In 1994, Topps strayed from that formula in order to produce a baseball card set that looked like it was inspired by the episode of "The Simpsons" where Bart gets an embossing tape gun for his birthday and....
a ransom letter from a movie.
Here is the front of the card.
I like the photograph on the card. I also like that the majority of the card is dedicated towards the picture and not wasted on other design elements. Now, let's talk about the name plate on the bottom of the card. It's half ransom letter and half embossing gun. Either is an odd choice for a design element on a baseball card, but together?
It's terrible.
Who thought this was a good idea?
I could actually handle the embossing gun tape if the color had some cohesion with the team colors. Although, the Marlins were in their teal phase, so I am guessing that wouldn't work.
The back......
There is a lot going on here.
First, the background is a zoomed in section of Lankford's jersey showing most of his number 16 and part of his name, but Topps just tinted the photo blue. On the right, a color photo of Lankford with something yellow in the background that is really distracting.
At the top, the embossing gun is back for his first name and the ransom typewriter note is there for the last name. They randomly squeezed in "OF" next to his bio information, which makes it look weirdly aligned. The "First Offense" heading is weird....The write up....could have....just .....used.....sentences....with ......less.......dots in......between......the.............................words.
I do like that they have the hit direction included in the stats, but let's talk about the 'Topps Skills Rating System". What does this even mean? I flipped through a stack of these cards, all Cardinals, and have no idea how they came up with these ratings. For example, Luis Alicea's batting rating is 7.2, which is above average.
Were we watching the same Luis Alicea?
In summary, Topps says nothing bad about any players on the "Topps Skills Rating System" and this card back is one of the busiest in the history of baseball cards.
I will choose a different Ray Lankford card in the near future.
That's funny, I knew the last name looked like it was from an embossing gun, but never associated the first with a ransom note. I'll never be able to unthink that now. And to my knowledge, I've never heard anyone say that they liked this particular years nameplate.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a really bad Stadium Club set in generally. Sometimes your brand is your brand, don't mess with it. Stadium Club should always be about photography, everything else should get out of the way.
DeleteYeah, I've used those two analogies for the design before, although being from the '70s I called it a "label maker" rather than embossing gun ... As bizarre as the front and back are, it stands out unlike many SC sets and I'll always know what year it's from. It's the most '90s set there is.
ReplyDeleteI have spent a few too many years working at a school where all office supplies are called by their official names. It's how the office staff rolls. I agree on this set's appearance. Instantly recognizable.
DeleteGood job on breaking down this card. I never noticed the zoomed in shot on the back until today. Side note... I got in big trouble with my mom back in elementary school. I took her label gun and my friends and I were labeling everything we could get our hands on at school. She was not amused. Don't think our teacher was either.
ReplyDeleteLabel makers are so much fun. If I had one in my house as a kid, I probably would have done something similar. I always print out labels for my students, but this post makes me want to go to garage sales and find one.
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