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Sunday, July 12, 2015

Infinite Official Collection Cards Vol.2 Review

On June 26th, Woollim released Infinite's second official collection card set, titled "Space: The Arts," following the release of Vol.1 back in October 2013, which I reviewed here. This set has the same format as Vol.1, with a nice cardstock slipcase over the tin case. Note how this time, the Infinite logo is the current "Last Romeo" and "Back" era logos, whereas the first set had a brand new logo. A head's up, this is going to be a very photo-heavy post~ I decided to make the photos a little bigger this time, so it's best to view this on desktop version. There is also a separate official binder for these collection cards that fits six cards per page, and includes black and white images of all the cards so you can easily see which cards you're missing. I wish I had gotten it with my cards, because now my cards are occupying my floor :/ Last time I bought one set, but then spent over $60 just loosely buying rares; this time I was more practical and just bought two sets, which is much cheaper than buying cards individually. Update: I now have the accompanying binder and have reviewed it here.
The packaging is the same style as the Vol.1, and is about 6.25 inches by 5.25 inches by 1 inch. There is a cardstock sleeve that has a nice reflective finish. This time the authentication sticker is on the side instead of the back.
Here is the backside of the sleeve.
Here are the front and back of the tin case.
On the top is the collection card manual, followed by the standee, and then the card packs.
The manual is similar to that from Vol.1, and has a black matte finish prone to fingerprints. It explains the space concept.
The first place shows the planets and which member is associated with which planet.
The other three pages show the three space cards per each member and gives a brief explanation. The last page also includes credits.
The backside reveals all the cards of Vol.2. It'd be nice if they could also provide the names of the types of cards (I found them online instead).
Each set comes with a random member standee out of seven, with each member looking tough in a black leather jacket. From both sets, I ended up getting both Sungyeol standees, and sadly, both damaged (one at the back of the head, the other on one of the white flaps of the stand).
Here is the backside of the standee; you just peel the perforated lines and fold it to make it stand up.
Each set comes 10 packs. There are seven different pack designs, which is a planet per member, and each set comes with at least one of each member. Oddly enough, both my sets had the same exact pack designs in the same order.
Here are the packs I got (the top, from left to right, came from the left, top to bottom). Each pack contains six cards, one rare and five normal. Therefore each set has 10 rares and 50 normals. These collection cards have a total of 135 cards, 56 rares and 79 normals. There are also random signed and unsigned Polaroids, but they are super rare. I've only seen a handful online.
Here is a closeup of Sunggyu's pack design. The backside has information in Korean. Because I like keeping these packs, I carefully just cut the top off instead of tearing it open.
Here are all the cards I got from my first set.
And here are the cards from my second set. Some of the cards are originally packed backwards, tricking me lol. The rare card is always placed on the top of the pack. All the cards list their numbers in the bottom right corner, so it's easy to organize.

Now I'll do a breakdown on all of the various card types. For all the various types, the order is L, Sungyeol, Sungkyu, Dongwoo, Sungjong, Woohyun, and then Hoya. Now onto the rares~ There are 56 rares, meaning 8 types of cards with one card per member for each type. As the theme is "space," the first three types of cards have a space theme, with each member representing a planet.

001 - 007: Solar System Cards
These cards are so pretty. They have a metallic matte finish, are a bit thicker than normal cards, and are just so gorgeous. Sadly my duplicate Hoya one has a chip on the top :/
The backside has each member's birth date and astrological sign.

008 - 014: Greek/Roman Mythology Cards
These are lenticular cards, so they're thicker and much more sturdy than the other cards. I absolutely love lenticular cards (they bring me back to my childhood~), so these are definitely one of my favorites. Each member is given their own mythological god.
This is the second set of space cards, I guess because of the gorgeous space background. When you move the card, the clouds(?) in the sky move, as well as a bit of the oval frame. If you compare this photo to the one above it, you can see the inner left frame is missing here.
The backside of each card looks the same, naming the members and their respective god counterparts.

015 - 021: Weightlessness Cards
This is the last set of the space cards. They're beautiful closeups of each member, with their respective planet in the background.
The backsides are all the same.

022 - 028: Chaos Cards
I don't have these cards, but they don't look that special compared to the previous rares.

029 - 035: Contact Cards
These are hologram cards, so it's easy getting fingerprints on them. I just use an eyeglass cloth to clean it. Woohyun's is pretty with those gold flecks under his eyebrow.
The backside has a gorgeous photo of the member.

