Review: 1992-93 Kraft Hockey

1992-93_Kraft_Header

Editor’s Note: Rob Joncas is a new Puck Junk contributor. Please welcome him with a comment below.

The 1992-93 NHL season stands as one of the greatest in history for several reasons:

  • The Stanley Cup celebrated its 100th Birthday
  • Wayne Gretzky made his last appearance in a Stanley Cup Final
  • Mario Lemieux battled cancer and put on a scoring clinic, claiming an Art Ross Trophy that Pat Lafontaine had all but secured.
  • Teemu Selanne terrorized goaltenders around the league scoring, 76 goals and adding 56 assists  for 132 points.

Today we are taking a look at the 1992-93 Kraft NHL Set, which came with a special album. To some it was a perfect marriage Kraft products and hockey cards.

The set consisted of 48 cards and was broken into three subsets.

Cards 1-24 are team photos, found on the backs of Kraft dinner boxes, and contained a beautiful team photo on the front and franchise historical information on the back.

Penguins

The cards are large, measuring 5 3/16″ wide by 2 1/2″ tall.

Penguins_back

My only criticism is that there is no separation between the English and French text. A break between the languages would have made it look a bit cleaner. I would love to see Team photo cards make a return in a vintage-themed set (Hint, hint, Upper Deck.)

Cards 25-36 focused on goalies. The 12 double-sided discs featured 24 goalies and were found under the lids of Kraft Peanut Butter. They measure 2 3/4″ in diameter.

Goalie_Patrick_Roy

Goalie_John_Vanbeisbrouck

They had a sharp color photo of the goaltender against a team color-coded background. Cumulative career statistics through the 1991-92 season are included on the disc.

The final 12 cards, 37-48, were focused on All Stars. These cards were found in packs of four and packaged in packs of Kraft Singles cheese slices. At 1 3/4″ wide by 2 1/2″ tall, these cards are smaller than standard-sized cards.

All-Star_Wayne_Gretzky
1992-93 Kraft Wayne Gretzky (view back)

You really get the cream of the crop of stars with these cards. Each card contains a facsimile autograph in a light blue color. I find the autographs are nicely visible against the white borders of the card.

A couple of gripes here are the autographs tend to be a little small and in some cases it is difficult to read them as they bleed into the photo on the card. The back of the card features stats and career highlights.

My favorite aspect of the All Star set is the players are pictured in their All Star jersey. Love them or hate them, I always enjoy seeing players in all star jerseys instead in their regular team jersey with the words “all star” slapped somewhere on the card.

All-Star_Ray_Bourque
1992-93 Kraft Ray Bourque (view back)

The only distraction from this subset is that Kraft used photos from the 1991-92 All-Star Game. I understand why they used those photos; however I feel it takes away from the 100 year Stanley Cup Anniversary theme Kraft was pushing with this release.

If you did not fancy yourself eating 28 Boxes of Kraft Dinners, at least 12 jars of peanut butter and three packages of cheese, Kraft had a couple of different options for you.

Collectors who did not complete the series by purchasing the products could obtain any combination of eight cards or discs by sending eight UPC symbols, $3.00 CDN, plus shipping and handling charges.

At a glance:
– 1992-93 Kraft Hockey
– 24 Team Photos
– 12 Goaltender Discs
– 12 All-Star Mini Cards
Download checklist

To store the set, a Stanley Cup 100th Anniversary album could be purchased by sending in three UPC symbols from Kraft Dinner, one UPC symbol from both Kraft Peanut Butter and Kraft Singles, and $12.99 CDN along with sales tax and shipping and handling charges.

Collectors could also purchase a factory-sealed set. I tried to find an example of the order form online but was unsuccessful. I remember my grade 6 Science teacher bringing his albums in to show the class and him mentioning that it cost close to $100 to order the whole set.

Album_Front_Cover

Now to the Album itself. Kraft always did a fantastic job with these albums and the 1992-93 season is no exception.

In the first few pages, you get a great history of the Stanley Cup and a list of all the teams that had won it up until that season. It serves as a nice introduction into the historical significance of the Cup and it sets up the rest of book nicely.

Album_History_Pages

In the teams section, you get two teams per page, with the goalies in the center and the team photos are broken down row by row, so you can put names to faces of the players.

