A new year is upon us, and while this week may be light on the number of releases, a pair of heavy hitters are due out. KAWS starts the year off by releasing his first figure of 2022 and Panini ends this week with 2021-22 NBA Hoops, giving us the first major release of this year’s NBA season. Read up on this release and more in this week’s edition of The Rip.
Image by KAWS
KAWS: HOLIDAY
While the complete details for the new KAWS figure have yet to be revealed, we do know when and where the release will be taking place. On New Year’s Day, the artist took to his Instagram to announce that a new KAWS: HOLIDAY drop was coming on January 4th at 10PM EST on the DDT Store website, the official store for AllRightsReserved, a Hong Kong-based creative studio that has been a long time partner of KAWS. The Instagram preview featured a video close-up of a KAWS Companion sitting in the snow. At first glance, it appears to be the figure that KAWS teased on his Instagram on December 6th. The figure shows a grey Companion seated, holding a smaller Companion in its lap.
2021-22 Panini NBA Hoops
It has been nearly three months since the NBA season tipped off, and this week we are finally getting the first set for the 2021-22 basketball card-collecting year with 2021-22 Panini NBA Hoops. The highlight of the set will be the first rookie cards for members of the 2021 NBA Draft Class in their pro uniforms. Top rookies to chase this year include Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes, Franz Wagner, and more. Autographs can also be found for these rookies in subsets such as Hot Signatures Rookies or Rookie Ink.
The 2021-22 Panini NBA Hoops Hobby Box will hold the standard eight cards per pack, and 24 packs per box. You can expect to add one autograph, and 24 different inserts or color variation parallels to your collection with each box. The 2021-22 Panini NBA Hoops Hobby Box is set to release on January 7th at online and local trading card hobby shops. Retail boxes such as Blasters, Mega Boxes, and Hangers are expected to appear on retail shelves in the weeks following the Hobby Box release.
2021 Upper Deck All Elite Wrestling
2021 Upper Deck All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is the first set to release under Upper Deck’s new exclusive licensing agreement with AEW. The debut base set is composed of 100 cards and is divided up into four subsets: Wrestlers (1-60), Tag Teams (61-70), Crew (71-80), and AEW Magazine (81-100), with each subset coming complete with a handful of limited print run color variation parallels for each card. Autograph and memorabilia cards will also be available for all of the top AEW wrestlers including sets such as The Dotted Line, AEW Wrestling Autographs, and Base Memorabilia cards.
The 2021 Upper Deck All Elite Wrestling Hobby Box holds eight cards per pack, and 16 packs per box. On average, autographs are included in one out of every four boxes, and memorabilia cards can be found in half of the boxes. The 2021 Upper Deck All Elite Wrestling Hobby Box will be released on January 6th at online and local trading card hobby shops as well as Upper Deck’s ePack platform.
