Avatars: 2020-21 HFSJ Series 1 Collectible Trading Avatars (main claims/distribution/info thread)

Cas

Conversational Black Hole
Sponsor
Jun 23, 2020
5,378
7,591
0H4Y1z.jpg


I've actually spent a lot of time reading about Sharks prospects lately, so this prospect-heavy pack actually fits me to a T.
 
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The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
I realize now how prospect-heavy the whole set is for a few reasons that I didn't consider at the time:

1) I like prospects and draft stuff, so I think that colored my choice of sub-set themes

2) The Barracuda are basically entirely prospects and they make up probably about 35-40% of the base set (they and the Sharks are roughly equal in representation, and the last 20-25% is the off-ice people like broadcasters, coaches, front-office, mascots, etc)

3) the Young Guns rookie set is the largest theme in the uncommon level, so more people are getting more young guns than anything else.

If/when I get around to working on Series 2 for later in the season, I imagine that it will probably have a heavier theme of "the past/history" to offset that this is pretty much the "future" set.


Also for those of you who have been looking for more Shark roster/star player commons in your packs when you mostly got mid-tier Barracuda like Carrick or Topping or Viel, blame TF97 :laugh: I'm assembling his pack PM right now and his commons assortment is like 5 big-name Sharks, 2 highly touted prospects on the Cuda, and 1 Cuda depth guy. He's hoarding all the star players
 
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The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
I think I'm caught up on pack distribution to this point, so I'm going to check out for a couple hours while I get some christmas stuff done.

If anyone cares, I've updated and modified the google sheets checklists again. They should also be up to date and I've added a couple of nifty* features.

The base set page now automatically tabluates how many packs I've distributed based on me filling out the pack distribution sheet. It also now automatically keeps track of how many of the base set avatars have been revealed via distribution, both as a raw number and a percentage.

*Nifty if you're an excel nerd like me. They probably seem silly to everyone else :laugh:

And if it turns out that others are still having issues viewing the checklist, let me know. I honestly can't tell if I've fixed it or not. Or if the issue is confined to a few people or everyone but me.
 

The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
Alright, caught up again.

While I've got a couple minutes I wanted to share some info I realize now won't necessarily get widely disseminated:

The intent/point/backstory of the various sub-set themes. I include blurbs in the pack PMs with everyone's rare/uncommon avatars, but if you don't get one of those avatars you don't get to see that. Most of them are pretty obvious in terms of the theme, but not all of them are clear about some of the underlying criteria. Plus I have trivia and tidbits along the way. So I might as well share what they all represent for anyone who might be curious.

Young Guns (Uncommon) - Basically they're the equivalent to real hockey cards' Rookie Cards. I stuck to players who were under the GP threshold to lose calder eligibility (so no Gregor, except that I made myself a unique Gregor YG avatar because, y'know, perks) but I wasn't too concerned about age (so there are some guys in here who might be over the age threshold for true Calder eligibility but it doesn't matter. They get a Young Guns avatar.

Also these are the only avatars where I made a point of using officially listed accented spellings (Dahlén, Öberg, Émond, etc). not really relevant, just a fun quirk.

Shark Icons & Goalie Icons (both Uncommon) - Technically listed as two sets but they are functionally identical, just split between skaters and goaltenders. These are your long-term former members of the Sharks, consisting mostly of classic players who are a) no longer with the club, b) retired/out of the NHL , and c) played at least 500 games as a skater or 100 games as a goalie in a Sharks uniform. There are a couple of exceptions to b) and c) in there (Dan Boyle didn't make it to 500 games in teal, for example), but this was intended as the primary vehicle for big names you remember from the past.

The design itself is a take on a classic early 90s hockey card from, I believe, Topps. It was one of the first sets to feature San Jose Sharks players in it. The images are also mildly distressed and faded to make them look aged (it's hard to tell in a tiny avatar :laugh:)

Heroes of the Tank (Uncommon) - Shark Icons without the GP requirement. More classic players who may have had shorter or less impactful careers in teal, but who are fondly remembered for what they did in a shorter period of time. You can see what sorts of players we're looking at in the names revealed so far: Vincent Damphousse, Ray Whitney, and Mike Grier. It's short-term skill, hard-working lunchpail guys, high-energy sparkplugs, the kinds of players that endear themselves to the fanbase.