Album_Flames_RedWings

One of greatest features of this album is the team autograph pages. They may be facsimile autos, but it is still fun looking, trying to match names with the autographs.

Album_All-Stars_Campbell

In the All Star section you get a nice writeup on the game, and again it serves as a nice lesson on the history and legacy of the All-Star Game. The cards here are organized alphabetically by Conference.

Rating 4 out of 5

I would highly recommend that you add this to your collection. It stands as a great reference for one of the last truly great NHL seasons before the “Dead Puck Era” took hold. With only a couple of minor distractions this release is nearly perfect. ■

About Rob Joncas: I am just a common man, living in a short print land. Card collector and Penguins obsessor since ’89. You can find me on Twitter @RobJoncas.

5 thoughts on “Review: 1992-93 Kraft Hockey”

  1. GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO PUCK JUNK …

    IT IS PLAINLY EVIDENT YOU SPENT A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME PUTTING TOGETHER THIS WELL RESEARCHED AND DOCUMENTED ENTRY WHICH WILL BE GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED BY ALL THOSE WHO REVIEW THIS, LIKE OURSELVES, WHO NEVER COMPLETED THE FULL SETS NOR SENT AWAY FOR ALBUMS AND SO ON …

    FRANKLY, AND AS YOU MENTIONED, THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH TIME TO EAT YOUR WAY THROUGH THIS LARGE AMOUNT OF PRODUCT AND THEN YOU USUALLY RUN THE RISK OF DUPLICATION …

    YES, THESE ARE THE SORT OF COLLECTIBLES WE LONG TERM / LIFETIME COLLECTORS ALL ENJOY AND THERE SHOULD BE MORE OF THIS KIND OF THING EACH HOCKEY SEASON SUCH AS THE NEWER TIM HORTONS 100 CARD SETS AND INSERTS FOR 2015-2016 AND NOW 2016-2017 WHICH ARE AND HAVE BEEN VERY WELL RECEIVED AND THIS YEAR THERE WAS A NICE ALBUM ISSUED AT $ 14.95, AVAILABLE AT SOME OF THE LARGER TIMS LOCATIONS IN CASE SOME READERS WERE NOT AWARE OF THESE WHICH CAN NOW BE FOUND FOR RE-SALE ON THE WEB …

    SO, ALL IN ALL, A VERY WELL PRODUCED OVERALL REVIEW OF THIS IMPORTANT KRAFT SET WITH THANKS FROM A 65+ YEAR ” LIFETIME ” COLLECTOR …

    COLONEL77

  2. Loved the Kraft set this year as it was one of the first sets I collected myself as a kid. Actually it was an interesting season as I was celebrating the Pens cup win and walking around the playground at school like I owned the place all year, only to end up in the gutter at the hands of that damned David Volek. When I come across this set in my collection, I still vividly recall bursting into tears after that goal and making it halfway up the stairs (there was a landing at this point) before I was overwhelmed by emotion. The cards may not be worth much dollar wise, but man are they priceless to me in memories.

  3. The food issue sets of the late 80’s thru the mid-90’s I think were underappreciated when they came out. Maybe because they were food issues they were considered lower level cards when compared to OPC, Upper Deck, Donruss, etc. Plus one could not just go into the neighbourhood convenience store to purchase packs of these cards. An actual food product had to be purchased which you may not have wanted just to get the cards. As the article mentioned – how many jars of peanut butter or boxes of Kraft dinner could be bought just to get the cards. So I don’t think they were well sought out during those years.
    Looking back there are some nice looking sets amongst those food issues. The subject matter concentrated on the stars at the time and also had interesting subsets (Captains, coaches, goalies, team cards). As well the various shapes and sizes of the cards added a taste variety to the sets. They also were challenging enough to complete the sets that it made it interesting. I do pick up the occasional food issue card at collectibles shows when I see them at a reasonable price. But the dealers rarely bring them to sell.
    Now we wish that some food company would again include hockey cards in their products. Over the past few years I can only think of the Dempster’s Sydney Crosby set and Post’s cereal box promotion with Canadian junior stars. I’m not including McD or Tim’s because their cards were sold in packs. Maybe with the success of the Tim’s promotion over the past couple of years and the influx of young stars in the NHL some company may jump on the bandwagon and include hockey cards in their product. Wishful thinking.

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