2023 SkyBox Metal Universe Champions still has a healthy dose of ’90s hobby nostalgia, but it’s increasingly more in name only. While a lot of themes bring familiarity, the multi-sport release boasts lots of new designs. Just like other early Metal Universe sets, they’re bold and often out there — just like a lot of collectors expect.
While autographs aren’t guaranteed in every hobby box, there’s a lot of variety in the styles of cards including several premium inserts.
The base set has 150 cards. For the first 100, which makes up the common shell set, there’s a new look that casts athletes on different backdrops. The look comes from Arena Design, the team behind many iconic late 1990s sets, including some of the most popular Metal Universe releases from the time.
The final 50 cards are part of the All-Millennium subset. Landing every other hobby pack, this is one of Metal’s new themes. They also happen to be short prints, although not ridiculously tough ones.
Parallels come in two general styles, which then diverge into different colors.
First up is a Metal Universe benchmark, Precious Metal Gems. Levels for these include:
Three types of FX parallels are also available in hobby packs for all 150 base cards: Bronze FX (/150), Pink FX (/75) and Orange FX (/25).
Retail blasters are the only place to find Aqua (1:2, All-Millennium 1:4 blaster packs) and Silver Dots (/299) parallels.
