2009 Fathead Tradeables

Set size: 150 players plus 30 teams, 5" x 7"

Front Design: A cropped color photograph appears over a curved team-color background swoop, with a large team logo, sometimes placed sideways to fit better with the image; behind the color photograph and team logo is a shadow of the image and player name on a wood-grain panel. The player's name and team appear on the right-hand border, with the card number in the upper-right corner.

Back Design: The backs contain team logos surrounding the Fathead logo.

Parallels and Similars: Future year issues are similar, but these are distinguished by the year printed with the brand logo.

Distribution: Fathead Tradeables were released in packs of five, usually in sporting goods stores, Toys R Us, Meijer, and Walgreens.

Thoughts: The full-size Fatheads run around $100 each and take up a lot of wall-space, which means only fairly-wealthy fans with plenty of wall space can afford to take the plunge. Granted, putting a giant Nolan Ryan opposite a Tony Gwynn would make a great hallways entrance to a man cave. These are a great way for kids to play collect and interact with "cards" though. I've never seen these for sale in stores, but now that I know where to find them I can seek them out. The larger format looks great, though since these are designed to be stickers, the relatively boring backs leave a lot of space empty that could be better served with statistics, a biography, additional photos, etc. Being that these are stickers, they are flimsy, but the vinyl looks like it would hold up pretty well. They could be a fun set to collect, just like the Fan Pak Standees that came out the same year. Having just a team logo set would be great - the large size would make them a great background behind team souvenirs.

Additional Links: The Fathead Tradeables website has a full checklist with pictures of the 2009 baseball release and a few other non-baseball releases, but does not contain checklists for the 2010 and 2011 releases.

Additional Images: Team Logo sticker, and sticker back.

2009 Enterplay Fak Pak Standees

Set size: 88 standees (35 players on two different cards, plus 18 trivia and mini-game cards)

Front Design: If left intact, each card is a square, with the player's name, position, team logo, jersey number, MLB/MLBPA logos, and a photo with a cropped inset photo. When assembled into a standee, the bottom border and player fold out from the rest of the card front.

Back Design: The player's silouette in mirror reverse from the front image appears over a closeup background of a baseball. The player's name and cropped photo are in the upper left. A small quiz with answers is on the horizontal edges, and instructions on how to assemble the standee appears on the bottom. The card number is in the lower left corner.

Distribution: Sold primarily through Target and Wal-Mart, packs contained two headline cards (#1-35), two player standees (#36-70), one trivia and mini game card (#71-88), and one tattoo (a separate 22-card set).

Thoughts: This looks like a fun set, and it is something I would collect at the right price. The image and card stock is high quality. Despite having both MLB and MLBPA licensing, they are not listed in the Beckett database. It appears that the 2009 issue is the only one issued, though Enter-Play continues to make standees for a variety of licenses. While writing this post, I couldn't find any baseball listings on eBay (I didn't try for too long), so I have doubts as to whether it was actually issued, or if it was only a limited test release, or just ignored by the collecting public.

Additional Links: Enter-Play's Product Page is located here, with a checklist and images of all the player and headline cards (#1-70). Thankfully Enter-Play still exists, as there is not much out there on this set.

Additional Images: Card back: