2024 BBM Fusion

2024 BBM Fusion Set Summary

Size: 144 cards numbered 1-99, TH01-TH24, 601-620, 136
Cards Per Team:  Variable
Team Card Theme:  N/A
Number Of Leader Cards:  24
Checklists:  None
Subsets:  Title Holder (24), Rookie Edition Update(1), 1st Version Update (20)
Inserts:  Ceremonial First Pitch (31), Great Record (24), Legendary Player (12), Treasure (12, /25), Esperanza (24, /50)

Memorabilia Cards: There are three different types of autographed card available - "Team Pack Version" (cards in the style of the format for the autograph cards in the player's team set), "Autograph" and "Picturesque".  There are two versions of autographed cards for the "First Pitch Ceremony" cards as well - the "silver paper" version is the more rare of the two - not all the "First Pitch Ceremony" cards have autographed versions though.
Parallels:  12 regular player cards have a "secret" alternate photo version.  36 regular player cards have three facsimile signature parallels - gold (/100), blue (/75) and holo (/50).  "Title Holder" cards have four parallels - "silver paper" (/200), "gold paper" (/100), "silver paper + holo PP" (/50) and "gold paper + holo PP" (/25).  "Great Record" insert cards have six facsimile signature parallels - "kiwi green" (/200), "gold" (/100), "holo blue" (/75), "holo" (/50), "red" (/25) and "royal purple" (/10).  "Legendary Player" insert cards have the same six parallels as the "Great Record" cards but they're not facsimile signatures - I think they're just the finish on the cards.  "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards have five parallels - "Holo PP" (/300), "Silver Paper" (/200), "Gold Paper" (/100), "Silver Paper + Holo PP" (/50) and "Gold Paper + Holo PP" (/25).
Notable Rookies: None 

Fusion, BBM's Frankenstein of a set that serves annually as the third installment of their flagship set as well as a "season in review" set, was the last of the four sets I received last week.  I always like this set but I always hate trying to write about it.

The base set contains 144 cards which this year are separated into four parts (usually it's only three).  There are 99 "Hall Of Records" cards which are pretty much the "regular" player cards (in as much as there are "regular" player cards in this set).  These cards contain both active and OB players and are numbered 01 to 99.  There are 24 "Title Holder" cards which are numbered TH01 to TH24.  There are 20 "1st Version Update" cards that are numbered 601 to 620 which continues the numbering from the 2nd Version set which in turn continued the numbering started in the 1st Version set.  And finally there's a one card "Rookie Edition Update" card that's numbered 136 since this year's Rookie Edition set had 135 cards.  So four different parts, four different numbering systems.  That's not confusing at all, right?

The 99 "Hall Of Records" cards serve as kind of a season summary but it's really not that straight forward.  In general, each event from 2024 that is highlighted on a card is followed in the set by another card highlighting a related event in the past.  Sometimes there are multiple cards from either 2024 or the past in the sequence.  I know this is confusing (although you'd think after nine years I'd be able to come up with a description that wasn't confusing) so let me show an example.  On June 25, Masato Morishita of the Carp threw a complete game shutout against the Swallows while throwing less than 100 pitches - what's called a "Maddux".  In addition, Morishita also had three hits while batting in the game, making him the first pitcher to have three hits in the same game in which he threw a "Maddux" since Kazuhisa Inao in 1968.  Morishita's card is card #50:

#50

Inao's card is the next one, card #51:

 

#51

If I counted correctly, there are 50 "Hall Of Records" cards that represent events from 2024.  As usual, I'm not sure what a lot of the events are (although I'd find out by looking at the cards with Google Translate) although I know that there are cards for both Shogo Togo and Daichi Ohsera's no-hitters.  I was a little disappointed that none of the games I went to last May ended up being included.  

