Sunday, May 20, 2007

91-92 Pro-Set Platinum Series II


Platinum was supposed to be Pro-Set's higher quality card. They do succeed somewhat, but they still have some lingering Pro-Set problems like putting the wrong player on a card (Chris Terreri on Craig Billington's card), and some poor cropping.

I really disliked this set as a kid. There are no names or team logos on the front of the card, the name on the back is written in handwriting and there are no stats at all. Overall, it is not a very kid friendly set, but now that I am older
I can appreciate the subtle details that make this set great at times, and hilariously awful at others.

Pro-Set made coach cards and referee cards in series two of their 90-91 set, and they had their cheesy "Play Smart" cards in their regular 91-92 set, but no company, Pro-Set or otherwise had a worse idea than Platinum's 'Celebrity Captains'. Burton Cummings (pictured left) is one of those 'Celebrity Captains'. Many of the rest are nearly as good. Just so I don't put these all in my favorites, I will list them here:
-James Belushi -Chicago Blackhawks - Star of K-9 and its straight to video sequel K-911.

-Fred Rogers - Pittsburgh Penguins - Yes, Mr. Rogers has a hockey card.

-Rick Hansen - Vancouver Canucks - I was always a little jealous that Pittsburgh got Mr. Rogers and the Canu
cks only got Rick Hansen.

-Larry King - Washington Capitals - Do you think Larry King has watched a hockey game in his life?

Five of my favorites:
#239 - Kirk McLean - The last of the great stand-up goalies. I couldn't ask for a better photo of my favorite goalie of all-time.

#288 - Chris Terreri - Terreri gets two pretty awesome photos in this set: one on his card and one on Craig Billington's.

#203 - Steve Thomas - Pretty nice horizontal action shot.

#216 - Brian Trottier - I really like action shots, but this card is so sparse that it is also rad.

#178 - Kay Whitmore - Most of the best cards in this set were either horizontal or goalie cards. Horizontal goalie cards combine the best of both.