EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 246
album: Score Serie A 2021-22 (Panini)
cards: 400 (1-200, plus various numbers)
starter pack: binder + 2 packets Fat Pack 19,90€
box retail: 20 packets (10 cards per packet) 3,00€ each
box fat pack: 12 packets (30 cards per packet) 6,00€ each
Out of time?! Perhaps for a different collection, see Adrenalyn, not for the legendary Score. If you were young in the 90s, you will remember the cards of that time, which showed a product in advance for the Italian times, in the last 30 years, almost never Panini or Topps has been able to do the same, at least in football.
As big supporters of the world of newsstands, it’s a pity that the material on the web was in pre-order for much longer. However, although there are only a few days to go until the end of the championship, which is still very open, the Panini / Score idea is perhaps to use the passion of children for football and the “fuck” of collectors for all the news until the very last moment.
The collection consists of 200 basic cards, a set that is easy to complete thanks to packs of 30 cards. In this first part of the collection you can already see the basic quality of the cards, in our opinion much higher than the Adrenalyn series, both in form and in substance, thicker, with info and photos on the back. If such a collection had come out with the classic Panini series, it would have simply annihilated it.
Too bad for the solution of the initial 200 cards, it means that each team has 10 cards and this goes badly with the binder, which as always contains 9 cards per sheet. So the 180-card set would have been perfect. Sometimes we are a pain in the ass, forgive us. Of course, a set that is easy to complete unless you want to get involved with the project, to the limit of the impossible, of collecting all the Parallel Cards, a range of 15 variations of different colors!
The next 200 are a different, more complex discourse, it could not be otherwise. From this point, number restart from 1 with each type of card.
Breaktrough / Breaktrough Cd, 25 cards, with emerging Serie A players ready to break down walls to reach the top of football.
All Hands Team, 15 cards, the best goalkeepers in Serie A, we would have seen good cards in horizontals engaged in great saves.
Hot Rookies, 15 cards, need no introduction, to be kept aside, who knows that maybe one day they will not become coveted cards and are sought after by thematic enthusiasts.
Score Team, 25 cards, that is the champions team by team, with all respect for the selected players, a part where the current Italian football pays the difference with the Premier League and the lack, except for some, of big names in football international.
Next Level Stats, 20 cards, the best in their roles.
All the special cards above include Parallel Cards with Gold Lava, Black Lava, Gold Lasers, Black Lasers variants.
Game Face, 20 cards, in terms of graphics perhaps the best card of the collection, double photo of the face and player in action. Serie A logo and club crest in the foreground, really interesting.
Intergalactic, 20 cards, football and science fiction meet. Like “Space Jam” could the chosen players represent us in a hypothetical match in the most remote space?
3D, 20 cards, present the defense trio of 20 teams, full-body action photos, side by side, interesting but can also be improved.
For these three types of cards there are special super limited editions, just to make it even more unlikely to find them all, or maybe not?
The collection is completed by the Score Signatures, as many as 40 players and their autographs. Probably among all the most coveted cards for those interested in finding certain players or themes. The first 20 feature players from the current championship but the most sought-after are certainly the next ones where we find the great champions of the past. A few names? Roberto Baggio (Fiorentina), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Gabriel Batistuta (Fiorentina), Diego Milito (Inter), Diego Armando Maradona (Napoli), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Jurgen Klinsmann (Inter), Kakà (Milan), Gianfranco Zola (Napoli), Marco Van Basten (Milan), Juan Sebastian Veron (Lazio), Daniele De Rossi (Rome), etc. Here too Parallel Card gold and black.
Interesting proposal also from a commercial point of view, with two different boxes and sachets. Above all, the Fat Pack for the little ones is valid, with 6 euros you have 30 cards, difficult to find the specials but still a good basis. It is a collection of clear American origin, where the goal is rarely to find them all (practically impossible and probably not even convenient in terms of a possible future resale), but to look for certain sports or types of cards.
The Score cards are born with a completely different idea from the Adrenalyn ones, connected to a hypothetical game, although in reality few consider them as such. If you take a trip to the USA or even just to England, you can find incredible material compared to what arrives on the Italian market (no comment on the forgettable Instant ..) but with Score even New York or Los Angeles seem closer.
(EN)