Flashback Product of the Week: 2002-03 Upper Deck LEGO Sports

Before OYO and C3 Toys showed up, the only sports licensed minifigures on the block came from a team-up between LEGO, Upper Deck, and the NBA.  This all took place between 2002-2003.  It was a short-lived relationship, but created some unconventional items that can easily stand out in your basketball collection.

LEGO made a handful of NBA licensed building toys.  Some contain generic NBA minifigures, while others are player specific.  A majority of the player specific minifigures can be found in the NBA Collector Sets.

There are eight different NBA Collector Sets.  Each one comes packaged with (3) minifigures, (3) stands, and (3) Upper Deck cards.  They include:

• Tim Duncan, Ray Allen, Paul Gasol #3560
• Tony Parker, Antoine Walker, Shaquille O’Neal #3561
• Gary Payton, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki #3562
• Toni Kukoc, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant #3563
• Steve Francis, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson #3564
• Steve Nash, Jerry Stackhouse, Paul Pierce #3565
• Jalen Rose, Kevin Garnett, Peja Stojakovic #3566
• Allan Houston, Tracy McGrady, Chris Webber #3567

Every minifigure within the NBA Collector Set has a corresponding Upper Deck card.  You’ll find (1) gold parallel inside each pack.  Randomly inserted are autographs of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, and Kobe Bryant.  When I mean randomly, its almost to the point where they don’t even exist.  You rarely see them.  The autographs aren’t serial numbered, but the print run on them has to be extremely low.  I sent an e-mail to Upper Deck attempting to obtain an actual print run, but all I got back was “We are not releasing print run information on those, rather letting the market determine scarcity levels.”

Instead of using a regular photograph, I think Upper Deck should’ve used an animated image of the player’s LEGO minifigure.  That would’ve been something different, at least for the autographs.