2024 In Review - BBM

2024 was kind of a mundane year with very little difference with what they did in 2023.  Like 2023, they issued 27 baseball (or primarily baseball) sets this year.

The bulk of BBM's 2024 releases - 24 of the 27 sets - were what I refer to as the "perennials" - sets they issue every year although there was a major change in those sets which I'll get to in a minute.  These sets include the three "flagship" sets - "1st Version", "2nd Version" and "Fusion"; the team sets for all 12 NPB teams - the Baystars, Buffaloes, Carp, Dragons, Eagles, Fighters, Giants, Hawks, Lions, Marines, Swallows and Tigers; the "Rookie Edition" (draft pick) set; the high-end "Genesis" set and the ultra-high-end "Glory" set.  They also include the two baseball specific box sets - "Icons" (with a theme of "Generations" this year) and "Rookie Edition Premium".  They also issued three multi-sport sets that primarily featured baseball players - the "Farewell" box set for retiring baseball players and other athletes, the "Infinity" set and the ultra high-end "Crown" set.  The big change this year was instead of issuing their "Dancing Heroine" set for the team's cheerleaders and dance teams as two separate sets (called "Hana" and "Mai"), BBM instead issued it as a single set.  I don't generally pay a lot of attention to this set but it looks like the new set was roughly the size of the two previous sets combined.

The three non-perennial sets all came out late in the year.  The "Professional Baseball 90th Anniversary" set was released in late October.  BBM released two single team box sets in late November - "Hawks - Fly Again" which commemorated the Hawks winning the Pacific League pennant for the first time in four years and "Lions Collection" which commemorated an alternate uniform that the Lions did in collaboration with the Japanese clothing designer "New Yorker".

I was a little surprised that BBM did not issue any of their "Team History" sets although, at this point, there's only three teams they didn't do between 2020 and 2023 - the Eagles, Baystars and Fighters.  The Eagles would have made the most sense since they were celebrating their 20th season this past year.  Instead of a full set, however, BBM expanded the Eagles "comprehensive" team set to include what was basically a 36 card 20th Anniversary subset.