Tristar TNA Reflexxions Break/Review/Contest

[Will]

Break and review is posted first, followed by contest portion. ***APPROVED BY PATRIOTSGUY***

Complete Checklist-
http://www.tristarproductions.com/TN...ons/index.html

Only 100 cases made.
24 boxes per master case.
12 boxes per half case.
20 packs per box.
6 cards per pack.

99 card base set, 100 if you count the checklist which seem to be inserted as box toppers.

7 guranteed "hits" per box.
-3 autograph cards numbered to 99 or less.
-1 event used ring mat autograph card numbered to 50 or less, or 1 event used memorabilia numbered to 199 or less.
-2 base set parallels numbered to 40 or less.
-1 premium reflexxions foil card numbered to 40 or less.

What was pulled-

Box #1929/2400

Complete 99 card base set with checklist. The usual mix of male and female talent cards and a few TNA Debut "rookie" cards.





Parallels-


Card #92 #d/40
Card #R14 #d/40 "Premium Reflexxions Foil"


Card #4 #d 1/1

Authentic Action Memorabilia-

Card #M32 #d /199

Autographs-

Card #31 #d/25


Card #61 #d/50


Card #R2-15 #d/25

Thoughts-
I wasnt too sure what I was going to think of this new set. Tristar always loads up with the top talent of TNA when giving collectors the premium inserts such as autographs and event worn cards and such.

The first thing I noticed when ripping into this box were the base cards. I liked them. In the past few sets I wasnt much of a fan. They did well with Cross The Line and New Era, got a blah feeling from the 2009 release of Impact. That continued with Signature Impact. I cant say that this time around.

As you can tell by the scans, each base set card has an in color photo of the person on the card on one half, and a reverse image in black and white on the other half, which gives the feeling that each base set card is an insert. Something that I can most definately get behind.

The base set is done where the first 61 cards are of TNA talent, then followed by what they call "subsets".




62 through 72 is Ultimate Sunday. The person listed the card gives a brief description about how they spend their superbowl sunday.

73 through 79 is Fast Traxx. The person listed on the card gives a brief description their favorite vehicles etc.

80 through 86 is Be My Valentine. The person listed on the card gives a brief description on their thoughts on Valentines Day.

87 through 90 is Steiners World. Scott Steiner gives his take on the person listed on the front of the card.

91 through 99 is Lending A Hand. The person listed on the card talks about their favorite charity and how they like to help.

Ive been collecting cards since the early 1980's. Ive been in the game long enough that subsets are usually referred to what is now called inserts. I wouldnt consider them as subset cards, but still a part of the base set. I think they have enough going on where they can leave those as the base set, and create actual insert sub-sets. Maybe highlight a PPV match or two. Famous feuds from the recent past that went down since the last set was put out.

My thoughts have pretty much been the same across all TNA sets from Tristar in that the serial numbered cards shouldnt count as a "hit".

The event worn still gives collectors a solid lineup. Especially when it comes to the duals, triples, and quads. Its nice to see some swatches with multicolor parts from the worn gear, and maybe I speak for myself on this part but I think most of the multicolor swatches should be saved for some of the lower numbered pieces. Especially 1/1s. The look of the event worn doesnt seem like it change all that much from the TNA Signature set. Felt like the same, just different color scheme.

Even though an autographed mat card wasnt pulled, Ive seen several between other message boards and on ebay and can say they made a good choice in doing these. The only advice Id have on improving these is maybe have a piece of the mat from a PPV and have dual sigs from those that had match against each other. There are tag matches that would make it hard to have more than 2 sigs on one card, but like some of the other card companys do, they can use redemptions for booklets. The only reason I mention a redemption is in case the booklet is too thick to insert into a pack.

I know some of you think ill of a company that uses redemptions but when it comes to Tristar and TNA, you will be taken care of. I could be wrong but I dont think Tristar has put out a redemption for an item that they never had.

Now, onto the autographs! I liked the single autographs because I liked the look of the base set cards. Thats basically what you are getting, a signed base card but with the foil on the front and the numbering on the back. Of course that changes when you pull a dual or triple and so on.

I did notice that they didnt go with the glitter and just stuck with colored foil. The front of the dual that I pulled came with the same foil card look as the "Premium Reflexxions" parallel.