It's kind of weird this year that some of the more prominent players in NPB aren't in the subset.  Munetaka Murakami, Hiroto Takahashi (two cards), Tetsuto Yamada and Tomoyuki Sugano are probably the biggest names.  No Kazuma Okamoto, Yuki Yanagita, Kensuke Kondoh, Yuki Okabayashi or Chusei Mannami.  (Kondoh does appear in the "Title Holder" cards.)  Roki Sasaki appears in the "Hall Of Records" cards but not for any 2024 events - Darwinzon Hernandez broke Sasaki's record for consecutive innings with a strike out to start the season so he's the "historic event" paired with Hernandez.  

Despite the lack of star power, the cards look pretty nice.  There's some good photos and several alternate uniforms are highlighted.  Here's a few of the cards:

#07

#40

#48

#58

#76

#78

Most of the 49 "historic events" in the set are represented by retired players.  I think the only players who are still active are the afore-mentioned Sasaki, Shogo Akiyama, Seiya Suzuki and Ryoji Kurabayashi (who also has a "2024 event" card).  The retired players are also a little lacking in star power with the biggest names being Sadaharu Oh, Hideki Matsui and Shigeru Sugishita.  BBM kept their streak going of having a card of a famous player with a team you don't think of him with - this year it's Kazuhiro Yamauchi with the Carp rather than the Orions or Tigers.  Here's some examples (including Yamauchi):

#06

#24

#20

#10

#61

The Title Holder cards are a throwback to the Leader subset cards BBM used to include in their flagship sets between 1991 and 2013*.  There are a total of 24 cards (numbered TH01 to TH24) that include the leader (or leaders) in twelve statistical categories for each league -  Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, Hits, OBP, Stolen Bases, ERA, Winning Percentage, Wins, Saves, Hold Points and Strikeouts.  If a player leads the league in multiple categories then he has multiple cards in this subset - for example, Munetaka Murakami has two cards since he led the CL in home runs and OBP.  Kensuke Kondoh, Hotoka Yamakawa, Tomoyuki Sugano and Hiromi Itoh also have two cards.  If more than one player tie for the lead in a category they all appear on the card so Itoh shares his card for leading the PL in wins with Kohei Arihara.  This year there's only one other card with multiple players - Shinya Matsuyama and Takuma Kirishiki tied for the CL lead in hold points.  Here's a couple of these cards so you can see what they look like:

#TH03

#TH18

* The big difference is that the "Leader" subset used to include award winners like MVP, Rookie Of The Year and Sawamura but the cut off for Fusion's publication is the end of the regular season and the awards aren't announced until roughly two months later.

The "1st Version Update" subset features cards of 20 players who were either not included in this year's 1st Version set or the "1st Version Update" subset from the 2nd Version set or were traded since their earlier appearance.  The only player in that latter category is Gakuto Wakabayashi of the Giants, who appeared in the 2nd Version set (regular card, not "1st Version Update") as a member of the Lions (the player he was traded for, Seiya Matsubara, is not in the set).  There are a couple other players in the subset who changed teams either last off season or during the season but didn't make it into either the 1st or 2nd Version set (Shun Mizutani, Luis Perdomo and Daiju Nomura).  There's several foreign players who didn't sign with NPB teams until mid-season (Dallas Keuchel, Coco Montes and Elier Hernandez).  The bulk of the players in the subset appears to be former ikusei players who graduated to their teams' 70 man rosters this year including some veterans who were rehabbing after injuries (Haruto Takahashi, Haruto Inoue, Sho Iwasaki and Ayumu Ishikawa).  Here's a couple examples:

#611

#601

#620

Normally there are 21 "1st Version Update" cards but this year, BBM decided to add a "Rookie Edition Update" card.  With their first pick in the ikusei portion of the 2023 draft, the Swallows had taken Shosei Takahashi, a high school student from Taiwan who has dual citizenship for Taiwan and Japan (which forces him to have to go through the draft to join NPB).  Takahashi (whose registered name is actually "Shosei") wasn't able to officially join Yakult until he graduated from high school in June which prevented him from being able to appear on a baseball card until now:

