A Merlin hobby box still offers 18 packs of four cards with one autograph. The Breaker's Delight box has returned, and there's a new Master & Apprentice format. The base set stays at 200 cards across 28 clubs, and Rookie Image Variations have increased from 10 to 15.

When reviewing the price, last year's hobby presale was $199.99 and jumped to $219.99 on release day. This year's hobby box pre-sales price was $219.99, representing a 10% increase from last year’s release.

What's New in Merlin

There are a total of eight new inserts in this year’s product, with five being inserts and three being new autograph releases. 

Enchanting is a 20-card insert with an enchanted forest theme, built around current attackers and creators.

Eye of the Dragon is a 20-card insert that is textured and  mixes all-time greats with this year's top rookies.

Merlin's National Heroes moves the focus from club to country consisting of 25 cards including Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry  Kane, and Mohamed Salah.

Merlin's Masters and Merlin's Apprentices is a 25-card insert found only in the new Master and Apprentice box. Masters covers the legends side, with Cantona, Henry, Maldini, Gerrard, and Ronaldinho. Apprentices focuses on the young players of world football like Yamal, Estêvão, Mastantuono, Ngumoha, and Karl.

Merlin's Masters & Apprentices Dual Autographs follows the same idea with dual autographs of legends and young players: Yamal/Messi, Musiala/Müller, Estêvão/Hazard, Doué/Neymar and Mastantuono/Di María.

Superpowered Synergies Dual Autographs include seven dual signatures, and some of the highlights on the checklist include: Messi/Ronaldinho, Salah/van Dijk, and Ferdinand/Vidić. 

Merlin's Gold Autographs include a 19-card Breaker Delight exclusive with Messi, Yamal, Maldini, Kaká, and the top rookies.

The biggest new piece is the Master & Apprentice box itself, and it isn't simply another way to rip the same product. Topps notes that Enchanting, National Heroes, Mystic Nights, Ageless Alchemy, and Superpowered Synergies are exclusive to Hobby, Value (blasters), and Breaker's Delight.

What's New, What's Back, and What's Gone

Looking at Topps' checklist next to last year, we see the base stays at 200 cards, but almost everything around it has moved.

Three things stand out.

The autograph checklist is bigger and flatter. Total autographs went from 229 to 248, and the base autographs took the brunt of the growth, jumping from 91 cards to 129. The Sorcerers disappeared from last year. .

Breaker Delight kept its position and changed its name. European Knights was a Breaker Delight exclusive last year. Merlin's Gold is a new 19-card Breaker Delight exclusive. New name, same build.

The formats keep multiplying. In 2023-24 Merlin included a hobby and blaster. Last year Topps added Breaker Delight. This year Merlin now includes the Master & Apprentice configuration, with 55 exclusive cards of its own. Merlin's Chosen One, the young-player insert that had debuted in 2023-24, is now gone after just two years. Young talent now gets represented in the Apprentices box. 

65 rookies - Maybe 15 Matter

Reviewing the checklist line by line, there are 65 rookies in the 200-card list that carry the RC logo. Four are from Kairat Almaty, four are from Shamrock Rovers, including Graham Burke and Roberto Lopes, two 30-plus-year-old veterans.

The best way to look at the rookies is to look at who Topps gave image variations to: Estêvão, Mastantuono, Lennart Karl, Rio Ngumoha, Pio Esposito, Jobe Bellingham, Dro Fernández, Quentin Ndjantou, and seven others.

But there is one absence that absolutely sticks out. Max Dowman has a base rookie card #86, plus an Eye of the Dragon, Renaissance, The Shiny, Merlin's Gold, and Match Ball Signatures, but no Rookie Image Variation for Arsenal’s wonderkid. One less chase for Arsenal fans of a featured rookie that should have had an image variation.

Initial thoughts are that exclusivity lives further down the checklist, not at the top with certain players.