Corinthian's first series release of the 2004/05 season was ProStars Series 26 Midfield Maestros, which is a 16 figure release comprised entirely of playmakers and dynamos that dominate the centre of the park. 

 

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No midfield series could be considered complete without the inclusion of the bulldog Edgar Davids, one of the all time best sculpts created by Corinthian. Davids is released in the home kit of Inter Milan and was the highest blister volume in the series with 12,157, which accounted for almost 18% of the entire blister production for the series. 

 

 

An all new sculpt of Inter Milan club captain Javier Zanetti was created for the series, with 3,337 blisters being released.AC Milan have just one figure in the series which is a new sculpt of Manuel Rui Costa, with 6,757 blisters.

 

 

We have 2 first time sculpts for Roma, those being Damiano Tommasi and Simeone Perrotta, with 2,978 blisters for Tommasi and just 1,897 for Perrotta, which was the lowest in this series. The reason for the low blister production on Perrotta is that he was initially planned to be released for Chievo, however he moved to Roma during the Summer transfer window. 

 

 

Although not at the heights they were a couple of years ago, Corinthian figures were still popular in Japan, so it was no surprise to see Corinthian release Shunsuke Nakamura for Reggina, producing 8,732 blisters, a large percentage of those were sold to Japanese collectors.

 

 

For Arsenal we have Patrick Vieira, his first series release since Series 16, with 2,802 blisters made which was a low number for such a popular player. Chelsea have 2 first time sculpts in Arjen Robben and Claude Makelele, with 5,434 makelele blisters and 4,354 Robben.

 

 

We also have 2 figures for Manchester United and like Vieira, Roy Keane gets his first series appearance since Series 16, with 3,695 blisters made. Darren Fletcher was a first time sculpt and would never be released as a ProStars figure again, making this very collectible, with just 2,435 blisters made, which is a low number for a unique Manchester United figure.

 

 

Corinthian released a new sculpt of Harry Kewell in the Liverpool home kit, with 3,583 blisters produced, and for Middlesbrough we have the little Brazilian Juninho, this was an all new sculpt from the one seen in the FAPL Collection, with 2,075 blisters made.

 

 

Manchester City are represented by a first time sculpt in Shaun Wright-Phillips, with Corinthian making 2,494 blisters. The series is brought to completion by 2 figures for Bolton Wanderers, the first figures Corinthian had released for Botlon since 1995! 

 

 

Jay Jay Okocha was first released for Nigeria as the 2004 Convention Special, with Corinthian making 3,157 Bolton Wanderers blisters. My personal favourite from this series is Ivan Campo, this was the first and only ProStars figure of the Spaniard, with 2,347 blisters produced.

 

 

In total Corinthian made 68,234 blisters for Series 26 Midfield Maestros, which was over 20,000 fewer than Series 25, with an average blister production of 4,264 per figure.

 

 

Corinthian produced 2 special redemption figures for Series 26 Midfield Maestros, which are Edgar Davids and Shunsuke Nakamura, both in their respective club away kits. Collectors were able to directly purchase the redemption figures, which were priced at £5 and came in clear sachet with a non numbered collector card, you could still collect the tokens and claim the redemption figures that way.

 

 

Series 26 Midfield Maestros was released on the 25th October 2004 with blisters priced at £3 each and Corinthian also made the series available in a case assortment, which contained all 16 blisters plus the 2 redemption sachets and 1 platinum pack.. Included in each pack was the figures collector card and Corinthian ran a free redemption figure offer, with 8 tokens needed to claim one of the special redemption figures.

 

 

Along with the regular blister packs, Corinthian produced something special called the Platinum Pack, these were produced in much lower numbers and not available for direct sale, they were given away free for money spent with Corinthian Direct. The figures are identical to those in the standard blister but are on a Silver base and assigned a PP (Platinum Pack) collector code, which was the same code as the PRO version, with the figure then placed on a specially designed Platinum Pack blister card, coming with an individually numbered collector card with just 360 of each being produced.