SERIES 5
WINDOW BOX EDITION

Corinthian celebrated the new Millennium by releasing ProStars Series 5, the 'international' was dropped from the brand name, with Series 5 being their biggest release to date.

 

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ProStars Series 5 was once again a split release, with 24 figures released as single blister packs and 12 being released as a window box, with only the English and Scottish Premiership players getting released in the window box, the other 12 were initially planned but due to various licensing issues that was not possible.

 

 

The 12 figures in Window Box were available from newsagents and collector centres in a generic blue window box, however they were also available from their respective club shop in a club specific window box. These club specific window boxes are much harder to come by and were produced in much lower numbers, and is a set that is often missed and overlooked by collectors. 

 

 

ProStars Series 5 saw the very first release of Thierry Henry in the ProStars range, another very fine sculpt, released here in Arsenal 99/00 home kit. Dion Dublin is released in the home kit of Aston Villa, the sculpt being the same as released for Coventy City as part of the FAPL Collection.

 

 

Didier Deschamps is in Chelsea home kit, the sculpt was used twice in the Headliners range, for France and Juventus and also appeared in the Chelsea 1999-2000 team pack. Another who appeared in the team packs is Sander Westerveld for Liverpool, released here in Liverpool home kit.

 

 

Harry Kewell makes his ProStars debut, in the home kit of Leeds United, joined by an all new sculpt of Paul Ince, here in the Middlesbrough home kit. Kieron Dyer first appeared in the Newcastle United 1999-2000 team pack, he is in the same kit here but is assigned a different PRO collector code.

 

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Rio Ferdinand is in the West Ham United home kit, the sculpt first being used in the England 1999-2000 team pack. David Ginola gets a fresh sculpt, and one which is a vast improvement on the one used as part of the FAPL Collection, the talented Frenchman being one of the standout sculpts in this series, released here in Spurs home kit.

 

 

The best seller in this series was of course David Beckham in Manchester United home kit, a wonderful sculpt with Becks sporting his trademark curtain hair style and wearing red boots, with the team pack version in the same kit has him wearing black boots, a subtle but well received change by Corinthian.

 

 

The Scottish premiership is represented by both halves of Glasgow, as we Andrei Kanchelskis in

the Rangers home kit, his sculpt being the same as seen in the FAPL Collection. Completing the series is the highly anticipated release of Super Swede Henrik Larsson, complete with his dreadlocks, with the window box version seeing him in Celtic home kit, this is another highly detailed sculpt and a vastly popular figure upon it's release

 

 

ProStars Series 5 Window Boxes were available from the late February 2000, priced at £2.49 each, being available in newsagents such as Martin and R S McColl, as well as from the usual collector centres. Included in the window box was the figures collector card, one side has the figure image and the other has the player ratings, which you could fill in to create your own version of a top trumps style card game. 

 

 

Also included in each window box was a collectors information file, which detailed the range available and also came with a token, 8 tokens were needed to claim a free Platinum Pack. 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, however you could also buy them from official Corinthian Collector Centres. The figures are identical to those in the standard blister but are placed on a specially designed blister card.

 

 

To mark the new Millennium Corinthian made a special change to the platinum pack figures for Series 5, they released them on a silver base and was assigned a PP (platinum pack) collector code, which was the same number as the PRO code for that figure. The change made this series of Platinum packs all that more appealing to collectors, with acquiring all 36 being something of a challenge, especially the Luis Figo which is by far the hardest to find.

 

 

Corinthian did not make public how many of each window box or platinum pack were produced, only to say that the best seller in the series was of course David Beckham and the one made in the lowest volume was Westerveld.