STARS OF THE SEASON 2002/3

Corinthian released their very first series which took a retrospective look at the players who had excelled during the season, the name give to this series was Stars Of The Season. Release wise this slotted in between Series 21 & 22 and given the overwhelming success of this series Corinthian would release more Stars of the Season series but those would be included numerically into the regular ProStars Series.

 

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Wonderkid Wayne Rooney exploded onto the scene with his sensational strike against Arsenal, leaving legendary keeper David Seaman with no hope of saving it, we would all remember the name, Wayne Rooney! This was the first ProStars release of Rooney and Corinthian made him the highest blister volume in this series with 8,157, which is over 10% of the blisters made for this season.

 

 

Arsenal's French duo of Thierry Henry and Robert Pires were a large part of the the Gunners won the league this season, with Corinthian creating a new sculpt of Henry, producing 6,709 blisters and 5,503 blisters for Pires.

 

 

Chelsea ended up in 6th place, with Corinthian released a trio of figures, Gianfranco Zola is in away kit with 4,770 blisters, Carlo Cudicini has 2,976 blisters and first time sculpt William Gallas has 3,156 blisters.

 

 

Liverpool had to settle for runners up, Corinthian looked to console their fans by releasing Michael Owen in home kit with 6,559 blisters and in away kit we have Sami Hyypia with 3,091 blisters, a very low number for a Liverpool release during this time period.

 

 

Manchester United ended up finishing 3rd, with Corinthian releasing Paul Scholes in home kit with 4,797 blisters and in third kit we have Ruud Van Nistelrooy with 6,795 blisters. Newcastle ended the season in 4th place, thanks in large to the goals of Alan Shearer, Corinthian made 4,620 of his blister.

 

 

Leeds United fans had a first time sculpt in Paul Robinson to add to their collections with Corinthian making 2,964 blisters. This would be the only regular ProStars series release of Robinson, the other 2 figures would be part of the Retail range. Leeds team mate Harry Kewell is in away kit, with 3,618 blisters being made.

 

 

Paolo Di Canio features in West Ham United away kit with 2,586 blisters, for Tottenham Hotspur we have Robbie Keane in home kit with 4,644 blisters and completing the series is the lowest production volume figure which is Ugo Ehiogu with just 1,890 blisters. Corinthian produced a total of 72,835 blisters for the Stars Of The Season 2002/3 series.

 

 

Corinthian produced 2 special redemption figures for Stars Of The Season 2002/3 Series, which see William Gallas in Chelsea away kit and Paul Scholes in Manchester United 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. No platinum packs were made for the redemption figures and Corinthian did not state how many were produced.

 

 

ProStars Stars Of The Season 2002/3 was first released to Gold and Platinum level collector club members at the 2003 Convention which took place at Villa Park on the 31st of May and 1st of June, with the series going on general sale from the 9th of June. blisters were priced at £3 each however Corinthian did not make any 'figure with card' sachet product for this series, they were solely available as blisters. 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.