Catching up w/ scanning some "new" cards

The problem with card collecting is it can easily snowball on you if you don't stay up to date.  Seeing that I've been away from actively blogging and cards in general, I've got a huge catalog of cards to scan and put into my own databases.  These cards aren't necessarily new, but I've yet to share them prior to today.  I've got cards for my Tim Hudson and Brandon Beachy PCs, Atlanta Braves, a few Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Bobcats plus a few NC State basketball autos to round everything out.

 

 

 

  

 

El Oso Blanco is back in the line-up!

This week marked the return of Evan "El Oso Blanco" Gattis to the starting line-up in Atlanta.  While the Braves put up a good record in Gattis' absence, it sure is good to have his bat back in the line-up again.  Chalk it up to coincidence, but just the other day I received this card in the mail from Topps.

Beautiful, thick piece of cardboard with a nice on card autograph to boot!  I'm very happy to add this card to my Braves collection, but as I was scanning it I noticed something that Topps seems to be doing all too often.  Check out his Opening Day card below.

Yes, it's the same image.  I've noticed Topps has been re-using the same photo over and over again for a lot of players across their many sets.  This just seems mighty lazy to me.  Granted both cards are beautiful and I'm glad to own them both, it would just be nice to have a different photograph on each card...especially the higher end Tier One.

Pack Break: Transformers Collectible Figurines & 3D Puzzle Piece Collector Cards

I decided to share my latest Random Toy Reviews post here as well since it kinda fits in...after all these include trading cards...one of the main reasons for my purchase!

It should come as no surprise that Hasbro has revved up the licensing machine and has been issuing the Transformers license to just about anyone willing to slap the robots on their product.  To cash in on the collectible PVC or vinyl and or blind packaged market, Goldie Marketing has released a series of small, super deformed collectible figurines based on the Generation 1, Prime and Movie segments of Transformers.  I found these in a gravity feeder over in the trading card aisle at my local Target.  I was already enticed by the concept itself, then I noticed it also included a weakness of mine...a collectible trading card.

This is a pack from series 1, but as you can tell there will be a total of 30 figurines between series 1 & 2.  When I picked this up I assumed the character assortment would be from G1 since Optimus Prime and Megatron were so predominantly displayed.  These foil packs retail for $2.99 each.  I should also mention these come packaged on a blister card with one figurine (that you can see) for $3.99 at Toys R Us and also in multi-packages for each segment.

So what's inside the pack and what do these figurines look like?  Well here you go.  In addition to the figurine, you also get a collector's base, the aforementioned trading card / puzzle piece as well as a checklist insert.  I was beaming when I saw Optimus Prime staring back at me from within the pack!

 

The figurines are small, one inch or so at best.  However they appear to be well sculpted and well painted. The paint applications are well placed and I wouldn't have expected so many different colors (I count 5) on a toy this small / cheap. Well played Goldie.

The included collector's stand is nothing more than a small rectangle piece of plastic with two pegs that insert into the bottom of the figurines' feet.  I should note that this Optimus Prime figure stands just fine without any additional support.  The bottom of the stand has the Thrilling 30 Transformers anniversary logo sticker.

The collector card is not your standard trading card size, but more narrow like a credit card.  The front features some nice artwork along with the tech spec rankings for that character.  Underneath the faction symbol you can see the character's number in the set.  Optimus Prime is #01/30.

The back side of the card is the 3D puzzle piece done up with the lenticular technology that is commonly seen on trading cards.  The back of the checklist insert shows off the assembled puzzle image.  While I like the idea of the puzzle, the front of the card captures more of my attention than the 3D backs.

Front, inside center and back of the checklist.

I was surprised to see that not only did this line of collectibles include G1 characters, but also a selection of characters from the Prime and Movie universes.  While I can't say the movie characters excite me at all, I like the inclusion of the Prime characters.

In my opinion, Goldie Marketing did a good job w/ the character selection.  G1 has some more of the iconic characters (of course Bumblebee had to be included) as well as Prime.  However I'm scared to buy another pack in fear of getting stuck with one of the movie characters!

Pack Break - 2014 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 1

(This post got buried in my Blogger account since it was saved as a draft and never posted.  I write this post back in February!)

So Topps decided to bring back Garbage Pail Kids for another round in 2014.  Mind you I'm still not up to date with all of the new card releases with me being out of the circle for awhile.

No longer do the GPK sets have the tag line "All-New Series", replacing it 2014 Series 1.  The price tag seems to have risen at retail to $2.49 a pack.  I grabbed a $4.99 jumbo pack after seeing some of the images online.  21 cards/stickers plus a bonus card/sticker.  A quick scan of the back of the packs lists gold parallels, printing plates, SP "c" name variants, artist autos, Motion cards, Olym-picks in bronze/silver/gold varieties and Sketch cards.  There were a few that made me laugh, but some of them are just down right ugly or dumb.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Two thumbs up

Two of the cards had no name.  The small text tells you to make up your own name.  Anyone got a suggestion?

With the Winter Olympics here Topps decided to have a little fun, GPK style!

Bonus sticker

Artist Autograph!!  Seeded 1:193 packs (jumbo odds)

As cool as this card is, I don't think I'm going to keep it.  I'll gladly trade the card for just about anything else so if you're reading this and you're interested let me know, otherwise off to eBay it goes in a few days.