SERIES 23

ProStars Series 23 was Corinthian's first release of 2004 and what better way to start the new year than by adding 16 more figures to the collection, with a host of first time sculpts included!

 

 

Corinthian dubbed this the series of 'The Two Ronnies' as for the very first time Ronaldinho was released in a regular ProStars Series, here in Barcelona home kit and Corinthian made 3,281 blisters, which was a relatively low number given the popularity of the player.

 

 

However the headlines went to Cristiano Ronaldo! This was the very first ProStars release of CR7, here in the 2003/04 Manchester United home sculpt, capturing him during his formative years at United. Corinthian knew demand would be high so they made him the highest production volume in the series with 7,002 blisters which accounts for around 13% of the entire series production.

 

 

Ronaldo's team mate Mikael Silvestre gets a fresh sculpt and his first inclusion in a series since series 8, with him painted in United away kit, with 3,360 blisters made.

 

 

Chelsea had a new striker in town, with Romanian Adrian Mutu getting his first Corinthian release, with 5,687 blisters. Liverpool fans also had a first time sculpt as Senegalese midfielder Salif Diao makes his Corinthian debut, with 2,514 blisters made which was a low number for a Liverpool figure.

 

 

Blackburn Rovers joined the ProStars range, the first Corinthian figures released for Rovers since 1996! Lorenzo Amoruso is in Blackburn home kit, with Corinthian making just 1,798 blisters which was the 3rd lowest in this series.

 

 

The remaining 3 from the English Premier League were all first time sculpts, 2 of which would never be released again, as we have Malcolm Christie for Middlesbrough with 1,835 blisters, Thomas Hitzlsperger for Aston Villa with 2,168 blisters and Tomasz Radzinski for Everton with 1,781 blisters, the 2nd lowest in the series. Radzinski is the only one who would be released as a ProStars figure again, which would be in Series 27 Super Strikers for Fulham.

 

 

Celtic and Rangers both had a figure included, we have first time sculpt Fernando Ricksen for Rangers with 2,146 blisters, and this would be the only ProStars figure Corinthian would release of Ricksen. For Celtic we have Johan Mjallby, this was his second release following his debut in the Collector Club Special Edition Series, this Celtic home kit figure was the lowest production volume in Series 23 with just 1,649 being made.

 

 

We move to Italy's Serie A and see Cafu and Gennaro Gattuso released for AC Milan, with blister volume being 4,093 for Cafu and just 2,647 for Gattuso. First time sculpt Emre Belozoglu is released for Inter Milan, with 3,319 blisters and along with Pavel Nedved for Juventus with 5,791 they were the first ones to sell out, after the 2 Ronnies of course.

 

 

Completing Series 23 is Olivier Dacourt in Roma home kit, the sculpt being the same as we saw released for Leeds United, with blister volume being 2,101.

 

 

In total Corinthian made 51,172 blisters for Series 23 which considerably lower than series 22 and almost less than half the blister volume of Series 21!

 

 

From this Series onwards Corinthian would no longer produce 'figure and card' sachets, the figures would only be available in blister pack format.

 

 

Corinthian produced 2 special redemption figures for Series 23, which are Adrian Mutu in Chelsea away kit and Tomasz Radzinski in Everton away kit. Collectors were able to directly purchase the redemption figures, which were priced at £5 and came in clear sachet with a non numbered collector card, you could still collect the tokens and claim the redemption figures that way.

 

 

Series 23 was released on the 19th January 2004, with blisters priced at £3 each and included in each pack was the figures collector card and Corinthian ran a free redemption figure offer, with 8 tokens needed to claim one of the special redemption figures.

 

 

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. The figures are identical to those in the standard blister but are on a Silver base and assigned a PP (Platinum Pack) collector code, which was the same code as the PRO version, with the figure then placed on a specially designed Platinum Pack blister card, coming with collector card stating it was produced in quantities no higher 360.