The design is representative of the tank, with the bottom border being the metalwork "grid" on the face of the main gate exterior and the top border having a jagged pattern based on the shape of shark teeth.

Shark "Icons" (Uncommon) - Guys who are icons for totally different reasons. Like being the mane of manes, or the greatest bench-door-opener in franchise history, or that guy I can't even mention by name without it resulting in a torrent of boos. This is the gag/fun set of guys who have passed through San Jose before.

It's still the Topps card, just gaudy orange and discolored a bit like bad 70s/80s photography.

World Jr. Passport (Uncommon) - current and former Sharks who suited up at a WJC while in the San Jose system. That's pretty much it. It's also pretty obviously meant to resemble elements of an actual passport including stamps for the years participated. Each one sports an image of that player suited up at one of those WJC tournaments.

This was actually supposed to be a rare set initially but I had to do some flip-flopping to make sure I had enough avatars at each rarity to be able to make as many packs as I possibly could.

Olympic Snapshots (Rare) - See above, except it's for the Olympics instead of the World Jrs. Years listed are just the years that the player was at the Olympics while a Shark, so it doesn't include years where they represented their country but were part of another NHL organization (if that happened). It's obviously a film reel with images of the player from those olympic games on them (even though you can barely see 2 of the images on each avatar)

like the WJC passports, this got flip-flopped in rarity too. It started out as uncommon (and I think looked better with silver text) but got bumped up to rare because I needed more rares

Top of the Class (Uncommon) - 1st round draft picks. But not guys that were total busts. Made up of different historic elements of actual draft stage/boards (the background is like the current LED boards, the nameplate like the manual ones used in the 90s and early 00s) and featuring wherever possible a draft-day image of the player on stage with his Sharks jersey/cap. Only about 3 or 4 guys are included without such a picture, largely from the early 90s and oddly Marcel Goc from 2001.

Draft Gems (Uncommon) - Guys drafted in later rounds. I think the earliest represented is the 4th round, but it leaned heavily to successful NHLers from rounds 5+. I tried to go for pics of each player at their youngest where I could. The design is mostly an abstract one with gem-like qualities including a geometric, facet-styled background and a cut diamond bit of line art hidden in there too.

Premiere Pugilists (Rare) - fighters and tough guys. I believe I tended towards guys who have the most listed fights as a Shark on their dance cards. The design is fight-inspired with ring posts/ropes, boxing poster banner style names, and a ring bell.

Signature Sharks (Rare) - the largest rare set, it's essentially an avatar version of autograph cards in hockey card sets. It's a wide array of subjects too including past, present, and future Sharks. This is just an abstract design that I played around with because it looked cool. :laugh:

Classic Avatars (Rare) - Avatars I made in the past, faithfully recreated (except for some gold elements) in the current HF size. Mostly just stuff I liked from the past, and maybe a few designs that I'm not super proud of the composition on in retrospect, but they are at least significant milestones in my "career" as the HFSJ avatar guy.

Retro Styles (Rare) - avatars I made in the past, but featuring players from the present. It's fewer sets than the full-on classics batch above, repeated with different subjects a couple times apiece (so we've seen the 2011 prospect set in both Ryan Merkely and John Leonard so far).

HF Materials (Legendary) - the equivalent of real hockey card "jersey cards" where they have a little cut up piece of a game worn jersey in the card, these have little cut up pieces of popular and famous classic HFSJ photoshop works and are also signed by the author.

There are also 3 sets that have yet to be revealed because nobody's gotten an avatar from them yet.
 
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slocal

Dude...what?
May 4, 2010
16,105
6,946
Central Coast CA
Alright, caught up again.

