2022 Topps UK Edition

 

We're back once again with another repack pack from MJ Holdings via Walgreen's. These aren't cheap like the discounted leftovers you would see back in the day, but at $7.99, you could buy three of these for less than the price of a blaster and still end up with six packs. It's not amazing, but not bad for current times I suppose. While only the first pack is showing on the front, you can generally tell by looking at the side of it that you're at least getting a second Topps pack and not some off-brand draft pick nonsense. In any case, I would probably never end up with something funky like Topps UK any other way. Here's a pack of the 2022 edition.

93 - Mike Moustakas - First up, we have a vet. Moose Tacos has been around since 2011 and split time between Colorado and the LA Angels this past season.

142 - MJ Melendez - Melendez is an interesting rookie card to pull. He hits like a catcher but can also play the outfield.

155 - Carlos Rodon - He is fired up! This is the same photo as used on his Topps Update card.

113 - Rafael Devers - Here is some star power.

40 - Jesus Luzardo - Luzardo has a scary arm and seems to have taken a leap forward in his second full season with Miami.

19 - Joe Ryan - I saw this guy on that MLB Network show "Carded" recently. It would be weird to open a random pack of cards and see yourself on one of the cards.

214 - Bryce Elder - Bryce made the All-Star team in his first full season in the league, so this is a pretty solid RC to snag. I'm sure some Atlanta fan will be all over this.

46 - Andrew Vaughn - I really am not a fan of the City Connect jerseys that I've seen. I think the Angels one is the only good one so far, and I'm dreading the day my team ends up with one.

172 - Marco Gonzales - Speaking of City Connect, I think the Mariners may have dropped the teal jerseys in 2023 because of their new jerseys. Can anyone verify this? I heard that MLB was imposing a limit on the number of different jerseys a team could wear in this stupid Nike era. Unfortunately, I can't find a good, up-to-date resource online for team jersey histories for baseball.

127 - Lucas Giolito Black (083/125) - Each UK pack seems to have an insert or parallel in it, and this black bordered one would probably please some White Sox fans. Not bad.

2020 Topps Allen & Ginter Blaster Pack / 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Customs

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  Congrats to the Rangers for winning their first World Series.  It wasn't the matchup most of us were expecting, but a win is a win is a win, right?  I heard that since Texas won, the Vikings are now the oldest active franchise from the major sports that has yet to win a championship.  What do the Vikings have to do with this post?  Nothing, really.

The interwebs say that 2020's version of A&G was released on September 16, 2020.  Don't know if this was the true release date, since this is right in the middle of the pandemic.  This is also before Topps and Panini raised their prices, so the blaster set me back $20.  I very likely bought this from the Target website, since the Card Bros were out in full force back then.  Ah, memories.

I grabbed one of the 7 packs for this post.  Who did I get?

#189 - Brandon Lowe

#276 - Jose Urquidy (RC)

Pretty standard A&G fare.  They say the latest release is more colorful, but the aforementioned price increase will very likely prevent me from making the sample purchase.  

#193 - Nyjah Huston

Here's a taste of the non-MLBers in the set.  Nyjah's a skateboarder who finished 7th in the Men's Street Skateboarding competition in the 2020 Summer Olympics (played in 2021, thanks to The Virus).

#237 - Nick Ahmed (Mini - A&G Back)

There's 300 cards in the base set as well as 50 base short prints.  Here's the checklist for those who are interested.  The website says the A&G back comes 1 in 5 packs.

LL-19 - Ryan Howard (Longball Lore)

The 50 card insert set discusses memorable home runs.  The extra space to accommodate the A throws the whole thing off for me.

#24 - Shohei Ohtani

A pack is always a good pack when Ohtani's in it!

Here are the backs because why not:

Anyway, that's the pack...but not the end of the post!

-----

Back towards the end of September, Chris from the most excellent Nachos Grande blog, wrote about the passing of his friend Ryan.  Ryan was a talented individual, who not only made custom wood bats, but dabbled in custom cards, specifically his "Munnatawket minis," based on the 2008 Allen & Ginter design.

