Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Fun with Topps Team Sets

I haven't seen any Topps Team Sets except the Texas Rangers one, but I have a feeling they did the same thing with every team. What might that be Mr. PATP? Patience, patience.

Both my sons received the 2010 Topps Texas Rangers Team set on Easter. On the off chance you haven't seen the team sets, they come in blister packs and hang near the other retail stuff at most big retailers like Target and Wal-Mart. I noticed two cards in the Rangers set that I had to examine closer.

The first one is Rich Harden.



Not bad, but that card looked familiar, so I went to my trusty 2010 Topps Dupes box and pulled this one out.



My 9 year old, completely unfamiliar with photoshop or airbrushing, thought that was "awesome". The similarities in the uniform colors aren't that striking, other than the number on the back and the different pants.

Here, just for comparisons, and because I now pay attention to card backs, are the backs of both Harden cards.




Other than the additional photoshopping, the only difference is the numbering, with the team set being numbered with the TEX prefix.


Another card from the team set that was photoshopped was this one:



It is noticably different from the original Vladimir Guerrero Topps card.




When my brother-in-law saw the Texas version, he commented they must have taken that shot at Spring Training. When I showed him the original, he was impressed. Looking at them side by side (or one on top of the other like you are), they look pretty good. My son wants to put them in his binder next to each other.

There is a slight difference on the backs of the Vlad cards.




In addition to the photoshopped uniform and the TEX prefix, the Rangers version has a closer cropped photo of Vlad. It's a subtle difference, but it's there.

Have you purchased a team set for your team? If so, I'd like to see the photoshopped versions of the new players.

4 comments:

  1. I believe Brandon Morrow is in the Toronto set, but I am yet to get my hands on it. I would think it's be a relatively easy photoshopping effort if they use the away grays of both teams. I will definitely let you know.

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  2. I think it's great that your son thinks stuff like this is awesome! Because you know what? I kinda still do too. Some may whine and complain that it's bush league, gimmicky, lazy, whatever, but I will always think air brushed cards are kinda cool.

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  3. I believe that 5 of the 17 Mariners cards are photo shopped. I haven't seen them yet but, Milton Bradley, Josh Bard, Casy Kotchman, Chone Figgins, and Cliff Lee are "airbrushed". I can't wait to get my hands on mine this year.

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  4. I live far, far away from my favorite team, so I never get to see the team sets.

    I DO get to see the Yankees team sets (Yay, me!). I never buy them, but I will tomorrow for a lucky trade partner. I'll see what the photoshopping situation is.

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