2021 Topps Archives : One Big Ball of Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff

 

What is a fixed point in time?

            For us mortals that’s every day. Every day is a fixed point in time. We cannot, no matter how much we’d like to, fix the past. I know there were a couple of days last week that I’d like to completely erase from my own space/time continuum. A few meals I’d like to take back. A do over on a couple of hours last Thursday where mundane conversations took my precious time away.

            But I can’t.

            For us fans of science-fiction, especially time-travel science fiction (looking at you Doctor Who fans), a fixed point in time (temporal nexus), are moments in the space/time continuum where events are set in stone, and can never be changed, unless you want reign dire consequences upon the universe.

            And who would want to do that?

            Maybe this guy.

            Pardon the brief science fiction indulgence, but I’m Pavlov’s sci/fi nerd come November. It’s usually the month where my wife and I travel to a galaxy far, far, away, and indulge in other big balls of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. November is the cosmic oasis between the scares of October, and jingling those jingly bells all December long.

            Let’s take this to where it should go.

            Shall we?

            Sports cards.

            For many cards can be a fixed point in time.

            Cards evokes a time and a place. Memories. People. The smell of a childhood home. Or a meal cooked by mom, that you no longer have. Kids on the street. Long, lost summer days that are gone and can never come back. Racing to the corner store to grab a pack. A complete set as a Christmas gift. Racing your friends down the hallway in some suburban mall to get to the LCS first.

            Case in point a card like this.

            Or one like this.

            If you’re my age, maybe it’s a card like this one.

            Or this.

            I know whenever I see those 1987 design cards, I’m thirteen. It’s summer. I’m cross-legged on my bed in my childhood room, looking through a box of cards. Stand by Me is playing on the TV. Maybe the boom box is turned on to the Top 40 station. Or we’re blasting The Monkees (2^nd gen fan) so loud that the next day our neighbor will complain to my old man about the noise. The air is humid and my room smells of Sea Breeze lotion, because chances are good my brother and I got sunburnt again.

           This is a fixed moment in time.

            But what if I show you this.

            Or this.

            Or this.

            And this.

            I'll even toss in these guys for good measure.

            A rupture in the space/time continuum? Perhaps no. And, okay, maybe not true damage to any fixed moment in time. But putting a player from one era on the card design on another era is certainly interesting. Jarring if one is easily affected. What I enjoy about Topps annual Archives release is the very idea of taking a player out of his fixed time and place (the card designs of his era), and placing him at another point in Topps’ timeline.

            This is interesting to me.

            This is baseball cards going sci-fi.

            Yeah, I know these exist.

            But looking at a card like this is just as intergalactic to me.

            I’m a Topps Archives fan. Since I got back into collecting, I look forward to its release every year. I like seeing what designs from the archive Topps choses to use. Seeing what players, they pick to put on their designs. I like to go back and check out older checklists to find players that I collect on designs that I like, and then I buy those cards as well.

            I like that Topps messes with its fixed points in time.

            I like that Archives is a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

            I think this guy would appreciate Archives.

            Or this gal.

            And I know that Topps pulls this interstellar magic act with other designs and brands. Obviously, there’s Heritage. There are the 35th-anniversary insert cards in the base product as well. But, love it as I do, Heritage’s focus is on showcasing current players on a classic Topps design. And while those 35^th anniversary inserts do feature current and older players; the designs are fixed on a single year as well.

This year, I’ll admit, Topps went hog-wild on the nostalgia by including present players on retail inserts featuring the 1952, 1965 and 1992 designs, as well as featuring players past and present on 70-years of baseball insert cards. But it’s an anniversary. So I’m not going to gripe on the nostalgia overload.

And one can’t beat a mini Ke’Bryan 1960s set.

But anniversary years aside, Topps Archives, is the only product that consistently uses past designs to showcase players both old and new. And I, for one, love that they do this. I’ve looked forward to it every year for the past few years. Even if I’m not a big fan of the chosen design they use (looking at you 1958), or I gripe about a design they never use (looking at you 1978), I usually find tons of stuff in the product that keeps me coming back again and again.

At least until Fanatics ruins it all.

But…

Topps went all-out on this year’s Archives. While usually going with about three designs per release, the company celebrated their 70^th anniversary by bringing out seven designs from the past; 1957, 1962, 1973, 1983, 1991, 2001, and 2011. That’s one from every year folks. And I don’t know if they specifically had me in mind, but I’m an absolute fan of 1957, 1962, 1983 and 1991 Topps baseball cards. 1973…I like. 2001 and 2011, I wasn’t collecting then. But I wish that I was. 2001 gets better each time I see it, and 2011 might go down as one of Topps last truly classic designs.

In my humble opinion, of course.

Sadly, Topps did include a Topps 2091 design...which I fear is what cards actually WILL look like in the future.

    

            But these two look like they were BORN to be on a 1983 design

So, I went and bought a couple of boxes of Archives, as I annually try to put together a set. And, I like what I got…mostly. The designs, if you read that above paragraph, I’m already a big fan of. But I’ll come out and say it; I’m mostly a jinx with insert and auto cards. Yes, I am the guy who pulled a Yordan Alvarez 1/1 out of a blaster of Stadium Club last December. But I shot my wad with that one.

For some reason, the pack Gods burden me with Braves and Red Sox.

I wanted ONE of these team cards. The Pittsburgh Pirates one.  

And I end up with these.

Also…if Pete Rose ain’t on it, it ain’t The Big Red Machine.

Yo Topps, you have both Willie Stargell and the 1983 design in the same set, and you chose to go with this?

At least Fleer and Donruss got it right the first time.

The autos were a mixed bag, but I’m not really an auto collector. 

Ron Washington is certainly having his moment this fall. But two announcer cards? Still, it is always good to see The Bull. If I were a lifelong Phillies fan, I’d be a lifelong Greg Luzinski collector. No doubt.

I’d even collect his White Sox cards.

I did pull my first Mickey Mantle card!

A short-print on one of my favorite designs of all-time. And I’d like to think Big Ron was smiling down on me with that one.

The complaints are small complaints. Small sour grapes. Overall, I really enjoyed the shit out of opening 2021 Archives. I enjoyed my big ball of wibbly-wobbly, time-wimey trips to the past, the recent past, and, sadly, the future.

Ah, the future.

I guess opening Archives this year is a bit bittersweet with the Fanatics deal coming in the future. I know there are a lot of people out there who believe that maybe Fanatics will buy Topps. Or they’ll work out some kind of manufacturing deal. I’m not one of those people. Full disclosure, I’m a severe pessimist at heart. I catastrophize as well. I’m not too sure any deal between Fanatics and Topps will happen. I’d love to be wrong. I’m often wrong. It comes with the territory of being a severe pessimist. Because of that…I’m also never disappointed.

And this year’s Topps Archives certainly didn’t disappoint me at all.

 Thanks for reading! Happy collecting! And I hope you all had a good and SAFE holiday.

  If you'd like to learn more about what's in 2021 Topps Archives,  Ryan Cracknell has it all broken down for you over at Beckett.

If you'd like to learn more about Greg "The Bull" Luzinski you can do so both HERE and HERE

NEXT FRIDAY: I'm really going to try and kick myself in the ass to get the new novel going, so I'm going to do something here that seems easy in my head, but will probably take up most of my time and keep my from writing a single word of the book. I'm ranking. Yes, I'm going from best to worst, my favorite Topps base designs from the 1980s.