Saturday, May 23, 2015

Just Released and Upcoming New Stuff

Well, once again I've put off doing a new releases post while waiting for BBM to add information about their upcoming sets onto their website and once again, I've ended up delaying so long that one of the sets that they actually did list on the site has been released.  Here's a quick run-down of what's coming soon from BBM and Epoch:

- The latest two team sets from BBM are for the Fighters and the Dragons.  The Fighters set was actually released yesterday and the Dragons set will be out on Tuesday.  Both sets will have 81 cards in their base sets, 18 insert cards (two nine card sets - Sky Is The Limit and Game Changer - for the Fighters, no details for the Dragons) and the usual assortment of autograph cards.

- BBM hasn't updated their new release website in almost a month, but Niki has information up about the team sets for the Marines, Baystars, Tigers and Lions as well as this year's editions of Dancing Heroine - Hana and Classic.

- Niki also has information up about Epoch's next two sets.  The first is a set celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Carp's "Red Helmet" era - the Carp switched to the red caps similar to the ones they wear today starting in 1975.  It's a bit odd that Epoch is releasing this set since they just did one on this era for the Carp last year and BBM covered similar ground in the Carp Legends set last winter.  This set will be a box set containing 64 cards - 61 in the base set plus three "special" cards - a "shadowbox" card, a parallel card and some sort of autograph or memorabilia card.  The big difference between this set and the one released last year is that this one will contain cards of active players, a first for Epoch's box sets.  There will be 32 cards for "active players, coach, mascot" and 29 cards for OB players.  The set will be out in late June.

The other Epoch set is another collaboration with the Japan Baseball Promotion Association called "National Record Holders".    If I'm reading the Google translations correctly, this looks like Epoch's answer to BBM's extremely high end "Masters Of Insert" set.  Each box will contain five serially numbered cards - two regular cards, one "shadowbox" card and two autographed cards.  There are 24 regular cards available, each of which has two possible "shadowbox" parallels (including a "1 of 1" parallel).  The boxes will run 15,000 yen apiece (around $125) and will be released on July 11.

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