036 - 042: Hologram Cards
I don't have any of these cards either, but they also don't look that special compared to the other rares. There are flecks of metallic, similar to the sleeve and many of the rares from Vol.1.

043 - 049: Frame Cards
These cards also look like normal cards, but with bits of metallic in the corners. For some reason, it really reminds me of SkinFood and their packaging-the pastel colors and metallic flecks.
The backside has the same design for all the cards.

050 - 056: Fabric Cards
The last set of rares is the infamous fabric cards. Why must these exist...

Overall, I'm really happy about the 20 rares I got. I absolutely love the first three sets and would love to collect all the members. And, as I've never pulled a Myungsoo anything before, he is the only member I didn't get for rares while I got at least two of every other member. I ended up with three rare duplicates (my first set had no duplicates though), and will be trading them to try and get more space cards.

And now onto the normals. There are 79 normal cards, with 10 different types of member cards and the remaining nine cards being group cards.

057 - 063: Cartoon Cards
These cards are really cute and show the boys with fun and bright comic book-style backgrounds.
The backside shows a closeup of the boys.

064 - 070: Typo Cards
I don't know why, but only for this type of card they changed the member order to Sungyeol, Sungjong, L, Sungkyu, Woohyun, Dongwoo, Hoya. These are also the same outfits as the standees.
The backside has nice photos of the boys as well~

071 - 077: Scrubbers Cards
Google translated this as "scrubbers," though I don't know how it applies to these cards. I like how in the background they use the members' nicknames!
Here is the backside, which gives a more condensed version of the background nicknames and facts of the members.

078 - 084: /nameless/ Cards
They left the name of this card set blank. Also online the types of cards are out of order and don't show all the pictures for the cards, so from here on down I'm guessing which name goes with which card type.
Here is the backside, with the members holding/eating a random object.

085 - 091: Collage Cards
These cards have an artsy European travel theme to it.
The backsides are all different, as each card has its own trinkets.

092 - 098: Paint Cards
These cards are nice with the boys dressed up nicely and with those beautiful painted backgrounds. It reminds me of Infinite F's Azure album.
The backside has full body photos and with the boys wearing their jackets as well.

099 - 105: Cube Cards
Hoya's pose really reminds me of Willy Wonka for some reason. Anyways, these cards are nice as well, and also list the members' birth days.
The backside shows another full body photo, and with some members snacking again.

106 - 112: Graffiti Cards
These cards are much more casual. Woohyun's is my favorite, is expression is adorable!
The backsides are all the same, with "Infinite" spelled out in graffiti style.

113 - 119: Emblem Cards
This is the only type that I managed to get a full set.
The backside is the same, except the center color changes depending on the background of the member's card. This one is Sungyeol's.

120 - 126: Pop Cards

I like these cards, they look kind of like playing cards mixed with those ABC blocks for kids.
The backside is equally as nice, matching the same styling as the front.


127 - 131: Future Rhythm Cards
I'm not really sure about the title of these cards. This is the first set of group cards, where the first three join together to create the complete picture, as well as the last two. The top three may look weird because the same section of the photo is on two cards (ie. the same part of Sungyeol's arm is on both cards 127 and 128, and Sunggyu's shoulder is on both 128 and 129).
Here are the backsides of these cards. For the top three, the far left one is actually the backside of 129 and the far right one is the backside of 127, so I had to switch them to create the correct picture.


132 - 135: Casual Suit Cards
To finish off the normal cards are the group shots of Infinite in those gorgeous suits.
For the cards with 3-4 members, the remaining members are on the other side.

These are all my cards from my two boxes! With my lack of Myungsoo luck, I've never pulled him and for Vol.1, I only got two normal Myungsoos, which were duplicates. I'm so happy that this time I got 9/10 Myungsoo cards and all the group cards! I love the style of all these normal cards as well, they're all so gorgeous and have their own flare. Since I bought two boxes, I have 100 normal cards while there are only 79, and I'm missing 21, so hopefully I can make some trades to complete it~
These collection cards also have two random posters. Since I bought two sets, I got both versions. They're 16.25 inches by 23 inches, the same size as Infinite's concert promotion posters and have the same thick quality as all of Infinite's album posters. I got mine folded, so the creases are prominent. Above is one of the poster designs. I love how the sky is highlighted, as if the Infinite logo is radiating light.
Here is the other poster design, which is just as nice, though I prefer the first one more because I'm not a fan of member grid posters.

Overall, I love these collection cards~ I'm hoping to do enough trades to complete my normals, trade off my duplicate rares, and maybe buy a few rares to complete the space cards.