Anastasia - Upper Deck (Europe)

It has been a while since collectors have seen an official release from Upper Deck in Europe, its last effort being the 1996 Jonny Quest set based on the television cartoon series. It seems as though European non-sport trading card manufacturers have been aiming at mature collectors during recent years. Upper Deck has decided to continue to cater for the younger end of the market - their latest offering is a series of trading cards featuring scenes from the new Twentieth Century Fox animated feature film, Anastasia. The movie itself is a very Disney type affair which tells the story of a Russian princess, and features the voice talents of John Cusack, Meg Ryan and Kelsey Grammer. The complete collection consists of 126 regular sized trading cards, with cards being sold in packets of five. This includes all the insert cards, which are not numbered separately as with most other trading card sets. This makes it more or less impossible to differentiate between a 'basic' and a 'master' set. By numbering the cards in this way, it seems as though collectors will feel inclined to collect all the insert cards as well as the regular cards, otherwise their collection will be incomplete. This is certainly something which many collectors will be unhappy with.

The set is made up of 99 regular cards (cards 1-99), 18 special shaped character insert cards, featuring the movie's main characters (cards 100-117), six special puzzle insert cards (118-123) and three lenticular animation card inserts (cards 124-126). The odds of finding insert cards are not given on the packets. Card Zine found the lenticular cards somewhat jerky and not of such a high quality as those issued by manufacturers such as SkyBox.

An easy way to track down insert cards in the Anastasia set is to feel through the packets in your local shop. The shaped character cards are always found at the top of packets which contain them, so feel around the top card to see if it has a curved edge. Lenticular cards are thicker than standard cards in the set and so packets which contain them can be found very easily, as they are thicker than standard ones!

The cards in the set do not feature any text apart from character names and copyright information. The movie storyline is told in the spiral bound Anastasia collector's album. The album contains Upper Deck plastic pages and printed sheets and is designed to hold all 126 cards in the collection. The album is well designed, and includes a form for ordering those last few cards needed to complete your set. The set completion offer appears expensive, with regular cards being charged at 20p (a maximum of ten can be ordered), shaped and puzzle insert cards at £1.00 (a maximum of four can be ordered) and lenticular cards at £1.50. Upper Deck also charges £1.00 for postage and packing.

Overall, the set is one that is sure to be popular with both young and old. The fact that the insert cards are numbered as part of the main set does seem to let the series down, however. The set completion offer also seems to be very pricey, but at least you won't get suspicious looks from the shopkeeper when searching for those last few insert cards...

Anastasia trading cards are available in the UK through retailers such as WH Smith priced 50p for a pack of five. The collectors' album sells for £3.50.