South Africa 96-98: Corinthian produced 4 figurines as part of a Shell promotion in which they made 12 South African athletes across various sports (click this link to see the full list/visuals). Lucas Radebe had already been produced for Leeds although he was never released as part of the Leeds Headliners range, so this was the first opportunity to pick him up. Doctor Khumalo and John Moshoeu (nicknamed "Doc" and "Shoes") made up the final 2 of the 3 figures released. Usually I have some small tidbit or little known fact to add but I must admit I have very little information and have never been able to find out anything (other than a fourth player made). Centre back Mark Fish was the final additonal unreleased player. Even though Fish played for Lazio,
he was not produced for that club, unlike Radebe who was made for Leeds and was an easy
transfer over. The South African figures were produced with the Oval base, much like the
Danish and Japanese national releases. I've nothing against this style of base but they do take
up more room so when I come to make these figures then all will be converted to the traditional
penny base style. Phil Masinga was also scheduled for Leeds release before his move to
St. Gallenstopped production. Again, I've never be able to find out if he was considered as part
of the Shell Promotion release in South Africa, I've never seen anything to suggest he was.

To this day, I've yet find the owner(s) of Mark Fish, Phil Masinga or any of the three released master models. So I have no idea if these survived. If you happen to be the lucky owner of any of these then it would be great to hear from you to confirm that they are safe and and still in one piece! Please contact me here If you are able to provide any information, thank you.
 

Custom Sculpts: Unlike the other national squads in which I've compiled an extensive list of players that have ever worn the shirt, with these South African releases I have scaled back my plans and limited the total custom sculpts to 9 figures. Choices were solely based on most starting appearances from 1996 to 1998. I won't rule out further sculpts later down the track but unlike most national squads in which I could kill two birds with one stone (i.e. the sculpted player could be used for both national and domestic club releases), there weren't many players from the South African national side that could cross over to other league squads. Most players stayed within the South African football league, so maybe I will look at creating those in club colours in the far future (it all depends if I can find away to work around the costs and the demand is there but this wasn't a planned option when I started this project)

Kit Usage: South Africa’s main template was actually used over a number of years. It is difficult to locate video evidence the further back I search but the first footage I found of this kit being worn was in 1994. However, throughout those years there were some alterations to the collar, 4 in total. At first, I had assumed Corinthian had just ignored the collar and done the basic template to cover all grounds. But if you look carefully you’ll notice that an attempt was made at some detailing on the figure of “Doc”. Given 3 of the 4 collars predominantly featured black, then it’s obvious that the kit Corinthian actually based the figurines on was the collar that featured through 1994 to 1996. The odd thing is though that these figures were released around August 1997 with shirt numbers that matched closer to this era. Another contradiction is that around this time the shirt numbers were printed in yellow rather than white. So as you can see, there are a lot of variables. Ultimately though, I’m looking at the most relevant era and have just decided to go with the basic template displayed on Radebe/Moshoeu and have picked the years of 1996 to 1998.

 

Home Kit
First worn: 21st February 1996 against Greece (3:1 win)
Last worn: 12th November 1997 against Scotland (2:1 win)
No of times worn: 15
Wins/draws/losses: 12/2/1
Win percentage: 80.00%

Away Kit
First worn: 27th March 1996 against Belgium (2:0 win)
Last worn: 22nd January 1997 against Portugal (2:0 win)
No of times worn: 6 
Wins/draws/losses: 3/1/2
Win percentage: 50.00%

Achievements:

Euro 96: Semi Finals (6-5 penalty loss to Czech Republic 0:0 AET) 


Make & Sponsor: Les Bleus kit was supplied by Adidas. 

Rating: 9/10

Pack Releases:

Single Blisters: 

4 Packs:
 

12 Pack:


14 Pack: