BEHIND THE MASKS - Almost Done

For almost a year, the Memorable Masks set inserted into In The Game's 'Decades 1980' product has had a few lingering cards remaining on my wantlist. Last month at Traders Night I was able to pick up a pair taking me within one of finishing the set.

While it's not a tough set to build by any means, it is one that I'm looking forward to finishing. I just haven't really pursued the remaining numbers.....and that goes for a few of my mask sets.

I don't know why that is. Maybe these sets are more pedestrian for me - not my primary focus? Maybe it's because I've been filtering my money into my Linden pc? Or maybe it's because I just refuse to pay a certain amount for these cards (for some reason the difference between paying $5 vs. $2 is huge).

Regardless, I'm glad to add them to the collection and who knows, it might push me to actually finish the set sometime this year.

2010/11 In The Game Decades 1980
Memorable Masks
#MM-07 Michel Dion

One of my favorite masks from this era. Dion's lid just captured my imagination. I loved getting any of his hockey cards back in the day. And remember, back then you rarely got to see these teams on television (well, for me anyways growing up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada).

2010/11 In The Game Decades 1980
Memorable Masks
#MM-01 Grant Fuhr

Grant had a number of stunning lids during his NHL career.....and I'm not just talking about his masks.


AWESOME! Where's the Fuhr afro tribute mask?

OK, back to the card. It's one of the better photos from this set. You can really see Grant's eyes piercing from behind his mask. And while it's not my favorite Fuhr mask from his playing days with the Oilers, the full fibreglass treatment of these cards are just a real treat.


In addition, I landed a card from this year's Masked Marvels set inserted into packs of Panini Certified.

These cards were a bit of a miss for me last year, and by the looks of things, Panini didn't learn their lesson.

2011/12 Panini Certified
Masked Marvels
#2 Tim Thomas

Way too much blank space on the front of this card. I think they could have easily increased the size of the photo and provided us fans with some stellar goalie mask pics.

I will say though that the sharpness of the mask photo does make it a little easier to accept. I'm looking forward to building this set and hope to do it on the cheap.

Which means I'll still have some cards on the wantlist this time next year.