ARSENAL
FA CUP WINNERS 2014
TEAM PACK

On the 17th of May 2014, at Wembley Stadium, Arsenals 10 year wait for a major trophy came to an end, as the side won the FA Cup beating Hull City 3-2, but needed extra time to do it. SoccerStarz chose to commemorate this cup win by releasing the Arsenal FA Cup Winners 2014 Team Pack, with the pack hitting stores in early November 2014.

The team pack comprised of 19 figures, which featured manager Arsene Wenger, the entire starting 11 and 2 of the 3 subs used on the day, along with additional squad members. Sadly the decision was chosen not to sculpt Yaya Sanogo, who replaced Lukas Podolski on the hour mark.

 

 

I do feel the over all appeal of the pack is diminished slightly by Sanogo's omission, although he was not a crucial squad member or indeed a goal scorer on the day, he did feature in the match prominently. Given the way SoccerStarz released the Swansea Capital 1 Cup Winners Team Pack with 4 exclusive players, i had expected Sanogo to be done.

 

The pack featured 2 exclusive figures, those being goal keeper Lukasz Fabianski and Tomas Rosicky, both in 2013/14 kit, both had been much anticipated releases and ones which Arsenal fans had long been requesting. Fabianski moved to Swansea in the 2014 Summer transfer window, so this was the only chance to get him in an Arsenal jersey, as for Rosicky, he was released as a single blister as part of the 2014/15 Collection but of course in 2014/15 kit. Fabianski and Rosicky were released on a Black base with the other 17 figures being released on Green base.

 

An interesting observation regarding the team pack is how SoccerStarz had updated the previosuly released 2012/13 figures into the 2013/14 kit, which sounds like an obvious thing to do, however i had expected the figures to be all previous releases.

 

 

The diference in the 2012/13 & 2013/14 kit is very minimal. On the 12/13 kit the squad number on the shorts is Black but on the 13/14 kit the shorts squad number is Red. This sublte but accurate change is very much something i commend Soccerstarz for taing the time to do, yes it is something essential to make the pack accurate but as it is such a small change it would have been understood had it been omitted.

 

 

As a result this pack gave collectors another 11 figures to add to the 2013/14 Colleciton, those which were updated from 2012/13 kit into 2013/14 kit are:
Arteta, Cazorla, Giroud, Koscielny, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski, Ramsey, Sagna, Vermaelen, Walcott & Wilshere.

 

I personally feel the mix of base colours detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the pack and something which is rather unnecessary. The Black base is by design a rare and sought after base colour, so to have it included inside a box set with an advertised number of pieces, i feel just devalues the base colour, an exclusive figure needs no more endorsement to make it appeal or desirable to collectors, other than it is exclusive to the pack.

 

​

The Arsenal FA Cup Winners 2014 Team Pack was limited to just 800 pieces and included the 19 Collector Cards. The collector cards were all updated from the previous versions found in the 2012/13 & 2013/14 blister packs. The Team Pack also came accompanied with an individually numbered certificate of authenticity. A very low volume product which sold out almost on pre-order, making it an instant collectors piece.
 

 

In summary, a very fine collectible piece for any Arsenal or SoccerStarz fan, it gave collectors 2 exclusive figures to add to their collections, well 13 if you included the 13/14 updated figures however i just feel with a few tweaks, adding Sanogo, having them all on the same base colour and the teams road to the final on the back of the box, would really have elevated this product further still. The pack had an initial RRP of £50