As you may know, Disney Lorcana is an amazing Trading Card Game that combines some very exciting mechanics with gorgeous artwork, showcasing Disney lore and movies. Right after opening your first Booster pack, you are transported into a fantastic world where your beloved heroes (and villains) play a key role in an ever-evolving story. This world is made of beautiful cards that you, as an Illumineer, can either use to play or collect. In both cases, as soon as you rip your first Booster pack open, you are faced with a key dilemma: “How to I store my cards?”.
A few weeks ago, I went through the most common ways of storing your Disney Lorcana cards and we recently collected some ideas from a few bloggers at Zatu – but I realized we missed a key product in our list: the new “Disney Lorcana Collection Starter Set”. This set is actually set to be released on the 3rd of October and it is bound to be a great addition to all other binders and accessories already available for Disney Lorcana. As a big fan of this game, I already had the product pre-ordered at Zatu but, thanks to the great team at Ravensburger, I was able to give it an early peek and I wanted to share my first impressions right after opening it.
What’s inside the box?
The new Collection Starter Set comes with a 4-pocket binder to hold up to 80 cards, 4 Fabled Booster Packs, one Promo card and a small collector’s guide. While the content seem pretty standard, the inclusions are thought through and the quality behind all of them is amazing.
The first thing that stands out is obviously the binder featuring “Mickey Mouse, Brave Little Tailor”. I like how Ravensburger chose this image for the binder, as it is likely the Most iconic card for Disney Lorcana considering it was one of the very first one revealed in September 2022 at D23, and it has been used in multiple occasions across the two years of this TCG including on the first Anniversary pin and on the prizes for the Challenges and World Championships. I think it is very fitting that Mickey is also featured on the very first Collection Starter Set right when Lorcana enters its third year.
The binder is designed to be small and very portable while the materials used make it very sturdy. In terms of quality, it reminds me a bit of the portfolios released with The First Chapter, although this one feels much more sturdy and durable. In terms of comparison, it is of much better quality than the one found within the Stitch Collector set, although it is obviously not as robust as the Lorcana Premium Binder. The artwork of the binder is extremely well made with a new colour pattern that makes Mickey stand out on the cover. The background artwork is also new and it continues on the spine and on the back of the binder, creating a visually amazing product.
Inside the binder, you would find a small plastic envelop with four Booster packs, the promo card and the collecting guide. I quite like that the four Booster Packs are from the Fabled set as it offers the opportunity for new Players and Collectors to get their hands on some of the reprinted cards that made Lorcana history.
The promo included in this set, “Tinker Bell, Giant fairy”, is actually one of them, although this one is an alternate version with a spectacular Glimmer Foil treatment. This type of foil has been used previously on a few Promo cards and it makes the artwork of our beloved Steel Tinker Bell really pop. Other than being gorgeous, Tinker Bell is also a very playable card that is finding its own space after the rotation as a good late game board control card. I have been playing it a bit in preparation for Fabled Set Champ and I would love to get a full play set of my deck, although I would expect this to be quite pricey on the secondary market.
Last but not least, anyone new to Lorcana can find some very good information and hints in the Collecting guide. The small leaflet included in the set is clearly aimed to anyone new to both TCGs and Lorcana, thus it provides some good info on the game, the cards and how to make good steps into it for both Players and Collectors alike. It also offers good suggestions like making sure you sleeve your cards and provides links to the main resources, including Lorcana PlayHub to find local stores and gaming communities. Considering its aim, it may not be as interesting for experienced Players, but I find reading it to be quite fun anyway.
Is the Collection Starter set right for you?
To be honest, when I opened the box I was in awe by how great the Binder of the Collection Starter Set looks. Obviously, this comes from someone that loves collecting Lorcana cards and keeping them properly stored and organized, but I think this set is the perfect product for anyone interested in getting into Lorcana. New players and collectors will, in fact, have the opportunity to keep their whole collection safe or to store the rarest or the most loved cards they found in a very nice binder.
The binder itself is gorgeous and extremely nice to have for experienced players and collectors. Now that I have been collecting Disney Lorcana cards for more than two years, I may take the opportunity to split my collection and perhaps keep all my Enchanted together in this beautiful binder. Or perhaps I will take a chance and store a copy of all the cards with my favourite Disney Character or movie. There are endless possibilities to put this beautiful binder to good use.
Last but not least, I think we should point out that this Collection Starter Set offers a lot of value for its price. The four Fabled Booster packs are pretty much already enough to justify the RRP for the set (£22.99) thus the binder and the promo card included are just added value. Considering the price of the portfolios we had for the first Chapter and that the Tinker Bell Promo may not be available elsewhere, you are definitely getting a lot out of this Collection set without even considering the possibility you can pull a high value Legendary, Epic or Enchanted card out from the four packs. If this wasn’t already enough, remember that Zatu is also offering a promo “Kristoff, Reindeer Keeper” with every pre-order of Disney Lorcana Collection Starter Set. What are you waiting for???