#136

The "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards are short printed and not considered part of the base set but I decided to get them anyway, which increased the price I paid for the set quite a bit.  The 31 cards are numbered FP33 to FP63 in continuation of the same subset in the 2nd Version set.  If you're not familiar with this subset, it features various Japanese celebrities throwing out the first pitch at a ballgame.  As usual I don't know who many of these people are but it's always kind of entertaining researching them.  There's the usual group of Gravure Idols including two members of Nogizaka46 (Hazuki Makai and Shiori Kubo) and two members of Aozora (Yui Kudo and Eren Sugiura) and one member of NMB48 (Chihiro Kawakami) along with Yumena Yanei and Kasumi Mori who don't appear to be associated with any group (and I may be mis-categorizing).  There are several singers (and it may be extremely hair splitting about whether these could be considered Idols as well) including two members of Morning Musume (Erina Ikuta and Ayumi Ishida) along with Haruka Nagata of Green-Yellow Society, Ayaka Sasaki of Momoiro Clover Z, Gakuto Oshio (Gackt) and Hitomi Furuya (hitomi).  There were a bunch of voice actors and actresses, several of whom are also singers - Honoko Inoue, Maaya Uchida, Yuri Komagata, Arisa Komiya, Ai Furihata, Minori Suuzki, Natsumi Murakami and Toshiyuki Morikawa - along with several actors and actresses - Yuuka Suzuki, Anna Yamada, Shiori Tamada, Akane Osawa (granddaughter of the late Keiji Ohsawa, who has a couple stints managing the Fighters), and Keito Tsuna.  The subset also includes three gold medal winners from last summer's Paris Olympics and Para-Olympics - Tokito Oda (wheelchair tennis), Coco Yoshikawa (skateboarding) and Shinnosuke Oka (gymnastics).  The last two celebrities are TikToker Hina Kagel and comedian Hideharu Egashira (Egashira 2:50).  I was kind of disappointed (although not surprised) that the actors from "Abunai Deka" that I saw throw out the first pitch in Yokohama weren't in the subset.   Eight of the celebrities have appeared in earlier versions of this subset - Yuri Komagata and Hazuki Makai were both in 2023 Fusion; Yuukai Suzuki was in 2022 Fusion; Anna Yamada and Chihiro Kawakami were both in both 2022 and 2023 Fusion; Ayaka Sasaki was in 2018 Fusion and Akane Osawa was in 2007 2nd Version.  This is Shiori Kubo's fourth appearance in this subset with her previously having been in 2020 Fusion and 2021 and 2023 2nd Version.  Here are the cards of Osawa and Yoshikawa:

#FP46

#FP57

Fusion traditionally has two non-premium insert sets - "Great Record" and "Legendary Players".  I'm really only interested in the "Great Records set but I've never seen a listing that included it without the other set so I ended up getting both of them.

"Great Record" is a 24 card set that features two players from each team who achieved some milestone during the 2024 season.  Some of the milestones commemorated are Munetaka Murakami's 200th career home run, Tomoyuki Sugano's 1500th strikeout, Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh's 1000th hit and Tetsuto Yamada's 1500th hit.  Some teams didn't necessarily have two (or even one) major milestones this past season so the Buffaloes are represented by Taito Takashima's first career win and Seiya Yokoyama's first career hit.  The cards are super shiny this year which make them a little difficult to read both in person and when scanned.  There is a kind of nice, 3-D effect with them though.  Here's a couple examples:

#GR10

#GR13

The "Legendary Players" set has 12 cards - one for each team - showing OB players.  Each OB player also appeared in the "Hall Of Records" subset although not necessarily for the same team as here - for instance, Kazuhiro Yamauchi is a Daimai Orion in the subset rather than a Hiroshima Toyo Carp.  Other players in the set include Seiya Suzuki, Kazuhisa Inao, Matt Winters and Carlos Ponce.  These are also very shiny but a little more readable than the "Great Record" cards.  Here's Winter's card as an example:

#LP12

As always all the cards from the set can be seen over at Jambalaya.

