A Christmas Story Little Orphan Annie Decoder Pin
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00:00A bit too small for Ovaltine, I think. Here's your Christmas spot on the Christmas story Little Orphan Annie decoder pin.
00:22Even though there is a pin inside, I will say right away that the box is a little underwhelming. This is one of those cases
00:27I'm sure if you went to the actual physical store of RetroFestive where I ordered this from, that the displayer of this, most likely near
00:33a register, probably would be very more elaborate. It would say probably Little Orphan Annie's decoder pin.
00:37It probably would have a little picture of Ralphie and would have probably all the loose pins sitting inside.
00:41Because I did order this online, the box that this was shipped inside is a bit, again, very underwhelming.
00:47I think right away though, the price of this pin was $12.99 and even though it is made of metal,
00:52I feel like they probably could have done a little bit more, the manufacturer that is, of
00:55shipping this in a much more decorative box. Something more festive to the season.
00:59Maybe even had, like Little Orphan Annie, made this look like a box from the 40s and when you opened up the box,
01:05for example, there would be the little letter inside from Little Orphan Annie herself.
01:08Unfortunately, though, it doesn't seem like you're getting any of that at all.
01:11Just a simple white box is the only thing about the same size, really, as the decoder pin.
01:15But the pin is sitting inside that. Now, I haven't yet actually opened this up,
01:19so I don't know what this is gonna look like.
01:20This didn't just arrive to my doorstep looking like this. Oh, no.
01:23It actually came in a much larger box of other things I ordered from the company's site.
01:26But the decoder pin, again, when I first looked at this, I thought, is this all I'm really gonna be getting?
01:31Opening up and revealing the pin inside.
01:34Now, the pin is one thing that Ralphie sends away for. I think he actually sends away several Ovaltine labels.
01:40I think that was the case and he was waiting so many weeks for this to finally arrive in his mailbox.
01:44When he got it home,
01:45he ran right away to the bathroom, even holding up the business of his brother who needed to use the washroom after him.
01:51But the pin itself, basically how it works, like in the movie, is that the radio
01:55individual on the radio obviously would have told him exactly what number combination he has to use.
01:59You have a number and you have a letter.
02:01When you first get the code of, say, like, for example, the A1,
02:04you set your decoder ring to that and then with the numbers that they give you, you would have to decipher the clues to
02:09figure out what the message is from Little Orphan Annie herself.
02:12Of course, if you've already seen the movie,
02:14Ralphie is very disappointed to discover that the secret message sent to him by Little Orphan Annie herself ended up being
02:22don't forget to drink your Ovaltine. This would have been a perfect review had I had myself a jar of Ovaltine.
02:27I was making one in the background. I can't even remember the last time I even had Ovaltine.
02:31It's probably been at least 20 years.
02:33But the way that the pin works,
02:34I guess before we actually start decoding anything,
02:36that there is a pin on the back that you could technically wear this if you want to. You just lift the top latch
02:42here and you bring the pin outward like, let me just make sure I got this all the way out, bring this out like this.
02:46Don't poke yourself, whatever you do. And then you just basically wear that on your jacket.
02:50Ralphie, we never get the chance really to see Ralphie wearing this.
02:53We don't even really see the ring or the pin after that because it seems like once Ralphie's been
02:57disappointed by the fact that Little Orphan Annie herself let him down, again, we don't even see the pin after that.
03:02So let's just go ahead and put this back in place because the last thing I really want to do is poke myself.
03:07So you just fit the pin just underneath and get back in there. Get it back in there.
03:13There we go. I don't know why I was having such a hard time doing that.
03:17Of course, some of the details on the back. We've got some like little riveted points there on the back.
03:20This is made though of metal, but it's not the bronze or the brass that it actually is in the movie.
03:25But the fact that it is metal is a nice touch.
03:27So details, of course, they're featured on the front if I got this facing the right way.
