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.

OYO – Your Favorite Player Has Been Minifigured

It doesn’t matter how old you are, its ok to admit that minifigures are awesome!  OYO Sports Toys have turned some of your favorite athletes into minifigure form.  Having yourself turned into a minifigure is almost an honor, just like seeing your favorite athlete turned into a character on Family Guy or The Simpsons.

One of the best things about their minifigures is the fact they are completely compatible with other building products like LEGOs.  Having a feature like that is great because building toys such as LEGOs are very popular and trying to create your own building product to compete wouldn’t work that well.   According to the OYO website, it looks like they make minifigures for the Phillies, Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Rangers.  It also looks as if they have plans to make minifigures for football, hockey, and more sports.  These just aren’t cheap knock-offs either, they have all the proper licenses to use the team names and logos.  I like how they just didn’t slap a team logo on a generic minifigure too.  They took their time and concentrated on the individual facial features as well.  Very cool!

Christmas isn’t too far away, and if you have a young sports fan these might be right up their ally.  Don’t forget about Bleacher Creatures and Lil’ Teammates too.

You can follow OYO Sports Toys on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  Ever wonder what it would be like to see Shane Victorino fly a spaceship?  Well now you can.

You can find these at MLB.com, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Sports Authority.