A hobby box contains 12 packs, with eight cards to a pack. Panini is promising one autograph and a relic in each hobby box. There also will be 12 rookie cards, 20 inserts and four parallels.
Blaster boxes have eight packs, with seven cards to a pack. The base set contains 200 cards, with an additional 100 rookies. The blaster box I opened contained 47 base cards.
There are parallels that complement the base set: Goal Line, Red Zone, Kickoff (which is numbered to 299 for veterans and 199 for rookies), 1st Down (numbered to 99), 2nd Down (49), 3rd Down (25), 4th Down (10) and Touchdown (1/1).
The base set design is simple and understated, with a team’s primary color being used as part of the card border. The “Playoff” logo is situated in the upper left-hand corner of the card. The player is featured in a large photograph on the card front, with the team logo, his name and team name underneath the picture.
The card back displays a smaller version of the front photo, along with a biographical paragraph. The player’s height and weight are listed beneath the paragraph, and a statistical recap of 2016 spreads across the bottom of the card.
Heads Up is a 20-card insert set that depicts NFL stars in a cartoon-like format. The card I pulled was of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Gridiron Force is a 20-card insert set and the card I pulled was of Kansas City safety Eric Berry. “Quarterbacks have a Berry allergy,” the card reads.
Flea Flicker is also a 20-card insert set. The card contains three photographs, showing key stars from a particular game. The card I found depicted the scoring power generated by the Falcons trio of Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman. Star Gazing, another 20-card set, features the top stars in the NFL; the card I pulled as of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
The big hit out of the blaster box was an NFL Men’s Lifestyle dual swatch card of the Giants’ Sterling Shepard. One swatch comes from a uniform, while the other comes from Shepard’s wardrobe.
The Panini Playoff set is simple yet attractive. A clean design — front and back — should be a favorite for collectors.