Blowout posted some updated photos in their product information page for 2010 Panini Gridiron Gear Epix Football, and I must say, I am more than shocked as to how bad it actually turned out. You can say all you want about how I favor low end Topps and Upper Deck over anything Panini puts out, but the results speak for themselves. When you see how Panini approaches each set, especially in the way they design their cards, I actually question if they are doing it just to see how far they can take it before we start buying. Besides, if you are going to call something Epix, regardless of past releases, you cannot churn out a turd as big as this product looks to be.

As bad as Topps is with their high end set design, they rarely use the stock as a gimmick to try to sell the cards. Unlike Topps, Panini has a much different philosphy, and much like the rest of this product, it fails “epix”-cally. In fact, Epix takes that to a level previously unheard of with Panini’s monopoly on the foilboard trade, and that alone is enough to stay far away from this junk. If you are like me, and you consider foilbaord to be a detriment, and rainbow foilboard to be the worst of the worst, this new dotted shit that they use for the inserts in this set is more terrible than both combined. I don’t get it. I honestly don’t get it at this point. I don’t understand how someone can approach the layout for a set and think, “you know, foilboard isnt taking it to the house like we need it to, we need something more.” Obiviously, Panini has a number of those people because that’s the way it always ends up.

Then when you look at the designs for the subsets, I cant help but scream. Its like they have a program that takes a previous sets’ design, and Panini-nizes it for another year’s release. I will not hesitate to say that each of their products lacks differentiation, and that for someone entering the hobby, this must be a nightmare trying to determine which card came from which set. Aside from having ridiculously terrible names for each of their subsets, the design concepts look so bad that it actually doesn’t matter how bad the set title is. Lines and angles everywhere, weirdly cut swatches, sticker autos placed in odd corners of the card, it just doesn’t make any sense. Outside of the fact that many of their swatch cards STILL look like someone forgot to affix the sticker, it is a drop in the massive bucket of problems that Panini has with this piece of shit product.

Bottom line is this. Collectors will wise up eventually when it comes to design, and from what I have already started to see on the message boards, its starting more quickly than I predicted. I bet Topps thought they had a winner with Supreme Stickersquisite, but the reactions were cold at best. I have a feeling that Epix is going to be nothing more than a bunch of those idiots that gravitate towards shiny things buying up as much of it as possible. When that happens, the pool of potential shrinks, and hopefully Panini decides its time for a change.  As much as you may hate Upper Deck as a company, you have to admit, they rarely repeated design mistakes the way Panini does.