Skybox 2024 1992 MM Platinum

[finfangfan]

The back of the Thing clear cut looks oddball too. Shouldn’t the whole image just be clear on back?

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Those PMGs look a lot better. It’s possible some of those characters aren’t affected by the white borders in the actual set (I know Spider-Man isn’t). But the White Queen probably has the white border where that piano on right side is. Sell sheet definitely “preliminary and subject to change” here!

The white border PMGs are bad. The base having border Im more meh/indifferent to. It kind of reminds me of the old 1996 Topps Chrome from sports. Maybe one reason they went that route was the rainbow parallels, which stand out with the refractor border.

It just occurred to me why Thing looks so odd in the parallels, kinda funny. It’s because the original 92 Thing has zero background, the whole card is his face. So there’d be no way to have like Blue Traxx or PMGs, since thered be zero to foil. So what UD had to do is define part of his face as background, which they did-



And the PMG, as we might expect, looks goofy with the foreground part becoming white.

[Jaysabz]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

I guess you can blame Jim Lee -- his artwork, which was gritty and had a lot of line work, was very popular at the time:

I'd put the blame more on whoever did the painting - while Lee's Wolverine's face did have a lot of line work, it was close-ups. The MM artist attempted to paint the face using the close-up Lee style while keeping Wolverine's whole body in the painting. And the body's pose wasn't all that natural in the MM artwork either, kinda zombie-esque.

Though iconic for its time, I don't think that '92 Wolverine would make it into a NEW premier art set these days.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

The back of the Thing clear cut looks oddball too. Shouldn’t the whole image just be clear on back?

I think that looks right. The back of clear cuts the foreground on the front (ie the character) appears washed out/whitish. The background on the front stays colored on the back.

For Thing UD chose to divide his face into foreground and background sections (shown in that previous post). Since the foreground on Thing is just that middle area, that’s what appears clear-ish on back.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Spacemanspif

I think it's a LOT more than that. If you estimate 180k boxes of Hobby, 50k blasters would be a ridiculously small fraction of cards.

For example, you have Variant Blue Traxx hitting every 48 packs (6 blasters). That means you have to open 600 blasters to get a full set. 50k blasters implies only 83 sets of those, vs 900 sets in Hobby. On top of that, you would be hitting a super short print at only 3x the rate of those Blue Variants.

Battle Spectrum Rainbows have stated pack odds of 1:640 (80 blasters). So a full set would take you 400 blasters to complete. 50k blasters would put that at like 125 sets from retail, vs 1350 from Hobby.

Just looking at the numbers in that example below, I wouldn't be surprised if the number was either 250,000 or 500,000 blasters. That would put the ratio of those "shorter print" cards at either half or just short of equal to the amount in Hobby.

500k boxes would be 1 purple crystal variant in ten 20-box cases. I certainly hope not for the sake of my case!

You could be right it’s a lot longer odds than 1 per case. At the minimum maybe 1 in 3 or 4 cases. 4 cases would be 200k box print run. I mean there’s nothing on paper that says they need have similar number of non-numbered insert sets in hobby vs retail. But I agree about your point why the huge discrepancy.

Really cringing here thinking about if these variant purples are much harder than 1 per case. So in that case and I don’t get 1 in an $800 case….I get nothing numbered for $800…just some unnumbered stuff that’s going for next to nothing on comc, ouch. Ok maybe the regular purple crystals are a saving grace- COMC won’t have many of those going forward- but they aren’t even numbered.

The only way to deduce the print run of retail is to figure out how often the purple variants land. So I encourage anyone with incoming cases or boxes to report the data on that…I’ll see if my case has one, but can’t tell much from that either way.

[Bunny Hop]

I'm feeling really blugh about all of this. It has me half-hoping my LCS doesn't call me about my blasters, which is a bad feeling to have b/c I'd been really looking forward to it. It's been a while since I've made a new box purchase so this was really my big one for 2024 (and it'll carry over into 2025). Unenthused would be putting it most kindly. If anyone who's opened some wants to pump me up my inbox is open.

[jdandns]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

500k boxes would be 1 purple crystal variant in ten 20-box cases. I certainly hope not for the sake of my case!

