These are right in my childhood wheelhouse! As a kid, they were technologically cool - OK, it was the early 70s and I was like 8! - colorful, and featured many of my favorite players. I also recall that when you ejected the discs, they popped out fast, and they could be used as projectiles should the need arise!
Leave it to Fred to try to test my memory (again!) - I bought the player and it had four records in it - Willie Mays, Bart Starr, Lew Alcindor, and a Racing Car disc of some sort. I still have my player with the box, as well as a sealed unopened player I remember buying on close out a year later. Interestingly, they were sealed to allow you to open the box and read the info, but the player and the discs were sealed with plastic in the bottom half of the box. On the inside of the box top, I think it listed the players available in the set. I think the baseball players were listed as "coming soon" maybe. I do know that I found the football, basketball, and racing car discs in the stores in my area, but those promised baseball discs never showed up for me. All of the discs I saw as a kid were the single sided black edged discs. They were available in blister packs of 4, or in packs of 8 in a plastic folder that held the 8 discs and a small booklet that had information on the players.
Many years later, I did pick up the baseball discs that I never saw as a kid, again in the black backed version. I don't know much about the Sports Challenge discs - I have seen them but haven't really pursued them that much. The hockey are pretty tough - I am guessing very limited distribution in Northern US and/or Canada.
From what I recall that I have seen, here is what I think may have been produced.
Football - two sets of 8, with one set being harder to come by, and a Bart Starr that exists as a one-sided black disc or a two sided disc.
Basketball - one set of 8, plus Alcindor, who became Jabbar on the two sided disc. The basketball discs were also produced as two sided discs.
Baseball - One set of 8, plus Mays, all available as two sided discs as well.
Hockey - One set of 8, all produced (only) as two sided discs.
Racing - Not sure if it was one set of 8 or two sets of 8, plus the one that came with the player. Never been a racing fan! All one sided discs, except for the one racing disc that was sold with the player, which probably exists as two sided as well.
If someone has seen something different for these, please feel free to correct me! I can post pictures of some of these, but they are still hiding out at my parents' house - somewhere! As I recall, I think I have a bunch of the 4 and 8 disc packs for football, basketball, and maybe the race cars. I think I have a few singles kicking around here somewhere.
Happy collecting!
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