Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Random Blaster Box- Topps 2010 UFC Round 4

I find it appropriate that as I watch a replay of Strikeforce: Houston I write up the final random blaster box review of the year, Topps UFC 2010 Round 4.

Back in May when I wrote up a review of the Topps UFC 2010 release I was impressed. I love the look of the set and I think that Topps did an amazing job all around. The checklist is complete, the design works well with the UFC theme, the inserts are in line with what is expected and while there are some parallels they are not so intense that it is overwhelming. Rounding out the set is a nice selection of autographs and original relics including actual fight used tape.


I am very satisfied with my blaster box, I got a nice selection of fighters including old-time favorite; Royce Gracie. I pulled 4 gold parallels with my favorite being the Randy Couture. The gold parallels are a heavier stock then the base cards along with gold foiling. There are also Onyx (#/188), Ruby (#/8) and Diamond (1/1) parallels for each base card along with the unnumbered Gold versions.


The Bloodlines insert is very cool with each fighter shown with their countries flag; there is also an autographed version of this set. I pulled George Sotiropoulos, a Greek-Australian fighter who has a 14-2 MMA record and is a contender for the UFC Lightweight Championship. Additionally I pulled a Rashad Evans Octagon of Honor insert and a Quinton Jackson Pride and Glory insert. I find it funny that I found an Evans and Jackson insert in the same box, the reason being that they actually just fought this past May at UFC 114 with Evans coming out on top.


Each UFC 2010 blaster box contains an “exclusive” octagon chip card. The first series of 15 chips were included in the retail blasters of 2010 UFC Main Event and the second series of 15 chips were included in the UFC 2010 Round 4 blasters. I happily pulled Card #19 Randy Couture.
My last pack included an amazing surprise, an Ultimate Gear Gabriel Gonzaga T-shirt relic card. The Ultimate Gear relics are seeded at 1:82 in retail packs so this was totally unexpected. In a turn of unfortunate luck Gonzaga was just cut by UFC in October after going 1-3 since 2009 which is sad considering that he was 10-3 at the end of 2008 including a KO over Cro Cop at UFC 70 which made him the #1 contender for the Heavyweight title. I checked the original checklist for Ultimate Gear relics and Gonzaga was not even listed, I guess I shouldn’t complain because I beat the odds by pulling a very cool insert but when the Ultimate Gear relics checklist includes BJ Penn, Liddell, Evans, Hughes, Ortiz, Brock Lesnar and GSP I should be able to have a little to gripe about when I pull a down and out fighter not even on the checklist and no longer even in UFC.

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