The Panini America Quality Control Gallery: 2012 Gridiron Football (A 95-Image Finale)
You just thought you ascertained all you needed to know about Panini America’s 2012 Gridiron Football from yesterday’s slightly revealing Quality Control Gallery. In reality, yesterday’s 33 images were little more than appetizer.
We saved the main course — 95 drool-worthy images worth — for today’s grand finale. There’s tons in the gallery that follows that we didn’t cover yesterday, including inserts such as NFL Nation, Air Command, Arms Race and Crash Course, base Rookie Cards and their corresponding parallels, Xs, Os and even a few new Rookie Hidden Gems pull-out autographs — headlined by a certain quarterback from the Washington Redskins.
Enjoy this long, last pre-release look at 2012 Gridiron Football, out in hobby shops everywhere starting tomorrow. If you’re planning on busting some this week, please let us know how you do.
And stay tuned for a Gridiron episode of Panini Unwrapped later today or tomorrow.
The Knight's Lance 
Love them in general. Nice insert card (non auto/gu) themes as well. However, if I have one aesthetic concern, it has to be on the rookie cards. Take a look at the Stephen Hill jersey card (#85). See the rows of empty bleachers behind him? I just can’t get past that. This is NOT just a criticism of Panini, the other companies have rookie cards just like it. I understand card companies are restricted to the rookie photo shoot location, but do you think that something could be done either to digitize people into the background of the card (like they do on sports video games), or actually have some people attend in the stands. Maybe fill just one side the first 10 rows or so. it would look so much better. Just my opinion. I REALLY like the look of Gridiron overall though!!! The regular cards are fantastic!!! Looking forward to getting a box soon.
Completely see your point, Keith.
Has a checklist been released yet?
Not that I’ve seen. Will try to get one posted later today or early tomorrow.
Thanks Tracy!
Certainly a robust number of parallels! I will observe that the attention paid to action-capture photography in the product is laudable. The poses…the Photo Shoot standards grow old by this point. Fleer Ultra was all about the images, and after thinking about my “crappy” post lol… I realize that the Gridiron product “feels” a bit like old Fleer Ultra.
Deep gallery Tracy!
Wow.
This is the main dish.
Great job chef Tracy!
Great job Panini!
Love them!
Any thoughts of having Blair Walsh in any products this year? He’s saved a few games for the Vikes! Again, though, this is one nice set!
Aahh, a nice affordable product that is well known. Gridiron Gear and Certified will always be my favorite. I always have liked the pull-out rookie gem autos. Nice stuff Tracy!! One question, do the pull-out rookie autos have two versions like the 2010 had with different color ink for the autos?
Great question, Scott. Indeed, each player signed the first 50 pull-outs in gold paint pen.
Nice, I’ll have to try and get one of each for the players I am collecting this season!! (i.e. N. Foles, B. Osweiler T. Richardson, AJ Jenkins) Thanks for getting back to me so quick Tracy!
You bet.
a nice revamp to the gridiron line. lots of the usual stuff for gridiron but with a new twist on some inserts and parallels! i like the design for the rookie gridiron kings auto like the rg3 near the bottom. and the sliding goes up now as apposed to the side which is classic for this line yet different. love it!
The cards look great! Hey Tracy, am I crazy, or are certain base card indented with an X?
You’re not crazy. You’re astute! The X’s (hobby) and O’s (retail) parallels this year are done with a subtle emboss. It’s a different way of doing them, but I think it works. It likely won’t appeal to everyone, but would love to hear collectors’ thoughts once you’ve had the chance to see them in person.
They look awesome and I can’t wait to get some! Thanks Tracy!
Awesome cards! Super pumped to buy some gridiron merchandise!
Please tell me Jarred Allen has a Crash Course card.
Not sure but I’ll check the checklist tomorrow. It would seem that he would be a MUST.
I did a few packs today and got a gold ink David Wilson pull out auto. I take it the first 50 of each player is signed in gold because mine is #d 4/299. Base cards look amazing as well as the insert sets. The photography this year is top notch
You are correct sir. The first 50 are signed in gold. Glad you like the product.
I would have preferred to have seen a full photo image card rather than the cloudy look that some of the cards have. I am not a big fan of that look. I was really excited by the first few images that I saw of this series when the images were extremely crisp, but now I am not so sure if that is the case for the series. It might just be my misconception though.
All of the base-set cards have the crisp, clean action and personality shots. Are you referring to some of the RC designs?
about time shea mcclellin is in a bears uni! have to pick that one up!
Tracy, does this product have any cards of Browns rookie WR Josh Gordon? If not, do you know when and which release he will be a part of? I really want to grab some of his cards, but haven’t seen any pop-up on the secondary market. I know that being in the supplemental draft has slowed the process, but I’d even be happy with a redemption at this point. Dude is on fire on the field!
His first NFL trading cards (RCs and autographs) will appear in 2012 Absolute Football and in all 2012 products after that.
Are there HOT Boxes this year?
You gotta watch the video, man! 🙂
Tracy,
These images area great. You know what’s better than a Tannehill Auto…A bigger Tannehill Auto! Great job and I cannot wait to get my hands on this stuff.
Thanks,
T
VERY impressive gallery for Gridiron, looks like a lot of time and effort went into this release. Thanks as always Tracy!