2024 Donruss NASCAR Hobby Box - 6 Packs with Autograph

2024 Donruss:  This hobby box showed up in the mail Friday.  I'll share the box in four different posts over time. We'll kick it off with Kyle Petty who looks perfect on this Retro '91 card.  Mello Yellow was also a sponsor on one of Cole Trickle's cars in the 1990 movie Days of Thunder.  It is a really fun movie and Tom Cruise plays driver Cole Trickle with Robert Duvall playing his crew chief.

This is the base design.  I'm not a fan.  Fairly bland overall.  Feels like they could have done so much here.  Add the car number under the driver's name.  Throw a tire or small car in the other corner. Something.  

There is one Optic per pack.  Nice pull of one of my favorite drivers, Bubba Wallace.

Plenty of young drivers in the set including this David Starr Red Parallel which is #/299.

Unleashed goes horizontal this year.  A little more color in those white areas would have been nice but I do like the design.  I would also like different animals on different Unleashed cards or move them around.  Something different.

Zane Smith, another favorite driver of mine, shows up on a Red and Blue Parallel.  Nice photos of Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth.  Jesse Love is a rookie in the Xfinity series and already has one win.  He is 19 years-old.  Rajah Caruth is currently ranked sixth in the Truck Series and also has one win on the season.

I like these Season Highlights inserts showcasing fun moments during the season.  Joey Logano is in the winner's circle after winning at Atlanta.

More Optic including my autograph.  Myatt Snider doesn't currently have a full-time ride at any level.  Optics mirror other cards within the set.

Another Red and Blue Parallel.  I like the multi-color parallel from what I've seen so far.  Lots of color on this car card.  I like that photo of Tyler Reddick's Monster Engergy #45.  Two hundred cards in this set, not including inserts, with the breakout below.

Base                                    1-75

Cars                                     76-93

Rated Rookies                     94-100

Retro 1991 – #                    101-170

Season Highlights               171-190

Race Kings                          191-200

A couple more inserts.  Too much dead space on the Retro Series inserts but otherwise I like where they were going with it.  Dominators is fine but not a lot going on there.

I enjoy the retired greats in these sets and here we get one of the all-time greats in 7X NASCAR Cup Champion, Jimmie Johnson.  I like the Production Line inserts.  Simple but I like the design and having the driver and cars on the front.

I'm a fan of Race Kings and this year's design is a win for me.  I like the color and the car in the background.  Maybe a little over the top but still good.

Not as much smoke as I'd like to see on a Burning Rubber insert but I still like it.  The design styling works for me.

Fun cards.  Not every design is a hit but overall, I enjoy the set and drivers.  Some more retired greats to help end it.

BREAKDOWN:
48 – Total Cards
15 – Retro ‘91
10 – Retired Greats
7 – Optic
4 – Cars
3 – Race Kings
3 – Red and Blue Parallel
2 – Retro Series
2 – Rated Rookie
2 – Season Highlights
1 – RC
1 - Unleashed
1 – Dominators
1 – Burning Rubber
1 – Production Line
1 – Red Parallel #/299
1 – Blue Parallel #/199
1 – Base Optic Signatures #/25

2024 Topps Series 2 Hanger Box

2021 Topps Series 2:  Series 2 is out and as always I'll take a gander.  It's a design I like which helps this year.  Like much of the Braves' lineup Ozzie Albies is struggling some this year but he'll be key to any offensive turnaround with Ronald Acuna Jr. out for the season.

Pretty good pull in this hanger box.  No complaints from me.

Plenty of youngsters.  Winn is having a great year for the Cardinals hitting around .300 this season.

The checklist cards are fun.

Like some others I'm getting a bit tired with these.  Not enough change year to year in the design for me.  I liked them initially.  I do like the Arozarena photo.

Team cards are fun as well.

I like the 1989 All-Star cards even if they aren't my favorite design.  Very happy with my Jackson pull.

Good catcher photo.

We get to see faces in new places and unis.

I'm not feeling the design of Covering the Field inserts.  

Really enjoy seeing Jason Heyward on cardboard.  He was a fan favorite with the Braves who traded him in his contract season to the Cards.  He signed a big deal with the Cubs but never lived up to it though he helped Chicago win their first World Series in forever.

BREAKDOWN:

59 – Total Cards

14 – RC

2 - Checklist

2 – Yellow Parallel

1 – Team Card

1 – Future Stars

1 – Retired Great

1 – All-Star Rookie Cup

1 – Cornering the Field

1 – Rainbow Foil Parallel

1 - 1989 Topps Baseball All-Stars

Random Wax: 2021-2022 Contenders Basketball

21-22 Contenders:  Tonight is the NBA draft.  Steph Curry was taken 7th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft.  James Harden, Steph, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday and Blake Griffin were the highlights from that draft.

Speaking of that draft and Harden and Jrue.  Kawhi was taken 15th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft.  