While I've got a couple minutes I wanted to share some info I realize now won't necessarily get widely disseminated:

The intent/point/backstory of the various sub-set themes. I include blurbs in the pack PMs with everyone's rare/uncommon avatars, but if you don't get one of those avatars you don't get to see that. Most of them are pretty obvious in terms of the theme, but not all of them are clear about some of the underlying criteria. Plus I have trivia and tidbits along the way. So I might as well share what they all represent for anyone who might be curious.

Young Guns (Uncommon) - Basically they're the equivalent to real hockey cards' Rookie Cards. I stuck to players who were under the GP threshold to lose calder eligibility (so no Gregor, except that I made myself a unique Gregor YG avatar because, y'know, perks) but I wasn't too concerned about age (so there are some guys in here who might be over the age threshold for true Calder eligibility but it doesn't matter. They get a Young Guns avatar.

Also these are the only avatars where I made a point of using officially listed accented spellings (Dahlén, Öberg, Émond, etc). not really relevant, just a fun quirk.

Shark Icons & Goalie Icons (both Uncommon) - Technically listed as two sets but they are functionally identical, just split between skaters and goaltenders. These are your long-term former members of the Sharks, consisting mostly of classic players who are a) no longer with the club, b) retired/out of the NHL , and c) played at least 500 games as a skater or 100 games as a goalie in a Sharks uniform. There are a couple of exceptions to b) and c) in there (Dan Boyle didn't make it to 500 games in teal, for example), but this was intended as the primary vehicle for big names you remember from the past.

The design itself is a take on a classic early 90s hockey card from, I believe, Topps. It was one of the first sets to feature San Jose Sharks players in it. The images are also mildly distressed and faded to make them look aged (it's hard to tell in a tiny avatar :laugh:)

Heroes of the Tank (Uncommon) - Shark Icons without the GP requirement. More classic players who may have had shorter or less impactful careers in teal, but who are fondly remembered for what they did in a shorter period of time. You can see what sorts of players we're looking at in the names revealed so far: Vincent Damphousse, Ray Whitney, and Mike Grier. It's short-term skill, hard-working lunchpail guys, high-energy sparkplugs, the kinds of players that endear themselves to the fanbase.

Shark "Icons" (Uncommon) - Guys who are icons for totally different reasons. Like being the mane of manes, or the greatest bench-door-opener in franchise history, or that guy I can't even mention by name without it resulting in a torrent of boos. This is the gag/fun set of guys who have passed through San Jose before.

It's still the Topps card, just gaudy orange and discolored a bit like bad 70s/80s photography.

World Jr. Passport (Uncommon) - current and former Sharks who suited up at a WJC while in the San Jose system. That's pretty much it. It's also pretty obviously meant to resemble elements of an actual passport including stamps for the years participated. Each one sports an image of that player suited up at one of those WJC tournaments.

This was actually supposed to be a rare set initially but I had to do some flip-flopping to make sure I had enough avatars at each rarity to be able to make as many packs as I possibly could.

Olympic Snapshots (Rare) - See above, except it's for the Olympics instead of the World Jrs. Years listed are just the years that the player was at the Olympics while a Shark, so it doesn't include years where they represented their country but were part of another NHL organization (if that happened). It's obviously a film reel with images of the player from those olympic games on them (even though you can barely see 2 of the images on each avatar)

like the WJC passports, this got flip-flopped in rarity too. It started out as uncommon (and I think looked better with silver text) but got bumped up to rare because I needed more rares

Top of the Class (Uncommon) - 1st round draft picks. But not guys that were total busts. Made up of different historic elements of actual draft stage/boards (the background is like the current LED boards, the nameplate like the manual ones used in the 90s and early 00s) and featuring wherever possible a draft-day image of the player on stage with his Sharks jersey/cap. Only about 3 or 4 guys are included without such a picture, largely from the early 90s and oddly Marcel Goc from 2001.

Draft Gems (Uncommon) - Guys drafted in later rounds. I think the earliest represented is the 4th round, but it leaned heavily to successful NHLers from rounds 5+. I tried to go for pics of each player at their youngest where I could. The design is mostly an abstract one with gem-like qualities including a geometric, facet-styled background and a cut diamond bit of line art hidden in there too.