You could be right it’s a lot longer odds than 1 per case. At the minimum maybe 1 in 3 or 4 cases. 4 cases would be 200k box print run. I mean there’s nothing on paper that says they need have similar number of non-numbered insert sets in hobby vs retail. But I agree about your point why the huge discrepancy.

Really cringing here thinking about if these variant purples are much harder than 1 per case. So in that case and I don’t get 1 in an $800 case….I get nothing numbered for $800…just some unnumbered stuff that’s going for next to nothing on comc, ouch. Ok maybe the regular purple crystals are a saving grace- COMC won’t have many of those going forward- but they aren’t even numbered.

The only way to deduce the print run of retail is to figure out how often the purple variants land. So I encourage anyone with incoming cases or boxes to report the data on that…I’ll see if my case has one, but can’t tell much from that either way.

At the end of the day, I think you could leave your blaster case sealed, and when these completely sell out, which they will at some point, sell it at a markup to recoup all you've spent thus far and have enough left over to pick up your basic sets...
...but what's the fun in that?

Good luck with it, but that item might be something to leave as sealed for the time being in your MM collection.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Bunny Hop

I'm feeling really blugh about all of this. It has me half-hoping my LCS doesn't call me about my blasters, which is a bad feeling to have b/c I'd been really looking forward to it. It's been a while since I've made a new box purchase so this was really my big one for 2024 (and it'll carry over into 2025). Unenthused would be putting it most kindly. If anyone who's opened some wants to pump me up my inbox is open.

Right there with you. Maybe there will be an unexpected surprise with these but pretty doubtful. On the plus side, value aside…the cards are pretty gorgeous in some of the parallels, so we have that.

Purple variants, rainbow battles, and reg purples I guess are the things to get. I do think, early on at least, top regular purples like Spidey, Wolvie, Venom, Surfer could be decently sought after.

Originally Posted by jdandns

At the end of the day, I think you could leave your blaster case sealed, and when these completely sell out, which they will at some point, sell it at a markup to recoup all you've spent thus far and have enough left over to pick up your basic sets...
...but what's the fun in that?

Good luck with it, but that item might be something to leave as sealed for the time being in your MM collection.

That’s a great point, sealed MM product should do fine long term no matter what’s in it. It sure would alleviate the big hit im about to take on this. Decisions, decisions…

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Bunny Hop

I'm feeling really blugh about all of this. It has me half-hoping my LCS doesn't call me about my blasters, which is a bad feeling to have b/c I'd been really looking forward to it. It's been a while since I've made a new box purchase so this was really my big one for 2024 (and it'll carry over into 2025). Unenthused would be putting it most kindly. If anyone who's opened some wants to pump me up my inbox is open.

I think a lot of the perceived value in preordering blasters for this product was the assumption that the release would not make it to ePack. Once ePack release was announced it’s tougher to make your money back. We’ll see how it plays out though. If it was priced at $20 like Marvel Platinum blasters I likely would troll Walmarts to get a couple boxes but not going to buy any at the higher price point.

[ThatGuyPal]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Question on storage. Since these are chrome, they are very prone to bowing (taking on a C shape) with time. What is the best way to mitigate that?

Storing a set in sleeves in a long box is probably less than ideal.

I’m thinking about storing base and cheap parallel sets in a binder in ultra pro platinum pages, laid flat. So the binder weight helps flatten the cards below at least. Do chrome cards still bow a lot in binder pages like this?

The other option is to sleeve them and put them in a sideloading binder with the 2-sided black pages. Maybe that’ll keep the card confined enough that there isn’t room to bow.

I’m just trying avoid putting money into this and ending up long term with every card looking like a “C”.

Anything I care about I'd put in toploaders, even if you find some used ones for cheap on Ebay as it's just for storage and not display/selling. Base I would binder as I would care more about the set being intact than slight bowing but unless you put something on the binder while being stored the entire time it could be an issue.

Could also if feasible put them in top loaders for a year or so, at that point i'd imagine they'd be flattened out enough where at that point you could transfer to binder with less worry.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by ThatGuyPal

Anything I care about I'd put in toploaders, even if you find some used ones for cheap on Ebay as it's just for storage and not display/selling. Base I would binder as I would care more about the set being intact than slight bowing but unless you put something on the binder while being stored the entire time it could be an issue.

