Topps Archives hit shelves on Wednesday, and I did not lollygag, picking up some hanging packs from Target.
A nice callback to the 1988 Topps design, the same year the film came out. Is
Bull Durham your favorite baseball film? It's definitely in the top 5 for me. I will be looking for more of these cards as the season goes on.
A couple current Twins and a couple former Twins. It was a nice touch to change the "40" to "65" in the 1991 design, and Buxton's portrait is about as close as you can get to the feel of the original 1953 set, but couldn't they have tried to digitally turn the photo into a painting? Or paid for a person to actually do the paintings?
The inserts call back to the 1985 set - I got all the Alomars!
Sorry, I had to hang onto these, despite having lots of Braves and Red Sox collectors to trade with. These were too good to part with.
A page worth of keepers, always nice to see the Expos get a little love.
The cards are still "delicate" like last year - I could be wrong, but they feel a little less dainty than 2015, but still pretty soft and susceptible to dings and dents. 1991 is one of my favorite designs, so I expect to pick up a few more singles of that design as they pop up around the card shows and websites.
I thought the 1991 set was the year Topps really turned the corner and decided to step up its game with their photography. The Xander card would have fit well with the '91 set.
ReplyDeleteSure.....rub it in.... lol. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteCan't say Bull Durham is in my top five baseball films, but probably top ten. Archives looks terrific this year, and I'm especially excited for the '91s. Nice Correa double dip and love the Bloody Mary Indians jerseys getting some airplay on that Perry.
ReplyDeleteArchives looks great this year from what I've seen. Hopefully I can snap up some singles at the card show I'm hitting up tomorrow. Love the mix of old guys and current players, really like that Gaylord Perry card with the old school Indians logo.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, those inserts are a bit of a re-tread for Topps as they were used in last years WWE Heritage set. The #1 Draft Pick insert was called "Rookie of the Year" and the Father & Son cards were called "Then and Now". Exact same design on both.
These look good, it looks like Topps is putting a little bit of effort into these sets. Bonus points for using the 1970's Indians wordmark on that Gaylord Perry card.
ReplyDeleteYou'll never get painted images in a relatively low-price set like Archives, and speaking for myself, I'd rather have photos like these than have photos that are digitally altered to look like paintings (but end up looking like digitally-altered photos).
I bet you're right that the price of producing a 1953 style painted set means that I'd either hate the cheap version they make or would not be pleased with the premium cost for the real deal... I do appreciate that the photo selection for the most part seems to honor the best of that year's offerings.
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