SERIES 20

ProStars Series 20 was an all Italian Serie A release, which was the first exclusive Italian club range since the SuperStars in 1996!

 

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Series 20 features 16 figures from 9 of the top sides in Italy's Serie A, so we will start our journey in Milan and we have a new sculpt of Brazil play maker Rivaldo in home kit, joined by club captain Paolo Maldini in away kit. The other half of Milan is represented by Francesco Toldo, Fabio Cannavaro in Inter Milan away kit and the best seller in the series a new sculpt of Christian Vieri, in Inter home kit.

 

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Onto the capital now and Roma have a first time sculpt in Emerson and another release of Francesco Totti, both in Roma 2001/02 home kit. For Lazio we have a first time sculpt in Stefano Fiore, worth mentioning that Corinthian would never release this figure again.

 

 

Juventus have 3 figures in the series, a new sculpt of Lilian Thuram, Gianluigi Buffon in the fetching Black and Pink jersey, and the first series release of Pavel Nedved, in Juventus away kit.

 

 

Roberto Muzzi was the first figure Corinthian had released of Udinese since Giovanni Stroppa in the SuperStars range of 1996, safe to say this Muzzi figure would not reach those levels of rarity. In fact, Corinthian would release 2 more Udinese figures, Zico in the Reseller Specials series and Vincenzo Iaquinta in the Calcio 2007 4 pack.

 

 

The final 3 figures were all first time sculpts and for clubs Corinthian had never released players from before, with all 3 sculpts never been used again, nor would Corinthian release any ProStars figures from their respective clubs. For Chievo we have Eugenio Corini, Cristiano Doni for Atalanta and Dario Hubner for Piacenza. I should mention that Corinthian did plan another Chievo figure, as Simeone Perrotta in series 26 for Roma was initially planned to be released in Chievo kit, prior to his transfer.

 

 

The Series 20 line up also saw 2 amendments from the provisional line up Corinthian advertised in the Mail Order Catalogue 2002/2003, as the plan was to have Alessandro Nesta in AC Milan home kit and Hernan Crespo in Inter Milan home kit, however they were replaced by Lilian Thuram and Christian Vieri.

 

 

ProStars Series 20 sold exceptionally well for Corinthian, especially in Japan where Italy's Serie A was the most popular European league and i always got the impression this series was done at the request of their Japanese distributor and stockists.

 

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Series 20 was released on the 20th January 2003, 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 however Corinthian did not produce any redemption figures for this release.

 

 

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.

 

 

Corinthian did not make public how many of each blister pack were produced, only to say that the best seller in the series was Christian Vieri. The ones made in the lowest volume were Muzzi, Corini, Hubner and Fiore.