Stocking Blaster Time

It is Boxing Day, so what better way to represent than to open a box of cards?

 

Ok, so it is not that type of box but since Santa included two blasters of Topps Chrome Football and one blaster of Topps Olympic in my stocking I will get to ripping packs today. First up is the blaster of 2014 Winter Olympics.

 I like the design which is very similar to the Topps Summer Olympic set from last year. What really grabbed my attention is the action shots, there are some amazing pictures in this set. I think if I were a fan of the Olympic Games I would probably pick up a hobby box and work to complete at least the base set.

The base set is made up of 100 cards and consist of athletes who will be on the 2014 U.S. Winter Olympic team, athletes who will be on the 2014 U.S. Winter Paralympic team and athletes who were expected to try out/compete for a position on one of the teams. Because the set was designed before the teams were finalized some athletes in the set may not be in Sochi. Each base card also has a parallel that is based on an Olympic medal; Bronze, Silver and Gold plus Rainbow. The base parallels are not numbered but the autograph and relic parallels are numbered.

 

With base card parallels I pulled almost 2 per pack; 1 Gold, 4 Silver and 8 Bronze. Here is one of each so you get an idea of what they look like, basically the logo in the bottom corner is a colored foil instead of the U.S. Olympic team logo.

 

 

I pulled two inserts

One Games of the Olympiad set: Erika Brown Curling

I do not know why but I am drawn to Curling, I don’t even know the rules but all of the action involved with tossing the stone down the ice just keeps my interest. Probably my inner ADHD getting the… oh look… a butterfly

One Venue of the Olympiad set: Iceberg Skating Palace

 

Did you know that the word “iceberg” is common to multiple languages including Russian and English? Now that Topps has informed me of this fact I now know and knowing is half the battle.

 

This location is where figure skating and short track speed skating will take place, it only takes coordinators 2 hours to convert the venue from one sport to the other, pretty speedy people.

I close out with a Hannah Kearney two-colored relic, not a bad way to end the break. Kearney won Gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and is expected to repeat this February.