Could also if feasible put them in top loaders for a year or so, at that point i'd imagine they'd be flattened out enough where at that point you could transfer to binder with less worry.

I like that idea- hits in toploaders….base set and cheap parallel sets like blue Traxx and canvas in binders.

The bow will get bad on these base I’m pretty sure. Already looking slightly bowed and only been out a week. Must be the chrome.

[Bunny Hop]

I'm not even concerned with resale value -- just hoping for a fun release to binder and enjoy. Watched a blaster break yesterday. I don't really want to get into my feelings after watching it b/c this thread is a bit of a pile on and there isn't much new to be said on the criticism front. Just want to feel like my purchasing dollar is being respected.

[Jamesebee]

I'm going to grade the 2 PMG's I got through about $500 in ePack purchases (1 Red Leader, 1 Blue Mojo) based on likely finishing prices for minor characters. Debating a grade for the Kaleidoscope Leader even though they'll certainly become more common as digital get combined in ePack and as more achievements are claimed.

It'll ultimately be a wash price-wise but I'm just eager to signify the changing of the guards and symbolize the history of PMG through the years.

Happy collecting, all!

[Spacemanspif]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

500k boxes would be 1 purple crystal variant in ten 20-box cases. I certainly hope not for the sake of my case!

You could be right it’s a lot longer odds than 1 per case. At the minimum maybe 1 in 3 or 4 cases. 4 cases would be 200k box print run. I mean there’s nothing on paper that says they need have similar number of non-numbered insert sets in hobby vs retail. But I agree about your point why the huge discrepancy.

Really cringing here thinking about if these variant purples are much harder than 1 per case. So in that case and I don’t get 1 in an $800 case….I get nothing numbered for $800…just some unnumbered stuff that’s going for next to nothing on comc, ouch. Ok maybe the regular purple crystals are a saving grace- COMC won’t have many of those going forward- but they aren’t even numbered.

The only way to deduce the print run of retail is to figure out how often the purple variants land. So I encourage anyone with incoming cases or boxes to report the data on that…I’ll see if my case has one, but can’t tell much from that either way.

Yeah I'm just throwing out stuff against the wall, but with the way that the numbers shake out and how everything is so formulaic, it wouldn't surprise me if there were at least 250k boxes to put the ratio of those SP Rainbow cards at 2:1 from Hobby/Retail (but more likely a higher number). With the way they're overprinting everything nowadays, I have zero faith in them somehow short printing retail while massively overproducing Hobby.

From a cost perspective, you can get 4-5 cases of blasters for the price of one case of Hobby. Hitting a /25 from retail for the same cost as a Hobby case, which is not guaranteed anything that short print seems too good to be true? One thing I just noticed from my math as well is that if there are "only" 900 copies of Variant Cover Blue Traxx in Hobby, that makes them actually shorter print than Pink Laser (in Hobby), so I would expect another 600+ copies from retail to put them in the next tier of production.

I've done these types of Print Run Analysis with WNBA, which used to be a very short print product, where I can use a smallish sample of like 20 cases to look for patterns and extrapolate to estimate the print run. However, I didn't bother with retail because I could never get a big enough sample to feel confident in drawing a definitive result. I'd probably want to see results from at least 100 cases of blasters to get a decent idea of how often the purple crystals /25 hit


oh, and for your question about storage... for something like base, I just store them in cardboard boxes (this set might be a 300ct if you include Variant Covers & inserts) with spacers to fill in and keep things tight so the cards don't bow.

[DynaEtch]

I was just watching some original Marvel Platinum blaster breaks on YouTube- holy heck. I didn’t get involved much in that set, maybe that’s why I’m so surprised, but first of all there is a blaster exclusive (blue surge) in each pack, not each box which looks to be the case here. Guy was also pulling random cards /199 etc. Plus it was just $20 a box.

No wonder we all thought this would be much better at the preorder stage.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Spacemanspif

Yeah I'm just throwing out stuff against the wall, but with the way that the numbers shake out and how everything is so formulaic, it wouldn't surprise me if there were at least 250k boxes to put the ratio of those SP Rainbow cards at 2:1 from Hobby/Retail (but more likely a higher number). With the way they're overprinting everything nowadays, I have zero faith in them somehow short printing retail while massively overproducing Hobby.

