Favorite Non-Sport Ginters-Part 1

I've been spending a lot of time this week on the newest Ginter set and figured I should do a fun post on some of the cool Ginter cards I have added to my collection over the past several years.  The 2013 release of the Allen & Ginter set marks the eighth release of the product by Topps with the first coming in 2006.  The original Allen & Ginter sets featured a lot of pop culture types of cards, almost almanac like, if that turn could be used.  Topps did a great job of keeping some of that feel alive by including a few non-sports cards in each set.  Here are my favorites from 2006-2009:

2006 Allen & Ginter

This set was the weakest in terms of non-sport cards within the Master Set.  There were the usual non-sport cards within the base set, which mainly focused around U.S. Presidents and a few notorious figures such as this cool card of outlaw Billy the Kid.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Billy The Kid

The 2006 set was really much closer to the T-206 set and some of the other vintage remakes that Topps has put out in the past, rather than the Ginter sets of put out the last few years, which do a better job of duplicating some of the original traits of the the Allen & Ginter set.  The rest of the inserts were dominated by autographs and relics, though there were a few others, such as the Postcards set shown below.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Vladimir Guerrero Postcards Front

 Back 

2007 Allen & Ginter

This was the first year that the Ginter set took on it's current look in terms of non-sports cards.  The 2007 Allen & Ginter set featured three such insert sets: Snakes, Flags, and Roman Emperors.  There is a very good original Ginter feel to these three sets.  The snakes set is pretty cool, but I really like the Flags and Roman Emperors sets.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Flags Columbia 

All three insert sets are featured on the miniature card format with the Flag set being the largest at 50 cards.  The original Ginter sets had flag cards, so this is a good attempt by Topps to recreate the original feel of the cards.  The subsequent Ginter sets also had flag cards, but they often tied into baseball, such as the 2008 State Flags set which featured players and the flags of their home states.  The set has more of a feel like the Bowman International cards....

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter State Flags Ryan Zimmerman North Cacilacky

The Roman Emporers set was also good in the 2007 set with a grand total of 10 cards.  Collectors can get a miniature sized history lesson on the lengthy history of the Roman Empire by putting together this set and reading through the snippets on the backs of the cards.  

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Roman Emperors Titus

2008 Allen & Ginter 

The 2008 Ginter set picked up right where the 2007 set started and offered collectors more cool non-sport cards.  There were once again three primary non-sport inserts, all minis, in the 2008 release with Topps offering World Leaders, Deadliest Sharks, and World Icons.  My favorite two were the World Leaders and the Deadliest Sharks.  Again, the World's Leaders set was a large insert set of 50 which made a little bit more challenging to assemble.  

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter World Leaders Nguyen Tan Dung

My other favorite from the 2008 release was the Deadliest Sharks set which only featured five cards.  The cards aren't really hard to find, but I really enjoy the set.  Not sure why, just so.  

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Deadliest Sharks Oceanic Whitetip Shark 

The 2008 set also featured the Pioneers of Aviation set, but I have never added any cards from that set and never pulled any out of packs.  They are really cheap on Ebay and it appears that there are only five cards in the set.  

2009 Allen & Ginter 

My two favorites from the 2009 Ginter set were the National Heroes set and the World's Biggest Hoaxes set.  The National Heroes set, again, had the feel of the some of the original Ginter cards from the late 1800s.  

 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter National Heroes Rigas Feraios 

The hoaxes set though is really cool.  Lots of cool cards in this little set with a shout out to Enron, DB Cooper, and Cold Fusion. 

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Biggest Hoaxes Cold Fusion

Was this card based on the plot of a Val Kilmer movie?  Roger Moore was way better in this role...