It was pretty common to see cars stripped of their hood ornaments and emblems when I was growing up. I’m not entirely sure what got the movement started, but it wasn’t uncommon to see them mounted on bicycles and made into chains around town.
Luxury cars were the typical targets, but Honda and Acura badges were also indiscriminately picked up. It was so bad in some areas that “debadging” a car became a trend, where owners would cut and shave off emblems until the metal was flush with the rest of the car.
People are paying to have these made now etsy
I’ve never seen a Rolls Royce emblem on a chain or bike, and it turns out that there’s a good reason for that
The Spirit of Ecstasy, which is the obnoxious name they came up with for their emblem, is as brilliantly engineered as the rest of the vehicle.
Recognizing the problem of emblem theft over a decade ago, they’ve addressed the issue through a brilliantly overengineered mechanism that retracts the emblem when tampered with. It can be restored once the car’s owner shows up and pops it back up from the inside.
You can see one of their top salesmen demo the feature below.