The Panini America Quality Control Gallery: 2012 Rookies & Stars Football (77 Images)

After spending most of the morning scrutinizing the contents of the 2012 Rookies & Stars Football Quality Control cases, here's how I can best sum up the venerable product that has been rejuvenated by new twists, throwback nuances and nods to past parallels: It feels like a refreshingly different Rookies & Stars experience.

After spending most of the morning scrutinizing the contents of the 2012 Rookies & Stars Football Quality Control cases, here’s how I can best sum up the venerable product that has been rejuvenated by new twists, throwback nuances and nods to past parallels: It feels like a refreshingly different Rookies & Stars experience.

And that’s a good thing for a product that turns 15 years old this season.

Panini America’s fourth product of the 2012 NFL collecting season will be live in hobby shops everywhere next week, but thanks to NFL Brand Manager Aik Tongtharadol, we get an exhaustive first glimpse at the product today.

From the 1998-era True Blue parallels to Longevity parallels that are broken down by card stock (sequential #’s 1-49 are on Double Rainbow, sequential #’s 50-249 are on Metallized) to the still-fascinating Slideshow insert, there seems to be a little something for everyone in 2012 Rookies & Stars Football — and quite a lot for rookie collectors, including a bold new RC design.

Take a look for yourself in the following gallery — and be sure to share your thoughts when you’re done.

Oh, and we’ve also added the complete 2012 Rookies & Stars Football checklist in both Excel and PDF formats.

Here’s the checklist in Excel format: 2012 Panini Rookie Stars FB Checklist

Here’s the checklist in PDF format: 2012 Panini Rookie Stars FB Checklist

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27 Replies to “The Panini America Quality Control Gallery: 2012 Rookies & Stars Football (77 Images)”

  1. Very awesome looking as usual. I look forward to Rookies and Stars every year. One of my favorite Panini products.

  2. Looks like a fun product like every year! My son (who is now 7) is starting to collect football cards, and fill up his album, and this will be a great product for both of us to enjoy and bond over, since there are so many differnt sub sets there is a lot of “eye candy”. I personally like the slideshow cards brings me back to ’07 limited! Great product! On a saide note what do you do with all the cards that you took pics of? Do they go into the packs as well? Thanks for sharing!

  3. You guys did a sick job on this years Rookies and Stars! 1st of all the Rookie Premier Slide Show its brillant and makes collecting alittle more fun, and on top of that there autographed! The next insert set that i really enjoyed is The Crusade! The Prime patches just and the red looks great with the white!! I could go all day about the football banners but i wont do that! Tracy please tell the creative team that they nailed this one and that the product is a work of art!!! 🙂

  4. sweeet!! Coples and Ganaway autos in the same previews!? Thanks Tracy! Very nice stuff!! Can’t wait to get those 2 Jets in my PC!!!

  5. Looks really awesome!!! I love some of the new designs on the jsy and patch autos this year. Also, PSYCHED for the return of the slideshow autographs!!!! Can’t wait to get the Mohamed Sanu! Go RUTGERS!!!

  6. Tell the design team way to go for me! They did an awesome job! Amazing Slideshows! amazing base and insert design. Die cut cards. Come on..no complaints from this football fan. This years looks to be the best ever. And I know I have used that phrase many times on the 2012 football products..but its so true. This has been a great 2012 football card season from Panini!

  7. I like the design but disappointed that they got rid of the manufactured patch/auto’s. I look forward to those every year. Are they going to put those in any Panini set’s this year?

  8. Nice David Wilson RC Auto….Please dont forget about Rueben Randle….They’re 2 Awesome Rookies playing for the World Champs New York Giants, gonna be another Super year for the G-Men !

  9. Tracy,
    I believe the new design is sharp, however it looks like something you would see in Crown Royale instead, especially the rookie design. I will also miss the manufactured patch rookies. Thanks for all the pics.
    Great work guys.
    Thanks,
    T

  10. This is a very nice and exciting looking release. The pennant style cards are something different but boy do they look nice. And don’t even get me started on the slideshow cards they look absolutely fantastic!! The images on all these cards are crisp and the player pops right out!

    Hats off to the design team they have put together a very nice looking release!

  11. “Longevity parallels that are broken down by card stock (sequential #’s 1-49 are on Double Rainbow, sequential #’s 50-249 are on Metallized)”

    Double Rainbow? WHAT DOES IT MEAN??????

    Sorry, somebody had to… Can’t wait, R&S is the product that got me into football collecting..

  12. Cards look great BUT…. too many sticker auto’s! I assume the “slideshow” inserts are the only cards with on-card autos, correct? Look forward to the day when sticker auto cards are extinct.

  13. I agree about the Crown Royale influence here. Seems out of place for this product. Kind of thought they were English Premier League cards at first. I also am saddened by the loss of the rookie patch auto cards. That was my favorite pull from last year. The pics do look interesting, but I have to be honest, my initial reaction was one of disappointment. The only cards I see with on-card autos here are the slide show cards, and in all honesty, they seem a little… gimmicky? Is that a word? So in order to enjoy that feature I have to hold my card up to a lightbulb? Sorry to be one lone dissenting voice, but I may have to take a pass on these for 2012, which is very saddening since I was very excited for this product to be released and had skipped Prestige and Elite in favor of these. Thanks for the early look, though!

    1. Just heard from our football team. Since that was a memorabilia-only insert with no base version and we couldn’t acquire memorabilia for the desired player, we pulled the card.

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