The Final Bolshoi, Thanks to an Assist from SumoMenkoMan

This card represents the finishing touch on one of my projects, collecting the full run of Command Bolshoi autographs from the BBM True Heart Japanese Women's Wrestling sets. For some reason, the 2004 set is almost impossible to find. As far as I can tell, BBM has produced the True Heart product every year from 2003 to the present, and I was able to locate her autos for all of the other years rather handily.

The 2004 proved elusive, but it finally popped up on Yahoo! Auctions in Japan, and SumoMenkoMan of the Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko blog was able to acquire it for me as part of a shipment he had coming in. I really appreciate his generosity in making this happen, as this is the first time I've even seen the card come up for sale. I think I now have every base set of the True Heart cards except for 2004, so tracking that down will be my next goal. I don't know why the 2004 set in particular is so hard to find. Maybe some of the print run got dumped in the river or something.

I guess it is technically not true to say that I have the full run of Command Bolshoi autographs or a nearly complete run of True Heart base sets, as the 2017 set just released and I don't have it in-hand yet. My initial order of three boxes just got through customs in California, though, so it should be in my hands soon. Odds are good that I will complete the base set from three boxes, but I don't know about pulling the Command Bolshoi signature. There are a few up on Yahoo! Auctions, though, so I shouldn't have a hard time getting one if my pulls are unlucky. I might be the only Command Bolshoi super-collector in America, so odds are good that I will be able to acquire a 2017 example.

Here is the 2004 autograph. It's signed in silver paint pen, and embossed with the BBM logo. The back is serially-numbered # 70 / 80. In most years the print runs on autographs vary widely, but for 2017 BBM somehow got 95 of each autograph on the checklist. The only variation in print runs comes from the Polaroid/cheki photos, which range from 3 to 9 copies each. There are 135 subjects in the base set, and 118 (87.4%) of them have regular autographs. Only 54 (40.0%) have Polaroid/cheki autographed photos. Command Bolshoi does not have cheki photos this year. I haven't put a lot of effort into chasing her photos from other years, but I was able to get one from the 2012 set. I'm really looking forward to busting this first batch of 2017 product. It's probably my most-anticipated release of the year.