Mas Nachos!
Wednesday morning I posted some cards that I got in a group break that Chris hosted. Well, in doing my digging through the ol’ backlog, I discovered that I had a folder of scans from another break that he hosted last June, which I never got around to posting! Oh, the humanity!
This break involved a pair of boxes of 2017 Archives, one of 2017 Bunt, and one of 2017 Diamond Kings. Given that I was trying to spend less overall last year, this looked like an excellent break to round out some of the 2017 Astros needs.
The highlight of the Diamond Kings, though, was this Altuve. Not only is it well done, but also it’s a short print variation! Excellent work on the part of Panini to find a photo that hides the lack of logos for the most part.
On to the Archives! I think I racked up all the base cards necessary out of these two boxes. Thanks Chris! Topps did an excellent job with the ’92 design, and I’m particularly happy with the horizontal photos they chose. I love a good horizontal card.
I mean, just look at that! That’s a killer Altuve card.
There were some great inserts in Archives as well. These Bazooka-style rookies of Gurriel and Bregman were awesome pulls. This design is fantastic, by the way – it’s a callback to the 1959 Bazooka design.
Of course, as we know Topps loves to reuse both photos and designs, so not only do we get yet another rehash of the 1960 rookie design, but also we see Bregman’s photo reused on an insert in the same set. And of course, there have to be autographs and parallels, so you know – on and on. Still, this is a great looking card. I could nitpick the design (Needless RC badge, Topps Magazine differing fonts – and do we really need to try and replace Sporting News in these redos?), but overall it looks pretty swell.
When it came to the Bunt cards, I was struck by the sheer volume of parallels that were added to the set last year. Of course there are base set parallels – and I landed a few from the box, including a nicely numbered green parallel of Dallas Keuchel, #66/99. But there were parallels of the inserts, too – and not just one, like five. I thought this was a set for kids? Topps, what are you doing?
The simple inserts in bunt are a little hit and miss. The Infinite cards were really nice. The Programs, with their faux wear and tear, were a bit silly. Just give me a nicely designed program, I don’t need to see your goofy photoshop stuff trying to make this look like a beat up magazine.
There were some late-aughts/early-tens (teens? what do you call that decade?) needs to be found, including this ’08 Topps Own the Game insert of Lance Berkman and a fiery Michael Bourn from 2011 Topps Attax. I think there were several Attax cards in here, if memory serves.
