The Penguin

The Penguin: I received this on DVD for Christmas.  I enjoyed it.  It's not even close to a superhero - villain tale.  This is all about The Penguin and what he does in Gotham's underworld which pits him against the Falcone family.  In the same vane as The Batman, it's very gritty and dark though with a different take.  If you are at all interested, give it watch.

2026 Donruss NASCAR Blaster with Relic

2026 NASCAR:  Kyle Busch, my favorite current driver, passed away unexpectedly this May.  The NASCAR playoffs start today, and Busch was no stranger to racing for the championship.  He won 2 NASCAR Championships (2015 and 2019), was ranked in the top 5, 7 times, and inside the top 10, 10 times.  I do like the Unleashed inserts.  First race in the 2026 Chase is Darlington, starting at 5 ET today.  And "The Chase" is the new branding for the NASCAR playoffs. 

The base design this season isn't bad. Not great but okay.  I say this every year, but I don't get why Panini doesn't add a tire, the driver's car number, a car graphic or something else to liven up the fronts. 

We do see a return of Rides, or car shots, this year which is great.  2025 Donruss NASCAR didn't include these cards, and it was a bummer.  Jeff Gordon is an all-time great with 4 Championships to his credit, and this Dupont paint scheme is synonymous with him as a driver.

You get 1 optic in each blaster pack for a total of 7.  Here you see two Orange Velocity Parallels along with a base optic card.  Retired great Carl Edwards did not win a title but was top 10 in the standings 8X in his 13 year career.

New this season is Team Logos cards.  This one isn't the most exciting looking logo going, but I like the addition of these cards.

I've seen this design before, but I can't remember the year to save my life.  After a rough start to his season, Joey Logano has raced back into the championship fight.  He's a 2X Champion and can't be ruled out.  He's seen here on a Lime Green Parallel #/199.

A couple of Rated Rookies and an Artist Proof #/25.

Toni Breidinger only raced a few truck races this season but this Laser Parallel Ride card is still a nice pull.  Not sure if she'll make her way back into a full-time ride but I'm pulling for her.  It's fun seeing the ladies doing better in the sport.

My Souvenir Swatches relic and Race Kings insert.  The Dale Jr. pull is great.  He's a NASCAR Hall of Famer with 26 career wins and has always been a fan favorite.  He's an announcer now and his Dirty Mo Media company provides plenty of great NASCAR content including his own weekly podcast which I really enjoy.  I always look forward to the Race Kings cards I like the design this year.  The car, or truck in this case, take on a prominent role on the card.  Layne Riggs was the champion in the Truck Series last season and deservedly gets his own Race Kings card.

Not a fan of Spellbound which are used to spell out a driver's name.  It doesn't work in a binder, so I don't get the point.  Carson Hocevar is only 23 and an excellent young driver in this year's Chase.  Aggressive on the track, many aren't fans, especially other drivers.  But he's a good personality for the sport.

This year's set is back up to 200 cards as opposed to the drop to 100 we saw in 2025.  We see drivers from across the three NASCAR top series - Cup, O'Reilly and Truck series.  Butterbean Queen is another young talent who has taken the sport by storm as much for his personality more than the driving we've seen so far.

Nice shot of Layne Riggs' truck.

We also get retired greats in this set which is so much fun.  All four of these drivers are in fire suits with their classic sponsors on them.  Rusty Wallace is my favorite NASCAR driver of all time, and he won 1 Championship in his career, finishing top 5 in the standings 7X.

BREAKDOWN:
56 – Total Cards
9 – Rides
9 – Retired Greats
7– Retro
7 – Optic
4 – Orange Velocity
2 – Rated Rookie
1 - Unleashed
1 – Team Logo
1 – Race Kings
1 - Spellbound
1 – Laser Parallel
1 – Artist Proof #/25
1 – Souvenir Swatches
1 – Lime Green Parallel #/199

Random Wax: 1992 Triple Play (4 Packs)

1992 Triple Play:  Sandy Alomar was a good catcher for 20 seasons.  He had some great hitting seasons for those 90s Cleveland teams that went to 2 World Series.  We see him here in this really fun photo.

Big fans of all three of these guys.  Deion was a master speedster and was so entertaining, The Crime Dog was one of the most feared hitters of his time, and Robin Yount was a 2X MVP.  McGriff and Yount are both in the Hall of Fame.  To be fair, Deion is in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Lots of fun photos in this set like this horizontal offering.

More good photography.

Always liked the Ballpark photos.

We love mascots and the San Diego Chicken is one of the best.  Triple Play had their own "Diamond Kings" with Gallery of Stars.  Awesome Action cards are good too.  All great adds to the set.

He does not look happy.  Or maybe he's savoring the moment?  Tony Fernandez was  a 5X All-Star and 4X Gold Glove winner.  

Love the McDowell photo.

Another Awesome Action and good photos.

Greats from the era!