To commemorate Ryan's efforts, Chris offered a giveaway of what he had left of Ryan's minis last month and I put in my request for some.  Chris generously sent more than I was expecting, including a special surprise from my favorite team.

Who did I get?

#18 - Joey Votto

#26 - Troy Tulowitzki

#19 - Yasiel Puig

#11 - Billy The Marlin

#3 - Spider-Man

Ryan did an awesome job on these.  The card stock is virtually identical to the real ones.  Spidey is an instant favorite, although Billy The Marlin is pretty impressive as well.

#85 - Phil Mickelson

#23 - Dustin Pedroia

#20 - Mr. Met

#95 - Kris Bryant (Bazooka Red Back #18/25)

#83 - Felix Hernandez

#84 - Andrew McCutchen

Mr Met is a great looking card, but the clear winner in this group is the Kris Bryant Bazooka Red Back.  Thanks, Chris!

Here are the backs of the cards.  Simple and clean.  That Bazooka back stands out nicely compared to the base backs.

#13 - Mike Trout

#31 - Lance Berkman

#5 - Justin Morneau

#40 - Jose Bautista

#15 - Giancarlo Stanton

All solid cards here.  You can't go wrong with Trout, and Morneau's yellow background makes his card stand out, but I think smilin' Stanton is the winner of this group.

Overall, these customs are great and of very high quality.  These will be treasured parts of my collection.  I believe there are other posts out there from bloggers who also were the beneficiaries of Chris's (and Ryan's) kindness, so search them out!

Ryan, thank you for your contributions to the hobby.  That's all for now...thanks for reading!  

2021 Topps UK Edition

While at my neighborhood Walgreen's the other day, I found that they had started carrying some repack blister packs containing a couple of baseball packs for $7.99. The most interesting thing to me, however, was that most of them had a 2021 Topps UK pack showing on the cover, a set that I have barely crossed paths with seeing as how I'm on the wrong side of the world for its target market.

84 - Daz Cameron - As you can see, these use the same familiar design as the flagship 2021 Topps set and likely have all of the same player photos. The primary difference, of course, is the Union Jack on the front.

81 - Shane Bieber - The set is smaller than any of the flagship series sets released in the U.S., so there's a better chance at pulling stars like Bieber.

119 - Alex Bregman

38 - Bailey Ober - RCs are present here, although what really constitutes a rookie card is always and forever a debatable topic. This card uses Ober's Topps Update photo.

91 - Eric Hosmer

214 - Anthony Rendon - I wonder if this set managed to convert any British people into baseball fans. I mean, I know Topps also tried this in the late '80s, and it worked... right??

156 - Spencer Howard - Howard appears here in this then-new Texas Rangers uniform. This one didn't make it into Topps Update but did end up in the Topps Holiday set.

142 - Alek Manoah - Rookies aplenty.

196 - Monte Harrison

60 - Freddie Freeman Black (056/125) - The last card in the pack always seems to be a parallel or insert card, and this is one of the nicer looking ones.

2006 Upper Deck/Kryptyx GrossOut

With Halloween around the corner, why not review a pack of gross trading cards? In 2006, Upper Deck joined forces with a comic/trading card company called Kryptyx to bring us these:

Grossout Trading Cards. 5 trading cards and 1 power card per pack. I love the message "GROSS OUT YOUR MOM & IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS".

 

Also note the website listed on the back, which allowed collectors a bit of interaction. Unfortunately, it's is no longer up and running.

Let's get to the cards now.

First up is Eardrum Ooze. That does qualify as gross. You can see the comic book–style artwork and captioning right from the start.

Next up is Hairball Jewels. The back of the card uses the scientific name bezoar. "A bezoar is a foreign body in the stomach of animals and humans composed of food or hair that has been altered by the digestive process. They're a hard and glassy pearl-like stone that can look quite pretty..."

That's enough.

Carpet Kitty greets us next. The litter box wasn't nearby, I guess. Here's what a card back looks like.

Credit where credit is due: The card backs are quite detailed, and contain an interesting factoid in the blue box, as well as a "gross-o-meter" on the right side that ranks the grossout on the card front by smell, touch, taste, sight, and sound. Cat pee received a 5 out of 5 for smell. I agree with that.

