Panini Blog
Panini Blog
If you’ve spent any time at all in the trading card section of your neighborhood Target store in recent weeks, you’ve probably noticed a star-studded poster promoting the impending arrival of 2014-15 Excalibur Basketball, Panini America’s third and final Target-only NBA product of the 2014-15 collecting season that begins shipping to stores on Monday.
To help retail-minded collectors properly prepare for what to expect from Excalibur, today we offer a detailed first look at the product, including a breakdown of the three unique SKUs (Premium, Blaster and Gravity-Feed) and information on several inclusions that should strike a favorable chord with long-time collectors.
The two aspects of 2014-15 Excalibur Basketball that likely will resonate most with collectors young and old are these:
- Panini America’s Optichrome-enhanced Crusade insert comes to Excalibur.
- The popular Kaboom! original-artwork insert from Hungarian illustrator Gyula Nemeth that premiered last season in 2013-14 Innovation Basketball has a new home in Excalibur — and it’s perhaps even rarer this year. Nemeth has delivered another fascinating batch of original artwork for this year’s Kaboom! and we’ve showcased some of the images in the gallery that follows in their pre-printed, “pre-technology” format.
In fact, here’s a quick look at the progression of Kobe Bryant’s 2014-15 Excalibur Basketball Kaboom! card posted earlier today on the Panini America Instagram account:
A closer look at the three Excalibur formats:
Premium: Each Premium box of 2014-15 Excalibur Basketball delivers three autograph or memorabilia cards and at least three Crusade cards numbered to 149 or less. The Premium version also includes the ultra-rare and aforementioned Kaboom! insert and Premium-exclusive chases in the Rookie Rampage Duals, Rookie Rampage Duals Prime, Quest Signatures, High Praise Signatures and Majestic Marks Signatures inserts.
Blaster: Each Blaster box delivers one autograph or memorabilia card. Also look for the Blaster-exclusive Rookie Rampage Jumbo memorabilia insert with Prime versions numbered to 25 and the Sultans of Springfield oversized memorabilia cards. Other Blaster-only features include Blue parallels and autograph versions of Rookie Rampage Jumbo and Rookie Rampage Jumbo Prime.
Gravity-Feed: Find two autograph or memorabilia cards per Gravity-Feed box and Gravity-Feed-exclusive Knights of the Round (one in 29 packs) and Orange parallels (one per pack on average).
Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance early next week for continued coverage of 2014-15 Excalibur Basketball, including a must-see Quality Control Gallery and a more revealing look at Kaboom! Until then, though, enjoy this extended first look.
All information is accurate at the time of posting – content is subject to change. Card images are solely for the purpose of design display. Actual images used on cards to be determined.
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