BLACKBURN ROVERS 1996/97

Corinthian released 14 figures in the kit Blackburn Rovers wore for the 1996/97 season, 1 more than was release the previous season, with the the kit sponsor for this season being CIS.

 

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This set featured 10 repaints of figures previously released in the 1995/96 Blackburn Rovers kit, those 10 are Tim Flowers, Graeme Le Saux, Chris Sutton. Tim Sherwood, Colin Hendry, Stuart Ripley, Paul Warhurst, Jason Wilcox, Jeff Kenna and Paul Gallacher.

 

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Another repaint was also included in this set and that was of Gary Flitcroft who was previously released for Manchester City for the 1995/96 season. The Flitcroft was the exact same sculpt but Corinthian did assign him a new base code, they changed it from PL71 to PL344 this is something tended not to do and usually just kept the same base code for one sculpt.

 

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In amongst all the repaints were 3 brand new first time sculpts, all of which have never been released again. The sculpt of Henning Berg was the very first release of the player but not the last, however Corinthian changed the sculpt for the Norwegian National set release, probably as this figure bore a very small resemblance to the player, not their best work. The Berg figure was originally designed to be released in the 1995/96 kit but Corinthian dropped him from that set, A master model of this figure was made.

 

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There is something very interesting about the final two figures which make up this set, both were originally planned to be released for different clubs but both were also originally intended to be released in the 1995/96 Blackburn Rovers set, let me explain.

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Matt Holmes moved to Blackburn Rovers in August 1995 from West Ham United, so when the figure was originally sculpted he would have been done so with the intention of being released for West Ham United and he was assigned a West Ham United base code of PL159 as all the West Ham United figures base codes ended in 9. Matt Holmes was intended to be released in the 1995/96 Blackburn Rovers kit as a master of this figures was made, but for whatever reason he was not released as part of that set.

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A very similar occurrence happened with the Lars Bohinen figure who, like Holmes, was due to be released for another club, in this case the club was Nottingham Forest and he was given a Forest base code of PL122 as all the Nottingham Forest figures base codes ended in 2. Bohinen moved to Blackburn in 1995 and was also intended to be released in the 1995/96 Blackburn set but was dropped from the range, again a master model of this sculpt was made.

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Corinthian decided that after going to all the trouble of sculpting and producing these figures of Holmes, Bohinen and Berg, that they may as well release them, too costly not to really. Bear in mind it took a certain amount of time from originally sculpting a players head to him been added to a body pose and even longer for him to get to the plastic moulding stage, plenty of time for a player to move clubs.

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Of the 14 figures, 7 were done as single blisters and 7 were not, the 7 released as single blisters are Berg, Bohinen, Flitcroft, Flowers, Holmes, Le Saux and Sutton.

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The 7 which were not done as single blisters are Sherwood, Hendry, Ripley, Gallacher, Warhurst, Wilcox and Kenna, those 7 were released inside 4 packs and as part of the 12 figure team pack.

 

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There is also 2 different 4 packs released, BR4B contains Kenna, Wilcox, Gallacher and Flowers, while BR4C has Sherwood, Hendry, Ripley and Warhurst.

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Corinthian did release a 12 player pack for this set, with the figures omitted from the pack being Bohinen and Berg, those 2 were only available as single blisters and as such are the hardest to pick up but by no means rare.