Buttons and Other Giveaways

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Don't do it.
Remember FIRST said not to bring food to the events no matter what shape or form they are in.
You're just going to get into unecessary trouble with the officials.
It's just not worth it.

Well, the FIRST Safety Supervisor won't knew unless he catches me nibbling on my pin between matches.

[tkwetzel]

Originally Posted by richardp

Well I still say the best ones from VCU and Cheasapeak were the Dave says that pimp that 116 made....(Heidi designed and I used the button press to make)

Will they return? Will there be a new Dave pin? What picture might be used this year? Or will Woodie be featured with "Bling bling for the brain"?

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Ahh yes... the infamous "buttons". My team has very unique philosophy shared by teams such as the Miracle Workerz (365). Unlike 365, we make many useless designs that look horrid and even I don't like. Secondly they are made in Microsoft Word pasting pictures in a 2.5" circle and adding text. This year they have stupid pictures of "Alexander the Great." This just happens to be the name of our robot, also not my idea. Last year it was Napoleon, not bad but we shouldn't have stuck with the "conquerers" theme... blah. Make up our own word or something and add numbers at the end would be even better. Sorry.. I just need to vent. I plan to make a button design with 3DS Max with four "vision" tetras stacked, saying "Dream Believe Achieve 648," respectively. Much better than what was set before.
Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts, just don't mind them.
Thank you.
Budda

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by Budda648

Secondly they are made in Microsoft Word pasting pictures in a 2.5" circle and adding text.
Budda

I have being using MS Powerpoint for button design and printing for several year. It has more variety of fonts and can import graphics better. I get five buttons per sheet.
MS Word is very troublesome.

[Erin Rapacki]

Buttons are fun to trade during the competition, but when the season is over what do you do with them? Exactly.

If your team can afford to think outside of the box; perhaps you could hand out something that will actually be of use. I've seen:

-strategy clipboards (has picture of field on it)
-miniature fans (for those hot days)
-pens/pencils
-rulers
-small tools
-mini radios
-cups/mugs

Or try combining ideas, like a pen-pin! (I always misplace my pens so having one attached to my shirt might be helpful.

Those are just my thoughts... every season I get a collection of buttons that end up sitting in a box for a few years before I throw them out.

On the other hand, if you make classic looking metal pins instead of buttons I'd keep them on a lanyard or something; similar to those Disney pin collections.

[Denman]

http://www.cafepress.com/team759

Feel free to buy a 759 Thong

Seriously, we are thinking about buttons this year, you say you got through nearly 2500, is that at just one regional or what?

[Atman]

You can never have enough buttons. How many you cary with you depends on the regional you go to. We go to lone Star with 40 and some odd teams. We like to carry around 500(maybe a little more) buttons there. For nats we usually make about a thousand. We do it ourselves. Go to the local shool supply store and rent two button makers with materials. We design and print and then let the team have at it in rotations. We also design like two or three kinds of buttons so people like to collect.

[wildcherry06]

Buttons are fun! I had so much fun going around collecting them. It's a great way to meet people from other teams and if u have a cool button it's a good way to get a buzz about your team. Ours last year were shiny cause they had nylar behind them and we didnt have very many so a lot of people came to our pit at lone star and we didnt have any more. Make sure to bring a lot. Also, think of something else that you can give away. Last year and this year probably, we're gonna give away red and black beads (really cheap in some magazines), and glass vial necklaces with red dirt in them and these little tags that talk about Oklahoma and tornados and red dirt. A lot of people came to our pits asking for them. Try to come up with something simple and origanal and people will want them. Probably my favorite give away was by the Devil ducks (cant remember team number). They had you fill out these crazy forms to "adopt" one. And if you would "make a good parent" then they came and delivered you one of those devil rubber duckies. They even put a name and a little information about them. Just have fun with your giveaways, the skies the limit!

[Kyle Love]

Here's some of the stuff I like to get/give:
-Buttons
-Floppy Hats
-playing cards
-flashlights
-pens
-rulers
-stress balls
-mini-calculators

[bigqueue]

We always do buttons as they seem to be the main "trading capital" of First competitions.

But last year as introduced the idea of Trading Cards, and they are actually a lot less expensive to create. (and in the end, they are easy to "save" in card holder books and such...and you can do things like put together scrap books of all teams at the regional, and even page with all the alliances and cometitors on a page. (we tried our best to made them for all the team at the Nationals ;-)


-Quentin

[Bcahn836]

Our buttons went fast last year and we also had Mardi Gras Beads from Gulfport MS. Those went even faster, i think we have one bag left that we forgot to bring to Nats last year so maybe New Hampshire we will have them.

[Sakura141]

Pins are uber popular where we go for competition... we bring 1000 to a regional and 2000 for nationals

[The Cyborg]

Buttons can be cool to have at first, but then they become a hassel to keep on, and sometimes they poke you, or fall off.... I still have holes in my shirt from where buttons weighed me down .
We usually give away someting that everybody loves: Dog Tags!

I really love it when teams give away someting innovative and cool! The TechnoCats gave away flashlights and cards! Team 494 gave away (er, I mean threw) martian plushies. And i'm still wearing 1014's "Bad Robot!" button (classic ). I love those giveaways that stay with me like that, but they are freaking expensive!

[Pin Man]

I like buttons... Our team usually has so many with us for the competitions... I have no idea how many... A few thousands possibly...

My team was thinking of stopping production because of money issues but I made them bring them back... hehhe

[Olde Bill]

Originally Posted by Phil Paspalas

Are Buttons still a big trading item? If so, how many should a team bring to a regional event. If not, what is. Thanks, in advance for your reply.

Go Team PIoneers! (1676)

Check if your school board (or whatever) has a button press.
Supplies (check out tecre.com) are cheap (colour laser or photocopy). Can also use as a fund-raiser by 'buttonizing' photos etc.