2014 Topps Football Jumbo Hobby Pack

 I've really paired down my set building in recent years. Sure cost is a factor, but there are just so few good sets out there for putting together.  Seems like most base sets are 100 cards or less in most products.    And I'll have one set fewer to collect next year when Panini becomes the exclusive NFL card manufacturer.  But lets enjoy a nice heaping helping of Topps Football.  I love jumbo packs because you get just about one of everything in the set and I found a couple at a really good price.

Let's have a look at the base design.

 There's been a lot of hate toward this years design.  Most seem to think it's too busy or Bowman like.  I'll be honest that whole border is a bit much, but it could always be worse.  I chose Derek Carr's rookie card to show the RC logo and placement on this years cards.

 The rest of the base.

 The one gripe I have this year are that Topps saw fit to put in not one, but three pretty pointless inserts.  The Play 60 and PP&K( Punt, Pass, and Kick) cards are pretty lame.  I'm not ragging on the kids or the recognition that Topps is giving them, I just don't want them taking up valuable space in my packs.

I do like the look of this years 4000 and 1000 Yard Club cards. It's a big improvement over last years design.  I still think Topps missed a great opportunity to really make these stand out by doing something interesting like chroming them out, or using foilboard, acetate, die-cut, or something.

Topps also has two Fantasy Football themed inserts.  Seems excessive, althought Fantasy Football is incredibly popular.

By far my favorite insert of the set are these Greatness Unleashed cards.  Very artsy and an overall great design and other than the '63 mini's is the only set I'm trying to put together.

I love the mini cards.  Don't know why and I don't know why Topps started the numbering at 200 either.  Anyone?

And lastly, and much to my surprise I ended up pulling a Rookie Premiere Auto.  Too bad the bottom right corner is dinged. I'd send it in to Topps, but I don't have all the paperwork they want anymore.  Oh well.  Still the auto is worth more than the pack so that's a bonus and who know's maybe this guy will take off.

1990 Topps The Simpsons

Probably one of my favorite shows of all time.  It's hard to imagine that this show would last over 25 years.  If you don't know the Simpson's history it was created as an animated short for the Tracy Ullman  Show on the fledgling new network Fox.  And really the Simpson's were the only reason to watch the Tracy Ullman show, if I remember right it was pretty terrible.  Anyways they were given their own show in 1989 and the rest is history.  And of course the show was a huge success inspiring a dance and a album of songs and with any success like that you get your own trading card set.  This set was probably a little early only having one season and all those shorts to draw on and the animation was still pretty rough that first season.

There have been quite a few Simpson themed sets released, but I don't think there has ever been one that really encompassed the whole show.  Someone might want to look into that.

This was the only card in the pack that the back wasn't a puzzle piece.

And of course with any Topps set like this from the time you have a sticker set.

1993 Dark Dominion

 Here is an interesting set.  In 1993 Jim Shooter, founded Defiant Comics. If you don't know your comic history, Shooter began writing for comics at the grand old age of 14, seriously.  He went on to be Marvel's 9th Editor-in-Chief and to found Valiant Comics. You can read all about his amazing life in the biz here on his Wikipedia page.

Anyways the concept is a pretty unique one. I can't think of this every being done before or since, but basically the set is a comic book, the Zero issue of Dark Dominion. Written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Steve Ditko.  The premise is you get all the cards and arrange them in 9 pocket pages and they form a page of the comic book.  These cards are going to make no sense when you look at them as they are just one nineth of the page, but you can go here to the Ditko Cultist to see the full set and story.  Defiant didn't last long in the crazy early nineties where it got buried by the competition, but still a cool set and I'm glad I found a box.  You can read all about the series here.

 The last 30 or so cards in the set feature character profiles.