Random Wax: 2025 Donruss NASCAR 4 Hobby Box Packs with Relic

2025 Donruss:  Kevin Harvick is one of the all-time greats in the sport.  He finished his career with 60 wins, 1 championship and finished top five in the season standings 5 times.  He's also a really good announcer and his podcast is a fun watch.  NASCAR is in Charlotte tonight for the Coca-Cola 600.

Ty Gibbs on this Red & Blue Parallel.  He got his first career win this season and has been very consistent after a rough start to the season.  Overall, this design doesn't do much for me and I find this year's set boring.  The 2026 set is supposed to bump up the card totals and hopefully bring back some of the fun.

The backs are fine but without a different photo it feels redundant.  We also need stats.  NASCAR is easy for stats.

You get one Optic per pack.  That Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a Gold Parallel #10.

This Pedal to the Metal is #/99.  Checklist says it is a Red Parallel.  Is it really?  I do like this relic.

Coming Attractions, Season Highlights, Unleashed.  I like all three of these inserts.  That coming attraction is a Red Parallel #/99.  I like Unleashed the most but wish they had different backgrounds for different drivers or at least some variety.

That Matt Kenseth isa Red Parallel #/299.  I like that the set includes retired greats like Kenseth.  Zane Smith is one of my favorite drivers.  He's had an uneven third year of driving in the Cup Series but has seen some promising finishes.

This may appeal to some, but I don't get Spellbound.  It won't look right on a page of cards so I'm not sure what display options it would give you. 

And some Rated Rookies.  Yep, the Frankie Muniz from Malcom in the Middle.  After dominating much of the O'Reilly series (minor leagues) season last year, Connor Zilisch was the most anticipated rookie this season.

BREAKDOWN:
32 – Total Cards
5 – Rated Rookie
4 – Optic
4 – Retired Greats
3 – Red and Blue Parllel
1 - Unleashed
1 – Spellbound
1 – Gold Parallel #/10

1 - Red Parallel #/299
1 – Season Highlights
1 – Coming Attraction
1 – Pedal to the Metal Relic

Random Wax: 2023 Kayou DC Glory of the Universe Collection

Glory of the Universe:   This Storyboard card has Green Lantern, one of my favorite comic characters.  I like these cards which show highlights from the comics and it's appropriate to have Sinestro share the card as his biggest villain.

More favorites of mine.  I've always liked Green Arrow (this one is Connor Hawke I think), Hawkman and Hal Jordan (GL).  Green Arrow and Green Lantern teamed up for one of the best stories of the 70s in the storyline Hard-Travelling Heroes. I've read it and it was a great read.  I may have to reread it at some point to see if it has passed the test of time.

Plot cards in the set highlight movie scenes from Justice League, Suicide Squad, Black Adam or Shazam.

I really like the Super Cute inserts.  Plenty of variety in the set.

Cinephile cards are colorful and I like the look.  I had a double of Darla Dudley, a member of the Shazam family, and showed off the back which isn't much to look at.

No real information on these cards.  In fact, information on this set is really hard to come by.  Kayou is a licensed Chinese brand and it's almost impossible to find out much about these cards.  They are available on AliExpress.  I purchased two boxes back in 2025.  Each has 10 packs with three cards in each pack.  The boxes they come in are pretty nice.

Here we have a Storyboard, Fate and back of the storyboard card.

These cards are pretty thick which is okay and I'm a big fan of the set.

This is the Oversized Group Portrait in my box.  Each box comes with one and I like them.  They are around 6" X 8".  Always been a fan of the JSA and this is some classic art from an iteration of the team I really like.

About the best webpage for set information is on Kandor Archives here.

We get the Supergirl movie next month.  I'm excited.  I really like these cards and have more to post which I'll do over time.

BREAKDOWN:

31 – Total Cards

10 – Plot

10 – Character

3 - Cinephile

3 – Super Cute

3 – Storyboard

1 - Fate

1 – Group Portrait

Kyle Busch dies at age 41

Kyle Busch passed away yesterday at age 41.  A complete shock.  He's my favorite driver in in the sport today.  I've been a fan of his since early on in his career.  The sport has lost one of the greats and lost someone who meant a lot to others including fellow drivers, fans, and all those associated with the sport which is evident by the outpouring of thoughts and emotions we've already seen.  Just nothing you can say when someone passes this early in life.  I pray for his young family.

