It's the "gold standard" of X-Men sets.
At least that's how hobbyist Scott Roszkowski assesses the 1992 Impel X-Men series, which features original artwork from Marvel wunderkind Jim Lee.
"I would definitely place this, along with the Rittenhouse X-Men Archives set, right at the top echelon of the greatest X-Men sets," said Roszkowski, who has assembled the No. 3 Current Finest, 1992 Impel X-Men set on the PSA Set Registry. "It's probably one of the greatest sets that Marvel has ever done."
Amanda Ziemke, who owns the registry's top 1992 Impel X-Men set and sells non-sports cards through her online business, www.TheGradedGamer.com, also holds this set in high regard.
"I have a particular love for this series because it's the set that got me started on trading cards. It's the set that got me to take the leap from collecting comics to trading cards," she explained. "I think it's probably that way for a lot of people. I think this series and the 1990 Marvel Universe set got a lot of people into trading cards."
Clearly, Lee's artwork is this set's biggest asset.
"This set was unique because every single image in it was created specifically for [this series] by Jim Lee," said Roszkowski. "It set a standard. It showed that they could do a high-quality set focusing on a title like X-Men and that the cards didn't have to have reworked animation or reworked artwork just slapped on them. It showed that you could do original artwork for a card set. This set had a huge impact on the card market in that regard."
Roszkowski also savors the quality of Lee's work.
"This set is not directed just at the core fans. I think it's directed at people who are not familiar with the X-Men too," he said. "The beauty of this set is that Jim Lee's artwork is so striking that it's noticeable even if you're not a comic fan. It makes you say 'Wow, look at the detail; look at the background; look at the excitement on the cards!' And that's a huge draw. The art just jumps off of the card, and even for the uninitiated comic fan, it's something to see."
Aside from Lee's captivating artwork, the fronts of these cards also present the character's name and the group they belong to (e.g., Super Heroes, Super Villains, Teams, Ex X-Men or Allies).
One of the strengths that this 100-card offering possesses is that it showcases a huge variety of X-Men characters, ranging from the beginning of the comic series in 1963 to the time the set was released.
"Another gift that Jim Lee really had was that he could take characters that you wouldn't consider to be big, banner characters and he made them look really good and made them appealing to the average fan," noted Roszkowski.
The savvy hobbyist says Multiple Man's single (#34) is a good example of this.
"Multiple Man got this really great card that makes him look cool. Jim Lee makes him look like an A-list character, even though he's not really an A-list character. He's maybe a B- or C-list character," explained Roszkowski. "But if you looked at this set, you'd think he was a big star right up there with Wolverine and Colossus."
Roszkowski points out that this set also offers pasteboards of newer characters, including Meggan (#15), Kylun (#23), Widget (#37), Cerise (#40) and Technet (#80).
"Mojo 2 at the time did not exist," he added. "That was a character they were going to play with down the road. That was card #45. There was no appearance of him prior to this set. Mojo 2 was a character that they never really did a whole lot with."
The backs of the 1992 Impel X-Men cards are informative and well constructed. A Cerebro Scan that includes the character's Real Name, Height, Weight and their "First Appearance" in a comic book is showcased at the top, to the left of a small character image and the card number. A graph illustrating the character's "Power Ratings" is also featured.
"It was one of the last sets that I can recall that had the character Power Ratings on the back," noted Ziemke. "I don't know why, but comic collectors really like the Power Ratings."
The backs also house "pretty thorough character bios," adds Ziemke. An X-Tra Fact about the character is also included near the card bottom, just above the copyright information.
This issue is divided into six subsets: Super Heroes (#1 to #40), Super-Villains (#41 to #70), Teams (#71 to #80), Ex X-Men (#81 to #85), Allies (#86 to #90) and nine Danger Room puzzle pieces (#91 to #99). The card borders are a different color for each subset. (See accompanying chart.)
