February of 1998 saw the release of 11 figures from the top 3 club sides in Portugal, the 3 clubs selected were Benfica, FC Porto, Sporting Lisbon.

 

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They were released initially in Portugal as part of the 'Headliners' range of figures. The name given to this release was 'Super Campeoes' literally translated to mean super champions.

 

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At the time of release these figures were hard to acquire for most of the UK collectors with very few people having access to them. Corinthian managed to acquire some stock which they sold through their official collector centres and also at the conventions.

 

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All 11 figure have remained highly collectable and valuable due to the difficult in actually getting them. The hardest to acquire is perhaps the Joao Pinto for Benfica or Mario Jardel for FC Porto, both can fetch a fair price when they appear on the secondary market.

 

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Another reason for their continued popularity is that none of them have ever been released by Corinthian again except the 4 Portuguese national figures of Cruz, Barbosa ,Joao Pinto, J.Costa which themselves are hard to find. All were first time sculpts never to be used again making this your only way of adding these figures to your collection.

 

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My personal favourite from this release is undoubtedly that of 'Oceano Cruz' for Sporting Lisbon. the facial work on this sculpt is superb and really catches the tough tackling centre halves attitude. Truly a fine set of figures and it is a shame there were not more released as part of this series.

 

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To see the range of figures released, please click the link buttons below.