From a cost perspective, you can get 4-5 cases of blasters for the price of one case of Hobby. Hitting a /25 from retail for the same cost as a Hobby case, which is not guaranteed anything that short print seems too good to be true? One thing I just noticed from my math as well is that if there are "only" 900 copies of Variant Cover Blue Traxx in Hobby, that makes them actually shorter print than Pink Laser (in Hobby), so I would expect another 600+ copies from retail to put them in the next tier of production.

I've done these types of Print Run Analysis with WNBA, which used to be a very short print product, where I can use a smallish sample of like 20 cases to look for patterns and extrapolate to estimate the print run. However, I didn't bother with retail because I could never get a big enough sample to feel confident in drawing a definitive result. I'd probably want to see results from at least 100 cases of blasters to get a decent idea of how often the purple crystals /25 hit

oh, and for your question about storage... for something like base, I just store them in cardboard boxes (this set might be a 300ct if you include Variant Covers & inserts) with spacers to fill in and keep things tight so the cards don't bow.

Agreed it’s not likely a company would hold back on a retail release…it’s usually en mass to the nth degree. I wonder if even we could draw some conclusions down the road once a ton of purple hit eBay, and just determining the percentage of those purple that are variant covers? Since we know the odds of regular purple it would give us our print run. It does depend on them being somewhat equally as likely to be listed. Edit: at this moment, 60 purples on eBay. 3 are variant covers. That’s 1:20 boxes, or 1 per case. I know there’s a zillion things wrong with that quick analysis…but maybe, just maybe I can still hold out hope… (dang nab it I’m holding out hope for one per case )

Anyway on a non-blaster note, these were some recent pickups from eBay and comc. Been in a gold mindset.



(color match on the mojo?…lol)

[DynaEtch]

Not my card, but man that’s a nice card. The purples do pop

[Swipe79]

Ran across this when I was browsing - the Mini Box parallels look way better with a decent scan even, I bet they look very nice in hand.


2024 Upper Deck Marvel Masterpieces '92 - [Base] - Mini Boxes #13 - Cyclops
Courtesy of COMC.com

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

Ran across this when I was browsing - the Mini Box parallels look way better with a decent scan even, I bet they look very nice in hand.


2024 Upper Deck Marvel Masterpieces '92 - [Base] - Mini Boxes #13 - Cyclops
Courtesy of COMC.com

Beautiful card. Kinda surprised that card would even get an elite scan, considering these are like $5-15 cards. Maybe someone wanting to grade it.

I can’t even decide which parallel is my fav (not talking about value, just by pure look). There is so much out there. In the running would be Purple crystals, gold seismic, blue traxx, mini box, and holofoil. Part of it might come down to color match character. So for the Archangel above its Purple crystal, for Thing it might be Orange Lava, etc. But in general, that list is probably my top ones.

[IND2FLA]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Beautiful card. Kinda surprised that card would even get an elite scan, considering these are like $5-15 cards. Maybe someone wanting to grade it.

Agreed on the card. They definitely catch my eye and that is what I would most want to pick up out of this set. A lot of the parallels feel "blah" to me and looking on epack/COMC you can pretty much see the parallel fatigue coming from a mile away. If the paralell is out of /1,000 or some high number - at that point I care more about the aesthetics of the card than the "rarity" .. or perceived rarity.

I picked up a LOT of the small dot parallels of the bigger names when the 22MM wave hit COMC. Between Iron Man, Spiderman, Wolverine and Captain America I picked up 30+ of the small dots and 20+ of the checkerboards. I have no idea what I am going to do with them but I am totally fine just sitting on them.

There are a number of reasons I'll reprocess $10 cards as elite on COMC. Sometimes to check for grading, sometimes to be able to sell through their eBay account (when not running a promo) and sometimes just because I like the way the card looks and want to see the high res scan. Card in hand is always better but a high res scan can keep me from shipping the card back to myself then ultimately shipping back to COMC when I want to lower the amount of boxes building up.

