CONVENTION 2006 SERIES

Corinthian held an annual convention which brought together collectors from all over the world. The Convention was the highlight of the collecting calendar and something which all collectors looked forward too, even if they were unable to attend the event personally.

 

 

The 2006 Corinthian Convention was held at Villa Park, taking place on the 20th & 21st of May, with Corinthian releasing a special series of 9 players in international kits to be released at the event.

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Alberto Gilardino is in Italy home kit, the sculpt being the same as we saw previously in ProStars Series 27 and 31, with Jared Borgetti here in Mexico home kit, having first been released in ProStars Series 32 for Bolton Wanderers.

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This was a brand new sculpt of Thierry Henry and is; in my opinion, the finest sculpt Corinthian created of Henry, and with only 1,621 being made it would prove to be a rare one and can be very hard. Ji-Sung Park is in the home kit of South Korea, his first release was for Manchester United as part of ProStars Series 31, and as with the United figure this one also proved incredibly popular.

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Mark Van Bommel is in Holland home kit, the sculpt also featured in ProStars Series 31 for Barcelona, while Frederik Ljungberg is in Sweden kit, the sculpt also formed part of the Arsenal FA Cup Winners 2006 pack and again for the Gunners in ProStars Series 32.

 

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This was the very first release of midfield enforcer Michael Essien, here in his Ghana home kit, with the figure being released later on in Chelsea home kit as part of ProStars Series 36 Stars of the Season. This Essien is a very fine sculpt and one which I was very excited to pick up from the convention.

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The series would also give collectors the only ever Corinthian figure of Lionel Messi in the kit of Argentina, and was the first blister release of this particular Messi sculpt, the only 2 other blisters which used this Messi sculpt are the ProStars Series 33 Stars of the Season and the incredibly rare Brazil Craques da Bola Series.

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Corinthian produced almost twice as many for Messi as they did for any other player in this series, a total of 4,321 blister packs were made, however given his rise in popularity to almost God like status, it simply was not enough and his blister can be incredibly hard to find, with the Platinum Pack been highly sought after, but only 360 of those exist!

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Despite all the other excellent sculpts in this series, one stands out from the rest and that is of German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger. This would prove to be the only ProStars figure Corinthian would ever release of Schweinsteiger, with 2,521 blisters made and of course the 360 Platinum Packs. An incredibly popular figure and he falls just behind Messi from this set in terms of rarity.

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I was at the 2006 Corinthian Convention and vividly recall seeing this series on sale, with the blister packs flying of the racks as staff struggled to keep up with customer demand. In the concourse area collectors were already swapping the Platinum Packs; which were given away for every £20 spent, with traders desperate to get hold of as many Messi, Park and Schweinsteiger Platinum Packs as they could, already seeing the future demand for the packs.

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The figures were released as blister packs and came with an individually numbered collector card. Platinum Packs were also produced with 360 of each being made, all came with an individually numbered collector card.

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