Prizm is here! Box Break Review: 2016 Prizm NASCAR

That was a long wait! The last NASCAR release was back in 2014, named as a 2015 set, and we've had nothing since. Until today! Panini got the NASCAR license back in February and the box finally hit store shelves today. I pre-ordered a box, something I rarely ever do, from Dave & Adams, and they got it to me today. Naturally, I opened it up. It was a great box! I really enjoyed the cards, and the Prizms- this is the first time ever that the Refractor/Prizm technology has been used in NASCAR. It did not disappoint, even if all my numbered Prizms were from Joe Gibbs Racing (LOL)

Since these cards take forever to scan, due to their Chromeyness (if Shakespeare can make up words, so can I) and don't look all that good in scans anyway, I decided to take pictures.

First things first, Panini actually includes car cards, which is a great thing!

Not so great, most of them look like they've been run through an Instagram filter. Especially check the #88 and #4 cars. The #4 is supposed to be a black car with a white stripe, there shouldn't be white on the roof and hood. It's a night shot so there is some reflection but it's been messed with too much.

It's still better than Press Pass, which didn't bother to give us cards of cars at all! Unfortunately, not every driver got a car card. That's one of 3 things that keep me from giving this set a perfect rating.

The Prizms! Glorious, glorious Prizms. This is what we've all been waiting for. Like I said, the Refractor/Prizm technology has never been used in NASCAR before, and it was well worth the wait! They fall on average every other pack for base Prizms, as I ended up with 10 of them in 20 packs. I wish I had pulled a Prizm of a car, because that's what I was waiting the most for, but I will be buying some retail to chase the Wal-Mart and Target exclusive colors so maybe I will get one there.

Inserts...meh. The Competitors insert is kind of pointless as the majority of base cards use photos from the official photo shoot done in Daytona at the start of every season and these do as well. Winner's Circle includes victory lane celebrations from 2015's races. I had to pull Kenseth, one of my least favorite drivers.

The inserts all have Prizms, which is nice, and I pulled three from my box. They are hard to photograph, that is the camera flash bulb reflecting on Hamlin's hand. I like the Prizms quite a bit!

Aside from the base Prizms, there are colored parallels which are serially numbered. I love these, especially the two car cards. The Rainbow is SN24, the Blue SN99 and the Green SN199. There are some other colors I didn't get as well. These are truly spectacular and some of my favorite cards from the box.

The only die cut card in the box, I'm not sure if these are all die cut or if that comes with the fact that it's a Prizm parallel. It's a great card either way, and it's the King...the photo dates to 1992.

the green reflecting is my shirt

Here are the base cards. If I counted right I got 55 of 100, and that's one of the of the other things that keep me from giving the set a perfect rating. 100 cards is simply not enough. Especially when some of them are wasted on subsets. The Driver Introductions subset is not needed. We would have been better off if those photos were used for the base cards and the space they took up on the checklist was used for card cards- or more Xfinity or Truck drivers, who only appear in the autograph sets, which make them pretty tough to find as you get one autograph per box. Lots of up-and-coming future stars got their first cards, but appear only on the autograph checklist- drivers like William Byron, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell and others.

The third thing that keeps me from giving the set a perfect rating is the back of the cards have no stats at all. I didn't expect full stats as Panini simply never bothers to do that, but I expected last season's and career totals- and this is even more important as Racing-Reference.info may be shutting down due to the owner's poor health. (Something I'm very familiar with- get well soon!)

One thing I REALLY like about the card backs is that they include team logos. Off the top of my head I believe this is the first set ever to include team logos. Some sets have had the team name in text, most don't bother to include it at all. This is something that's been sorely missing from NASCAR cards since we first started getting them in 1988.

Now, I bet you are wondering what my promised three "hits" are...

Here they are!

I got some really good ones! The Newman tire was the first I pulled. Tire pieces are the most common relic in NASCAR, which makes sense as they go through a lot of them on race weekend and sometimes even give them away when they are used up.

The Carl Edwards autograph came up next, and it's a Gold Prizm, which means it's Serially Numbered to 10! I got SN05/10.

The Matt DiBenedetto patch came out of the very last pack and is SN 05/25. It's one of the nicest NASCAR patches I've ever pulled, and I've always supported BK Racing...for hopefully obvious reasons! The back of the card talks about his 6th place finish at Bristol this year, the text, while limited, is nicely done on all the cards I've read, although to be honest I have not read all that many yet because I've been working on getting this post and the pack I did on A Pack to Be Named Later up!

Overall, I am REALLY happy with Panini's first NASCAR effort, and I'm glad I was able to get a hobby box of it. It's the first box I've done since (I think) October so it was double the thrill.
There is certainly room for improvement but for the first effort they did a fantastic job. I have not looked forward to a NASCAR set this much in quite some time, and it really didn't disappoint. We need more car pictures, we need stats, we need more cards- 100 cards doesn't cover a sport at all- but what we did get is great.

Panini had three more sets due in 2016, but I don't think I'm going to be able to afford boxes of them; one of them is scheduled to be several hundred dollars for 5 or 6 cards, I wouldn't do that even if I could afford it. It takes a LOT of the fun out of it, (I don't like buying singles, opening a pack and being surprised is the most exciting to me) but I will pick up whatever card is cheapest on COMC just so the set is represented in my collection, eventually. The next set due out is supposed to be a blaster-only set and the cards are going to have a dark gray theme.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Panini for bringing cards back to the sport!