SERIES 15
 

The world was gripped by World Cup fever, with the 2002 tournament being jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea and Corinthian released a set of England figures in time for kick off, with ProStars Series 15 being an all England release, consisting of 20 players and the manager.

 

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The figures were on a specially designed England backing card, and along with the single blisters, Corinthian also released 6 different 3 figure packs, as well as a 12 figure team pack which was exclusive to Argos.

 

 

Series 15 was largely made up of previously released figures, however there are some first time and new sculpts amongst them, as we get an all new sculpt of David Seaman, complete with pony tail. Nick Barmby makes his one and only appearance in the ProStars range, which was a fresh sculpt as was that of Nigel Martyn, who was first released as a ProStars figure in the England 1999-2000 team pack.

 

 

There is also a new sculpt of Steve McManaman and Gary Neville, worth mentioning this is actually the only series blister release of Neville and he was also exclusive to Series 15, he was the only figure from this set not also released in one of the 3 packs or the 12 pack.

 

 

Owen Hargreaves was the standout new sculpt in my eyes, with the released figure differing body pose wise to the master model shown on the collector card.

 

 

The rest of the line up is Rio Ferdinand, Alan Smith, Robbie Fowler, Emile Heskey, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, Andy Cole, Joe Cole, Sol Campbell, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes, Wes Brown, Teddy Sheringham, David Beckham and manager Sven Goran Eriksson. 

 

 

Worth mentioning that Beckham was also released in the England Then & Now 4 pack, the kit is identical but the PRO collector code is different, also identifiable by the boots, the Series 15 has him with White boots while the 4 pack version sees him wearing Black boots. Eriksson also features in that 4 pack and series 15 with the figures identical in appearance, the only difference is their PRO collector codes.

 

 

ProStars Series 15 saw a major change to the Platinum Packs, as Corinthian had listened to feedback given from resellers and collectors and fully redesigned the Platinum Packs.

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• Corinthian designed an all new Platinum colour backing card, based on the ProStars branded blister card.

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• A new collector card certificate of authenticity came issued with each Platinum Pack, this would replace the standard collector card. It did not state how many of each were produced but did say no more than 360 were produced.

 

• A limited edition Silver based ProStars figure with unique PP collector code, which was only available in the Platinum Packs.

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This version of the Platinum Pack was used from ProStars Series 15 right up to series 25, as well as being used for various other issues, such as some World Club Legends, Collector's Editions and Liverpool Treble Winners team packs. This change did wonders for the Platinum Pack and instantly increased their appeal and collectability as they differentiated from the regular blisters and had a premium product aesthetic appeal to them.

 

 

Corinthian produced 2 special redemption figures for Series 15 & 16, which see Jose Luis Chilavert in Paraguay kit and Claudio Lopez in Argentina home kit, these figures were not available for direct sale, only by collecting the tokens found on the collectors information leaflets in Series 15 & 16, however Corinthian did not state how many of each were produced and they did not make platinum packs for those redemption figures.

 

 

Series 15 blister packs were available from collector centres from 11th March 2002, with blisters priced at £3 each and you could also order the figures from Corinthian Direct as figure and card in sachet for £2.49. Included in each pack was the figures collector card and Corinthian ran a free redemption figure offer, with 6 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 collector card stating it was produced in quantities no higher 360, in actuality all Platinum Packs in Series 15 were limited to just 180 of each, the exceptions being Michael Owen and David Beckham of which only 100 were made!

 

 

Corinthian did not make public how many of each blister pack were produced, only to say that the best seller in the series was of course David Beckham, with Owen in second place and Eriksson third. The ones made in the lowest volume were Brown, Barmby, Martyn and Neville.