series 2 blister a - CORINTHIAN ARCHIVE

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On the 18th of March 1999, Corinthian released series 2 in their International Prostars range, capitilising on the monumental success of series 1, Corinthians 'Big Heads' were back in a big way!

This series, is for me anyway, one of the finest Corinthian have ever produced and boasted a whopping 10 brand new sculpts. The blister pack range consisted of 16 figures, 10 first time sculpts and the other 6 being repaints, however all 6 repaints were of figures released overseas, so to many new collectors they will have appeared to be entirley new figures, and it also gave existing collectors the chance to add those figures to thier collection without having to source them from overseas.

With a range consisting of so many new sculpts it is hard to know where to start. Without doubt the most anticipated figure from this range was Michael Owen, perhaps no figure has ever been requested by collecotrs as much as this figure was, Corinthian were simply inundated with requests for an Owen figure, especially as his popularity was at it's peak, following his wonder goal against Argentina in France 98. The Owen sculpt was well worth waiting for and was a fantastic likeness of the boy wonder and it is no surprise this was the best seller from the range.

The best sculpt from this range simply has to be that of Edgar Davids, he really did look like he was going to run accross the room and bite your legs off! A truly stunning sculpt and one which proved immensly popular, mostly attributed to his quirky dreadlock hairstyle, hence why he is so scarce in todays market.

Serie A hitmen Christian Vieri and Oliver Bierhoff were both released for Lazio and AC Milan respectively. The Vieri never really drew collectors attention due to the poor sculpting, the Japanesse club memebers figure released years later is a far better sculpt of Vieri. The Bierhoff was originally planeed to be released in the Italian Superstars range back in 1997-98, in the kit of Udinese and he even appeared on the collectors infromation file, so i feel the plastic figures were already produced of him and Corinthian took the oppurtunity to use them up by including him in this range. Thomas Hassler was released for the first and only time, Corinthian never again released figures from the German league due to the liscense expring.

The other 5 new sculpts were of Premiership stars. Arsenal were well represented as always with 2 figures, those beig tempremental Frenchman Nicolas Anelka, sculpted with his little chin beard and influential midfielder Emmanuel Petit who, like Davds, had a very unusual hairstyle. It will probalby come as a surprise to many to learn that Anelka was produced in the lowest volume from this entire range. Jaap Stam proved to be a favourite amongst collectors, no surprise given the quality of the sculpt and his Manchester United team mate Jesper Blomqvist proved to be as popular. Completing the new sculpts is American Brad Friedel, released in the Liverpool keepers jersey, this figure did not fare all too well, given he was fairly new to the league and did not have as big a fan base as other in the range.

Making up the remainder of this range were 6 repaints of figures released overseas. Cafu had previously being released in Brazil in the kit of Palmeriras, a figure which is very rare indeed. Chelseas Norwegain striker Tore Andre Flo was released as part of the Norwegain Norges Troop, range of Headliners, however once again this figures is hard to find. The other 4 were released in Italy's Superstars collection, those being Weah, Del Piero, Peruzzi and Djorkaeff, with Djorkaeff also being released in the French national range of Headliners. Peruzzi and Del Piero were also released in thier national colours, as part of the Italian national team set of headliners, again hard to find figures.

There was a 17th figure releaed in this set, however it was exclusive to Japan and it was Japan's Golden boy Hidetoshi Nakata. This Nakata figure had previously being released as part of the Japan national team set of Headliners figures, with this version having him painted in the Perugia Home kit. What made this figure extra special was the fact he was released on an Oval base and to this day he remains the only Prostar to have been released on an Oval base, some accolade and a testament to the players popularity. This figure is immensly scarce and very hard to find, you can expect to pay in the region of £50 for a blister pack version, good luck hunting one down!

Each figure came accompanied by the collector card and the collectors information file. Detailed inside this file were all 16 figures and the FREE Platinum pack offer.

Series 2 Blister Edition