Crown Royale Hockey review…

The fine folks at Panini (and by that I mean Tracy Hackler) were nice enough to send me a box of the new Crown Royale Hockey for review. Here are my thoughts.

The hockey release of Crown Royale is very similar to the football and b-ball releases. The box has 4 packs with a hit per pack. Right about now a box will run you around $80 bucks. I had trouble finding the break down of the hits in each box. My box yielded four autos, one of wich was a relic auto. Like other Crown Royale releases it is a fast and dirty endeavor. Not a lot of packs or base cards, but what you do get is a lot of fun.

The base cards have the same look as their football and b-ball brothers.

I am a big fan of the crown Royale base design. It is gaudy and over the top and glorious. It has the same die-cutting and embossing, the design on the sides and around the bottom is a little different. The cards once again pulls the colors from the uniforms for the background. It works really well and makes for some very attractive cards. It is especially striking on the Vokoun card above, the blue background and sweater really make the red pop. The colors are very vibrant.

Next we will look at the autos.

I also got a redemption for a Rookie Royalty signatures card 143, Nick Leddy.
I like the look of these cards. It is a simple concept. Take the base design and slap an auto on it.
The two autos above looks a like but there are actually two different sets. The card on the right is a rookie royalty sig. The crown doesn’t have as much embossing as the base, I wonder why they did that? The auto is on card and it is numbered to 499. The card on the left is not a rookie, it is an auto parallel. It is a sticker auto and is numbered to 75. I am not 100% sure what is up with this card. On the bottom of the card it has the date “December 14, 2010.”. I am not sure what this is in reference to? It’s a fine looking card I am just not sure what it is.

I also got this guy.

It’s a sweater auto of Josh Bailey. The card is from a set called “Heirs to the Throne”. The card has a nice look, it has the feel of the relic cards from the other Crown Royale sets. It is nice and smooth, very thick and feels substantial in your hand. It is a sticker auto and numbered to 50. I feel bad for Josh, who would want to take the thrown for the Islanders. I always like when a player throws their jersey number on their sig.

I also pulled a base parallel.

It is the purple variant numbered to 25. on the plus side it is numbered to 25, on the down side the purple embossing is a little gaudy, and not the good gaudy. The colors on this card make me think of the old LA Kings uniforms.

What would be a Crown Royale release with out inserts.

They have a couple of different legends sets.

The Esposito is part of the base set, so guess it isn’t an insert. I like that they have some retired guys included. The “Regents” theme is cool. The crown is similar to the rooie autos, again not sure why they changed this from the regular embossing. These guys are numbered to 499.

The Recchi is a Legends insert. It is a fine looking card but it isn’t numbered, doesn’t have any die-cutting or embossing. So it seems a little blah and plain compared to the other cards of this brand.

The final insert is this guy

The look of the card is OK. I love the theme. The card is a “loyalty” insert. The set is all about players that have been with one team. The card indicates the number of years on the team. Lidstrom has 19 years with the Red Wings. I think this is a brilliant set concept. In the age of players going from team to team it’s nice to see the guys that have been dedicated to one team. I wish they had gone more fancy with the design. Maybe a little die-cutting and a thicker card stock would be cool.

I love the base cards and autos. The inserts are a little bit of a let down compared to the inserts in the other Crown Royale releases. The all star and royalty sets from b-ball would have been a welcome addition.

Overall I like the set. the box was a fun, if brief, break. It’s hard to make a call on value. This set leans toward the high end. It’s under $100 but you only get a handful of cards. Boxes of hockey are a little high right now, I think due to the rookie silhouette patch autos. These cards are amazing looking and very unique. Hockey rookie hunters are some of the most rabid in the hobby and these cards will most likely be second to only The Cup rookies.

I give it a thumbs up for the base and autos and overall fun of the break. The inserts aren’t that strong so overall maybe 3/4 of a thumb.

-K-