2012 Rittenhouse Archives NCIS Premium Pack Break Recap and Review

It was voted America’s favorite television show, the third most watched show of the year, according to Nielsen Ratings, just behind Sunday Night Football and American Idol.  This fall the show will begin its tenth season on CBS but Rittenhouse Archives has trading card for the show right now. 2012 Rittenhouse Archives NCIS Trading cards are available in Premium Packs.  These cards cover the first 72 episodes of the series, from the Post-JAG kick off of Season 1 to the start of Season 4.  This is the premiere offering so there will probably be more releases in the future to cover the later seasons.  Fans of the show should be pleased.

Rittenhouse Archives NCIS falls under our premium cards category.  Each Premium Pack contains 3 Episode cards, 1 Stars of NCIS card, 2 Relic cards and 1 Autograph card. These can be purchased by the individual pack or as a 15-pack box. 

Here are the cards we pulled.  All cards are shown front and back.

Episode Cards

 Card #26 - Hometown Hero & Kill Ari Part 1

 Card #06 - High Seas & Enigma

 Card #19 - Witness & The Voyeur's Web

Stars of NCIS inserts 

 Special Agent Caitlin Todd played by Sasha Alexander

Relic Cards

 Shirt worn by Rocky Carroll portraying Director Leon Vance

 Suit worn by Michael Weatherly portraying Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo

Autograph

 Bob Newhart Autograph portraying Dr. Walter Magnus

Overall Look

The inserts and hit cards are really nicely done. Rittenhouse Archives has some of the best designed and executed autograph cards in all of collecting, both sports and non-sports.   But the episode cards are a little too “vanilla” for me.  Perhaps a few more details in the episode synopsis would have helped.  But that is a minor point that does not detract from the appeal of the set.

Quality and Variety of the checklist

This is a small set, but it is a small core group of actors so that is understandable.  With the future inclusion of later season cards, this should round out to a nice sized master set.   All of the core actors are represented in the Stars of NCIS cards but not necessarily in the hits, another issue that should be resolved in future releases.

Do the Hits satisfy?

This release features autograph from 3 of the main actors, Lauren Holly, (which is great that they went back and got her) Pauley Perrette and Rocky Carroll.  It also has the autograph of Brian Dietzen who will be joining the main cast this season.  You might think that the rest of the autograph list is lacking in that case, but you would be wrong.  It is full of name actors that are desirable autographs to have, from the Bob Newhart that I was excited to pull, to Cheryl Ladd, Michael Nouri, Charles Durning and Rena Sofer.  The relic hits are done the way I like them.  Relic swatch with a picture from the show of the actor in the costume piece on the front and a picture of the actual costume piece that the swatch was taken from on the back of the card.

Will you keep coming back for more?

Because of the limited number of cards in the set, fans of the show will want to complete it. and will be ready to collect any future release.

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

2012 Rittenhouse Archives NCIS is a good premiere release that offers fans of the show plenty to start collecting now.

I Want You To Open My Box Of 2012 Topps Inception Football Cards

Our previous virtual box breaks have gone well so here is another shot at opening some high-end cards.  

Not everyone will have the chance to open a box of 2012 Topps Inception Football Cards so I'm giving you the opportunity to open mine... virtually.

This box of Topps Inception contains 1 – 7 card pack with 2 autos and one memorabilia card, so this virtual break shouldn’t take that long to complete.

To do this box break, click on the image of the box. That will open it. Continue to click on the images to get through the entire break.

2012 Panini Prestige Football Box Break Recap And Review

This year, Panini held back on releasing Prestige Football, making them the last company to release its first football product of the year.  By doing so Panini proves the old adage, “Good things come to those who wait.”  While Panini may have been the last to the table, the delay allowed Prestige to be the first release to feature rookie players in their team’s uniforms, from the Rookie Premiere and team practice sessions, which makes great use of their NFL license.

For the purposes of review, we classify Prestige Football as trading cards.  You can find Prestige in a wide variety of configurations in both retail and hobby.  We opened a hobby box, which contains 24 – 8 card packs with a promise of 4 autograph and/or memorabilia cards per box, with a guarantee of at least two autographs.

Here are some of the cards we pulled.

Base Set

 Aaron Rodgers, front and back

 Cam Newton, Eli Manning, A.J. Green

 Victor Cruz, Arian Foster, Julio Jones

 Tony Romo, Philip Rivers, LeSean McCoy

I wanted to highlight these next cards, also in the base set.

These cards of players that will be joining new teams this year.  This might not hold true for you, but I appreciate that Panini DID NOT try to Photoshop these. Not only does it look better to have these players in their prior team’s uniforms, it provides a record of their transition from team to team.  For future releases I would like to see them in their new uniforms, but for a pre-season release, without in action photos available, this is the way to go.

Rookies

Andrew Luck, front and back

 Justin Blackmon, Morris Claiborne, Ryan Tannehill

 Shea McClellin, Riley Reiff, David DeCastro

 Harrison Smith, Doug Martin, Brian Quick

Base and Rookie Parallels

2012 NFL Draft Alternate Photo SP

 Justin Blackmon

Extra Points

 Brent Celek Gold, Mike Wallace Gold, Sterling Moore

 Robert Meachem Gold, Morris Claiborne Blue #/999, Mychal Kendricks Bllue #/999

Inserts

Connections

 Detroit Lions - Matthew Stafford & Calvin Johnson Jr.

Stars of the NFL

 Brian Urlacher, Darrelle Revis

 Darren McFadden, Reggie Wayne

NFL Passport

 Robert Griffin III RG3, front and back

 Alshon Jeffery, Stephen Hill

Prestigious Picks

 Michael Brockers

 Chandler Jones, Doug Martin

 David Wilson, Ryan Broyles

League Leaders

Receiving Yards

Draft Tickets

 Brandon Weeden, Coby Fleener

 Ronnie Hillman, Nick Toon

Draft City Destinations

 Chris Givens, LaMichael James

 Mohamed Sanu, A,J, Jenkins Holokote #/100

The Hits

Memorabilia

 Adrian Wilson

 Chris Givens #/299, Ronnie Hillman #/149

Autographs

 Kendall Wright Auto #499, Marvin Jones Auto #/799

Overall Look

In years past, Prestige featured a simple design.  This year the look has been upgraded.  The fronts of the cards almost have a Contenders feel, which is a great improvement, while the backs of the cards still retain that simple design, which is fine because it keeps the stats and info clean and appealing to the eye.  The inserts are very well designed this year too, with the exception of the NFL Passport inserts that look like they were backwards built to accept memorabilia swatches but, oddly, were not.  The backs of these cards are better looking than the fronts.  There are only autograph hits for the NFL Passport line.  They are a total redesign and they look fantastic.  Another oddity, the inserts that were built backwards, the Prestigious Picks, I like.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.

200 Base and 100 Rookies is a nice number for an early release.   No need to look for retired stars, unless you are looking for Randy Moss.  Prestige is all about current players and incoming rookies. Tebow fans will appreciate a 14 cards plus 1 auto card set devoted to him. 

Do the hits hold up?

There are some nice autographs to pull from this product, with the concentration of hits from the 36 players who attended this year’s Rookie Premiere, but you will also be able to find hits that feature the current stars of the NFL.

Will you want to collect them all?

There is a wide variety of insert sets creating different levels for set builders to complete, depending on the kind of challenge they want to take on, which is a good thing.

Rating

 4 1/2 out of 5

With its new look, 2012 Panini Prestige Football becomes one of the best early releases for set builders to start collecting.