EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 96
stickers: 903 (1-827, C1-C28, M1-M48) + 20 card
starter pack: € 3.90 (album + 5 packets)
packets: € 0.80 (6 stickers)
packet GOL: 1 shield + 1 card
box: 100 packets
deluxe box: 60 packets
extra from January: Gommaglie packet, hard cover album with box
comment: welcome back Admiralty! The world of stickers is varied, there are so many beautiful and important albums, but only for one is it possible to get up early in the morning (once you could sleep more) to go to the newsstand and get it fresh out of print, this can only be the CALCIATORI, of course! That we then have to take the car and go to our friend Luca’s to Edicola Birra because the one under the house barely knows what I’m talking about is a detail (NO COMMENT ..).
The concept “the richest album ever” is often used by Panini, in this case it could be really well chosen. Let’s start from the bottom, Panini has listened to fans and collectors and after a few years of purgatory, the Serie C schields are back! It is not something to be underestimated, there are few more stickers, 4 together, but there are and it is a great victory for those who in recent years have supported the cause of the “province” of Italian football.
Leafing through the album we can see how much Fifa365 has been a test bench to probe the moods, already from the graphics of the pages, in fact every player has the image of the face in half and beside the number of the sticker, interesting effect, attention only to attack the right ones! Four pages for each club, 22 stickers of footballers, schield, double team, jersey, absolute novelty and very nice the double sticker of the team bus! Nice and because when you think about it the designer buses have become famous, they are often the protagonists of the tv programms, since they are always filmed when they arrive and leave. It’s not over yet, we also find two vertical strip stickers with the top players in action. 28 Serie A club stickers, not bad!
We come to the captions, also here following the indications of the many fans, the career tables return in the pages of the teams. The space is to the detriment of non-fundamental stickers present in previous years and of graphics and printed images less large, not bad. The pages are even more compact.
The most significant news is the trainers but we will come back by browsing the album.
At the bottom of the second page always confirmed the Calciatoripedia notes, this year linked to the 90 years of Serie A, personally much appreciated, not only for the news and curiosities, but also and above all for the pleasure of reviewing the stickers of other eras and great champions of the past.
The calendar also returns (and with him the nightmare, in years, of finding someone who still fills it out …) at the end of the 582 (five hundred eighty-two) Serie A stickers and immediately after 28 Championship Movie (Film del Campionato) stickers. Here it will really take all your effort not to forget the outputs of the packets as there are 6 of them (3 stickers each) and that the last three, from C26 to C28 will be sent free of charge to all those who make a request for missing stickers (attention, only for those who make a request for missing stickers until June 20).
Stickers format Updates confirmed also for this year, with 48 stickers connected to the Sky “Calcio Mercato” program. Another nice news, the pages of women’s football, increasingly followed by fans, doubled the pages with a much more captivating graphics that also incorporates the top players team by team.
Serie B always has its classic space, shield, team and 18 players in 9 double stickers. Wikipedia also for the B series with an image of stickers of team of the past. The presence of the Serie B and in such a rich way is one of the reasons that makes the album Calciatori unique in the world, which for example makes it not comparable to the new Premier League, where however the equally important clubs of the Championship, the english Serie B.
The final part of the album is extremely rich and inviting, before we talked about the trainers, here they are, all grouped together, a novelty that will certainly not be appreciated by everyone, but on the other hand it also allows you to have the stickers of the cadet series trainers. Hazardous choice?
The Italian national team is back in everyone’s heart, Panini rewards her with two very nice dedicated pages, vertical stripe stickers with 30 players, beautiful! Moreover, the page of the Calciatori 2018/19 with the Under21 and Women stickers had been very appreciated, just to propose them again for the men’s national team.
The next page is the eyelet to the cards, it is not necessary for a game but here there is space for the Top Performers of the Serie A with the highest index of technical performance. Since we also find in the back of all the stickers. Personally not fundamental page but certainly it will appeal to the younger generations and to the lovers of statistics and data.
It is not over yet, other strip stickers with the protagonists of the Gran Galà del Calcio, 22 total stickers, equally divided between male and female. Congratulations to Panini for the choice!
The stickers? Of excellent quality, to the touch they seem lighter than last year, but perhaps it is only a feeling of 6.30 in the morning. Many specials, many infos on the Serie A stickers but not invasive, a white background not exactly idyllic but the writer dreams of the return of the stickers taken with behind the stadium, the trees or even (happened) the light poles, a solution no longer feasible because the photos are almost always provided by the clubs. Memories of different eras, more romantic without a doubt.
It really is the richest album ever, before a question came up it was about what extras there would be: will we have the GOL packets? Will we have the Gommaglie? Will we have Football Gifts? Well, “clamorous at Cibali”, there are all of them this year! GOL packets contain a scudetto and GREAT NEWS the Serie A mascot cards! Here too Panini listened to the fans, the mascots are the ones we have seen in recent months on the facebook page of Calciatori Panini, a highly appreciated design that, as was requested, has turned into a card! For copyright reasons it was not possible to make stickers and insert them into the album, Panini found a brilliant trick and frankly they are much more interesting than the usual 20 top players in other editions, where the real top players were genuinely very few. Please note that these extra cards cannot be requested from Panini, good hunting! UPDATE IMPORTANT: attention to the badges in the GOL packets are different from those of the traditional packets! They have an interior in GOLD while the normal ones have a SILVER interior, which is why .. attention to what you attach to the album!
Football gifts, Gommaglie, Hard Cover available only on order from January (book your copy at the newsstand), Panini Tour confirmed. Honestly, the higher cost of the packet for the benefit of an extra sticker (so from 0.14 we have gone to 0.13, cannot be defined as a price increase) is an absolutely superfluous detail.
The cover is perhaps the only neo (not exceptional), even if in real life it is less true than in picture. But it must be acknowledged to Panini to have listened to the collectors, with the Serie C badges, with the return of the tables in the pages of the teams, with the mascot cards, with the return of the Football Gifts and the same Gol packets.
We give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, there will always be criticisms but this album is simply pure joy.
Final judgment 10/10 (with honors)
(EN)