Early Preview: 2012 TNA TENacious Wrestling

Over the next two months we are primed to see 3 new wrestling sets hit the shelf. First up is Leaf’s Original Wrestling, a set that I reviewed in early May. This will be followed up by TriStar’s TNA Impact TENacious in Mid-August with Topps’ 2012 WWE Wrestling hitting in September, a set that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. TriStar will offer an early-release of TNA TENacious on August 1^st at the National Convention but it will not be available to everyone else until August 15^th. Boxes are currently pre-selling at $70 for a 20-pack box with 7-cards per pack.

The set is dedicated to TNA’s decade of wrestling and will extremely limited, roughly 1,800 total boxes. Each box will contain 4 hits, 3 autographs and 1 Celebrity Signature card or a memorabilia card, there will also be 3 short-print cards consisting of a short-print and two numbered parallel cards. The one-per-box short print may include one of the following (among others); a Jeff Hardy “Art” card, a Celebrate Sting card, a TNA Arrivals card or a Hulk Hogan: The Immortal Speaks card.

We will also see Brooke Hogan’s first card and TriStar has decided to spice the set up by using celebrity autographs. Each celebrity included have had some connection with TNA, most appear to have appeared in matches or at PPV events. The list is pretty impressive and some celebs that have been announced: Brian Urlacher, Toby Keith, Chris Rock, Dennis Rodman and Tito Ortiz and each of the celebrity cards will be limited to #/5 or less. The huge downside with the Celebrity Signature cards is that they are cut-signatures, a serious disappointment. You would have thought that between TriStar and TNA they could have caught up to most of these celebs and sat down with them to sign 5 on-card autographs or even 5 stickers.

2011 TriStar Obak Dual-Auto Pairings

TriStar is putting up some more preview images of their upcoming 2011 Obak: History of the Game product, which should go live the second week of August. If you are familiar with last year’s product you will know this product which is not necessarily a bad thing in this case.

An interesting concept that caught me eye is the dual-autograph pairings which include Babe Ruth & Charlie Root, Joe DiMaggio & Ken Keltner and Ichiro & George Sisler. Root is the pitcher who gave up Ruth’s “Called Shot” home run during the 1932 World Series. Keltner was the 3^rd Baseman who threw out DiMaggio ending his 56-game hitting streak and Ichiro broker Sisler’s 257-hits in a season record.

 I absolutely love the idea but I do not like the design. I know there are licensing issues with using a player’s image but something could have been worked out. The designers used four different fonts (a big no-no in design) and they overloaded the design with text. This is a case where more equals less.

TriStar's National Sportscard Collector Convention Promo Cards

The National Sports Collectors Convention is the place where many card companies showcase previews of upcoming sets and they will also often hand out promotional cards for these sets to give an actual on-hand experience for collectors and dealers alike. The most recent company to release details about their special convention cards is TriStar with a 10-card set previewing two sets scheduled to be released this fall- TriStar Obak Baseball: History of the Game and Obak Football.

The 10-card checklist consists of: Ken Griffey Jr., Nolan Ryan, Cap Anson, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Gale Sayers, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Stan Musial, Bob Kalsu, John F Kennedy and Gerald Ford. Each VIP bag will contain 7 random cards and you can pick up the remaining 3 by opening 3 packs of Obak Baseball or Signature IMPACT wrestling at TriStar’s booth and redeeming each wrapper for one of the missing cards.

So far they have released the images of three cards: Gale Sayers, John F Kennedy and Ken Griffey Jr.

Gale Sayers: TriStar has some designers that come up with interesting backgrounds. The 2010 Baseball set was a prime display of randomness.

What exactly does Gale Sayers have to do with Arizona? The background image is a perfect example of a desert moon following one of our monstrous dust storms. This background actually distracts from the player due to the bright coloring and large moon and while it might make a nice postcard you would find up at the Grand Canyon or Tombstone, it is not a background that I like on a card.

John F Kennedy: This card, while accurately displays a young JFK in his Harvard football gear, is a stretch. He played one season, 1937, on the Junior Varsity team and then hurt his back and never played football again. I know that adding presidents to a set is all the rage right now but this one really does not belong in a set. At least Ford played on 2 National Championship teams at Michigan and was offered a pro contract from both Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.

Ken Griffey Jr: As a life-long Griffey fan and collector all that could come to mind was:

Come on… we are talking about Ken Griffey Jr…. The Kid… the man we all loved swatting homerun after homerun… the man who played at full-speed all the time (until the 2000 season when he always seemed to be on the DL). But there is my point, here is someone who will always be remembered for his youth and TriStar instead punishes the collectors with a card depicting the old, bloated Griffey. The guy who people claim fell asleep in the club house during a game. A slap in the face to all Griffey collectors really.