2016 BBM 2nd Version Set

2016 BBM 2nd Version Set Summary

Size: 313 cards (cards numbered 337-600, then 12 cards of "Ceremonial First Pitch" subset are separately numbered FP01-FP13 and 36 cards for "Cross Freeze" subset are separately numbered CF37-CF72)
Cards Per Team: 19 (team card + 18 players)
Team Card Theme: Mascots
Number Of Leader Cards: N/A
Checklists: 0
Subsets: 1st Version Update (36), Ceremonial First Pitch (13), Cross Freeze (36)
Inserts: One And Only
Memorabilia Cards: Undershirt cards for Louis Okoye, jersey cards for Shun Takayama and a "Combination" undershirt & jersey card with both of them.  The single jersey cards are numbered to 100 while the "Combination" card is numbered to 10.  There's 30 different players who have autographed cards (3 per team but none from the Giants or Carp).  Seven of those 30 have what I think is a separate autograph card.  Four of the "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards have an authentic autograph version.
Parallels: 15 of the 1st Version Update and 57 of the regular player cards have five different facsimile autograph parallels.  I think that they are silver (unnumbered), gold (numbered to 100), hologram (numbered to 50), red (numbered to 25) and green (numbered to 10).  There are two parallels for the "Cross Freeze" cards - one is limited to 100 and the other is a "1 of 1".  There is a parallel (limited to 100) for the One And Only insert cards.
Notable Rookies: Jun Hasegawa

This year's edition of BBM's 2nd Version set came out a couple weeks back.  The regular cards in the set feature something a bit rare for BBM's flagship sets - borders.  I don't necessarily view this as a good thing as one of the things I like most about BBM's flagship sets is the full bleed photos.  This is the second year in a row where the 2nd Version set has had borders and I don't like the trend.

On the positive side, however, this set appears to signal a change in the "batters batting, pitchers pitching" photo monotony that's been common in BBM's sets lately.  There's not a small number of photos featuring players fielding and base running and even a couple candids.  I also like that there's a variety of uniforms represented in the photos - throwbacks for the Tigers and Baystars and alternates for the Swallows and Giants (and I'll be updating the uniform posts with some of these soon).  So while I don't like the borders, I do like the photos.  Here's a bunch of examples:

#442

#587

#570

#451

#548

#508

#417

#521

I will make my usual 2nd Version set complaint that some of the poses for players are very similar between their 1st and 2nd Version cards:

2016 BBM 1st Version #098 (left) and 2nd Version #444 (right)

2016 BBM 1st Version #173 (left) and 2nd Version #488 (right)

Here's what the back of the cards looks like.  The stats are as of May 30th.

Back of #393 (Kohei Arihara)

The team cards were a bit of a disappointment for me - the theme was mascots.  I guess it was too much to ask that we go an entire year without mascots as a flagship set team checklist theme from BBM...

#594

The set has the usual 36 card "1st Version Update" subset.  This subsets features three cards per team of players who were left out of the 1st Version set for whatever reason.  The cards are done using the design of the 1st Version set.  This year's subset includes several foreign players (Drew Naylor, Pat Misch, Yamaico Navarro and Mike Zagursky) along with veteran players like Shota Dobayashi, Hitoki Iwase, Yuya Hasegawa, Shogo Kimura and Yoshihisa Naruse.

#368

#349

There's a rookie card for Jun Hasegawa of the Giants included in the subset.  It's rare that the subset includes a rookie card as usually all the non-ikusei rookies get included in the 1st Version set.  And in fact the reason that Hasegawa was not included in the 1st Version set was that he was ikusei up until late March when the Giants registered him to the 70 man roster.  So his first flagship card is in this subset (he did also have a card in this year's Rookie Edition set).

#360

Like last year, BBM did not include Shohei Ohtani in the regular 2nd Version cards because they included him in the "1st Version Update" subset.  His 1st Version card this year had him as a pitcher but the Update card has him as a batter and outfielder:

#340

The 2016 version of BBM's annual (practically) cross-set subset is called "Cross Freeze" and 2nd Version has the second (and possibly final) installment of the subset.  Like the 1st Version set, 2nd Version has 36 cards in the subset (3 per team of course).  As always, these cards feature the image of a player superimposed on a background (an icy one this year) and are numbered separately from the rest of the set.

#CF54

The other standard subset for the 2nd Version set is the "Ceremonial First Pitch" subset which features a number of Japanese celebrities throwing out the first pitch at a ball game.  This year's group includes actress/model Norika Fujiwara, gravure idol Ami Inamura, singer Sachiko Kobayashi, actress Sari Kobayashi, model(?) Erika Matsumoto, gravure idol Shizuka Nakamura, gravure idol Hinako Sano, singer Mariko Shinoda, boxer Tomomi Takano, model(?) Momoka Tsukishima and model (and I think Sapporo Beer "image girl") Nagisa Yuzuki.  The cards are numbered separately from the rest of the set.

#FP07

The subset also includes a couple of cards commemorating the first pitch ceremony featuring Sadako from "The Ring" and Kayako (and her son Toshio) from "The Grudge" at the Tokyo Dome on June 1.  This was a promotion for the movie "Sadako vs Kayako" that came out in June.

#FP12 (left) & #FP13 (right)

I picked up the 12 card "One And Only" insert set with the set.  There are 12 cards in the set (one per team) which includes a number of big stars (Ohtani, Yuki Yanagita, Tetsuto Yamada, Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh, Hayato Sakamoto).

#oo01

As usual, all the cards for the set (along with parallels and inserts) can be seen at Jambalaya.