Premiere Pugilists (Rare) - fighters and tough guys. I believe I tended towards guys who have the most listed fights as a Shark on their dance cards. The design is fight-inspired with ring posts/ropes, boxing poster banner style names, and a ring bell.

Signature Sharks (Rare) - the largest rare set, it's essentially an avatar version of autograph cards in hockey card sets. It's a wide array of subjects too including past, present, and future Sharks. This is just an abstract design that I played around with because it looked cool. :laugh:

Classic Avatars (Rare) - Avatars I made in the past, faithfully recreated (except for some gold elements) in the current HF size. Mostly just stuff I liked from the past.

Retro Styles (Rare) - avatars I made in the past, but featuring players from the present. It's fewer sets, repeated with different subjects a couple times apiece (so we've seen the 2011 prospect set in both Ryan Merkely and John Leonard so far).

HF Materials (Legendary) - the equivalent of real hockey card "jersey cards" where they have a little cut up piece of a game worn jersey in the card, these have little cut up pieces of popular and famous classic HFSJ photoshop works and are also signed by the author.

There are also 3 sets that have yet to be revealed because nobody's gotten an avatar from them yet.

I definitely appreciated the blurbs under the avatars. Patzold had me guffawing, lol.
 

Lebanezer

I'unno? Coast Guard?
Jul 24, 2006
14,816
10,418
San Jose
Nem, this is amazing work. However, now that everyone is using these new avatars I have to stop and read their usernames because I have no idea who is posting without previous visual cues.
 
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Tkachuk4MVP

32 Years of Fail
Apr 15, 2006
14,800
2,684
San Diego, CA

A nice mix here. Loving that Loco signature series, and lol at the “icon.” Such high hopes for Nolan after that hot start...
 
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The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
I want to confirm that no, Charlie Townsend is not Joe Thornton's beardless, illegitimate half-brother. He's the head analytics guy for the Sharks.

I'm also waiting for landshark to post his pack image because as much as I've made no secret of the fact that he irritates me to no end (no, I don't mean landshark :laugh:), I'm oddly partial to the Jon Root avatar because I made a point of finding the the most gratingly reprehensible picture I could for him (even though he's no longer a Sharks employee it was too late for me to want to pull his avatar especially since there's no replacement named yet)

It's right up there with the Brodie Brazil one that features a surprise cameo from Douglas Murray.
 
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The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
Also wanted to take a minute to broadly say thank you to everyone who sent some kind words in response in their pack PMs. I haven't had the time to respond individually but I do appreciate the well-wishes and gratitude from all of you. The fact that I love you guys is why I end up undertaking crazy ventures like this.
 

The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
@Pavelski2112 I see you lurking in this thread. I hadn't intended to push anyone, but did you want in? Because if you do there's a bonus pack coming your way as thanks for hooking me up with the Joel Kellman autograph a few months ago (this is what it was for).

And no spoilers, but there's some good stuff in that bonus pack.

EDIT: aside since I figure someone will wonder now that I've intimated knowledge of what Pavelski2112 would get in the bonus pack: I do know what is in every pack. They're all already set by now. I also know the order that packs will be given out in since I did a randomized draw to set that order as well. The fact that I know all of this in no way means that I have any control over who gets what in any case except the handful of pre-assigned bonuses because I don't know what order people will show up in to claim their spot in line.

And even though I know what's in the pre-assigned ones that are already earmarked for specific posters, they were filled totally at random as well. So there is absolutely no rigging of the system on my part at all. Except for one case: I did make sure Slocal got his Mike Ricci common. Because like my Kane one he's got a variant version not otherwise available. But that's it. Everything else was strictly at the mercy of Excel and a random number generation formula.

Just wanted to be transparent in case anyone thinks I'm trying to steer specific posters into getting specific results. the double randomization was my safeguard against that happening.
 