2024 BBM 2nd Version set

 2024 BBM 2nd Version Set Summary

Size: 332 cards (cards numbered 337-600, the 32 cards of the "Ceremonial First Pitch" subset are separately numbered FP01-FP32 and 36 cards for the "Cross Earth" subset are separately numbered CE37-CE72)
Cards Per Team: 19 (team card + 18 players)
Team Card Theme: Early Season Candids
Number Of Leader Cards: N/A
Checklists: 0
Subsets: 1st Version Update (36), Ceremonial First Pitch (32), Cross Earth (36)
Inserts: Star Portraits (12), Fireworks (24), Coming Heroes (24), Combo Cross Foil Signing (13, /10), Treasure (36, /25), Foil Picturesque (12, /15)
Memorabilia Cards: Jersey cards for rookie Ryuki Watarai, Seiya Yokoyama, Yugo Maeda and Natsuki Takeuchi that are /200 along with patch versions that are /20.  There are two two-player combo jersey cards (Watari/Yokoyama and Maeda/Takeuchi) that are /20 with a patch version that is /5 as well as a combo jersey card featuring all four players that is /10 with a /5 patch version.  (Note that neither Yokoyama nor Maeda appear in the base set.)  There are autographed cards for players that use a landscape version of the "Cross Earth" cards that have print runs between 5 and 30 cards and "Special Autograph" cards autograph cards that are mostly #'d between 3 and 7 although there is a 1-of-1 for Watari.  .  There are autographed versions of 27 of the "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards with print runs between 25 and 50 with a silver parallel autographed version that are #'d to 5 or 10.  There are also three players with autograph cards using the format for the autograph cards in the player's team set - these are mostly for players who BBM was not able to include autograph cards in their team set.

Parallels: 12 cards (one per team) have a "Secret" version which is a short printed photo variation.  12 other cards (also one per team) have an "Ultra Secret" version which is an even shorter printed photo variation.  12 addition cards have a "Super Ultra Secret: version which is a yet even more short printed photo variation.  108 of the "regular" and "1st Version Update" cards have nine different parallel versions.  Seven of these are facsimile autographed versions - silver (unnumbered), gold (/100), blue (/75), hologram (/50), red (/25), purple (/10) and sky blue (1-of-1).  The other two parallels are a "glitter" finish on the cards, either gold (/100) or silver (/200).  Each "Cross Earth" card has two parallels - a "holo" version (/100) and a "1 of 1" version.  There are five different parallels for the "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards - "heart" (/300), silver (/200), gold (/100), silver holo (/50) and gold holo (/25).  The "Fireworks" inserts have seven parallels - "Gold" (/300), "Green" (/200), "Blue" (/100), "Orange" (/50), "Red" (/25), "Royal Purple" (/10) and "Sky Blue" (1-of-1).  There are four parallels for the "Star Portraits" inserts - "Gold" (/200), "Green" (/100), "Blue" (/50) and "Pink" (/25).  The "Coming Heroes" inserts also have four parallels - "Gold Leaf" (/200), "Light Green Leaf" (/100), "Crinkled Gold Leaf" (/50) and "Light Green Foil" (/25).

Notable Rookies: Natsuki Takeuchi, Ryuki Watarai

The last set in the box I received last week is the 2024 BBM 2nd Version set.  This is the second of BBM's three "flagship" sets, following 1st Version which was released back in April.  This set came out in early August and will be followed by Fusion, the final "flagship" set for the year, in late November (most likely).

This set follows the pattern that BBM's followed for each edition of this set for the past ten years (with the exception of 2020).  The base set contains 300 + n cards where n is the number of "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards (32 in this instance).  Those 300 cards are split between 216 "regular" player cards (18 per team), 36 "1st Version Update" cards (three per team), 36 "Cross Whatever" cards ("Cross Earth" this time and again it's three cards per team) and 12 team checklists.  Another way to look at it is that the set contains 25 cards per team - 18 "regular" player cards, three "1st Version Update" cards, three "Cross Earth" cards and a checklist.

