Box Break: 1997 Pinnacle XPress

Earlier this week, I mentioned the Pinnacle XPress set for the inclusion of metal cards. Just by luck, I was able to buy a box of it, and I broke it Thursday night.

First, here's what a box looks like:

 I had to take the picture with my iPod, so it's not the best shot possible. Each box contains two packs - a nine card hobby pack and an eight card "Master Deck" plus the guaranteed die cast metal card. Opening the box makes for a nice presentation long before all those fancy high-end sets with their fancy boxes came out:

As you can see, there is no suspense as to the metal card once the shrink-wrap is off.

Here's my metal card:

My man! It was nice to see him when I opened that lid. I'm trying to put this metal set together, so the card goes to that purpose first. (silver odds 1:54 boxes, gold 1:108 boxes)

Next was the hobby pack, which contains nine cards including the game card.

Odds:

• Swing for the Fences Player Card 1:2 packs
• Swing for the Fences Booster Card 1:2 packs
• Men of Summer parallel 1:7 packs
• Far & Away 1:19 packs
• Melting Pot 1:288 packs
• Metal Works Silver Redemption 1:470 packs
• Metal Works Gold Redemption 1:950 packs

 Most of the set is horizontal, so first you see the horizontal cards. Below are the vertical.

My Swing for the Fences is a player card, as you can see. I pulled a Men of Summer parallel here (I would have rather had an insert, of course) - the shiny Kevin Orie on the left-hand side.

The "Master Deck" is really just a second pack with better odds:

• Swing for the Fences Home Run Base Card 1:1 packs
• Men of Summer parallel 1:1 packs
• Far & Away 1:5 packs
• Melting Pot 1:189 packs

So much horizontal! Except for that home run base card, they're all sideways! My parallel is in the upper left, the Jason Giambi. The Men of Summer parallel isn't too exciting, with only the foil to distinguish it. The words "Men of Summer" are barely visible on the back. The Home Run card is exclusive to the Master Deck packs and was one of the key components in winning the game.

I can see why this set wasn't successful. The game and Metal Works were the only two parts of the release that were worth pursuing - the base cards look like a rejected Pinnacle design and the parallel has nothing more than the Score Gold Rush parallels have.

But those Metal Works cards are awesome, and totally 1990s Pinnacle gimmicky!