2015 In Review - BBM

It's time to do my annual recap of what sets were released in the past year.  Ryan stole my thunder a bit last week but it's all good.

First up - BBM.  BBM did 42 sets this year, which may sound like a lot (and it is) but it is a smaller number than the 48 they did last year and the 50 they did in 2013.  Once again I am counting the sets that say "2015" on the front, regardless of whether they were released in the calendar year or not.  The sets were actually released starting in late November of 2014 (Memories Of Uniform) through late November of this year (Homecoming).

23 of the sets BBM issued this past year are the ones that they do annually - the 1st and 2nd Version sets, the high end Genesis set, the 12 pack based team sets, the Rookie Edition (draft pick) set, the "Farewell" box set for the players who retired in 2014, the Rookie Edition Premium box set, the "Historic Collection" OB set (the theme was "Memories of Uniform"), the two "Dancing Heroine" sets for the team's cheerleader/dance squads - "Hana" and "Mai", the Icons box set (this year's theme was "Aces") and the Classic set (which used the 1993 BBM format for the cards of the active players).  For the first time in a few years, there's no real change in the annual sets - BBM didn't drop any set that they'd been doing previously and there's no obvious candidate for a new annual set.

The most likely candidate for a new annual set would probably be the "Master Of Insert" set - an ultra high end set that was a ridiculous 15,000 yen per box which contained one pack of six cards (really five cards and a checklist).  All the base set cards were serially numbered to 75 and the insert cards and autograph cards were serially numbered to 25.  Jambalaya was only able to show a handful of cards from the set.

BBM issued nine team specific box sets - Giant Step (Giants), Horizon (Fighters), Hawks Autograph Edition, Carp Authentic Edition, Dragons Autograph Edition, Tigers Authentic Edition Pitchers Version and Batters Version, Buffaloes Authentic Edition and Sky High.  They also released a box set for the Dragons' Cheer/Dance squad called "Hippy Hippy Shake" and a box set for the Swallows top three batters - Shingo Kawabata, Tetsuto Yamada and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama - called "Swallows 3 Sluggers".  They only issued one "single player set" this year - Hiroki Kuroda of the Carp got a set called "Homecoming".

The remaining set sets all had historic themes.  They issued two more of the "throwback" style "Achievement" box sets early in the year for the Buffaloes and Whales and another set in the "Legend" series - this time for the Carp.  There were two team anniversary sets - one for the 10th Anniversary of Softbank buying the Hawks and the other for the 80th Anniversary of the Hanshin Tigers.  They also did a set celebrating their 25th year producing cards.