New Team Sets

BBM announced five new team sets last week - the BayStars, Carp, Giants, Lions and Tigers.

The BayStars set has 99 cards - 71 "regular" cards for the players, manager and coaches, nine "Triple Stars" cards, a six card "Newcomers" subset, a three card subset that Google translate is labeling "Hama most stars", a nine card puzzle subset and a checklist card. There's also a nine card insert set called "Spirit" and the usual autograph and jersey cards. It will be released in late April.

The Carp set also features 99 cards. There will be 77 cards for the players, manager and coaching staff along with a six card subset called "SUPERCATCH" that is apparently dedicated to the amazing catches last season by Masato Akamatsu and Soichiro Amaya, a six card subset for "promising young players" and a nine card subset for active stat leaders. There is also a nine card insert set entitled "SOUL OF CARP" and jersey cards for Akamatsu and Amaya. I think there are also possible autograph cards. The set will be released in mid-May.

The Lions set is also a 99 card set. There are 71 player/manager/coach cards, 18 cards labeled "Planning Card", nine puzzle cards and one checklist card. I wonder if the "Planning Card" subset is a place holder for other subsets as there are sample cards on the web page for a "History Of Uniform", "Invincible Lions" and "Combination Card" subsets (although maybe they are samples of the puzzle cards for the last two). There's a nine card insert set labeled "popular leading players" which sounds pretty generic and possible autograph and memorabilia cards. The set will be out in late May.

Just to break the pattern, the Giants team set has 126 cards. There's a whopping 91 cards for players, coaches and the manager, along with a four card subset for young players, three combination cards, nine "continuous photo cards" (three three card sequences that feature sequential action shots for a player), 18 "Star Player 2011" cards and a checklist card. There are two insert sets - a nine card "Heart Beat Giants" set and a six card one just labeled as "Special" (but might be the "Super Metallic Giants" cards shown on the web page). There will also be memorabilia cards. The set will be released in late May.

At 118 cards, the Tigers set is also larger than the typical team set. There are 84 "regular" cards for players, coaches and the manager, a checklist card, an 11 card subset for "career coaches", three cards for new Tiger players ("NEW FACE"), three cards for veteran Tiger players, six puzzle cards and nine cards featuring players in old uniforms (probably the turn back the clock uniforms they wore last summer). There are two nine card insert sets ("FANTASTIC REVOLUTION" and "SWEET SMILE") and jersey and autograph cards. The set will hit the stores in early June.