FIORENTINA

Fiorentina, or La Viola as they are known in their home land had 4 figures released and what a set it was too, all of which were first time original sculpts, 2 of which have never been used again.

 

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Fiorentina had a formidable trio of players at this time, 2 of which are represented here,1 of those is Portuguese midfield wizard Manuel Rui Costa. This sculpt is one of the finest released in the range and is packed full of facial detail all of which is capped of by the bright purple kit of Fiorentina, with Rui Costa featuring many times in the ProStars range.

 

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Gabriel Batistuta, or Batigol as he was known to the Viola was an obvious choice and an instant hit with collectors despite the fact the figure was not a great likeness of the player, the Prostars versions which would be released later down the line are a vast improvement. A fantastic figure for the pure fact it captures the man wen he was at his most prolific, he scored over half of his career goals at Fiorentina and is the 8th all time leading marksmen in Serie A history.

 

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Luis Oliveira was slightly overshadowed by the other 3 figures but this is still a very fine sculpt and the only version of the player made by Corinthian. Although born in Brazil Oliveira actually played for Belgium but he is still a favourite amongst collectors in his native Brazil, maybe like me they like his mini perm which had a spiky feel to it.

 

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Saved the best until last and the rarest. Ex Arsenal midfielder Stefan Schwarz is the highlight of this set and is in my opinion the second rarest figure ever released, behind the legendary Giovanni Stroppa and there is no shame in that, in fact you could really consider it a draw in terms of who is considered rarest of them.

 

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The Schwarz figure is insanely rare, however the reason for this rareness is a common one, low production volume, lack of initial distribution and an inability for Corinthian to obtain any stock to sell in the UK, all added to the scarceness of Schwarz.

 

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It is very difficult to down play just how rare Schwarz is, in 25 years of collecting i can probably count on one hand the amount of times i have seen his figure for sale, with you needing a good connection with a collector in Italy to obtain it, or in the Netherlands, as in my case.

 

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All 4 were released as single blister packs and came with collectors card and information file.