Classic COTD Reviews – Collector Tins (2002-2005)
Today we’re reviewing tins. Tins typically came with 5 booster packs, 1 holographic promo and a tin to store your cards. They costed $20, which is closer to $30 nowadays?
And you get a nice metal container to store your cards.
My personal opinion is that a tin is worth it if you value the promo at least 80% of the cost of the tin. So if a tin is $20 and you valu There’s no guarantee you’ll get any cards you need out of the packs.
That being said, if you bought these (or any sealed product) and kept them sealed for 20 years, you’d make bank right now. But I’m reviewing these cards in context of the time they were released – and not as speculative assets.
2002 Collectors Tins
Dark Magician Summoned Skull Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Lord of D. Red-Eyes Black Dragon Black Skull Dragon
The 2002 and 2003 tins followed a similar format. 2 iconic monsters from each anime character (Yugi, Joey, Kaiba). None of these are new cards.
Of these 6 cards, Summoned Skull was the only good card. But it (alongside Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes and Lord of D. were already released in Starter Decks that year).
All of these cards are really basic, but the game was simple back then and it was massively popular, so Konami didn’t need to do too much for these to sell. Just popular anime monsters.
If I were to go back in time in 2002, I wouldn’t buy any of these tins. I’d $20 on a staple like Raigeki or Delinquent Duo that would guaranteed make my deck significantly stronger than take a gamble on packs.
2003 Collector’s Tins
Dark Magician, Buster Blader, Blue-Eyes White Dragon
XYZ-Dragon Cannon, Jinzo, Gearfried the Iron Knight
This is a really easy choice. Jinzo (aka Tin-zo) is the only competitive card here; it was a staple or borderline staple. I’d buy that 1 and avoid the others.
Gearfried is viable if you’re building a Warrior-type deck with Blast With Chain, but otherwise its 1800 ATK is easily outclassed by other beaters in 2003. And it wasn’t an expensive card to begin with, but I guess they needed a 2nd card for Jowey.
Aside from that the others are non-viable anime cards. Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes are reprised again, as they are signature cards. Buster Blader and XYZ Cannon also saw play in Battle City. XYZ Cannon is an odd choice for a promo; it’s deck type takes several other holo cards to build a deck around.
I’ll give 2002 a pass for being basic. But the 2nd year going in, having only 1 card with a good effect is disappointing.
2004 Collectors Tins
2004 is where things get interesting. Finally tins with all-new cards and we get to look at some classic Pojo COTD reviews.
Regarding the tin design, the edges were rounded, which kind made it harder to store cards. And the plastic window helped you see the promo, which looks good on display at a shelf, but not as good when using it as storage.
There’s a bit of something for everyone. There’s anime cards for people who want them. Blade Knight for people who want good cards. Swift Gaia and Command Knight for niche uses.
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Pojo Avg |
My Rating |
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3.8 |
3.75 |
Opinions on this card vary between good and great, and I can see both sides. Negating flip effects is useful against Chaos Turbo ( a deck in modern Goat Format tournament play) and the 2000 ATK is useful against aggro. One downside is that both effects are situational, but aggro decks can reliably get this up to 2000 ATK since they have lower monster counts and high trap counts. This card may favor decks with lower monster counts because it’s easier to get a lower hand count. You could use cards like ROTA (and maybe Upstart Goblin or Jar of Greed), set them down, attack with Blade Knight, and then activate them after to fill your hand back up. |
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2.75 |
1.25 |
Yikes, the reviewers were way off. Yes, this card survives to a 1900 beaters and Jinzo. But it minuses against Breaker, Tribe, DDWL, Tomato, Kycoo and countless others. But my main critique isn’t even that. It just doesn’t DO anything. It doesn’t get rid of the opponent’s cards, or give you card advantage or deal much damage. What win condition does it have? If you want a 1400 ATK monster that doesn’t minus in battle, use a recruiter like Tomato. If you want a defender, use Spirit Reaper or any generic 2000 DEF wall. |
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1.75 |
3 |
This card was underrated for its time. This card had a very specific use case, and it saw a little bit of play in modern Goat Format. You can run 1 of these in a Warrior aggro deck with a low monster count (<15) and a high trap count. So you can commit everything to the board and have a low hand count. And I specify Warrior deck because ROTA x2 gives you access to monsters without adding to your monster count. Yes this is a bad and unsummonable card if you were to just put in a regular deck. But there’s an easy solution. Just use it in the deck it’s good in and not in other decks. |
