Monday, September 27, 2010

Box Break: 1990-91 Score

Going old school with this box break. I received this box as a birthday present (I'm told it came from a flea market) and there was one pack missing and the box itself was wrapped in packaging tape. One thing I found very interesting about this box was the fact that there were four different wrappers inside, instead of just one. Now that's something you don't see with boxes of cards nowadays.


The Numbers:
Packs: 35
Cards per Pack: 15

Since this break was just for fun, I'm not even going to bother counting anything. I just want to take a look at the different cards that came out of the box.

Base:
The design is fairly simple, which is a good thing in this case. I really like the red top and bottom borders on the white background. The horizontal blue and red strips are a nice touch, as they keep the left and right sides of the card from seeming empty.


Subsets:
This set has a ton of subsets, everything from a set highlighting the HOF inductees from 1990 to sets highlighting first and second team all-stars from the previous season. Here is some of what I pulled.

1990 First Round Draft Choices:
This subset highlights the first round draft choices from 1990. Not much different than the base design, except for the logo in the upper left and the blue name bar on the bottom. One thing I like about this subset is that all of the photos are studio shots.


NHL Prospects '90:
This subset features the up and comers from 1990. Again the design is similar to the base. It included this Mats Sundin, Rob Blake, Olaf Kolzig, Andrew Cassels, and Kris Draper among others.


1990 Record Setters:
This one focuses on records from the previous season. It has a similar blue name bar with yellow text again and a yellow text box with red text in the upper left corner for the subset name.


1990 Season Leader:
This one focused on statistical leaders from the previous season. They are similar to the record setters, except for the layout of the name box and the logo in the upper left. 


1990 First Team All-Stars:
This one's pretty self explanatory. It included the likes of Ray Borque, Al MacInnis, and others. I really like the multiple image effect, it's something most of the other subsets don't have.


1990 Second Team All-Stars:
This one also has the multiple image effect. The only difference from the first team is the color of the logo box. Some of the players in this one included Brian Bellows and Doug Wilson among others.


1990 All-Rookie Team:
Pretty similar to the last two, the only difference here is the white logo box in the upper left corner. This set included the likes of Mike Modano, Rod Brind'amour, and Brad Shaw among others.


Stoppers:
The next few subsets are pretty much the same, except for the small logos in the lower right hand corder. I like the no puck sign thing with the o in stopper. There was this Ranford and Patrick Roy.


Bangers:
These are basically the same as the stopper cards, only these have the banger text. The back of this one calls Neely "The Heavy Hitter" and he's become the "prototype of the hard hitting NHL forward."


Blasters:
These are pretty much the same too, although I like the choice of font for Blaster more than the banger cards. I got this MacInnis as well as the other Al with a big shot, Al Iafrate.


Shadows:
Looks like there is a trend with all of these subsets. The back of this Tikkanen says "he is called the NHL's ultimate pest because of his ability to irritate highscoring forwards." This was the only one I got.


Snipers:
Gotta love the little cross-hair for the dot on the i in sniper. The back says, "in a season which saw Brett Hull score 72 goals and Steve Yzerman net 62, NHL goalies still feared Wayne."


Speedsters:
I like how the text for speedster looks well, speedy.  I only came away with two of these, this Paul Coffey and Mike Gartner. Actually I got four of them as I ended up with doubles of both.


Magicians:
I think they could have done  better than the red text on a yellow background on this one. The back of the card says, "Wayne, the NHL's all-time leading scorer, is the ultimate quarterback on the ice."


Hall of Famers:
This was kind of a cool subset, as featured the 1990 hockey hall of fame inductees. There was this Bill Barber as well as center Gil Perreault and defenseman Fern Flaman.


Future Superstar:
How could I forget about probably the most valuable card (at least at one time) in this entire set. The back of this card states, "Eric is a phenom in the truest sense." I ended up with three of these. 


Award Winners:
There was a card for each of the major awards from 1990, like this one featuring Bill Ranford with the Conn Smyth. Others included Roy with the Vezina and Gretzky with the Art Ross trophy. 


Champions: 
I don't know if this would really qualify as a sub set, but there were cards for the Stanley Cup champs as well as the conference champs. I believe they were the only horizontal cards in the entire set. 


All in all this was a pretty fun and nostalgic break. I remember getting tons of these cards back when I was a kid just getting into hockey cards and its always cool to take a look back like this.

Oh, almost forgot, I received one other box for my birthday too, stay tuned for that one...

No comments:

Post a Comment