EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 173 stickers: 360 (1-360) starter pack: album + stickers 1-50 € 6.00 (from 13 February) subsequent biweekly releases: 4 boxes (stickers 51-130, 131-210, 211-290, 291-360) € 6.00 each. Albums and boxes distributed in newsstands in the provinces of Rome, Latina and Frosinone Complete album set + 360 stickers € 30.00 from the end of February on https://www.allaricercadeitesori.it/
All the stickers lead to Rome. Important premise: we had already seen the proofs, there was already a collaboration to have this collection available also in Bologna, we would never have imagined finding our logo on the cover in the final version! A sign that our work is appreciated, in such a complicated period it is a panacea. Getting involved with Rome for Esseci is certainly a great adventure, doing it in this period without postponing to better times is applause. We like the general layout of the album, the themes are mixed, so you avoid finding, for example, all the monuments first and then the rest. This is not a symptom of chance, the album follows its own precise path, even the release of the stickers based on the numbering is the logical consequence.
A little advice, when you have the album in your hands, leaf through it and attach the stickers with the background of the many artists who have sung Rome: Venditti, Fiorini, Barbarossa, Manfredi and all the others. Close your eyes and it will be like eating a coffee granita (with cream!) near the Pantheon.
ROMA FIGU MUNDI, Esseci has treasured (forgive the pun with the title of the series of their albums) of the errors of the previous albums, in various aspects. The most marked criticism, especially on the “Vesuvian Treasures”, were the cuts of the stickers that did not marry correctly with the image below with unedifying results. In general it is very difficult to find the perfection between the stickers and the image below, the shaped ones are beautiful but, let’s say, complicated. The problem has been solved, all the stickers have the border, without this becoming a negative aspect when the album is completed, indeed, as you can see from the images, the final effect is successful. Another aspect was the enormous number of stickers, laudable in intentions, but impractical in reality. One of the unwritten rules, in our opinion, is that “the quality of a sticker album is not due to the total number of stickers it contains”. At 600 of the previous albums, with Rome we are at an optimal 360, almost a sticker a day. A standing ovation for the quality of the album paper, a policy that we hope will be rewarded, textured paper, a pleasure to the touch, no lines or other problems encountered in the productions of other, more renowned, publishers. The quality, if desired, exists. Well done Esseci!
Several illustrations in the album are bordered like the stickers to be attached, this gives an idea of how monumental the collection could have been, with all the problems that would have ensued (including the final cost of the work). The choice to leave the border even for many illustrations is the right choice, they give a sense of continuity throughout the album, even on pages where the stickers are not present. When the album is completed, there is a very good general uniformity. We would have avoided pages completely without stickers, you could distribute the stickers in a different way so that almost every page had “something to stick”, but it is still a successful solution for the dynamics of the album.
An important aspect is the distribution policy, no packets but 5 outlets on newsstands with the stickers divided into blocks that allow you to complete the album without duplication. We love to open packets and swap, but it is undeniable that this is a solution “in step with the times” that unfortunately we are experiencing. Optimal solution also for the type of album, its educational path and also to meet families in limiting the total expenditure.
Within the album, a lot of space was given to Romanism, to those many aspects of Rome that perhaps not even the Romans themselves know fully. Many captions, perhaps too many, in some pages “overflow”, but we realize that leaving certain explanations halfway would probably have been worse. Taking into account that the didactic aspect is dominant, it is a product linked to the schools of Rome, in fact a production that is a cross between a sticker album and a guide for children; the captions, therefore, are good for us and indeed must be there.
A complete guide of Rome is almost impossible, the central part of the album “The history of Rome” suffers a little from a lack of space, in our opinion it could be both expanded and enhanced by the presence of stickers and not just illustrations. This, however, gives hope to possibly have in the future an album entirely dedicated to the history of Rome, eternal, epic and beautiful. However, it should be emphasized that the central part is only an addition to what the album already dedicates to the history of Rome, the first pages, for example, tell us about its foundation, the Lupa, the 7 Kings and every monument, theme or character told in the subsequent chapters has its historical place. History is a basic and ongoing part of the entire collection.
An important aspect must always be considered, the incredible graphic work that all Esseci albums have, if most of the stickers are photographs, the printed part is comic strips, unpublished, made for the occasion. Before we also defined the album as a guide for kids, much is due to this dynamic and cartoonish setting that makes reading very pleasant. All Esseci albums are an adventure in the time and places of Enea and Orazio the dog, it is impossible to define the final result “simply” as an educational album.
Rome is many things together, to live, to know and probably an entire life would not be enough to visit it all. The mix of the album is effective, we have dutiful pages dedicated to the great monuments and history of the city, to the most modern beauties such as Villa Borghese and to culture in the broadest sense of the term. Culture also understood as popular, here are the pages dedicated to the corners of Rome such as Trastevere, Garbatella, Parioli and the Castelli Romani. Culture also in the kitchen, the last pages of stickers are dedicated to Roman cuisine, from every era.
