Since 1995, Corinthian has established itself as the company that makes the famous 7cm ProStars. Otherwise known as “bigheads” or “little men”, our models are caricatures of some of the greatest footballers in the world, which to this day still bring a smile to thousands of football fans and collectors alike. As the years have passed interest in the product has fluctuated, sometimes its demand is high, sometime low. Much has depended on the success of teams and players we have had licenses with and the quality of the product and our marketing.

As the ProStars brand progressed and in our view had improved with time, the models becoming more life like, the packaging quality increasing and the introduction of limited edition figures, all of these factors contributed to the figures becoming collectable and aimed at more mature collectors.

As a result of this we saw an opportunity in 2001 to focus specifically upon the younger end of the market and on the enjoyment and interactive side of collecting. This involved the production of smaller “Bighead” figures – 2cm shorter in comparison to the ProStars models – but with more of an appeal to kids. The unique aspect of MicroStars, as they became branded, was that they could only be obtained through purchases of Powerpodz, a chocolate pod with a capsule containing the little football figure.

February 2001 was the official launch date of MicroStars and in this month we saw an advertising campaign on TV and in the football and children’s press. The joint venture between Corinthian and the manufacturer of the chocolate pods saw the Powerpodz distributed into grocery stores, local newsagents and after a long period of absence in major retailers such as Safeway and Woolworths. MicroStars and Corinthian were hot stuff again.

In the first release Corinthian chose to stick with the English and Scottish Premiership teams that we held licenses for and introduced an initial range of 40 figures aimed specifically at the UK kids sector. In addition to figures of players from the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers, we also introduced two Barcelona releases of Luis Enrique and Patrick Kluivert to add a little overseas flavour to the range. This pre-empted further releases of international MicroStars. This time featured in national team kit.

In addition to the standard figures found in the Powerpodz, we also released two other figures, which proved slightly more difficult to get hold off.

Edwin van der Sar was released in national colours as a special edition at Woolworths. In addition to the Dutch goalkeeper, a MicroStars preview release of Gabriel Batistuta in his Argentina kit was distributed on the front of the football magazine “Match”. Both of these MicroStars were sought after! Batistuta was eventually released in the red pods that were within the 3 pack format but the preview version was easily identifiable by the fact that it had an original collector’s catalogue inside the clear sachet.

Initial demand for Powerpodz was huge as the idea of a figure inside a chocolate pod seemed to captivate the target audience of primary school aged boys. Indeed the early success of Powerpodz was so big that BBC Newsround reported during the General Election that MicroStars had become the latest craze ahead of Pokemon!

Those that thought the MicroStars venture was just a figure inside a chocolate pod were quickly proved wrong. While some collected the figures solely, many of the younger fans immediately grasped the game playing aspect and this certainly helped Corinthian’s cause in its attempts to create the “next big thing”. The concept of base markings on the bottom of the figures allowed them to be used either in the World Club League board-based game or the playground One on One version which seemed to capture the imagination of many.

With pre-determined base markings for different attributes in the game, from passing to shooting and increasing levels of skill through the various colour based figures, a game pitch was invented and fans and collectors could use the figures to play with instead of displaying them only.

While kids became content to with playing games with the figures, the bigger kid – usually referred to the football fan – became increasingly aware of the value of the silver and gold based rarer pieces which had higher scoring ability and were produced in lower quantities.

Other MicroStars pieces that attracted the attention of MicroStars collectors were the Chelsea version of the Torre Andre Flo, Henrik Larsson of Celtic with the dreadlocks and the set of Serie A figures featuring Thuram and Rui Costa in their previous club kits, Parma and Fiorentina respectively. All of the aforementioned figures were pulled from production, but this didn’t stop a few of each slipping out both overseas and into the UK.

Boxed sets of 8 MicroStars have featured since their inception in 2001. To date there have been five boxed sets. All have had Gold bases but only the last set has the base ratings printed on the bottom of each of the figures. Each set has been limited to 2,500 worldwide.

Corinthian’s Annual Convention in 2001 at Villa Park, Birmingham was the first organised MicroStars World Club League tournament for collectors of our little product. This gave kids and adults the chance to play one another with their collection of MicroStars for the chance of becoming the first MicroStars WCL tournament champion and winning a MicroStars model of themselves in the process. This was a new experience for everyone at Corinthian as well as the collectors that made an appearance for the event.

There have been several winners since 2001 of the WCL but Adam Haddington has the accolade of being the very first winner beating Kim Tong in the final. Kim had travelled all the way from Hong Kong and was unlucky to lose out on the prize of having a model of himself developed into a MicroStar. Adam on the other was overjoyed with his victory and elected to have a figure of himself in the Arsenal home strip. The model also had the added feature of removable Edgar Davids’ style glasses and Adam was lucky enough to be presented with his prize by the pop band Steps.

From 2001 MicroStars has seen the introduction of games such as the MicroDome and SuperClub Game and accessories such as the display stands and the PowerShot. We have also changed the chocolate Powerpod for chocolate footballs and introduce a rarer base colour than gold, the ever sought after black bases.