First Look: 2015 Panini Americana trading cards

By Chris Olds | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

One of Panini America‘s core non-sports brands, Americana, is back after a three-year hiatus.

Set to arrive on April 8, the sixth edition of the non-sports line is back to its original roots with celebrities the main thrust of a brand that will have four hits — at least two autographs — in every 10-pack hobby box. Collectors can also look for eight inserts and six parallels per 50-card box. (The most-recent Americana set was released in 2012 with a focus on Olympians, presidents, military figures and Astronauts branded as “Heroes and Legends.”)

This time around, the focus is back on Hollywood and pop culture with the likes of Bradley Cooper, Al Pacino, Paula Abdul, Sylvester Stallone, Kelly Rowland, Hulk Hogan and Mickey Rourke appearing on cardboard. The company also is promising the first certified autographed cards of Kevin Hart, Jordana Brewster, Martin Short, Alexa Vega, Nick Cannon, Laura Prepon, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Vanilla Ice in the product.

Autograph collectors will have a few options in this one, including Big-Screen Signatures and a standard Signatures set that will have Blue versions limited to only 49 copies, Greens limited to 25 and 1/1 Black versions to chase.

Diecut On the Tube cards will focus on stars of the small screen from both the past and present with autograph and memorabilia versions to chase, while Freeze Frame cards will embed a manufactured film piece into the card.

For memorabilia collectors, there will be Co-Stars Materials cards pairing stars who have worked together, while Jumbo Prime Materials cards will showcase over-sized swatches. A few notables there will include Stallone, Hope Solo, Hart, D.B. Sweeney, Roger Moore and Ice. More classic Hollywood names will be found in the Silver Screen Jumbo Materials set — a grouping that will include Ava Gardner, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart to name a few. These will include multi-swatch versions to chase.

For the fans of horse-racing, there will be a Winner’s Circle autograph set with autographs and memorabilia cards of jockeys and trainers. Among them will be Bob Baffert, D. Wayne Lukas, Gary Stevens, Jerry Bailey, Todd Pletcher, Calvin Borel, Mike Smith and Pat Day.

Also to be found in this one will be a selection of musicians — two insert sets will be called Certified Singles and Certified Albums. Also to be found will be a 1/1 Three Stooges booklet card.

A preliminary checklist was not released.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.