One of the first things
I collected as a child was baseball cards. I remember my parents used to buy me
a pack every Friday when they would go grocery shopping. The cards would be
intelligently placed by stores at the checkout line along with candy; making it
impossible for parents to leave a store without buying something for their
kids. My eyes would open up at the sight of the glimmering gold or silver
packaging that the cards would come in. My favourite brand was Upper Deck,
followed by Donruss, Topps, Fleer, and if I was broke O-Pee-Chee. While
baseball cards were cool, I always felt the hobby could be taken to a whole
other level. I wasn’t satisfied with just a picture of a player and his stats
printed on a piece of card board paper.
Suddenly McFarlane
Toys came along a few years later and decided to start a new hobby market by
creating sports figure collector toys. These figures were great because the
details were amazing, there was lots of variety (many players and sports), and
they looked amazing placed on your desk. However the one figure I never saw
from McFarlane Toys was a Michael Jordan. Luckily Upper Deck (probably owned
the legal rights) decided to then produce sports figures as well, and I was
finally able to get a Michael Jordan version. What made the Upper Deck Pro
Shots version even better was that they released figures in different iconic
Jordan basketball position. My favourite was the dunk that he made to win the
1988 All-Star slam dunk contest; this is the version that I bought from Pro
Shots (more specially Series 2 figure 4).
The toy is up to the
same quality as a McFarlane toy, and comes in a clam shell case which makes it
perfect for people that like to collect mint in box toys (like me). My only
complaint about the toy is that you do see paint smudges, and that the version
that was released isn’t the same one it was supposed to represent. In the real
dunk, Michael wore a red “away” jersey and white cement sneakers. Upper Deck
did release a figure that was accurate to the real dunk, however it was
limited. I would have definitely preferred that version to have been the
general release version and not the one I have. The figure is still an amazing
collectable and I would definitely recommend any Jordan fan to pick it up as
well.
Upper
Deck:
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdOx9JGc4_8
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