I’m coming down to the last two of the football blasters that I opened recently and since I’m going in the order that I ranked them from worst to first, this was one of my favorites. I’ve enjoyed Prestige in recent years because it’s just been sharp. It’s got a modern feel to it and and a few different effects that I usually like.
From a TTM perspective it’s not ideal, but I’m going to get over that quickly. The cards are a good weight and they feel good in your hands. But it’s that modern designed that I really have to come back to as what I like most about them. Plus like a lot of the Panini products, this has some pretty sweet inserts as well. Let’s check out what’s in the box.
For other recent football-related Breaking Blasters posts, check out these: 2018 Panini Prizm, 2018 Rookies & Stars, 2018 Absolute, 2018 Donruss Football, 2018 Score.
You Can’t Win If You Don’t Play
Normally I pick three stars and display them as my example of the base cards. But in this case I picked three guys that didn’t play this year. Obviously Le’Veon Bell sat out all year because of contract issues. Dez Bryant wanted a contract but then was a bit picky as to who it was with. Once he got signed he was immediately injured.
And lastly Blake Bortles,… Hang on,… I’m being told by my producer that Blake Bortles did play this year. Must not have been worth paying attention to.
Not Exactly
I think I would call Prestige a higher end product. Not high end all the way mind you but something in the upper middle / lower high range. I would expect some better quality but I noticed these issues with the silver text on the names. I didn’t notice it as much in other places and these are just two examples, but it’s always frustrating to see this stuff.
That’s Some Red
If you’ve read my posts before you know that team colors on cards are something I dig. So when you have a draft pick and you want to put them on their new team, but you’re not going to Photoshop them in a new uniform what do you do? You put them in their college uniform and use their colors of course.
I love that Panini does this. College uniforms can be so crazy colorful and to me this really just adds to the whole set.
Rising Stars
While this is an “event worn” relic, I can’t believe it wasn’t a rookie. Usually I get some unknown (to me at least) rookie and I have to go Google the guy to figure out who he is. In this case, he’s a guy that was on my fantasy football team so no need to do that. As I’ve said in recent posts, the Panini landscape oriented inserts are some of my favorites.
Highlight Reel
I LOVE the Highlight Reel card. It has to be one of my favorite cards in all the blasters I opened (among six blasters). This one checks a lot of boxes for me… Landscape – Check… Color on black and white – Check… Photo and not necessarily graphic oriented – Check!
I like the Matt Ryan one but it is more graphics oriented and not really for just the photo. As for the Xtra Points parallel, the rainbow effect goes well with the modern card design.
Prestige has been one of my favorites the last few years. This year didn’t disappoint.