Plugin variable not showing in postbit data

[Rogue_SSEi]

Background:
I've created a userfield which contains the number of times a forum member has won an award (in this case an oven mitt). I'm trying to display a graphic in postbits for each time the winner has won. So if a member has won 3 oven mitts then the field
contains 3 and it should display the graphic 3 times. I've written some plugin code that creates a variable with an oven mitt image. I did this because I was unable to use a for loop in the postbit template.

Here is the plugin code that creates the oven mitt image data:

global $vbulletin;

if ($vbulletin->userinfo['userid'] == 1)
{
$ovenmittcount =  $vbulletin->userinfo['field12'];

$ovenmitts = "";

for ($loopcount=1; $loopcount<=$ovenmittcount; $loopcount+=1)
 {
  $ovenmitts = $ovenmitts . '<img src="http://www.badbeatspoker.net/images/isopmitt.jpg">';
}

}

This code works and has the desired effect of creating 3 oven mitts (the userfield is set to 3). I've set the plugin to only work for me so I didn't interfere with members on the board until I have it working. I've tested the plugin by placing the $ovenmitts variable in the forumdisplay template and it posted the image fine.

In forumdisplay this code shows the image correctly:

<center>
$random_banner[$random_number]
$ovenmitts
</center>

The issue is when I put the $ovenmitts variable in the postbit template to place the image amongst the other postbit data. It never displays like it can't find the variable.

I've tried setting the plugin to work in global_start and a variety of other showthread and postbit hooks with no joy.


This is the code I'm using in postbit:

<if condition="$post['field12']">
$ovenmitts
</if>

Any clues as to what I'm doing wrong?