Panini SuperStars of Football

Euro 2016

SoccerStarz collaborated with Italian sticker giants Panini to produce a range of figures for the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament, being held in France.

 

The range consisted of 24 SoccerStarz figurines, one from each nation competing at the Euro 2016 tournament, which meant collectors would get some first time sculpts and also a few which would quite possibly never be released again.

 

In total there are 7 new sculpts in the range, which were Lorik Cana for Albania, Balázs Dzsudzsák for Hungary, Razvan Rat represented Romania, Igor Akinfeev for Russia, Gokhan Inler for Switzerland, Arda Turan for Turkey and Ukaine were represented by Andriy Yarmolenko! These 7 sculpts were superb additions to the SoccerStarz collection and it is quite likely without this range the majority of those would otherwise not have been released.

 

Although the other 17 figures in the range had been released previously for either club or nation, some  were in different body poses to those figures, further making this range stand out. The figures were all on a SILVER base, with the words 'UEFA EURO 2016' on the base, followed by the layers name, while the kits the figures were painted in were a simplified kit, with the nations badge in the centre of the shirt with the nation name underneath.

 

The figures were released inside foil bags, with each bag containing one randomly packed Panini SuperStars of Football figurine, along with a packet of UEFA Euro 2016 France Panini stickers. Each pack retailed at £2.50 and was released across Europe, from April onwards. Each Box contained 18 packets, so you could not easily obtain a full set, as you could with the Belgian Carrefour release. There were 3 different bag versions, each featured 8 players on the front, so from the 3 variants all 24 in the set were featured.

 

Opinion amongst collectors was divided, all agreed the idea of doing 1 per nation was superb and loved the obscure sculpts of players like Cana, Rat and Dzsudzsak, however not all were keen on the simplified kits or the Silver bases, however my personal opinion is that these subtle changes made the range stand out from the regular SoccerStarz collection and these changes were necessary to get the product released on schedule, with at times over 1000 employees were working on producing the figures in China.

 

A superb set and the perfect way to remember the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament in France, did you obtain a full set?