I love the look of all the funky little critter-shaped pin cushions, but the practicality of a magnetic pin holder. Perhaps you could do something that sort of combines the two -- with a magnet on the bottom for grabbing up the pins quickly & easily & the top is a critter that you can jab the pins into.
I remember seeing a couple that were my absolute favorites. One was a Snoopy dog house pin cushion with a Woodstock needle holder. Another one was a family of funky chickens that were all tacked together. I think the baby chick was a needle holder & the other two were pin cushions -- one was the larger rooster for holding longer silk pins & the other was the hen for regular sized pins. I personally like that idea since I use a lot of applique pins & (1) like to keep those separate, and (2) need something with less resistance to push them into. Perhaps you could do one filled with walnut shells for their sharpening properties & the other filled with either wool or human/horse hair for the rust-preventing properties.
Or the other option would be to have it like a crocodile & you can put the straight pins in its head/body or open up its mouth & there's storage for safety pins. Right now I store my pins in a divided plastic storage box because I like to have them all together in the same place (#2 & #3 safety pins, silk pins, applique pins & T-pins).