BREAKDOWN:

60 – Total Cards

2 – Mascots

2 – Awesome Action

1 - Stadium

1 – Checklist

1 – Gallery of Stars

2026 NASCAR Playoffs - The Chase - Set

 NASCAR's playoffs are set.  Last night at Daytona was thrilling as Ryan Preece won the race to make it into the playoffs eliminating Shave Van Gisbergen.  Amazing to watch and so much fun.  The first Chase race is next Sunday in Darlington with 10 races in the playoff schedule.  I have two drivers I'm a fan of in The Chase, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace, and pop's driver is Kyle Larson. I feel you can make a case for any of the top 9 drivers or so.  If I was a betting man, I'd probably go with Ryan Blaney.

NASCAR's playoffs are now called The Chase.  16 drivers with the #1 driver starting with a 25-point advantage over the next driver.  Subsequent drivers are 5 points behind the previous driver.  We saw some pretty big point swings during the regular season which surprised folks so there are plenty of drivers with a shot and I expect some craziness and lots of fun.  

Random Wax: 2024-2025 Donruss Basketball

 24-25 Donruss: Jayson Tatum, on this smooth looking Magicians insert, only played 16 regular season games after coming back from injury.  He's only 27, and with Jaylen Brown now a 76er, the team is his again.  No reason to think he won't get back to his past self and Boston will continue to be a top team in the East.

Two key Oklahoma City Thunder players who helped the Thunder to their first championship in OKC just two years ago.

Youngsters.  McCain is also a member of the Thunder now.  Great X-Pectations are nice looking cards.  Donovan Clingan should be a big part of any future success the Trail Blazers will have.  He averaged a double-double last season.

Kyle Lowry was a star in Toronto for 9 seasons and helped bring them their only championship in 2019.  They will retire his number this upcoming season after he retired in the offseason.

Some good-looking photos.

Jamal Murray, on a Holo Green Laser Parallel, earned his first All-Star apparance this past season.  Easy to forget he missed the entire 2021-2022 season due to an ACL injury.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

4 – Rated Rookie

2 – Holo Green Laser Parallel

1 - Magicians

1 – Great X-Pectations

Random Wax: 2025 Topps Baseball Hanger Box

2025 Topps:   Vlad and the Blue Jays have struggled this season.  Not sure what happened to his power but I hope he can find it again. He's been such a great hitter before this season.

Bryce Harper's averaged has dropped a little but he still gets on base at a good clip and is hitting dingers.  He's also been healthy this season.

Photos on Team Cards like this one are so much fun.

Youngsters.

I really like the Diamante Parallels exclusive to hanger boxes.

Some good photography.

Justin Verlander has said he'll hang it up after this season.  3X Cy Young, 2X ERA, MVP, Rookie of the Year, Triple Crown, 10X All-Star.

Topps 35th Anniversary cards and a First Pitch insert.  I like both and enjoy seeing Tatum on a card with local ties.

All good-looking cards with a couple of alternate unis.

Skubal is now a Dodger.  Man, it feels like they are going to be next to impossible to beat again in October.

Great Stars of MLB pulls.

BREAKDOWN:
59 – Total Cards
11 – RC
4 – Stars of MLB
3 - Checklist
2 - Diamante Foil
2 – League Leaders
1 – First Pitch
1 – Team Card
1 – Future Stars
1 – Topps 35th Anniversary

Random Wax: 2023 Kayou DC Glory of the Universe Collection

DC Glory of the Universe: The first Shazam movie was really good.  I wish we'd been able to see him in the greater DC movie universe with other heroes.  Yesterday I posted about the Crisis on Infinite Earths animated movies, so this felt like a good post to do in tandem.

I'm a big fan of these cards.  They are thick stock with really good-looking art.  Lots to like here.

Storyboard cards which I like.

More Storyboard cards as well as a Wonder Woman Rally card.  Rally cards have Justice League members and the words in the bottom right spell out "You Can't Save The World Alone" when you have all six cards.  I like 'em.

A Plot card which gives us cards from across the DC movies.

Super Cute are just that.

I haven't gotten all the insert cards.  These aren't cheap so it can be tough finishing them out.

This is the Group Portrait oversized card which come one per box.  I like seeing the team cards like this.

 There are multiple "sets within the set".  Information on Kayou, a licensed Chinese product, is so hard to find but I did find a decent checklist here.  I've also seen there are new Kayou DC cards I may try out. Ali Express is the spot to check out for these types of sets and I've had good success with them.

The Cinephile cards are favorites of mine too.  Great looking art, colors and design.

I probably enjoy the DC movies more than most and it's fun looking back at them.

I really do like this set and can see me buying more of these.  These three above are some of my favorite DC characters.

BREAKDOWN:
31 – Total Cards
10 – Plot
10 – Character
3 - Cinephile
3 – Super Cute
3 – Storyboard
1 – Rally
1 – Group Portrait