A leap into the world of sport could not be missing, the derby of the capital ends in a draw, one page each and two pages is dedicated to As Roma and Lazio, the Foro Italico, temple of Tennis and the Olympic stadium.
A feature of the Esseci albums is renewed, indeed expanded: the interaction of Enea and Orazio with illustrious names that guide them through the story. From San Pietro to the Emperor Hadrian, from Alberto Sordi (the two pages dedicated to the great actor’s gallery are beautiful) to Enrico Fermi, from Giordano Bruno (happy return, already appeared in other albums) to the poets Catullus and Trilussa, up to to many characters of today’s Roman daily life such as the traffic policeman or the host and of the past. Listing them all would not even be correct, we leave you the pleasure of discovering and recognizing them by browsing the album. The initiative with Solac milk is linked to the album, a collection of points to receive the bottle of Enea and Orazio and the memory cards, not an integral part of the album but a separate gadget, therefore not present in the various boxes or in the complete set. We avoided another problem with previous albums where some stickers to complete the album were distributed only with commercial products other than the packets.
Are we biased? It is useless to deny the opposite. We are biased first of all because we are always on the side of the stickers, the traditional ones, the beautiful ones to stick in an album; we are biased because we must thank and support those who in the new millennium still decide to promote culture through these little paper friends, understanding the social impact and the diffusion that stickers still have today, 2021. We are biased because teaching is the history and symbol of our beloved world, as much as football or cartoons, indeed they were born before. We are biased because we have in front of our eyes a quality work, always improving, but well done and with purposes that go beyond the already important role of albums of this genre, given that part of the sales will be destined to support school activities. Among other things, inside the boxes sold in newsstands, there are free tickets to guided tours of the capital on panoramic buses and the Tiber, a truly commendable economic commitment.
We are proud and happy to be partners of this beautiful adventure. Esseci started from the province (album on Latina, Irpinia and Ciociaria), passed through Naples (album on Vesuvian treasures), now it has gone up to Rome and who knows if next year it won’t go a few hundred kilometers further north to reach Bologna .. Spoiler? Anticipation? “You call them if you want, emotions” and projects. In stickers we trust, after all 🙂
album: distributed free of charge in the areas involved
packets: € 0.50 (6 stickers)
comment: Italy is a country full of thousand-year-old treasures, traditions and jewels; a lifetime would not be enough to visit it all. Since you have to leave somewhere, why not take inspiration from this album dedicated to the countries around Vesuvius?
Realized by the Editorial Cooperative ESSECI, it is incredibly full of information and attention to detail. It is also a hymn to fight ignorance, in all sincerity I discovered myself very little aware of the treasures of the Vesuvian area, so much to be desired as soon as possible to visit.
We are of course talking about an educational album, intended for school children or anyone who wants to attack stickers while having fun and learning at the same time. The stickers allow you to complete a volume that even without it is impossible to define empty, the captions and the story in comics accompany us page by page making reading exciting.
The protagonist of our trip is Enea, a young explorer accompanied by the dog Orazio. During the various legs he will make incredible encounters with great characters of the present and the past but also Nature that comes to life to introduce him into stories and legends.
Almost like a Calciatori album, no town belonging to the Vesuvian area and the Lattari Mountains has remained outside this album and each one is praised through their own great little wonders created by man or nature over the centuries. Of course, speaking of Vesuvius, we cannot forget the eruptions that have hit this area hard over the centuries, not only on 24 August 79 AD. but until more recent times with the events of 1944 and 1972. Telling a dramatic story and putting it at the beginning of the album is an appreciable choice, a painful but equally necessary introduction.
Subsequently, our page after page travels through a densely populated area. In order not to fail in the setting of the album, absolutely shareable, this review will cite all the towns involved in the project, each is dedicated from 2 to 12 pages based on the space needed to present their characteristics (here are just a few , they are a lot!):
Pietrarsa with its National Railway Museum; Portici with its palace; Ercolano with its famous excavations and its Vesuvian villas; Torre del Greco, the city of coral, with its basilica and monastery, accompanied by the poet Giacomo Leopardi; Torre Annunziata and the villa of Poppea; Trecase accompanied by Bacchus the God of wine; Pompei and the ruins of its ancient city famous all over the world; Gragnano and its maccaroni with lots of didactic fairy tale about pasta, set in neapolitan (fantastic!); Boscoreale and its archaeological wonders; Terzigno destroyed three times by the eruptions; San Giuseppe Vesuviano and its sanctuary; Ottaviano and his churches; the Vesuvius National Park rich in fauna, flora and natural beauty; Palma Campania and its carnival; the splendid Nola accompanied by the philosopher Giordano Bruno; Somma Vesuviana and its Borgo; Santa Anastasia and her first miracle of the bleeding Madonna; Cercola with its orchards; Pollena Trocchia and its villas; Massa di Somma and its Piennolo cherry tomatoes; San Sebastiano al Vesuvio and its church; San Giorgio a Cremano and his two saints, where our heroes meet the never quite late Massimo Troisi, so the album also gives us the cartoon sticker of the famous neapolitan actor.
