Category Archives: Star Wars

2016, Hobby Box, Star Wars, Topps

2016 Topps Star Wars Card Trader Hobby Box Break

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This is a new type of release this year. Over the past few years, Topps has really taken a hold of the digital trading card market. Thousands of people are spending real cash to purchase cards that exist only in a virtual realm. You can buy virtual packs and boxes to chase limited edition insert cards, as well as an assortment of base cards.

On the heels of a physical release for their Bunt cards this summer, Topps follows that up with a physical release for the Star Wars Card Trader app. It feel almost like it’s backward to me, though. Many of the cards come with a code allowing you to unlock the digital copy. I think I might prefer a way to get a physical copy of the ones previously only available in digital, though. Some of the inserts, along with the color parallels have these codes on them. I’m not sure I could see spending a lot of time putting in these codes for each card, however.

The cards themselves feel like rather cheap quality. I guess that should be expected with a lowered price tag. There are some digital hits possibly, but the box does not guarantee them. The box does advertise 24 packs of 6 cards, and a 100 card base set.

This box contained:

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2016, Box Break, Hobby Box, Star Wars, Topps Chrome

2016 Topps Star Wars The Force Awakens Chrome Hobby Box

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The Chrome releases are a staple for Topps. As usual, it features the same design as the original release, with a much thicker and glossy card stock. It also shows different images while keeping similar insert sets. The box advertises 24 packs of 6 cards, with 1 hit per box.

This box contained:

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2016, Hobby Box, Non-Sport, Star Wars, Topps

2016 Topps Star Wars Rogue One: Mission Briefing Hobby Box Break

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When Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise, there was a lot of uncertainty over what that would mean. Yes, they had done amazing things with the Marvel properties, but Star Wars always felt different. After 2015’s The Force Awakens, a lot of the fears seem put to rest. Now, a new stand alone movie is on the horizon, Rogue One, and the marketing machine is being cranked up again.

This release us a lot like the Journey to The Force Awakens from 2015. It acts as a bit of a teaser for the movie, a few months ahead of time. It contains a base set with a heritage feel and the design of the 1983 Return of the Jedi Series 1 cards, while combining many of the A New Hope era properties, including the Rebels cartoon. You also get many insert sets matching the previous release, although they are not a continuation of those sets. It’s a nice set, but it’s not really focused on Rogue One, like future releases will be.

The Hobby Box advertises 24 packs of 8 cards, including 2 hits per box. You also see quite a few parallels, including a blue which makes the base set look like Return of the Jedi Series 2. You see a lot of familiar faces, with just a few new ones mixed in.

This box contains:

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2016, Box Break, Hobby Box, Star Wars, Topps

2016 Topps The Force Awakens Series 2 Hobby Box Break

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This follow up the very successful movie release late in 2015, with a second series of cards. The first series was released in late 2015 along with the movie. This one is officially called a second series, even though the numbering has been reset.

The base set is 100 cards, featuring scenes from the entire movie, with a number of possible parallels. There are also two reported short prints in the set, numbered 101 and 102. Many familiar inserts return from series 1 or the Journey to The Force Awakens set, with Character Stickers, Concept Art, Heroes of the Resistance, Power of the First Order, and manufactured Medallion cards.

The Hobby Box release advertises 24 packs of 6 cards, with two hits per box.

This box contained:
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2015, Hobby Box, Non-Sport, Star Wars, Topps

2015 Topps Star Wars The Force Awakens Series 1 Special Edition Hobby Box Break

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This is a bit of a different release from Topps for the opening of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. They are offering two different configurations for Hobby Boxes this time, which seems to have caused some confusion in the market place. The first is a traditional box containing 24 packs of 8 cards, with a chance at various hits including autographs and relics. The second one (featured here) is the special edition with 24 packs of 6 cards each, with no hits.

It seems a little bit different to not have the chance at autographs, but with the usual long odds of getting any desirable ones, this seems like a decent alternative. It is targeted more to the set collector, while still including inserts as well as parallel cards.

This is the first series of movie cards and seems to cover approximately the first third to first half of the film. Given the recent release, if you are avoiding spoilers, you may not want to look at the cards yet, although I don’t think this first set is very filled with spoilers you would not have gleaned from the trailers before the release.

The set contains 100 cards, along with various subsets featuring Behind the Scenes shots, Movie Scenes, Locations, among other details.

This Box contained:

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