Expect to pay premium prices, too. This year’s blaster boxes sell for $34.99.
A blaster has six packs per box, with five cards to a pack.
There are 270 cards in the set, an increase of 20 cards from last year’s product. This year’s configuration adopts the same breakdown as it has since it returned as a standalone set in 2019. Prizm was part of the Chronicles set in 2018.
This year, the first 110 cards are in Tier I and represent the base set. Nos. 111-220 in Tier II are short prints, with Nos. 221-270 part of the scarcer Tier III cards.
There were 16 base cards in the blaster that I opened. The rest were parallels and inserts.
Panini promises up to three “blaster exclusive” parallels in white and purple, and the box I bought did not disappoint. In fact, the box went beyond expectations.
There were White Wave Prizm parallels of Eloy Jimenez (White Sox) and Rhys Hoskins (Phillies). Jimenez is a Tier I card, while Hoskins is a Tier II.
Purple Prizm parallels featured Reds pitcher Dauri Moreta, Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gellen and outfielder Ronnie Dawson.
Dawson is an interesting case, because Panini lists him as being with Houston. But the Reds used the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 draft to select Dawson from the Astros organization on Dec. 8, 2021. Seems like Panini could have fixed that under the nameplate and on the back of the card. The photograph, which does not show any team names or logos, is certainly acceptable given licensing rules.
However, the 2022 Topps Heritage set, which was released in May, lists Dawson as being with the Reds organization. Panini’s product was released in late September, several months after Topps’. Just sayin’.
There are many different parallels in Prizm baseball this year, with some numbered from 199 to 1/1. Favorite name for parallels is again Donut Circles Prizms.
“Have another doughnut,” indeed. Hockey fans know the reference.
The design for the base and short-printed are similar to last year’s design, with a few tweaks. The player is shown in an action pose, with a nameplate beneath the photo that also displays the city where the player competed. The photograph is framed by an hourglass border that features one of the team’s primary colors.
A stat line near the bottom of the card shows 2021 numbers and career statistics.
I pulled six inserts. Two of them were of the same player — a Fearless card of Luis Robert. However, one was the regular insert, while the other was a Red Velocity parallel. There are 20 cards in the Fearless insert subset.
Fireworks is a 10-card insert, and I pulled a Mookie Betts card. Sluggers, a 15-card set, features the game’s top home run hitters. I pulled a card of Pete Alonso.
Ketel Marte was represented in the Emergent insert.
Finally, there is Old School, a 10-card offering that features some of the top stars from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. I pulled a Nolan Ryan card, and you really cannot get more old school than the fireballing right-hander.
A final note: My scanner does not reproduce shiny cards like Prizm very well, so I am using images from Panini America’s sell sheet. Not the best way to go, but at least you get the idea of what the cards look like.
I prefer to showcase the cards I receive, and I did so with the Corbin Burnes cards, but the other scans were way too murky and did not show up well at all.
That's the hazard of having a shiny card. I'll figure something out by the time the next shiny product rolls around.