1989 Topps Nintendo Game Pack

I don't like to cross post some of my posts, but I felt this one was relevant to this blog. Originally written for my Cardboard Collections blog, check out this oddball pack of trading cards I recently acquired.

In a recent retro video game purchase I made came one sealed pack of 1989 Topps Nintendo Game Pack cards. I've seen packs of these cards at throwback stores and at card shows, but I've never purchased a pack, yet alone opened one. I've been meaning to share the contents of this pack for some time, but just have been busy with work and such. However the time for procrastinating is over!

I haven't opened a vintage wax pack in some time! Just opening this brought me back to my beginnings with baseball cards. Alright, 5 cards total - 3 scratch offs and 2 stickers...with top secret tips! 

It appears the scratch off cards are actually some type of game...fitting considering the overall Nintendo theme. Scratch off 3 bats and you lose, but if you can find 1 arrow plus either 2 kicks, 3 elbows or 4 punches and you win and advance. I guess there are multiple Double Dragon scratch off cards as it says Screen 4 of 10 underneath the game logo.

Super Mario Bros. 2 scratch off up next. Same premise as above. Scratch to reveal certain items to win the game and advance. This is Screen 3 of 10.

Wouldn't be a complete pack without something Zelda related. This game seems pretty forward. 3 swords and you win or 3 fireballs and you lose.

The stickers come with these hideous, yet cool all yellow backgrounds. Billy Lee here of Double Dragon fame. On the flip side is one of these Top Secret Tips the pack mentioned...however it's for Super Mario Bros. and not for Double Dragon?! Did you read the tip? That's not a Top Secret Tip! That is common sense!

The last card in the pack is a sticker card for Punch-Out!! I must have been the one kid growing up in the 80's that could have cared less for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. Just never could get into the game. This card's tip is for the Legend of Zelda. At least this is something that not everyone may have known about when originally playing the game back in the day.

Overall this was a fun pack to open and now it's got me wondering how hard it'd be to find a sealed box of this stuff. Being that I'm a retro gamer and all it'd be fun to build this set. What do you think about these cards? Have you seen them before? Have any in your collection?

Chinese Transformers Cybertron trading cards?

Several years ago (?) I remember seeing these packs of Transformers Cybertron trading card packs for sale on Robot Kingdom.  Since they were only 2 bucks and I'm a sucker for Transformer cards I bought a few packs.  Long story short they got shuffled around with the rest of my cards and I haven't seen them for awhile until recently.  I don't know anything about these, but from what I can tell the language on the cards appears to be Chinese.  The back of the card is basically that character's tech specs.  The bio also features English.  Seeing the prominent Hasbro logo tells me these are a official release, but none of my searches have turned up anything.

While collating the cards I came up with several duplicates.  If anyone reading this is interested in them just let me know and we'll see about working out something.

2003 Japanese G1 Transformers Trading Cards?

I have a lot of hobbies - too many if you ask my wife!  While most of my hobbies stand alone I do like it when they cross paths...such as trading cards and Transformers.  I've been known in the past to buy the Japanese version of a Transformer toy largely in part to obtain the included tech spec trading card.  While I can't afford to do that anymore I do actively seek to buy these cards from other collectors.  Occasionally I'll run across a new card to add to my collection (which I plan to share here eventually).  Even less I'll run across something I've never seen before.  Today I'll be sharing some Japanese G1 Transformers trading cards I picked up from who knows where.  I've never seen these before so I can't offer up any information on them outside of the 2003 copyright date on the cards.  I would love to find more of these, but I know that probably won't happen any time soon.  So for now enjoy the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2010 Topps first impressions

2010 Topps Baseball, Series One
First Impressions



Alright, so this has absolutely nothing to do with toys. My first hobby dates back 20 years to 1990. A friend of mine got me into baseball cards on the way home from a vacation in the mountains. We stopped at a rather large roadside flea market of sorts and I walked away with a large stack of 1990 Topps and Donruss baseball card packs. I guess as they say is history.

With the release of the 2010 Topps Baseball cards I've bought/collected baseball cards in some capacity now for 20 years. Just typing that makes me feel old! I thought it would be kinda neat (at least to me) to give my first impressions of the first baseball cards of the season since it's kind of a bench mark for me.

After reading some blogs and viewing some pictures of the 2010 Topps Baseball series 1 I decided to hit a few Target stores in my area to see what I could find. My first trip found one of those large gravity feeders of packs. I was particularly looking for the "blaster" boxes...but nothing could be found. A trip the following day to a different Target found me one lone box. I snatched it up with a little reservation. Since I'm not into set building I cringed a bit at the $19.99 price tag. Since it was the only box though I decided to go ahead with the purchase anyhow.

These "blaster" boxes give you 10 packs, each with 8 cards for a total of 80 cards. I guess the main draw of these boxes is that you get one exclusive patch card. I saw these with the 2009 cards so I knew what I was getting here. Nothing special since the patches are created just for these cards and not game used. The checklist for these patch cards is 50 cards long and features names such as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ryne Sandberg, Ichiro, Chase Utley & Albert Pujols. The other draw is that 2 of the packs are Throwback parallels. These cards are essentially the same as the base cards except they are printed on the old style brown cardboard. The Topps logo is also the old logo. I like these myself so the inclusion of these made the decision to buy the box a little easier.

So, what did I end up with you may wonder? For starters I got a Hank Greenberg (Detroit Tigers) 1935 World Series commemorative patch card. Nice looking, but I had rather have Chipper Jones or Pujols. Oh well. At least I got a Pujols from one of the Throwback packs.

As a Braves fan I was happy with some of the pulls. In the Throwback packs I got a Javier Vasquez. From the base set I got a few more Braves: Tommy Hanson, Tim Hudson, Reid Gorecki and Javier Vasquez.

Also ended up w/ 2 of the Million Card Giveaway cards. This program really intrigues me, but I'll have to wait another week or so before the program goes live. Pulled a few of the Cards Your Mom Threw Out (even one of the original back versions), one When They Were Young (Johnny Damon) and a few of the other low odd inserts.

I love the basic and clean design of the base set. The team logos are large and colorful and the names are easy to read. I could have done without the silver foil, but I'm afraid that foil stamping and the glossy U/V coatings are here to stay on the regular Topps set. Backs of the cards have been improved over last year's set as well. Biggest change I noticed and I know a lot of others noticed is the card number in the upper right corner is MUCH easier to read. I've never been a set builder so the card #s have been irrelevant to me, but it's nice to see that Topps listened to the complaints and rectified the issue this time around.

All in all this set is a home run in my opinion. Great base design and pretty good inserts. Yeah so people may be sick of the gold parallels or the ToppsTown inserts, but they are OK additions in my book. Without new kids coming to the hobby it'll start to die off so if Topps has to use the ToppsTown program or something else to attract kids I'm fine with that. So, what are you waiting for? Head on down to your local hobby shop (if you're lucky to have one) or to your local Target store and pick up some packs. I think after you've busted a few packs you'll be glad you did.