Previous years have resembled each other with the only drastic difference being the white set of 2007.
I want to start off with the box art. There is something that reminds me of the past. The coloring is muted like the old race programs. The streak effect reminds me of the old mimeograph machines we had in school. This gets me into the old school feel right away.
2011 brings a vibrant look with a lot of all new photographs. This year while bringing back a lot of the favorites also includes four new racing personalities.
The product starts off with the 80 card base set. Current drivers are marked with a C, while the legends are marked with a L. The first driver card in the base set includes the drivers premiere year listed.
There are four base level parallels including /250 /99 /25 and 1/1.
We have two foil card inserts this year. Pacing the field is a 10 card set with three levels. This insert is celebrating some feat in which the driver pictured is the best ever i.e. Bill Elliott fastest qualifying speed. These cards average one per mini box.
Motorsports Masters is back this year with a different look. There are three levels to collect and average 2 per mini box.
The hits are plentiful in this product. 6 hits per box with 3 being autographs and 3 being race used.
There are even cut signature cards of Dale Sr, Benny Parsons, and Davey Allison. As I mention previously there are four new personalities in 2011 legends. They are dick Berggren, James Hylton, Dale Inman, and Chocolate Myers They all have their first certified autographs and also race used cards. Chocolate Myers even has dual race used with Dale SR.
Some of the race used cards have been released before, Prominent Pieces, Prominent Pieces Over sized and Lasting Legacies.
New for this year are Trophy Room and Famed Fabrics [which is only for the HOFers]
Autographs are everywhere from base card autographs to the Lasting Legacies signature editions. Even the inserts have autograph versions. There are parallel versions to these also. The autographs have a great new look this year.
What can I say this continues to be my favorite product every year. The Legends are the drivers I grew up with and continue to be important to me and my collecting.
I think its great that they have changed up the look this year giving it a fresh appearance. Also they continue to listen to the collectors because I know at least three of the new personalities have been on wish lists at the end of the last few years.
The only race used card I didn't care for was lasting legacies. It appears to be too plain especially in this years release. The swatch is small but that can be overlooked with a great design. This one fell short for me, but the trophy room cards made up for it.
There are a lot of inscriptions this year with some being really clever and will be highly sought after. Shirley Muldowneys inscriptions alone are going to make history for the most ever.
The product is a solid A, you can tell Press Pass cares about this release. Some collectors do not care for the Drag racers and Indy drivers being included but the product is LEGENDS and hopefully next year we will see an expanded line up that includes some drivers of those series that have not had cards before.
BOX 1 BOX 2