2016 BBM Carp "Realization Of A Great Ambition" box set

Today I received my copy of BBM's box set commemorating the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's 2016 Central League pennant, their first since 1991.  The set is entitled something like "Realization Of A Great Ambition" which probably sounds less clumsy in the original Japanese.  The box contains 55 cards - a 54 card base set plus one of four possible large 3-D cards.

The 54 card base set tells the story of the 2016 Carp's season, from Opening Day on March 25th through to the clinching of the Central League pennant on September 10th (and their first home game after clinching on September 15th).  Each card showcases a different game from the season, showing a photo from the game on the front and the line score for the game on the back.  Some of the highlights include Takahiro Arai's 2000th hit and 300th home run (two different games), Hiroki Kuroda's 200th win between NPB and MLB, and the three consecutive games that Seiya Suzuki won with a home run (which I assume is still making Orix bullpen pitchers wake up in a cold sweat).  About 29 members of the team (including manager Koichi Ogata) appear on the cards.  Arai shows up on about seven of the cards, Suzuki and Yoshihiro Maru are on four each and Kuroda and Yusuke Nomura are on three each.  Other players featured include Ryosuke Kikuchi, Kris Johnson, Brad Eldred, Kosuke Tanaka and Soichiro Amaya.  Here's some sample cards:

#18

#20

#23

#25

#28

#39

#41

#48

#54

I really like this set.  The photo selection is outstanding and the card layout is very nice (despite the borders on the cards).  I'd love to see BBM continue to do sets like this for pennant winners in the future.

I mentioned that the 55th card in the box was a large 3-D card.  The card is about 5 inches by 7 inches (which is roughly the size of the box).  There are four possible cards - two of them are what I'd call "compiled" photos of players in front of a background (one for fielders and another for batters) while the other two are photos of actual events - one is for the do-age that the team gave Ogata after clinching and the other shows the team doing a victory lap with the pennant at their first home game after clinching.  I got the Ogata do-age card and I'm very happy with it:

 It looks a bit better in person than in a scan.

You can see all the cards for the set (and one of the other 3-D cards) over at Jambalaya.