Topps NPB Inserts

When Topps first announced that it had an NPB license I felt that the only really interesting thing that Topps could bring to the Japanese card collecting world was their old designs.  Once their 2021 set was released it became apparent that, yeah, one of the most interesting things about it was the insert set using a slightly modified version of the 1986 Topps design.  I didn't get any of these cards when I picked up my set but I got a couple off of Ebay recently:

#86-TK

#86-YUY

#86-KA

I say "slightly modified version of the 1986 Topps design" because the original design did not have the team logos in the lower right corner of the photo.  The backs aren't quite the same desgin as the oringal - these show almost the same attention to detail that the backs of the base set show:

#86-YUY Back

In addition, I got a couple of the "Team Program" inserts.  There are 12 of these in all, one for each team.  Each one shows two of the player for the team - they're basically mug shots and some of them have struck me as vaguely creepy-looking.  Here's the ones I got:

#GP-5

#GP-3

Here's the back of the Hawks card, again showing the level of effort Topps put into this set:

#GP-5 Back