Today we start with...
SCORE
Score costs me 35 bucks for a box (not 30 like a lot of other card shops). It contained 36 packs at 7 cards a pack, which works out to about 250 cards. Unfortunately, it also contained 5 doubles which is definitely a minus.
First let's take a look at the base:
The design is simple yet effective. You get a full shot of the player in action and is not cluttered by cheesy logos or over bearing designs. The player name is at the top along side the classic Score logo, the bottom right has the team logo. What I do not like is pretty obvious, the Conference logo at the bottom. I feel like it's a bit childish and unnecessary.
The gold parallels are the exact same as the base but with a gold border along both sides. Score got rid of the glossy and replaced them with these seeded one per pack. Good idea Panini.
The "Stanley Cup Champions" logo is on every LA Kings card on the base set. They've continued this small yet critical touch from the past two years. As well Panini included once again the "Signed by..." words on the bottom of traded or signed player cards.
What really impressed me though, were the back of all the base cards! What a creative way to showcase stats on a low-end product. Panini used 6 different variation of backs on this years Score products to make sure there was NO wasted space. The two above are similar and are from the Season Highlight and Award Winners subsets.
The other four variations are shown above. The bottom left is of a player with only one season played. Since he has little stats, they have a healthy write up on him as well as a creative way of showing his height, weight and other stats. In contrast to the Ryan Smith card that has a wide range of stats, showing his full career stats.
I know many think that the Hot Rookie cards have down graded but I think the opposite. Score is no longer some cheesy set with flames behind a rookie's head with 90 different fonts on the front. It's simple and effective. They still used flame in the "Hot" word and the design in the back compliments the front well. Thumbs up!
Team Score is really unnecessary. That's really all I can think of to say about this insert set. Just, why? There really is no point to it.
The franchise is close to my favourite set from this years Score. The legends variation of Franchise is really appealing to the eyes and the photo selection is really nice. The inserts set is small at only 6 cards, but definitely effective. The write ups are informative and interesting. I agree with the Real DFG when he said this is definitely worth a small build, it's easy and worth the spare change.
The new franchise cards are even cooler IMO. The huge futuristic team logos are really nice and modern. Plus there is actually foil on the card. Something a little more fancy for a low-end set, I appreciate the effort. Team colours are definitely a plus on any card for me. I'm a sucker for it!
This insert set is a great idea and I've commented on this in a past "Insert Ideas" post. The idea is phenomenal, the rookie selection is great and last year the photo selection was fantastic. BUT, this year I'm disappointed for one reason and one reason only. That Landeskog card above; the picture is not of his first goal but instead of him roaming around the ice. Why? I'm sure there is a picture in this day and age of him scoring his first NHL goal, if not at least of him holding the puck after the game in the dressing room or at the very least a random goal celebration. I know you have one of those! Just scroll up to the Landeskog "Gold Rush" parallel I posted at the beginning!
We finish off the break with my favourite card in the box. This "Check-It" insert that was inspired from past insert sets from Score in the 90's. The Real DFG did a write up on this set, but IMO this is a great insert. I'm not quite sure why they used Wendel Clark as he's long gone and retired, but hey, I'm not complaining.
Although I didn't hit that SSP RC, or AUTO in this box as I have in the past. This box was still a ton of fun for only 35 bucks and yielded some nice inserts. Therefore I give this break a...
7.5/10
This break was really enjoyable and deserves the score it got. I didn't hit that "wow" card that would make this a 8.5-10 but, it gets a moderately high score anyways.
Can OPC/SpX/Donruss beat that? Stay tuned!
GO NUCKS GO!
