Very nice actionman1...and welcome to Card Talk. Getting Capshaw and Davies would easily pay for your cases.

By the way, the Bulls got their butts kicked again .

Go CHI-TOWN!

Indiana Jones case breakdown:

First off, let me preface this breakdown/review with the fact that this was the first case of cards I have ever purchased. Granted, I have bought the equivalent of cases of cards over time, but never actually purchased a solid, sealed case of cards before. Will I ever buy a case again? Not from Topps.

Out of 8 boxes, I received 4 sketches and 4 autographs. (I'm not counting the parallel cards, because I feel that Topps should be ashamed of themselves for inserting those. Seriously. If anyone can justify those as a legitimate and worthy chase card to include in hobby boxes, please feel free to enlighten me.) But before I go into detail on the bittersweet nature of the sketches and autos, I would like to shine a spotlight on the base set itself.

You would think, that Topps would know by now what a 9-page card sleeve is. I don't think that the "graphic designers" at Topps have a clue that people might want to put these cards into proper pocketed pages. If you have already put a set into pages, you know exactly what I am talking about.

If you put the cards in the sleeves with all the backs facing the same direction (horizontal), all the cards that are "portrait" (attention Topps layout artists: look that word up!) are upside-down. Fantastic! I don't think I've seen a base set this poorly designed. Ever. Even the movie posters are upside-down.

So, did I pull any great sketches or autos? See for yourself:










Obviously, the knight card is sublime. It is by-far, the best sketch I own. No question.

But come on! TWO worthless monkeys???? TWO low-end autos in the same case?????? That is unacceptable. It is SO obvious that Topps could care less about the serious hobby collector. There was potential for many other chase cards that at least could have put a bit more value into the set. Embossed, die-cut, wood textured, prop / cloth cards, foil, etched, holo-foil, lenticular motion... etc.

After all these years of Topps making cards, I would think they would strive to deliver the best product in the market. Not so. Instead of making a really great set that Indy fans would cherish, they put out 3 mediocre / poor Indy sets in 2008. Cheap and easy. This set was a serious disservice to the Indiana Jones Franchise.

On that note, I plan on taking my two "monkeys", and sending them directly to the Lucas Publicity Department:

Lucas Publicity Department
P.O. Box 29901
San Francisco, CA 94129

I don't think George Lucas would be very pleased to know that shoddy artistry is being associated with the Indiana Jones License. If enough people send in those bad repeat-a-sketch cards with a polite letter mentioning disappointment, someone will take notice.

Shame on you Topps. Shame on you.

quote:

Originally posted by mintoncard:
Indiana Jones case breakdown:

I think you had a great case! 4 autos & 4 Sketches. 1 SP auto, and 2 awsome sketches. I opened 5 cases. I got lucky and hit some really nice sketches and a really nice Capshaw auto but, out of my 5 cases (40 boxes) I probaly had 15 dead boxes. No sketch or auto. I think you did fine. This is just my opinion.

BB

I'd rather have two blank cards then the "monkey of death" sketch card.

Waterhoused = quick sketches by the hundreds / thousands "created" (mass produced) in order to fulfill desired odds listed on the packs. Also know as filler cards or kindling

Anyone notice if there is a correlation with the box numbers listed on the bottom of the lids of each box..... four boxes had - #11 8440 on the lid and the other four had - #12 3660?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: actionman1,

Opened one box yeasterday that I picked up at the local Comic shop.

Had two of the numbered inserts and one auto

Anthony Higgins

It was missing 5 cards for a complete set. Funny thing was that I had forgot about the # chase. I have no intention of trying to collect them.

I have two more boxes on the way. One of these days I need to break down and buy a case of something. Thinking BSG season 3.

Rob

Hey, look at it this way Mintoncard, You did pull 8 things like topps guar.../sigh..."strongly implied statistically on the packs and in advertising from said packs"...so, on that front, your case was not a bust...and you pulled one short autograph, and truly a world class amazing sketch , and a good Chris henderson...ill be honest, thats a great case, i wish i had that. my first case had 4 autos, one sketch, and 7 parallels...i didnt get anywhere near the guaranteed odds for pulls (how do you have 1:52 packs for a sketch, and only pull one out of 192 sequential sealed case packs?)...but, i digress, i have another case coming , i would be happy if i had that as my case.

I know of a good home for those unwanted parallels.

Yeah man...sorry, but for a $300 a case product that is a pretty damn good break. The two monkey sketches suck, but you are not the only one pulling them. Most every case has one. The Palmer is just amazing and could almost pay for the case alone not to mention the Henderson should do well, and you got a SP auto.

And I am with Igman7 on that one...if you think the parallels are worthless PLEASE send them to me. I still need about 40 to complete my set and I'm sure you have some I need.

quote:

Originally posted by zhamlau:
Hey, look at it this way Mintoncard, You did pull 8 things like topps guar.../sigh..."strongly implied statistically on the packs and in advertising from said packs"...so, on that front, your case was not a bust...and you pulled one short autograph, and truly a world class amazing sketch , and a good Chris henderson...ill be honest, thats a great case, i wish i had that. my first case had 4 autos, one sketch, and 7 parallels...i didnt get anywhere near the guaranteed odds for pulls (how do you have 1:52 packs for a sketch, and only pull one out of 192 sequential sealed case packs?)...but, i digress, i have another case coming , i would be happy if i had that as my case.

