One of the most popular films of all time! Somehow Playground Maniacs was the only company to produce cards for this film. To commemorate this film they produced packs of sticker cards and figurines. The entire set was composed of 180 sticker cards and 6 figurines. The cards themselves were flimsy and easily bent. Many of the cards were punched through by the die-cutter. Most stickers came out of the packs curved. The reason for this, I believe was because they were packaged in with the figurines, so the packs were loosely packed within the boxes. As for the set itself, if the cards had been manufactured with thicker backs, this would have been an impressive set. With 180 different cards, there are plenty of images from the movie included. The figurines included a Joker, 3 different Batmans and 2 vehicles. The figurines are nicely painted and are the size of most CMG figurines, but they are not actually gaming figures.
Playground Maniacs sold the entire set with an album for $29.99. They also sold individual packs which included 8 stickers and 1 figurine.
I had high hopes for this set since it was the only card set I could find for this extremely popular movie. I purchased 9 boxes of the packs to sell. After sitting on them for a while, and not selling any, I decided to open packs and make sets of the stickers. Here is where my main problem with this set arose. It is my personal belief that if the packs in a box include enough cards to make a base set, then it should not take more than 2 boxes to make a set. Many manufacturers guarantee that you will find at least 1 complete base set in every box. I have as of right now opened 5 boxes of these cards and have not even completed 1 set. At a retail price of $2.99/pack, I would have already spent over $350 and have nothing to show for it but a huge collection of figures and a huge stack of the same cards. I have 4 boxes left, and I am doubting that I will complete this set. This is either a major quality control problem or borderline consumer fraud.
I tried to contact Playground Maniacs in California, but there listed phone number was disconnected. I suppose they may have gone out of business, but I saw a listing for a similar Marvel product on a website that comes out this month. I personally would never purchase another box of cards from this company.
Ratings:
Card images: A (what I saw I liked)
Figurines: C (only six different ones and only 2 different characters)
Card quality: F (very flimsy and almost all slightly damaged)
Packaging: F
Value: F
Overall Grade: D-
Save your money. If you can actually find the $29.99 pre-packaged set, it would be a good value, but if you're the type of person, like me, who enjoys opening up packs and making sets, this product will cause you much stress. You might want to make sure the kids aren't within earshot, because you will curse a lot.
