2011-12 Heroes and Prospects Hobby Box Break * 2

 It may have taken me a bit of time to get to this, but let's finally show off the cards from these two boxes. 

I do like that they identified the players on the box. I like that they identified the prospects on the front (Andy Miele is hidden by the wrapping). Only Adam Henrique is still in the NHL of this group.

The set is broken up into segments, and although I did get cards from all of them, I did end up about 30 cards short of the base set.

The Heroes portion opens the set. And we have a box cover appearance! I guess there's no need to include a name on the front if his card appears.

Prospects show up next, and it opens with international players. I'm not sure if ITG had the license to show the Djurgardens jersey  that Zibanejad is sporting on his card, but I appreciate the randomness of it appearing.

The next 90 or so cards are devoted to (then) current CHL players. The Kitchener Rangers punched way above their weight with 3 players making appearances here. I missed out on the Ryan Murphy, but was happy to see their annual Remembrance Day jerseys show up on these cards. It was also used on Ryan's..

While I did get cards of future NHLers in this mix, I do like getting cards of people who had no other pack-pullable appearances outside of these.

When you get to the triple digit portion of the set, the AHL portion starts. Again, the most interesting ones here are of players with few cards outside of what showed up in this set. I think Sweatt is the only one of this four that would get NHL level cards.

How do you get current NHL stars into a product that didn't have the license? Salute their time in the CHL or AHL with the 'Grad" portion of the set.

The base set ends with a 4-card tribute portion dedicated to players who had recently passed away, 3 from the nightmare-ish 2011 off-season. And the Lokomotiv plane crash wasn't even part of this portion.

And there are the base cards. As said, I'm about 30-ish out. I'll probably get a listing up sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, I missed out on the big one - #101 Nathan MacKinnon.

But there are inserts to get to.

There were inserts the saluting both the Calder Cup and Memorial Cup Champions. I lucked out by getting the former, and a pair of new Senators cards. I already had NHL level cards of both these guys, but these are still nice, and do include my favourite background choice outside of the actual one in the original photo - a team logo.

These were part of some draft redemption program. Long-expired, these are just another prospect insert set.

No Ryan Murphy base card? No problem! He makes 1 1/4 appearances among the relics. ITG products would often have a hit or two more beyond what was advertised. But despite its position in my Kitchener Rangers binder, that two-colour piece of a Swedish jersey is my favourite among all the swatches seen here.

And here are the autographs, with one of the boxes containing an extra one. As usual, they made the sticker autograph work with the design

I guess that since they would go on to play for the Senators, I can count both the Pageau and the Phaneuf as Sens autographs. I could. But I won't. Out of the others, Wotherspoon was the only one of those three to get NHL level cards.

I guess I could get a little upset over the collation leaving me a distance from the completed set. But they were still pretty solid boxes.

There you have it!

Uniforms of the Damned

Just a couple regrettable jersey entries today.

Those "Century Red" uniforms were immediately mocked upon their release. While I don't think they were that hideous on their own, they did run contrast to the blues usually sported by the team. Thankfully for the Theo Johnson fans that wanted a card of his as a Giant, he'd have other options. 

And at least the striped socks were cropped out.

These looked better in the short shorts era. For these, the extra white space makes it look the players are wearing an oversized t-shirt and sash.

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 15 - More Giant Tiger Cards

 

Time for another one of these!

Your contents!

The promised HOFer usually turns out to be a junk wax era card, so differing from that norm is a good start. Also, two of the same player is less common that you'd think for a repack. That Koules is the closest he would get to a mainstream card.

A Kitchener Rangers alum starts the 5-card pack off. Amazingly, it is a need for the collection. I blame the fact is is 21-22, and that the parallels and inserts are cheaper at COMC. Acton has a rather unfortunate hairline to be commemorated on cardboard. Priority isn't a set you see much of in repacks, and Hutchinson gets a great photo for his. 

Both Cs and As, so this one lives up to its billing. The Hertl is far shinier in hand than in scan. 

I guess it is time for the MVP pack. Again, the Landeskog entry is a Rangers alum collection need. And it is probably for the same reasons mentioned in the first grouping of cards. Photos are as bland as can be for the base cards, but things really pick up with the Crosby insert. It may not be super valuable thanks to e-pack availability, but it still felt like a really special pull in a low end release.

Just base cards for the 2020s pack. Those two Colorado Avalanche cards aren't from the same release. Lehkonen is from Series 1 and Toews is from Series 2. That joins the pair of Dahlquists to provide more repack oddness.

That repack had more highs than lows, so it gets a very solid thumbs up.

There you have it!