Not only Troisi, in the final part of the album we find the two homage pages to Naples and cartoon stickers of De Crescenzo, Totò, De Filippo, Maradona, Pino Daniele, etc. Creepy pages with the famous phrases of texts or songs, strictly in neapolitan and dedicated to this beautiful city.
The album is made thanks to the fundamental aid of some sponsors, the last pages are proper cartoon stickers connected to the main supporters: Mondo Camerette (MC1-MC8, Lions Club (Lions1-Lions4), Di Maio Medical (DM1-DM5). On the sidelines we have 5 treasure chest stickers, which do not find space in the album but are used to participate in the competition for schools. Schools are direct protagonists of the whole project, involving teachers and children in completing the album and learning with it.
We hope the current situation throughout Italy has somehow allowed not to block the initiative, after all the newsstands continue to be open and the kids have a lot of free time and the album has been distributed since the end of last year.
Speaking of newsstands, the album is distributed in the Neapolitan province of the Vesuvian area (from Portici to San Giorgio a Cremano in an anti-clockwise direction plus the areas of Gragnano and Nola), but it can be ordered from the publisher at raccoltatesorivesuviani@gmail.com
Nature, ancient Romans, culture, gastronomy, religion, traditions and much more in one album, made really well. It is part of a series of albums with already made “In search of the treasures of Irpinia” and “In search of the treasures of lower Lazio”, already reviewed in the past days.
Recommended for everyone and at all latitudes!
Final judgement: 10/10
(EN)
IN SEARCH OF THE TREASURES OF NATURE (Esseci Italy)
EDICOLA NEWS: REVIEWS nr. 114
stickers: 708 (1-668, Le Torri1-4, Conad1-4, DM1-2, Lodi1-2, Onorati 1-2, Già Sai1-2, Miami1-3 + sticker for free entrance to Miami Beach park, Solac 1-16, chest 1-4)
album: distributed free of charge in the areas concerned
packets: € 0.50 (6 stickers)
comment: “all roads lead to Rome”, whether true or not, if you are from the parts of the eternal city then take a few days to visit the area of lower Lazio, the Ciociaria and the Latina area, the protagonist of this album of stickers .
The young explorer Enea and the faithful dog Orazio immerse themselves in nature, which this area of Italy is full of. If the album on the Vesuvian treasures, already reviewed ( https://figurineforever.com/en/2020/03/29/in-search-of-vesuvian-treasures-erreci-italy/ ), was still very focused on the work of man, this is instead a tribute to pristine beauties or almost, where the presence of the human being is an added, not predominant factor.
Indeed, page after page, one has the impression that the charm of this area is also due to the ability, for once, of knowing how to live with the land and its elements without overwhelming it.
The album is very interesting to read, a lot of comics and fewer real photographs than other educational albums, not for this reason a defect but rather an added value. It makes reading even more exciting. Attacking the stickers, on pages already full of history and captions, is used to complete an extremely refined scenario, where no notion is left to chance. On the contrary, if desired, certain information instead gives the starting point for more detailed research.
We find many stories and adventures disconnected from each other, the common denominator is of course the place, or the wonders of the lower Lazio, as reported by the title.
We can divide them into three major themes:
. nature: stories presented by landscapes, mountains, lakes
. animals: stories through the help of several once-speaking animals (all living in this area, not “random”, important detail)
. legends: stories to go back through the centuries with tales of miraculous waters, sirens, ladies, ancient Romans and ancient knights
The final part of the album dedicated to the sponsors who made possible the creation, another important factor, the synergy of the publisher with the territory, to which the special numbered stickers are dedicated, which also allow you to participate in various promotions. Collaboration also with local newspapers (Latina Oggi, Ciociaria Oggi) directly involved in the creation of the Giornale dei Tesori.
The main recipients are of course the students and the schools, with whom many interesting initiatives related to the album and its completion are proposed. I would also add the scouts, it could be an interesting formula the knowledge of a certain location and album at hand, go to visit it in person.
The album has been released since the end of 2019 so we hope the kids and schools have had time to get to know it before the beginning of this difficult period. It can be found in the provinces of Latina and Frosinone, but can be ordered from the publisher at the email raccoltatesorivesuviani@gmail.com
Wanting to find fault, it is sincerely too impressive, if the album on the Vesuvian treasures could be defined as complete, because each town was dedicated to some pages (just don’t leave anyone out), here it could be divided into two releases.