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Pavelski2112

Bold as Boognish
Dec 15, 2011
14,531
9,234
San Jose, California
@Pavelski2112 I see you lurking in this thread. I hadn't intended to push anyone, but did you want in? Because if you do there's a bonus pack coming your way as thanks for hooking me up with the Joel Kellman autograph a few months ago (this is what it was for).

And no spoilers, but there's some good stuff in that bonus pack.

EDIT: aside since I figure someone will wonder: I do know what is in every pack. They're all already set by now. I also know the order that packs will be given out in since I did a randomized draw to set that order as well. The fact that I know all of this in no way means that I have any control over who gets what in any case except the handful of pre-assigned bonuses because I don't know what order people will show up in to claim their spot in line.

And even though I know what's in the pre-assigned ones that are already earmarked for specific posters, they were filled totally at random as well. So there is absolutely no rigging of the system on my part at all. Except for one case: I did make sure Slocal got his Mike Ricci common. Because like my Kane one he's got a variant version not otherwise available. But that's it. Everything else was strictly at the mercy of Excel and a random number generation formula.

Just wanted to be transparent in case anyone thinks I'm trying to steer specific posters into getting specific results.

Absolutely my dude, I appreciate that!
 
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The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
I haven't sent the pack PM yet, but heads up everyone: You might want Pavelski2112 to pick your lottery numbers for you... :laugh:

EDIT: The packs are sent. So now I'll just sit back and wait for P2112 to post the haul so I can watch the fireworks.
 
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landshark

They'll paint the donkey teal if you pay.
Sponsor
Mar 15, 2003
3,410
2,641
outer richmond dist
I want to confirm that no, Charlie Townsend is not Joe Thornton's beardless, illegitimate half-brother. He's the head analytics guy for the Sharks.

I'm also waiting for landshark to post his pack image because as much as I've made no secret of the fact that he irritates me to no end (no, I don't mean landshark :laugh:), I'm oddly partial to the Jon Root avatar because I made a point of finding the the most gratingly reprehensible picture I could for him (even though he's no longer a Sharks employee it was too late for me to want to pull his avatar especially since there's no replacement named yet)

It's right up there with the Brodie Brazil one that features a surprise cameo from Douglas Murray.

Posted in the marketplace thread. I'll post it here since you mentioned it.


0H4N07.jpg




Thanks again, Nem!!
 

The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
Well, since it looks like there will probably be a season now, it seems like a good time to suit up with some avatars! *hint hint hint hint* :sarcasm:
 
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BillR10

Registered User
Nov 16, 2008
789
189
This sounds like a fun idea. I'm game

Thank you. EK65, Mark Smith, Jeff Friesen and Nabby.... with some Braun trade bait..... I'm happy

0H3u9x.jpg
 
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The Nemesis

Semper Tyrannus
Apr 11, 2005
88,331
31,704
Langley, BC
PropaneNightscare has his pack so I think I'm caught up again.

I also appended the google sheet in post #2 so that it now also counts completeness values for all the uncommon/rare/legendary avatars on the Insert Sets checklist. I could use some confirmation that the sheets work and appear though. I've had one person say they can't see them and no idea if that's just them having issues or if everyone who isn't me doesn't see the embedded worksheet checklists.

Also @Pavelski2112 it'd be awesome if you could post the preview images from your packs in this thread so everyone can see. Otherwise my vague allusions to you being lucky have no context :laugh:
 

themelkman

Always Delivers
Apr 26, 2015
11,426
8,404
Calgary, Alberta
PropaneNightscare has his pack so I think I'm caught up again.

I also appended the google sheet in post #2 so that it now also counts completeness values for all the uncommon/rare/legendary avatars on the Insert Sets checklist. I could use some confirmation that the sheets work and appear though. I've had one person say they can't see them and no idea if that's just them having issues or if everyone who isn't me doesn't see the embedded worksheet checklists.

Also @Pavelski2112 it'd be awesome if you could post the preview images from your packs in this thread so everyone can see. Otherwise my vague allusions to you being lucky have no context :laugh:
Sorry, I can see the sheets just fine now.
 

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