Overall, as always, theres a nice mixture of sigs offered in this set along with the memorabilia cards. The base set was definately pleasant look wise when compared to the past few sets. You can tell some of the profile cards were posed shots and some were cropped from action pics taken at a match. I bring that up because as most know, I collect ODB and whoever used that pic for her base set and autograph cards made a really bad choice in my opinion. Maybe its due to time constraints where thats all they have to work with, but when you look at some of the others, they could have done better for my girl;).

Id like for them to bring back redemptions for stuff like the signed 8x10 and baseballs and other memorabilia. Maybe even insert cards to send in to enter a drawing of sorts, something along those lines.

Last but not least, Id like to talk about the cost. Granted you get more "hits" with Tristars product than you do with Topps, but the cost of these are pretty up there. Id like to see that change, as would most collectors I think. Im not privy to how everything goes down when it comes to figuring up the hits per box ration and the cost involved, but I think people would like to see the hits lowered in order to bring down the cost of the boxes.

We all know when it comes to buying boxes, its a gamble, theres just no arguing that. You wont always get the big hit but its a tough pill to swall when the cost is where it is, and even with 7 hits per box, it seems tough to even get half the boxes value back.

Like Ive always said, if you can afford to break a box or two, I say go for it. Tristars TNA product is a fun break no doubt. If youre on a budget, stick to ebay or watch others that break the boxes for you and pick up what you want that way.

Contest Portion-
Part 1. Guess the serial numbers. Over or under, it doesnt matter. The only one I outed was the obvious 1/1. Attempt a guess for all 3 autos, 1 event used, and 2 parallels.

If you guess the number exactly, you win that hit. Since this is going to be posted on more than one site, its entirely possible someone will guess the same number as you. If that happens, the preference goes to who entered their guess first.

Part 2. Give your opinion on the review and where you think they could improve and what you would like to see done with future releases.

You MUST include #1 and #2 with your answers. Put some effort into it please! If the opinion portion is good enough, its entirely possible Ill put more prize material in.

This contest is open from the time it was posted, until this sunday at 6pm central. Everyone is allowed to take a shot, including the mods of the site.

Edited answers are voided and disqualified.

Since this will be posted on more than one site, theres a chance they may take an issue with it and delete it and tell me no! This isnt intended to promote any one site on others etc etc. If anyone has questions, dont hesitate to drop me a pm in order to keep the guessing portion of the thread clean and free of clutter.

If you find this on another site, feel free to make different serial number guesses.

Hopefully I covered all the bases, if I have to edit anything, Ill note it at the end of the OP.

Have at it!

[Greengoblin782]

Part 1:

Card #92 25/40
Card #R14 18/40 "Premium Reflexxions Foil"
Card #M32 025/199
Card #61 33/50
Card #R2-15 11/25
Card #31 02/25

Part 2:

I feel in future TNA products that they cut a portion of the autograph signers out. I feel if you are paying $70.00+ a box that you should be able to hit someone better than Mike Tenay or Jeremy Boresch etc.

Thanks for the contest.

[DwightWall122]

Part 1:

Card #92 02/40
Card #R14 33/40 "Premium Reflexxions Foil"
Card #M32 077/199
Card #31 13/25
Card #61 48/50
Card #R2-15 4/25

Part 2:Good Review. I like the idea of the subsets allot, it gives more variety to the base cards that are pulled. Some very nice photography on the knockouts! The event worn cards are well done, but could have allot more color to them, solid line up of TNA stars and vets though. The autograph checklist could drop a few people....(Cough Borash)

I agree that redemptions for really sweet memorablia would be nice to bring back, but who likes to pull redemptions after spending a Ben Franklin? I know I don't! Will be opening a few boxes of this myself soon. Thanks again Will.

[Seahawks Fan]

part 1

Card #92 38/40
Card #R14 22/40 "Premium Reflexxions Foil"
Card #M32 177/199
Card #61 23/50
Card #R2-15 19/25
Card #31 05/25

part 2

I like the look of the new base and overall design but thats where it stops... they used the same photos again for some of talent like Borasch, Kendrick, Kennedy etc which has been a problem ever since Icons which used alot of the New Era pics. I agree where they need to add some more 8x10s, sting bats, auto baseballs etc that would be cool.. I would also love to see the Return of the Kiss cards they have yet to do any kind of Kiss Relic cards. They also made the Mem cards boring again.. In Xtreme and Signature you could pull some sweet Jumbos now if you dont pull a matt card you are stuck with some plain ugly mem cards.

