I have been a fan of Topps Inception since it burst onto the scene in August 2011. It was a fresh take on a pre-premiere product, and Topps executed it better than one could ever hope. Not only did they get on card autos, but they found a way to get NFL uniforms on the players at the same time. Over the years, inception has gotten better with age, including a recent parlay to Baseball, where it was extremely successful.

This year’s Inception is live, and it has all sorts of new toys. I am thoroughly enjoying the additions, including booklets for the first time. Some of the big hits have already been posted, and for the most part, it looks incredible.

2013 Inception Justin Hunter Booklet Auto Logo 1/5

2013 Inception Manti Te'o 3 Color Patch Auto /25 – Love the alternate pics on the patches.

2013 Topps Inception Geno Smith Auto Green /75

2013 Topps Inception Deandre Hopkins Gold Auto /25

However they were able to make it happen, on card autos for the booklet cards look ridiculously cool. Not only do they look like a late season release, but the on card autos make the cards that much more desirable. The auto patch design this year is as good as it has been in the last three years, and the chipping of old doesnt seem to be an issue across the product.

The elements subset was on display at the rookie premiere, and from what we saw looked awesome. Seeing some of the cards live now, looks similarly cool. I like that Topps is continuing to add content to a set that seemed one sided in 2011, and stuff like this continues to be cool

We also got word during the same time frame that Inscriptions would be used for the first time in this product. I was beyond excited, and wondered what took so long for this to happen. It looks like the players signed nicknames and other inscriptions, and I will be chasing down my PC players like a rabid hound.

Here is the Cordarrelle Patterson 1/1 Inscription Parallel With a Message.

My only gripe continues to be the use of the silver paint pens, which are either bold and beautiful or terribly light and awful. There is no in between. I was hoping Topps would take it upon themselves to use the more fine pointed pens from 2011 again, but I have heard they are prone to smearing and not drying fast enough to prevent damage.

The biggest win in this entire set is the amount of assigned jersey numbers Topps was able to get onto the cards. To think these were produced during the same time frame as all the Panini cards, Panini is all double zeroes, where the same players have assignments in Inception. Topps also took license with the patch autographs, putting updated pictures with jersey numbers in all the cards. Even if the on card stuff is double zero, the patch autos have correct jerseys. This makes the cards SOOO much better than anything we saw from the first two product’s worth of on card autos in Panini, and I could not be happier.