03:30You got the eagle. Is that an eagle carrying around a snake? Of course, the American flag in the background and USA down below.
03:37This has all though been textured. We'll say it's pretty light though.
03:40So I would imagine how this works in order for this to rotate is that both the top half and the bottom half of
03:46the decoder pin are probably completely hollow. Think of it sort of like a tin of cookies.
03:50That would not hold very many cookies at all.
03:53But basically because it's hollow. The one thing I would worry about though is if you happen to like pinch this together,
03:58I would imagine there has to be enough of a ledge in between the two halves so that when you rotate it,
04:03there's nothing getting in the way of things, which I haven't yet done that yet.
04:06So basically how it works, if you're not familiar with the decoder pin, is on one side you've got yourself numbers.
04:11So there's one, two, three, four, and then on the other side you've got yourself letters.
04:15So if you had, for example, wanted to give yourself your friend, for example, a little message that they had to decipher,
04:21you would give them first the code.
04:23So let's say for example, I don't know, like say if it was like D3, you would set it to D3.
04:29So how this works, where I'm gonna hold the back,
04:32because that's probably the easiest thing to hold on to here, and you're just gonna rotate this.
04:36So right away it does work. That's good. And let's just set this to D.
04:42Where's 3? I should have probably picked something I was gonna be able to find. There it is right there, D3.
04:47So based on that, you would tell your friend what code that they have to use, and then we just give them the numbers.
04:52So you would line up everything. So like say for example, J is 4, you know,
04:56was that H? H is 5, and just basically go on, go so on and so forth with that.
05:01With then and that in mind, your friend would have to then decipher the series of numbers to figure out what exactly letter you're
05:07gonna be giving, or what message you want to be giving your friends.
05:09Perhaps it's even like, go to the store, pick up some Ovaltine.
05:12I'm all out. And then your friend's gonna be like, oh, come on.
05:15That's really the message you wanted to give me?
05:17I mean, from the standpoint of it being a functioning decoder pin, it does work.
05:20I will say though, for $12.99, which is the price that I paid for this, as a collectible that looks the way it does in
05:27the movie, I will say they've done a nice enough job. It's made of metal, which is a nice enough job too.
05:31It's not though made of, I think it was made of brass in the film.
05:35Obviously, this would have taken place back in the 40s. So everything back then would have been more made of metal.
05:39I mean, it does the job at least for that, and it does rotate. So already there's that too.
05:44The thing about it though, is will this, would this be something that's worth $12.99?
05:49I would say it would be, had the box been a little bit more elaborate.
05:53Again, I would probably understand that if you were to go into the physical brick-and-mortar store,
05:57they'd likely have a probably just a displayer like this, and would have like, you know,
06:00Christmas story decoder ring, a pin underneath, and then they would probably just have like a stack of these.
06:05You just pick them up as your impulse items as you were walking your way towards the register.
06:09Standalone though, I feel like the company kind of really did drop the ball.
06:12Not necessarily the company that sold or were selling these, but the company that was actually producing these in the first place.
06:18I feel like they could have done a whole lot more than just simply packing a decoder pin loose like this.
06:24Had I been them, for example, I would probably come up with like a crude looking box that looked aged.
06:28Maybe even had stickers on it, for example, Little Orphan Annie Club in the top corner.
06:32And something though, that when you open it up, it would maybe even have like just torn up little, you know,
06:36little crinkled pieces of paper.
06:38Have a little letter like, for example, from Little Orphan Annie herself. Go all out. For a $12.99 collectible,
06:45I feel like I should have got stuff more than just the pin itself. The pin is pretty good.
06:49The pin does actually work, which is good as well.
06:51But again, I feel like where they really let this down is the fact that the box is, again, so very underwhelming.
06:57Had I bought this though in the store, again,
06:58I probably would have probably seen several of these all sort of stacked together.
07:02But again, I just feel like the packaging could be a whole lot better.
07:05What do you guys think of this? Let me know down below in the comment section.
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