There are brand names such as Tempo or Zewa that have become synonymous with what they are: Pocket and kitchen tissues. Paninis have done the same. Their name has been synonymous with collectible pictures since the 1960s. In Germany and around the world, children and adults alike are familiar with the small adhesive cards in equally small sachets and the accompanying collector's booklets, especially in connection with major football events.
However, Panini fun is also available for many other occasions and themes. Superheroes such as Batman or Spiderman, Marvel characters or Disney stars, Harry Potter or Bibi & Tina - they too have been and continue to be dedicated to their own collector's magazines and sticker cards. The appeal of the analogue game in the age of digitalisation lies in the hunting, collecting and exchanging of images. Once the current and active fun is over, a memory book remains.
Typical Panini: the sachet principle
At the end of the 1960s, the Panini brothers Benito and Giuseppe had more luck with pictures of footballers after initially selling rather unsuccessful flower trading cards. While travelling from their home town of Modena to Milan, they discovered a batch of unsold football trading cards. Back in Modena, they packed two pictures in a bag at a price of 10 lire each - with huge success: three million pictures were quickly sold.
Giuseppe Panini then went into business for himself as a publisher, invented the Panini stickers and founded the company under his name in 1961. Brother Benito joined him. Two more brothers, Umberto and Franco, joined the Panini family team in 1963. According to contemporary witnesses, the first official Panini picture is a black and white sticker of Milanese Bruno Bolchi, then a midfielder for Inter Milan.
What set the Paninis apart from other publishers and producers of collectible stickers was their consistent offer of purchasable "stickers in bags" plus album. Previously, collectible stickers were often available as a promotional addition to products such as chocolate bars. The Paninis also considered their own sachets to be important.
Boris Herrmann thinks the Panini booklet is "super"
They then had to find the answer to a crucial question: how could they prevent duplicate pictures from ending up in the same bag? Here came the particularly creative part of the Panini story: according to the company history, the Paninis took a butter churn and a wheel that is said to have resembled a lottery number machine. This wheel, the story continues, "was connected to the churn by means of a bicycle frame and was initially driven by a student: 15 revolutions forwards, 15 backwards."
According to the company history, there is another story about the mixing process that is said to have been used a little later: "The Paninis threw the pictures into the air and then mixed them thoroughly with a conventional shovel."
A more professional solution was provided by the family technician Umberto Panini, who was asked to return to Italy from Venezuela in 1963. In 1964, he developed the so-called "Fifimatic", the heart of the company. The mixing and bagging machine ensures that two identical pictures never end up in the same bag. This successful concept made the Panini Group one of the world's largest publishers of collectible products.
Panini premiere for the 10th Vendée Globe
To this day, fans are still driven by the often burning questions: How can I fill up my collector's book? Will I find my favourites in one of my bags? Or can I get hold of my favourite pictures by swapping them with friends? German Vendée Globe fans might feel the same way if they hope to find Boris Herrmann's face for their collector's book in one of the small bags. The 43-year-old "Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper knows the Panini booklets himself and thinks they are "super".
To mark the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe, Panini has designed the solo round-the-world sailors their very own collector's item complete with stickers. It is the first ever collection that Panini has officially dedicated to sailing. It comes in the French language of the hosts, but is available in the "Boutique" of the Vendée Globe already sold out. Only the large box with 36 sachets of five stickers each was still available for 36 euros. This is also the situation in the sales shops in the Race Village in Les Sables-d'Olonne, as the organisers announced in response to an enquiry from YACHT online.
However, you can find the album - either as a slightly cheaper booklet or in paperback - and the large sticker box with 180 pictures as a duo offer for 39.50 or 45.90 euros on Panini's French site. There are also other combined offers or individual sticker packs of different sizes from 10.50 euros. You can also find them on the French Amazon page. The same applies to the German Amazon page, where the prices are significantly higher due to the delivery routes.
The Vendée Globe album: 56 pages and a poster
The scrapbook contains 56 pages and a poster. In addition to the 40 likenesses of the 34 solo skippers and six female skippers who will be lining up at the starting line off Les Sables d-Olonne on 10 November, there are other themed pages to provide variety. Of course, the first official mascot of the race also has its place in the magazine: Penguin Adélie is part of the Panini party. She is "quoted" right on the cover: "The official album for the Everest of the seas!"
The three small pictures on the front page don't need any more stickers: defending champion Yannick Bestaven, the only two-time winner Michel Desjoyeaux and Sam Davies' heart boat "Initiatives-Cœur" are already here. We don't want to spoil too much with our article. Perhaps just this much: Boris Herrmann appears more than once in this Panini homage to the toughest solo race in international sailing: the Vendée Globe. And of course the sticker album also presents other legends of the race, records and interesting figures.
If you speak French, you might get a little more out of the information in the scrapbook. If you don't, you can still understand a lot of the names and numbers. We will open the bags we ordered and paid for with great excitement and see how far we get with the stickers by the start on 10 November. The stickers could also be one for the advent calendar this year - the race continues into the new year. With or without the Panini booklet as a companion: we will be reporting intensively on the Vendée Globe at YACHT online!
Warning, risk of spoilers! Here is a brief insight into the production of the Panini collector's album for the Vendée Globe:
And how are Boris Herrmann, his team and "Malizia - Seaexplorer" doing? 17 days before the start of his second Vendée Globe? The latest clip from the Malizia's Road to the Vendée Globe series entitled "Arrival in Les Sables-d'Olonne" reveals just that:
