A #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax delivers the art.
I'll preface this with a couple of disclaimers. One, I cannot, for the life of me, draw. I certainly can't draw humans any better than the most amateur random person you can find on the internet. My other disclaimer is that I bought into some group breaks and have no regrets (would do it again!) from the always excellent Crackin' Wax.
My gripes are with the dreadful Topps Gallery set. It's just not for me. It employs various artists, and some of the portraits are just face-meltingly evil. The rest are even worse! (Okay, fine, I'm half-kidding here.) So with my apologies to the probably completely normal and talented and nice gentleman who was responsible for the art on these cards, I just can't handle some of these. They're just shy of 2010 National Chicle levels of badness.
I'll direct some of my venom at Topps here (and Walmart by proxy). In what world would Paul Goldschmidt, a player who came to St. Louis a fully formed All-Star and perennial MVP candidate, become an apprentice of Stan the Man? That's now how this works. Also... I cringe at this.
Here's one that's up for grabs. It's a different artist. It looks a little cartoonish, but I don't immediately want to douse it in lighter fluid. It's also numbered to 25 and is a player I don't collect, so it ends up in the trade box.
Now I can relax and take a deep breath and look at something good. I also bought into another Ginter X break and knocked a few more Cardinals off my team want list. I still need a few more, but it's probably time to go hunting for singles.
The Heritage High Numbers break from last year also landed me this short printed Ryan Helsley rookie. Will Helsley figure prominently in the Cardinals plans this season, especially now that John Brebbia is going under the knife? Will there be a this season for real? (I am still skeptical.)
Agreed, the most recent Topps Gallery set is not pleasant. I'd put National Chicle ahead of it.
ReplyDeleteI bet you can draw better than Keith Shore and some of the talent less people who have done Topps Project 2020 stuff. I’d put any Gallery set, the National Chicle Art, and the UD Masterpieces sets above 80% of the Project 2020 garbage out there.
ReplyDeleteThat Master & Apprentice card is atrocious! But on the flip side, the Ginter X is absolutely gorgeous :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one. I picked up a base set of the 2020 Topps Gallery set and...some of the cards terrify me. I'm one of those guys that actually REALLY enjoys the "artsy" sets so I appreciate most of them. Some of them I have a love/hate relationship with.
ReplyDeleteI had actually started the 2010 National Chicle set when it came out and it took me YEARS to get it completed. Some of the cards I hated so much that I would give up for years. I eventually got it completed and am glad I did.
The 2010 National Chicle set is gorgeous. If space wasn't an issue, I'd want to binder up that set and put it up on the shelf for easy viewing.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm just remembering a few choice cards from the National Chicle set.
ReplyDeleteI've purposefully avoided talking about Project 2020 here. That stuff is just not for me. It's not really baseball cards, anyway.