The great package of cards that I received from Mark (aka avsbruins65 on TCDB) earlier this summer included a really unique injection of Whalers cards, in the form of these 1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay tallboys!
I remember distinctly when this set came out when I was just a kid collector. My brothers and I busted quite a few packs of the stuff, but storage was always an issue, as it tends to be with non-standard sized cards like these. Overall, a clean design that focused on being able to provide collectors with an over-sized photograph.
The backs were well done, and Fleer took advantage of the extra space to cram a good deal of information onto these without making it feel claustrophobic at all.
Even though Hartford had moved onto it's less popular blue sweaters, these are still aesthetically pleasing cards.
Mark actually sent along an entire Series 1 Whalers team set, which is just fantastic. Prior to receiving these the only base card I had from this set in my entire collection was a Wayne Gretzky. Great to add all the first series Whalers in one fell swoop here.
The goaltender cards in the set look particularly attractive given that the entire player can fit in scope without much real need for cropping of the photograph.
Michael Nylander, rocking the "I broke my jaw" helmet add-on. For those who weren't aware, Michael is the father of present-day Maple Leafs star William Nylander.
I won't provide commentary for all of these, but will let you enjoy all the scans anyway...
Zarley Zalapski closes out the base Series 1 Whalers, but since I'm showing these great cards from Mark here's an insert that was already present in my Whalers collection:
I really like the minimal, blue border used for these "2nd Year Stars" inserts. I wish all the cards in the set had a transparent lower section with the player and set name like this.
With this '93-94 Fleer PowerPlay Series 1 team set complete, I'm now up to 1,846 different Hartford Whalers cards in my ever-expanding team collection! I still haven't covered all the new Whalers that Mark sent in his package though, so I'll be back soon with even more as I continue on towards 2,000 unique Whalers!
Thanks as always for stopping by!
5 comments:
I have a Steelers team set of the Fleer NFL GameDay set, which is basically the same thing, and that's long been one of my favorite non-vintage football sets. Nice acquisition!
My wife has two boxes of PowerPlay in our closet. I went through ti recently to catalog our cards and she has a complete set, a huge chunk of dupes, and nearly all of the inserts. I'll try to trade for the rest but they're a pain to store and ship.
These might be a pain in the bottom to store.. but they are awesome. And Fleer played it perfectly by releasing sets for baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fans. The best part... they only did it for one (maybe two?) years... which means they're just limited enough to have collectors like myself craving more.
Always fun to see a Whalers post!
Glad to see your Whaler collection expanding. I like that set.
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