FAN FAVOURITES
JAPAN BLIND BOX RELEASE

Corinthian launched a new range of figures under the banner of 'ProStars Fan Favourites' which have the figures in 'photographic line up' poses.

 

 

The figures are the same size as regular ProStars however they are a 2 piece mould which have turning heads, are a little lighter than regular ProStars and on a brighter Green base with the player name printed on. The range carried it's own collector codes, starting with FF (Fan Favourites)

 

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Corinthian collecting was thriving in Japan and the Far East during this period, with the Japanese market particularly enjoying product released in blind boxes, so it was no surprise to see Corinthian appease demand and release a Fan Favourites Blind Box product in Japan.

 

 

The Blind Box contains 48 figures, 34 are from the Saga Falabella set, the 2 not included is the Aston Villa duo of Nolberto Solano and Juan Pablo Angel. What is perplexing about their omission is that they both appear on the packaging, with Angel even featuring on the single boxes lid. I can offer no official reason as to why they were pulled from the range, can only assume it was either a late change to the line up or simply an error when selecting images for the packaging.

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The 34 from the Saga Falabella set sees AC Milan have 6 figures current stars Kaka, Shevchenko, Maldini and Cafu are joined by Dutch legends Van Basten and Gullit, with bitter rivals Inter Milan having 4 figures, Adriano, Vieri, Recoba and Zanetti. Juventus had 2 current stars and 2 legends in the set, with Del Piero and Trezeguet joined by Platini and Baggio, with Napoli having 2 included in the set, Antonio Careca and Maradona! Completing the contingent from Italy's Serie A are 2 from Roma, Totti and Batistuta.

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Spain's La Liga was represented by Barcelona who had 6 in the set, Puyol, Giuly, Belletti, Larsson, Ronaldinho and Deco. The English Premier League was represented by Arsenal, Aston Villa and Manchester United, with Arsenal having 4 figures, Bergkamp, Henry, Reyes and Pires, while the 2 from Manchester United are Van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo. The set was rounded off by 4 England national kit figures, those being Rooney, Beckham, Scholes and Owen.

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The remaining 14 figures are from the 12 player team packs, Manchester United have 5 which are John O'Shea, Paul Scholes, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs. There are 4 from Arsenal which are Thierry Henry, Fredrik Ljungberg, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires, while Liverpool have 5, those being Sami Hyypia, Steven Gerrardm Dietmar Hamann, El-Hadji Diouf and Michael Owen.

 

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The figures were sold in single blind boxes, so you did not know which figure you would receive. Each blind box contained a randomly packed figure and a collectors information leaflet, however no collector cards were included. The blind boxes were sold and distributed in a CDU (counter display unit) each CDU having 15 blind boxes. 

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Although the figures are not rare, finding the Japan Blind Box and CDU can be challenging, with the collector's information leaflet also being a nice collector's item. Thanks go to Stuart Albon for providing the image of the full set from the blind box and the CDU