Last year during December, Topps gave us a front row seat to Five Star as signings were completed, creating one of the biggest buzzes I have seen. Everyone wanted more, and each of the cards was better than the one before, especially the inscription autographs that were shown from many of the players. This year, we have already gotten the solicitation on the product, but the first previews are finally starting to roll in. Earlier this month, I previewed the first cards from a recently completed Aaron Rodgers signing, and now we have a few more. Let me say I am more than a little bit excited for the cards this year, hopefully the hit parade will roll on in the coming days.
First, we get to see what some of the dual autographs look like, a type of card that many companies struggle with. Its hard to find a spot for two players, two signatures, as well as branding, and a lot of the time they don’t look very good. Taking a page from early 2000’s stadium club, they put the players side by side, and autographs near the bottom. They look better than any dual auto I have seen in a VERY long time. Last year, the signatures were displayed one over the other, but these are a million times better. I really dislike that they chose to pair Aaron Rodgers with a second tier player like Alex Green, but the Cam and Ingram card more than makes up for it.
Moving onto the Rice inscription card, I think it looks awesome. Although Jerry signed the card below the spot he was supposed to, its obvious these cards will be right on par with last year’s version. From what I have been told, the checklist is not only larger, but Topps focused on getting a lot of the players that were missed in last year’s set. Of course most of the rookies who attended the premiere will be a huge focus of the entire product, and I have been assured that the inscription cards will rival the amazing concept from 2010 Five Star. The background wallpaper on the cards is a darker than I prefer, but that is splitting hairs at this point considering how cool these look to be. Im sure there are hundreds of Kurt Warner fans who’s jaws just hit the floor.
Five Star continues to be the best of the best when it comes to high end hard signed signatures, and until we get more solicitation from Panini on NT, I have to assume it wont even be a competition this year. I think as more get revealed over the next few weeks, my salivary glands are going to get quite the workout.
Here are the pictures so far:
Wow!!! those are gorgeous. Your comments are spot-on.
Finally. HOFer on-card signatures not confined to a half-inch piece of tape. Thank you, Topps!
Good night those are fabulous!!!
In typical 5 star fashion, the Namath card already has a dinged/white lower left corner. If they can fix that problem, then I’d be really happy.
Awesome looking stuff from Topps. I am really tempted to reserve my own case of this stuff.
These look awesome! I’ve opened some Bowman Sterling and I have to say that I agree with your assessment. I think they should be an insert set in Five Star or maybe even Platinum or Chrome. One way or another I think they’d add some nice hits to another product to add fuel to the already nice chases in the other products… Five Star will rule this football season all on it’s own, though!