Having a Blaster

 

I was hoping to pick up a couple fat packs at Walmart instead, but there weren't any of those around. So, this will have to do. 

But it looks like I made a fairly good selection in terms of which blaster box to pick up, as the promised Master Photo Base Variation top loader was a new Mets card for me. It might be a little bigger than 3*3, and therefore a pain to store, but it is still a Mets card. I think that's the same photo as on his regular base card, though, so this is more of a design base variation than a photo one.

Pack 1:

I'm not scanning everything, just my faves among the base. This was the first card out of the actual packs, so it brings exactly what you'd expect from the legend content. 

Pack 2:

Every pack contained an insert or a parallel. The latter really didn't do much for me this time, since I really didn't buy it for those. But here's one of the more common of the latter - the red foil, which are 1 in every 3 packs in a retail environment. JaCoby Jones has a photo clear enough to see his eye black, which just reminded me of the time Yunel Escobar managed to get suspended over a message in his eye black.

Pack 3:

Card of the year. No question. I don't even need to know why he's got all the balloons, the necktie, and whatever that is on his shoulder. This is the card of the year. And it is always more fun to pack pull it.

I did get this black foil parallel in this, but I really didn't want to combine the scan with the Bench and take anything away from the greatness of that card. 

Pack 4:

I wonder if, as he was working his way though the minors, Bobby Dalbec envisioned that he would have a rookie card where he was getting pushed around the dugout in a shopping cart. If he had, I imagine he would have failed a drug test immediately afterwards.

Pack 5:

OK. Maybe some inserts are OK. But since the back of this doesn't match the original, why would Topps feel the need to include the word 'REPRINT" on the reverse?

Pack 6:

Two red parallels so far. Both Rays. Nice collation. There's another great card of a legend in this pack, even though Ted looks like your scowling neighbour in that image. 

Pack 7:

Not one, but 2 parallels this time! The sepia are retail exclusives, and land about one per blaster. I'm not sure about the Chromes. They're one per box in hobby, but I'm not willing to strain my eyes to find out the blaster odds. But at least I lucked out anyhow in getting the second notable Mets card in this. Nice the my hot hand got me cards for myself, as opposed to my trade partners.

Pack 8:

At least I broke the streak of Rays on the red parallels. That's some real interesting framing on the Chapman as well. I don't like the chances of that blurry guy in the red beating the throw to first base.

There you have it! Now I just have to talk myself out of buying several hobby boxes to build the base set.