I find the design of the regular cards to be just kind of ok.  I don't think I like the big white banner across the bottom of the card that much.  But at least it's kind of transparent.  The photos are decent - BBM typically has the best photo selection of any of the NPB card makers and there's some good shots in the set.  And, as always, the occasional horizontal photo is a big plus in my book.  Here's some examples:

#406

#538

#562

#522

#470

#492

Here's what the backs look like.  They have the player's stats up until May 13th:

#429 (Tomoyuki Sugano)

41 of the 216 players with "regular" cards did not appear in 1st Version.  There's a couple surprises in this list - for example I didn't remember that Livan Moinelo didn't have a card in 1st Version - but I think for the most part these are players who are making more of a contribution to their teams than BBM had initially expected.  Or just couldn't fit into 1st Version since there's only 27 cards per team and each team's entire rookie class has to be included (sorry, this is just something I've whined about for year).  As always I'm not sure why BBM decides to give some players who weren't in 1st Version "regular" 2nd Version cards and others "1st Version Update" cards although I kind of feel like BBM treats the "1st Version Update" cards as more of the "cards of record" for a player so I think they try to put the "bigger" players there.

Which brings us nicely to the "1st Version Update" cards.  As mentioned before, this subset subset contains 36 cards (3 per team) and uses the 2024 1st Version design to feature players who didn't appear in that set.  While lately this subset usually has a bunch of new foreign players who didn't join their team until late in the spring, there's only one this time - Anderson Espinoza of Orix.  Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh is in this subset since he didn't return to the Baystars until early May.  There's several former ikusei players who were registered to their team's 70 man roster this season although none of them were 2023 draftees so none of them have the "rookie" icon on their cards.  There seems to be a number of players who switched teams this past winter such as Neftali Soto, Rei Takahashi, Seiji Uebayashi and Hiroshi Kaino as well as players who again may have contributed more to their teams this year than BBM originally expected like Seiji Kobayashi, Makoto Aduwa and Koki Kitayama.  Here's some example cards:

#345

#351

#360

One change in this subset from previous editions of this set is that the backs of the cards have the player's 2024 stats up to May 13th.  In the past the stats on the backs of the cards stopped at the previous year.

I'm describing the theme for the team cards as "Early Season Highlights" but that's kind of a broad term.  Many of the cards show post game celebrations but several are obviously pre-game (the Marines card shows Roki Sasaki coming out of the dugout during the pre-game introductions while I think the Eagles card shows the team lined up on the field for Opening Night).  I'm not entirely sure what's happening on the Tigers card but I like the photo:

#589

For the roughly billionth year in a row, BBM has done a cross set subset and this year's iteration is called "Cross Earth".  Half of it was in the 1st Version set and the other half is in this one.  As I said when I wrote about it in my post on the 1st Version set, the "Cross Earth" cards aren't unattractive but I'm more than ready for BBM to move onto the their next gimmick.

#CE71

The set contains 32 "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards which I think is the most ever.  This subset has been short-printed ever since 2021 and getting it with the rest of the set probably doubled the amount I paid for the set.  As usual most of the people in the subset are Japanese celebrities who have no relationship to baseball although there's one former player - Hideki Matsui.  Figuring out who the other celebrities are is aways kind of interesting.  There's a bunch of comedians (Mikio Date of Sandwich Man, Kikuo Hayashiya and Yumiko Ishihara of Chitty Chitty Johnny), singers (Maki Watase of LINDBERG, Maria Makino of Morning Musume and Nanase Aikawa), a voice actress (Natsumi Fujiwara) and an announcer (Aika Kanda).  There's one actor (Toshiro Yanagiba), three actresses (Michiko Kichise, Wakana Matsumoto and Karin Tsuji) and two kabuki actors (Maholo Onoe and Koshiro Matsuyama).  There's the usual collection of Idols - Risa Yukihira, Rino Ichinose and Kanami Tsujino as well as Airin Hosokawa, daughter of former NPB player Toru Hosokawa.  There's also a "talent" (Tatsunori Tsujimoto) and an "infuencer" (Unparunpa).  The remaining subjects are all athletes of one form or another.  There's three pro wrestlers (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yota Tsuji and Mayu Iwatani), a jockey (Nanako Fujita), a cyclist (Mao Ogata), a boat racer (Takayuki Ishino) and a "bikini fitness" participant (Yuri Yasui).  There are two competitors from this year's Paris Olympics - Cocona Hiraki who won the silver medal for women's skateboarding and rugby player Chiharu Nakamura - along with two previous Olympians - Javelin thrower Genki Dean (2012 London) and volleyball player Saori Kimura (2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London where the team won bronze and 2016 Rio).

