Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Very Average Promotional Card The The Clone Wars Season 1 Promo Still Underwhelms.


The Good: Good image, Inexpensive enough, Necessary for collectors, Rarity
The Bad: Not informative, It's just one card.
The Basics: The San Diego ComicCon 2009 promotional card for The Clone Wars Season 1 is a disappointing promotional card made better only by its inherent value.


The San Diego ComicCon is a yearly convention that seems to have become, in recent years, a hub of activity for all things science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Each year, people from around the world trek out there to get the first glimpses at super hero movies, science fiction television and the latest information on comics and toys. Each year, it gets bigger and because it is a key place to market to the ideal demographics, it is a place packed with exclusives for sale. This ranges from toys to trading cards to maquette statues and collectors have some great opportunities to find some promotional items which they need for their collections. Among the many things found at the 2009 San Diego ComicCon was the exclusive promotional card for The Clone Wars trading cards.

Virtually every major blockbuster film or science fiction television show that is released these days comes with an accompanying release of a trading card set. Topps had the license for Star Wars for years, so it was almost no risk when they produced the The Clone Wars Season 1 trading cards, despite the fan base which was reacting in a more lukewarm fashion to the source material than they might like. Shows like The Clone Wars (reviewed here!) try to capitalize on the enthusiasm of the show as the appropriate season's DVD set is released right before the next season begins and the The Clone Wars Season 1 trading cards were released with the first season DVD set, right before the second season began airing on the Cartoon Network.

To prepare collectors for the release of the The Clone Wars Season 1 trading cards, Topps produced a promotional card. Promotional cards are designed to give collectors a tease of the new set and generate enthusiasm for forthcoming card releases. Topps gave only a few thousands of The Clone Wars Season 1 San Diego ComicCon promotional cards to collectors who were at the show in 2009.

The Clone Wars Season 1 San Diego ComicCon exclusive promotional card prepares fans for the style of the common card set for the The Clone Wars Season 1 trading cards. As such, this is a standard size trading card and there is no gimmick to it. It has the Topps standard UV protective coating to prevent fading and after less than a year, mine shows no wear (though mine is nicely protected in a binder's poly pages!).

The front of the trading card features the animated versions of Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano with their lightsabers drawn and at the ready. The image is clearly intended to generate enthusiasm over the heroes from The Clone Wars and illustrate the quality of the common cards. The image is exceptionally clear and all of the characters are recognizable. The front also features text at the bottom which advertises Star Wars, though oddly enough, not the actual set. This is the format of the common cards and it accurately predicts how the set would look.

The photography on the front is very clear and the color contrast is decent, which prepares collectors well for the actual set, and it generated some decent enthusiasm for the actual card set as this was not a very common image in the mainstream media. Those looking for something different to get signed will find this is not actually a bad image for any of the voice actors who play Anakin, Ahsoka, Yoda or Obi-Wan, but it might get crowded to try to get more than one to sign this card. Having four characters on the front of the card is likely to make this a choice that is a bit busy for the autograph hunters.

The back of the card simply announces the The Clone Wars Season 1 trading card set and this is a disturbingly uninformative promotional card. Because the card only discussed the card release in the most vague terms - focusing about as much on watching new episodes on the Cartoon Network as mentioning the composition of the card set - this is not as helpful as promotional cards that announce autographs, sketch cards or even the format of the cards explicitly.

In the end, this card is nice looking, but a tough sell on its own. The The Clone Wars Trading Card San Diego ComicCon card prepares the consumer for the common card set, but leaves them with little idea of what they are actually getting in a full box of cards. The only reason to pick this one up, outside the image quality, is the fact that as a San Diego ComicCon promotional card, it is rather rare. As a result, this is likely to continue to appreciate in value, though after a year, it is only about three times the value of the average promotional card. Still, San Diego ComicCon promotional cards have a history of appreciating, so this might be a good one to hold onto!

Otherwise, this is a very average (at best) trading card.

For other promotional card reviews, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Battlestar Galactica Premiere Edition P1
2005 Family Guy P1
Twilight P1

5/10

For other trading card reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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