Blaster Break - 2012 Topps WWE

Another sign that September has come is the release of Topps' annual WWE "flapship" set.  Released on 09/04/12, Topps is back with a 90 card base set featuring wrestlers, commentators and other personalities from both RAW and Smackdown programs.  In addition to the base set several different levels of parallels and a lot of inserts sets can be found.  Falling to 1:1 packs across all the parallels and inserts you're guaranteed to get something of note in each $2 pack.

Like with most hobby vs. retail releases you'll find different cards in the packs depending on where you bought them.  For this post we'll look at the contents of a blaster I recently found @ Target.

What caught my eye when looking at the shelves the other day was the size of this new blaster.  Panini has been using smaller boxes for their Score football and HOOPs basketball cards and now Topps is following suit.  This makes so much sense as the traditional blaster box has so much wasted space inside.  I'm not the biggest environmental / recycle everything kind of guy, but making these boxes smaller is a no-brainer.

One side of the box features John Cena while the other side features CM Punk.  Kelly Kelly is on the top of the box and basically all you see is her boobs and ditzy smile.  Inside each $20 blaster you'll find a total of 10 packs containing 7 cards each.  You'll also get one shirt relic or WrestleMania XXVIII mat relic in each box.

Before we get to the relic card or the various inserts let's take a look at a few of the base cards.  Topps gave their 2012 football set a unique design, but WWE gets to retread the baseball "surfboard" design.  Not my favorite design Topps has used, but I can look past the issue since there is so much more to the set than just the base cards.  The back of the cards obviously don't feature stats, but it does feature commentary from none other than Mick Foley!  Once I get this set built I will sit down and read every card back.  This guy is a NY Times best selling author so you know the guy can write!

The obligatory "eye candy" scan

Great action shot of Rey flying through the air

Too bad the scan doesn't allow you to see the sweat flying off the guy Jinder Mahal just kneed in the face.

Christian ain't no Rey!

Perhaps my favorite card in the set!

Topps continues to follow the trend they start earlier in the year w/ their MLB Opening Day by inserting light blue boarder parallels.  These cards fall 1:6 packs.



Gold parallels are 1:24 packs and Black parallels can be found 1:330 packs.  I didn't get any of these in this blaster.

Not counting the 2 different relic sets, there are 5 different insert sets to chase and most of them are 10+ cards deep on the checklist.  We'll start off by first looking at Punk's Picks which can be found 1:6 packs.

  

In this set CM Punk picks different stand out (or Top Class) matches such as this win at WrestleMania XXIV in 2008.  Until I held this card in hand I hadn't realized all the additional tattoos Punk had gotten in the last several years!





Punk recaptured the WWE Championship last November and has to this day not relinquished the title.  He may not be the "Best in the World", but he is a pretty darn good wrestler.





Classic Hall of Famers are found 1:4 packs and feature some great wrestling talent.  I found this card of Tully Blanchard to be awesome, but some what puzzling at the same time.  Any long time wrestling fan knows Tully from his time spent w/ the Four Horsemen...which was in the NWA/WCW days.  Seeing him as a WWE Hall of Famer is odd, but I'll still take it as I loved Mr. Blanchard.  Today Tully spends his time spreading the Good News as a preacher.





Ah, Terry Funk.  What wrestling federation hasn't he wrestled in?  This is another wrestler that I remember mostly from his NWA days, but towards the end of his career I do remember catching a few of his matches in the WWE.





I never was a fan of Greg "The Hammer" Valentine growing up, but I mostly remember him for his submission move simply called "The Hammer".  How fitting.

  

I really like these First Class Champions cards.  The idea to imprint the different title belt's designs onto a card in this fashion seems so simple, but I don't think I've ever seen a card like this.  These are inserted 1:6 packs.





Maybe the trend of making movie poster like promotional images for Pay-Per-View events isn't new, but the WWE cooked up new images for each month's featured PPV such as the Royal Rumble in January of this year.  What is bugging me is I can't figure out who that is on the card.  At first I thought it was Shane McMahon, but the chin ain't right...so I'm going w/ Santino Marella.  He's crazy enough to dress like a fortune teller.  These World Class Events are inserted 1:6 packs.





I don't have much to say other than I wonder of that small QR code on the front still works when snapped w/ your phone's camera?

  

It wouldn't be a WWE set of cards without something devoted to the Divas, right?  These Divas Class of 2012 cards are seeded 1:4 packs.



I was hoping that my relic card would be one of the WrestleMania mat cards.  I was hoping it be of someone other than Dolph Ziggler though.  Oh well, guess you can't win 'em all?

I was so UN-impressed with last year's WWE set that I wasn't sure what to expect for this year.  Then I saw the sell sheets a month or so ago while on Blowout's site and I was hooked.  I've got a hobby box coming as well which will mean I'll probably have lots of cards to trade if anyone cards.  I'll also do a quick box recap post for that hobby box later on.