2014 EDITION FOIL BAG

The 2014 edition of the SoccerStarz blind bag was a complicated and controversial series!

 

Before we come to the complications and controversy which surrounded this series, it is best to detail how it was released. There 3 versions released, a Generic bag, Manchester United bag and a Scotland Bag. The Generic bag contained figures from all club teams, The Manchester United bag of course contained just Manchester United SoccerStarz, while the Scotland bag contained Scotland national kit SoccerStarz, Celtic SoccerStarz and also Scotish players from other clubs, along with Sir Alex Ferguson.

 

The range complicated due to the fact it was impossible to confidently say which figures were actually included in the range, let alone on what base colours they were released on, which is where the controversy started. The 2014 edtion blind bag contained a heavy percentage of GREEN base figures, whcih led many a collector to assume all that SoccerStarz had done was to open unsold blister pack stock and place the figures into the 2014 blind bags. Further weight was added to this theory when figures of Mourinho inside the blind bag actually came with his collector card, this also happened to other figures on odd occassions too.

 

Another grievance collectors had with the product was the fact it contained some figures from the Chelsea 2012 Champions League Winners Team Pack, again this was SoccerStarz usin unsold stock to fill out a blind bag series and deliberatley deceive an unaware customer. The mix of figures was poor to say the least, with many collectors finding multiples of the same figure on a strip of bags, some buying 9 bags to find 4 or 5 of them were Petr Cech from the Chelsea Team Pack on BLUE base!

 

These issues were put to the team behind SoccerStarz, who chose to take the standard toy company line and hid behind the get out clause of 'styles and colours may vary from this illustrated' which was a pretty poor response to what was a blatant and obvious case of a product being falsely advertised!

 

It was not all negative though, this series did give collectors some exclusive SoccerStarz, the most notable of which is Kerim Frei for Fulham. Frei had left Fulham for Tukish side Besiktas, which resulted in his blister pack release being cancelled, however it appears some had already been packed into the 2014 edition blind bag. SoccerStarz themselves were even shocked by the appearance of Frei in the bag, something which was a genuine factory error. The Kerim Frei Fulham figure is considered by most collectors to be the rarest ever released, with a GREEN base Frei been seen my some as the "Holy Grail"

 

Manchester United fans were pleased to see that the SoccerStarz figurine of coach Mike Phelan was included in the Manchester United version blind bag, having previously only being included insdie the 20th League Title Team Pack. The Phelan SoccerStarz was released on all 7 base colours, Green, Red, Blue, White, Silver, Gold and Black.

 

There were also 4 other bag exclusives, all from London club Queens Park Rangers. Those 4 being Djibril Cisse, Adel Taarabt, Esteban Granero and Stephane Mbia, they were not released as blister packs, the only way to obtain them was via the 2014 edition blind bag, but they were not common, with GREEN bases proving very elusive.

 

One other anomaliy worty of note is the Casillas figure, in the blister pack the name on his base reads 'IKER CASILLAS' however the figure inside the blind bag has his name as 'I.CASILLAS' only a minor detail but something worth mentioning for those collectors who wish to collect these variants.

 

It is without doubt that sales of the product suffered due to the poor mix of figures and the obundence of GREEN base figures included, with the result been that SoccerStarz resorted to giving the bags away FREE with various promotions. Once again they had failed to deliver what was advertised, collectors could only hope the next series would be far better put together, with the correct mix of players and base colours.