Cards That Make You Go...What??! of the Week: 2010 Topps National Chicle Preview

In a variation of one of the popular segments of this humble, little blog, this is based off images that were released for a brand new product making it's debut in 2010. As much as I wanted to comment immediately about this on Friday, I decided to take a bit of time and read up a bit more before making a post about it. Regardless...



As soon as I heard that the first images of the new (and I didn't even know that this was happening) 2010 Topps National Chicle set came out, I thought, "Cool, another retro product."

Then I saw this:


WHAT??!

Okay, Ichiro in a Seattle Pilots uniform I can understand (even though I don't think the M's ever wore Pilots retro jerseys...EVER!!!). But it works...


But Babe Ruth in an Atlanta Braves jersey??? My first impression (and this was even BEFORE I READ STALE GUM'S POST) was that it looked more like a picture of Chipper Jones (and yes, it's been confirmed that the pose is actually of Ruth, not Chipper, but I'll be darned if they looked eerily similar from a distance).


Oh cool, they're also including artwork of some infamous Topps cards (based on what looks to be a 1990 Topps Frank Thomas No Name in Front error). Down to the airbrushed face of the unidentified runner. But last I checked, (and how do I put this in PC terms), the soon-to-be "Big Hurt" wasn't a white guy right??? I don't get it.

I know that these preview images are just that...previews. And that they may or may not necessarily make the cut. I also know that Topps commissioned a lot of good artists to make up this set. To be honest, I don't know if Topps "told the artist" to make an Atlanta Braves Babe card, or not, but it's not looking like this set looks any promising (actually, after looking here, it turns out that they DID!!!). And there's more!!! Other artists were asked to do the same thing with different players (imagine Manny being Manny in a Brooklyn Dodgers uni, or Walter Johnson wearing a uni from the current Washington Nationals).

You know, with initial reactions in the Hobby Blogging Community being mostly anywhere between negative and head-scratchily confused, I think prices for complete sets will be low, only because once people see what these cards look like all together, there can't possibly be that much demand. If they are that low, I might pick up a set, just for the fact that it honors the old Batter Up cards from the 1930's.


I just hope that they don't include the a couple of the fiascos (though I'm starting to doubt it), because other preview cards look really good.


But come on, Topps, really...

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama