SERIES 13

ProStars Series 13 was Corinthian's first release of the 2001/02 season and would prove to be their best selling opening range for many years, with 12 figures making up Series 13.

 

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We start our delve into ProStars Series 13 with the top selling figure from the range, which is the new shaven headed sculpt of Henrik Larsson, this figure would also be released in the official Celtic club shop on a Celtic backing card, so for those who collect every blister this does present a variant to pick up.

 

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My personal favourite from this series is the anticipated release of Gaizka Mendieta, released here in the Spain home kit, with the figure also proving to be one of the top sellers from Series 13. The other national kit figure in this series is Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in the Netherlands home kit, after first appearing in Series 9, of which he was the series top seller.

 

 

Both sides of North London are represented with a first time sculpt, for Arsenal we have Oleg Luzhny, who would never be released by Corinthian again, while for Spurs we have Ledley King, with this sculpt used for all subsequent releases of King.

 

 

Frank Lampard get's his first release in a Chelsea kit and something to mention is that the collector card found in the platinum pack actually has a spelling error as the team name is spelt as CHESLEA, so to completists this is an obscure card variant to pick up.

 

 

Liverpool collectors could add Finish international Jari Litmanen to their collections, the sculpt being first seen for Ajax in the Dutch club range of Headliners. Worth mentioning the very same Litmanen figure would be used in the UK edition release of the Liverpool Treble Cup Winners team pack, however the team pack version would have a different collector card, so there are 2 versions of the PRO466 collector card, one in Series 13 and the other in the Liverpool Treble Cup Winners team pack.

 

 

Manchester United fans had a first time sculpt in Wes Brown to pick up, with this sculpt being used for all future releases of Brown barring the final one as part of the Manchester United Double Winners 07/08 team pack. West Ham United's emerging young talent Joe Cole was released for the very first time, while for Leeds United we have Rio Ferdinand, the sculpt being the same as previously released in the England 1999-2000 team pack.

 

 

Newcastle United's new target man Carl Cort was released for the very first time, an excellent sculpt which would get one more release as part of the Club Gold range. Injuries blighted Cort's time as the Toon and made just 22 appearances during 4 years at the club, scoring 7 goals.

 

 

Completing the line up for ProStars Series 13 is the very first blister pack release of a Leicester City player, which is the outspoken and opinionated Robbie Savage, an excellent sculpt but one which would never be released by Corinthian again.

 

 

Series 13 blister packs were available from collector centres from September 2001, with blisters priced at £3 each and you could also order the figures from Corinthian Direct as figure and card in sachet for £2.49. Included in each pack was the figures collector card and Corinthian ran a free redemption figure offer, with 6 tokens needed to claim Jari Litmanen in Finland home kit, with just 1,000 being produced, collectors needed to act fast to get one.

 

 

Along with the regular blister packs, Corinthian produced something special called the Platinum Pack, these were produced in much lower numbers and not available for direct sale, they were given away free for money spent with Corinthian Direct, however you could also buy them from official Corinthian Collector Centres. The figures are identical to those in the standard blister but are placed on a specially designed blister card.

 

 

Corinthian did not make public how many of each blister pack or platinum pack were produced, only to say that the best seller in the series was the new shaven headed sculpt of Henrik Larsson, and the ones made in the lowest volume were Brown, Lampard, Luzhny and Savage.