Over 700 stickers are too many, two albums of 350/400 stickers would perhaps have been more effective, to be presented in two consecutive years.
Final judgment: 8/10
(EN)
PLANET X (Chimpazee Italy)
EDICOLA NEWS: REVIEWS nr. 111
album: PLANET X (Chimpanzee)
stickers: 155 (1-155) + 48 cards (B1-B48)
starter pack: € 2.99 (album + 1 packet)
packets: € 0.60 (4 stickers + 1 card)
comment: this album has only one bad luck, to be released in the midst of the Covid-19 emergency and therefore risk going quietly, it would be a shame. The correct term is however PlayAlbum, the stickers are an integral and important part of the product, but the album is really much more.
Those who write, by now you know it, have a soft spot for didactic albums, the real ones, believing that even today, through the immortal charm of the stickers, it is possible to teach younger generations themes of various kinds such as culture, environment or in this case even science. Planet X is in fact created in collaboration with ALTEC of Turin, the Aerospace Logistics Technology Engineering Company, cool!
The story from which the album starts is also a warning: “Captain Banana”, a nice star monkey, ends up in Planet X, a place that has become very dangerous due to the machinations of the perfidious Doctor Bongo who caused environmental disasters, a planet very similar to our Earth, even with its problems.
Albums with so much text have rarely been seen, but a serious mistake would be to simply stick to the stickers without following the story and especially without taking part in the game. Game absolutely well made because interactive with crossroads, so based on the choices you make, skip or go back in the various chapters of the album. This clearly allows you to be able to play several times without ever repeating what you have done before. Speaking of games, the album is obviously full!
In addition to the 155 stickers, we find 48 “Catch the Blaarg” cards for the game board that we find in the center of the album. They are divided into trap cards, trick cards and blaarg cards. 10 cards are enough to participate. A not insignificant detail, the game board is made of cardboard, therefore made to last over time and it is not even necessary to remove it from the album. The whole album is generally of excellent workmanship, coated paper, you can see the great work in making it.
In short, in this period where we are all closed at home, the newsstands are still open, so I invite not only families to make the purchase, but also the teachers themselves could use this product remotely, helping children learn while having fun.
album: distributed free of charge in the areas involved
packets: € 0.50 (6 stickers)
comment: come on, Wolves! This beautiful animal is not only the symbol of the Avellino sports teams but of all Irpinia, an area of Southern Italy full of history and traditions. Many have passed through these parts over the centuries: Romans, Etruscans, Normans, French, Spanish, Arabs, with monuments and palaces of clear reference also from the medieval and Renaissance periods.
Our heroes Enea and the dog Orazio, already met in the albums on the Vesuvian treasures and those of lower Lazio (see reviews), this time go far and wide for Irpinia. The area is characterized by many villages and small towns, inhabited even by a few thousand people, nature is perhaps less dominant than other parts of Italy, but as small and big stories, nothing is missing.
Not even the great characters, so much so that the album opens with the meeting of our heroes even with Virgil (yes, he, the author of the Aeneid), a great connoisseur of the places having spent a good part of his life there. Page after page, country after country, it is incredible to note how many different populations have left their mark, even to think that Irpinia can be a valid example of the history of the entire Mediterranean.
The peculiarity is how much these small villages are still inhabited, in fact in many cases they are synonymous with belonging, thanks to the many religious festivals and events that remember their history. Another interesting aspect, especially present in the second part of the album, is the great gastronomic tradition of the area, certainly better to visit it not while you are following a diet!
Most of the stickers are real photographs of the various monuments, palaces and churches; unfortunately the adventurous stickers of the comic that retraces the album are not many, a few more would have been good. Unlike other albums, some pages almost seem like a repeat; it is clear that we cannot invent what is not there, but perhaps some villages and towns could be grouped together on the same page, so as to limit the very high number of stickers on the album. On the other hand, the excellent didactic work is so well done that perhaps cutting parts would have made everything less exhaustive.
In addition to Virgil, during the album we find other famous historical figures, especially Francesco De Sanctis, a professor and politician to whom the Aula Magna of the University of Naples is also dedicated. De Sanctis accompanies our heroes through different pages and villages.
Last pages for the old and new main city of Irpinia: the historic Atripalda and the current Avellino, eight pages for a nice guided tour of the various interesting aspects of the capital, including sporting brackets to remember the Partenio Stadium and the teams of football and basketball.
Album created thanks to the sponsorship of the Mondo Camerette shops, to which the last eight numbered stickers MC are dedicated. Finally, the five chest stickers that do not find space in the album, but serve to complete some of the many initiatives aimed at schools.
The album has been released since the end of 2019 so we hope the kids and schools have had time to get to know it before the beginning of this difficult period. It can be found in the province of Avellino, but can be ordered from the publisher at the email raccoltatesorivesuviani@gmail.com
