Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

2007-2008 Victory Box Breakdown

Earlier this month, I wrote a review of the 2007-2008 Victory Hockey Set.

This is a bit late, but I thought I’d post the box breakdown for the two boxes of Victory that I purchased.

Box 1

  • 177 base cards
  • 18 MVP Rookies
  • 9 Game Breakers inserts
  • 9 Stars On Ice inserts
  • 3 EA Sports Face-Off inserts

Box 2

  • 176 base cards
  • 18 MVP Rookies
  • 9 Game Breakers inserts
  • 9 Stars On Ice inserts
  • 4 EA Sports Face-Off inserts

The collation of cards was very good. Between two boxes, I got an entire base set. Of the 36 rookie cards (18 per box), none of them were doubles. I was able to track down the last 9 rookie cards on eBay.

The insert cards were another story. I got duplicates of several of them, which is frustrating, because there are so many of them. But I’m not sure if I really want them; I mean, will I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I get all 50 “Game Breakers”, or all 50 “Stars on Ice”?

The Hockey-Mask of Death!

Strange Sports Stories, Volume 2, Number 5, May/June 1974

Strange Sports Stories, Volume 2, Number 5, May--June 1974

One afternoon, my then-roommate Dave — who played floor hockey with me in college — came home from his job at the local comic bookstore. “Sal, I found something you’d love,” he said as he handed me a beat-up old comic book from the 1970s. But this was not your typical Superman or Richie Rich.

ALL NEW! Strange Sports Stories exclaimed the title. Underneath it was a picture of two men playing hockey, and asking us the question “What was the sinister secret of the goalie who wore a hockey-mask of death?”

Dying to know? Then read on. Continue reading “The Hockey-Mask of Death!”

Upcoming McFarlane hockey toys

NHL Series 17
McFarlane Toys has added photos of NHL Series 17 to their website.

Due out in January of ’08, Series 17 will give us figures of Evgeny Malkin, Jason Blake, Ryan Miller and a new pose of Alexander Ovheckin–all wearing the new RBK Edge Jerseys.

Even more exciting is the inclusion of two more figures–Joe Sakic as a Quebec Nordique and Trevor Lindin wearing a retro Canucks uniform. And I don’t mean those weird “stick logo” jerseys–I mean the flying skate, baby!

I guess McFarlane Toys has to do something with all of those “obsolete” figure molds. The tooling for an action figure costs toy companies a lot of money. So, companies try to re-use tooling as much as possible, hence repaints, goalies that use the same pose, etc. Hopefully, we can grow to expect more “retro” figures using the “old style” of jerseys.

What are you waiting for? Check them out!

Hockey Goal Display Stand
Taking a cue from their success of last year’s Hockey Rink Playset, McFarlane Toys will also issue a Hockey Goal display stand. This is much needed, considering that all new goalie figures no longer include a net. Half the time, the best thing about adding a goalie figure to your collection was getting a “free net” with it. This new display, however, will be a vast improvement, as it will have room for both a goalie and a shooter. Better yet, it will come in both Classic (pictured) and Modern designs. More about those here.

Even more figures
McFarlane Toys has also announced the figures for NHL 19, NHL Legends 7 and NHL 3-inch Series Six. I won’t list them all here, but I think I speak for all of us in saying that it is awesome that they are making a figure of Guy Lafleur as a Nordique! You can read up on all this here–scroll about halfway down.

2007-2008 MVP Box Breakdown

Yesterday, in a weak moment, I bought a box of 2007-2008 Upper Deck MVP hockey cards. I knew that if I bought a box, that I’d have to get at least one more to complete a base set. But I’ve always enjoyed opening packs, so I gave in to the Dark Side.

I won’t post a review of this year’s MVP until I get at least a complete base set.

In the meantime, here’s my breakdown of what I got in the 24-pack box.

Base set & Rookies:

  • 165 Base cards
  • 12 MVP Rookies (1:2 packs)
  • Rookie Redemption card (good for 3 RCs)

Insert cards

  • 1 One-on-One Jersey (dual swatch card featuring J.S. Giguere and Dan Cloutier…the Giguere swatch was 2-color)
  • 1 Gold Scripts parallel /100 (Chris Drury 34/100)
  • 1 Super Scripts parallel /25 (Roman Hamrlik 9/25)
  • 2 Game Faces (Forsberg, Jagr)
  • 2 Hart Candidates (Heatly, Kiprusoff)
  • 4 New World Order (Kopitar, Mikko Koivu, Ovechkin, Parise)
  • 4 Monumental Moments (Crosby, Recchi, Scott Niedermayer, Briere)
Not a bad assortment for one box. But insert cards these days–other than jersey cards–always look so 1990s. While I like cards from that decade, the inserts these days aren’t anything to get too excited about. The New World Order cards look like something Fleer Ultra did ten years ago.

O Canada!

O Canada, the new hockey card set from In the Game, launches today. The focus of the set is on Canadian National Team players, as well as a few “formidable” International foes.

Sigh.

It’s times like this that I really miss competition between hockey card companies. Right now, Upper Deck pretty much runs the show, since they have the exclusive rights to make NHL hockey cards. I admire what ITG has done without having an NHL license, with their sets focusing on international play, or “Heroes and Prospects”.

But it seems that all the cards that ITG makes are so expensive, due to autograph and memorabilia inserts.

And guess what? Upper Deck cards are expensive too. Well, the Victory cards are cheap, but not very exciting.

I guess if I’m going to spend $80 on a box of hockey cards it’s going to be NHL hockey cards.

But maybe I can pick up a base set of these O Canada cards on the cheap.

Click here to find out everything you would want to know about the O Canada set. ■

Card of the Week: King for a Day

1979-80 Topps / O-Pee-Chee Dale McCourt – Card #63

Dale McCourtOne day while thumbing through my extra hockey cards, I came across this odd card – 1979-1980 Topps #63, Dale McCourt. This card featured McCourt in his L.A. Kings Jersey.

However, Dale McCourt was never a member of the L.A. Kings. And yet, this card clearly shows him as one. The back of the card even says “AQUIRED: Awarded from Red Wings”. But later cards never mentioned him playing for the Kings. Intrigued, I did some research, only to find that McCourt’s place of employment was, in the end, determined in a year-long legal battle. Continue reading “Card of the Week: King for a Day”

Review: 1981-82 Topps Hockey

The set with a split personality.

1981-82 Topps #11 - Tony Esposito

At a glance:
– 1981-82 Topps Hockey
– 198 cards
— 66 nationally-distributed cards (1-66)
— 66 “East” cards (67-132)
— 66 “West” cards (67-132)
– Size: 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″
– Download Checklist

Featuring a very cool design, the 1981-82 Topps Hockey set was an odd release. Topps’ gimmick from the previous season–the “scratch off puck” to reveal the player’s name–was mercifully not repeated. Instead, Topps resorted to a much different ploy–regional distribution. Continue reading “Review: 1981-82 Topps Hockey”

Card of the Week: Garf Gruntsky

1992 Skybox Garfield Trading Cards #78

Garfield Hockey CardThis is a card that I just randomly lucked into finding. In the early 1990s, I worked in a comic book store, and in 1992, Skybox released a set of Garfield trading cards. Containing 100 cards, the set consisted of random illustrations of Garfield, Odie and other characters from the comic strip. A few of the cards would parody something. This was one such card. Continue reading “Card of the Week: Garf Gruntsky”