Honda Motor Wing Pin [Series III-IV] [Unconfirmed]

You know, I reckon there were at least two of these Honda Wing pins used throughout the series. I initially chose this cogent paradigm out of the piddly pile of particular potentials for two reasons:

1) It looked nicer than a fair few of the more readily-available offerings, and in all important respects appeared to be more screen-accurate.
2) It attaches stronger than a steroid-riddled iron vice that's just tripped into an over-spilling vat of honey-glazed superglue after visiting the National Fly Paper Museum's gift shop with a complimentary $£10 gift voucher.

As all us high-flying #ListersJacket enthusiasts know too well, pins on leather jackets are notoriously temporary adornments, and arguably the reason the original screen-used costume(s) became increasingly spartan as each series went on. Butterfly clutches, rubber clutches, magnetic backs, self-adhesive backs, and/or even fabled deluxe clutches are simply not enough to ensure the sheer weight of fabric that comprises the jacket will not, some day, effortlessly compel said item to release from its housing, thereby leading to inevitable, debilitating, unrecoverable, gravity-enforced, collectabilia perma-loss - which, in this instance, apparently befell our favourite Third Technician sometime between Meltdown and Holoship.

The safety pin option is a superior one to be sure, but this thing screws together. I simply cannot imagine a more sturdily-fashioned example unexpectedly coming loose after being fastened; which I can quite honestly say is, well, reassuring..?

The only drawback I can foresee is attempting to reseat the piece elsewhere after first locking into place. With enough misplacements (each requiring punched holes in the fabric for the bolt to travel through), you could very easily end up wearing the world's first fishnet Perfecto...

That being said, despite having had my eye on this particular design for some time, you can imagine my surprise as it soundlessly slipped out of the tension sheet-padded large letter mailer it was sent in, almost weightlessly landing in my open palm. In pin badge terms, it's a veritable dot! Measuring just 12mm at its longest edge, you can see here how it compares to a contemporary version of what I think we're looking for, which is approximately 22mm, and almost certainly closer to what was used in the show. On the plus-side, I now know what it must feel like to hold a nanobot.

According to the Honda-Classics website, this particular version of the now-iconic wing logo is from the 1950s/60s. I have a sneaking but unfounded suspicion that the pin which resides on Lister's Series III-IV jacket changes from a hard-to-soft enamel type depending on which episode you watch; very possibly, as there was more than one 'hero' jacket made for the series (see: The Inquisitor). Either way, you're looking for one with an easterly-facing wing tip, to be placed at the lower right corner of the aforementioned Space Command patch.

Albeit of proportions small and inoffensive, the design remains close-but-no-phoney-black-cigarette in terms of screen-accuracy. This shot in Camille suggests that the series-used jewellery features a brushed-metal finish with a rectangular bar beneath the gold wing itself; which so far, I have not been able to identify. However, this shot from Meltdown suggests a softer enamel finish.

OH, AND ALSO, according to motopixel.org, during the thrilling opening sequence for Stoke Me a Clipper, one of the galaxy's countless Ace Rimmers roars to Princess Bonjela's rescue on a 1986 Honda CR250R; all the while quite wrongly using his right hand, which is his throttle hand, to spit space bullets at hot-on-his-tail Space Nazis on an as-yet unnamed space planet.

There. That'll do for a nice, elegant, Red Dwarf A-Z-invoking dénouement to this long-overdue post.

So, once again, for this one it seems, the search continuums... Join me in another nine months when I take a closer look at zips, or something.