Company: Fleer
Release: 1994
Name: The Amazing Spider-Man, 1st Edition - Hobby
Number of Packs: 36
Number of Cards per Pack: 8
Insert/ Chase Cards:
Suspended Animation - 1:4
Gold Web Foils (1-6) - Jumbo packs
Gold Web Foils (1-6) - Walmart packs
Hologram - 1:18
Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Trading cards, I'm a fan!
Made by Fleer, and it rocks;
Lots of chase cards in the box.
BOOYAH!
I pulled a hologram!
Card Design (9.0/10)
Spider-Man trading card sets were produced in numerous iterations starting with Todd McFarlane’s Trading Card Set, distributed in 1989 by Comic Images. But it wasn’t until 1994 when Fleer’s Amazing Spider-Man – 1st Edition ushered in a “renaissance age” of Spidey cards with beautiful artwork, unique designs, and a diverse range of inserts.
The artwork was done solely by the popular Mark Bagley, who is well known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man. Fleer printed each base card on full glossy stock and the borderless design gave Mark the maximum amount of real estate to create remarkable drawings. In addition, Fleer borrowed the concept of having 9 card “puzzle” sets from Skybox’s Marvel Universe Series 4 and implemented that design for cards 1-81. These cards were subsets of a bigger 9 card picture so when placed in a standard 9 card sheet protector, they formed one large, contiguous image.
When including jumbo and Walmart exclusive packs in addition to the regular hobby packs, chase cards were quite abundant in this set. In hobby packs, one may find Suspended Animation cards, which were printed on clear plastic acetate. While the transparent cards looked unusual given they were a relatively new idea, the cards were pretty popular among collectors.
Another insert set that was included were Gold Web Foil cards. The first six cards (Spider-Man, Mary Jane, Chameleon, Venom, Carnage, Hob-Goblin) were found in jumbo packs while the last six Gold Web Foil cards (Spider-Man, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man, Black Cat, Lizard) were found in Walmart packs and also numbered 1-6. Fleer used the same character image as the Suspended Animation cards but instead of acetate, they printed them on gold foil card stock.
Lastly, the popular holograms made an appearance with four different 3D holograms - two of Spider-Man, one of Venom, and one of Carnage.
Character List (10/10)
I have nothing but good things to say about the checklist. It was noticeable that Fleer put a lot of thought into it. Some might think what checklist can be done with a character set for Spider-Man?How many cards of Spider-Man can you include in a set? Well, apparently 150 different ones when done correctly.
There were 10 different categories: Spidey's Powers, Venom, Spidey's Strange Transformation (my favorite), Spidey's Enemies, Spidey's Allies, Spidey's Greatest Team-ups, Spidey's Greatest Battles, Spidey's Friends, Spidey's Origins, and Events. Whew!
Box Break
First of all, the cards were sealed in 4 different pack designs:
Here's a sample of the base cards:
Suspended Animation cards (remember that these are clear acetate cards):
I couldn't believe I pulled all different Suspended Animation cards. I haven't opened too many boxes so maybe it was inserted this way but I was glad there were no doubles.
And lastly the popular 3D holograms (they look much, much better in real life):
Entertainment Value (9.0/10)
Excellent and fun pack-ripping experience! The excitement of opening a pack that contained the 3D hologram never goes away...trust me...
Price/Value (8.0/10)
Prices on these boxes, for some reason, has risen in the last six to twelve months. About a year ago, I was able find boxes at about $20-$25 a box on EBay. But now, sealed boxes go for $50-$60 a box.
Honestly, if your goal is to add the holograms and suspended animation cards to your Spidey collection, it may be better to purchase the individual cards on EBay. Individual holograms sell anywhere from $5 to $10 so getting the whole set should run you a maximum of $40. Even then, a lot of times you would be able to find a set at a lot less.
Bottom line is if you want to complete your set, buy the cards on the secondary market. If you want to bust some packs, then by all means, do it!
Final Thoughts
If you were a non-comic book reader growing up, whether it was due to a lack of nearby comic book store or it was because your parents thought they were too inappropriate and it was better to focus on homework anyways, these cards gave collectors a way to get to know the characters.
In an age before Wikipedia, comic cards were a way we learned about the origin of Spider-Man, how he got turned into Captain Universe, and the heart-wrenching death of Gwen Stacy. Marvel cards got us caught up with everything that happened in the comics, without needing to read them, either due to inaccessibility or strict parents. And for that, I am grateful.
Overall Score
9.0 out of 10
