Topps Is Back!

I had pretty much figured that Topps wasn't going to release any more NPB sets this year, given that there wasn't a whole lot of time left for them to do it in.  But I awoke yesterday morning to a couple Tweets from Mint that the Trading Card Journal had just published information on three new Topps NPB sets that would be out in December.  There's no other information out there on the sets yet - not even on Topps' Japanese website (that link is currently redirecting to Topps' US site at least for me although this link seems to work for some reason which is how I know there's no information about the sets there)  - and the details are kind of lacking but I'll go ahead and tell you what I know about them:

- The NPB Chrome set will be released on December 13th.  The base set 216 cards which breaks down to 18 cards per team.  Those 18 cards include the manager and three "rookies" (which are the top three 2023 draft picks).  I'll be curious who they have as the manager of the Lions since Kazuo Matsui stepped down at the end of May but Topps hasn't been really good about making their sets up-to-date.  I am going to assume, though, that like last year's Chrome set, this isn't just an ugly parallel version of the "regular" 2024 Topps NPB set but will have a different checklist and different photos.  There are six types of inserts ("a huge increase" according to the website): "Topps 1959", "Chome All Etch", "Bushido", "Ichiro Majestic Moments", "Base Card Kanji Variation" and "Supercharged".  The "Topps 1959" obviously are cards of active players using the 1959 Topps format.  I assume that "Base Card Kanji Variation" cards are just that - a version of the base card with the player's name in Kanji.  I'm also assuming it's a limited number of cards as opposed to the entire set (in which case it'd be a parallel).  Speaking of parallels, I assume there's the usual plethora of them but the set information doesn't list anything about them.  The big news is that the autographed cards will include active NPB players which is a first for Topps - their previous sets only had autographs for both active and retired players who had played in MLB.  The autographed cards also include autographs for Sadaharu Oh and autographed versions of the "Ichiro Majestic Moments" cards.

- The 206 set is back this year and will be sold in packs this year rather than boxes that were only available on-line.  I don't know how big the base set is but my guess would be 216 cards, just like last year's set.  There are "mini" parallels available but no word on back variations.  The inserts include "Base Cards Image Variations", "Base Cards Comic Book Variations", "Mini Base Cards Image Variation" and "Topps 205".  I'm going to again assume that the "Topps 205" cards are cards that will show current NPB players in the T205 tobacco card design.  There will also be autographed cards featuring both active and "legend" players (although I don't know if "legends" will include retired NPB players who did not play in MLB).  The sample images on the website make it look like this is again a "mugshot" set, at least for the base cards.  The set will be released on December 20th.

- Also being released on December 20th is a first for Topps in Japan - a Stadium Club set.  I've been kind of hoping for something like this since Topps first got am NPB license so I'm looking forward to seeing if they actually get the interesting choices of photos that the MLB version of this set usually has.  The website promises that "The photos in the Stadium Club are excellent!  This work also contains many picturesque photos such as fine plays and fist pumps!" so the expectations are high.  To be fair, one of the few compliments I've had about Topps' NPB products is that they've done a decent job with the photo selection so I'm hoping that trend continues with this.  Once again, the website does not say how big the set is but I'd guess either 180 (15 cards per team) or 216 (18 cards per team).  There's four types of inserts - "Beam Team", "Special Forces", "Power Packed" and "Hanabi" and, again, autographed cards for active NPB players as well as Sadaharu Oh.

While I wouldn't put it past them to sneak out yet another set announcement, it looks like there will be no NPB Bowman set this year.  While it's been a set I've mocked quite a bit, I was kind of looking forward to seeing if they were going to do the "1955 Bowman Anime" inserts like the MLB version had this year.