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3 |
1.25 |
Interesting effect, but it’s a weirdly complex solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. You can have a 2400-2500 ATK tribute monster in Attack Position, and it wouldn’t be any easier for the opponent to attack over it. Plus you’d actually be able to kill things and deal damage. This is a tribute monster with 1550 ATK that has no utility aside from being able to be in defense position. Sure, this card fares better against Tsukuyomi and Book of Moon than other tribute monsters, but that’s only 2 cards, compared to 10-20+ other cards that this card fares worse against. |
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~3.5 |
2.75 |
This was passable for cheeky warrior decks but didn’t really see competitive play. 1900 DEF is good. But 1600 ATK makes it too easy to a -1 in battle against many LV4 beaters. 1600 ATK is okay if you have an effect that helps card advantage like Breaker or Tribe, but that’s not this card.. It can help power up another Warrior monster but this card has less value by itself. |
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Insect Queen |
n/a |
1 |
This card is all downsides. Two-tribute monster. Low ATK power for its level with a highly conditional effect that only slightly boosts it. It summons 100 ATK tokens in attack mode which means you take damage from battle. And you wouldn’t have a token for your first attack so you’d need to tribute a real insect monster (a 3rd one). This card also has no utility effect aside from a minor attack boost. Yes, you could consider getting a token as utility, but you have to tribute the tokens to attack, so this is pointless. Don’t ever use, even in an Insect deck. It should’ve been. LV6 (only 1 tribute). Token goes in defense. You don’t need to tribute for an attack. |
2005 Collectors Tins
The 2005 tins were a bit smaller than the other tins, but I like that it returned to the rectangle shape. Dark Magician Girl for the anime lovers and casual players. But also Exarion Universe for the competitive players.
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Pojo Avg |
My Rating |
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4.31 |
4 |
Decent ATK, good DEF. DARK for Chaos. Piercing effect punishes Scapegoat and flip effects. The modern Goat Format people play was cut off just before the release of this card because it sort of was an auto-include card. That being said, I’m not sure if it would be AS powerful nowadays? (question mark…) Scapegoat isn’t used as much. 1800 ATK doesn’t get over GK Spy. Aggro decks have Blade Knight and other big beaters to run over it. |
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3.5 |
1.25 |
I like the creative effect. Being a LIGHT Warrior and 1500 ATK makes it searchable. But this card has major problems:
I would’ve made the ATK reduction 1000 instead of 500, and make it permanent. It would still be situational and highrisk, but at least it would have a better payoff. |
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3.2 |
1.25 |
Reviewers…. Um…. Hello? You need 3 monsters on the field + have a Normal Summon to activate this card’s effect. AND the opponent needs to have at least 3 monsters for you not to minus. Both players having 3 monsters on the field is an unrealistic scenario. But realistically, Zaborg (at only 1 tribute) is all you need 99% of the time. This could’ve been a viable card at 2 tributes, but at 3 it’s unplayable. Oh, and if you revive this (which is usually the only practical way to summon a LV8 monster), it has no effect. |
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~2.5 |
1.25 |
It’s only playable if you have a very specific card (Scapegoat). Cards which are unplayable standalone and rely on a specific card are not good. And the payoff isn’t good. It’s just a beater with no effect or utility whatsoever. Yes, like reviewers said, Berserk Gorilla (a better LV4 2000 ATK monster) makes this obsolete. But even if this card were released earlier, it would be even worse because the power level of cards was higher back then (because there wasn’t a ban list yet). |
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3.5 |
2.5 |
This would’ve been great if released 2 years earlier, and good if released 1 year earlier. As far as DARK LV4 1900 vanilla beaters go, Skilled Dark Magician has the highest defense. Mad Dog and Archfiend Soldier have higher defense than this while still being searchable by Witch. It’s obsolete, but still playable if you want to sacrifice a few defense points for some nice artwork. That being said, this is still infinitely better than some of the other cards on these tins. |
