was retained through those pretty significant changes in trade dress. I'm stunned.

      Do you know anything about why some Red Crown actually had a crown logo while others had the stylized Brunswick "B"?
    5. brunswicka2, 9 years ago
      Not real sure on the Red Crown thing. It may have been to freshen up the designs, but both were used well into the 1980's. Plus you could get each in a stripe variety so it anyone's guess. They didn't appear to have any significant design differences to them, that doesn't mean that something inside couldn't have been different either. The Mixer was also available during the same time periods.

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