Double-Header. Clever. The illustration on this card might be the most comic book-ish in style of the 6 cards in the pack.

And this one might be the most gross of the 6 cards.

Here's the final base card, "Belch or Slurp". This one is more funny than gross.

And now the "power card" of the pack: Rotten Cheese Rocket. Back in 2006, you'd have gone to the grossout.net site, entered the code on the front of this card, and played some sort of online game with the "weapon" on your card. The more codes you entered for each power card, the more ammunition you'd accumulate for the weapon. Some codes gave you more ammo than others. Here's the card back:

There were 5 power cards in all. Want to know the names of the other 4 weapons? 

 

Ear Wax Whacker

Eye Goo Globber

Fartzooker

Nuclear Sludge Nudger.

I think we all knew a couple of kids back in school who had natural fartzookers.

Anyway, that's that. A pack of Grossout trading cards, for the first time on APTBNL!

Thanks for reading.

2017 Mega Construx Despicable Me 3 Series 10

Greetings...

Hope everyone is doing well.  Today is my 12th anniversary of my first post on APTBNL.  Time certainly flies when you're having fun, or when you don't notice it. 

As with all of my anniversary posts, it's time for a non-sports pack.

My youngest son was big into Minions for a while, big enough to want the toys and other assorted merchandise.  Based on the file name in my Scan folder, this was most likely a Christmas stocking stuffer.

Here's the back of the pack:

With some of these blind packs, you could tell which character was inside from one of the codes on the back.  It's possible the 217 on the side was the code, or maybe it was the AX, or the DYG.  Or maybe it was none of the above.  Anywho, what did he get?

According to the interwebs, it's the Gouda Cheese Minion!  Common, they made 10 Series of these little guys.  He certainly seems pleased with his cheese wedge.  I saw him in my son's room a couple weeks ago, so either he's still likes Minions or it somehow hasn't been knocked under his bed yet.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Short and sweet today, just like the Gouda Cheese Minion.  Happy blogiversary to Ol' Jafronius, and thanks for reading for 12 years!

2023 Topps Now Card Of The Month - July

Greetings,

Hope everyone is doing well.  Yes, it's been a while since Ol' Jafronius made an appearance here on APTBNL.  

We had relatives from London come in for a visit at the beginning of August, which was very cool.  When they left, we had to diet and detox for a few days.  The boys started school too (High School Sophomore and Freshman, holy crap!).  One of The Wifey's bunnies unexpectedly died last week, so we are all bummed out about that.  Then her mom passed away a few days ago.  Cancer sucks folks.  Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary however, so it's kind of a silver lining for recent sucky events.

Anyway, this has been sitting in the Blogger Drafts for a while now, so let me just knock it out before life resumes.

Just like last year, I got the e-mail alerting me to the pending expiration of Topps points, and somehow, I had enough points to get July's Topps Now Card Of The Month.

Last year, I wound up with Julio Rodriguez.  Who would I get this time?

I looked up the players of the month for July as a default.  Ohtani was the AL Player of the Month, and who doesn't like Ohtani?  Cody Bellinger was the NL Player of the Month.  It would be cool to get a card commemorating Cody's comeback, since his spark jumpstarted the Cubs and had us fans talking playoffs all the way till the start of September.

I didn't worry about getting the rookies or pitchers of the month, so I was thinking either Ohtani, Bellinger, or someone from the All-Star Game or related festivities.

Just like last time, I received a padded envelope which contained the above Topps Now envelope.  The envelope was also covered in bubble wrap, and yes, I still popped those bubbles.  The card came in a small case, with a felt piece with the card for support.

Who did I get?

#M-JUL - Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

It's interesting that compared to last year, this year there's a write-up on the back instead of a second picture, and although I like that there's a date on the back, it's not the date of the Derby, but just the last day of the month.  Vladdy's also a bit too cropped; I would like liked to see the full trophy on the card.

In case you missed it, here's the highlight video.

Anyway, that's the Card of the Month.  Check in with us next year to see if I somehow have enough points for the 2024 July Card of the Month and if it winds up to be next year's Derby champ.

Rest in peace, Mom, and Happy Anniversary to my Beloved!