Monday, October 15, 2012

Mars Attacks Topps Heritage!

I will absolutely and totally admit to being a sucker for Nostalgia. In particular I absolutely adore the Mars Attacks property, originally a trading card set in 1962 illustrated primarily by Wally Wood and others. Most people only know it at a movie, but it's so much more than that. Topps tried an ill-fated comic book line in the mid-90s, Mars Attacks was one of their flagship titles. I think I MAY still have them in storage, at least I hope I do.

It's been 50 years since that original card set was released, and despite it being reprinted at least three other times, it's being done again, Heritage style, which means same printing process, same old cardboard, same old packaging with some new-age inserts and bonuses. Bonuses like sketch cards, printing plates and the requisite limited-edition parallels.

I've been collecting the set for awhile, piecing it together pack by pack at $2.09 plus tax (Target, thanks) for 6 cards has been tough, as Topps notorious penchant for cruddy distribution continues apace with it's lack of imagination when it comes to parallels.

Sell Sheets

The set breaks down like this:
55 Standard Cards - reprinting the original set.
10 "Deleted Scenes" - seeded 1 per pack
15 "New Universe" - seeded 1 per pack
5 Lenticular 3D cards (1:8)

1/1 Sketch Cards -
1:24 Hobby
1:96 Retail

Parallels:
1:3 - Puke Green
1:24 - Silver
1 per case - Gold Parallel (Hobby only)
220 total printing plates (4x each card)
550 (10 total per card) foil autograph by Len Brown

I have purchased a total of 23 individual retail packs. I know this because I have exactly 23 New Universe and 23 Deleted Scenes Cards. I have pulled 6 Green Parallels and 1 silver. I've also pulled 2 lenticular cards. AND, the grand-poo-bah, a sketch which I just pulled today. Ready? Here it is:

I DO believe that it's a Dan Brereton - which if it indeed is, would be a coup-and-a-half since he's one of my favorite comic artists. His series "Nocturnals" is monster-mayhem on a grand scale. I also adore his "Giantkiller" series from DC from a few years ago. Now I'm not 100% sure it's a Brereton, so I'm kind of posting here to see if anyone actually recognizes the signature.

As to my set collection, well the good news is I have a complete 10 card Deleted Scenes set.

That's it. For my personal set I'm missing the following:
2
12
16
19
20
23
24
25
31
33
36
44
47
51

and the New Universe: 7, 11

Lenticular 2, 3 & 4

I have the following doubles for trade:
3
5x4
6
10
11x2
13x2
14x2
17x2
21x2
22x4
28x4
29
30x2
35
38x4
42
46x2
48
49x2
50
53

Deleted Scenes:
1
2
3
4x3
5x2
7x2
8x2
9

New Universe:
2
5
9x2
10
12
13x2
14
15

I am totally willing to trade my parallels, but only for the Lenticular Cards or a Sketch if you want to part with yours.

Green (3x per 1x Lenticular) 3, 8, 15, 29, 49, 53

Silver (Straight up 1:1 for a Lenticular) 46

Trade Rules: I live in So. Cal. I'm willing to trade to Canada, but that's about it for over-seas. Sorry UK. Unless you can supply all my needs. Then we'll talk.

On commons I'll do my 2 for your 1.

We should ship at the same time.

If you're interested in trading, please send me email to wmnoe@yahoo.com.