Saturday, March 6, 2021

Tino on an '86

Tino Martinez is the subject of two different autographs in 2021. The first is a sticker autograph on the 70 Years of Baseball set. While I plan to pick it up at some point, I haven't yet.

The second is the one I've been focused on, which is the 35th Anniversary set, which features the 1986 Topps design and an on-card autograph.

I haven't managed to snag the unnumbered card yet, but I did pick up the red parallel version, which is actually pretty cool looking. It's numbered to 25.
While we all know that the red is supposed to be white, I like this spin on an old design. In fact, I'd love if Topps did this to their reprints more. Because we know they are going to run out reprints and former designs every single year.  And I like when they Chrome or Refractor old designs. The '52 Redux cards are boring, but the Chrome Refractory ones are not. 

In fact, I think they should consider color swaps quite a bit more. The red looks good, and so does the gold, from what I've seen.

I hope this is a trend that continues. Next year, we'll get 1987 Topps as the 35th design. I think we've all had enough of that. But the parallels have potential if they'd switch up the colors of the borders. And all white border, or a black border, on a 1987 could look very interesting. 

I don't mind reimagining some of these past designs. They've lost a bit of how sacred they are by Topps shoving them down our throats in multiple products per year. If you're going to repurpose, give us something new. Do some color or texture swaps.

Tino on an '86 looks cool. But Tino on an '86 with red looks even cooler.

7 comments:

  1. Some of the lowered numbered '87 cards from 2017 have different wood parallels. Maple and ash and maybe one more if I recall correctly.
    Your take on the red '86 is a great one. That is a gorgeous card! Good score for sure.

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  2. It's a beautiful card design, 1986. I'd be ok with the red if his name wasn't outlined twice in black and then white. Black only would've looked better. But white only would've been alright. Glad you got this card!

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  3. Looks great! I too really dig '86 Topps with color swapping going on, and I've picked up a few Archives auto parallels like that.

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  4. I'm torn on this one. The 1986 design is my favorite of all time. But I do like some of the color added. I like the black and blue and green parallels of the regulars. I think I like the red as well. Although as time passes I am finding myself not liking the chrome versions as much. It's not the chrome so much as the prizm design attached. Why couldn't they have just made a regular chrome without the squiggles?

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  5. They just did 1987 for its 30th anniversary in 2017; they really need to NOT do it again. Maybe 1982 instead?

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  6. I love on-card autographs and this card does look really nice. My only issue is they already do something like this with the Archives Fan Favorites autograph set... which I absolutely love.

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  7. I couldn't agree more with you about the color swapping. If they're gonna rehash old designs, might as well switch them up a bit.

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