Random Wax: 2024 Topps Archives Blaster

 2024 Archives: I'm a fan of Bobby Witt Jr. and he's having another really good year hitting .288 with 16 home runs while leading the league in doubles.

Great Albies photo on that 1970 design.  These designs, which also include 1961 and 1994, aren't exactly favorites of mine.  Of these three the '70 look is my favorite.  And I'm always happy with an Ohtani pull.

The backs are lots of fun.  Here we have a 1994 back of all-time great Justin Verlander.  I love being able to see all these stats.  He is a San Francisco Giant now.  If not for basically almost two total lost seasons, Verlander would have had a realistic shot at 300 wins.  He sits at 263 now.  Wouldn't have been easy but still. 

Youngsters seen across all three designs.

I wasn't sure about the Alex Bregman signing but he's been really good in Boston.  One more reason I'm not a GM somewhere.

Three Black Parallels.  Not bad.  Not great.  A bit of a foil thing going there.  Nice Mets alt uni.

Another fun back.

The inserts really feel out of place.  I can't believe they couldn't come up with more retro looking designs. New Breed is the most palatable to me.  But just say no to inserts in Archives that don't have a retro feel.

Love retired greats and Beltre is a guy I am a fan of.  Hard to argue with either Munson or with The Big Unit rocking the nice Arizona jersey.

Fun box of cards with a great pull.  These are always fun.  Plenty of variety and great players.

BREAKDOWN:
56 – Total Cards
18 – 1970
18 - 1994
17 – 1961
13 – RC
5 – Retired Greats
4 – Black Parallels
1 – New Breed
1 – Own the Game
1 – Wrecking Crew

2024 Topps Archives Blaster

2024  Archives:  Always excited to see Archives hit the shelves and we saw them hit ours last week.  We'll kick it off with The Sultan of Swat who put up numbers nothing short of video game worthy stats.

I'm a big Topps Archives fan.  I enjoy the variety and the look back at past designs on new cardboard.  This first look has me a little disappointed.  The designs just don't speak to me. Not a knock against the brand.  It's just the 1994, 1970 and 1961 designs just don't wow me even in this new look.

Plenty of rookies to show off including Yoshinobu Yamamoto who started 18 games for the Dodgers in his rookie season and helped them win the 2024 World Series winning game two against the Yankees.

Love the backs of these cards.  We get the awesome career stats of Stan the Man with lots of color on this 1994 card back.  The man could hit.

I pulled 11 retired greats which was double what was in my other blaster.  That Fernando is one of my four black parallels that come in each blaster.  Retired greats are always fun. 

A back from the 1970 design.  Love seeing the stats for these old timers.

The Wrecking Crew and Own the Game inserts feel a bit out of place considering the set is about retro, and those don't look retro.  And neither look that great to me.  At The Break cards don't look bad.

These talk to how a batter was doing at the break in the 2024 season.  Different.  Not bad.  Just different.

Backs to the other two inserts.  The Own the Game inserts are in essence a league leaders card?  Hmmm

The back of the '61 design.  And more greatness.  Just ignore the Yankee years.  .328 for his career and even hit .301 in his final year.  Great way to go out.

Not gonna lie, I'm still a bit underwhelmed but I'll roll with it.  I'll pick off singles and maybe fat packs if I see them but this and the other blaster may be my last in that format.  Again, not bad cards just designs that don't excite me.

BREAKDOWN:
56 – Total Cards
18 – 1961
18 – 1970
17 – 1994
16 - RC
11 – Retired Greats
1 – At the Break
1 – Own the Game
1 – Wrecking Crew