LIVERPOOL 1996/97

Liverpool had a massive 24 figures released as part of the 1996/97 FAPL Collection, all painted in the kit worn for that season. The 1996/97 kit differed from the 95/96 kit in a few ways, the socks were all Red, the sleeves had a White trim, the collar had a Black trim v-neck detail and the kit was a slightly darker shade of Red.

12 of the figures were mere repaints of the 95/96 set which are - Fowler, Barnes, Collymore, McManaman, Redknapp, Ruddock, Jones, Scales, Babb, Wright, Bjornebye and included in those was David 'calamity' James with his kit for this season being all Green, with all those being released as single blisters in October 1996.

Manager Roy Evans was sculpted and released for the first time, while new sculpts of McManaman and Redknapp were also released later during this range in January 1997, with the sculpt of Redknapp being a vast improvement on the previous figue, much more recognisable.

Mark Kennedy was another of these first time releases as was Dominic Matteo who was actually released twice, both times with a different colour hair! The first Matteo figure was released in October 1996 and featured him with Blonde hair, the Dark haired version was released much later in December 97 for the 1997/98 season but the kit remained the same for both figures.

Also included in this set were 2 repaints of figures previously released for other clubs, those two being Ince and Leonhardsen. The figure of Paul Ince was the exact same sculpt as released for the England National Headliner series and the Oyvind Leonhardsen figure had prior been released for Wimbledon but Corinthian did assign this figure a new base code, changed from PL138 to PL468.

Completing this collection were a further 3 brand new first time sculpts, all 3 players had never been released by Corinthian before this. Czech international Patrik Berger was released and proved very popular amongst all collectors and was a real fine sculpt. The best sculpt of this set was for me that of Michael Thomas, a lot of facial character and detail went into producing this figure, although Corinthian released Thomas again years later this sculpt was never again used. Finally we have German Karl Heinz Riedle, a brilliant sculpt and one which Corinthian chose to include in the very first range of Prostars.

There are some variants to mention, besides the 2 different hair colours for Dominic Matteo. Robbie Fowler, Jason McAteer, Roy Evans and the updated sculpt of Jamie Redknapp were also released with Headliners logo on the blister and also on the collector card, so for those who collect all the cards and ever blister, this gives you another version to add to the collection.

The final one to mention is Patrik Berger, he was also released with the Headliners logo variant, which also had the collector card bearing the Headliners logo too, but he also has 2 different numbers! When he first signed he was given the number 14 shirt, however it was not long before his number changed to 15, so Corinthian amended the figure for the Headliner edition. The classic FAPL blister has Berger with shirt number 14, whereas the Headliners variant has him wearing the number 15 shirt.

There was also 3 different 4 packs released for the 1996/97 set.