The back of the checklist (#100) houses a description of Cerebro, the X-Men's "amazing mutant detecting system" that's hidden within the X-Mansion.
These cards were distributed in six-card wax packs. When collectors ripped open these packs, they had the chance to pull one of five randomly inserted gold holograms or an autographed Jim Lee card.
Wolverine (#XH-1), Cable (#XH-2), Gambit (#XH-3), Magneto (#XH-4) and X-Men (#XH-5) were the subjects of the five different holograms that were randomly inserted in packs.
"I'm having a hard time getting the holograms in [PSA GEM-MT] 10," said Ziemke. "The problem with them is print marks on the backs."
Roszkowski has also had trouble finding high-grade holograms.
"The fronts do tend to scratch easier than a lot of the chase cards you might see," he said. "And when a scratch on one of those shows up, it's like a beacon."
So far, just five PSA 10 holograms have been uncovered.
An unnumbered Magneto gold hologram was also issued as part of an exclusive promotion with Advance Comics magazine. This card commands a significant premium over his regular hologram.
Lee reportedly signed 2,000 cards in silver ink that were also randomly inserted in packs.
"These cards had a little circular logo stamp on them to denote an official Jim Lee autograph," said Roszkowski. "There were several different character cards that were signed."
These autographed cards have been fetching between $90 and $125 each on eBay in recent months.
Sets of the 1992 Impel X-Men series were also available in specially-designed tins. Just 7,500 serial-numbered tins were produced and each tin housed an exclusive bonus card that explained the character "Power Ratings."
Five promo cards were also distributed in a cello pack. These cards command a small premium and can be identified by the "TM" next to the Marvel logo in the lower-left on the back. On the regular cards this "TM" is red, and on the promo cards it's black.
Hobbyists say cards of the more high-profile characters generally fetch a premium.
Right now, Ziemke says she has about three different collectors who just want a Wolverine card in a PSA 10 regardless of what card set it may come from.
Not surprisingly, the two Wolverine cards in this issue - his regular issue (#2) and his Danger Room puzzle piece (#95) - have been submitted to PSA more than any of the other cards from this series.
Roszkowski says the most popular characters are generally Wolverine, Phoenix (#5), Nightcrawler (#6), Jean Grey (#24) and Deadpool (#43).
"People will shell out more for those characters, especially if the card is in high grade," he said. "Deadpool is really hot in the comic world right now."
A second series of these cards was produced in 1993, but because it featured the work of several artists - none of which were Jim Lee - it's not as popular. Also by 1993, Impel had changed its name to SkyBox, so the second-series was released under the SkyBox brand.
The character cards in the 1992 Impel X-Men series were also packaged with Toybiz action figures. One card was included with each figure and these pasteboards had "Toybiz" printed in light grey in the background, behind the biographical information on their backs. The cards were inserted rather clumsily behind the action figures and were often torn out or discarded by kids. As a result, they're more difficult to track down in high grade than the regular cards.
The good thing about the regular 1992 Impel X-Men series is that it remains affordable. In recent months, 36-pack boxes have sold for $30 on eBay, but the price of boxes seems to be on the rise.
"The sealed boxes have started to become a commodity with people snapping them up here and there, especially since this set was also issued in a collector's tin," said Roszkowski. "But the beauty of it is that if you are a new X-Men fan, you can still go back and get this [for a reasonable price]."
Ziemke has also noticed an increase in the popularity of these cards.
"This is the X-Men set that I get the most customer requests for, hands down," she said.
And this set's popularity is bound to grow with the recent release of the new movie - X-Men: Days of Futures Past.
"For its time, this set really was kind of like X-Men 101. You had the best artist [Jim Lee] in the game working on these," said Roszkowski. "This set has always been popular, but with the advent of more serious card grading going on in non-sports, now you're getting a lot of us who collected the set loose [in raw form] back in the day, circling back to put together a sentimental set of these cards [in graded form]."