THE CHELSEA TEAM
1999-2000 SEASON

Corinthian was always looking to improve their product in all areas, including product availability, the feedback from collectors was that at times it was not always possible to get the figures they wanted from their local store, due to product sell out. The reaction to this from Corinthian was to produce a range of subscription products, the name given to this range was 'Corinthian By Subscription' 

 

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Corinthian by Subscription allowed collectors to pre order the items they wanted, ensuring they would not miss out on new releases. Corinthian released 6 different 12 figure team packs, each team pack would contain 12 figures, 12 collector cards, a club specific display stand and backing card of the clubs stadium, along with a platinum pack of one of the 12 figures, with the packs being released on the 30th November 1999 and priced at £29.99

 

 

The initial plan for these 12 player team packs was to have the Platinum Pack be of a player not included in the pack, this was to be offered as a bonus for placing a subscription order with Corinthian, as it transpired this idea never came to fruition and the platinum pack would end up being 1 of the 12 figures included in the pack.

 

 

The very first Corinthian ProStars Newsletter Issue 1 Spring 1999 features the article detailing the Corinthian By Subscription range of team packs, with each team having the provisional line up of 12 figures listed, along with a 13th name which was had an * next to it, denoting it was to be the Platinum Edition.

 

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The provisional line up for the Chelsea 1999-2000 season team pack was manager Gianluca Vialli, Ed De Goey, Celestine Babayaro, Graeme Le Saux, Alebert Ferrer, Frank Leboeuf, Dennis Wise, Gustavo Poyet, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Mikael Forsell, Gianfranco Zola and Bjarne Goldbaek, with the platinum pack figure listed to be Dan Petrescu.

 

 

4 of those figures would be cancelled, those being Petrescu, Casiraghi, Forsell and Goldbaek. Petrescu and Casiraghi had already featured in the Headliners range, however Forsell and Goldbaek would never be released. A Master Model of Mikael Forsell was created but i have never seen any image of a Goldbaek sculpt, so it's probable he never made it past the provisional line up stage.

 

 

The 12 figures included in the Chelsea 1999-2000 season team pack are manager Gianluca Vialli, Ed De Goey, Albert Ferrer, Graeme Le Saux, Frank Leboeuf, Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Dennis Wise, Gustavo Poyet, Chris Sutton, Gianfranco Zola and Celestine Babayaro.

 

This was the first release of Vialli as a manager and the other 3 first time sculpts are Celestine Babayaro, Gustavo Poyet and Albert Ferrer. We saw fresh sculpts of Dennis Wise and Gianfranco Zola, with the remaining players having all been released before but this was their first release in the new Chelsea kit.

 

 

Corinthian did not disclose exactly how many of each Chelsea 1999-2000 team pack  was produced, so as such it cannot be ascertained how many of each Platinum Pack were made, however getting a full set of 12 platinum packs is still some achievement but they are more accessible than the other teams platinum packs from the 1999-2000 club sets.