SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1995/96

Sheffield Wednesday's figures seem very straight forward at first glance but there is a lot more to them than meets the eye.

 

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All 8 released figures were first time sculpts and only one of those has been released again, this figure was the superb sculpt of pacey Dutch winger Reggie Blinker, who would be released as a Prostars figure for Celtic. This sculpt is famous for the sheer size of his dreadlocks and is quite possibly the heaviest figure Corinthian have released, a truly memorable figure.

 

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This set also features the rarest and most valuable of all the figures released as part of the FAPL Collection and this figure is Mark Pembridge. The Pembridge figure was not made in that high a volume due to his standing at the club, that and the sculpt itself, albeit it an accurate one, was not that eye catching so he went largely un-noticed by many collectors. Obtaining a blister pack of Pembridge is something that has eluded many collectors.

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The figure of John Sheridan is also on the rare side and for similar reasons, blister version is extremely rare and while he will not command the same money as Pembridge, he is still a valuable figure. David Hirst's sculpt featured a lot of character and was a fantastic likeness of the player, non too rare though and can be easily picked up.

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This is where things get very interesting! The remaining 4 figures had 2 separate versions of the same figure released, let me explain.

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The figure of Kevin Pressman was released with different hair colours. The first is the more commonly found version and has the legendary keeper painted with dark brown hair, however, the keeper's actual hair colour was a light brown, near blonde colour. Corinthian amended this when they re-released the figure for the 96-97 season by changing his hair colour to a light brown/blonde as it should have been. Both sculpts are exactly the same and share the same base code of PL73, with there only being 1 collector card version which has him with light brow hair, however both versions were done as single blisters.

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As for the remaining 3 figures, the difference this time was nothing to do with hair colour or skin tone, instead it was all about the squad numbers. In 1995 most clubs still selected the starting 11 for the upcoming season and gave them the squad number accordingly, only changing this if a player left or a new player was brought in, it was only later when replica kits were sold with numbers on etc that the clubs were made to assign squad numbers for a minimum of 1 season.

 

 

Sheffield Wednesday signed central defender Des Walker and assigned him the number 17, this figure was released by Corinthian in January 1996 but when he was selected to be a first team regular for the new 1996/97 season he was assigned the number 6 and so when Corinthian re-released the figure for the new season he was brought out with his new number 6 on the back.

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The final two figures to mention are Chris Waddle and Mark Bright. For the 1995/96 season Bright played centre forward along side Hirst, and wore the number 10 shirt, however when David Hirst got injured; just as he was lining up a move to Manchester United as well, Wednesday moved Paul Warhurst upfront, Warhurst who was originally signed to be a defender, and Bright moved back and played attacking midfield with the new squad number of 8.

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Chris Waddle was the man who wore the number 8 shirt from the start of the 1995/96 season but had to relinquish this due to the circumstances i mentioned above and took up his new number of 15. Corinthian released Bright and Waddle with both numbers, Waddle with 8 and Bright with 10 for the 1995/96 season and then when they re-released the figures for the 1996/97 season Waddle had his new number of 15 and Bright had his of 8.

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The kit and sculpt for all those figures is exactly the same for both versions, this subtle change was just Corinthian keeping their figures accurate and up to date.

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A MASSIVE thanks must go to long suffering Owls fan 'Jim Pinder' for providing me with the information detailed above, cheers Jim!

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All figures were released as a single blister pack, coming with collector cards and a collectors information file.

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Corinthian also released a Sheffield Wednesday 4 pack, this 4 pack is extremely rare.

SW4A - Chris Waddle, David Hirst, Des Walker & Kevin Presmann (Blonde Hair)