2000 Future Bee Power League UL box break (pack 1)

I don't think I've ever seen a set that has as great color as this one.  It's a shame that in only two years, Future Bee would cede the baseball CCG market to Konami (who produced much less visually interesting cards).  A set this nice looking demanded larger images:



Interesting that only two teams are represented in the base cards in the pack.  The set checklist is completely organized by team, each team ending in the manager:  Giants 001-016, Dragons 017-032, BayStars 033-048, Swallows 049-064, Carp 065-080, Tigers 081-096, Hawks 097-112, Lions 113-128, Fighters 129-144, BlueWave 145-160, Marines 161-176, Buffaloes 177-192.  It also seems to be standard practice in Japanese card sets to use the leading zeroes, as seen here on the back of the card:



Neat how they used the headshot from the back as the background on the front.  That's the team name at the top and Kinjoh's name in the gold section.  Beyond the obvious vital stats, this being a game card, I have absolutely no idea what the rest says.  But still...very colorful!

The first pack yields the first insert, as we see the 2000 Central League Saves leader, Eddie Gaillard. Unfortunately none of the shiny, chrome-styled cards scan very well on my LiDE scanners.  They look much nicer in person.  I'll see if I can hook up my ancient Umax flatbed and see if I can get a better scan.



That actually points to the UL set being released after the end of the 2000 season, which I guess is appropriate for a booster set.

Here's the action card for use with the actual game:

2000 Future Bee Power League UL box break

      In 2000, Future Bee, Hudson (the software company, formerly HudsonSoft...hardcore, old school Nintendo and TurboGrafx 16 gamers will recognize the name) and Ahomaro Games launched the 2000 Power League Dream Stadium collectible card game. The set was issued largely as starter decks with 25 player cards and 25 action cards for playing the game (20 decks per box).

     They then issued the "booster set" which they called Power League UL which was released in boxes of 20 packs containing 7 cards (6 base, possibly including an insert and 1 action card). The base set contains 195 cards and there were two insert sets for Power League UL, league leaders (25 cards, prefixed with 'T', representing both leagues) and Super Rare (36 cards, prefixed with 'S'). Both are shiny foil style cards that don't scan well (as you can see from the cards below). In addition to the contents of the packs, each booster box also contains one Super Rare Promo insert. The card below came as the insert for this box. The only apparent difference between the regular Super Rare and the Promo versions seems to be that tiny "PROMO" stamped right next to the card number on the back.

Working the math, one box should result in 21 insert cards and 100 base cards.