Several of the people featured in this subset have appeared in previous editions of it - Matsui (2013 and 2023 2nd Version), Matsumoto (2023 Fusion), Yukihira (2023 2nd Version & Fusion), Fujita (2018 2nd Version), Tanahashi (2019 2nd Version), Aikawa (2023 2nd Version).  Maria Makino is making her FIFTH appearance on one of these cards after previously being in the 2017 2nd Version, 2018 2nd Version, 2019 Fusion and 2021 2nd Version sets.  This breaks the tie she had had with Ruriko Kojima and Sadako for the second most "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards athough she's still far behind Ami Inamura's 14.

Here's the "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards for Makino and Matsui:

#FP31

#FP23

I was kind of amused and happy at the inclusion of "influencer" Uparunpa because I was at the game he threw the first pitch at - the Tigers - Dragons game at Nagoya Dome on May 15th.  Here's my photos of him followed by his card:

#FP29

As usual, you can see all the cards from the set over at Jambalaya.

2024 BBM 1st Version Set

 2024 BBM 1st Version Set Summary

Size: 372 cards numbered 1-336, CE01-CE36
Cards Per Team:  28 (team card, manager + 26 players)
Team Card Theme:  Spring Training
Number Of Leader Cards:  N/A
Checklists:  None
Subsets:  Cross Earth (36)
Inserts:  Japonism (12), Prince Of The Team (12), Amazing (24), 3D Cross Earth (12, #'d to 25), Cross Foil Signing (6 - all Giants, #'d to 15)
Memorabilia Cards: Jersey cards for Shoki Murakami, Roki Sasaki, Munetaka Murakami and Shunpeita Yamashita.  Each jersey card is serially numbered to 300 plus a parallel patch version numbered to 20.  There are also two different two player jersey cards (the two Murakamis on one and Sasaki and Yamashita on the other) numbered to 20 each with a parallel patch version of each numbered to 5.  There's also a "quad" memorabilia card with all four players on it serially numbered to 10 with a parallel patch version serially numbered to 5.  There are four different types of autographed card available - "Cross Signature", "Special Signature", "Japonism" and "Buyback Autographs".  The last features "buyback" BBM cards for 20 current and former players including Takahiro Arai, Munetaka Murakami, Atsunori Inaba and Go Matsumoto.  There is also a "Combo Autograph" card featuring Kaito Shimomura and Hayato Tsunehiro.
Parallels:  12 regular player cards have a "secret" short printed alternate photo version.  Another 12 have an "ultra secret" much more rare short printed alternate photo version and 12 others have a "super ultra secret" extremely rare short printed alternate photo version .  108 regular players cards (9 per team) have seven facsimile autograph parallels - silver, gold (#'d to 100), "holo blue" (#'d to 75), holograph (#'d to 50), red (#'d to 25), purple (#'d to 10) and sky blue (1 of 1) - this includes the "secret" versions of the cards as well (and I assume the numbering is separate but I don't know that for sure).  Additionally each of the 108 cards also has a "kira" parallel.  71 of the rookie cards (which I think is all of them) have eight numbered parallel versions - "Silver" (#'d to 300), "Blue" (#'d to 200), "Gold" (#'d to 100), "Pink" (#'d to 75), "Light Green" (#'d to 50), "Holo Foil" (#'d to 25), "Purple" (#'d to 10) and "Sky Blue Foil" (1 of 1).  The "Cross Earth" cards have two parallel versions - "Holo" (numbered to 100) and  "1 of 1".  There are four parallel versions for the "Prince Of The Team" inserts - "Gold" (#'d to 200), "Light Blue" (#'d to 100), ", "Light Green" (#'d to 40) and "Pink" (#'d to 25). The "Japonism" cards have seven parallels - "Gold" (#'d to 300), "Green" (#'d to 200), "Blue" (#'d to 100), "Holo" (#'d to 50), "Red" (#'d to 25), "Royal Purple" (#'d to 10) and "Sky Blue" (1 to 1).

