Random Ray - 1996 Topps Laser

How great were laser during prior to the 2000s?  

They are everywhere today, but how much cool stuff used laser technology when you were younger?

Every James Bond villain had a laser.  

CD players had lasers.  

Motion detectors in elementary school. Those had lasers.

Not really, but my pre-school aged daughter believes they monitor the class when they have substitute teachers.   

The Pink Floyd Laser Show at The Planetarium.  Lasers.  

Lasers touched every part of our lives and they were awesome. Did you have any doubt that a baseball card company created a laser themed set? 

Yes, the 1996 Topps Laser set was created entirely with lasers.

Sounds expensive.

It's not. 

This set also has a bit of a cult following. I am not a member of that cult.

Fair warning.  

My scanner made this Ray Lankford Topps Laser card look pristine smashed in between the glass and lid, but there are a little of little flaws around the die-cuts. Really common for this set.

Here is the front of the card.  

You can see some of the flaws along the bottom edges. It's a pretty blah photo of Ray Lankford popping out to second base (that's what it looks like) with a bunch of fancy stuff over it.  I feel like the card was designed to minimize the photo of the baseball players on the cards and just ogle the die-cut shapes.  

"Oh, man. A laser cut home plate." 

and not

"This is a pretty lame photograph of Ray Lankford."

Back of the card.  

diahsfhasiofhaeiofhb;oiqwebfiqwebfiaebfwabefiuqewbfuiqefbiowuaebf

That's my reaction to the back of this card. 

Where is the effort? 

Where is the love? 

I get two random stats and a head shot? That headshot photo was likely from the same at-bat as the picture on the front.  

No career stats? 

I can't have his 1995 stats outside of the number of home runs he hit at home and during September? 

The MLB and MLBPA logos are as big as the Cardinals logos?  

The backs of these cards definitely warrant further discussion. I will host a TED Talk one of these days and talk about how there is a Jimmy Haynes card (household name) where Topps projects him to have 3,600 strikeouts by 2010. Another claims Todd Hollandsworth was going to hit more than 300 home runs in his career.  

In summation, we all thought lasers were cool as kids. It turns out that they are not that cool. This Topps laser themed set seemed cool in the mid 1990s. In retrospect, they kind of stink.