Honestly, I can't complain about my case specifically. If I hadn't have pulled that knight sketch, I would be singing a different tune. It just angers me that Topps puts out such a badly designed set. This license has SO much potential. I'm a graphic designer myself, and I know the difference between a good design and a rushed "who-cares-get-it-to-mass-market-as-quick-as-we-can" design. I look at Rittenhouse, Artbox, and Breygent, and you can TELL their artists took time and care to produce a set that translates the esthetic of the license. The base sets are good, the inserts are clever, and the binder matches the look and theme of the overall set. It's a whole package and presentation.

Just because a company has a license, doesn't mean they actually RESPECT the license. Or the consumer.

I just got to organizing my 2 boxes and I ended up with 2 Full Base Sets with a stack of extras. Not too shabby...

That Knight is beautiful no dought about that, stunning card.

Shame the dross of the Monkey's etc is also in there. It just increadable that Topps allows this rubbish to be put in there as well.

It is feasable to do cloth swatches. I would guess that material used to make the Indy jackets would be possible. The reason ? That the firm who makes them (and stunnning copies)is in the UK. The same company who made Ripleys jacket for Alien (which my girlfriend has a copy of made by them). I wont post the company name but thats just one source of stuff. There are bound to be tons of stuff from this film franchise swilling about (like the Bond films)it just seems Topps like to treat us badly and take the micky as ever.

I think I'll just buy another box of Trek movies instead. At least Rittenhouse know how to treat buyers well.

Got my box yesterday. Here's what I got

Card 7 #187/500
Card 76 #186/500
Dam close would have been nice if they were numbered the same




Yes I got two auto's the lovely couple of the Donovans

We just finished busting our 4 cases and here are the totals:
Sketch Cards: 13
Autographs: 20
Parallels: 39
Not bad for our cases, however 6 boxes had only a parallel and this is a problem for people buying a solitary box. Several boxes had a sketch with an autograph and a couple of boxes had two autographs.

Another issue is that a number of packs weren't sealed. For a shop owner this could lead to some ugly scenes if they are trying to pack out some of this product and a customer thinks something fishy is going on.

The first case yielded 3 Waterhouse chimps and I was concerned, but the next 3 yeilded only one additional Waterhouse and that was the melting face.

We pulled the following autographs:
Julian Glover x3
Wolf Kahler x3
Ilsa Blair x2
Vic Tablian x2
Philip Tan x2
Anthony Higgins
George Harris
Michael Byrne
Ke Huy Quan
Roshan Seth
Kevork Malikyan
David Yip
Karen Allen

My apologies to Ted and Trev for combining their sketch cards with the other, but I was in a hurry to post. Ted's card came out of the first case and is truly stunning. Trev's card came out of the last case and you must see it to believe it. The gold is almost the thickness of foil and the card is one of the nicest cards I've ever pulled.

Katie's work is excellent as always. The knight is exceptional and the others are very nice as well.

Here are the sketches I pulled from my case. Anyone have any idea who did the inked sketch, the one that isn't by Dennis Budd?



Thanks for any help.

-Bob-

Here are the autograph cards I pulled out of my case plus the single box I opened earlier.



Very pleased overall. It doesn't look like the Budd sketches sell for all that much on eBay, which is a shame as I think they're fine work. Not too sure about the other sketch, it isn't really to my taste. Good assortment of autographs. Glover is fairly common, but I don't mind so much as I really like him as an actor. Very happy about the Molina, another great actor and evidently a fairly hard pull.

-Bob-

Pretty good break Arvin! Some real nice sketches and a Karen Allen to boot...I really wanted to pull her out of my 5 cases but was not lucky.

I know what you mean about the packs not being sealed. The problem there lies with the gum. The technique they use to seal the packs obviously does not work on the plastic wrapper of the gum. Every pack I found that was opened, the gum wrapper was stuck to the top of the pack.

Just finished opening my case and very happy with what I got Ended up having 1 box that didn't have no hits in it but beat the odds on sketches for sure and no Waterhouse! Here's what I got...

First off I think I have enough gum to last me a year at least lol



Got 2 autos in the case and sucks they are both Julian Glover as Walter Donovon but oh well.



First sketch Indy by Mark Propst



Second sketch Indy by Ron Boyd



Third sketch Indy by Sarah Wilkinson



Forth sketch Indy running from the boulder by Chris Henderson



And Fifth sketch Indy by Brian Kong



Thanks for looking

quote:

Forth sketch Indy running from the boulder by Chris Henderson

Oh wow, CH is Chris Henderson? I just pulled a sketch the other day from a Frankenstein pack and it had the same initials but I had no clue who did it... Sweet!

Case breakdown #3
All 8 boxes had lid# 02 6098

Karen Allen
Ke Huy Quan
Vic Tablian
Wolf Kahler
Philip Tan
Ted? color sketch card
Tess sketch card
Propst sketch card

(card case from a different distributor then my previous two cases)

Got one box today-

Base sets: yeah, right...

Parallels- 3 different ones, although one is damaged- looked like it had gotten wet or something.

One autograph card- Philip Tan.

At least I got an auto. I may do one more box, just to see if I can finish the base set. I do like Indiana Jones, so I think I will chance it.

Val