CHRISTMAS SPECIALS

The Corinthian Collector Club was incredibly popular, with different levels of membership tailored to suit every type of collector. There were many benefits to being a collector club member, one of which is that as part of your membership package you would receive the Christmas Special Edition figure!

The Christmas specials came on a very festive looking backing card which did not have a butterfly hook or a j hook as this was a non retail product, it was only available to collector club members who joined at Silver level and above, with the blister being sent out to members just in time for Christmas, providing you had been a good collector all year of course.

The Christmas 2000 Special Edition was chosen to be Luis Figo in Portugal away kit, he was chosen to commemorate Figo's move from Barcelona to bitter rivals Real Madrid, for a then world record transfer fee of £37,000,000! It was never disclosed exactly how many they produced, it was just said to be less than 7,000.

The Christmas 2001 Special Edition was Teddy Sheringham in Manchester United 2001/02 home kit, with Teddy chosen as he won both the PFA and Football Writer's Player of the Year awards.

The Christmas 2002 Special Edition was Ronaldo in Brazil 2002 home kit, an obvious choice as Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA world footballer of the year awards. Ronaldo scored 8 goals at the 2002 World Cup hosted by Japan and Korea and was a major force in them winning the tournament.

The Christmas 2003 Special Edition was Diego Maradona in Argentina home kit, this was a brand new sculpt which was also saw released in the club colours of Napoli as part of the 'ProStars Legends of the 70's & 80s Series 2'

The Christmas 2004 Special Edition is my personal favourite of all the Christmas Specials, Fabio Capello. This is an excellent sculpt of the Italian manager and the only figure Corinthian would ever release of him.

The figures were released as single blister packs and came with collector card.