2016 Topps Star Wars (The Force Awakens) Chrome

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  I have set Blogger to auto post this on the 5th anniversary of my first post on this site.  I will be in Atlanta on my first business trip for training when this posts, so I will obviously have no time to put this together the day of.

While I have done anniversary posts every year, this will only be the third time I would have posted on the actual day (here's the second).  And I always do a non-sports pack for the anniversary post...it's a pack of 2016 Topps Star Wars Chrome!

When I first saw these at Target, it was an automatic purchase.  Two bucks for 6 chrome cards?  Didn't I pay two bucks for 6 not-chrome Star Wars cards when The Force Awakens was released?  Chrome is better than not-chrome!

This is a 100-card set that retells Episode 7, very closely mirroring the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Series 2 checklist (you can find the Chrome set details here).  I assume had collectors known that a Chrome version of Series 2 was going to be released (at the same price too), most of us would have skipped Series 2 and waited for the chromium...heck, I would have.

Anyway, here's what I got:

#99 - Return To The Resistance Base
#38 - A Narrow Escape

It's standard Topps Chrome and the cards look awesome in hand.  The setup is exactly the same as the regular The Force Awakens set.

#28 - Unkar Plutt's Offer
#22 - Rey, The Masked Scavenger of Jakku

While I've got no problems with the cards themselves, I do have an issue with the pack design.  As you can see at the top of the post, nowhere on the front of the pack does it say The Force Awakens.  When I first saw the display, I thought it was Chrome cards of the Star Wars movies, and it just so happens that Captain Phasma was the cover girl.  Points off for the pack design, Topps.

#3 of 11 - First Order Transporter (Ships & Vehicles)
#94 - Jess "Testor" Pava Gives It Everything She's Got (Refractor)

The Ships & Vehicles subset comes 1 in every 8 packs.  You get a refractor in every pack.  Here are the backs:

The backs for Chrome are designed slightly differently than TFA Series 2, mostly to allow for that REFRACTOR label.

As a special anniversary bonus, here's a comparison between one of the cards in this set and the same card in TFA Series 2:

#11 - Kylo Ren & General Hux Confer (front and back)

The top card is the Chrome while the bottom card is not.  Even though the Series 2 card is a green parallel, I am very sure Topps used the same image.  The wording on the card backs are exactly the same.  I have not read anything saying all the images are different for the Chrome set.  So, new images could have been an incentive for collectors to get the Chrome set even though it's essentially a redo of Series 2...that, and all that shiny.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Here's to many more anniversaries for the site...thanks for reading for 5 years!