Saturday, December 18, 2010

Quick Review: 2010-11 Panini Rookies & Stars

Panini's second release of the year (at least I think that's right) is Rookies & Stars. I'd been itching for something besides Prestige, so I've picked up a few packs. Here's a quick review of one of them. The wrapper features rookie of the year candidate John Wall of the Wizards and some guy named Kobe from the Lakers. This pack should be full of Rookies and Stars I'm assuming.

This is what the base cards look like. I actually like them. Again Panini has used a pretty bland, monochromatic background with a cropped player, but for some reason they work a lot better than last year to me. My kids think I'm nuts, but something about the players on these cards looks "different". I'd almost swear they have some sort of slight sharpening filter or something added to them that give them a very slight painted look or something. I noticed it with their football set too. Or maybe I am nuts and am just seeing things. Anyway, I like the look, though the team logos could be a little larger and I'd prefer one of the logos at the top be moved to the bottom so they don't bookend the players heads.

This is what the backs look like. Here Panini gives us a splash of team colors and instead makes the player black & white. We also get the standard one line of stats and blurb of info. By the way, this pack wasn't FULL of rookies & stars. We got 1 rookie (Fields), 3 or 4 stars (Duncan, Howard, Deron Williams & Bogut, I guess) and several other guys I'll call good players.

This is the only insert card in the pack, a Dwight Howard Stardom card. Not a terrible design and this is actually a numbered variation for some reason, but I can't remember what it's numbered to. This design doesn't have too much empty space expecting a swatch or auto, at least it's better than most. I keep waiting to see rack packs of these, you know, 40 cards for $5 like Panini did with Prestige. If I see them I'll probably pick up a few more, otherwise I'll go the singles route and just pick and choose. That's all I've got for now. Later.

3 comments:

  1. Is the Landry Fields rookie for trade?

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  2. Shotnottaken the Landry Fields is yours. Send me an email.

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  3. I agree with the sharpening filter thought. When looking through my box of 2010 R&S football, I was thinking the same thing. Then I pulled out the Darren McFadden and it was very obvious. His tattoos, arm muscles, and veins were way too defined to be a natural, unaltered photograph. There was definitely some tampering involved, but I agree, it actually looks pretty cool and is a nice touch.

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