Friday, May 29, 2020

The latest look is retro

Hey, remember Tony's card from 1985?


That card is 35 years old.

Topps has revived that card design for an insert series in its 2020 flagship product. Thanks to Dean in the Baseball Cards UK Facebook group, I now have one of them.

Card Number 58: Topps 1985 Series, 2020; #85-85


This card literally arrived less than a week ago, and will probably have the record for the shortest time spent between arrival and appearing on the blog, at least until I've cleared my backlog.

There is one thing about this card that irritates me. Why did they use the modern 'SD' logo instead of the awesome Swinging Friar logo from 1985? It's a retro card, Topps. Use a retro logo! I appreciate that not all logos from 1985 are useable in this day and age (Chief Wahoo the Indian from Cleveland no longer features on cards), but there really is no reason not to have the Friar on here.

Please excuse my wonky scan of the back. The only interesting thing about this card is that it's numbered 85-85. I pity anybody with red/green colour blindness who tries to read this card. But trust me, you ain't missing much.


This isn't the first Topps retro card that Tony has appeared on. Last year the card design was 1975, and Tony was on one of the cards.

Card Number 59: Topps 1975 Series, 2019; #121


Tony was 15 in 1975, so this card feels a little bit odd. Can't argue with the layout though. This is a stone cold design classic.


The card back is much better. There is even a little cartoon. Topps can get retro cards right if they actually bother (he says, grumpily).

Total: 59/394



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