Monday, July 25, 2011

BOX BREAKS: 2010/11 Zenith

Last week's traders night at the local card store had me contemplating a box break.

The new Panini release - Zenith - caught my eye. I figured why not...I'll throw a little more support towards the card store (and its new store...it's really nice in there).


So with that, it was a box of Zenith (good thing I'm over the age of 9.....that's never gonna get old for me).

It's a 10 pack box with only 5 cards per pack. So right off the bat there's a limited number of cards to be had.

So they better be good - right?


The base cards are alright. Nothing spectacular with the design. What is eye-catching though are the photos. Some of them look like they've been given just a slight tweak to give it almost a hand-drawn look.


This Crosby is a good example of that. Now is it just me or does it look like a bit of a sketch? I quite like the filter put on the photos (and actually wish all the card pics looked like that).

There are 225 cards in the base set. 115 commons, 85 rookies and 25 legends. Lots of rookies (dare I say too many) and the word 'legends' now means the possibility of Linden cards to chase (sure enough....he's in the product).


I managed one red parallel (or as they like to call them 'Red Hot'). Apparently these are not the big pulls like parallels in other products.

They also have 'White Hot' parallels (or as I like to call them Ice Blue......since they're blue). These are the sought after parallels.


What's a product without inserts. And Zenith has a bundle of them.

These are the 'non shiny' inserts I pulled. I kind of like the 'Gifted Grinders' card, but the 'Chasing The Cup' insert leaves me with the blahs. Nothing special (sorry Habs fans). It's just a generic insert concept to me.


And now some shiny inserts. These have also given me the blahs. I really haven't even taken a close look at what I've got here. I just see a Henrik Lundqvist card where the card design gets more facetime than the player photo and a triple shot of Columbus Blue Jackets.....and no Nash.

I've lost interest in these....so let's move on.


Ooooohhhhhhh.......jersey cards.

Oh, wait...these are just the run of the mill jersey cards. Once again, an attempt at finding a theme and plunking the leftover jersey int he windows.

Part of me shouldn't complain about the jersey cards, but these are almost as bad as regular base cards.

Antoine Vermette - Winter Warrior? C'mon. Really? Maybe 'Fringe Forward' or 'Who Am I?'. That would be a more suitable set name.


Here are the legends cards I talked about earlier. Darren Pang! I'm mildly excited since it's a photo of him with his mask on (it was a pretty slick mask back in the day). Gilmour's a good pull as well.


But this one takes the cake. I really like this card. Showing me something I have never seen before. This Neely shot I don't think has ever been used on a card before. Slam dunk!


In my box break, I managed one rookie card. This Travis Hamonic is numbered out of 999. Did I mention the abundance of rookies? Yup.


I also managed an autographed rookie (which is not a parallel, but part of the base set). Zac Dalpe? Hoo boy.

At least it's hard signed.


But the big draw when it comes to the Zenith product is the 'Dare To Tear' concept.

For those of you unfamiliar....you receive an oversized card in your box (wrapped so you don't know who it is). I ended up with this Roenick. It's about the size of 4 base cards. Inside the card (yes....inside) is a regular sized card. Normally, all the big name, low-numbered cards are hiding inside these jumbos.

In order to get to the card, you have to tear into the oversized cardboard.

No offence again, but it's Jeremy Roenick. This was a no-brainer.


This rookie auto gold of Brodie Dupont was my Dare To Tear prize. It's numbered out of 10 which is nice, but a sticker auto? And who is Brodie Dupont? Did I mention the abundance of rookies in the product?

Overall, this product is a bit of a 'hit or miss'. While the Dare To Tear concept is fantastic, the bulk of the product just doesn't quite sing to me. Not enough bang for your buck.

Have you busted a box (or boxes) of Zenith? What are your thoughts?

11 comments:

  1. I don't think anyone likes that stuff... but that Price card could find it's way to my trade box... yes?

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  2. Me thinks yes. I will bring it next traders night.

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  3. I wish I could afford this product! I really like those Legend cards.

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  4. Very interesting. With an over abundance of rookies, it certainly didn't seem like you got your share. This was one of the three Panini products that I have shy'd away from this year (the other two being Limited and Luxury Suite). While the "dare to tear" idea was fun 8 years ago when they did it before, packing a bunch of base cards and no-name autos hardly makes the excitement very compelling. If they are going to keep Zenith going, I say get back to the gold foil board from the first few years of production, cut down the checklist, and thicken the card stock. If we are being nostalgic with a brand relaunch, why not go all the way?

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  5. Brad,

    Finding singles shouldn't be too difficult (and I don't think these will be flying into ridiculous price ranges either).

    A lot of it was broken and I feel a lot of people who cracked packs could care less about the base cards.

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  6. Not a bad break, much better than most I have seen. Still not enough to make me want to pull the trigger, but like you said eBay will have some of the singles and Devils rookies I want.

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  7. Not a horrible break, like Dave said I've seen worse. This is just another reason I've stayed away from breaking any more Panini boxes this year (I was kind of turned off after one box of Certified). For me, it's all about the Howard singles and buying a box would be just about pointless.

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  8. Hang onto that Hamonic! He's a keeper.

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  9. Is there a way to tear the card without ruining the front (but maybe just the back)? Seems cruel to ruin a perfectly good jumbo card of J.R....

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  10. With a little care and consideration, you can get the card out without completely wrecking the front (the scan of the Roenick was after I 'Dared To Tear').

    I still mucked it up pretty bad though. An exacto knife would have been the way to go.

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