30 June 2014

What eBay Hath Wrought 87: Something Old, Something New


A little while back I bought a copy of the '13-'14 Upper Deck Retro Maximum Metal Hakeem Olajuwon insert card, which is modeled after the '95-'96 Fleer Metal Maximum Metal insert set. Eventually I got around to picking up a copy of Olajuwon's card from the original set, and I thought I'd post them here side by side to see how close the remake matches the original. Upper Deck got everything pretty close, but they obviously didn't reuse the same art. It is more apparent in-hand, but the artwork in the background of the '95-'96 card has a much more painted or hand-drawn look, while the artwork on the '13-'14 card was clearly made digitally. There is also a clear transition line between the foil basketball and the rest of the card on the older card, while there is not a line on the newer one. The colors are slightly different all around. The 'Maximum Metal' font is a little bit different, and the diamond plate pattern on the little basketball behind the text is entirely different from card to card. The player names match almost exactly, though.


The card backs are quite different. On the newer card, the background art is a lot more faded, while it is quite prominent on the older card. The name and card number are different colors, and the numbers are in different places due to the legal text being larger on the new card. The text is also different, with the older card's characters having a little white shadow effect outlining them so as to help them stand out from the artwork. On the newer card, the text is just plain black print. The other big difference throughout the cards is that the original was an NBA-licensed card, while the newer card is not and thus features Olajuwon in his college duds. The difference isn't too glaring, though, as he played college and pro ball in the same city with the same main colors on his uniform, although the college uni has blue instead of yellow to go along with the red and white.

No comments:

Post a Comment