McDonalds test market Tim Cheveldae mask

[djmcards]

i was very happy to find one of these very rare Tim Cheveldae Winnipeg Jets masks that were only available in Saskatoon. Found the Felix Potvin test market mask as well. Very cool and hard to find collectible.

[chakhae1]

I have the Potvin and the Thibault!!

[30ranfordfan]

Yeah, I have the Ranford test issue. These things are tough to track down!

[Savard18]

Did they come with a Happy Meal or something?

Unfortunately here in the states fast food chains rarely - if ever - do any hockey related promotions. Usually when they do sports promotions its basketball or baseball, oddly enough I don't recall anything football - at least not in my area. I remember Upper Deck used to do McDonalds basketball, and Dairy Queen used to issue sundaes in baseball helmets, heck DQ would do one better and used to give away vouchers for free tickets to White Sox games late in the summer when the Sox were out of it, lol..

Yea, if you're a hockey fan or card collector in the states, there isn't much at all of anything "hockey"...

[30ranfordfan]

Did they come with a Happy Meal or something?

Unfortunately here in the states fast food chains rarely - if ever - do any hockey related promotions. Usually when they do sports promotions its basketball or baseball, oddly enough I don't recall anything football - at least not in my area. I remember Upper Deck used to do McDonalds basketball, and Dairy Queen used to issue sundaes in baseball helmets, heck DQ would do one better and used to give away vouchers for free tickets to White Sox games late in the summer when the Sox were out of it, lol..

Yea, if you're a hockey fan or card collector in the states, there isn't much at all of anything "hockey"...

McDonald's used to do lots of "premium" promotions that were tied to hockey (including cards). While there were some hockey related happy meal toys, that's not what these were. Happy Meal toys were always (still are) a throw in, with the happy meal (included with purchase) where stuff like these masks you had to pay for, on top of your food order.

If memory serves correctly, you could buy a mask for $4.99 (something like that?) if you were always purchasing food.


With these Masks specifically (and there was another thread talking about them around here, many years ago, I'll see if I can dig that up) - like most collectibles in the 90s, they were massed produced, tons of people bought them, held onto them, and thought they would be "worth something someday". When they issued the set in 1997, there were 7 masks available nation wide... they're not worth more than a couple of bucks each. There were also (I think) 4 additional masks that were available regionally - making them shorter prints. They're a bit harder to get, and worth a little bit more money, but I'd be surprised to learn that any of them sell for more than $10 CND on a regular basis.

However, the year before (1996) is when McDonald's did a test run for the masks. I suppose the point was to see if they'd actually sell, before they sold them across the country. They made (I believe) only 2000 copies of each mask - and they were only available in Saskatoon. These versions of the masks are very hard to get a hold of, and command a big premium over the regular issued ones. I'm most familiar with the Bill Ranford. When the main set was issued in 1997, he was a Boston Bruin, and (of course) they made his Bruins mask. When the test issue came out the year before, he was still with the Oilers, so they made his Oilers mask. The two look completely different. The Bruins mask clutters up flea market tables, with a $2 price tag, and never sells. The last Oilers mask I saw on eBay (earlier this year) sold for well over $100 CND.

I'm not familiar with the pricing on Cheveldae, but what @djmcards has is one of the real premium masks from that test set. Cheveldae was NOT in the full run in 1997, so he (along with Guy Hebert & Wade Flaherty) usually costs quite a bit. Those three, along with the alternate Ranford.... they're the bigger selling ones. The other three (Potvin, Belfour, and I don't remember....) look basically the same as the regular issue. They do get a nice premium vs the normal issued masks, but not as big as the other guys.

[30ranfordfan]

@Savard18

I wrote the wrong years (the test issues were 1995, the full run was 1996).

Here's a commercial for the masks I found..... and they were $2.59 each:





I was hoping the old thread had images of all of them, but it did not. I won't bother linking to it (doesn't really add much info) but I will post the full checklist:


These were easily available (1996):
Thibault
Richter
Roy
Potvin
Ranford
Belfour
Vanbiesbrouck

And the SPs (Regional Issues):
Rhodes
Cujo
McLean
Kidd

The test issues... from 1995. The base is the obviously identifier. It will have English only, instead of English & French.

I've broken them up into three groups:

Look Nearly Identical to the Regular one from the following year:
Felix Potvin
Ed Belfour
Kirk McLean

No mask the following year in the regular set:
Tim Cheveldae (Jets)
Guy Hebert (Ducks)
Wade Flaherty (Sharks)

Changed Teams:
Bill Ranford (Test mask is Oilers, regular release is Bruins)


The last four usually command a big premium, because they don't exist in the full run from the following year.

[djmcards]

Thanks for the info @30ranfordfan. That is the most comprehensive explanation i have seen. Very helpful.

[30ranfordfan]

Thanks for the info @30ranfordfan. That is the most comprehensive explanation i have seen. Very helpful.

Happy to share it. I remember when I first saw the Ranford test issue on eBay (close to 20 years ago, I suspect) and thought "WHAT THE HECK?" and then I went looking into it. That Chevaldae is equally cool IMO. No, he's not as big of a name - but those things are tough to find.

[creasecollector]

Ahhhhh, these bring me back. Thank you for sharing this!