CONNOISSEURS
COLLECTION VOL. I, THE '60s (Inkworks)
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Release
Date |
4
September 1996 |
Set Configuration:
90 Base cards
36 Packs per box
7 Cards per pack
10 Boxes per case
25000 Boxes
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“GoldenEye”
broke every box office record, and James Bond merchandising was everywhere,
toy guns, toy cars, books, watches etc… you name it, there it
was. The 007 logo had the cash registers ringing in shops all summer.
With that in mind and the success of Pierce Brosnan as secret agent
007, the famous American trading card manufacturer “Inkworks”
launched a major campaign for the release of the “Connoisseur’s
Collection” trading cards. The campaign for this ultimate trading
card series started with the distribution of a black announcement
envelope. The envelope contained a doubled sided three folded release
sheet and a sell-sheet. On the front of the envelope “An Invitation…”
was printed in shiny golden letters, the reverse was sealed with a
round golden sticker showing an embossed “Inkworks” logo.
According to “Inkworks” vice-president Greg Goldstein
the “Connoisseurs Collection” is what every James Bond
fan has been waiting for. When Allan Caplan founded the “Graffiti”
trading card company, Bond was really one of the things he wanted
to go after. To do things the right way, Greg Goldstein received access
to the new Bond archive in London. Along with the archivist of the
James Bond Company, EON productions, they poured over 100.000 images
to find the very best pictures suitable to create the “Connoisseurs
Collection” a masterpiece among the trading card series.
" The much sought after “An
Invitation…” envelope"
The
“Connoisseurs Collection” comes in three parts: “Volume
I, The 60s”, “Volume II, The 70s” and “Volume
III, The Bond Legacy”. The first part, “Volume I”
appeared in the retail shops during the fall of 1996, the basic set
exists of 90 cards, with nine cards used to cover each of the first
six James Bond movies, “Dr. No”, “From Russia With
Love”, “Goldfinger”, “Thunderball”,
“You Only Live Twice” en “On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service”. The cards are foil-stamped, double UV coated
and printed on 18-point tick stock with different images on the front
and reverse side. Subsets include “Heroes & Villains”,
the “Sean Connery Portfolio”, the “Lazenby Files”
and of course a beautiful “Ladies Gallery”. The last card
in the set is an introduction to the next part or the so called “Volume
II. The trading cards were sold individually in packs containing seven
randomly chosen cards, a counter display box could also be purchased
and contained 36 packs for a total of 252 cards. Inkworks guaranteed
a complete basic set of 90 cards when you purchased a complete box.
”Inkworks” produced three beautiful chase sets. The first
chase set “The Women Of Bond” containing nine foil-etched
cards depicting nine sexy Bond girls taken from the first six James
Bond movies. The Bond Girl cards are numbered from W01 thru W09 and
were randomly inserted into 1/11 packs.
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W01
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W02
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W03
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W04
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W05
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W06
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W07 |
W08
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W09
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The
second chase set, the “Movie Posters of Bond” had only
six cards. Each metal-foil card shows the original movie poster from
the first six James Bond movies. This poster chase set is printed
on a thin layer of metal-foil and is finished with a golden border.
The poster cards are numbered from P01 thru P06 and again randomly
inserted in 1/24 packs.
As a last
chase card, “Inkworks” created a beautiful gold-foil,
sculpted and embossed card featuring Sean Connery in a scene taken
from the movie “Goldfinger”. The card is very rare and
only inserted in one per 108 packs. This meaning one would have to
buy at least three full boxes and have all the luck of the Irish or
in the world to find it. The card is named the “Golden Touch”
and is numbered as G1. Also shown in the pictures below is the platinum
chase card. Read all about the platinum cards in Volume III.
At
the 1996 San-Diego Comic Convention “Inkworks” distributed
four promotion cards, the amount was limited to one card per person
per day. These cards were numbered SD1 thru SD4. The front side of
the promotion cards depicted a still of one the first four James Bond
actors, Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore & Timothy Dalton.
When putting the four reverse sides together, they showed a picture
of the latest James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. As you could guess,
these promotion cards are hard to find, but sometimes they do pop
up on eBay. A limited edition print of the four convention promo cards
was available as an uncut sheet together with a promotion flyer, displaying
a picture of the four promo cards SD1-SD4.
To
promote the first volume, the card designers used a still showing
a risqué love scene between James Bond and Tatiana Romanova.
The promo card is numbered as P1 and the scene came from the second
James Bond movie “From Russia With Love”.
"Sell Sheet
Volume I"
To
store all three volumes of the James Bond Connoisseurs Collection
trading cards, “Inkworks” produced a very special 007
Connoisseurs Deluxe Collector Album. This special album is manufactured
in high quality black scuba vinyl, beautifully gold foiled and emblazoned
with the world famous 007 logo. The binder also comes as a stand-up
binder to display the cards, this type of binder is very rare. Many
James Bond collectors purchased several binders to store other James
Bond trading cards or memorabilia.
