OUTSIDE THE BOX - You Want The Best...You Got The Best

That's right....it's the hottest band in the world.

And I bought a blaster box of their product last summer.

And it sat on my desk for months.

And now I'm finally getting around to sharing it.

Trust me....it's not so hot.

'Kiss 360 Degrees' was produced by Press Pass and this set was released in 2009.  I was at the Farmer's Market last summer with my niece and thought it would be fun to buy a blaster box.  It was on sale.

And it still came off as a bad buy.

In the back of my mind, I thought I would have the longshot chance of pulling one of the Rock Star Relics (memorabilia) or Kissignatures (cut autograph).  Clearly I was delusional.

12 packs.  5 cards per pack.  Do the math....that's 60 cards.

So let's look at some of the 'goodies'.

Some of the cards do have nice photos while others seem to miss the mark a bit.  There's a mixture of on stage, behind the scenes and studio/portfolio shots.  I'm more of a behind the scenes kind of guy (and I'm definitely more of an original lineup fan).

Gene playing tuba......nice.

These Snapshot inserts are on a thicker see-through plastic card.  Nothing fantastic...unless you consider a stoned (or tremendously confused) Gene trying to figure out whose kid he's holding.

Pssssst......he's yours.

The Albums subset are not bad, but only if you pull the vintage albums.  Crazy Nights, Animalize and Asylum do not count as cool.

The one aspect of these cards that I do like is the flip side.

You can go old school and make a pair of 9 piece puzzles.

This classic pic of the band takes me back to my youth when the band was believe it or not.....scary.

Not like today where it literally is a circus.

Ooooooooooh.  Parallels.  I got a couple Blood Splatter parallels.  These are truly the high end pieces of cardboard.  I will be sure to put these into toploaders (or even one touch cases).  Sweet.

I especially love the Paul Stanley possessed pic.  I'm betting that's a premium priced card.

And I bet that's not mouthwash Ace.

Scab!  Scab!  Scab! 

Go back to you old job as Kiss video editor Tommy Thayer.

Probably the best photo in the box.  The Double Pistol (pew pew).

This is not cool.

If you're a fan of the band, this might appeal to you.  But I think Kiss 360 Degrees just doesn't offer enough bang for your buck.

Did I just do that?  Yes I did.  Thanks Paul.

REVIEW - 2010/11 Panini All Goalies

It was the first card show of 2012 and I had been looking forward to it all week. I was gung-ho for heading down there when the doors opened at 10:00 am.

Yeah......that plan didn't work out so good.

So about 12:30, I trot in looking for a few deals (and hopefully a Linden or two). Hockey Night In Canada was down there so it was a little more packed than usual. That just added to the excitement.

I picked up a bit of a mish-mash of cards. A few masks, a couple Cup Raisers, some cards for my One Sheet, One Set project and even a Linden (although I already had it).

Overall, it was a fun afternoon.

While scanning in some of my goods, I decided to throw this set in that I picked up during my time off from work. It's not really a 'box break' so I'm calling it a review.

2010/11 Panini All Goalies

This product is essentially a factory set. No packs were released.

I had heard about this all goalie release and was immediately intrigued, but the lack of mask shots left me holding off on picking it up.

When I saw that it was marked down almost half price, I bit.


The set consists of 100 cards (89 of them current NHLers or those in the system). If you ever wanted a snapshot of the NHL goaltending depth chart at the time....this is your set.


The cards are a basic design and the photos aren't overly exciting, but they're not too bad. Consistent at least.

The player selection could have better. While some teams (like Calgary) are represented by only a pair of cards, other teams....


C'mon......really? FIVE CARDS? You couldn't drop one and add Leland Irving or something?

That's a little bit weak, especially when one of the players isn't even in game action.


I mentioned that the first 89 cards consist of current players. That leaves the remaining 11 for past stars.


Can't beat that. Some solid names in the abbreviated 'legends' portion of the product. Fuhr, Cheevers, Esposito, Roy, Barrasso, Potvin just to name a few.


This one's my favorite though. Can't beat a nice Richard Brodeur card. Especially when it contains a photo that I've never seen before.


Now in addition to your 100 card set, you also get 5 'randomly inserted' Up Close cards.


As you can see, Panini has added a black & white close up of the player on the right hand side of the card. Kind of a nice bonus and adds some excitement to the break as opposed to just having a predetermined factory set.

I use the words 'randomly inserted' loosely. Here are my other 4 cards...


Riiiiiiiight.

I guess it could have been worse. Did you see the Sharks fab five?


Lastly, if these 105 cards aren't enough for you, there's one more piece of cardboard in the box.


And it's got a piece of jersey attached to it.

I've seen a nice jersey piece of Pekka Rinne's come from this product, so getting just a shlub jersey isn't always what you can expect.

And Kipper isn't the worst pick out of the bag.


Overall, this is a nice product, nothing fantastic or mind-blowing. It retails for about $20-25. I picked mine up for $15 (and that's the max I would pay for the product). If you can find a box out there for $10 or less - snag it. It beats a lot of the blaster boxes out there and you are guaranteed a complete set.

3.5 out of 5

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?