RJ Barrett has become a solid shooting guard in the league.  Last season he averaged 20 points per game shooting 36% from deep.

Donovan Mitchell was taken 13th overall in the 2017 NBA Draft which also featured Jayson Tatum, De'Aaron Fox, Derrick White and Bam Adebayo.

Paul George was picked 10th overall in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft.  Will he still be a Clipper next season?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Joker was taken with the 11th pick in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft.  Definition of a steal.  Outside of games played in 20-21, he has not led the league in a major statistical category.  Joel Embiid and Julius Randle were also highlights of the 2014 draft.  Here's to hoping the Atlanta Hawks just don't screw up the #1 pick in the draft tonight.

BREAKDOWN:

22 – Total Cards

1 – 2021 Draft Class

1 – Game Night Ticket

1 – Green Game Ticket

1 – International Ticket

M*A*S*H (1970)

 I watched M*A*S*H this weekend.  The passing of Donald Sutherland made me think of the source material for one of the greatest television shows of all-time.  I like the movie but it has been some time since I watched it.  The movie can be very crass at times, but it's also lots of fun.  There's a great cast including Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, and Robert Duvall amongst others.  There are plenty of differences between the movie and the series but they don't take away from the movie.  The only thing that had me wondering is how Margaret really goes from one extreme to the other halfway through the movie.  But again, the movie is funny.  I don't think MASH is a dark comedy but the comedy comes at the expense of the others.  The movie may not be for everyone, but it is a good R-rated version of the TV show.  A fun watch taking me back in time.

Random Wax: 1990 Pro Set Football (4 Packs)

 1990 Pro Set: Deion was nothing if not colorful and we get to see him here in a great Atlanta Falcons uni.  Not enough photos of him in that all-time great uni.

Great players and photos.  I like all three of these for different reasons but all nice cards.

Two all-time great coaches as well as a NFL Collectible insert.

The backs of those Super Bowl Collectible cards are pretty nice. I really enjoy all the non-football specific information.  And they let the owner of one of the teams do the coin toss?  Doesn't seem like a conflict of interest at all.

Defensive excellence.

These Leader and Award Winner cards are another great opportunity to see greats from the game.  I like the Keith Millard photo.

Pro Bowl cards with in game photos and the Pro Bowl logo.  Nicely done.

Backs are really nice and colorful and hit the mark for what I want to see.  Ellard was always so good and he had Jim Everett throwing to him at this point.  The Rams went to the NFC Conference Championship in 1989 losing to eventual champion San Francisco 49ers.

Some Redskins and kicker love.  These are so many memories in this set and they are lots of fun.  I have plenty more to share over time.

BREAKDOWN:
60 – Total Cards
6 – Pro Bowl
4 – Super Bowl Collectibles
3 – Coaches
3 – League Leader
2 – Award Winner

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Finally got to see this one and it was still in the theater which I had to myself yesterday.  I wasn't sure where the Planet of the Apes franchise was going but I'm a big fan and was excited to see the new movie.  You can see the trailer here.  This movie is set a few hundred years after the last movie from the franchise (2017).  The movies starts out with ape Noah and his clan.  From there we see conflict with other apes and we get a human who at this point isn't that common.  

I really enjoyed this movie.  I thought the plot made sense and enjoyed the characters.  The trailer had me wondering but I got it watching the movie.  Plenty of mention of the original trilogy's Ceasar and I like how his legacy is used here.  The plot was fairly straightforward but there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting.  Bottom line I liked it. I liked the characters and I liked the journey they took us on.   The ending sets up the next movie in the franchise really well.  

Random Wax: 2021 Topps Big League Baseball

2021 Big League Baseball:  The Toronto Blue Jays are struggling this season but Vlad Jr. is having a good if not great year.  I know Blue Jays fans would like for him to find his power stroke.  This is one of the three Orange Parallels in this pack.

Some nice star power in this pack.  Clayton Kershaw and his career 2.48 ERA are still injured and haven't taken the mound this year but I think he's expected back soon.

Jonah Heim showing off the hair.  All three of these youngsters haven't had much success yet but they have spent plenty of time in the majors.

We don't get all of a player's stats on these but it's still not a bad card back.

Tatis Jr. hot pack.  I like the look of the Wanted inserts.

I'm disappointed they don't have names with the photos but I get it might be tight.

Yordan Alvarez is having another excellent year in his age 27 season.

You have to think about it but yes those win totals are correct.  We're looking at 2020 which was a short season for baseball and many other sports.

Who woulda thunk Chris Sale would be doing this well after his trade to Atlanta.  He was the May National League pitcher of the month.  He's been huge for a starting staff dealing with injuries.

BREAKDOWN:

36 – Total Cards

5 – RC

4 – League Leaders

3 – Orange Parallel

2 – Award Winners

1 – Wanted

1 – Souvenirs

1 – Defensive Wizards