CARDBOARD REVIEW:2021 Panini Illusions Football

Every year I know specific products it seems that Panini sticks my Super Collection player in. Rodney Hampton has appeared in Select, Mosaic and today's product, Illusions multiple times. 

With this years Hampton cards being a little different than past releases, they are not autographs nor really focus on Rodney Hampton, my chase has been different. I actually almost opted not to bother but when you want the biggest,best collection around, I fell in. Speaking of this, if you want to see those Hamptons and other Hampton posts, they have been moved to Big Blue Cardboard. Follow that blog for more!

Enough with the Hampton talk, let's move onto today's review.

Each box of 2021 Illusions football comes with 10 packs of 5 cards each. Each box should have 3 autographs and 2 memorabilia cards. Boxes currently are $670 or so.

BASE:

There are 100 cards in the base set. Keep in mind there is a retail and hobby version to the base set. I believe the only difference is the cardstock used as the hobby is thicker.

The design for this years Illusions sticks to its foil board player focus with a colored player in the front and a foiled one in the back. The only real difference is the font and writing on the card.

I chose to show off this Tebow card as I don't think I saw any other football products this year include Tebow or show off the fact he tried out for TE. This will make a cool card for my Tebow side PC.

Here are the card backs. No stats.

Rookie cards look like this.

PARALLELS:

Just like every product, Illusions comes with parallels. You can find the following options,

Diamond, Dots, Emerald, Galaxy, Hyper, Orange, Sapphire, Starlight, Sunburst, Bronze /499, Pink /399, Yellow Diamond /249, Teal /175, Light Blue /149, Yellow /149, Ruby /125, Red /99, Blue /75, Black Ice /50, Platinum /35, Gold /25, Green /10, and Purple 1/1.

Pink /399

Bronze /499

Light Blue /149

Blue /75

Yellow Diamond /249 (stunning card by the way)

INSERTS:

Inserts can feature the following parallels,

Emerald, Mosaic, Orange, Rainbow, Sapphire, Sparkle, Stardust, Pink /399, Light Blue /299, Red /149, Black /50, Gold /25, Green /10, and Purple 1/1.

The inserts are printed on acetate so it takes away from all of that foil board.

Clear Shots has 20 cards to collect.

Illusionists has 20 cards to collect

Mystique has 20 cards of the top rookies

Shining Stars has also has 20 cards to collect

 

There are 20 cards in the King Of Cards set. This was my favorite insert from Illusions.

 

I also pulled three parallel cards. The Murray is a Light Blue /299, Taylor is a red /149 and Burrow is a black /50

HITS:

Okay...does this one count as the worst autograph ever??!! Let me know in comments. Can you imagine paying that price for this autograph?

My boy KT!

Solid dual relic of Lawrence and Peyton. It's also a nice looking card too.

Zach Wilson jumbo relic of Instant Impact. I still want the Toney like this.

And my final autograph is a Superlatives Chris Johnson. This autograph set has some guys you don't see signing every day like CJ2K.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

My box wasn't too bad. I am not sure if the return value was there, but I will say the fun value is. I like the acetate inserts, the hits were decent and the base card parallels were sharp. Would be a fun rainbow chase. If any of you have any Giants parallels from this set, hit me up!

Your thoughts are welcomed in comments!

Coffee Break:2020 Score Football Fat Pack

Welcome, this new segment on here will feature new products I review and breakdown during a coffee break. A coffee break is when you take a stop from work and drink coffee. Not when you take a break from coffee, that would be just crazy

*cup of joe ready to go, let's rip this pack*

My father has been very lucky in finding packs at Walmart in the past month while I see many other collectors coming up empty. From new products to even some old ones, his timing is almost perfect.

Almost of course. Even in my area there are those flippers.

In the past month, I have been trading him cards for packs since I haven't gone to Walmart in months and need the occasional rip and he has been more than happy to help me with that.

One of the newest releases I craved, like I do every year, is the first official NFL release in Score football. I like to get the first cards of not only my NY Giants, but of other teams as well and the new incoming rookies. Though I am not a big fan of the rookies still in College uniforms, I will take it for now.

*sniffs coffee, sniffs pack. The sweet, sweet smells tickles my nose*

For Score this year or so far as I hope to think of it, I ended up with a Fat Pack. There are 40 cards in every fat pack and the pack is just under $6. The legend, I won't call him GOAT as that's Eli Manning of course, Tom Brady graces the pack cover this year.

And I believe Tom his own Tribute insert line in the product which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Save that for when he retires and make one for Eli who has retired and has also earned one for this year. Come on Panini.

Here is the back of the pack with breakdown of what could be inside.

That feeling of the unknown within is just as thrilling as that first cup in the morning.

*a couple of sips before opening it*

Once I opened the pack, I am blessed with some great action photography right off the bat. The card, despite being a Giants fan, that caught my eye first was the Michael Gallup. Look at that angle of that photograph.

 

 

As for the card backs, yes I do look at the stats and read the write up, I iked what Panini did. I do wished there was more stats of the player however.

