No Series 1? No problem!

 Since these were on the shelf at Walmart.

There is some logic to my choosing the Winter version over regular Hoops. I had the Raptors in a group break of the latter, meaning that any Raptors content I get here will not be a dupe.

You almost have to feel for a release whose packaging photo is dated by the time it reaches the shelves.

But let's see what's inside!

Pack 1:

My first card of the year is a 'traded' one. At the rate the tank is on in Washington, I think Malcolm should be "Please just list me with my old team". 

But I can't say too much about tanking - I'm a Raptors fan. Still, here's my first Raptors card of the year. Someone who is already off the team.

The same pack also contained a guy who came to the Raptors as part of the Olynyk trade. I'll probably see cards of him with a Raptors uniform this summer.

It doesn't look too bad here, but the Jazz were really done dirty by the choice fof yellow for the background of the name portion. In hand, it is so illegible you have to turn over the card to see which player it is.

Each pack ends with a trio of inserts/parallels. The Giddey is the Purple Prizms Premium one. Surprisingly for a Panini release, there aren't a dozen parallels for each card. 

The Premiums work extra hard to earn that name with nice full-colour backs with some team colour thrown in. 

Pack 2:

2nd pack, 2nd pick. Perfect!

The Tribute cards this year, at least with the diamond portion  of the background,  give the vibe of the 1990 Hoops subset that featured photos of then-current coaches from their playing days. Maybe with a little Skybox thrown in.

The inserts/parallels. Klay is the purple parallel, while Derrick is the regular Prizm Premiums. 

Pack 3:

First card out of the pack is a Raptors legend!

But if I wanted more direct Raptors content, these count! RJ is the first one that is still on the team as of actually pulling the card.

Another legend from the Tribute portion, which although it hasn't shown so far, it is a mix of current stars, rookies and legends.

The lack of snowfall effects on Marcus Smart's card seems to indicate that it was the only card I pulled that I could also have found in the regular release. Either way, it doubled the shininess count for this pack. 

Pack 4:

Interesting collation here, as the opening card was the base of Chris Paul, with the final card in the pack being the Premium parallel.

And here's the inserts. The Skyview card here is the holo parallel. The photo of Ja'Kobe is perfect, at least for a facial expression, of someone wearing basketball gear in cold weather.

Pack 5:

My favourite photo of the blaster.

Let the Raptors content keep on coming!

This pack definitely provided me with the best card in the box, that being the Jamal Murray parallel. That is my146th card of his and the first pack-pulled one for me in a bit! At least the wonderfully-silly Rookie Sweaters card provided me with two colours on the swatch. 

Pack 6:

Averaging one Raptors card per pack - I like that!

The Spurs go 2 for 3 in the insert/parallel portion. I didn't get pull any Wembayama content last year, so it is nice to at least acquire a second-year one early on.

The final card is one I won't be keeping, and will be on its way to Ann Arbor shortly.

So, there's the blaster. A nice number of PC cards within, and a few fun miscellaneous cards to go with them. The snow theme seems very appropriate over the past week or so, since there has been a lot of it.

Just compare Mischief saying hello to her pal Oslo a few weeks ago to them at their greeting fence earlier this week.

There you have it!