It's funny - I hadn't done a new release post in over two months until last Sunday but there were enough announcements over the last week I'm doing another one already.
- The 2021 edition of BBM's annual Icons box set will be out in late March. The title/theme this year is "Progress" and BBM says that the set will feature players who "made progress" last year and rookies who "will progress in the future". Each box will contain 37 cards - the 36 card base set plus a "special insert" card which could be a foil print card, a foil facsimile autograph card, an "Extreme 2021" card of a rookie or an autograph card. I expect that the 36 cards will be split up evenly with three cards for each of the 12 teams. BBM says that the set will include Ukyo Shuto, Yudai Ohno, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Dohbayashi, Keito Sano and rookie Takahisa Hayakawa.
- BBM has announced their first two "comprehensive" team sets for 2021 - the Buffaloes and the Fighters. Both pack based sets will have 81 cards in their base set and will be released in early April. The base set for the Buffaloes will have 68 cards for the players (and manager) plus four subsets - "New Wave" (three cards), "Step Forward" (three cards), "The Story" (three cards) and "First Four" (four cards). The Buffaloes set will also have 18 "normal" insert cards split between "Storm & Urge" (nine cards), "Rough Diamond" (six cards) and "Once Again" (three cards) along with thirteen of the serially numbered "Phantom" and fifteen of the serially numbered "Esperanza" inserts. The Fighters' base set will have 66 cards for the players and manager plus subsets called "Brightest Hope" (two cards), "Counterattack" (two cards) and "Mighty Gusys(?)" (nine cards). It will also have 18 "normal" insert cards split between four sets although the sets aren't fully named at this time. There will also be 15 "Phantom" and 15 "Esperanza" serially numbered inserts. Both sets will feature a wide variety of autographed cards as well.
- With these announcements from BBM it's looking more and more likely that they will not be doing another edition of their "Time Travel" sets this winter. I think it's possible that they will still do a "Shining Venus" set this year but obviously if so it will be delayed several months from its normal January release date. "Shining Venus" is BBM's set for female athletes and it historically has always included one or two players from the Japan Women's Baseball League - with Epoch apparently no longer doing sets for the league it's the easiest way to get cards of any JWBL players.
- Dan Skrezyna has announced his latest "Foreign Attack" home brew set under his Vittum label. This set will feature the KBO's foreign players from the 2019 season - remember that none of the official KBO sets include any foreign players. It's a 39 card set - 38 player cards plus one checklist card - and includes a number of player who either had already played in NPB by 2019 (Jamie Romak) and or would in the future (Jerry Sands, Angel Sanchez, Mel Rojas, Jr.). The sets are $16 and it's a limited press run of only 20 hand numbered sets. I don't know if Dan has sold all 20 sets yet or when the sets will be available. If you are interested in a set, I suggest you contact Dan at his blog or his Twitter account as soon as possible.
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