A little looking ahead ...

So work and house projects have been keeping me pretty busy the last week. I have been itching to get another post up as it appears I am gaining so repeat readers. So with that, I write while sitting in traffic on the Mass Pike overpass trying to get onto 128 North. Snow has created a fine mess this AM commute.

In the meantime, here are more thoughts on what I am looking ahead to ... More retro minis.

So far we know 2011 Topps’ base product will feature a 100 card (50 cards series One, 50 cards series Two), mini insert set called Kimball Champions. This insert set is based on the 1887 N184 Kimball Champions (https://www.gfg.com/baseball/n184.shtml). The Cobb card taken from the series two sell sheet looks sharp. I will definitely be looking to collect this insert set. Topps Series One is slated for a February 16th release.

Next up we have is the Gypsy Queen minis. So far, we have seen only the Buster Posey mini. I am torn on the look right now. It appears that there is a worn leather grain texture, not sure why Topps designed the minis this way. I hope there is a solid black mini to these as I just am not digging it. The original Queens did not have it as far I as I know. Also this shot of Posey makes me think he is a Transformer or some other warrior. I think poses work better for these retro minis--it ties back to the originals design-wise. Hopefully I am wrong about this set as I really want to like it.

For those that haven’t seen it, the Topps’ blog did a video production report ( http://www.toppsblog.com/?p=762 ) on the new Gypsy Queen. Slated release date is April 2011.

We should also see another round of Allen & Ginter. Wonder where Topps would have been if they had not brought this set back to the collecting masses ... While we haven’t seen any images, I saw a tweet from Beckett’s Chris Olds that Topps will be bringing this product line back once more.

And to wrap up, no word on whether Topps is bringing back it’s T206 line or whether Obak will continue this sets as well.

So there you have a little window on looking ahead to retro minis.