Notable Rookies: Natsuki Takeuchi, Ryuki Watarai

I'm late getting around to writing about this set this year.  It was released back in late April so it's been out for over two months.  Normally I would have bought this set when it came out via ZenMarket or some other proxy bidder but it seemed kind of silly to pay the proxy fee as well as pay for international shipping to receive the set just a couple days before I left for Japan.  It made a lot more sense to get the set when I got to Japan, either by having Ryan pick one up for me from Yahoo! Japan Auctions or finding one in a store.  As it turned out, Ryan had gotten one for me before I arrived and handed it to me when we met up in Tokyo.

BBM issues their flagship set in three parts and this is the first part (which I guess is pretty obvious since it's called "1st Version").  For the tenth year in a row, it's a 372 card set which includes 324 "regular" player cards (27 per team including the manager), 12 team checklist cards and 36 cross set subset cards - the theme of them this year is "Cross Earth".

BBM has done an impressive job the past few years of combining an attractive card design with really good photography and this set is another example of that.  Here's a handful of sample cards - these aren't necessarily the best photos but I think a pretty good representation of what the cards in the set look like:

#153

#218

#075

#094

#314

#204

#114

One of the impressive things about BBM is their sets are always as up-to-date as possible.  This year's 1st Version set not only includes cards of players who changed teams over the winter like Sachiya Yamasaki, Hotaka Yamakawa and Cody Ponce, it also includes cards of many of the new import players like Franmil Reyes, Jesus Aguilar and Alex Dickerson.  Obviously all of those photos on those cards were taken this spring - as was the photo of Yuki Okabayashi on the card above (he switched his uniform number to #1 over the winter).  And unlike other manufacturers whose sets came out months after this set, all of the cards of the 2024 rookie class show them in action in training camp as opposed to posed shots from the team's introductory press conference or photo day (with exception of Sho Kusaka of the Dragons who had Tommy John surgery in January - his photo is a posed shot).  Here's rookie Natsuki Taneuchi of the Lions as an example:

#291

That said, there's at least a couple of guys who switched teams over the winter who aren't in this set - Neftali Soto of the Marines is the first person who comes to mind.  I assume he (and others like him) will be in the 2nd Version set when it gets released in August.

Here's what the card backs look like - pretty much the same as they've been for years:

#047 (Shogo Akiyama)

I picked up two of the "secret version" photo variant parallels at Quad Sports while I was in Japan.  To be fair, the photos on the base cards are pretty good too.  In each of the following pairs, the base card is on the left while the "secret version" is on the right:

#175

#283

As has been the case for the past few years (going back to 2016 actually), the photos on the team checklists were all taken during training camp.  They're all nice although I don't think any of them really stand out.  Here's the one for the Tigers - I'm not quite sure what this is:

#325

The "Cross Earth" cards are half of BBM's annual "cross set subset" - the other half will be in the 2nd Version set.  As usual the fronts of these feature a photo of a player superimposed on some common background while the backs show the original photo.  The background this year appears to be a lunar landscape with the Earth in the background.  They're not unattractive but I got bored with this concept ten years ago so I'm pretty much "meh" about them:

#CE23

The backs are a little different this year.  The player's photo appears in the outline of the Earth rather than just a standard rectangular photo:

#CE23

As always, you can see all the cards in the set (including parallels and inserts) over at Jambalaya.