Last year, the addition of Totally Certified Football to the calendar was one I scoffed at. Panini was obviously trying to recapture the success of Totally Certified in Basketball, and for the most part, it fell about as flat on its face as it could. Not only was the product about as visually appealing as a dead deer bleeding on the side of a road, but it was crazy expensive to buy. Regardless of the TOTALLY asinine name of this stupid product, it is back for 2012, and doesnt look to have changed much
.
2012 Totally Certified Andrew Luck Auto Relic
2012 Totally Certified Robert Griffin III Rookie Auto Patch Gold /25
2012 Totally Certified Russell Wilson Auto Patch /49 – Why are the players being impaled with a foil mountain?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2011-Panini-Totally-Certified-CAM-NEWTON-Rookie-Jersey-On-Card-Auto-SP-276-299-/251030052666?pt=US_Football&hash=item3a728e9f3a, and that hasnt carried over this year. For over 150 bucks a box, with a stupid foil pattern, you get stickers on top of it. I also fail to see why the players and autographs are confined to the top of the card like that. The bottom relic portion of the card occupies over 50% of the surface, which leaves little to no space for the other elements of the card. In fact, this has been a pretty disturbing trend for Panini all year long, like they have no idea how to lay out the concept so that the photos can be uninterrupted on the front.
Last year, I chastised them for using big white boxes behind their stickers instead of adequate design and composition to highlight them in a correct way like Topps and Upper Deck have done. Instead of changing their design, they either continued to use the white box, or they just cut the player off at the waist or knees to make room for the elements
, instead of overlaying everything in a visually appealing way.
This product, because of the hit per pack format, has more worthless jersey cards than I have seen in some of their other products combined. The checklist is horrid, the design work is horrid, and the MSRP is horrid.
What is even funnier, is that the HRX video cards are back – which would have been REALLY special in 2001. Now that everyone has a smart phone and can watch youtube pretty much anywhere, its about as special as a first generation iPod.
That’s not even the worst of it, though, as the foil stock used in this set could not be worse. It is the equivalent of cardboard diarrhea, and I would go so far as saying this technology should be wiped from the face of the earth. The rookie class might be amazing, but holy crap, this set has more ugly looking cards than I have seen since 2012 Crown Royale.
When compared side by side versus Valor, the design isnt even close. Valor is visually stunning
, while this burns my retinas. Although these Totally Certified box breaks might yield more desirable autographs, what does that matter when they look this way? I never understood why collectors spend their money on sets that have such ugly examples.
Panini sure started their year strong, but I cannot believe how poorly they have finished. When I see how ugly the rookie patch autos are for National Treasures, combined with the poor solicitation for 2013, it looks like my trust of their design work will not be changing any time soon.
Why are we still getting 2012 product, this practice is ridiculous. Even baseball has 2013 releases already.
Besides that this product is visual junk, I own several original dufex cards and the reason they stand out isn’t jerseys or autos FYI.
This has to be one of the worst examples of a high end set I have ever seen
*sigh*… yet ANOTHER dissapointment from The Big P.
Isnt Panini French for sticker autos(even when the guy is your supposed exclusive) shiny crap foil parallels
The Sticker & Foil Co. strikes again. I enjoy reading the PR spin jobs that Hackler does on the company blog: “Clearly, all of us inside Panini America HQ are pretty giddy on the eve of releasing the second installment of Totally Certified Football.”
What exactly were they giddy about? The prospects of an awful product making them a lot of money. Certainly, nobody inside those walls that has a PC can honestly say they are giddy about adding any of this mess to their collection.
Another thing, it’s ironic that the Sticker & Foil Co. uses so money stickers (across all products), yet hands out so many redemptions. I thought stickers were supposed to reduce redemptions; with Sticker & Foil Co. they seem to increase the amount of redemptions.
I hate to say it, but there’s something throwback about the design that I like. I totally understand the disdain for the foil and sticker autos. Lord knows I’m absolutely sick and tired of the stickers autos, but I remember when Dufex was all the rage back in the mid 1990s with Pinnacle. There’s something about this set that reminds of that and I’m okay with it. The parallels are pretty simple and straightforward. I like it, but that’s only when compared to other Panini labels which are mostly hideous. Seeing as how this set is coming out at the same time as Topps Valor, I have to say I’m not impressed with Valor because the entire set seems cheesy to me. I mean, how can I seriously buy a card that says “Glory”, “Honor” and “Strength”? It’s more ridiculous to me than Dufex and that’s saying something.
The only Panini football product I have liked this year is Prime Signatures.
Great looking on-card autos and they are low numbered (out of 149 or 199).
Plus, you can get singles of top rookies for “cheap.”