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?