Raising the Cup

 

It wasn't known at the time these pictures were taken, but by the time these cards were released, these would become two of the more emotional cards to appear in hockey packs. 

Incoming Raptors

I'm opening up the mailbag today, and going through an envelope that showed up recently from Joe of CrazieJoe's Card Corner fame.

After putting the cherry on the sundae that was the Game 4 comeback, it only seems appropriate to lead the way with a pair of OG Anunoby cards. Considering he missed the entire playoffs back in 2019 after having an appendectomy before Game 1 against Orlando, it will be nice, should the Knicks win one more, to have him be a factor in earning the championship.

With 3 1/3  appearances, it was original Raptor Zan Tabak that had the most cards in the envelope. The horizontal is a dupe, because I remember trying to locate the game it came from. It was a preseason game in Saint John, NB.

I'll attack the rest of the envelope on a decade-by-decade basis.

Starting with the 90s and the Dino uniform years. My favourites here are the two in the lower corner, with Carlos Rogers providing a perfect look at said uniforms, and Alvin Robertson's highlighting a battle of Canada contest.

Chris Bosh looks amazingly graceful here on his 2004 Ultra.

The best thing about 2019 entries is that the veteran content all features ring recipients.

Finally, the 2020s and an appearance of guys currently on the team. WOO-HOO!

So, thanks for returning fire with these, Joe! I'll be setting aside and Leafs/extra Jays that come my way!

There you have it!

Stylin'!

With pitchers no longer coming to the plate, a photo like this probably won't happen any more. With such base-running attire, it might be for the best.

But, seeing as Mark appears to be standing on second base, and this looks to be Shea Stadium, it is easy enough to guess that this photo is likely from the 9/25/2004 game, and that despite coming around to score, the Mets would tie things up in the bottom of the 9th, and win on a Craig Brazell walk-off in 11.

There you have it!

 

A Fun Moment

 

While Devin Hester doing a Deion highstep on his to breaking the TD return record did make several appearances on cards...

this one not only mentioned the record, but gives a perfect description of what is going on in the photograph. And if cards in an insert set named Transcendent Touchdowns aren't supposed to perfectly describe why said touchdown is so transcendent, why make it in the first place?

There you have it!

Masked Monday

 I'm lazy today, so here's a bunch of additions to the mask binders and minimum verbosity to go along with them.

This might be the first time I've done one of these mask-themed posts where the non-NHL ones outnumbered the NHL content.

There you have it!

The 2/14 Remainder

 Finally, the last of the 2/14 stuff from my most recent COMC shipment.

If it is available at COMC, I count it as a potential add to my collection. That includes Pogs. Or Pog-like things, such as this, which were known as Matcaps. This is the first new appearance of the late Nelson Frazier in my collection, shown here as Mabel. Uh, he's the one in the middle of this.

Naturally, I had to try to find the match where this photo originated from, and it was fairly easy to do so. You can even see the camera flash that ended up commemorating this moment forever.

Richard Hamilton still made occasional appearances in Panini releases as their time with the licenses wound down. Fortunately, he's also showing up in Topps products so he can continue to build his lead in the collection, currently standing at 123 cards. 

Ian Jackson will rocket up the listings with the next shipment, which, assuming I've not bought dupes, will contain 18 of his cards. As of now, the total is 6.

But 1 of those 6 is my first autograph of his. To be specific, this is a 2024 Skybox Metal Universe Champions Fresh Foundations Autograph /75.

Caroline Marks currently stands at 9 cards in the collection with these 3 additions. UD really liked using the photo on the right on her cards, so it is nice to go 3 for 3 for different photos. She also showed up on a First Pitch card in Series 1, and is the first 2/14er to end up on that insert set. That's another one also on the way in that COMC shipment, as part of 6 new additions of her.

So, that's it for 2/14s for now. At least until the 50 or so in my sportlots orders arrive,

There you have it!

Kickoff!

 The CFL kicks off tonight with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats hosting the Montreal Alouettes. Always trying to stay topical, I had to look through my to-be-posted box for something appropriate. Fortunately, I had a pair of Game-Dated Moments cards from last year that had yet to appear on the blog.

Bo Levi Mitchell is coming off back-to-back seasons where he was the Eastern nominee as the most Outstanding Player. He still didn't get a base card in the 2024 release, but made up for it with 2 base cards and a checklist 1/2 appearance last year. And a trio of Game-Dated Appearances. 

Kenny Lawler didn't even get those. This was his only card over the past two seasons. He just re-upped with the Tiger-Cats for 3 more seasons on a million dollar deal, making him the top-paid WR in the league. Maybe that will get him back into the sets.

So, with a hearty OSKEE WEE WEE, there you have it!