Though I do find this Fun Fact add to the back very interesting. I didn't know that I enjoyed, I mean, Matthew Stafford enjoys golfing. (if you don't get this joke, my name is Matthew)

The next four cards show Allen Hurns and Will Fuller making dives into pylons while Ed Oliver celebrates a big play and Olivier Vernon pass rushing. I was curious how he would do with the Browns after the Giants traded him off like Odell, seems he took another step backwards according to his stats. Good move G-Men.

Four more cards and this time we catch T.Y. doing his T.Y. touchdown celebration

Another four base cards and Russell Wilson is making his swift moves. I don't think he gets enough recognition for the great QB he actually is. I doubt Seattle even wins half of their games without Russell.

Final three veteran base cards including Richard Sherman who helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

Before I move on, I must mention the base set is a big one built up of 440 cards including 110 rookies which are always last in the pack. We will get to those soon I promise.

Up next in the pack was the three Red parallels that are exclusive to Fat Packs. Every retail level has it's own exclusive parallels. So if you're thinking about building a rainbow, well, you will have to dabble into each or I suppose you could just buy singles but where's the fun in that.

My three reds weren't terrible. Two great defenders in Gary and Suh and then a promising rookie that signed with the 49ers in Hasty. He could be one of those sneaky undrafted picks that turns out to be the next Terrell Davis.

*before diving into the inserts, takes a gulp of coffee, bite of bagel, wipes butter off hand so it doesn't ruin the cards and continues to go back to type*

The next 12 cards in the pack were inserts. So much for the 90's where you would have one or none. It's a guarantee now.

Score 2020 features a variety of inserts that stay the Score course and some exclusive just to retail.

Here is a breakdown of the offerings I found in my Fat Pack. I should also mention each insert has their own set of parallels,

3D offers the best defenders on a team and has 15 cards to collect
Game Face is exactly what it says, a players game face. This insert also has 15 cards to collect
Huddle Up really took a step back this year in terms of size, there is only 10 cards and not the usual every team offering. Which is really disappointing.
In The Zone is all of the best players in the game who are almost unstoppable. There are 25 cards in this set to collect and this one was my favorite design of the group
Next Level Stats has 25 cards in the set and shows the top stats for each player that are quite impressive.

The final six cards in the base set are always the rookies. From top rookies to the bottom of the crop, Score always offers it all especially with 110 of them to collect.

I don't know a lot about this years rookie class so I Googled the ones I didn't know

Anthony Gordon-QB for Seattle who was undrafted (well guess who won't be seeing time to play)
KJ Hamler-Speedy WR got drafted in the 2nd round by the Denver Broncos
Antonio Gandy-Golden-4th round WR drafted by the Redskins
Lynn Bowden Jr was RB drafted in third round by the Las Vegas Raiders (it's so odd not to write LA or Oakland for the Raiders)

And my final two rookies
Chase Claypool was a second round WR pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers
Trevon Diggs is a 2nd round draft pick by Dallas Cowboys and younger brother of Stephon Diggs

*finishes up the cup of coffee, now onto cup two to finish this Coffee Break*

My thoughts are the usual when it comes to Score, it was a fun cheap rip and gives me my first NFL cards of 2020. I just hope I am able to get more, I need some of the top draft picks rookie cards and the Giants inserts since I have the base now that someone gave to me.

I also hope there is some football this fall. I NEED SOME FOOTBALL. You gotta give me that at least 2020.

 

Ratings (ratings based on 1-5 🍵)

Design 🍵🍵🍵
Photography 🍵🍵🍵🍵
Inserts 🍵🍵🍵
Hits (not applicable)
Price 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵
Value 🍵🍵🍵🍵

Breakin' Wax:2019 Playoff Football Blaster Box

I really wanted to bust some football cards from 2019 since I didn't do much, so my wife went to Walmart and surprised me with a blaster of 2019 Playoff Football.

There are 56 cards in each box and one guaranteed hit. I wasn't expecting anything big, was just hoping for some PC cards.

the base card design is nice. Not a lot of action shots but mainly focused on players which is fine. However, I am a tad disappointed that Kurt Warner had two cards in the base set but neither were him in a Giants uniform...

The base set does however does include many legends of the game including Earl Campbell

and of course veterans like Evan Engram

Rookies

and even a Darius Slayton. Still need the other Giants including Daniel Jones.

I know of a Hook 'Em fan that will enjoy this card I will send sometime. This is a green parallel.

These blasters also include a shot at 2nd down parallels that are /49. Not too bad of a find here.

These Star Gazing inserts are pretty sharp! Antonio Brown

And Baker Mayfield finds for those.

Ooooooh I really like these Air Commands. Really well done Panini! Drew Lock looks to be a stud down the road.

Another great looking insert. Except half the Lightning no longer is a Ram

And once again, another great looking card in this product. Had to be an Eagle of course but now I know I need the Giants of these.

My hit, well, an Eagle. I once again really like the design on this as well. Need to find the Jones and Slayton versions.

Not a bad break at all in my opinion. Got a couple PC cards and a few decent hits. Mainly I am digging the overall design of the product. Really stood out to me this year.

What are your thoughts?