2012 Topps

Well, like with a few other bloggers out there. 2012 Topps Series 1 has hit my local retailer. The Target I went to with the wife had blaster boxes and hangar boxes, but no single packs oddly enough. doing the math, I figured that for the same price as a blaster box, two hangar boxes would give me twice as many base cards, but I'd have to sacrifice about half as much inserts and a manufactured patch card. Done and done.

Here's what I found:

I must say, these cards look much better in person than the previews would lead you to believe. They also mix some peculiar shots (Wells) with some awesome action shots (Hamilton).

On the parallel front, I like the gold sparkly cards. They work really well with the design, but the Target red-bordered card look forced. Another advantage with the hangar boxes is that these come only two cards per box, as opposed to two whole packs of the stuff.

The Gold Standard inserts look great, although the Golden Moments and Timeless Talents cards seem to be this year's version of Topps 60 and Diamond Duos (or Peak Performances and Legendary Lineage). And if your going to pull a Classic Walk-Offs card, and it isn't going to be Kirk Gibson, you'd want to pull a Fisk, right?

Another insert I like is Golden Greats. Anytime you can pull a great looking card of a hall-of-famer, it's a good thing. Gold Futures, on the other hand, left me underwhelmed. I'm not a prospector, so all I see is cards of guys I've never really heard of. I kind of like the '87 throwback cards, but why are they minis? I guess they figured people liked the '75s so much out of lineage, that they'd try to recreate that magic.

I also got two Golden Giveaway cards. Unlike some bloggers out there, I LOVE the on-line promotions Topps has been putting on. The Million Card Giveaway was fun and the Diamond Giveaway was great (whenever the Topps IT department wasn't working on it, that is), so I'm really looking forward to this year's offering.