SERIES 40

ProStars Series 40 would prove to be the final regular series released by Corinthian and they bowed out in style with another fantastic set of 12 figures which included 4 first time sculpts.

 

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We have 2 re paints released in Barcelona home kit, which see Lilian Thuram and Eidur Gudjohnsen both have 1,607 blisters produced, with Thuram last appearing in Series 20 and Gudjohnsen back in Series 12.

 

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One last time Corinthian were impartial and released 2 figures for both halves of Milan, for Inter Milan we have Cristian Chivu who was an easy repaint after his debut appearance in Series 39, with 1,327 blisters. He is joined by Julio Cruz which was an all new sculpt of the Argentine forward with just 1,327 blisters made. Shockingly this is actually the second figure Corinthian released of Cruz, he did appear in the Dutch club range of Headliners for Feyenoord, it never clicked that this was actually the same player, i even had to get it confirmed by Dutch collecting legend Lennart Van Der Winkel.

 

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For AC Milan we have defensive master Alessandro Nesta with the sculpt being the same as last seen in Series 17, with 1,687 blisters produced, the highest in this series. The honour of being the last blister produced in a regular series goes to Clarence Seedorf, a fitting tribute to the man who; at the time of writing this in January 2023 was still the only player to win the Champions League with 3 different clubs! This sculpt of Seedorf was first used in the AC Milan Champions Of Europe 2007 team pack, and Corinthian made 1,327 blisters of Seedorf.

 

 

We will stay in Italy and we have Adrian Mutu released for Fiorentina, with there being 1,327 blisters released and the figure is the same as seen in Series 23. Daniele De Rossi gets his only regular blister release, with him featuring in his beloved Roma kit, with 1,327 blisters made.

 

 

Continuing Corinthians strive for impartiality we have 2 first time sculpts released for the Manchester Clubs, for City we have Brazilian midfielder Elano, a fine sculpt and he was the lowest produced blister in this series with just 1,054 made. The red half of Manchester is represented by Polish goal keeper Tomasz Kuszczak, this is the only Corinthian figure of the player and with just 1,235 to go around he was soon in short supply and can be incredibly hard to pick up.

 

 

Steve Finnan gets a regular blister release for Liverpool after debuting in the Liverpool Champions Of Europe 2005 team pack, with Corinthian making just 1,243 blisters, he is another which can prove elusive. Completing the series is Mikel Arteta for Everton, another who was only released once and there are only 1,055 blisters made, so again he is very hard to pick up and many of those figures are sought after by re painters to be painted in an Arsenal kit.

 

 

In total Corinthian made just 16,123 blisters for ProStars Series 40 which was by some margin the lowest volume of any regular series, crazy to think that the Inamoto blister in Series 21 had more than this entire series, as Corinthian made 16,564 of that particular blister!. The average blister production works out at 1,343 each.

 

 

Corinthian produced 2 special redemption figures for ProStars Series 40, which are Julio Cruz for Inter Milan and Eidur Gudjohnsen for Barcelona, both in their respective 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. 

 

 

ProStars Series 40 was released in July 2008, with blisters priced at £3 each and Corinthian also made the series available in a case assortment, which contained all 12 blisters and 1 platinum pack, with the case assortment costing £36.

 

 

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.