[Swipe79]

I feel like it's hardest to know which one until you can get them in hand really - it reminds me of my Flair experience. Some of those look pretty meh in scans but in hand look very nice.

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Beautiful card. Kinda surprised that card would even get an elite scan, considering these are like $5-15 cards. Maybe someone wanting to grade it.

I can’t even decide which parallel is my fav (not talking about value, just by pure look). There is so much out there. In the running would be Purple crystals, gold seismic, blue traxx, mini box, and holofoil. Part of it might come down to color match character. So for the Archangel above its Purple crystal, for Thing it might be Orange Lava, etc. But in general, that list is probably my top ones.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by IND2FLA

I picked up a LOT of the small dot parallels of the bigger names when the 22MM wave hit COMC. Between Iron Man, Spiderman, Wolverine and Captain America I picked up 30+ of the small dots and 20+ of the checkerboards. I have no idea what I am going to do with them but I am totally fine just sitting on them.

That’s not a bad pickup from the time. I remember just how low some of those MM22 small dots and checkered were going for. They’ll probably crawl back up in time if they haven’t already. Difference between that and this is MM22 being pretty limited and this huge and off the charts.

I thought those small dots looked pretty cool. Same with these mini boxes. Similar type of look. The Seismic gold looks kinda like a disco strobe…I dig it. In terms of foil design though I’ve always thought cracked ice is up there in the coolest. It reminds me of the old 90s vending prism sticker for this set (yes they did 92MM in cracked ice before, if just a small subset and also a sticker). The purple crystals look sharp based on what I’m seeing on eBay. I expect them to come down pretty hard in price, but not sure exactly where they will end up long term. They do have the advantage of not being part of the comc flood.

[DynaEtch]

Is anyone going for a ridiculous character rainbow? Or attempting a challenging parallel set? What are people collecting in this?

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Jaysabz

I'd put the blame more on whoever did the painting - while Lee's Wolverine's face did have a lot of line work, it was close-ups. The MM artist attempted to paint the face using the close-up Lee style while keeping Wolverine's whole body in the painting. And the body's pose wasn't all that natural in the MM artwork either, kinda zombie-esque.

Though iconic for its time, I don't think that '92 Wolverine would make it into a NEW premier art set these days.

Marc Silvestri Wolverine cover art from 1991:



The pose is reminiscent of Jack Kirby poses. I think Joe Jusko was trying to go for a Silver Age look and feel in the '92 MM set.

[DynaEtch]

That’s a remarkable resemblance you found there fabiani

Originally Posted by Jaysabz

I'd put the blame more on whoever did the painting - while Lee's Wolverine's face did have a lot of line work, it was close-ups. The MM artist attempted to paint the face using the close-up Lee style while keeping Wolverine's whole body in the painting. And the body's pose wasn't all that natural in the MM artwork either, kinda zombie-esque.

Though iconic for its time, I don't think that '92 Wolverine would make it into a NEW premier art set these days.

Pretty tough crowd in here on the Wolverine. Am I the only one who thinks this is not a bad card?

Skybox did put it on the pack cover, promos, and ads for the set. (ended up as the cover of a contemporary Nonsport Update too). Usually companies advertise with what they consider the most eye-catching art.

In the FPG kickstarter OA, I think to many people, the Wolverine was one of the best ones to hit and people wanted most. I don’t think it was just because the character.

You don’t think it could make it into, say a modern Fleer Ultra Wolverine, or Flair set? This classic 90s Jusko depiction? Not sure I agree…but if you look at the modern MM wolverines, I think I prefer the 92 over each. At the very least it’s a nice, bright, depiction of a superhero and not a Wolverine cast totally in shadow like in MM18 for example. With superhero proportions too, contrasted to the thin depiction in MM20.

Edit: art is subjective of course I’m just surprised at there being seemingly no one who likes the card.

[Jamesebee]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Pretty tough crowd in here on the Wolverine. Am I the only one who thinks this is not a bad card?

Skybox did put it on the pack cover, promos, and ads for the set. (ended up as the cover of a contemporary Nonsport Update too). Usually companies advertise with what they consider the most eye-catching art.

I think the art on the phone card (card itself) was better but I don't think it's Jusko. Also, it's off topic but for anyone who had this card, do you remember what the game was for it?