BOX BREAKS: 4 Boxes of ITG Decades

I headed up to Edmonton this weekend for the 'Summit II' Sports Collectibles show. Normally I wouldn't travel up to Edmonton for a show...but I had good reason this time (more on that later).

I managed to pick up a few cards for various projects and I was able to see some amazing collectibles. Some old game-used jerseys from the 1970's were on display at the In The Game booth. Stunning to say the least.

Other sellers had some great vintage cards, jerseys, sticks and memorabilia. It was like going through a little mini time machine. A very different vibe from the shows I'm used to in Calgary....in a good way.

I might just have to make my way up there again next year.

One thing that was definitely on the 'to do' list was bust a few boxes of ITG's newest product - Decades. Why?


Cause this guy is in it....my wallet is already crying.

Actually, It wasn't so bad. I bought 4 boxes and I found it to be a real fun break. This product celebrates the decade of the 80's so I knew it would bring back some great memories for me.

You get nine cards in a box - all of them 'hits' so no base cards. Three hard-signed autograph cards, three authentic game-used memorabilia cards, one Decades rookie card, one non-memorabilia insert card and one 100 Years of Hockey Card collecting card. Guaranteed.

Here's what I got...


The 4 '100 Years Of...' cards. These have been inserted in numerous ITG products this season, so building the set would take time. I'm on the fence when it comes to the design. Love the concept though.


I ended up with three 'Battle Of' cards. Would have preferred a mixture of non-memorabilia inserts, but you get what you get. How many of you remembered that Phil Esposito played for the Rangers....in the 80's? I did.


ITG's version of the rookie card. Cool design and look at the mugs on these guys. Francis looks so young. I really liked these cards.


But I liked these even more. I traded for a couple (I pulled the Roy myself). Definitely planning on getting the entire set. That Moog is awesome. You never see photos of him in an Oilers mask...he's always wearing just a helmet.


On to some of the autos. Three in a box and they're all hard signed. The checklist is a who's who of 80's hockey (or should I say - Who's That!). Actually, it's a bit of both. Seeing some of the autos coming out of the boxes yielded a 'Oh man....I forgot about him' comments.

I traded for the Snepsts and pulled the Tanti. I thought I had the Linden, but no. I will have to trade for it now.


A great treat in this product are the Team USA autos. Every member of the 1980 Miracle On Ice has signed. Now that's an impressive feat.


Don Lever.....anyone? Anyone! Yikes.


This Dave Keon is a shortprint so it should come in handy when it comes to gaining a Linden in return. What a great auto.


Now the jerseys. You've seen the Linden (which I traded for) so that's a start. There are three versions of jerseys for each player (a black version, a silver version and a gold version). Each has a print run more limited than the previous.

For me, it just means more Linden cards to add to the wantlist. So be it ITG....so be it.


This card is pretty cool in person. Normally with patch cards, you see stitches and such. Because this is a Nordiques jersey from the 80's, it's got the ironed on plasticy stuff. Love it.


Along with the normal jersey cards, there are various subset jersey cards available in the product. You pretty much need an abacus to stay organized with all the jersey cards and parallels and subsets.

This Pokey Reddick card should help me out - since there's a resurgence of Winnipeg stuff right now.


This Tony Esposito jersey is the Gold version (there are only 10 copies of this card). Too bad for the solid red swatch.


Like I mentioned....another subset. The seam on this bad boy is just bursting out. It's pretty cool if I do say so myself. And how could you not like a Coffey jersey from his heyday in Edmonton?


Quads! In four boxes of the product, I hit four quads. I really like these too.

The player selection on the Canada quad is not what one would normally see. Blue for the Goulet? Sadly, they had to use a Nordiques jersey. Sadly I say...am I crazy?


The USA quad is equally as eclectic in player selection. Barrasso and Esposito on the same card. Wait! Tony Esposito in a USA jersey? What gives?

We all remember him as part of Team Canada in 1972 and he represented Canada numerous times. But in 1981 he became a naturalized US citizen and played for the States in that year's Canada Cup.


All-Stars from the 80's. I always liked the All-Star cards in the various O-Pee-Chee products back then. I remember getting a Don Edwards or Danny Gare and thinking "Who are you?" Other years, it would be Oiler stacked.

This four pack of players fire off a fine wallop.


But my favorite quad in the bunch is this Islanders card. These are the four that I remember most from those early days of card collecting. They were at the pinnacle of the sport when I was introduced to hockey cards. Man, those were the days.

Look at the photos they used. Right from that era. Points for that.


Lastly, the showcards that I received from ITG for opening my boxes at their booth. One card per box. Completely random (bummer). Not bad. A couple of the cards have that wildly popular seam burst going on. And with them being 1/1's, there might be a bit of a demand if the right collector comes along.

I've seen a Linden Emblem show card 1/1 go for well over $100 on ebay already. And these cards were given out for free.

Overall, I really like this product. Player after player...memory after memory. By essentially eliminating the base cards, one can get right to the goods. That said, I wouldn't have minded some base cards from that era. Would have been neat to see some old school collecting going on.

Got it, got it, got it, need it.

Go out and get a box - and trade me your Lindens. :)