More Thoughts on the Oldies Collection

Interestingly, this is post 1111. I just thought that was pretty funny.

The last couple days, I brought information about two fairly simple new box sets, from the Oldies Collection, also titled (subtitled?) Achievement.

I'm guessing and hoping that the Oldies Collection will be a longer, ongoing series that uses multiple designs, while the Achievement set will hopefully maintain the same design, similar to the Legends series. BBM can really use a quality throwback series (other than Classic, which is a set that reuses BBM designs), and I think this might be it.

 The basic design idea for the Achievement series comes from menko cards, especially the tobacco ones with simple designs and moderate text on the front, and of course monochrome backs. (Note that the front and back images above come from different cards.)

There are a lot of great old sets to pay homage to. I suppose the most iconic is Calbee, but that's an ongoing issue which really shouldn't be copied.

 There are somewhat-modern sets like ID Card (above) and the Takara series. Takara would be a good choice.

 Some of the earliest cards are not menko, however, they're bromides. These are even simpler than menko, basically photos with a line or two of text, and usually blank backs. This could be great as an oversized box-topper.

 The basic tobacco menko I showed above is a great start, but I'd love to see a return to the colorful drawings found on 1950s menko sets. I don't think I've ever seen a full art set other than the Players Collection series issued in 2003 without team logos. Additionally, the backs with game characters, random digits or even other subjects (fruits, anyone?) were a nice addition.

  Round and die-cut menko could be great inserts as well.

 While menko cards are generally the most beautiful Japanese cards I've seen, karuta designs and plenty of issues by other manufacturers are also great sources of inspiration.

Actually, a great one-off addition to the Oldies Collection would be a nice 144 card set grabbing a few of these ideas. The base set could have the players on menko designs - perhaps one menko design per team. A parallel could have various menko backs instead of the standard backs, and original-sized menkos are possible one-per-pack parallels here.

Inserts have a lot to pull from. Large-format bromides and oversized die-cut menkos would be awesome box loaders (something BBM has never done, as far as I know), Perhaps one of each per box. A cartoon menko insert set would be great, as would an additional insert set or two using another retro card design.

BBM has never done a Allen & Ginter/Golden Age style throwback set. What do you think about this?

New Release: 2014 BBM Braves Achievement

Yesterday's post brought you the Hawks Achievement set, part of a new series of box set releases honoring prior greats from many NPB teams. 

The Braves Achievement set has 29 cards, just like the Hawks set. This one uses a red tint for the front photo's border and back text.

While the photos aren't as sharp and crisp as you find on other BBM releases, they match the theme of the set without being overly grainy - something I notice and dislike about Heritage. And BBM doesn't do throwback very often, so this is a welcome series!

Again, there are gold-foil printed autograph cards, limited to around fifty to sixty copies each. There are a total of 1229 cards inserted into the boxes.

And of course, autographs make up the remaining 1771 cards found in boxes. There are 20 subjects, with print runs from 60 to 100. I'm not sure if they're on card or stickered, but looking at the actual scan of a card above, it appears that the Achievement series is on-card.

I mentioned yesterday that this series might be called Oldies or Achievement. The base set and boxes refer to the issue as Hawks Achievement. But the autograph cards say Oldies Collection; note that the top of these cards and the front of the base set cards translate as "Recollection of Hankyu Braves".

New Release: 2014 BBM Hawks Achievement

The latest series from BBM is a really nice retro-themed product that is called "Achievement" or might be known as "Oldies Collection". Sold in box set form, each set highlights some great retired players from specific teams.

The 29 base cards are matte finished with a very simple design. A white border surrounds the lower-resolution photo on the front. The set name is on the bottom border, with the player's jersey number and name on the side; the player's position is in parenthesis beneath his name. In this case, Chiaki Sadaoka (#3) is an infielder. This style of designation harkens back to menko and bromide cards.

The green monochrome backs also give a nod to menko, though the basic layout is similar to other BBM designs. The same basic information from the front is on the back, including the kana (pronunciation) characters for the player's name atop his kanji. Basic vitals, career stats, and some highlights are included just like BBM always does.

There are two types of inserts included. The first is a printed autograph:

There are 23 of these, all with gold foil, serial-numbered up to 50 copies each. There are a total of 1135 of these.

Of course, the autographs are the real draw. I am not sure if these are on-card or stickered. There are 21 autograph subjects, with print runs from 19 to 100. A total of 1865 cards were produced.

Of course, add those two numbers together and you get 3000 sets issued. Odds are pretty good you'll pull an autograph. The Hawks set has proven to be much more popular than the Braves set released at the same time. I'll be jumping on the two new sets as soon as I can get to them this weekend!