Cut Off at the Junk. What's the Deal?

Panini's basketball releases are driving me nuts. For the most part I like their flagship set, it's a decent card design and a nice value. The rest of their releases, however, leave a lot to be desired so far, and from what I've seen of sell sheets for the upcoming stuff, it's not going to get any better.

This Artis Gilmore card comes from their Rookies and Stars set and has already been the subject of my first "I Think I Can Do Better" post. What I failed to point out in my ripping of this design was that everyone is Cut Off at the Junk! Now I can't lay claim to creating the term "Cut Off at the Junk". That distinction goes to TJ of All Your Base Cards Belong To Us. He came up with it during his review of the same set. The big problem is that Panini is apparently going to keep up the trend in just about all of their releases this season. Check it out...

Dwight Howard cut off at the junk in the fairly recent Donruss Elite release. This set will be my next target in the "I Think I Can Do Better" series. Up next is...

LeBron James cut off at the junk in Panini Threads also newly released. What is the deal? Maybe Panini's upcoming releases will be better. Let's look at a few of them...

Ray Allen cut off at the junk in Certified. Well they didn't fix the no legs problem, but at least they ditched the generic black & white background with cropped from photo player look. Or NOT! What about the next release...

Brandon Jennings cut off at the junk in the upcoming Classics set. Damn. Surely they'll have one set that doesn't do this, right? What's next, you ask...

Blake Griffin cut off at the junk in Contenders. Good Grief! Will it never end? What is it going to take to get some full color, full background, non cropped at the crotch product from these people? I miss Upper Deck already and they aren't even completely gone yet. I sure hope Panini does a lot better with their exclusive license next year, otherwise it looks like us bball collectors are screwed! Later.