As a driver he was a 2X NASCAR Cup Champion in 2015 and 2019.  He won 63 Cup races, which puts him 9th all-time.  He won a combined 234 Cup, O'Reilly Auto Parts and Truck Series races which was best in the sport all-time.  He was in the twilight of his career and had been, and still was cantankerous but that was part of his "charm".  Just a great competitor.  In my mind I'll always see him in an M&M's racing suit or car.

RIP Kyle

2025-26 Topps NBA Hoops Basketball Hanger Box

25-26 Hoops:   Jimmy Butler was having a good year until an ACL did his season in.  With Steph out a good part of the season as well, the Warriors season was doomed.  It'll be interesting to see what Golden State does in the off season.  Not sure if a to be 37 year-old Butler coming off a major injury is part of the way forward but not sure they'll be able to move him.  Either way, I'm a big Butler fan and I love this photo.

I wasn't aware Topps had a Hoops basketball brand but recently found them at Wal-Mart.  These cards have a holo/shiny vibe to them.  I know not all cards show it in the scans, but that Wagner is how all the cards look.  It's an alright design.  I'm not a fan of "shiny" cards but this is more in line with regular cards with a shiny vibe to them.

I like the Highlights subset.  Good looking cards in a horizontal design.

Youngsters including a The Buzz insert.  Ace Bailey averaged 13 points per game in his rookie campaign.  More is expected from the highly touted youngster as Utah looks to take a step forward next season.  And "Ace" is some great name game.

There are 30 cards in the All-Stars subset and I love it!  I'm not a fan of the NBA All-Star game anymore but I love cards with actual photos from the All-Star game.

A Rainbow Purple & Blue Parallel #/199, Orange Hoops Parallel, and Net 2 Net insert.  I like that purple and blue card and Net 2 Net isn't too bad either.

The back of my Steph Curry Highlights card.  There are 10 cards in this subset.

The backs are fine though there is a lack of stats.  We expect more from you Topps.  I was skeptical of these at first, but they are growing on me.  More expensive than base Topps so that factors in to these a bit. Jalen Duren had an All-Star season for the Pistons averaging 19 and 10 as one of the better bigs in the league. 

BREAKDOWN:
25 – Total Cards
3 – RC
2 – Highlights
1 – The Buzz
1 – Net 2 Net
1 – Orange Hoops
1 – Rainbow Purple & Blue #/199
1 – 2025 All-Star Game Weekend

Random Wax: 2024 Topps Hanger Box

2024 Topps:  Aaron Judge is having another great season.  Stupid Yankees.  Enough said.

Pretty good star power in this pack.  Bryce Harper has been able to stay healthy and is having a good year for the Phillies.

Nice horizontal photo on this Eugenio Suarez card.

Youngsters on different offerings.  Riley Greene is having a good season in Detroit.

My Houston Astros Team Card with a fun photo.

Yellow Parallel, Rainbow Foil Parallel, Royal Blue Parallel.  I'm on board with all three of these options though the blue is the one I like most.  Really works on that Rays card.

Another good photo. 

Nice pull on my Stars of MLB inserts.

Checklist.

1989 Topps Baseball insert.

Man, he had some good years with the Red Sox.

Good pack of cards.  Good pull and I like the design.  I really like the Superstar Blueprint cards.

BREAKDOWN:

59 – Total Cards

14 – RC

4 – Stars of MLB

2 – Future Stars

2 – Yellow Parallel

1 – Checklist

1 – Team Card

1 – Royal Blue Parallel

1 – Superstar Blueprint

1 – Rainbow Foil Parallel

1 – 1989 Topps Baseball

1 – RC/Topps All-Star Rookie Cup

Random Wax: 1992 Upper Deck Football

1992 UD:   Eric Bieniemy didn't make a big impact in the NFL, but I really like this photo.

Eugene Robinson was an excellent player, but I can't not think about his short time as a Falcon.  The night prior to Atlanta's Super Bowl game with Denver, and shortly after receiving the Bart Starr Award for high moral character, he was arrested for solicitation.

These backs were so good.

My two Star Rookie cards and the Star Rookie Checklist I pulled.

Star Rookie Checklist.  As always, I enjoy the art Upper Deck gave us in their sets.

My team MVP Checklist pull.  I always liked Reggie Cobb who had one season with 1000+ rushing yards in Tampa Bay.  

More art on this Checklist card.  Great set with good photos and a great design.

BREAKDOWN:

15 – Total Cards

2 – Star Rookie

1 - Checklist

1 – Team MVP Checklist

1 – Team Checklist

1 – Star Rookie Checklist