Basically next TNA product should have the redemptions for in person items, more octographs, Kiss cards, jumbo mem, bring back the hair and sting facepaint cards, keep the matt cards in, more cut autos and throw in something new like actual pack pulled Hardy art sketches, booklet cards, etc

[JMelz]

Part #1
Card #92 31/40
Card #R14 31/40
Card M32 92/199
Card #31 2/25
Card #61 31/50
Card #R2-15 2/25

Part #2
I like the TNA Women's divison, but sometimes I feel there are too many of their cards. While I like the base cards in this set and the thought behind some of the sub sets, I'm not a fan of "in-action" shots and especially think the Lending a Hand cards look campy. I've want a "tag champs" subset for awhile, chronically different tag teams throughout tna history with dual sigs, parallels, etc.

Thanks for the share and the review on this set! I think I'm going to buy a box!

[MCXC1987]

Part #1:
Card #92 15/40
Card #R14 36/40 "Premium Reflexxions Foil"
Card #M32 85/199
Card #31 17/25
Card #61 36/50
Card #R2-15 13/25

Part #2:
I really enjoyed this review. I think you did a great job giving all the information about the release that you did. This is the first real look I got to see on the new set and the base cards. One of the things that I really liked that TriStar did this year was using the photoshoot pictures compared to the in the ring ones. While I do like the action shots, some of the pictures they used in the past did not look great at all. These at least look more professionally done and the base set looks really awesome compared to others. Like someone else stated though, some of the cards are recycled pictures which is never a good thing in my opinion, they need to have new pictures every release. Makes it a bit more worth while getting a new card with a new picture. I still wish they did more insert wise, which they did to an extent, but the inserts don't look much different than the base sets.

Great review and thank you very much for the contest!

[frizzzlecake]

Part one:
Card #92 8/40
Card #R14 8/40 "Premium Reflexxions Foil"
Card #M32 63/199
Card #31 21/25
Card #61 32/50
Card #R2-15 8/25


Part 2:
Excellent review! Very detailed and you have unbiased opinions. I hope you continue to reviews on products! I may be the only person but i can't get enough of Diva cards in TNA I think they got the hottest Divas around.

Also if you don't find a home for those Velet Sky base cards, i wouldn't mind em! haha

[Will]

Looking back I can see some things I should have touched on but didnt.

[Enigma]

Part 1:

Card #92 13/40
Card #R14 13/40
Card #M32 13/199
Card #61 13/50
Card #R2-15 05/25
Card #31 05/25

Part 2:

Easily the price. I like the limit on boxes, but just because it is a limited product, but that shouldn't drive the price up. We have enough high-end products in the major sports. We don't need to start heading towards that in the entertainment arena.

Big thanks to Will for making this contest possible and to TriStar for their continued sponsorship here at SCF and on NSCF.

[tblades_17]

Sting 39/40
Sky 40/40
triple 2/199
stiner 4/25
winter 22/50
Dual 24/25
First off, thanks for the contest.
In your last contest, I stated I would like to have more studio shots and that is exactly whet I got with the Reflexxions set. I love the use of the "mirror" on all the base cards. Best looking base cards I have seen in awhile.
I love the fact they put in mat auto cards in to this set. Don't look to be a great verity in autos on those however, but cool none the less.
I dont like the idea of having redemptions in any set of cards, Tristar appears to do a great job in getting the product signed and in a timly manner(i dont think this procuct was delayed, but may be wrong).
The only down side is the cost per box. I know the number of hits is higher than with Topps WWE product, but the odds of getting that BIG hit are slim, I would suggest buying the singles of what you want off this board or other boards or even eBay. You will make out in the long run.
The Three Autos I got in my box are Rosita, Sorrenson and Crimson/Morgan dual. needless to say I will not even get clode to making my money back on those. I did not get a 1/1 or a mat card.
But over all I would give the looks of the product a 8.5 out of 10.
PS favorite card in set is Velvet Sky's Ultimate sunday card. SMOKIN'