SERIES 14

With the absence of multi packs for many of the teams Corinthian held a license for, they decided to release a bumper blister pack series for Christmas, with ProStars Series 14 containing 20 different figures, and also 2 redemption figures.

 

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Worth noting there are no figures for Liverpool or Barcelona, as Liverpool were represented by the Treble Winners Cup set and Barcelona had 4 new figures released in the World Club Legends Series. There are also no figures from Middlesbrough or Newcastle United as there was no order placed by either club.

 

 

So onto the figures which were released, for Arsenal we have England international duo of Sol Campbell and the very first ProStars release of Ashley Cole, a tremendous sculpt of someone who was rapidly establishing themselves as the best left back in the league.

 

 

For Aston Villa we have Peter Schmeichel, and it will come as a surprise for some to read this is the only appearance of Schmeichel in a regular ProStars Series. First time sculpt of Hassan Kachloul completes the Villa release and he would never again be released by Corinthian.

 

 

Chelsea have Emmanuel Petit and Gianfranco Zola in club home kit, both being repaints of previously released figures. For Leeds United we have Lee Bowyer and Lucas Radebe, both were first released in the Headliners range with Bowyer being in the FAPL Collection but that was a truly awful sculpt, while Radebe was released in South Africa kit as part of the Shell promotion, with that figure being on an oval base.

 

 

Foxes fans have Dennis Wise in Leicester City home kit, with Series 14 making history as it was the first series to feature a player from Ipswich Town, as we got the excellent sculpt of Marcus Stewart wearing gloves, the only outfield player Corinthian would release wearing gloves.

 

 

My personal favourite from Series 14 is the figure of goal scorer extraordinaire Ruud Van

Nistelrooy, with Corinthian sculpting an all new body pose just for his figure release, with the prolific Dutchman joined by Juan Sebastian Veron, who gets his first United release.

 

 

Spurs fans have repaint Gustavo Poyet and the returning Teddy Sheringham in Tottenham Hotspur home kit to add to their collections  and the Spurs club shop sold their allocation of Sheringham blister packs in one day!

 

 

Hammers supporters have a new kit version of Paolo Di Canio, with the factory getting his badge the correct way up this time and he is joined by first time sculpt of Michael Carrick.

 

The SPL is represented by Neil Lennon for Celtic, with the Celtic club shop also having their own Celtic club blister pack for sale on the club shop, so for those who collect all blisters this offers up a variant to add. For Rangers we have first time sculpt in Claudio Caniggia and the first blister release of Claudio Reyna, having first been released in the Rangers 4 pack.

 

 

The Series 14 line up is completed by Francesco Antonioli in Roma kit, having previously featured in the Roma Scudetto winners 2000/01 4 pack, so this was his first and only blister pack release.

 

 

Series 14 blister packs were available from collector centres from December 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 either Claudio Caniggia in Argentina home kit or Ashley Cole in Arsenal third kit.

 

 

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 Juan Sebastian Veron, and the ones made in the lowest volume were Reyna, Wise, Poyet and Di Canio.