The flagship BBM set has no big surprises this year in terms of content, but the design is borderless and basic, very much like Stadium Club. I like that, although the photography quality is the same as always (basically, shots of batters batting and pitchers pitching).
For my base card, I had to go with Zippy Zappy favorite Yudai Ohno. Several of the photos in the base set appear to be from Spring Training, which is both good and bad. Players who have been with a team for a long time should have in-game photos, or at least interesting photos from Spring Training - not just batters batting and pitchers pitching. But I digress.
The lone subset is the team checklists. Once again, BBM went with images from Spring Training, which means the Fighters are shown in the US. Their checklist makes it very obvious with a wide shot including much of the stadium's outfield.
The cross-brand set this year is Cross Squall and includes rainbows, hard rain and twinkling stars (is that supposed to be glistening hail?) as waves crash upon a rocky shore. The backs include the original photo with the original background, as usual. Cards #1-36 are found in 1st Version; we can expect 36 more in 2nd Version and another 36 in the premium brand. There is a parallel numbered to 100 copies and a 1/1 parallel as well. Additionally, autographed versions of this set are found in many of BBM's pack-based sets. Images are below.
A 3D Cross Squall set is also inserted into packs. One player from each team gets a 3D card, serially numbered to 25. These are numbered separately from the regular Cross Squall set.
Hyper Nova is one of two inserts found in 1st Version (Cross Squall excluded). There are 12 cards, one per team, and a parallel serially numbered to 100.
The other insert is Rookie Card Reprints. Again, 12 players - one per team - are found in this set, with their rookie cards reprinted. If you couldn't have figured that out from the name. The cards are easily distinguishable by the foil stamp on the front.
As for parallels, 1st Version has tons of them:
- Foil Signature parallels (8 players per team)
- Silver Signature (1 in 7 packs)
- Gold Signature (#/100)
- Holo Signature (#/50)
- Red Signature (#/25)
- Green Signature (#/10)
- Rookie Parallels (#/150 and #/50 versions this year)
- Photo Variation cards - one per team
The photo variations are similar to regular Topps SP variations - the photo on the card is different from the regular version. This is new for BBM, though. They don't seem to be all that rare, but they are carrying "insert" card prices in shops.
There are three memorabilia cards for Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki. The solo cards have 200 copies each with patch parallels numbered to 20. The dual card is numbered to 10.
The solo Cross Squall autographs are limited to 5-30 copies each. The two combos are limited to 2 and 3 copies each.
Additionally, there are "special" autographs limited to 3-5 copies each for seven players.
The solo Cross Squall autographs are limited to 5-30 copies each. The two combos are limited to 2 and 3 copies each.
I love these cards! Cross Squalls AND a pitcher named Ohno... Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteNothing like a squall to mess up a picnic? Ohno isn't too uncommon of a name; I've had a few students with that family name. But should Ohno make it to the States, can you imagine the awesome puns that will result?
DeleteI knew when you were done with the 30 Day challenge you'd be catching up on the new releases so I had to make sure I got my post on this set done earlier this week!
ReplyDeletePretty sure "Cross Squall" subset won't be continued into the premium set. The last couple years the cross set subset ("Cross Plasma" in 2015 and "Cross Freeze" in 2016) was only in the 1st & 2nd Version sets (plus 12 cards in an issue of SCM in 2015). The card numbering gives it away - if there were going to be more than 100 cards, the card numbers would have three digits with leading zeroes - 001, 002, 003, etc.
I originally was planning to toss the new release posts in whenever I got the cards, but time never seems to be on my side. I saw you got your posts out!
DeleteI guess you're right about two series - last year especially was such a hectic experience that I don't remember much about it. I ended up spending a few hours at a card shop late in the season, or even in November, and picking up singles for at least half of the releases for my type collection.
I pay WAY too much attention to the card numbering formats...
DeleteWell, you do only really focus on one league's sets, which makes things a bit easier. I had noticed the way BBM had numbered their Cross brand sets before, though - 001/002/003, 010/011/012... for the first series, then 004/005/006, 013/014/015... for second, leaving three more cards for the premium set, so one team would end up with cards 1-9 over three series, next would be 10-18, etc. Fits nicely in pages that way. They stopped doing that too, though - now it's 1-36 for series 1.
DeleteThanks for pulling the Ohno for me ;).
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness I do like the simple design for the set even if the photos may leave more to be desired.
Actually, that Ohno is for me. I do have another copy for you!
DeleteThe design is great. BBM just needs to stop doing the same thing. Fusion had some fantastic photos.
Thanks for the awesome run down. I have a box waiting to be ripped....I think I am going to have to study the cards well to make sure I don't miss anything.
ReplyDeleteThere are probably variation guides somewhere online, but I'm sure they're in Japanese. If I do get them (I think NPB Card Guy wants them) I'll post a guide of my own.
DeleteBBM is really stretching to keep the Cross themes going. These look nice, though.
ReplyDeleteStretching? They still have Cross- convection, snow, heat wave, fog, blizzard, mammatus, hurricane, sleet, vortex, gust, ozone, confluence, mist, smog, frost, drizzle, monsoon, ice storm, hail, cyclone, youg, glacier, chinook, flood, sandstorm...
DeleteHopefully Snoop Dogg will have a first pitch appearance for Cross Drizzle.
Delete"Hopefully Snoop Dogg will have a first pitch appearance for Cross Drizzle."
Delete---Well Played!