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"Connoisseurs
Collection Binder" |
"Counter
Display Box" |
The
World Wide Web keeps on growing and gives the collector an inexhaustible
source of collectable memorabilia. An example shown here below is
an uncut-sheet containing two counter display boxes to hold the 36
packs for the Connoisseurs Collection Volume One. Have you ever seen
this before?
"Counter Display
Box Uncut-Sheet"
A
similar uncut-sheet packed with all the promotion cards popped-up
on eBay in July 2009. The sheet displays the promotion cards for all
the Volumes, including the special promotion cards SD1-SD4 disributed
at the 1996 San Diego Comic Covention. That's one of the ways that
you can see how carefull everything is planned in advance.
"Promotion
Card Uncut Sheet Front"
In July
2009 a similar uncut-sheet packed with all the promotion cards popped-up
on eBay. The sheet holds all the promotion cards for the three volumes,
including the special promotion cards SD1-SD4 distributed at the 1996
San Diego Comic Convention. That's one of the ways that you can see
how carefully everything is planned in advance.
"Promotion
Card Uncut Sheet Reverse"
“Basic Card Set”
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| Check
List: |
| Base
Cards |
[ ] 01 Volume One: The '60s
[ ] 02 Dr. No
[ ] 03 Dr. No
[ ] 04 Dr. No
[ ] 05 Dr. No
[ ] 06 Dr. No
[ ] 07 Dr. No
[ ] 08 Dr. No
[ ] 09 Dr. No
[ ] 10 From Russia With Love
[ ] 11 From Russia With Love
[ ] 12 From Russia With Love
[ ] 13 From Russia With Love
[ ] 14 From Russia With Love
[ ] 15 From Russia With Love
[ ] 16 From Russia With Love
[ ] 17 From Russia With Love
[ ] 18 From Russia With Love
[ ] 19 Goldfinger
[ ] 20 Goldfinger
[ ] 21 Goldfinger
[ ] 22 Goldfinger
[ ] 23 Goldfinger
[ ] 24 Goldfinger
[ ] 25 Goldfinger
[ ] 26 Goldfinger
[ ] 27 Goldfinger
[ ] 28 Thunderball
[ ] 29 Thunderball
[ ] 30 Thunderball
[ ] 31 Thunderball
[ ] 32 Thunderball
[ ] 33 Thunderball
[ ] 34 Thunderball
[ ] 35 Thunderball
[ ] 36 Thunderball
[ ] 37 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 38 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 39 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 40 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 41 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 42 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 43 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 44 You Only Live Twice
[ ] 45 You Only Live Twice |
[ ] 46 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 47 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 48 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 49 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 50 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 51 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 52 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 53 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 54 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
[ ] 55 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 56 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 57 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 58 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 59 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 60 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 61 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 62 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 63 Heroes & Villains
[ ] 64 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 65 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 66 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 67 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 68 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 69 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 70 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 71 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 72 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 73 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 74 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 75 The Connery Portfolio
[ ] 76 The Lazenby Files
[ ] 77 The Lazenby Files
[ ] 78 The Lazenby Files
[ ] 79 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 80 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 81 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 82 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 83 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 84 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 85 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 86 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 87 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 88 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 89 Ladies Gallery
[ ] 90 Volume Two Preview |
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| F/X-TCH
Chase Cards (1:11 packs) |
[ ] W1 Honey Ryder in Dr No
[ ] W2 Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova
[ ] W3 Pussy Galore
[ ] W4 Domino
[ ] W5 Fiona Volpe
[ ] W6 Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki
[ ] W7 Karin Dor as Helga Brandt
[ ] W8 Diana Rigg as Tracy
[ ] W9 A Mix of Ladies
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| Metalworks
Poster Chase Cards (1:24 packs) |
[ ] PO1 Dr. No
[ ] PO2 From Russia With Love
[ ] PO3 Goldfinger
[ ] PO4 Thunderball
[ ] PO5 You Only Live Twice
[ ] PO6 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
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| Golden
Touch Chase Card (1:108 packs) |
| [ ] G1 Sean Connery |
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| Collectors
Album |
| [ ] Connoisseur Binder |
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| Promo
Cards |
[ ] P1 Sean Connery
[ ] SD1 George Lazenby (San Diego Comic Convention)
[ ] SD2 Sean Connery (San Diego Comic Convention)
[ ] SD3 Timothy Dalton (San Diego Comic Convention)
[ ] SD4 Roger Moore (San Diego Comic Convention)
[ ] Convention promotional sheet with picures of SD1 to SD4 (5"
x 7")
[ ] Convention promotional black enveloppe.
[ ] Dealer Sell Sheet. |
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